Engaging Students in our Schools

I started this as a response to my last blog post but apparently I'm too wordy and it was too long to be just a comment so I made this a new post instead. Mr. Kalina had raised some good points in his comments and I didn't want them to go unanswered.

First, in my own opinion I completely would agree that schools have to spend too much time teaching to the test. It is unfortunate and not particularly helpful to developing students as independent learners. It is, however, a necessity. So many students come in to the school system without basic fundamentals of learning. In Kindergarten and 1st grade teachers have to spend so much time just on the basic building blocks for kids that it puts many students behind where we would like them to be. I've been in the classrooms with my own kids as a volunteer. It's heartbreaking that kids come in who don't even know the alphabet song.

State and Federal law requires us to achieve certain levels as determined by the standardized testing. There are real penalties for failing, penalties which we are already experiencing in Vernon. So while I may not personally like teaching to the test it isn't something that can be changed without an overhaul of the corresponding legislation or a significant growth in early childhood education to allow us to spend less time on fundamentals and more time on engaging students. We have dramatically increased our preschool sessions at the schools to try and fill some of that gap but there is a significant waiting list for admission. Ultimately, like everything else in education, without some support at home children are going to be at a disadvantage in the school system.

So with that said let's talk about what we can do. Students obviously learn better when they are engaged. I don't think that's any great secret. We have made a very consistent effort over the last 2 years that I have been on the Board to bring into the classrooms technology that does that. We put additional smart-boards in each school to encourage interactive learning (and we made sure teachers were getting trained on them!). We began pilot programs for mobile devices like tablets to bring new, hands on learning to our students. The computer labs in most (maybe all, I would have to confirm) of the elementary schools have been upgraded thanks to a lot of generous support from staff and community. Technology alone certainly isn't the answer but it goes a long way towards keeping kids engaged.

We have also heard the demands from parents for more activities to challenge higher achieving students. I know 20 years ago RHS had an excellent gifted program for instance. I don't know what the circumstances were that led to it being disbanded, but in this year's budget we are trying to reconstitute a gifted program starting at the elementary level. It's small, but I hope it is a building block we can use to continue the growth of those types of opportunities so that parents don't feel like a magnet school is their only choice. All of these are simply a start, not an answer. But I feel like we are moving in a good direction.

There are certainly other things I would love to see us get to. I think bringing back full day kindergarten would be a great step. I want to see the gifted and talented program grow to encompass all the schools. I would like us to be able to spend more on the Arts. We have some amazingly talented students in our school system and many times their programs are funded on a shoe string and a lot of fund raising. All of this requires time and money. At our 7/18 Board of Ed meeting we were told by our financial people that we closed out the year at a $45 surplus. Think about it... $45 out of a $47 million dollar budget. That is pretty darn close. So year to year we will do what we can, and maybe someday all of these ideas will be achievable. I intend to keep working on making them a reality.

-The opinions expressed here are strictly my own and do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Board of Education.