Isabel Nuñez, associate professor in the Center for Policy Studies and Social Justice at Concordia University Chicago, will be joining us as our guest speaker.

 

From “Chicago Teachers Strike and Standardized Tests” by Marvin Marshall

“Recent legislation passed by the Illinois legislature requires that scores from standardized tests be used for teacher accountability and performance.To someone not in the education field, this mandate may seem reasonable. However, most people don’t realize that standardized tests were never designed to measure learning. Standardized tests were designed so that half of the test takers will fall below the 50 percent line…Additionally, standardized tests are not reliable because they oftentimes do not get consistent results. (The same students taking the same test score differently.)”  

 

 

What’s your take on standardized testing and whether it fosters or hinders learning? How can and should teachers be evaluated for their performance in the classroom? What impact has the teachers’ strike in Chicago had on the future of public education, locally and nationally? 

 

 

 

Isabel Nuñez is an associate professor in the Center for Policy Studies and Social Justice at Concordia University Chicago. She holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum Studies from UIC, an M.Phil. in Cultural Studies from Birmingham University, England, and a J.D. from UCLA. She was a classroom teacher in the U.S. and U.K., and a newspaper journalist in Japan. She is a member of CReATE (Chicagoland Researchers and Advocates for Transformative Education), a group of volunteer faculty engaged in inquiry and dialogue around policy for our city’s schools. The Chicago Sun-Times recently published her commentary on the role of teacher evaluation in the teachers’ strike.