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Monday, June 11, 2012

Schools Matter: Evaluate This! Shows the way forward for authentic education reform

Schools Matter: Evaluate This! Shows the way forward for authentic education reform:


Evaluate This! Shows the way forward for authentic education reform

"I am heading for a four-year college. The classes that most helped me prepare for this were NOT test prep classes. They were the ones where I got to explore stuff and do projects." — Tiffany Tuggle (CEJ Member and Senior at UCLA Community School)
Jessica Kochick teaches at the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex in the Westlake District of Los Angeles near my home. Jess and I come out of the same political tradition, and over the years we've worked together on several struggles fighting the racist, classist, neoliberal policies of Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). A year or two ago, Jess was discussing standardized testing and Value Added Measures (VAM) — or Average Growth Over Time (AGT) in LAUSD parlance — with several of us and suggested an event demonstrating how the vast majority of real pedagogy can't be measured on standardized tests or quantified in any similar fashion.
Her vision eventually led to Evaluate This!, an education fair showcasing projects at various schools sites