Equity and 21st-Century Learning
With the beginning of the "Great Minnesota Get-Together" different people are reminded of different things. School administrators are reminded of MCA scores. It is understandable as much can be at stake when we seek validation via test scores. Don't get me wrong - the skills of reading and mathematics are absolutely essential to being good students, workers and citizens. I can't imagine a time when these areas are not central to curriculum and instruction. However, the North Park Leadership Team learned last year from the writing of Dr. Yong Zhao that they are not the only essential skills. From Sir Ken Robinson we learned that sometimes it seems like we have duped ourselves into putting disproportionate emphasis on these two skills - because they are the direct causation of our validation via test scores - that we forget about the big picture. We forget that reading and math do not need to be taught in individual vacuums comprising the whole of the school day. We allow ourselves to forget the majority of the skills our kids will need to master to be functional adults.
It does not take years of investigation to determine which schools are most negatively affected by this mindset. The schools that spend six-and-a-half hours teaching mostly reading and math - slower, louder, repetitively - tend to be the schools that have the highest levels of students living in poverty. They tend to be the schools that have majority populations of students of color. They are often the schools that have the fewest students speaking English as a first language. These are the schools that are more likely to spend a disproportionate amount of the day doing interventions focused only on reading and math. As a result, they are less likely to have project based learning or comprehensive music, visual and digital arts programming - learning opportunities that refine skills that we have come to recognize are every bit as important to building a successful life.
By continuing the methodology of More, Faster, Louder and denying students in low performing schools regular opportunities to practice and master the myriad other skills they will need to be successful in a highly competitive workforce, we marginalize the same groups of students over and over again. This marginalization is not just relevant to school, but to life.
To rethink how we attend to improving test scores is to rethink how we attend to improving the quality of learning for all of our students. Providing opportunity for mastery of 21st Century skills is an issue of equity. At North Park, we are committed to providing our students such opportunities.