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Teachers Transforming Assessment
The new school year—always an exciting and exhausting time—has just begun and already teachers are reporting heavy workloads.
While you have been busy in your classrooms getting to know your new students, planning the year ahead and preparing for many upcoming events this fall, your Association has been busily reviewing a new workload study by researcher Linda Duxbury that confirms teachers’ reports.
In addition to Duxbury’s research, the Association asked local presidents to conduct studies at the local level to demonstrate to employers that workload must be addressed. Based on Duxbury’s findings and information gleaned to date from locals, is it any wonder that workload is the number one bargaining issue for teachers this fall?
On a positive note, despite teachers’ workloads, Duxbury found that teachers are satisfied with and enjoy their work.
As you plan your next 10 months, ensure that you plan to nurture continued satisfaction and enjoyment of teaching by setting aside time for yourself. Set goals to ensure that you remain healthy, happy and strong in this ever-changing and challenging profession. A teacher’s job is demanding; the students you care for are challenging, exciting and demanding in their diverse needs. You need to be in the best physical and emotional health possible to support and encourage them for another successful year.
Stressful workloads extend beyond teachers to our students, especially those in Grades 3 and 6 who are writing provincial achievement tests (PATs). Premier Redford stated publicly on at least three occasions that she would discontinue Grade 3 PATs. Her pledge was good news for teachers and students. Now is the time for the premier to honour her election promise. Teachers are ready and willing to sit down with her or Education Minister Jeff Johnson to discuss authentic assessment and public assurance. Thirty-year-old exams that cannot assess creativity, innovation and problem solving are not the answer.
The Alberta Assessment Consortium has published A New Look at Public Assurance: Imagining the Possibilities for Alberta Students. The document clearly outlines what is lacking in the present accountability pillars and offers options for a new model to provide the public with assurances that the system is doing well for Alberta students. The document’s ideas are timely and well worth considering.
Teachers should note that parents have the right (or responsibility) to withdraw their children from participating in PATs. I taught Grade 3 for 13 years and developed skills to protect my students from anxiety over PATs. When I felt strongly that a particular child should not write the exams, I spoke to the child’s parents. No parents, upon hearing my concerns, ever chose to have their children participate.
The Canadian Teachers’ Federation reports that the governments of Nova Scotia and Ontario have changed their policies on external testing. In those provinces, teachers, not principals or central office staff, decide if they will administer external tests. This is good news—it demonstrates those governments’ confidence in and commitment to the professional voice of teachers.
By the time you receive this issue of the ATA Magazine, Thanksgiving will have come and gone and most trees will have shed their foliage. You will be well into the curriculum and daily routines, and your students will be settled into learning.
I wish you and your students a happy, healthy and rewarding school year.
