In reading the Jim Ellis message, a very thoughtful analysis of the problem
of scaling up a reform effort, I am particularly struck by the inverse
relationship between scale and complexity. It seems that relatively simple
models, like that developed by Madeline Hunter, can be taken to scale while
the more complex models and ideas, like inquiry science, cannot.
This has also been our experience in the area of portfolio assessment, where
I have worked for several years. Like "inquiry," the notion of "portfolios"
caught on very rapidly, even though the word was being used to mean many
different things. Not surprisingly, we found that the design of systems and
techniques of portfolio assessment varied enormously when you looked at
different schools, at different grades, or even at different teachers within
the same grade in the same school. (The research I describe here was
conducted with Steve Seidel at Harvard Project Zero, with support from the
Lilly Endowment and the Pew Charitable Trusts.)
We believe that the variation among portfolios was related to the role of
assessment in the school and was further complicated by the challenging task
of building an assessment system based on a public collection of student
work. Any form of assessment carries with it a set of assumptions,
priorities, interactions and expectations. These are often unstated and for
that reason any change to the assessment system often produces unexpected or
unintended results.
Here is a simple illustration. One component of our model of portfolio
assessment is the public consideration of student accomplishment. So, in
working with a school on portfolios, we have every teacher in that school
meet in a small group twice a month to share selected pieces of student work.
(Teachers chose these pieces and they consistly largely of writing, art, and
social studies.) We found that this sharing student work raised the very
different, and unstated, assumptions that the teachers held about their roles
as teachers, their models of student learning, their relationship to parents
or administration, or their standards for performance. At the beginning,
these meetings were often difficult and contentious; but by sticking with it
for two years, the teachers began to find the experience valuable and
professionalizing. My point is that our work in assessment spilled over into
issues of curriculum, pedagogy, and the philosophy of learning; the observed
result was that the term "portfolio" meant different things to different
people.
Because of the complexity of such interactions, we found that portfolio
assessment doesn't seem to lend itself to the sales/distribution approach or
to Amway techniques. We used the gardening approach and take the schools to
be the right level for this type of innovation. At the school level, with the
necessary district support, the hidden and often interacting assumptions,
priorities, and beliefs can be addressed.
In returning to the Ellis message, point #7 supports our experience: use
professional development to strengthen relationships among the components of
the educational system (curriculum, assessment, environment, administration,
etc). This is precisely what happens in effective professional development
is built around assessment -- that work inevitably and necessarily connects
to all aspects of school life.
And that, I think, is why it is difficult to scale. My hunch is that the same
effect applies to any form of complex change, from whole language to inquiry
science. It *can* be done; but it's not easy.
That's my two cents. What are your thoughts and experiences?
_____________________________________________________________________________
TEECH Leadership Development Discussion
To send a response, send mail to teech_leadership@teech.terc.edu
To unsubscribe from the list, send mail to ntlist_manager@teech.terc.edu
In the body of the message: unsubscribe teech_leadership <email-address>
View or post messages from the Web at http://hub.terc.edu/terc/teech.html
______________________________________________________________________________