Learning in depth, authentic critical inquiry, rejecting high stakes testing: Urban is doing it right!

Are tests the problem or the solution? As I have written previously, the $10 million question in education is how do we reform schools and schooling to serve the students and prepare them authentically for their future?

This 7 min 40 sec video on the Edutopia website about Urban Academy in New York makes several points quite powerfully that I believe and want to share with others. These points include:

– Students today need learning in DEPTH rather than in BREADTH about issues they can care about, that reflect the genuine complexities of our world and REAL LIFE.
– High stakes testing is working at cross purposes towards promoting this vision of authentic and engaged teaching and learning in our classrooms.
– Alternative education settings (where students are actually succeeding and graduating) often demonstrate what needs to be done for ALL students in ALL settings. It is no secret that “traditional” high schools just don’t serve most students well. Kids get lost, they are bored, they are often not academically challenged, etc.

This video shows a school that I would want my children attending when they get to high school. Can I pay these teachers and administrators a higher compliment? I don’t think so.

When are we going to have a school like this in Lubbock?