When education works for the students

A small private school sent a letter to parents of children in second grade, describing the evaluation the children were about to undergo. The school, in another state, is based on the Waldorf school model. The director of the school is my relative, which is how I happened to see the letter.

Wouldn’t you want to be a kid in this school?

“The review has both playful game-like parts and desk-work parts. The children are pulled out of class one at a time, and the activities take about 45 minutes in two sessions over two days….

“Sample Learning Foundation activities include listening to a sea shell, looking through a telescope, folding a piece of paper, writing the child’s name and the numbers 1 to 10, copying a form drawing, walking on a balance beam, running, jumping …. completing mental math, recognizing words or reading a page or two of a picture book, remembering details in a picture and repeating a silly sentence.”

The information from the reviews, says the letter, is used to tailor school activities to the individual learning styles and needs of the children.

The gentleness of this process is striking, as is the way the information is applied. It is used to help the children, not to grade either them or their teachers. The contrast with our public schools is extraordinary.

A few days earlier, I had talked with a New Mexico school counselor who told me she sometimes leaves work crying at the end of the school day. She is overwhelmed. Her sadness, she said, is for the numerous problems children face that affect their ability to function in school: poverty, hunger, unstable families, drug abuse, and a host of social or psychological conditions with names like ADHD and autism. The schools did not create these issues, but they have to live with their effects and don’t have enough resources to overcome them.

The more they are required to standardize classroom activities to prepare students for standardized tests, the less flexible they are to respond to the real needs of those students.

Here’s a wrinkle: news reports recently have covered the results of the latest PARCC standardized tests as released by the Public Education Department. Also recently reported are the results of an audit that found students are being tested twice for the same subject matter. The subject matter of the standardized tests is being duplicated by other tests generated locally.

At a recent forum, Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto said the PARCC results were not available until several months after the students were tested and therefore could not be used to give students a grade. That’s why teachers had to give other tests so students could complete the school year, he said.

Sure enough. The PARCC tests were given last spring. In September, Education Secretary Hanna Skandera announced the results would be released soon. According to news reports, she said the scores have taken months to calculate because it was a new test and she had to meet with other education officials to determine what certain scores mean.

The children who attend the little private school I mentioned above are not necessarily smarter, more gifted, or less behaviorally challenged than New Mexico public school kids. But most come from home environments where their parents were able to choose a school and pay for it – and cared enough to do so. Most of those homes were stable and comfortable, with parents who supported and encouraged their children’s education.

New Mexico has a long way to go before our public schools can offer the same level of personalized attention that children receive in a small private school where every child is cherished. Nevertheless, once in a while we should remind ourselves of what’s possible.

Triple Spaced Again, © New Mexico News Services 2015

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