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Feature:
Whose Deficit Is It?
Update:
Kiss the School Report Card Goodbye
Reminder:
Presentation Proposals Due June 30!
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Whose Deficit Is It?
Jennifer Orr
If a teacher believes from the outset that students can't succeed, who has the deficit?
For quite some time now I’ve been frustrated when I hear others talking about all that children can’t do. This may be especially true because I teach kindergartners in a high poverty school. That’s a double whammy for many. “These kids can’t do this because they’re kindergartners.” and/or “These kids can’t do this because of their world outside of school.” I don’t buy either of those statements.
I am certain however, that if we believe kids can’t do something we’ve made it significantly less likely that they will. A belief that children can do something is surprisingly powerful. It is, whether intentionally or not, conveyed to students. (If you think kindergartners don’t know if you think they can or can’t do something, you have wildly underestimated them.) If students see that we believe they can do something they are more likely to believe it themselves. We, the teachers, are also more likely to make an effort when we believe kids can do something. If we think they can’t do it, why should we work hard to help them?
This is a far bigger problem for children of color and children living in poverty than most folks want to admit. Systemic racism and classism mean that teachers, like everyone else, tend to have lower expectations for students of color or students living in poverty. The great majority of the time these lower expectations are subconscious. We must step back and carefully inspect and analyze our expectations and beliefs about our students or we will fall prey to society’s beliefs.
READ MORE.....
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Update
Kiss the School Report Card Goodbye, Virginia!
Bye-bye, School Report Card. Hello School Quality Profile! Bye-bye, 20-page spreadsheet. Hello interactive dashboard!
Happily, Virginia is continuing efforts to reduce over-reliance on SOL testing. Student success is being redefined as a broader construct than a single test score. Likewise, there is a desire to report information about schools using multiple measures that more effectively communicate the status and achievements of both schools and school divisions.
Later this month, the Virginia Board of Education is expected to approve a new, online dashboard design for reporting that will include multiple data elements and be more descriptive of schools. The Profile will allow users to filter data, access snapshots, view information about what the data mean, and drill down where more detail is desired. In future years, the dashboard is expected to expand to include reports on additional factors such as student growth, class sizes, and school climate surveys. For more detail, see the
report from the Board of Ed.'s May meeting.
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Presentation Proposals
Due June 30!
Plans for Annual Conference 2016 are well underway, and we are currently accepting proposals for concurrent session presentations.
The ideas and innovations from concurrent sessions inspire and empower educators to take action in their own schools. Go to to VASCD's conference page to submit your proposal to present!
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