Another one of my favorite blogs to read is that of Wesley Fryer! In a recent post he comments on the need for “messy assessment” as opposed to the multiple choice, one-moment-in-time testing that is the source of a great deal of stress in our classrooms today. He comments:

“Time remains one of the biggest obstacles and challenges to improving the quality of education in many places, I think. We don’t need more testing and more rigor– we need more instructional flexibility and support for our teachers, combined with high expectations for student achievement measured in “messy ways” as well as traditional tests. We need to encourage teachers and administrators to embrace complexity and messy assessment– rather than force-feeding students content under a false, transmission-model of education which flogs students instead of empowering them. Testing and standards alone can’t improve education– we need to address the problems with rigid and traditional curriculum and empower teachers to teach with passion and creativity.”

Interesting….