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Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Measure the wrong thing, get the wrong thing

Creativity is Declining?
Hat tip to my dear friend Maggie Tsai, cofounder of Diigo for pointing me to Newsweek's article on the creativity crisis.  

For the first time in history, American creativity is declining.


Read the article. Share it in your groups and discuss. I haven't slogged through everything, but will say that -- if success is so highly correlated with creativity, why aren't we looking at creativity? Why aren't we encouraging it?

Does your school allow invention? Creation?
I thank goodness for attending a high school (Westwood) and college (Georgia Tech) that pushed me to invent and create and try things and demonstrate. In high school, they let us on the student government pick a new color scheme for the gym, paint it, and name it after our favorite headmaster! (Graham Lowe) They let us plan as many dances as we could stand and decorate. They also let us do projects and take art!

No Creativity Allowed?
Creativity is often learned behavior if it is allowed to happen.  What do we do? Put them in uniforms. Make them look alike. Ask them to sit in rows and be quiet. 

I just have to say -- what on earth are we doing?  I'd say it is a bit like memorizing the individual brush strokes on a masterpiece without ever backing up to see the big picture. Are we so involved in minutia that we've forgotten the big picture? We're not producing parts or machinery or automobiles, we are shaping the future humans that will shape this earth.

Who is to blame?
It is easy to blame educators! How about a society that has allowed test scores to determine property values and become topics of town hall meetings? How about parents who blindly look at test scores never asking what is on the test.

I'll never forget with my oldest was in K-4 and did well in everything but environment.  I was upset - how could my child be that low on environment.  When I asked to see the test, do you know what he missed?

Dumb Tests?
The two questions were asking him to identify:  a) a subway turnstile (we live in Camilla, GA), and a b)judge that had on a gray wig (Honestly, what judge wears grey wigs anyway - do we live in the U.K.?)

I could have cared less how he did on environment, the questions were biased to kids who live in the city. Plain and simple. The test was a poor measure of ANYTHING in that category.

What will make people happy?
The fact is that parents, school boards, and businesses will never be happy until 100% of the kids are in the 90th percentile!

Looking the students in the eye.
I know a teacher this past fall who was heartbroken. She knew that this child was going to drop out on his birthday. He told her.

And yet, instead of being able to teach him life skills and business and numbers, she was required to hammer down his worst subjects and spend their little time together teaching abstract algebra.  He quit and went into the world UNABLE to do Algebra and UNABLE to balance his checkbook. He sat there with a whiteknuckled grip around his pencil refusing to fill in one bubble on the standardized test they made her give him two days before he quit.

We would never dream of demanding that a doctor give a standard prescription to every patient that walked in the door. Society wouldn't stand for it and continues to demand personalized care for each person.

What about personalized education?
It is time to truly talk about personalized education! If education is personalized now then why do we just give one test? It isn't personalized at all (unless you go to the classroom of a good teacher and they are often the "renegade!)

Measuring, Rewarding, Encouraging, Leading
We can sit around and whine. We can also blame - however, if you point your finger, look! There are four fingers pointing right back at you!!!

We are ALL part of this equation.  We must realize that data and test scores are PART of the equation of how a child is doing developmentally. It can give us one measure -- how well does the student memorize and test.

Measure the wrong thing, get the wrong thing.

It is time to look at what we are measuring!

How often are students collaborating with others? Inventing? Using social tools to discuss? Debating? Creating? What original ideas have they had?

In my classroom we have at least one "Invent this!" project a year per class but often 3-4. The students look at a problem and formulate their response.  They create a new way to access the Internet.  They invent ways to teach others about digital citizenship.  They deliver.  They also push back from the computer and play outside!

Measure the wrong thing, get the wrong thing.

Our students are a product of the formula of measurement we use to gauge progress.

Stop pointing fingers and start taking a hard look at the formula of measurement. This is a call to parents, school boards, politicians, grandparents, and everyone. Stop blaming the kids - they are probably the only ones in this equation not to blame.
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