Some Comments From Debbie Meier

“One of the first critical tasks that I tried to accomplish at the beginning of the year was to remove the notion that my primary task was evaluating my students. You are here, I tried to say in many ways, for me to help you deal with what you don’t know or understand and want our help with. So don’t hide that stuff. You are making it hard for me and your classmates to help you when you spend your energy trying to convince them that you already know what you don’t already know.

There comes a moment–an aha–when kids believed me. Once in a while a kid actually said, “oh, you want to know what we don’t know so you can help us!” Such a simple unbelievable idea. My own kids assured me that they always hid their ignorance if they could from their teachers–even the ones they liked. It’s deeply ingrained. I tried to convince them that when they think their teachers are convinced they are “smart”, then they ought to ask the questions that the “dumber” kids are afraid to. But was that fair of me? I wanted them to be good people even if it risked the teacher’s assessment.

The same is true for the evaluation of peers, teachers, staff. I had to convince them of the same thing.

Yes, it complicates the evaluation role. With teachers I made sure that the system of evaluation included them and peers they trusted. With students, I went over reports home with students ahead of time, and then met with parents–with the student always present–afterwards. It was critical that we learn to listen to each other and ideally agree, and it’s through this repeated process year after year that we become trusted allies to kids and their families and vice versa.

I believe that these worked–for the interests of adults and children–and the school.

It’s why on the “high stakes” tasks we saw our role as teachers to help them do it well–we taught to the test, so to speak, and rehearsed! But since the presentations and portfolios were being judged in the end by “others”, and never exactly the same, the only way to prep the kids was to deepen their deserved confidence in the material they were presenting–not on techniques for fooling the judges.

Although, I’ll admit, they got to be better at the latter too–but even learning to con a bit is probably a useful talent for success in college and career!”

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