In my formative professional development days, I worked with, and looked up to, an education juggernaut who would start many statements during trainings with the phrase, "What we know to be true is..." And then, she would set off to inform everyone in the room about how children learn and how teachers should teach. Without fail, all of the heads in the room would nod up and down in agreement with her.

At the time, I was really impressed with that strategy because it cut to the chase. It pushed past the debate and got right to what she wanted to teach us. After all, it would take a pretty ballsy person (Can I use that word in the newsletter?) to raise their hand and contest the facts of "what we know to be true."

Over the years, I have used that phrase when standing in front of groups of educators. It totally works. It establishes the speaker as the authority even if that person has no idea if what they are saying is in fact, "the truth." It also intimidates some. Especially those that don't know. Suddenly, they feel like the lone person in the room without the knowledge and are silently shamed into getting on board. (If that has ever been you, you are not alone, and it was an evil trick.)

I regret using that phrase. I regret if I contributed to shaming educators into one way of thinking. I especially regret it because it is counter to re-thinking education. And education seriously needs to be re-thunk!

Letting go of previously embedded philosophical truths is tough. And scary. What if we step out of line and are wrong? What if the truth we were taught IS the actual truth, and moving away will lead to certain failure? Here's the thing, if those philosophical truths aren't getting the results promised, or if they are causing stress and attacking your self-efficacy, it's probably time to let go and move on to something else.

Consider this, from the 1930s to the 1950s, doctors advertised for cigarette companies. In the 1970s, students would roll mercury around in their hands as part of a prepared lesson. In 1895, the drug company Bayer sold Heroin as a cough suppressant. Things change. Society changes. Brains change. What we know to be true changes.

So it stands to reason that some (probably many) of our tightly held beliefs about teaching, learning, student growth, success, etc., need to change. And change starts by deciding what we measure and, more importantly, what measurement we value (By the way, brace yourself, I am going to be writing about this for a while.)

Here are a few random thoughts I have:

Instead of measuring reading levels using standardized scores, measure reading pleasure using student surveys.
Instead of measuring mathematical calculations using tests, measure mathematical understanding using performance-based tasks.
Instead of measuring behavior progress using incident reports, measure progress using daily check-in activities.

I am very aware that state requirements, college admission standards, and societal expectations exist. It's okay to de-emphasize those. You are hereby authorized to think differently, and most importantly, assess your kids and yourself differently!

Great work is being done. I know it's hard to see and feel because we don't have many ways to assess it. We will get there. I know it!

Leadership and Learning