What are We Doing?

Last Thursday we had a superintendent meeting at our education service center, and like most of our meetings it eventually came around to finances, but before it did we discussed some educational issues. We even got to visit with our state commissioner of education via distance learning network. Since most of us had never heard from her this was refreshing to get her prospective on some issues.

There is where my frustration started to build. We discussed the national core curriculum that 39 states have now adopted. Commissioner DeBacker wanted to know if we we wanted to phase it in or make the switch from our state standards to the national standards all at once. We wanted to switch all at once, but that doesn't matter.

What difference does it make if we are telling teachers to teach state or national standards, it is still the cookie cutter approach to do what, prepare for a standardized test. The only change is from being a state assessment to a national assessment. Now instead of pitting school vs. school with test scores we will be pitting state vs. state. Now that is real reform Mr. Duncan.

What are we doing? Every time education has to look at itself in the mirror we get angry because people criticize us but we need to listen a little. After we get over our mad nothing changes in education, and there lies the problem. Reform is not a standardized test, like some are trying to cram down our throats. Reform is changing the very nature of schooling and education, how much longer are we going to put up with this before we let our state and national leaders know they are off base, our job is student learning not test scores.