Why do we do this to students?

Recently, via twitter @stevenstrogatz, I stumbled across this tweet.

Intrigued, I went to the link and found a math dissertation. I typically don't read math dissertations - for obvious reasons. But I started reading the prologue. The first paragraph starts thusly:

Respected research math is dominated by men of a certain attitude. Even allowing for individual variation, there is still a tendency towards an oppressive atmosphere . . .

The second paragraph starts with this sentence:

I’m unwilling to pretend that all manner of ways of thinking are equally encouraged, or that there aren’t very real issues of lack of diversity.

Clearly this is a bright student. She is, after all, submitting her dissertation at Princeton University in the Department of Mathematics. Yet, in her prologue to her dissertation she voices emotions that those of us in education should find unacceptable. 

Schools, places where we send our children and where we welcome the children of our friends and neighbors, should not be "oppressive" or places where thinking differently is not encouraged.

As I read the prologue I began to wonder what the students in my school district would say about the classrooms in my district. Are my students welcomed? Are my students encouraged to think differently? Do we embrace diversity in people, in thought, in action?

Today I was in an elementary building and I visited five first grade classrooms. In each classroom a math lesson was in progress. In each classroom I saw teachers who encouraged students to explain their thinking, to discuss various approaches to solving problems, and to listen and learn from each other. 

I saw classrooms that made a positive difference.

Those of us who work in schools, who lead schools, who want they best for our children and every child, should take responsibility and ensure that we build the schools that we know our children need.

Recognizing excellence

Today was a big day at Novi Woods Elementary School. Today Novi Woods publicly celebrated their National Blue Ribbon Award. There are over 98,800 public schools in the United States. This year just over 300 were recognized as National Blue Ribbon Schools.

The National Blue Ribbon process is rigorous. The Michigan Department of Education nominated deserving schools. The schools then had to complete a lengthy application, highlighting a variety of criteria including information on class size and demographics and staff development and school improvement plans.

After months of keeping things quiet, today was the day to celebrate. Choirs sang. Classrooms were highlighted. Novi's Mayor brought his congratulatory message. Retired staff returned to join in the festivities. It was a fun morning!

But the best part of the day, for me, happened in Mr. Kenrick's second grade class during read-to-self time. There were people all over the building. People were coming and going, in and out of every classroom. Yet teachers - like Mr. Kenrick - continued to steal any moment they could to teach.

What makes a school a Blue Ribbon School?

It's the people. People make the school. The teachers, the cooks, the secretaries, the parapros, the principal, the students, the parents.

A National Blue Ribbon School is made up of people who are committed to ensuring that students learn and that students know they are cared for.

And that happens every day! It happens at Novi Woods. But it also happens in every other Novi school.

This picture symbolizes for me what goes on in Novi Woods and across our district every day. Students learn. Teachers teach. Students connect in powerful ways to caring and committed adults.

Novi Woods staff and students would agree - it is nice to be recognized. But what is even better is that students in Novi will be taught and cared for tomorrow and the next day and the day after that in equally powerful ways.

It happens at Novi Woods. But it also happens in every other Novi school as well. I have seen it. I have experienced it. It happens because we have great people in every building in our district. 

That's true excellence! That's being a Blue Ribbon School!

Finishing first!

Anyone who's ever played a sport wants to win the final game of the season. If you do it means you're the champion.

Last year Novi High School varsity volleyball lost their final game. They finished second. A great accomplishment, but still heart wrenching.

They learned lessons through losing. They learned about commitment, pressure, bouncing back, tenacity, grit, perseverance, and teamwork. But it still hurt.

Today was a different day. 

Novi High School varsity volleyball is the state champion. 

It is not often a team reaches the state championship two years in a row. It's also not often that a team gets to face the team that beat them the year before. But today Novi faced down that very same team. In winning today Novi showed they learned their lessons well.

Commitment, pressure, bouncing back, tenacity, grit, perseverance, and teamwork. The Wildcats learned their lessons well.

And today they are state champions!

Teachers care - for a very good reason

I visit schools. A lot!

When I visit I see things like this:

and this:

and this:

and this:

Teachers taking time to listen, model, encourage, and teach their students. Teachers taking time to invest in relationships with their students.

Why?

"No significant learning can occur without a significant relationship," said James Comer. Teachers understand that learning increases as they invest time with their students.

But it is not just time. Teachers need to communicate clearly to their students that the students matter. When students know and sense that they are important to their teachers the students invest more in their academic life.

It's hard work. It's messy work. It's fun work.

It's the work that the teachers in my district do every day!

To the students on Bus #5

I sit in the middle of the bus. Twenty-four girls in front of me.

Twenty boys behind.

It's late. Just after 11:00 PM. We've been on the bus for just over three hours. We have many hours left before we reach our destination - Washington DC.

There's a rumble of voices around me. Some of you play video games on your phone. Some of you are texting friends. Some of you are talking. 

You don't know it yet but you'll remember this trip. The long bus ride. The sites you'll see. 

Arlington National Cemetery. The Lincoln Memorial. The long black wall of the Vietnam Memorial. The majesty of the Capitol. Smithsonian Museums.

The places and the Memorials that you will see remember those who made a difference. People who stood up, took a stand, gave their lives for others.

The world is a confusing place at times. But in times of chaos there have always been people who could see clearly what needed to be done. Washington DC honors people like that. 

Abraham Lincoln. George Washington. FDR. Thomas Jefferson. Martin Luther King. The men and women who served in Vietnam and Korea and WWII.

At some point in your life you will be asked to stand up, take a stand, give a portion of your life for someone else.

You may never have a granite memorial honoring what you have done - most of us won't. But there will be times of chaos where you will need to decide. Do I stand up? 

I have faith that you will. Some of you already have. Some of you have stood beside the one who had no friends. Some of you have volunteered to help someone in need. 

The world needs you to stand up, take a stand, give yourself to something bigger than yourself. Every generation builds on what others have done. Your generation will be no different.  

So let's enjoy Washington DC and be inspired by those who shaped our country.

And remember you have the chance to shape our country as well. Stand up, take a stand, give yourself to something bigger than you.

My students, my schools are not test scores!

This week, October 27, 2015, the Michigan Department of Education released summary results from the state assessment test that was taken in May.

(While not my focus here, it is important to note that as I write this it is October 29, 2015, and we have still not received district or school summaries for this state assessment. The state required this assessment and yet its relevance and its impact is obviously significantly limited because of the delay in returning results to the districts. But that is a discussion for another time.)

It was bad!

How bad?

The Michigan Department of Education felt compelled to release overall statewide results before allowing individual districts an opportunity to see building or district results. Preparing us and the public for bad news! In releasing these results the Michigan Department of Education press release tried to soften the blow by saying:

“With this all-new and more rigorous test, 

we expected statewide student scores to 

be lower than what we’d seen with the old MEAP tests. . .

In order to prepare our students for the careers of the 21^st Century 

and to vault Michigan to become a Top Ten education state in 10 years, 

we need high standards and rigorous assessments

This year’s results set the new baseline from which to build."

Reading between the lines what this says is that we did bad but we expected that.

But it also says to me is that the Michigan Department of Education believes that what teachers and classrooms have been doing for the past several years has not been preparing students for 21st century careers and that our standards have been too low and certainly too easy.

Hogwash!

We need to know if a child is learning. We need to know if a child has the ability to write, think, communicate, explain, and create. We need to make sure that the time spent in our schools and in our classrooms is preparing students for their future.

I do not want a school system that pushes students along without providing them with the skills and talents that they will need to live their lives fully and successfully.

Figuring out if students are learning and if students are prepared for their future is important.

But tests don't reveal everything that we need to know about a student.

There are people and organizations that believe that tests truly reveal everything there is to know about students and schools.

Those people and organizations are wrong!

Tests give us a slice of information. Tests give us one perspective. Test should be included in our conversation.

But there is so much more to our students and to our schools.

I visit classrooms and see teachers sit with students. I visit classrooms and hear the conversations between students and between students and teachers. I listen as students explain to me what they are doing. I watch as students struggle to understand and wrestle with complexity.

I see good things happening in these classrooms. I see dedicated teachers making a difference. I see students engaged in meaningful and important work.

These conversations, these struggles are not captured in a single test score. No matter how many experts with advanced degrees create the tests and how carefully the tests are constructed the tests do not reveal if a child will be successful.

I want meaningful conversations between parents and students to focus on whether or not students are developing passions and purpose, critical thinking skills, and the ability to create, communicate, and collaborate. And, for a minute or two, I would like the teacher and the parent to examine test scores to see what they add to the conversation.

We can and should use test scores to help us examine our practice. But test scores should not be the only piece of information that we deem worthy of examining.

Our Michigan test scores will be revealed to us at some point. There will be gnashing of teeth and wagging of fingers.

But my students, my teachers, and my schools are not test scores! 

A remarkable life

Al Coleman, my father-in-law, passed away on October 19th. He was 96.

Born in 1919 he was one of 12 brothers and sisters. He never graduated from high school.

He joined the Air Force during World War Two and was sent to North Africa to repair bombers. 

He was part of the generation that defined our nation.

One of the most remarkable parts of his life was earning his GED in his 40's. Even though he was earning a living, raising a family, and active in the community, he understood that he needed more. So he found the time and made the space in his life to study and pass the GED. 

He did it for his family. He did it for himself.

I met him many years after he had earned his GED. His life showed me that education opens doors.

It's a lesson I remember every day.