Award-winning education writer Anya Kamenetz provides practical guidance for parents looking to understand standardized testing. She and Scott roll up their sleeves and delve deep into the nature, origins, drawbacks and future of our high-stakes testing culture. The dialogue spans varying topics including broadening our educational priorities, holding schools accountable, implementing better assessments and helping children beat the system.
In this episode you will hear about:
- How our educational culture’s myopic assessments are limiting student potential
- Adapting a more holistic view of our students as being more than just an IQ or SAT score
- The goals of our education and what’s missing from our current system
- Several alternative assessment methods that present a fuller picture of ability and improvement
- How to create a culture at home and in your community that helps children tackle these tests
- How some parents are opting out of standardized testing entirely
- State and federal mandates on standardized testing
- What we can learn from Finland’s unique educational system
- The numerous benefits of preschool
- A broader conceptualization of intelligence
- Who is falling through the cracks in our current score obsessed system
- How 25%-40% of test taker’s scores are depressed by test anxiety
- Some unique programs and schools that are doing things differently right now
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Resources:
- Anya’s book: The Test
- Anya’s book: DIY U
- Anya’s website
- Scott’s book: Ungifted
- Lani Guinier’s book: The Tyranny of the Meritocracy
- KIPP school’s character evaluation philosophy
- Gallup student poll
- An explanation of the “no child left behind” act
- Finnish national board of education website
- What is the Flynn effect?
- Results of vote concerning federal mandate on common-core
“Anya Kamenetz is NPR’s lead digital education reporter. She’s the author of two previous books, Generation Debt and DIY U. She is a former senior writer for Fast Company, has a nationally syndicated column with Tribune Media, and her work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN.com, Slate, Newsweek, O: The Oprah Magazine, and a wide variety of other publications. She has won two national awards from the Education Writers Association and appeared in the documentaries Generation Next, Default, and Ivory Tower. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter and can be found online at AnyaKamenetz.net.” –Blurb taken from Amazon.com
photo credit: pbs.org
