Education is so consumed with testing, scores, school report cards, SLO’s and new evaluation systems. It has been interesting to see how mandates have been implemented differently across the country in this process and being able to read the honest reflections of educators from my PLN. For example, I’ve seen Tony Sinanis’s reflections on “his score” as an administrator which you can find HERE. As I read posts like this, I am constantly reminded of why we are in education and that we need to continue to do the great work we are doing with students and not let ourselves get pulled into a test prep mentality. I am also thankful to be in a state that is not as dead set on numbers as other states are. As I though about this, I decided to share the following message for my staff in my “Monday Musings” post:
I know that many of you are already starting to think about your SLO and some are starting to stress that this year it “counts” for the state. I will have an email to all staff this week on SLO updates and then also in our EP refresher trainings, but the most important message I want you to receive is that the SLO rubric (“score”) does not just focus on the student outcome, but also the process…the process that you use to analyze your students, reflect, make goals, respond to their needs and continue to reflect again. We are fortunate that Wisconsin has decided on a model that does not just look at numbers, as many other states do.
I am also thankful that we have a State Superintendent that also realizes this. Tony Evers recently posted this video to share his personal message about the school report cards coming out. He emphasizes that the report card only gives 1 measure, that is relatively narrow. Our report card doesn’t take into account everything that we have to offer and provide our students at Dodgeland.
Here is Mr. Evers’ message:
