Difficult Task, Often Not Approached

¶ … difficult task, often not approached thoroughly by those who dictate curriculum. In many ways especially right after the implementation of the NCLB legislation at the beginning of the high stakes testing movement this link was ignored in favor of making certain through rote memorization exercises that students would be prepared for assessments. Yet, in the evolving classroom the error of this stop gap solution has been observed and most educators are demanding a better way to link instruction and assessment that does not support lack of creative thinking. In my educational setting the goal has not yet shifted and time is still being taken away to stress rote memorization in preparation for assessment, yet the teachers are fundamentally apposed and frustrated by this aspect of teaching. One strategy I have seen for linking instruction to assessment is to simply teach test preparation materials in a rote memorization fashion and in a format that is similar to the testing process, the goal being to prepare students for the test and the material on it. While I have seen in other sites creative ways of providing curriculum that teaches material that will be "on the test" through project work and creative group learning I have not experienced this in the field.

Using a variety of assessment tools that predate the assessment tests as a guide for creative learner driven education would also seem to me to help better address the issue (Longo, 2010). In other words using daily interaction in the classroom as a basis for grading would seem logical as it is an ongoing assessment tool that can help the educator determine if the students are thinking outside the rote memorization tasks and independently. Portfolio assessments, that demonstrate learning and can serve as a way for student to take pride in what they have learned could also serve as a great impetus for aligning curriculum to assessments. Portfolio projects could easily be tailored to teach the assessment material and still allow for some creativity and the opportunity for students to have a mental reference back to the materials they will need for assessment.

Portfolio assessment and the development of curriculum to place in portfolios that meets and exceeds the material that students will be expected to test on is probably the strategy I believe is most useful to curriculum planning to ensure test proficiency as well as greater independent learning skills. The strategy must also include making sure curriculum material is not identical between students but allows the student certain creative license to demonstrate interests in and outside of the test materials. The difficulty I see in the field with regard to making such a tool a part of the curriculum is resistance by stakeholders to allow deviation from test specific curriculum, given that they are seriously concerned about testing outcomes for future funding and other issues that have little if anything to do with current students but are exceedingly important for the future growth and health of the school and future resources for future students. The necessity id then to make sure that stakeholders are aware and have buy in to the idea that curriculum must allow independent thought and foster independent learning (Gallagher, 2010). There is no way to answer this seemingly insurmountable question but it is important to make sure that stakeholders, students, educators and the community are aware that the stop gap solution of simply teaching to the test through rote memorization is not the best way to help students learn. Students must be allowed the opportunity to seek out and involve themselves in learning interests that are new and emerging as well as that interest them to the core, so they will more effectively walk into their future thinking and feeling like people who have knowledge and want to build on it and help their lives and communities be better (Gallagher, 2010). Teachers are in many places fighting the good fight to express the fact that teaching to the test through rote memorization is not healthy for students and that they need more flexibility. Early in the process their only option was to ignore the mandates, at their own risk, and to continue to teach in innovative ways, now they need be allowed a fair look at testing materials so they can align their innovative and engaging curriculum with the learning goals and strategies needed for students to learn the material on the tests.