Assessment and Better Running Times

Thanks to the encouragement of a former colleague, Gavin Kelly, I took up running about 5 years ago and have enjoyed the many benefits to my physical and mental health because of that regimen.  About three years ago I ran my first Half Marathon and ran a respectable 1:57.  Being somewhat competitive and goal oriented, I set out to improve my time through training.  One of the tools I used was an app that could track my pace and speed as I ran.  When I first used this tool, it would blurt out my pace every mile as I ran and I quickly realized that this was completely destroying my running.  I was over emphasizing speed, enjoying my runs less, and losing some enthusiasm for running.  

Therefore I would turn off the alerts and simply run my prescribed distance and only check the rate at the end of a run.  The end result.  Three years later, I have continued to train regularly (approximately 3 times a week) and focused on the deliberate practice of short, fast runs during the week and long, slow runs on the weekend and my most recent Half Marathon time was right around 1:50.  

This got me thinking about the benefits and detriments of assessment during times of deliberate practice and the discussion that Doug Reeves started on antecedents of excellence in his book The Daily Disciplines of Leadership.  I'm more convinced now that when students are engaged in purposeful deliberate practice in many academic areas, assessment might actually get in the way of the usefulness of that deliberate practice.    When I ran, I DID have certain mile or time goals in mind, but I rarely focused on the speed and rate of my running.  

Once I got to the race, however, I turned that reminder back on and was able to modify my pace as I ran to reach my target race goal.  However, I was only able to monitor and adjust my rate because I had put in so many hours of relaxed running with less concern for time.   I think students will have more confidence and success on their summative assessments if they have logged in the prerequisite practice without the overemphasis on scoring and perfection.  My take away is that we need to be thoughtful and intentional about what we measure in students' deliberate practice so as to encourage the type of practice that will benefit their learning goals and maintain their interest and engagement in the work. 

The dirty words "Test Prep"

I've been training for a 1/2 Marathon for this June and as the race date quickly approaches I've been thinking of the parallels of our students getting ready for the annual end-of-the-year assessments. Here are some parallels that would help our students approach the testing with confidence and peace of mind.

1. The day of the race should be a day of celebration because of all of the training that has been put in preparing for the big day.
2. Gradual improvement day after day will result in substantial growth over the course of a year.
3. Pep rallies and slogans are not nearly as effective as disciplined practice and engaged learning every day.
4. Your results on the assessment will be a direct result of the efforts that you expanded during the course of the year (training period) and not the tricks you learned for race day.

Our most productive endeavor is planning the daily instructional routines that will build our students knowledge and skills over the course of a year to give them the confidence to step up to that starting line on test day with confidence and enthusiasm to show what they have learned.