My days are spent entrenched in the world of education.  It has been the world I have worked in for the past 10 years.  And with kids who are school-aged, education is something that consumes much of my thoughts.

I think one of the things that is missing in the current conversation regarding education is one about learning.  We are focused so singularly on test scores and whether or not students can read or do math at grade level.  This has caused to to lose sight of whether or not students can think and apply what they have learned.

This really became apparent to me during a conversation I was having with someone regarding a high performing charter high school network that takes students in 9th grade (who are several grade levels behind) and gets them up to reading at grade level before they graduate.  Now don’t get me wrong, I think that this is great and admirable.  It is important that students get the basic skills, but I have to ask “At what cost?”

At what cost is this happening?  When we focus so intently on getting kids to score proficient on a test or be reading at the appropriate lexile level, we have to be cutting corners somewhere else.  I think this is apparent that much of what is getting cut is what so often happens in private schools and high performing affluent districts–the actual exploration and application of learning.

Another clear cost is that early childhood and kindergarten education have become less about play and more about “test” prep.  Kids spend more time sitting in desks, receiving direct instruction in academic subjects at younger and younger ages, as opposed to learning through exploration, play and collaboration.

I know that we are at a time in our country where we have throngs of students who are starting their school years behind. I also know that as we look at achievement data and control for factors of low-income, that our schools are doing fairly well.  Yet we as a country are failing those who are poor and it is these same poor kids and families who continue to be undereducated.  Instead of engaging in meaningful conversations (that would expose them to more vocabulary then they might get at home), they sit in isolation and complete worksheets labeled with “test prep” on them.

All of this is to say that we need to focus on what students should be getting from school and what they should be getting is an education.  They should learn social skills, problem solving, and collaboration.  They need to learn character, conflict resolution and confidence.  These can’t be taught through direct instruction or worksheets.  This is also not to say that students don’t need their basic skills–but those can be (and should be) taught in a way that engages students completely.

School should be fun and engaging.  School needs to be more about the students and what they need and how they best learn based on their age and developmental level.  We need to re-think how we educate and testing isn’t educating.