Assessments

Assessments are a controversial topic in the world of education.  We cant work without them, but working with them sometimes seems impossible. 

I personally feel that  with all the stress on standardize testing  the children in our classes are missing out on a true education.  I feel that the tests limit the experience children can have, because there is so much pressure for them to learn what is on them.  There are less and less opportunities for teacher to customize their curriculum to their students.  To teach outside of the box.  If a class has a sudden interest in tractors  An educator might be forced to reign in the classes interest about this topic or skip it all together because it is not covered on a standardize test.    Since the result of the test reflect on the teacher's performance as well as the students, educators are under even more pressure to prove themselves through their students.  Unfortunately this means that teacher often only go over what is on assessments, because that is what has been deemed important.

I clearly understand the need to have a way to assess student learning and teacher performance, but I wish there was  a way that didn't take away from student learning so much.