One can best compare our feelings to what you might have heard called the 5 stages of grief. Counselors often identify a stage that a client is in when dealing with a loss or traumatic experience. The stages are : denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally, acceptance. We have gone through these stages at some point over the past year.
It was easy at one point to live in the denial stage, thinking, "The system is broken and this does not tell us about how successful our students are." We were partially correct... The state-mandated assessment system is broken and 1 day in the life of a student does not determine their success. However, after going through these 5 stages, we have also come to realize that we are not willing to settle for less than 75% of our students passing an exam where the passing rate ranges from a 50-60%. Denying this data does not help our students. We have come to accept that while we need to use various forms of assessment to determine student success, this data also shows us that there is a need for targeted instruction, ongoing professional development, and an overall growth mindset. Denying the needs would be unfair to our students! In the end, we can choose to be mad at the system or we can choose to be proactive, focus on student growth, and find ways to ensure that our students are successful. I'm not sure about you, but the later choice sounds so much more enjoyable to me!
Those that work in our school or closely with our school know that last year and so far this year, they have never seen teachers work so hard in their entire life. These teachers take their task seriously and will do pretty much anything to ensure that all of the students get what they need. They worked so hard that in 2012-13, in Index 2 (the growth index) our school was a couple schools away from being at the bottom when ranked with our comparison schools. 1 year later (yes, only 1 year) we went to being one school away from being ranked in the top 25% in Index 2 with our comparison schools, almost receiving a distinction. We know that it is easy for people to jump to certain assumptions when they hear, "College Street is in year 2 of Improvement Required", and so, we have not wanted to broadcast this news to avoid that response. What we wish is that we could share this information without shame. We wish people knew that the data does tell a story and our data shows that our students grew in tremendous amounts last year, and this is only the beginning. That is nothing we should be ashamed of.
Another story that our data tells is that even with everyone giving 110% to academics, there is only so much progress that can be made until we nurture and build students who can take responsibility (be proactive), set and track goals (begin with the end in mind), and put their learning as a priority (put first things first). Additionally, until our students can spend each day in a culture where they are told daily that they are special, can be a leader, and achieve their dreams, they will only make so much progress. This is where The Leader in Me comes into play.
Last year, when we gathered data that showed a need for increased student and staff engagement and creating a more nurturing and safe environment, we all knew that addressing these needs was important, but we also knew that academics had to continue to be a focus as well. Could we take on a new leadership initiative while already working so hard on the academics? We had to be sure that if we started to work on teaching the 7 habits and encouraging leadership in our students that we would not lose focus on the academic needs of our students. Then it hit us... we can't have one without the other! If we solely focus on academics, the students will not make the necessary progress nor will they learn skills that will help them succeed in life.
We must prepare our students for their future with relevant and authentic learning experiences combined with building leadership capacity in each one so that they can take charge of their own future and have the skills necessary to succeed in the 21st century. We know that this is where the magic will happen...
So, how do we feel about the Texas Accountability System and being rated as "Improvement Required"? Well, I forgot to tell you that there is a 6th stage of grief that isn't mentioned in counseling and it is... ACTION. Do we like the stress and pressure we are under? No. Do we know that the action we are taking because of it is necessary and will improve students' lives? Yes. And that is what matters most.
Now it is time for the cougars to take on the elephant...
