Finances or Vision?
In the graduate class I am now teaching, a discussion among the participants (all educators) ensued about the reasons why they don't have adequate amounts of technology. Most think that the financial issue is the main hindrance to supplying teachers and students the technology they need.
Chris Lehman, Principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, PA (discussed the difficulty most schools have in using technology the way it should be.
Chris said "And the problem is that our entire structure has to change to make it easier. You can't teach 150 kids a day this way [using the traditional factory model of education]... you have to find new ways to look at your classroom. Everything from school design to …... to class size and teacher load to curriculum and assessment -- everything we do in schools -- has to be on the table for change if we are to achieve the kind of schools that video is speaking about." http://practicaltheory.org/serendipity/index.php?/archives/963-Pearson-Presents-Learning-to-Change.html
One of my students in the graduate class reflected this when she said: "I'm beginning to feel that the only initiative they [the school district powers-that-be] are interested in is to raise test scores."
In my opinion, even if all students met the standards on the tests they would still be woefully short of what real learning is all about, the kinds of things mentioned in the 21st Century Skills report.
http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/documents/FINAL_REPORT_PDF09-29-06.pdf ( Note the executive Summary on page 9)
If the vision of how our kids should be taught would really be bought into by the powers-that-be, don't you think that the finances would be found to help reach that vision?
Maybe the problem therefore is the vision of how we expect our students to learn.
The District in which the educators work has new Superintendent. He made a comment on the district web page that is extremely intriguing: ""As a District and as a community, we must begin to define what we believe a successful school and a successful graduate looks like. We must look for measures beyond state test scores to show that we are moving in the right direction." http://www.u-46.org/npps/story.cfm?nppage=669
Could the Superintendent possibly be thinking along Chris Lehman's lines?
Any comments?
In the graduate class I am now teaching, a discussion among the participants (all educators) ensued about the reasons why they don't have adequate amounts of technology. Most think that the financial issue is the main hindrance to supplying teachers and students the technology they need.
Chris Lehman, Principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, PA (discussed the difficulty most schools have in using technology the way it should be.
Chris said "And the problem is that our entire structure has to change to make it easier. You can't teach 150 kids a day this way [using the traditional factory model of education]... you have to find new ways to look at your classroom. Everything from school design to …... to class size and teacher load to curriculum and assessment -- everything we do in schools -- has to be on the table for change if we are to achieve the kind of schools that video is speaking about." http://practicaltheory.org/serendipity/index.php?/archives/963-Pearson-Presents-Learning-to-Change.html
One of my students in the graduate class reflected this when she said: "I'm beginning to feel that the only initiative they [the school district powers-that-be] are interested in is to raise test scores."
In my opinion, even if all students met the standards on the tests they would still be woefully short of what real learning is all about, the kinds of things mentioned in the 21st Century Skills report.
http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/documents/FINAL_REPORT_PDF09-29-06.pdf ( Note the executive Summary on page 9)
If the vision of how our kids should be taught would really be bought into by the powers-that-be, don't you think that the finances would be found to help reach that vision?
Maybe the problem therefore is the vision of how we expect our students to learn.
The District in which the educators work has new Superintendent. He made a comment on the district web page that is extremely intriguing: ""As a District and as a community, we must begin to define what we believe a successful school and a successful graduate looks like. We must look for measures beyond state test scores to show that we are moving in the right direction." http://www.u-46.org/npps/story.cfm?nppage=669
Could the Superintendent possibly be thinking along Chris Lehman's lines?
Any comments?
posted by Rich Levine | 5:02 PM
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