Each year the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) puts out a report card for both school districts and buildings in Ohio. For the second time in as many years in which the district letter grade rating has been given, the Aurora City Schools was recognized with an “A” designation. We are one of only 31 districts in the state with the mark. I intentionally use the term “mark” because, although the “A” is the highest designation that the state can give for a district, I feel the letter grade leaves a mark on our district that undermines the real work taking place in the classroom. It is much easier for the community or even the schools for that matter to use the “A” sound byte as a measure of the district’s success rather than to highlight what is happening in the schools that yield such a product. In other words, I feel it is more important to share the process of learning taking place with the community more than the product that ODE seems to be promoting. The question is how can we change that narrative to one in which our community can easily understand and use to highlight the district?
One suggested narrative is to share that the learning environments we are creating or trying to create in the schools will lead to young people having the skills they need to be prepared for life. Those skills should not be limited to knowing how to be taught and take tests, but should instead emphasize knowing how to learn and apply said skills. In order to do this, we need to design environments that promote using the skills and then promote the application of these skills to the community. Let’s start with how to design these learning environments.
The shift from a traditional model of schools which emphasizes curriculum delivery to a model in which young people are prepared for life can be made if we focus on five main ideas or specifications when designing our classroom environments.
Specification 1: Honoring Identity Through Relationships
Relationships need to include trust, respect, and empathy, such that all people, younger and older, value each other. All people are equal partners in the learning experience with each person having a voice. The moment an environment dictates how or what a learner thinks, is the same moment their opportunity for learning is lost.
Specification 2: Learning is Social
The design of all learning environments should honor the social aspect of our humanity. The environment should provide abundant opportunities for collaboration, social engagement, and for young people to freely reflect and challenge the thinking of others and themselves.
Specification 3: Nurturing Innovation
Our learning environments should be designed so our young people have as much ownership as possible. If young people are not given autonomy and the freedom to fail [take risks, experiment, make mistakes] authentic learning cannot exist. The brain develops according to how it's used and therefore environments should promote active reflection and productive struggle by giving young people meaningful practice in iterating through failure, even at the cost of efficiency. Helping our young people discover their interests and passions are essential for fueling their innovation process.
Specification 4: Process vs. Product
Learning is not an outcome, it is a process. Well-designed learning environments should demonstrate that content within a curricular area is merely a medium, a backdrop. The content within our design is used to explore the process of deep and meaningful learning. Correspondingly, the design of the environment should not optimize on content delivery and coverage. We strive to develop young people who are not merely good at knowing how to be taught, but who actually know how to learn.
Specification 5: Beyond Points and Grades
Extrinsic motivation, as facilitated by grades and points, naturally diminishes the process of learning. It causes the acquisition of knowledge to become superficial and mechanical, and leads to a fear of failure within the learner. Deep, authentic learning is a result of an environment, driven not by grades and points, but designed to promote independent ownership, goal-setting, and self-reflection.
Anyone who has seen these specifications loves them and what’s not to love. They are hard to argue against and especially so if you have a child in the district. By the way, these specs are not “my” specs, but were developed by a group of educators in our district in which I was a part (Spec #2- Learning is Social). They also were not easily developed, but were generated after much struggle and passion filled arguments for or against certain aspects of learning (Spec #3- Nurturing Innovation). The development of these specifications do demonstrate the value of the process of learning over the product (Spec #4- Process over Product) and the importance of not being lulled into believing the rating of an “A” from ODE is the end goal (Spec #5- Beyond Points and Grades). If we design learning environments in our schools using these five design specifications there is no question our young people will not be just good at being taught and taking tests, but will be prepared for life. I believe these “five specs” can not only be used as blue-print for how to design such learning environments, but can also be used to share “why” this type of learning is needed. In short, I believe these “five specs” could be our new narrative or “sound bite” to the community. A point of concern might be, what evidence do we use for this type of learning taking place?
Although strong test scores will be a natural byproduct of the learning taking place in schools, I would avoid referencing these “grades,’ but instead go straight to the source. That source being the young people in our schools. We can share stories, videos, and other evidence of learning with parents through phone calls, newspaper articles, tweets, and even conversations at Heinen’s. However, the most important avenue which demonstrates what is valued in our schools is through the experiences that the young people who go to our schools share with their parents. What if those experiences demonstrate a narrative shift from the Aurora City Schools being an “A” district to the Aurora City Schools being a district which prepares young people for life? How do the schools prepare young people for life? In grades K-12, the schools design learning environments that honor identity through relationships, understand learning is social, nurture innovation, value process over product, and go beyond points and grades. Now that is a narrative I can get behind and a sound byte that emphasizes why we send our kids to the Aurora City Schools.
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