I had not heard anyone say this quite like you have regarding mission statements. I think that is true and very sad, in many contexts.

If so many of us believe that creating more personalized (building relationships), engaging learning environments (that are rigorous — meaing “deeper” not just “harder” and connected to the real-world)… why can’t we make this happen…

I work everyday on my campus trying to implement systemic changes that will result in a school that is more conducive to real learning — not just passing a test. In my opinion, it’s not the teachers who are the problem. Our obstacles to real “re-invention” (as Tony Wagner describes it) are the administrators who are so scared about losing their jobs over test scores that they are afraid to do what is best for the students.

Instead these administrators put pressure on the teachers to just teach the tested curriculum — we don’t need to worry about doing any kind of problem-based learning right now… Let’s just get the kids to pass the test. We can let the students who have passed the test “play around” with projects and portfolios and all that other “fluff”.

The results that I see are more and more of our students learning nothing more than just how to pass the test and the implementation of more and more “band-aids” like test remediation classes and trailer classes for students who fail core courses because our administrators won’t let us implement anything that doesn’t result in immediate improvement in test scores.

The administrators are too focused on the bottom-line and not on long-term systemic changes.

At a recent district-wide meeting of School Improvement Facilitators, I heard one person comment that all of our schools’ mission statements have now become “just get the kids to pass the test!”

Until our policy makers stop trying to mandate “testing” as a solution to school improvement we will continue to see limited implementation of engaging and relevant learning experiences for our students.

Thanks for the link to Littky’s book, I’ve added it to my Amazon wish list!

I do think there is a balance to strike between introducing students to ideas and areas of study they might not have an existing interest in, and letting them pursue issues they are curious and passionate about. I am informed by both John Dewey’s writings on this, as well as E.D. Hirsh’s “Cultural Literacy.” I would not describe myself as a disciple of Hirsh, but I think he does raise some important points about certain issues (like the Holocaust) being topics everyone needs to have a working knowledge about. If we don’t understand the Holocaust, it is harder to debate issues relating to Darfur and ongoing genocide in the Sudan.

That being said, I think we agree that teachers need to be empowered to teach on topics they feel passionately about. A passionate teacher can ignite an interest and even love of learning in the heart and mind of a student that a curriculum guide never could. I know I want my kids attending schools where teachers like that are supported and empowered. Right now I don’t think we have much public policy dialog that acknowledges this.

Saying, “I couldn’t agree with you more” doesn’t adequately describe how I feel. You are pinpointing the real issue… “What we need are high quality, passionate teachers loving kids and empowered to engage them in a magical journey of learning and working hard together.” I believe that teachers with such capabilities exist, and in fact could describe the majority of educators. However, they are bound within a system that simply doesn’t allow for students to dig deeply and create relevance and meaning in their learning.

We know that all of us, students and adults alike, learn best when we are given the freedom and resources to dig into things that are interesting to us. One utopian way of describing a high school would be a place where students were given the opportunity to study what interests them and the adults “get out of their way” (guide and facilitate their learning, but not driven by curriculum and testing).

Dennis Littky’s The Big Picture: Education is Everyone’s Business is a great story of exactly what we are talking about. At The Met Center, in Rhode Island, students learn in the context of their community in ways that are real and relevant. There are no “teachers” at the Met, staff are known as “advisors”, and they focus on developing relationships with students and assessing their learning (not via scantrons).

Wesley, you are right on the mark…please keep singing this song!