Boy have you struck a raw nerve with me. A preoccupation with assessment
is not unique to NC. I think this will result in a giant step backwards
for education because as I see it the key to the whole process is to pick
goals that are easy to quantify and then show that you have achieved your
goals. The key is picking the goals that make assessment easy, not to get
caught up in choosing goals that are good for education and then going nuts
trying to show that you have accomplished your goals. To be blunt, go for
the illusion. It's done with smoke and mirrors.
Today was our first day of classes, and while participating in a really
scary workshop on assessment Friday it occurred to me that as long as we're
looking at goals it would be a novel thought to ask for student input.
After some thought and discussion we finally broke our expectations for the
course into three main catagories. Factual information, Principles, &
Process. Facts are simple. Mars is the fourth planet from the sun etc.
Principles are stuff like Newton's laws, Process included problem solving,
analytical thinking, and the ability to make original discoveries. It was
unanimous that these are listed in order of increasing value. It was also
unanimous that they are listed in order of increasing difficulty to assess.
It is in fact clear that success in the process area may take some time to
develop and assessment may be a lifetime process. It's no surprise that
textbook tests emphasize factual recall and to avoid a nightmare trying
to assess your real goals just follow the lead of the textbook tests and
pick the easy goals.