Standards and Accountability

 While mathematics may have been a... difficult subject thus far to observe a lot of what we've learned, it DOES happen to be a rather good opportunity to observe standards at work. Math is all about rules of course! One of the main things I noticed is that math teachers all seem to take great care to teach things simultaneously. Even when one teacher had a sub, they didn't just goof off or watch a video. The substitute had to TEACH math and when I asked it was because they don't want the student to fall behind the other teacher's classes. On the same note, no teachers were allowed to move faster with their classes than the others. They had regular meetings to make sure everyone was on the same track. I don't think scheduling is a part of UEN standards, but because they adhere to such a schedule it allows them to make sure they can get to ALL the standards set for secondary math.

A... weird thing I noticed regarding standards is that after going through a lot of the UEN math standards myself... A couple of subjects the teachers are teaching their 7th grade classes, should actually be taught in 8th grade. For instance, I sat in one 7th grade class where they were learning to solve absolute value equations. According to the standards, that isnt taught until 8th grade. The 7th grade math standards only mention teaching them what an absolute value IS, not how to solve equations with them. Im not sure this is a... bad thing? It seems more to me like the teachers pushing their students to get a head.

I only was brave enough to ask one of the teachers who I was already friends with what she thought of standardized testing. First she asked me to clarify where I meant the ACT/SAT or end of year testing like SAGE. I said SAGE and she got REALLY quiet. She told me that it's "complicated" and she understands why the state has them do it, but that she doesn't personally like it. She mentioned that she thinks that often the standards covered in SAGE testing don't match up with what they teach during the school year and so she doesn't think it's an accurate reflection of the student's progress. She said that "It could be a good tool, but it's not with how we currently utilize it."


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

1 - Service Learning

2 - Learning Theories