One of the key themes that emerged from Education Group’s discussion was the importance of maintaining and building teachers’ capacity to address the varied needs of students within their classroom. Participants’ concerns tended to fall within four general areas: building teacher capacity, meeting the needs of a diverse student body, balancing limited resources, and maintaining a comprehensive and well focused curriculum.
Building Teacher Capacity: Participants articulated a need to enhance teachers’ capacity to meet the different needs of their students. In part, this involved providing teachers with the proper levels of training and resources, while protecting them from concerns about their contract and working conditions. It also had to do with evaluating and, if needed, eliminating weak teachers. Teacher morale was very important, as was protecting teachers so that they can focus on addressing students’ needs in a climate that was tolerant of mistakes.
Meeting the Needs of a Diverse Student Body: There was great concern for meeting the needs of the full range of students, including both gifted and talented students and students with special needs. Participants wanted to be assured that all were properly challenged and supported at all grade levels and within each school. At the same time, there was a concern that the schools remain sensitive to the emotional and social well-being and stress levels of students. This includes concerns about keeping the focus on the whole child, avoiding undue pressure in regards to testing, and maintaining feelings of personal safety.
Balancing Limited Resources: There was a reference to the limitations of our funding resources, and the challenges this presents (including the structural deficit, and cost factors such as benefits). The ability to attain low class sizes was one related challenge. At the same time, there was a discussion of the potential for other types of resources including technology and volunteerism. Technology was a repeated theme, with an eye toward using technology to improve efficiency, classroom instruction, administration and communication (as opposed to becoming a substitute for traditional instruction). In particular, some participants expressed a concern that teachers did not have easy access to timely student data that would allow them to responsively tailor their instruction. The role of parents was discussed in regard to helping their own children while supporting the needs of the entire classroom. Finally, there was a reference to the limitations of time, and the need for more time in the day to accomplish an increasing list of objectives.
A Comprehensive and Well-Focused Curriculum: There was a good deal of discussion about where the emphasis should be placed in regard to the curriculum. First, schools school must continue to foster a love of learning. Some participants expressed the need for an increased focus on the “core” subjects, especially the STEM subjects, others spoke of building those skills which lead to well-rounded individuals, while others spoke of the need for maintaining a rich set of extracurricular activities. There was a sense that we should be assessing our current programs, and fine-tuning them, before adding new ones. There should be a focus on the quality of learning, and not necessarily on test scores. Finally, participants felt that there should be a focus on job opportunities in the future, ensuring that all students are prepared to enter the “global world.”
One of the final comments of the session pointed to the need to keep the education system growing by engaging in a process of auditing what we have in place, renovating where needed, and then looking forward with an eye toward innovation.
