Week 12

Tracking, Testing, & Accountability /

Gun Violence in Schools

Mon., Nov. 20

Horn, C. (2003). High-stakes testing and students: Stopping or perpetuating a cycle of failure? Theory Into Practice, 42(1), 30-41.

Jennings, J. L., & Bearak, J. M. (2014) "Teaching to the test" in the NCLB era: How test predictability affects our understanding of student performance. Educational Researcher, 43(8), 381-389.

Tefera, A. (2019). Listening to and learning from the perspectives and experiences of Black and Latinx students with disabilities: Examining the challenges and contradictions of high‐stakes testing policies. The Urban Review, 51(2019), 457-476.

Total Pages Assigned: 42

Listen to Mini-Lecture

In-Class Writing Assignment

How should student learning be measured and compared? What rationale was used to argue in favor of the No Child Left Behind Act and the Every Student Succeeds Act? What effects have these federal policies had on student learning and teacher performance? What does it mean to teach "to the test"? To what extent is that strategy useful and/or harmful? How do tests reflect power, race, class, and gender? What do today's articles tell us about how the U.S. educational system is operating? For what purpose is the U.S. educational system currently designed? How, if at all, does testing relate to Diamond's ideas of white supremacist "opportunity hoarding" or Delpit's ideas of "culture of power"? How, if at all, does testing relate to Persell and Cookson's ideas of schools as reproducers of existing social structures?

Sneha's Survey

The Crafted Kup's Menu

Place your order. Try to stay around $8.

Wed., Nov. 22

There will not be a traditional class today because we do not live in traditional times. In solidarity with and recognition of the pain and suffering that educators, students, and families feel due to the prevalence of gun violence in schools nationwide, I welcome students to participate in a walkout, take a mental health day, or join me online for a meditative vent session.