How do we measure educational success?

I have been in recent discussions with the NZ Initiative, a think tank that endorses the more neoliberal objectives of the Global Education Reform Movement which advocate for competition, choice, prescribed curricula, standardized testing, and privatization to reform the New Zealand education system and improve what they see as falling student outcomes. This got me thinking about how to construct a framework of education that could herald quality education systems universally.

So, what is quality education, how will you know when you see it? What is educationally desirable? Quality education is not just about preparing our learners to be part of an economy, so quality education does not necessarily mean high achievement in standardized assessments. According to Biesta (2009) quality education has 3 equally important qualities. 

1) Qualification - the teaching of knowledge, skills, and values that are domain-specific.

2) Socialisation - the teaching of students to become part of an effective democratic society.

3) Subjectification - the teaching of students to become independent responsible adults.

The purpose of education is to enlighten.

Masked by lofty ideals of a neoliberalist approach as espoused by organizations such as the NZ Initiative, education has been infiltrated by business models and approaches aimed at evidencing educational improvement and focusing primarily on quality number 1 as it is deemed to be easier to quantify. However, having students as consumers of education creates a false analogy as a student unlike a purchaser of the newest pair of jeans does not know what he actually wants from a quality education.

Increased testing, global rankings such as PISA, and heavy accountability are part of the daily life of a teacher, leading to a narrowed yet growing curriculum in which teachers have less professional autonomy and a climate in which policymakers have more.

Globally, teachers are increasingly measured by their output and the progress of the students they teach which are defined in narrow terms and based on algorithms such as value-added models that are not challenged. 

Amrein-Beardsley in 2014 discovered such models were:

• Unreliable

• Invalid

• Biased

• Unfair

• Full of measurement errors

• No formative use

• Used inappropriately

We need to push back against this, teachers must become active in discussing and agreeing on what is quality education and not have it defined for us.

So once we have defined what quality education actually is, how can we as educators bring this about? The key is collaboration. Collaboration is between learners, the collaboration between educators, the collaboration between educators and learners, and the collaboration between parents and educators. Teaching is a human endeavor, learning is part of this. However, it not student learning per se that is critical. Students can learn all the Pokemon names, but if there is no reason for them to learn them and they just learn it from Google then that is ineffectual in terms of quality education. However, to educate and to be educated involves collaboration and the passing of knowledge through providing purpose through relationships. To find a balance between the three domains of qualification, socialization, and subjectification - that is the profession of teaching and the key to providing quality education.

This is one reason why I am a globally connected educator. Connecting and collaborating with teachers across nations is vital to find the best practices to create a quality educational environment for our students. This is why I go to teach meets and why I am on Twitter. It is not enough just to connect; as teachers, we must maintain and sustain connections and use our connections to enquire into our practice. This is about the collective autonomy of teaching professionals.

This should be the norm not the exception for educators. However, for this to occur, we must have the time and space to hone our craft, to understand how to critique research to influence our practice, and to celebrate the development of good practice. This is where the change must come. 

We need to change the order of power in schools from top-down accountability for Government and senior leadership to teachers becoming the drivers of change, through collaborating through inquiry projects with their students to see which teaching practices work best in their context. In short, where all teachers become teacher-leaders (Frost, 2011). 

Essential features of this model include:

• Individualized, time-bound projects which focus on teacher agency.

• School-based workshops led by teachers.

• Development of a framework to support teacher reflection, planning, consultation, and discussion.

• Allow networking opportunities between teachers.

These features need to be embedded into the timetable and not seen as extras, they are critical in developing a quality education system and developing the profession of teaching. This requires a commitment from schools to invest in their greatest resource, their teachers, and allow them to drive the teaching and learning as they are the educational professionals. 

References:

Amrein-Beardsley, A. (2014). Rethinking Value-Added Models in Education: Critical Perspectives on Tests and Assessment-Based Accountability. New York: Routledge.

Biesta, G. (2009) Good education in an age of measurement: On the need to reconnect with question and purpose of education. Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Accountability, 21, 33 - 46.

Frost, D. (2011). Supporting Teacher Leadership in 15 Countries: The International Teacher Leadership Project, Phase 1-A Report. Cambridge: Leadership for Learning, University of Cambridge Faculty of Education.