Aug 30 2008
Back to School
After three days of “professional development” school is finally going to start. The three days of meetings that proceed the first days of school are usually a mind numbing expedition into the oxymoronic. This year was, however, a marked improvement. 3 out of our 4 administrators did simple things to make their sessions relevant and useful and timely.
Our schools goals and trainings are centered around the new (or more accurately – renamed) C-SIP. The C-SIP is the Continuous School Improvement Plan. This document, previously known as the Transformation plan, explains how we will make sure all of our students are meeting standard. Meeting standard is one of my favorite pieces of educational jargon. What it translates to is pass the test. In our case the test is the Washington Assessment of Student Learning.
Cultural Competence and Differentiated Instruction (two more tasty bits of jargon that actually have some solid ideas behind them) are the corner stones of the C-SIP. The funny thing is, one of the foundational ideas for both Cultural Competence and Differentiation is a recognition of the fact that different students need different assessments to show that they are learning. At the end of the day, we only have one assessment. How this makes sense is something I try not to think about too hard because the only conclusion I can come too is that there is some basic change that happens to someone when they enter the halls of the legislature and are asked to craft or vote on educational policy that prevents them from simple rational thought.
The encouraging thing is that the people who have the biggest impact on student experience are invested in a more expansive and appropriate view of education. The teachers and Administrators I work with are, for the most part, genuinely committed to creating a place where all students can find opportunities to grow and learn.