Weekly Article: Educational Leadership

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=3&sid=ddb0b6f2-9c06-4725-a240-5c498bf1db78%40sessionmgr10&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=eric&AN=EJ844038

1. Sheila, a committed educator that serves as a elementary principal, is frustrated with the education policies. She thinks that the school has been doing the same thing over and over again. She says, "My work for the last six weeks has been test, sort, stack, pack, send, test again. Flow much is enough?" She decided to participate in a conversation with a group of new principals to discuss her concerns about the culture of constant assessment.
The group agreed on the following:

• The "render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's" approach applies. Standardized measurement of learning through psychometric data is currently required by law, policy, and practice; and it is here to stay. Educators need to pay this measurement system its due.
• Assessing students' learning is essential. No Child Left Behind obliges us, appropriately, to pay additional attention to the achievement of specific subgroups of students. We are also obliged to adapt testing to better serve students, which means being careful to foster and assess learning not covered on the test.
• To manage this paradox, principals need to plan time for personal and professional reflection as well as for ongoing conversations among fellow educators about the essence of their work as leaders.

2. This is news because it impacts a lot of people by motivating them to stand up for what they believe in just like what Sheila did. Sheila complained about her work saying that her last six weeks has been a repetitive cycle of test, sort, stack, pack, and send. She didn't agree with this method so she decided to join a group of new principals to fix the issue. If we all could stand up for what we believe in, rather than just ignoring it and hoping that someone else would step up, we wouldn't get anything done.


3. If I was in Sheila's position and I was really frustrated about something that's going on at the school I teach in, I would do the same thing as Sheila did. You might as well do something about it instead of just complaining about your job.