Accountability - the Wicked Witch of Education
Standards, pacing, assessments, oh my! Accountability is the wicked witch of education in that it has bullied its way into the walls of our institutions of learning and threatened to take away the joy of teaching. While I am not foolish enough to think that accountability will go away, I am advocating for the death of accountability in so much as it has killed creativity in our classrooms. Ensuring that standards are “covered” will only result in success on lower level standardized, multiple-choice tests; whereas, teaching standards that are integrated or taught within an interdisciplinary unit of study allows for students to go deeper into the content, to recognize the relevance for what they are learning, and to attain higher levels of learning. Teaching should include opportunities for project-based learning and inquiry while incorporating critical thinking skills and problem solving . While there is a place for benchmark assessments and pa...