Who are the experts?

This week culminates yearlong mentoring experiences for Larry and I in several schools and districts. I have a potpourri of emotions running through my heart, mind and soul.

Engaging with teachers, administrators and students is both personally and professionally rewarding. After all, I look at myself as a lifelong teacher. It's been part of my mission in life. The inverse is that I am incredibly frustrated when I reflect on the issues in schools that have taken the focus away from teaching and learning. The teachers I'm trying to mentor now are dealing with a multitude of mandates, many of them contradictory.  Today I want to focus on one of those burning issues.

In education it seems we're always looking for a "fix", a "one size fits all fix" at that. For example, for decades we have known the research on individual readiness and differences; yet, districts still pass out curriculum documents and maps with narrow objectives, that require all teachers and students to be on the same page at the same time, regardless of a child's prior knowledge, developmental readiness or individual needs. How can this be? Another critical error I observe is the development of documents or maps addressing one standard or objective at a time.  Standards are not meant to be formulated into a checklist.  Reading, writing, speaking and listening are integrated experiences.  They are integrated within each other, and they are woven throughout every content area.  The checklist approach lacks congruence and takes away from natural connections to be made across the curriculum.  Both the narrow objective approach and the checklist approach overlook the larger concepts and goals for learning.  Teachers and students tend to focus on the smaller, topical ideas and lose sight of the greater purpose for learning.

Much of my mentoring this year has been building understanding around curriculum planning, defining conceptual ideas and developing essential questions. For teachers to understand this, they must interact with their curriculum standards and make their own connections to the purpose for learning. How can we expect teachers to understand their standards and make curricular decisions on their own if we have never trusted them to do so?  

Choices impact outcomes!  If we believe the choices teachers make impact student achievement, how can we hold teachers accountable for student performance if we have not supported and empowered them in making their own curricular decisions?  Let’s put curriculum planning in the hands of those who hold the ultimate responsibility for our students’ success…our teachers!