Measuring Success

 A while back schools were forced to jump on the testing wagon.  It made a lot of companies selling tests very profitable. We measure children, we measure schools, we measure teachers, all as though they were sacks of flour or horses running a race.  Something is wrong with that in my mind.

Education has always been about telling stories, the story of math, the story of letters forming words, and the stories they tell, about human history, about how the world works, how to do and make things.  Education has been the telling a stories throughout time. The best teachers are good storytellers.

But somewhere in 2000 when schools became testing venues, the stories drifted to the background. Education became about measurable outcomes and things you could score. This isn't totally terrible. There needed to be better teaching in many cases.  The smart kids quit becoming teachers, and some of the not so smart ones who took their places were not good storytellers and were not motivated to even communicate effectively with students.

But, I believe better teaching involves better stories and better storytellers. To me it is important that learners buy into education.  It is important for people to have a story and an awareness of why they are telling it. I just don't think tests do that. I suppose schools won't ever stop trying to measure and quantify success.  There are a lot of special interests that will push to keep tests going.  But, I wonder how a school could actually measure the success of their students, of their staff, of their communities? What is success and how do we achieve it?