An incredible challenge—how else could you
describe our expectations for today’s classroom teachers?
The challenge
begins when students arrive on day one. Teachers know that their
students come to them at very different levels of development. Some are gifted.
Some may be disabled.
Each one has a different learning style. And we’re not even discussing what
goes on at home.
I was a
teacher way back when. I shudder to think how I would teach my five now-grown
children today. I wouldn’t know where to begin!
The Proficiency Model
The current system
is dysfunctional. If you’ve got 25 kids in your classroom, all kinds of upsets
and trauma can occur during the school year. Illness. Divorce. A death or
injury to a parent or loved one. Substance abuse. The list is long. But count on it—these will, in fact, happen.
Yet somehow,
magically, we expect teachers to take all these diverse students and diverse
situations and get them to a predetermined level by the end of the year. Sheer madness!
Welcome to public education’s proficiency model.
The Growth Model
Teachers on
the front lines know the proficiency model is flawed. That’s why they oppose performance
evaluations. Can’t you hear them? “You’re going to tie my performance to my
students’ performances? Come on! That’s not right! That’s not logical!”
So the
question becomes: What is logical?
What we are
seeing from the nation’s most rapidly improving schools is a shift from a
proficiency model to a growth model.
How It Works
As most of
you know, the growth model takes each child from where they are today and moves
them as far as they can in the time that they have. Simple!
Not quite.
The growth model will force the classroom teacher to fundamentally change how
she does her job. No longer is she “the sage on the stage.”
But technology will
smooth the transition. Students today have lived their entire lives in the 21st
century. They are used to today’s technology. They are comfortable with it and use it practically
every waking hour.
Teachers
working in a growth model school use technology as almost virtual teaching
assistants. With the right technology and the right software, the teacher
becomes the manager of the instructional process, not the disseminator
of knowledge. She breaks down her classroom into like-minded groups or teams
and moves from group to group, helping, showing, encouraging. She transforms
the learning process.
Repeat After Me: Culture
Trumps Strategy
How do you
get there? It takes work, work which can’t be done in one- or two-day personal
development sessions. You must create a new culture which supports finding a
different way. Those of you who know me also know my signature saying: Culture trumps strategy. By that I mean:
Until you can change your culture, any
strategy you adopt will ultimately fail.
Here’s How to Get Started
Creating a
new culture is a deep, ongoing process, but the experts at the International Center for Leadership in
Education (ICLE) can show you the way. Creating a growth model school will also
be the focus of our upcoming signature event, the 25th
annual Model Schools Conference, held June 25-28 in Nashville. Please
consider joining us so we can help show you how to create an effective
educational system – one which benefits all
students.