Achieving Equity: Counting on the Classroom

Abstract

Susan M.and other teachers are questioning the fairness and equity of traditional assessments and their reach into classroom learning and teaching for all students. They are asking such questions as “On what tasks is time being spent?” and “How well can Margaret read?” These questions prompt others: How valid and accurate is the evidence that Margaret was unable to read, especially since that evidence did not show what she did know and could do? What information did Margaret’s test scores provide that would help Susan M. help this first grader to move from the lowest reading group?

… I taught first grade in a Chapter 1 school… I had a prescribed script already written up for me which literally told me what to say.

But then there was Margaret. Margaret was an African-American child with high energy who liked to talk, move and socialize while she learned—except that my classroom set-up and prescribed curriculum demanded a quiet classroom with kids constantly on task with worksheets—always solitary, individual activities. Margaret had been put in my lowest reading group—a designation that I inherited from the teacher she had the year before. She struggled her way through our reading sessions, never passed the tests, not even with extra review. But during her seatwork time, when she had finished with the endless stream of worksheets, she always got a book from the library and would read it aloud with pleasure and loads of expression to an imaginary audience. I recognized her happy involvement, but constantly would tell her that she had to be quiet, because that was the tacit understanding at our mastery learning school—that good little academic achievers spent a lot of quiet, solitary time on task. (Susan M., 1992)

This chapter was prepared as background for a demonstration of the California Learning Record (CLR) on March 11-12-1993, at a symposium held in Washington, DC on “Equity and Educational Testing and Assessment,” sponsored by the Ford Foundation. The ordering of authors is alphabetical; author contributions are equal. The opinions expressed herein are solely the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the California Department of Education.