brownelearning

People in assessment are often at the pointy-end of standards. They have to translate national, regional, and even institutional standards into measurable terms. The problem is that very few standards are written to be measured; rather, they embody a committee-negotiated collective set of values.

Consider the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards. Here’s one from adolescent (high school) science that doesn’t look too daunting:

Accomplished Adolescence and Young Adulthood/Science teachers employ a deliberately sequenced variety of research-driven instructional strategies and select, adapt, and create instructional resources to support active student exploration and understanding of science.

At first glance, it is obvious that this standard contains more than one outcome; it’s a comma-delimited list of outcomes. But a bigger problem soon becomes apparent: There are two separate lists that are meant to be cross tabulated. The verbs select, adapt, and create each relate to the pair of objects exploration and understanding. This multiples the number of measurable outcomes contained in the standard. I count a total of seven, but there may be more:

Accomplished Adolescence and Young Adulthood/Science teachers…

1. employ a deliberately sequenced variety of research-driven instructional strategies
2. select instructional resources to support active student exploration of science.
3. select instructional resources to support active student understanding of science.
4. adapt instructional resources to support active student exploration of science.
5. adapt instructional resources to support active student understanding of science.
6. create instructional resources to support active student exploration of science.
7. create instructional resources to support active student understanding of science.

There are only 6 NBPTS for adolescent science (for comparison, there’s 12 for adolescent math), but those 6 standards breakout into 28 distinct outcomes (including the seven listed above):

Accomplished Adolescence and Young Adulthood/Science teachers…

1. know how students learn.
2. know their students as individuals.
3. determine students’ understandings of science.
4. determine students’ individual backgrounds. (What is this supposed to mean?)
5. have a broad and current knowledge of science and science education.
6. have in-depth knowledge of one of the subfields of science.
7. use their subfield knowledge to set important learning goals.
8. use their subfield knowledge to set appropriate learning goals.
9. employ a deliberately sequenced variety of research-driven instructional strategies.
10. select instructional resources to support active student exploration of science.
11. select instructional resources to support active student understanding of science.
12. adapt instructional resources to support active student exploration of science.
13. adapt instructional resources to support active student understanding of science.
14. create instructional resources to support active student exploration of science.
15. create instructional resources to support active student understanding of science
16. spark student interest in science.
17. promote active learning so all students achieve meaningful growth toward learning goals.
18. promote active learning so all students achieve demonstrable growth toward learning goals.
19. promote sustained learning so all students achieve meaningful growth toward learning goals.
20. promote sustained learning so all students achieve demonstrable growth toward learning goals.
21. create safe learning environments that foster high expectations for each student’s successful science learning.
22. create safe learning environments in which students experience and incorporate the values inherent in the practice of science.
23. create supportive learning environments that foster high expectations for each student’s successful science learning.
24. create supportive learning environments in which students experience and incorporate the values inherent in the practice of science.
25. create stimulating learning environments that foster high expectations for each student’s successful science learning.
26. create stimulating learning environments in which students experience and incorporate the values inherent in the practice of science.
27. ensure that all students succeed in the study of science (including those from groups that have historically not been encouraged to enter the world of science and that experience ongoing barriers).
28. ensure that all students understand the importance and relevance of science (including those from groups that have historically not been encouraged to enter the world of science and that experience ongoing barriers).

Suddenly the task of gathering evidence that an individual has or has not met this standard is enormous.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 5th, 2010 at 8:56 pm and is filed under Lessons, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.