That was John Goodlad's message to a capacity audience at a Focus on Education Lecture yesterday. And just to emphasize his point, Goodlad, president of the Institute for Educational Inquiry, asked the audience for a little feedback. Overwhelmingly, the audience voted for teacher development.
Teacher education is the most underfunded area of schooling.
The push toward high-stakes testing is a bipartisan blunder, Goodlad says, noting that both President George W. Bush and Democratic contender Al Gore support the move. And Education Secretary Rod Paige, when he was Houston superintendent, tied his own salary to whether or not student test scores improved. Goodlad says he supports testing and assessment but says the current high-stakes testing mania has resulted in an obsession with obtaining high scores. He says there are even places where the viability of after-school programs may be questioned if they aren't proven to produce higher test scores. And that was in about 1900.