UMass, Amherst School Of Education
In a weird way, by agreeing to “pilot” Pearson’s Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA) UMass, Amherst School Of Education has finally figured out a way to assess teacher education students. By boycotting the TPA, 67 students have proven they are ready to teach in today’s corporate driven reform movement. It is also evident that UMass also has at least one faculty member (Barbara Madeloni) engaging teacher education students in a not so “common” curriculum—civil disobedience.
The next step?
How do we mandate this kind of experience for all teacher education students and can Barbara Madeloni conduct the professional development workshops for America’s teacher educators?
Go to UMass, Amherst School of Education’s FB site and post. Here’s mine.
How is it possible that a “school of education” supports using preservice teachers as experimental subjects in the Pearson money making machine? Any of your faculty that understands anything about assessing teaching knows that there isn’t a single “teacher test” that can “predict” powerful teaching. The best indicator of powerful teaching is in the example of your faculty and students that boycotted the TPA. This single action demonstrates to me that at least 67 future teachers and one faculty member are actually ready to take on the corporate driven reform movement that is swallowing democracy by dismantling public schools.
Yes! I agree wholeheartedly with you. If we are to teach educators to open the minds of students to all the possibilities they may face, if teachers are to nurture the skills needed to questions, challenge and reconstruct the texts we are handed daily, and if we are to keep moving forward as a society that is built on compassion, understanding and true excellence, then surely, Barbara Madeloni and her students are a fine example to follow.