How Top Countries Test: Lessons for Arne Duncan from Linda Darling-Hammond
In one of my recent criticisms of the much-hyped McKinsey report, I promised to follow up with the following presentation by Linda Darling-Hammond, of the Stanford School Re-design Network, that compares and contrasts the assessment approaches of the world's top-ranked education countries to those of the United States. The presentation is from a conference sponsored by the Forum for Education and Democracy, which describes Dr. Darling-Hammond's presentation with this blurb:
“What we have thought of as fairly rare in [the USA] is quite common in most of the high-achieving countries internationally,” Linda Darling-Hammond began. Beginning with a list of 21st century skills, Darling-Hammond contrasted US tests - which require recall of a simple fact or ask students for a one-sentence explanation - with exams abroad that include designing science experiments, refining computer programs and explaining the reasoning behind solutions for complex problems. “[In many nations,] there’s a teaching and learning system, that operates to provide rich curriculum and strong outcomes,” Darling-Hammond said. “They are what assure that the higher-order skills are actually taught and practiced.”
It's 20 minutes long, but well worth the watch (the discussion of science assessments around 15:00 is especially noteworthy).
For those of you who don't know, Darling-Hammond led Obama's education transition team, and was the top choice for Secretary of Education among many progressive education reformists. Instead of getting this education professor to lead our reforms, though, Obama chose instead Chicago's Arne Duncan, who never taught in a classroom and has no background or advanced degrees in education. It's hard not to regret that choice - and not to wonder why we hear almost nothing about Darling-Hammond's ideas from Duncan - while watching the presentation.
Anyway, enjoy:
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