College Ready v. College Eligible

Within the last week I had the pleasure of attending two thought-provoking workshops centered around rethinking education in order to better serve our students. Both workshops came from research from the Education Policy Improvement Center (EPIC).   David Conley focused on the keys to success in college and beyond by challenging us to consider some interesting ideas.  For instance, teachers typically begin with strategies to solve existing problems. But what if students begin by creating the problem and then work to come up with strategies to solve that problem?  What if teachers make learning relevant and meaningful? What if teachers learn to observe and assess strategic thinking skills (insight, efficiency, idea generation, concept formation, integration and solution seeking)? What if students had time in between classes to reflect on and process the new information? What if students learn how to learn, instead of learn how to be compliant? Ray McNulty continued to challenge us to think about our current situation. Do we focus mainly on skill acquisition? How can we add rigor and relevance to our instruction? And perhaps the most vexing question: Should we bother with this at all?  After all the Prep is a very highly regarded high school with a long educational history. We are doing a pretty good job as things are right now.  McNulty mentioned some compelling reasons why we should be considering change (Sears and Xerox), but for me it seems simple. We are educating the leaders of the future. Shouldn't they have strong decision-making skills? Be adaptable and empathetic? Shouldn't they become advocates for themselves, so that they may become advocates for others? According to McNulty, these are some of the characteristics that are highly valued in the 21st century workforce.

I think what we do here is awesome.  I love being a part of this community.  I also think that there is always room for improvement and that we should be open to change and unafraid of asking tough questions.  We will only be stronger for the asking.

Common Core Standards