At the same time our State wide DET is centralised(NSW Aust, 2nd largest in the world, 1.4 million in the network)so waiting for that elephant to shift, co-ordinate and budget on major changes is time consuming and frustrating. It takes 3 years for one program to roll out across the state with 2200 schools involved.

We need supported micro innovation at the local level combined with macro big picture support. NSW’s stamps kids with high stakes data 6 times in 13 years, so to stay on that tight track means any innovation can’t waver far from the testing tree or you will be brought to question why? if scores are trending incorrectly.

Accountability,transparency and relevant quality data is manadatory but the gathering tools are broken (or not yet invented) for the skills we need to assess.

Maybe Barry McGaws etal 3 year international assessment study will clarify the current learning 2.0 haze and focus more attention on the appropriate measures for collating, replicating and embedding these 21st century skills so many talk about.

I agree that a teacher cannot do any more than the community in which she or he teaches will accept and most communities seem to be more interested in talking about reform than in doing the very hard work that reform requires. I think as a culture we have bought into the idea that there are simple solutions to every problem and that is rarely true.

It is my experience that modern education is becoming more about documenting what we do than about doing anything. I think the definition of a public school teacher is becoming someone who documents in great detail what they would do if they had time to teach.

Cordially,
J. D.

Thanks again!

On Friday night they asked the panel of distinguished people, what the purpose of education is? You name it here, David, “It’s about relationships, environment, and activity.”

The relationships with students are the most cited motivation for learning by the students themselves. “I want to learn from someone who knows and cares about me.”

The learning environment, the learning landscape shapes the minds of students forever. Thirteen plus years, 6 hours a day, 180 days a year will have an influence. How you design that environment will leave a lasting impression.

The activities/assignments we give students, the story of learning they experience can be generative, integral and sustainable or they can what it is in too many classrooms, static, disjointed, and unsustainable.

There is hope. Now is the time to speak out like twenty-five superintendents who just declared independence for the students and adults in their charge, “Creating a New Vision for Education in Texas.” Why might Texas be an appropriate place to “begin the change” supportive of a global, children-as-learners movement? You can download the report from my blog; see January 28th post.

Regards…

I would agree that there should be some set of base knowledge that is worth assessing if the outcome of the assessment helps shape the instructional strategies and responses we use to teach. But looking at a number on a sheet of paper as the prime way to judge a school’s effectiveness misses the point.