The Wawascene was created by Dr. Mark Stock, former Superintendent of the Wawasee Community School Corporation. Due to its local popularity, Dr. Stock has left the blog site to future Wawasee administrators.

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Tuesday, October 24, 2006

What tests can't measure!

Many of those personal qualities that we hold dear—resilience and courage in the face of stress, a sense of craft in our work, a commitment to justice and caring in our social relationships, a dedication to advancing the public good in communal life—are exceedingly difficult to assess. And so, unfortunately, we are apt to measure what we can, and eventually come to value what is measured over what is left unmeasured. The shift is subtle and occurs gradually.

Robert Glaser and the National Academy of Education.
In Lamar Alexander and H. Thomas James The Nation’s Report Card: Improving the Assessment of Student Achievement, 1987.

PERSONAL QUALITIES NOT MEASURED BY TESTS

CREATIVITY
CRITICAL THINKING
RESILIENCE
MOTIVATION
PERSISTENCE
CURIOSITY
QUESTION ASKING
ENDURANCE
RELIABILITY
ENTHUSIASM
CIVIC-MINDEDNESS
SELF AWARENESS
SELF DISCIPLINE
EMPATHY
LEADERSHIP
COMPASSION
COURAGE
SENSE OF BEAUTY
SENSE OF WONDER
SENSE OF HUMOR
RESOURCEFULNESS
SPONTANEITY
HUMILITY

This list taken from information provided by Dr. Gerald Bracey.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree that there are many things that cannot be measured by a test -- and tests should not be everything that school is about. However, it is important that we remember that we live in a world that does focus on tests and we must put enough focus there to ensure that our schools and community maintain a quality reputation -- which won't happen if we end up ahead of the pack with negative "test press."

Superintendent, Dr. Thomas Edington said...

I agree that we should try to be competitive and that testing is a part of that reputation - I am just referring to the overuse of testing and the amount of extreme test focus that is starting to show up in some school districts around America.