[lbo-talk] NCLB bites the University?

[Miles Jackson]

Alan Rudy wrote:
> You say we need to develop
> meaningful strategies for assessing student learning... who says we don't
> have them?  That overwork doesn't make them impossible to use without
> destroying other aspects of our pedagogy and/or lives?  That the problems
> with faculty teaching ans student learning don't lie mostly outside the
> classroom and assessment mechanisms?
>
> Alan
>   
Alan,

This is the issue I'm pointing out here.  If we faculty say "trust us, 
we're assessing student learning", or even more bluntly "assessing 
student learning is ridiculous", we're not making an argument based on 
evidence; we're asking people to believe us because of our social status 
as "experts".  That's just not a defensible position to me.  Sure, there 
are lots of problems with our educational system, and I agree 
wholeheartedly that NLCB is a colossal clusterfuck.  We're not going to 
improve things, though, until we thoughtfully gather and use systematic 
evidence about learning.  Anecdotal claims about how important the class 
was to some student a year after they took the class isn't going to cut it.

Miles