It\u2019s frustrating to see someone close to the answer he\/she is seeking.. but unable to see that what\u2019s being looked for is closer than they thought.<\/p>\n
Jay Mathews, the Washington Post\u2019s experienced education writer, who has admitted to being \u201cobsessed\u201d with trying to make sense of schooling by focusing on it\u2019s high school end, shifted his attention and in his\u00a0 8\/30\/10 column, titled: It\u2019s time to stop obsessing over the achievement gap<\/span>.–\u00a0 concluded:<\/p>\n \u201cWhy not work at raising achievement for every child, in every demographic category, instead of obsessing about the gap?<\/p>\n I don\u2019t blame politicians or journalists for enabling this deceptive mindset.\u00a0 Everyone does it. It is woven into the way we think about schools, from the President on down.<\/p>\n But that doesn\u2019t mean it makes any sense, or that we shouldn\u2019t try to rethink school progress in a more useful way.\u201d<\/p>\n Apparently frustrated after years of trying to help readers make sense from connecting dots among things that seemed to work\u2026(but not for long), his dissatisfaction finally led him to dig deeper into the connected work of schooling to confront —<\/span><\/p>\n (1) the nature of the \u201cproblem\u201d at the core\u2026.(a mindset that doesn\u2019t enable understanding how simultaneously to raise achievement for every child, in every demographic category while it must also effectively respond to the special needs of some.)<\/p>\n (2) where the root of the problem lies \u2026(in \u201ceveryone\u2019s\u201d mindset \u2013the interwoven way within which everyone from the President on down\u201d thinks about schools.)\u00a0 And<\/p>\n (3)\u00a0 the only way to solve it \u2026(rethink school progress in a way not only makes sense, but is \u201cuseful.\u201d)<\/p>\n No wonder he\u2019s frustrated..\u00a0 He got Covey right, but not Deming.<\/p>\n (Covey: \u201cFirst understand.\u201d Before you can solve a problem, you must understand it.<\/p>\n Deming: \u201cBy what method?\u201d Noble aims, goals and purposes are not enough if you don\u2019t have ways to get you there.)<\/p>\n If it doesn\u2019t make sense to keep on going down a tunnel with no cheese at it\u2019s end, and also understanding that there might be useful alternatives if there were a different way to think about the \u201ctunnel\u201d\u2026\u00a0\u00a0 then the frustrating question he\u2019s left with now is Deming\u2019s. How can \u201ceveryone” change the way they \u201cmake sense\u201d of the daily interwoven work of classrooms, schools and districts today<\/em>?<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Fortunately, a day or so later (9\/1\/10) the Post printed a response to the same achievement gap issue that suggested a beginning point for Mathews sense-making rethinking process…\u00a0 And here again, someone frustrated \u201cgot it\u201d\u2026almost<\/em>.<\/p>\n Aleta Margolis (Executive Director of the Center for Inspired Teaching) pointed out that<\/p>\n \u201ca critical precursor to the achievement gap is the creativity gap<\/em>.\u201d\u2026\u201dwhen children are denied the opportunity to develop their skills as creative and critical thinkers, it is not surprising that their academic achievement suffers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is time to embrace an educational approach that integrates creativity and rigor into every<\/em> aspect of school.<\/span> Many successful examples of this kind of teaching already exist<\/em>, in schools with children from all races and all levels of the socio-economic spectrum<\/span>,<\/p>\n Perhaps programs aimed at closing the achievement gap will devise a way to focus on reducing the creativity gap as well.<\/p>\n All it would take is a little imagination.\u201d<\/em> <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Her diagnosis is exactly<\/em> right.<\/p>\n First, that as a child\u2019s natural \u201clearning\u201d capacity develops, learning skills aren\u2019t separable by \u201ccontent\u201d and \u201cprocess.\u201d But our present way of thinking about the work of \u201cteaching\u201d doesn\u2019t offer a way to understand how to create and manage an alternative way to connect \u201cteaching\u201d and \u201clearning\u201d without unrealistic applications of time and new resources..<\/p>\n Yet, as she frustratingly notes, we already have on-the-ground classroom<\/em> examples of the actual results-generating power of this approach that produces not only \u201cacademic results,\u201d but also the \u201c21st<\/sup> century skills\u201d (problem-solving, collaboration, and creative innovation) that society is demanding from resource starved schools.<\/p>\n And here is where her prescription: imaginative re-thinking<\/em> \u2026is what\u2019s \u201calmost\u201d right. Missing is the requirement for examples of solutions that match, not just the systemic nature of the problem, but its school system-wide scope.<\/p>\n Rethinking requires examples of how to develop and manage an integrated<\/em>, rigorous<\/em> approach that involves every aspect<\/em> of a school district\u2019s learning-influencing work.<\/p>\n And here\u2019s where I join the ranks of the frustrated. For right next door is the large complex school district that serves as this website\u2019s reality <\/em>base and the source of examples of how reformers \u201ctheories\u201d play out in the interconnected world of \u201cpractice.\u201d <\/em>The Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS).<\/p>\n It offers a useful example of how a major school district with 144,000 students fits both Margolis\u2019 vision<\/em> and Mathew\u2019s need for a thinking-challenging method<\/em>.<\/p>\n Can the story of how the MCPS has been systemically <\/em>developing into a full-district integrated learning management system<\/span> — that engages, at one end, it\u2019s stakeholders\u2019 in the development of responses to the needs of all<\/span>\u2026and at the other, engages each<\/span> of its students in the creative co-management of their own thinking and learning — offer the missing \u201cah-ha<\/em>\u201d catalysts for the critically needed rethinking?<\/p>\n Much has been written lately about the district\u2019s present nature and accomplishments since its superintendent recently announced his retirement.\u00a0\u00a0 Much more may be forthcoming if the district gets any of the national honors for which it is being considered.<\/p>\n But little of that may impact the core problem condition that Mathews correctly identified: a \u201cdeceptive,\u201d deeply interwoven \u201cmindset\u201d that isn\u2019t \u201cuseful\u201d because it doesn\u2019t \u201cmake sense.\u201d<\/p>\n Since sense-making<\/em> is this “SabuSense” site\u2019s primary purpose, if you think, as I do, that both Mathews and Margolis are right\u2026\u201dalmost\u201d \u2026and if you would like to learn more about MCPS\u2019 approach\u2026 and then possibly engage in some imaginative rethinking<\/em> with me about how to use it to influence the embedded mindset that frames the way \u201ceveryone thinks about schools\u201d\u2026 I hope you\u2019ll join in below..<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s frustrating to see someone close to the answer he\/she is seeking.. but unable to see that what\u2019s being looked for is closer than they thought. Jay Mathews, the Washington Post\u2019s experienced education writer, who has admitted to being \u201cobsessed\u201d with trying to make sense of schooling by focusing on it\u2019s high school end, shifted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=558"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":617,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558\/revisions\/617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabusense.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}