Just too impatient for real gains

Big news in Wisconsin this fall, we have a (another) new power test this school year - the Wisconsin Forward Exam.   Replacing the long used WKCE and the 1 year used Smarter Balanced.  For years the WKCE was given and basically ignored by many educators, what do you do with a test given in the fall with results returned in the spring.  It never tested problem solving, collaborating, revising, either.  Then....

We worked for multiple years to shift to the CCSS and a new test.  A test which was suppose to be easier to use data from and provide a better picture of whether our students were learning the necessary problem solving skills.  Big change, new way - new things to do.  And then, boom, we moved away from the Smarter Balanced assessment after only one year (yeah the roll out was bad).  Maybe it is the right move, I am not sure, but it really shows how easily education drifts with the winds.

Now the Forward test is coming, and it has to hurry for spring; rushing  from the normal 12-18 months, it is being made in about 9 months.

Removed are the performance tasks from the Smarter Balanced, which did have some issues last year.  But the move makes sense because we all do so much scan tron work in the real world....
Now I had not been a fan of the Smarter Balanced assessment performance tasks.  But again - we don't revise, we don't correct - we remove, thus a new wind and another new direction.

So a rushed test, with a different format.  Good, bad I don't know.  Are we really going to have useful data?  Again, not sure.  But it simply shows we have no long term goals for real improvement.  We have no backbone for our vision and path.

Worst of all, we have armed a small, very small, but vocal minority of people whose rally cry is don't change.  Why work at the new things?  So initiatives simply disappear - we don't revise in education we replace.

This all is part of the perfect storm of education, it takes years in industry to run long range plans, you set it and hold it.  Little bumps are expected and dealt with - education does not have that resiliency.  And now for the first year our national scores dipped in over 2 decades - it is not isolated.

I truly believe that dip is because of the lack of professionalism shown the teaching profession coupled with a vision that changes with the wind.  We are simply not doing the right things long enough, we are just too impatient for real gains.



(FYI - I started this blog weeks ago - when the news was fresh - I was just raging too much to make a readable post until now)

Thanks to Forward Together - Green Energy Initiative, Solar

Forward Together just put together a little PR video about the grant that allowed Juda to install Phase 2 of their solar array (all project management done by students).  The applicant has to be a teacher on the grant so I was too much of a main character, when the students should have been, but it came out great (outside of how old I look).

Link to WEA Trust Video

Again - every school, every student should experience this during their K-12 schooling -- it can be done.  It is problem solving, it is real world.  It is just selecting great projects over good curriculum.

Having a Booth at WASB Convention in 2 weeks!

Now that Juda School has installed solar and became a national finalist in the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow (SFT) contest - one of the big things we are trying to accomplish is the idea that reducing your carbon footprint as a school (installing solar, etc) is not some sort of huge endeavor that cannot be accomplished.  Every school can do this.  It takes tenacity, time and some leg work, but it is something most schools can accomplish - and I believe - it can be done by students.

And real world projects is what we need to be trying to achieve!  But a road map is really needed for schools and teachers.

That is why I was so excited Friday when the WASB (Wisconsin Association of School Boards) offered to give the Juda Physics students a booth at their Forward Together convention this month.  The staff at WASB was extremely helpful, and now we will be able to showcase our project - as the Samsung SFT StateWinner.

And it helps the students with a big part of our SFT goal(s).  We wanted to show other schools and communities that green projects can be done, there is payback and ways to help reduce a school's carbon footprint.  And now we have the chance to showcase our project, ourselves and our ideas in a building where nearly all of Wisconsin's adminstrators will be for two days.  We should see board members, principals, administrators - it is the chance to meet the people that really can help get our message back to their schools.  We will be handing out DIY packages is the plan!  {If you want a DIY package of our project (a "lesson plan")  please just message me and I will get you a copy once it is done!}

Ahhhhh - another really good day!  Now the challenge to gather all of our materials by January 22nd!