Dive Brief:
- Fifth graders from Tennessee's Nolan Elementary have created a campaign to convince the Tennessee Department of Education and Gov. Bill Haslam that the time they spend preparing for and taking standardized tests would be better spent doing hands-on learning activities.
- The students, encouraged by teacher Christopher Romero, researched and created a 14-page report that offers critical analysis and is accompanied by interactive components like a video and slideshow.
- After the state's spring rollout of a new online standardized testing platform called TNReady failed, the students' report comes at a pivotal time as Tennessee considers how best to move forward with assessment.
Dive Insight:
Although TNReady was actually supposed to help state assessments better consider critical thinking and problem solving skills, the failure of the online platform provided fodder for many anti-testing advocates to call the testing into question overall.
Student voices, especially those from younger grades, are typically absent from the debate around testing. Schools, districts and lawmakers should pay attention to how students feel about testing, specifically, how young learners are best engaged. One way to generally increase engagement is through more personalized learning, helping students by offering choice in both the style, and, to a degree, the subject of instruction.
Recent research from neuroscientist and former seventh grade science teacher Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, author of the book "Emotions, Learning and the Brain," shows that those students who are able to engage emotionally in learning have greater brain cortex and brain stem activity, as evidenced by MRI brain scans. That, Dr. Immordino-Yang says, proves that concrete, personal experiences are key for students trying to understand abstract concepts. Social-emotional learning (SEL) sparks this kind of engagement. Still, experts say standards are needed if SEL is going to play a deeper role in K-12 education.