THE ESSENTIAL Question
Essential Question:
How does government-mandated assessments drive curriculum and instruction of Colombian teachers?
In the nation state of Colombia, students must participate in assessments in grades 3,5, 7, 9, and 11. All students must collectively participate in these tests and are based on certain competencies in science, mathematics, philosophy, writing, reading, and English as a Second Language. The school results are subsequently published online and are used to rank schools accordingly, regardless of whether they are private or public schools. The grade-level assessments in Colombia must transform from a punitive sorting system to one where teachers can fully utilize individual assessment data to ascertain precisely where students fail, so that teachers can plan effectively for curricular improvement.
During my stay in Colombia, I visited and interacted with various levels of public and one private school. At one public school, Fanney Mickey, the principal’s main objective was to provide a place of peace and stability in the gang infested region of Bogota, where students often arrive hungry and live on the edge of crisis in often-dysfunctional families. Here, teachers are given 200 copies per year and must teach a classroom of 40-50 children. In addition, the library does not contain a single book. The school, a new mega-school touted by the mayor as an accomplishment, contains plenty of bricks but not the building blocks of innovative teaching and learning. To contrast this, a public school, Bertha Gedeon de Baladi, in Cartagena, Colombia, also serves poverty-laden students in open window classrooms with only fans to circulate the 100 F degree humid heat that permeates everywhere. However, this school has adopted community service through service learning projects—such as TECHO (Colombia’s version of Habitat for Humanity) and fashion/art shows artifacts constructed from recycled materials. In addition, students have access to a library of books. The students, many also shell shocked from gang activity, with some even spending most nights sleeping underneath their beds for fear of stray gunfire, desperately try to scratch out an education that may or may not improve their social and economic standing. Unlike America, Colombians have 5 stratas of prosperity, and those in the bottom stratas rarely move beyond their station in life, simply because those in power wish to maintain the status quo. These two public schools, both poor and with varying levels of student achievement, will never surpass the education achieved by private school students, who, based on interviews of Tea Fellows and a visit to Rosario de Santé Domingo, have a vast wealth of resources at the disposal. Many students have access to science laboratories, well-trained teachers with access to ample professional development opportunities, and with facilities that rival American school, replete with basketball gymnasiums and even air conditioning.
The divide in Colombia is nearly 60% public, 40% private, but it is, indeed, an ugly divide—and public schools never exceed private schools on the published assessment results. However, this gap could be modified if public school teachers knew what to fix regarding the achievement results of their pupils. Many TEA Fellow teachers opined the lack of data as well as the lack of resources to deal with academic issues as major obstacles. All teachers receive is a number. There is absolutely no breakdown of the standards to help the teacher pinpoint where student understanding breaks down. Recently, the Colombian government released a website that gives teachers at least some insight on assessment results. They can now access an individual’s test score percentage, which can be helpful, but, again, it is a number without meaning if the assessments are not tied to standards. And, as far as I understand, a teacher’s salary is tied to students’ academic performance, according to Article 23667 from the Institute of Education.
Shaming public schools without helping teachers improve student results is not an effective assessment strategy, and the government approved continuation of the sorting strategy only illuminates the divide among the haves and the have nots in Colombian society. If Colombia truly wants to join the ranks of developed nations, the government must do more to ensure that teachers have access to student data, that teachers train collaboratively to develop improvement plans designed to target underperforming students, and provide teachers with more than a couple hundred copies, two pens, and two dry erase markers. To bridge the divide, Colombians must embrace the public school system with taxpayer-supported reforms—and it begins with school wide assessments that teachers can actually use to help drive curricular choices and differentiate instruction.
How does government-mandated assessments drive curriculum and instruction of Colombian teachers?
In the nation state of Colombia, students must participate in assessments in grades 3,5, 7, 9, and 11. All students must collectively participate in these tests and are based on certain competencies in science, mathematics, philosophy, writing, reading, and English as a Second Language. The school results are subsequently published online and are used to rank schools accordingly, regardless of whether they are private or public schools. The grade-level assessments in Colombia must transform from a punitive sorting system to one where teachers can fully utilize individual assessment data to ascertain precisely where students fail, so that teachers can plan effectively for curricular improvement.
During my stay in Colombia, I visited and interacted with various levels of public and one private school. At one public school, Fanney Mickey, the principal’s main objective was to provide a place of peace and stability in the gang infested region of Bogota, where students often arrive hungry and live on the edge of crisis in often-dysfunctional families. Here, teachers are given 200 copies per year and must teach a classroom of 40-50 children. In addition, the library does not contain a single book. The school, a new mega-school touted by the mayor as an accomplishment, contains plenty of bricks but not the building blocks of innovative teaching and learning. To contrast this, a public school, Bertha Gedeon de Baladi, in Cartagena, Colombia, also serves poverty-laden students in open window classrooms with only fans to circulate the 100 F degree humid heat that permeates everywhere. However, this school has adopted community service through service learning projects—such as TECHO (Colombia’s version of Habitat for Humanity) and fashion/art shows artifacts constructed from recycled materials. In addition, students have access to a library of books. The students, many also shell shocked from gang activity, with some even spending most nights sleeping underneath their beds for fear of stray gunfire, desperately try to scratch out an education that may or may not improve their social and economic standing. Unlike America, Colombians have 5 stratas of prosperity, and those in the bottom stratas rarely move beyond their station in life, simply because those in power wish to maintain the status quo. These two public schools, both poor and with varying levels of student achievement, will never surpass the education achieved by private school students, who, based on interviews of Tea Fellows and a visit to Rosario de Santé Domingo, have a vast wealth of resources at the disposal. Many students have access to science laboratories, well-trained teachers with access to ample professional development opportunities, and with facilities that rival American school, replete with basketball gymnasiums and even air conditioning.
The divide in Colombia is nearly 60% public, 40% private, but it is, indeed, an ugly divide—and public schools never exceed private schools on the published assessment results. However, this gap could be modified if public school teachers knew what to fix regarding the achievement results of their pupils. Many TEA Fellow teachers opined the lack of data as well as the lack of resources to deal with academic issues as major obstacles. All teachers receive is a number. There is absolutely no breakdown of the standards to help the teacher pinpoint where student understanding breaks down. Recently, the Colombian government released a website that gives teachers at least some insight on assessment results. They can now access an individual’s test score percentage, which can be helpful, but, again, it is a number without meaning if the assessments are not tied to standards. And, as far as I understand, a teacher’s salary is tied to students’ academic performance, according to Article 23667 from the Institute of Education.
Shaming public schools without helping teachers improve student results is not an effective assessment strategy, and the government approved continuation of the sorting strategy only illuminates the divide among the haves and the have nots in Colombian society. If Colombia truly wants to join the ranks of developed nations, the government must do more to ensure that teachers have access to student data, that teachers train collaboratively to develop improvement plans designed to target underperforming students, and provide teachers with more than a couple hundred copies, two pens, and two dry erase markers. To bridge the divide, Colombians must embrace the public school system with taxpayer-supported reforms—and it begins with school wide assessments that teachers can actually use to help drive curricular choices and differentiate instruction.