Student Achievement Is Job One!

I am a teacher, and I am proud of my vocation.  This is the end of my thirty-second year in the profession that I love. When I began working in teaching, educator did not have the tools to analyze data which are now utilized in today’s world of teaching and learning.  Thirty-two years ago, the best a teacher could simply tell the parent and student was if the grade was being made or not.  Typically this information was the accepted standard.  Today, educators spend countless hours analyzing student achievement in order to identify superior strategies which will consequently aid instructional delivery.  

When teachers gather to talk about the great things they are each doing in their classroom, the discussion generally includes how each teacher has improved their teaching skills.  In the Mineral County School District, our schools are fortunate to have highly effective teachers.  The majority of our students are achieving academic gains each year.  For example, in fifth grade, 65 percent of our students reached the mandated academic gains in learning demonstrating an improvement from the prior year.  Each year teachers dig deeply into their professional tool belts to ascertain other ways to keep students engaged in their learning.

Our District is adding one more measure that parents may look at when determining the collective schools’ successes with learning.  As educators, we want to determine if all of our students are growing academically.  Please allow me to help you understand this type of measurement by sharing a personal story.  When I was in college, I enrolled in a physics class.  I was a educator and musician and not a scientist.  From that class, however, I learned more about music and its physical properties than I could have ever imagined.  My eyes were opened.  I started at zero and obtained a 70 percent in a semester class.  I was and am extremely proud of the “C” I earned in that class.  I went in with ZERO understanding and exited with an enormous amount of knowledge.  Admittedly a “C” does not sound great, but it is immense when you attain that type of growth.  This additional way of measuring student learning is going to include answering the question:  Did the student make a year’s growth? 

Not too long ago someone asked me how I measure teaching, and my response was the following, “Teaching is accomplished only when learning takes place.” True learning stays with an individual a lifetime; it is not merely a “get you through the class” situation.  To foster such learning, students must take a more active role in their own education, and educators must provide the best opportunities to ensure that such teaching and learning occur.

Education is a continual process.  It starts and never ends.  We are all lifelong learners; we must promote the process that encourages perpetual learning for everyone. Every opportunity must be seized for our learners. The following is the first goal:

Goal 1.  Academic.

Every student will achieve one year’s growth in reading and mathematics.

We will achieve a 95% attendance of all schools in the district.

Some of you may look at the second part of the goal and ask what attendance has to do with student achievement.   Simply put, just as a farmer will not have a crop if the seeds are not there, students cannot learn if they are absent.  The truly deep learning comes during activities that are purposefully and skillfully presented to the students.  So, when the student misses class time, the greatest opportunity for learning is not available. 

We need students to be in school as long as they are able to attend.  As you think about this, let me again commend those of you who have supported our School District’s effort to complete the tasks of teaching and learning.  Without your efforts and participation, we would not be moving forward.

As Paul Harvey might say, “Now for the rest of the story.” 

I’d like to extend a special thank you to the Twenty-First Century School program that provided an extended school year during June to more than fifty students.  The facilitators taught students everything from skipping (which is actually needed for learning) to higher order thinking skills.  This group of educators, who successfully completed the summer program, provided students with additional help and enrichment that filled every student’s life.  To the whole group of students who attended, congratulations on completing the program.  

 July 3, 2008

Walk with the dreamers, the believers, the courageous, the cheerful, the planners, the doers, the successful people with their heads in the clouds and their feet on the ground.  Let their spirit ignite a fire within you to leave this world better than when you found it.