A Sense of Urgency
Published October 25, 2009 by Rick Biche
Change is difficult. Change agents will tell you that to move forward a leader must create a sense of urgency. This urgency requires the exclusion of competition.
NCLB, RTI, Common Core Standards, Race to the Top… Urgent
When all of our conversation revolves around implementing these ideas, what becomes excluded? What do we no longer talk about?
Filed under change
life
love
justice
anything big
or small
I want my students to think well about life. I want them to delve into paradox so they can learn to live better. I want them to grow more knowledgable so they grow more humble and I want them to gain wisdom.
Those ideas are the antithesis of a Race to the Top, which is why I am a heretic in the Cathedral of Data. The only thing that has saved me is this: an authentic approach works and as awful as standardization might be, the mere fact that I don’t teach to the test is why my students ace the test and so, alas, the Sultans of Standards must put up with me.
[...] mission of our school for children to be proficient at all state measures.” Faced with urgent need for change the question of what a school (and therefore community) should value often becomes framed within a [...]
When the standards movement got going in the 90’s I remember hearing that standards would allow authentic approaches to learning. You know, pull together ideas from different areas using standards. That didn’t last long. Once the documents were produced the sheer overwhelming nature prevented anyone not brave enough to ignore half of what they saw from doing anything different. Then tying testing to the standards just tightened the reigns more.
Again I am hearing, this time from the edtech crowd, that we can delve more into authentic learning. And from your comment you may have proof that it works. But how to get that message across amid the din of conversation about data?