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October 29, 2021
Dear Hastings Families & Staff,
Hillside and the Farragut Complex are swarming today with a brilliant array of ghosts, goblins, witches, Harry Potter characters, astronauts, Abe Lincolns, unicorns, princesses, superheroes, Lego people, televisions (iPads?), baseball players, soccer players, dinosaurs, monsters, the indescribable, and some proudly in Hastings’ Green & Gold with goofy hats. Very important, we all blended the required masks into our costumes (or simpler attire). It promises to be a spirited day, with lots of social learning and maybe a bit of attention to the books.
With that as context, this week’s update focuses on Academic Growth, one of The Tall Seven. I write today as a parent and a superintendent. I write today for both our devoted families and dedicated faculty. I have two messages.
Message 1—No Single Measure Counts
Fostering academic growth in each and every student is our priority, and we do so over the long haul while drawing on multiple measures, indicators, and sources of evidence and information to gauge progress. No single number, measure, test, screener, or report card tells the story, and no single point in time reveals the truth. As a parent, I can’t point to a single moment that explains my four children (ages 7 to 25). Instead, it is a complex (and sometimes maddening) blend of many days, weeks, and years that reveal who they are, and even then it changes. As an educator, lucky to have been trained by leading researchers and statisticians, I also know this: we must gauge progress with learning in a way that is rigorous and relevant, guiding students to optimize their talents and gifts, with progress measured by multiple sources, over time, which are regularly checked for validity and reliability.
Message 2—A First Step, with Patience
Over the next two weeks, Hastings will take a new step with the sharing of K-8 results on the STAR Renaissance “diagnostic screener.” This new addition to our portfolio for gauging student progress has been introduced in various announcements to families and preliminary training sessions for faculty. I was pleased to learn upon arriving in Hastings that a committee of faculty and administrators selected STAR Renaissance. I have experience with the tool as an educator and a parent. My biggest learning: be patient, families and faculty, be patient. STAR is most useful after we have several sets of results for a student when we can begin to see trends and patterns. A single set of results (such as the first round coming out soon) should be examined, but with a larger understanding that it is only a first step, a first look. Families should be patient with Hastings teachers and administrators as we learn to work with this excellent diagnostic; in turn, we will be patient with students as to what the diagnostic suggests for modifications in instruction.
Final Word (for Today)
In my ongoing listening tour, I have heard that Hastings is a rare educational community in at least one essential regard: we care deeply about learning and growth, yet we don’t get pulled into the “fools gold chase” of the perfect single measure, metric or ranking. If what I heard is true, let’s be sure we hold to this uncommonly mature approach to gauging student progress this school year.
Happy Halloween!
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