Is it Really Learning?

The New York Daily News today ran an editorial praising the work of state legislators and teacher union groups to come up with a new way of assessing teachers with an eye more than anything else on getting rid of those who are performing below expectations. As always, exactly how to figure out which teachers are “underperforming” is the problem, and the state’s attempt to win some of the Race to the Top money that’s being dangled in front of everyone’s face is driving the conversation. That means, of course, that students’ scores on standardized tests will play a big part in determining whether a teacher is “highly effective, effective, developing or ineffective.”

via weblogg-ed.com

Will Richardson's post this evening reminds me very much of Leonard Sax's book, Boys Adrift. Sax discusses how our educational system has moved from Kenntnis to Wissenschaft. Both terms (German) mean "knowledge," but the latter is factual knowledge instead of experiential knowledge. That is exactly what Richardson is talking about. The point is that exclusive focus on factual knowledge does not produce life-long learners; it produces folks who can take standardized tests well. Where' s the ability to apply knowledge? That comes with Kenntnis. Dan Pink would argue the same.