Testing... Testing... One, two, three... Is this thing on?

Many educators, administrator, and other education stakeholders are aware of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and/or their Alabama incarnation, College and Career Ready Standards (CCRS). These standards bring with them many issues to be addressed not the least of which is how to assess the standards. Many bright people immediately volunteer, "Technology can help us assess the standards" and rightly so.

Unfortunately, for many other people, assessment equals standardized testing. In this post I offer an inside view into part of the quandary school districts face regarding implementing the CCRS.

As an aside, please let the record reflect:

1. high, challenging standards are good and 
2. standardized tests are useful measures for assessing student performance.

Quality assessment consists of multiple measures to insure students have mastered standards. Various evidence artifacts should be gathered to prove students meet expectations. Students should take increasing ownership over the assessment process as they get older to show what they know, and just as importantly what they can do.

In order to assess the CCRS as a state, Alabama has partnered with ACT and Pearson to develop state-wide tests. The aim is to eventually deliver all the tests online. Providing these tests will take significant planning and resources.

At present, the system requirements for the existing tests from ACT require districts to maintain full-client desktop or laptop computers. iOS, Android, and Chrome OS devices cannot be used. Schools will need enough computers to test all students at one grade level on the same day. This feat can be accomplished but not without good planning. The plan must account for inevitable technical difficulties like catastrophic connectivity loss (e.g. Some guy on a backhoe digs up and re-buries your fiber optic cable). None of my thoughts above consider how test security must change in the individual rooms where testing takes place. That is a topic for a different blog.

Technology can help us assess. Student created electronic portfolios, digital products shared with community members, and foreign language dialogues with native speakers via video conference, are just a few ways technology can provide timely and durable feedback to students, teachers, parents, and others.

As school leaders decide how to access student learning, we must make sure we are having the right conversation. There are only so many resources to go around. If we again put too much emphasis on standardized testing, even if it appears on a computer, we will miss the power technology offers.

My thoughts are echoed from Sir Ken Robinson's TED Talk in 2006 about the need to change our thinking about education. If you have never heard it, here is my favorite version from RSA Animate:

Chris Jenks is the instructional technology coordinator for the Tuscaloosa City Schools.  Follow him on Twitter, where he goes by @chrisjenks.