I like your point that the students may themselves have the answers to how to make the system better.

and Patrick, an interesting addition to this discussion–most private schools do not use class rank. So the most prestigious universities are accustomed to sorting out which of the private school students to accept–which leads me to believe that the same could apply to public schools that decide not to rank.

I agree it is a much larger picture than just what we are doing in our schools.

But I do think if we look back to our own schooling, which really pre-dated the testing mania and college pressures, we would find that the “joy of learning” was present in the minority of our secondary courses. I think the difference was that the pressure on students was significantly less, in terms of the “college game.” Maybe we were able to take ourselves a little less “seriously” because of that–and I don’t mean as students, but we just were able to explore a little more, take courses we wanted to, dabble around more–because we didn’t feel pressured by the system into just taking what raised our GPAs.

It does seem like this issue is starting to be discussed a little more–and the California College system has been taking some issue with the SAT the last several years, so perhaps there is some slight movement towards addressing a more well-rounded system.

I also think when we look at the issues of drop out problems for students having more difficulty with school, there are a lot of pieces to think about, but engaging students passionately in school is a really critical piece in their success.

I keep thinking about hearing Marco Torres speak at TCEA, and seeing what amazing work he was inspiring in his students via his own passion and belief in them and in teaching.

I think sharing our own passion for teaching as a “calling” is important to our students. When we show up, they show up. (at least more often!)

And as long as colleges use the GPA, SAT and AP to decide their admissions, I don’t see students, parents, or administrators realistically moving away from the test-taking=intelligence model.

The question I circle around more and more these days is, are colleges themselves tiring of this game? Is there any movement on their part towards a different way of measuring or selecting students for admissions?

I hope to explore that question in some summer research. To me, the ETS/college admissions dyad is the capstone. The arch collapses when we dislodge it.

Now back to that AP class.

A few weeks back, we had the discussion here among administrators about taking the route of many other schools here in New Jersey and abolishing class rank entirely. However, the discussion wasn’t necessarily based on the criteria you listed, but rather the need for our students to be measured fairly by universities.

Barry over at http://plethoratech.blogspot.com recently wrote about the things he believes in regarding what our students should be learning in our schools. And while he talks about measurement in terms of assessment, absent is the idea that the only reason our students pass through our classrooms is to reach some pre-determined milestone, or , as you quote above “to fill their bucket.”

Our goal should not only be clearly articulated in department meetings, but constantly debated and reshaped as we learn more about our practice and our students as learners.

I will be sharing this post with a group of teachers and administrators we are forming in our district to look at the future of teaching. Great post!

Thanks for your post.

Just yesterday, a friend and I were having a chat about me returning to the classroom and she asked what grades I would teach and without a hesitation I said PreK – 6th.

She quickly questioned me on why — and I said, “they still like being in school, they still like their teachers, they still can have fun while learning.”

Where did we we lose the joy of learning with our older students??

I think you are right on with this blog’s topic!!

Thank you for taking the time to write it.
Jen