Schools thrive when there's a sense of team and humanity.
Schools suffer when they let data, accountability, evaluations, and consultants lead all efforts leaving teachers with little choice and voice, and students with even less.
There's a great imbalance in many schools when it comes to choice and voice. Those who work with the children most tend to have the least choice and voice, while those on the outside who rarely work with children often have greater choice and voice over classroom events, efforts, and schedules.
This is worrisome because it's easy to lose sight of who children are, and what the teaching environment is like if you rarely work with children. When we reduce the fullness of children to data, there's a risk of destroying team and leaving out humanity thus diluting positive effects.
I do think scores play a role in schools, but I believe that data is only one piece of the bigger picture of a positive, successful learning community.
How can we remedy this potentially destructive data tsunami in schools today?
First, leadership has to think about this with care. They have to be prepared to lead a multidimensional environment that serves educators and students well. Students' and teachers' voices need to be heard, and their ideas considered. That will foster team.
Next data needs to be kept in its place as one piece of the overall picture--not the focal point.
After that, leadership needs to support and build successful teaching and learning teams of teachers and students by encouraging, understanding, and participating in the best of what we can offer children today, an age where we have wonderful tools, limitless information, and tremendous potential for building wonderful learning communities.
Teachers, in many cases, are discouraged today. The new initiatives, many which add time and effort with little noticeable gain, are getting in the way of our best work. We need systems to streamline the unimportant information, efforts, and initiatives. We need lead time for important work and effort. We need time in the day to prepare lessons, respond to students work, and teach well. We need to be heard, and we need time to work together with other educators who see children daily.
Quality time on task in schools, time to collaborate with colleagues who teach, choice and voice, and time to prep, respond and teach will make schools more successful by building team and incorporating humanity. Too much data, too many outside consultants, and too much time spent on initiatives that will soon be recycled only serve to diminish the good work possible.
