What We Want for Our Students

Our "Hopes and Dreams" for Student Success

Our school board recently completed a review of the district’s progress toward a goal that is difficult to define and even harder to measure in terms of student outcomes. At the same time, this goal represents highly important other-than-academic priorities for our students. We call it our Character and Citizenship goal and define it (our desired outcomes for students) as follows:

All [our] students demonstrate the individual character qualities, emotional strength and social skills to succeed. They understand the importance of work and how performance, effort, and decisions directly affect their future. They contribute to the betterment of those around them. They demonstrate knowledge and skills that reflect responsible citizenship in a democratic society.

This year’s report was very thorough.

It can be found on a table of reports on this web page: https://www.upsd83.org/10077_2 (See the second row of the table, beginning with the goal that is found by clicking on “E-3 Contributing Citizens” in the left column, then the report is found by clicking on “Report” in the center column, then the board’s response is found by clicking on “Board Response” in the right column.

The report describes, to the extent possible, how our students are doing in developing such character and citizenship qualities as honesty, respect, responsibility, caring, self-control, effort, conflict resolution, cooperation, resisting and reporting bullying and harassment, leadership, inclusiveness, rights and responsibilities, and citizenship in a representative democracy. This is quite a list, representing the community’s hopes and dreams, and as mentioned above, measurement isn’t easy. We reviewed results of surveys of students (rating their own qualities, and those of their peers) as well as counselors’ observations, and other data that might serve as indicators (an example is hours of community service). But we can only rely on imperfect indicators of such qualities. Are they accurate? Are these qualities the best choices we can make?

As we reviewed and discussed this important report, I was reminded of a Podcast that I had recently viewed. It featured a researcher who started his adult life as a high school dropout (he had accumulated a 0.9 grade point average up to 12th grade) who eventually earned a bachelor’s degree, then (amazingly) a graduate degree at Harvard. He subsequently became a professor of education at Harvard before “dropping out” again to conduct full-time independent research into what he refers to as the psychology of the individual. He admits an aversion, based on his own educational journey, to a one size fits all school environment that produces in too many of our students a self-concept of academic failure.

Here is his conversation with Mike Rowe (of Dirty Jobs fame): We're Still We the People

From Wikipedia: Todd Rose is the co-founder of Populace, a Boston-based think tank. Earlier, Rose was a professor at Harvard University, where he served as the faculty director of the Mind, Brain, and Education program, and led the Laboratory for the Science of Individuality.

In a Silicon Valley TED^X talk, he describes how educational practices intended to benefit the average student create an educational environment that fails to challenge students who don’t meet the expectation of average. He recommends that we consider every student as an individual (easy to say, hard to do) rather than just another one of many students in a classroom or a school. Considering emerging technology that can cater to students as individuals, he suggests: “We have a chance … to use this technology to create learning environments that are so flexible that we can truly nurture the potential of every single individual.” [Some examples: concurrent language translation; support for reading vocabulary; the ability of a machine to read a passage for you] Here is his 18-minute talk: “The Myth of Average”

In another talk he describes what he calls collective illusions that lead us to make decisions based on a flawed assumption about what others think about a subject. See We’re wired for conformity (5 minutes, 29 sec)

Some interesting by-products of Rose’s research are the concepts of social pressure, a social pressure index, and a purpose of education index.

Social Pressure. One of the studies featured on Populace looks at the phenomenon of social pressure and points out that a majority of Americans (58%) think that most people cannot share their honest opinions about sensitive topics, so they silence themselves from expressing their true opinions because of assumptions (often quite incorrect) about what others think is right.

Social Pressure Index. Private Opinion in America is a report of opinion research based on comparing personal opinions vs. what we think society’s opinions are. It turns out that what people think others are thinking, and what they really think, are two different things, but because of social pressures (often self-imposed) we fail to acknowledge and share our opinions. As a result, we all lose. A couple of surprising findings from this research on privately held opinion:

· People privately agree on most issues. For two-thirds of the sensitive issues studied (43 of 64), ranging from abortion rights and school choice to legal immigration and voter ID requirements, 90% of demographic groups are privately on the same side of the issues.

· Men and women have similar views. Most men and women are on the same side of 57 of the 64 sensitive issues in this study.

Purpose of Education Index. The Purpose of Education Index is an opinion study of the American people’s priorities for the future of education in America. The results are consequential for educators, parents, policymakers, or anyone interested in the future of K-12 education in America.

Some key findings in his research into the public’s hopes and dreams for education include:

· College Should No Longer Be the End Goal of K-12 Education. Before COVID, respondents ranked being prepared to enroll in a college or university as their 10th highest priority for K-12 education. In post-COVID America, this is no longer the case. When given 57 priorities for children’s K-12 education, Americans ranked it as #47. In stark contrast, they believe it is other people’s third-highest priority. This contrast illustrates a deep societal misunderstanding of one another.

· Practical Skills & Outcomes Should Be the End Goal. Respondents reported developing practical skills as the #1 priority for education outcomes, and consistently prioritized practical, tangible skills and outcomes over lofty ideals and other short-term goals.

· Individualized Education Is the Future, One-Size-Fits-All Is the Past. Respondents not only deprioritized one-size-fits-all approaches to K-12 education (e.g. evaluating students through standardized tests, providing every student the same amount of support and resources, etc.), they also actively prioritized attributes that enabled education to be tailored to meet each child’s needs (e.g. allowing children to learn at their own pace, providing unique supports, etc.).

· Education Priorities Vary Immensely by Race. While developing critical thinking and practical skills were shared priorities, there are noticeable differences across each racial group. The report highlights these shared priorities and unique differences, which further indicate that the current one-size-fits-all approach to education fails to address the needs and wants of students and parents.

· “Better” Is No Longer the Goal — “Different” Is. One of the most prevalent threads across the data illustrates that Americans are fed up with the current education system, beyond the point of wanting improvements to the existing structure. The vast majority of the general population believes more things about the educational system should change than stay the same (71%), including 21% who say nearly everything should change.

We may never get to a perfect definition of what we want for our students. But there is a lot to consider about what people consider to be truly important, how we can realistically pursue creating an environment within which our students can grow, and how we can know that we are getting closer to that goal.

See Purpose+of+Education+Index.pdf

NEXT: Part II of What We Want for Our Students

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