
Who couldn’t want data that gives one security in one’s selection of who will succeed at anything — sports or other avenues? There is real economic value if there were a test that determines NFL athletic success. By the way, there isn’t one test that can do that. Look at how many high draft picks and Heisman Trophy winners never find their way to real success in the NFL. Here’s a link to the WSJ piece:
https://www.wsj.com/sports/football/cj-stroud-houston-texans-s2-quarterback-test-22a0729c?st=bulk8rr5b96ap5z&reflink=article_email_share
What the story raised for me was a related question in the context of education and one I raise with my co-author Edward K.S. Wang in our forthcoming book, Mending Education: Hope, Creativity and Mental Wellness in Times of Trauma (Teachers College Press Sept. 2024). We are hooked on testing in education, as if multiple choices tests are the sine qua non of excellence and progress. And, we test students over 100 times between pre-K — 12. And yes, there was been diminished reliance on the SAT (I am sure that produces an economic downturn for The College Board (which constructs, charges for and runs the rest).
But, here’s something we learned in the Pandemic that could stick: there are many ways to assess student learning and what we do currently with students is likely not the only or even the best way to measure knowledge or progress (and those are different things). Ponder portfolio assessments. Ponder oral tests. Ponder open ended questions. Ponder having a test that asks students what three questions come to mind as they read a selected text. Ponder demonstrations and posters and reports. Ponder research and writing. Ponder problem solving and assessing the steps, not just the answer. The opportunities for assessment are plentiful and we examine their benefits in our book.
Let me be clear: I am not against assessment per say. I am against how we assess and the weight we give to certain tests. Not unlike the QB test, I worry that we discard some students’ potential because of tests. We say learning is not occurring in certain classrooms when it is but is not measured in the ways we currently measure. And, shouldn’t we be more concerned with progress and improvement as opposed to absolute knowledge measures (that aren’t all that good anyhow)? Yes, we want students to emerge from their schools with certain skills but what are those skills and are we measuring for them? Stated bluntly: we are failing that test.
Sure, there are things that multiple choice tests can evaluate but those tests as presently constructed are fraught with problems — including the situational setting in which they are offered and the ease or lack thereof that students and educators feel as testing occurs. I am familiar with the post-test response of some elementary school students who were totally out of sorts post-test. They could not focus, they were physically active beyond the norm and they were jittery and somewhat dysregulated. Yipes.
Here’s my point: NFL draft pundits failed by relying on a test of QBs — placing too much emphasis on this one particular measure (whether the score was or wasn’t accurate). And, in the process, we demeaned the athlete as lacking in overall cognition (something that is not fully measured in the test as it tests only some cognitive skills as I understand it — although I have not seen the actual test itself). We kept undercutting CJ Stroud’s intelligence. Go back and read the media postings. He had to feel terrible. Talk about a chip on one’s shoulder.
Now, that singling out based on one test is what we also do in education: we single out students who don’t do well on the tests we give them. And we demean their teachers too. Really? We are that eager to differentiate. And no shock: the students who do worse are members of minority groups. And at the college/graduate level, do we ever measure the quality of the teaching and how that correlates to student learning? You all know the answer to that query.
Here’s my advice: the CJ Stroud story is a cautionary tale well beyond QB selection. It is a cautionary tale about what we measure and how we measure success (howsoever that is define). And let the CJ Sroud tale enable us NOT to marginalize or diminish the capacities of others just based on one score. Even in medicine, we don’t rely on one score to determine disease diagnosis and disease management.
One score: it’s just that. One score which must be contextualized and considered with many other test scores and assessment devices now in existence and to be created. And let’s aim to lift not demean those whose scores on any test aren’t ideal.
We can start now.
About the Author
Karen Gross is a Gloucester MA and Washington DC based educator, author and artist, as well as an advisor to non-profit schools and organizations and governments. Her work focuses on student success across the educational landscape and the impact of trauma on learning and psychosocial development. She has dealt with institutions planning for and dealing with person and nature made disasters including the Pandemic, shootings, suicides, hurricanes and floods. She has also worked with leaders to stabilize their institutions in the midst and aftermath of crises (i.e. student dysregulation; harassment; discrimination).
She currently is a continuing education instructor at the Rutgers School of Social Work and sits on the Advisory Council at Center for Minority Serving Institutions at Rutgers Graduate School of Education. She has been a visiting professor at colleges and universities across the US and Canada. She is the co-founder of the Virtual Teachers Lounge, which serves educators across the globe and conducts workshops and seminars for organizations dealing with student and educator struggles, including the impact of trauma on students, educators, families and communities.
Previously, she served for 8 years as the President of Southern Vermont College and as senior policy advisor to the US Department of Education during the Obama Administration. Prior to that, she was a tenured law professor for over two decades in New York City. She has served on a number of local and national boards of non-profit institutions. She also served on President Biden’s campaign Domestic Policy Committee (focusing on education). In addition to writing award winning adult books (including Breakaway Learners and Trauma Doesn’t Stop at the School Door which form two of the three books creating the trilogy of which the current book is a part), she is the author of a children’s book series titled Lady Lucy’s Quest, several publications of which have been translated into Spanish. Her artwork, which of which is trauma-responsive, has been shown in online and brick and mortar galleries, appears in online magazines and catalogues, and hangs in various educational institutions across the US.
A frequently blogger and commentator on issues of education, her work has appeared in the Evollution, Collegiate Exchange, Newsweek, New England Journal of Higher Education, InsideHigherEd, the Chronicle of Higher Ed, Age of Awareness (Medium), Forest of the Rain Productions and Authentic Insider, among other publications. During the Pandemic, she conducted more than 50 podcasts on trauma’s impact on education. She has been cited in numerous articles including Forbes, Parents, The Atlantic, ASCA, Romper, Forbes, and The New York Times.
For more information, visit her website at www.karengrosseducation.com
https://www.wsj.com/sports/football/cj-stroud-houston-texans-s2-quarterback-test-22a0729c?st=bulk8rr5b96ap5z&reflink=article_email_share
What the story raised for me was a related question in the context of education and one I raise with my co-author Edward K.S. Wang in our forthcoming book, Mending Education: Hope, Creativity and Mental Wellness in Times of Trauma (Teachers College Press Sept. 2024). We are hooked on testing in education, as if multiple choices tests are the sine qua non of excellence and progress. And, we test students over 100 times between pre-K — 12. And yes, there was been diminished reliance on the SAT (I am sure that produces an economic downturn for The College Board (which constructs, charges for and runs the rest).
But, here’s something we learned in the Pandemic that could stick: there are many ways to assess student learning and what we do currently with students is likely not the only or even the best way to measure knowledge or progress (and those are different things). Ponder portfolio assessments. Ponder oral tests. Ponder open ended questions. Ponder having a test that asks students what three questions come to mind as they read a selected text. Ponder demonstrations and posters and reports. Ponder research and writing. Ponder problem solving and assessing the steps, not just the answer. The opportunities for assessment are plentiful and we examine their benefits in our book.
Let me be clear: I am not against assessment per say. I am against how we assess and the weight we give to certain tests. Not unlike the QB test, I worry that we discard some students’ potential because of tests. We say learning is not occurring in certain classrooms when it is but is not measured in the ways we currently measure. And, shouldn’t we be more concerned with progress and improvement as opposed to absolute knowledge measures (that aren’t all that good anyhow)? Yes, we want students to emerge from their schools with certain skills but what are those skills and are we measuring for them? Stated bluntly: we are failing that test.
Sure, there are things that multiple choice tests can evaluate but those tests as presently constructed are fraught with problems — including the situational setting in which they are offered and the ease or lack thereof that students and educators feel as testing occurs. I am familiar with the post-test response of some elementary school students who were totally out of sorts post-test. They could not focus, they were physically active beyond the norm and they were jittery and somewhat dysregulated. Yipes.
Here’s my point: NFL draft pundits failed by relying on a test of QBs — placing too much emphasis on this one particular measure (whether the score was or wasn’t accurate). And, in the process, we demeaned the athlete as lacking in overall cognition (something that is not fully measured in the test as it tests only some cognitive skills as I understand it — although I have not seen the actual test itself). We kept undercutting CJ Stroud’s intelligence. Go back and read the media postings. He had to feel terrible. Talk about a chip on one’s shoulder.
Now, that singling out based on one test is what we also do in education: we single out students who don’t do well on the tests we give them. And we demean their teachers too. Really? We are that eager to differentiate. And no shock: the students who do worse are members of minority groups. And at the college/graduate level, do we ever measure the quality of the teaching and how that correlates to student learning? You all know the answer to that query.
Here’s my advice: the CJ Stroud story is a cautionary tale well beyond QB selection. It is a cautionary tale about what we measure and how we measure success (howsoever that is define). And let the CJ Sroud tale enable us NOT to marginalize or diminish the capacities of others just based on one score. Even in medicine, we don’t rely on one score to determine disease diagnosis and disease management.
One score: it’s just that. One score which must be contextualized and considered with many other test scores and assessment devices now in existence and to be created. And let’s aim to lift not demean those whose scores on any test aren’t ideal.
We can start now.
About the Author
Karen Gross is a Gloucester MA and Washington DC based educator, author and artist, as well as an advisor to non-profit schools and organizations and governments. Her work focuses on student success across the educational landscape and the impact of trauma on learning and psychosocial development. She has dealt with institutions planning for and dealing with person and nature made disasters including the Pandemic, shootings, suicides, hurricanes and floods. She has also worked with leaders to stabilize their institutions in the midst and aftermath of crises (i.e. student dysregulation; harassment; discrimination).
She currently is a continuing education instructor at the Rutgers School of Social Work and sits on the Advisory Council at Center for Minority Serving Institutions at Rutgers Graduate School of Education. She has been a visiting professor at colleges and universities across the US and Canada. She is the co-founder of the Virtual Teachers Lounge, which serves educators across the globe and conducts workshops and seminars for organizations dealing with student and educator struggles, including the impact of trauma on students, educators, families and communities.
Previously, she served for 8 years as the President of Southern Vermont College and as senior policy advisor to the US Department of Education during the Obama Administration. Prior to that, she was a tenured law professor for over two decades in New York City. She has served on a number of local and national boards of non-profit institutions. She also served on President Biden’s campaign Domestic Policy Committee (focusing on education). In addition to writing award winning adult books (including Breakaway Learners and Trauma Doesn’t Stop at the School Door which form two of the three books creating the trilogy of which the current book is a part), she is the author of a children’s book series titled Lady Lucy’s Quest, several publications of which have been translated into Spanish. Her artwork, which of which is trauma-responsive, has been shown in online and brick and mortar galleries, appears in online magazines and catalogues, and hangs in various educational institutions across the US.
A frequently blogger and commentator on issues of education, her work has appeared in the Evollution, Collegiate Exchange, Newsweek, New England Journal of Higher Education, InsideHigherEd, the Chronicle of Higher Ed, Age of Awareness (Medium), Forest of the Rain Productions and Authentic Insider, among other publications. During the Pandemic, she conducted more than 50 podcasts on trauma’s impact on education. She has been cited in numerous articles including Forbes, Parents, The Atlantic, ASCA, Romper, Forbes, and The New York Times.
For more information, visit her website at www.karengrosseducation.com