High-stakes assessment in England and Singapore

In the face of continued media, political, and public scrutiny, educators must establish and reaffirm their credibility. Each educator must develop, and continue to refine, a comprehensive and cohesive framework that relates theory to practice. Such development will initially occur within the constraints of a normalizing curriculum that exerts power over the education process (Koutselini, 1997).

Drawing on the work of Carr and Kemmis (1986), three essential types of professional development are needed. First, the teacher must develop a wider range of educational skills, including teaching strategies and assessment techniques. These skills are necessary to fundamentally demonstrate a basic, technical expertise demanded of and by the teaching profession. Second, the teacher must develop a fuller understanding of the students. This deeper understanding of the situational context of the students, their needs, and aspirations allows the educator to assume more of a facilitator role, enabling all learners to proceed at an optimal rate. Third, the teacher must critically examine the educational, social, cultural, economic, and political understandings that underpin his or her practice and the practice of others and the education system as a whole. Enhanced through conversations with other educators and education stakeholders, this critical examination should lead to new understandings that will shape education. This third type of professional development, which subsumes the first two, is the one that is most likely to question the normalizing curriculum and to offer plausible and, ultimately, effective alternatives.

Engage the assessment system

Policy makers have consistently turned to external assessments to facilitate educational reform. Professional educators must be able to engage whatever assessment systems are to be implemented, identifying each one's strengths and weaknesses. Through such engagement, and with prior established credibility, educators will be able to suggest alternatives that better suit the United States education system and its goals. For example, one possible alternative can be found in France.

Since 1989, France has administered a national assessment to elementary students in French and mathematics at the start of the third and sixth years of schooling. These tests provide teachers with detailed diagnostic information on each student's strengths and weaknesses, which is then used to design instruction for the year (De Luca, 1994). The same kind of assessment, including several other subjects, has now been implemented at the beginning of grade 10 (Servant, 1997). In this way, the government can monitor the quality of the school system in the formative stages and still work collaboratively with teachers toward higher educational achievement.

Communicate with noneducators

A final suggestion is that all educators more fully recognize the need to participate in a dialogue with other education stakeholders. Essentially, educators are faced with two choices: They can focus inwards, letting noneducators set the educational agenda, or they can contribute their expertise to the discussions that take place at the local, state, and national levels. Such contributions require high levels of professionalism, the establishment of credibility, and the development of communication skills appropriate for a wide audience.