In the past week, I have been fortunate to be in touch with many different people in the world of education from a wide variety of schools. I am excited to be a part of the conversations in the Colorado Independent Schools Inclusivity Network, a collection of educations from independent schools who are committed to making their schools more inclusive communities. I spent a lot of time in Seattle, visiting folks at a number of public and private high schools and having conversations with those at the University of Washington about their diversity initiatives. I have been discussing ways that I can be a part of making schools more inclusive in Washington State, Colorado, and Illinois.
All of these conversations have really got me thinking about the place that diversity has in schools today. Having taught in and been involved with schools for a number of years, it is clear to me and I am sure anyone who is even peripherally related to schools that DATA is the central focus of most conversations. How can we help students meet our Adequate Yearly Progress goals? Now, I am one of those in the world of education that think a focus on data can actually be great because it forces schools to ensure that all students are learning. Does it always turn out to be positive? No. Are many kids over-tested? Yes (my students in Chicago took over 20 standardized tests per year)! Does that mean we shouldn’t focus on data to ensure that our students are learning? Not at all.
A serious concern I have, though, is that in the push for data, schools are often ignoring incredibly important conversations. In their thirst for data, schools are adding extra reading classes or math classes and cutting the arts. Further, in the intense focus on student achievement through data collection, many schools are losing focus of how they can serve their students holistically. It is simple common sense that students who feel safe and welcome in their school environment are going to perform better and learn more! Yet so often in my professional conversations, I feel like I am working to convince educators or acquaintances that schools should care as much about building inclusive and justice-seeking school environments as they do about data-driven instruction.
