Testing, Testing, Testing!!!

Testing, Testing, Testing!!! There has been much talk about standardized testing in education circles for the last decade. With the introduction of No Child Left Behind Act in 2001, testing data has often been used in many productive and unproductive ways. Testing and testing results are often at the center of hotly debated regional and federal level discussions. In many schools, countless hours and days of instruction are used to “teach to the test” and to prepare students and teachers for the “test.” That does not include the weeks of lost instruction time that students experience during testing weeks. Imagine for just a moment, if those days and weeks of lost instruction time were used to teach students, think of the impact on the entire educational community, think of the impact on students.  

Testing is an important part of life, especially in schools, and can be used for many great purposes, but the question for me has always been, “How does it help the student?” Using test results to help identify curriculum issues or measure teacher effectiveness can be helpful, but the purpose of any test, whether standardized or an end of unit assessment or project, should be to help students, identify deficiencies, and then make a plan to address each student’s needs. Teachers should use data in order to differentiate instruction in the classroom. All tests should be used to guide instruction and skilled teachers have the ability to take test results and other data to craft lessons that address student needs.

At my school standardized tests are given in the fall; and the results are used by teachers to identify student goals, design future lessons, and plan instruction that benefit the students in their class. Tests should be one of many pieces of information used to guide instruction, measure learning, and set individual student goals. The teacher’s job is to gather data from multiple sources, including standardized test results, classroom observation, performance on classroom assessments, and any other classwork, homework or product that a student completes and then use all of that information to move the individual student forward.

I look forward to the day when testing is not at the center of educational discussions and students, teachers, and schools see test data as one of many pieces of information that should be used to design lessons that meet the individual needs of every student in every classroom.

Great Teachers Teach Students Not Curriculum

As every parent and educator knows, every child varies in his or her abilities, interests, readiness to learn, motivation to learn, and ways in which he or she learns. With all of those variables, how is it possible for a teacher to teach a class where every child gets what he or she needs out of each day? The key lies in differentiated instruction.

One of the most foundational understandings of differentiated instruction that must exist in order to create classrooms where differentiated instruction thrives lies in the fact that teachers don’t teach a class or even a curriculum. Great teachers teach individual students. Of course, great teachers need a powerful curriculum, but there is a definitive difference between teachers who focus on the content more than they focus on the student. Differentiated instruction is student-centered not teacher or content centered. Each student in a class has different needs, different experiences and different abilities. Each student brings something unique and different to a learning opportunity. Great teaching not only considers those differences but embraces them and uses those differences to dictate teaching and learning.

Differentiated teaching does not mean that every child has his or her own IEP or that there are sixteen different lessons going on in one classroom, but it does mean that lessons are structured and organized in meaningful ways that allow each child to be challenged at a level that meaningful learning takes place.  Based on Lev Vygotsky’s theory on the Zone of Proximal Development or ZPD, children learn best when tasks are moderately difficult. Too hard and students shut down, too easy and they lose focus. Good differentiated instruction plans for the variance in student’s ZPD and designs lessons that find the “sweet spot” of learning for each student.

As our school has focused on becoming better at differentiated instruction the following quotes from The Differentiated Classroom, Meeting the Needs of All Learners by Carol Ann Tomlinson have been particularly insightful and helpful.

“In a differentiated classroom: A teacher studies student readiness and student interest and connects learning to things that matter to students, and teachers give students varied opportunities to learn in different ways. “

“They are simply teachers who strive to do whatever it takes to ensure that struggling, advanced, and in-between learners; students with varied cultural heritages; and children with a broad array of background experiences all grow as much as they possibly can each day, each week, and throughout the year.”

The Value of Independence even through Wintry Weather

 After spending the last several weeks studying the weather forecast and incoming Memphis weather, I am reminded of the value of leading an independent school.  The three weeks preceding Spring Break seemed to bring one “chance” of wintry precipitation after another, and in Memphis that brings lots of questions: are we going to have school tomorrow, are we going to get out of school early, are we canceling after school activities? These questions regularly filled my cell phone and email inbox and I must say that I sure am glad to see Spring!

Each independent school makes its own decision on what warrants a school closing, early dismissal, etc., and there were a couple of days during the most recent wintry weather that some schools were closed and some were open, some closed early and some did not, and some canceled after school activities and others did not. As I watched the school closings, openings, and after school cancellations scroll through the local news stations, I was reminded that in an independent school we are free to make decisions that are best for our students and families, and are not bound by the overarching decisions necessarily made for a general population of students whose travel to and from school might vary widely.

As I thought more deeply about my three-week career as a meteorologist, I realized that although it was time consuming, it was actually a blessing. As a head of school, being able to make a decision that is best for your school is invaluable for the families you serve. I related this independent decision making autonomy to my 2K-8 school.  The individualized teaching practices our teachers have used, curricular decisions that have been made to benefit our students, extracurricular programs that have been added or eliminated for our students and these “students first” decisions would have never been possible if it we weren’t for our independence. In a 2K-8 independent school you have freedom from the constraints of outside influences, bureaucratic delays, and older student schedules. The bottom line is that we can be intentional to the students we serve and make decisions based on the specific needs of our students.

As a member of the Tennessee Association of Independent School’s (TAIS) Board of Directors and the President of the Memphis Association of Independent Schools (MAIS) I have seen this freedom applied effectively not only in my school but in other independent schools of Memphis and Tennessee to continually look for more effective ways to serve students. Independent schools are typically at the cutting edge of new and innovative curriculum, educational technologies, and teaching and learning strategies due to the freedom that exists on their campuses. After nearly a decade and a half in an independent school, I am continually amazed by how each school fulfills its unique mission, with policies, curriculum, programs, and teaching practices that best serve their unique student populations.

Education should be individualized, not categorized.

In a recent conversation with a prospective family, I was asked the question: “Why is a co-educational environment right for my child?” As Head of School of a co-ed, 2K-8 school, I have been asked this question many times, but something about the way these parents posed their question seemed a little different than other times I’ve been asked it.

My typical response to this question usually revolves around the fact that “co-ed is real world.” In this particular interaction I asked the parent to consider my own questions: how many occupations exist in the twenty-first century that are single-gendered? How many workplaces lack male/female diversity? How many work projects have you worked on as an adult, where you were only dealing with one gender?  The bottom line is that co-educational environments prepare students to work with, solve problems with, and communicate with people that think differently, process information differently, and behave differently than those of their own gender. Male/female is one type of diversity that helps children be prepared for “real-world” situations and problem solving.  

After about five minutes, I sensed that these folks had heard this before and they were looking for something more. I got the feeling that they knew all of the research and reasons why co-ed seems to be the right choice, especially for students in the most important developmental years of pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. But they weren’t really asking for research or data as to why other parents’ children have found the co-ed environment right; they were asking about their child.

After the conversation ended and I thought about my reply to their question, I realized that a better response would have been to inquire and explore more about their own child instead of giving them facts and figures. The question was an individual one and unfortunately for this family, I don’t believe my response got to the heart of what they really wanted to know. Like all good parents, they want what is best for their child, and I believe they were really asking, “How is your school going to help my child grow and progress to his God-given potential? Will your school impact my child in a positive way because you know him and can serve his needs?”

Education is deeply personal and should be individualized, not categorized. In my mind, it is about the relationships that are cultivated in a school and are lived out in the day to day culture of that school, not the gender ratios within its classrooms, that really matter. Do the teachers take an individual interest in every child’s growth? How do teachers individualize instruction? Does the school teach a student as an individual? Yes, stereotypically, girls learn differently than boys and boys differently than girls, but children are not stereotypes and there are many variations within these general findings.  How do teachers develop lessons that help each child reach their potential? How do schools create cultures that meet the individual needs of their students?  These are the real questions that a healthy school addresses every day, resulting in positive outcomes for all children.

Handwriting and Typing, An Intentional Philosophy

Handwriting, and more specifically cursive writing, are two subjects that have recently found themselves at the forefront of many debates related to the Common Core Standards that have now been adopted in forty-six states. Rather than rehash the well-worn debate regarding Common Core standards and the removal of handwriting from the curriculum of many schools, I would like to share a few quotes from recent articles to answer the rationale of why Woodland teaches cursive and handwriting.

-       “studies have also found that adults write better and longer prose when they are faster at writing by hand” Moyer, 2014

-       “in children, writing by hand helps improve letter recognition, which is the strongest predictor of reading success” Karin James, Ph.D, Indiana University

-       “Dr. Berninger goes so far as to suggest that cursive writing may train self-control ability in a way that other modes of writing do not…” New York Times, What’s Lost as Handwriting Fades, Maria Konniko, June 2, 2014

-       “When we write, a unique neural circuit is automatically activated,” said Stanislas Dehaene, a psychologist at the Collège de France in Paris.

-       “learning to write in cursive is shown to improve brain development in the areas of thinking, language and working memory. Cursive handwriting stimulates brain synapses and synchronicity between the left and right hemispheres, something absent from printing and typing.” Asherson, 2013

The “do you teach handwriting” question at Woodland represents a microcosm of Woodland’s approach to education. At Woodland you will see an appropriate mix of innovative and “tried and true” teaching strategies and curriculum being taught. The teaching of cursive handwriting and typing is just one example of the not “throwing the baby out with the bath water” approach to education that Woodland has embraced for decades. Over time, educational trends and bureaucratic decisions come and go but there are certain developmental milestones that all students must reach and certain teaching methods and curriculum that have helped students reach those milestones for generations. Without an intentional effort from independent schools to keep valuable curricular strands like handwriting in the curriculum, schools could be developing students who will not be prepared for the post-school world.

One of the most valuable aspects of an independent school is that they are not forced to adopt particular curriculums or “fads” but each school is empowered to make decisions based on what is truly best for their students. In my opinion, in order for students to fully develop and reach their potential, a school’s curriculum should have a healthy mix of innovative and “tried and true” methods and pedagogies like cursive handwriting and typing.