Angela Dye’s Response to: “The Loss of Academic Freedom”
Written By: Peter DeWitt (12/30/2011)
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/finding_common_ground/2011/12/the_loss_of_academic_freedom.html
My grandmother says, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater!”
Peter, I believe this is at the heart of your post. Balance… keeping what works while getting rid of what doesn’t!
We are in a season where we are required to respond to student diversity and social change. And, at the same time, we must find ways to hold teachers and schools accountable to academic progress. It is a pendulum affect where we either individualize instruction on one end with no real results. Or, we promote results on the other end in a way that standardizes students and compromise their individual strengths.
In more recent years, I have learned to develop and incorporate a scorecard that quantifies student performance by expanding the notion of achievement… promoting a more holistic approach to learning and development. Through this scorecard, a balanced assessment exists that embraces the full range of cognition (as identified through Bloom’s Taxonomy) and captures the psychosocial dimensions to students and their growth.
I appreciate this post as I believe “balance” will allow us to throw out the bath water and still save the baby! Thanks for the discussion.
