There are multiple standards (more than a year's worth), and most of them come under the classroom teacher's responsibility. Yet students are taught by many educators in addition to the classroom teacher each day including therapists, specialists (art, music, tech, library, physical education), and special educators. There are also multiple programs that exist during the school year--valuable programs and field studies that take the place standards-based learning times.
How can the collective group of teachers share responsibility for all the standards and students so that every child learns with as much strength and success possible?
Where are our collective efforts maximized with regard to student learning, and where do our collective efforts wane?
Are most educators in the school house focused on standards-based learning in ways that result in substantial learning success?
What's working, and what is not working?
As a classroom teacher, I care about the equations related to educator role and student learning. I care for many reasons:
- First and foremost, I want to see every child succeed.
- Secondly, as a classroom teacher, I know that the expectations for my role far exceed time on task and reasonableness--I'm almost always with 25 students which minimizes my time for individualized--targeted instruction, instruction that makes a substantial difference.
- Third, I wonder if specialists could embed some standards into their roles so that children could learn the standards and meet specialists' goals at the same time. For example perhaps students could work on 3-d drawings and learn geometry, write music by developing patterns, build gross motor skills with skip counting, and strengthen reading with close reading approaches and responses. I don't want to dilute specialists' objectives, but I'm wondering if we can double-up in some areas.
- Also, perhaps teacher leaders, interventionists, and coaches could help out by taking half the group or a group with special learning needs to ensure that all students get substantial attention and care while also working to help a teacher learn and teach well.
In other words, how can we change the roles and responsibilities equation when it comes to time on task, meeting standards, and teaching all children well so that all educators in the school house "own" the standards with direct time-on-task efforts, response, and assessment with students.
Right now, the equations in schools seem to tip in favor of too much responsibility for some, and not enough for others. As a classroom teacher, it does feel like we're called to be "everyman" or "everywoman" in this new season of education. I'm not looking for less work, instead I'm looking for more targeted, reasonable work--the kind of expectations that I can meet with depth, breadth, and success.
I've said it before and I'll say it many times more, I think the time has come to revise roles and responsibilities in school systems so that most people are serving students with direct standards-based, assessment bound service, not just some. In what ways can a change in roles and responsibilities happen so that we don't become assessment/standards factories of education, but instead become vital learning communities where everyone shares in the direct care and service to move all students forward with engagement, meaning, and success.
