Friday, September 9, 2011

A short video of interest re: using reading tests for grouping

A theme that emerged in many of your first week reflections is the issue of using testing data to group students.  This is a rich topic that remains controversial even as it exists as a standards practice in our school system.  I thought this link might bring up some fruitful deliberation on the merits of using certain reading assessments to ability-group students.

Check out this short video featuring Dr. O'Flahavan from the University of Maryland discussing the validity and reliability of statewide testing programs.  Feel free to contribute to this discussion by adding a comment to this post. :)

1 comment:

  1. So I have listened to this clip about three times, and I think that it's a really important idea that what we teach students may not align with these test. What is a reading priority? Well one of them is that students are able to find a right book for them, and these reading tests don't test that. So I think, it's about the rounded out picture of a student from informal and formal assessment that should be used to group students.

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