If the 20th century was about rows, the 21st century should be about circles.

There is an ever-increasing voice for real change to challenge education. The above video touched on a plethora of points, which we actually all know about – or at the very least – should know about.

What is it going to take to do something tangible about turning education on its head completely, as a whole, and not its individual parts?

There are some great teachers out there who really do care and are trying to challenge ideals, approaches and attitudes. It isn’t enough. The amount of tweets I read, and the workshops and the conference people attend for the most part have the same recurring theme:

Challenge, Inspire, Re-imagine, Redefine, Innovate, 21st Century Education and on and on.

We get it…. education needs to change. The world is always changing and education hasn’t really changed that much in a very, very long time. Yes, there is technology and we have fancy spaces, yet I don’t feel that things have changed a great deal.

Where to from here?

I actually don’t think we know how to change, and that change is so slow some of us are beginning to feel like nothing is ever going to change. While this may be coming off in a cynical and defeatist way, I am feeling like this more and more.

The above video could lead us down many different paths…. Let’s take one of those that recently happened.

The other day, as a Primary staff we were talking about abolishing report cards.  We use Seesaw (Student Driven Digital Portfolio) as a way to capture and record evidence of learning and thinking. We have 4 Open Houses a year at the end of a unit of inquiry for parents to see what students are up to. We have 1 three-way conference, 1 Student-led Conference and 1 formal teacher-parent meeting a year. Plus, on top of that we report 6 times a year and parents can arrange a meeting at any point throughout the year to discuss their child’s progress. That is a lot of contact and opportunities to partner and connect with parents, teachers and students. So let’s get rid of written reports.

Cons

• They take weeks to gather evidence, write, proofread and organize etc.;
• They take away from more important things such as planning, being prepared for lessons and teaching and learning;
• Reporting time causes a decay in one’s well-being, anxiety and stress;
• Often students miss out because teachers have an already difficult time keeping their heads above water.
• Some parents don’t read them fully or at all;
• And the kicker that stands true for most…. teachers just trawl through previous year’s comments, use them, modify them and often say, well those two students are the same anyway. Admit it. Again, the quality of the report doesn’t say that much.

Pros

• It is a formalized way to assess a student’s progress.

I often hear that we write reports because so that when they ‘leave’ our school the next school needs a record for admissions and to help place them. Really… that’s not good enough.

Admissions already (and this is increasing) send their own school’s profile to a student’s current teacher to get a picture of a student’s abilities, talents, personality and academic prowess or learning challenges. Let’s just use that… in the place of reports. That would mean teachers can do that requirement really well and depending on the school would be about 3-5 of those per class, per year. That’s manageable. Let’s put the focus on quality of teaching and learning…. not, “I am so busy!” We could say that every day – we’re teachers. But it’s best to be ‘busy’ on the things that matter. Reporting time is stressful for everyone. Where are the brave educators gone?

This is the difference between radical and progressive thinking and ideas to make the bold changes needed and a school actually standing up in the name of ‘making circles and not rows.’ Be that first school to say “we believe that what we do is more than enough to communicate to parents who their child is as a person and a learner and we do not value formal report cards”.

More schools will follow that bold school which takes a stand – they will.

Who’s first? (Give me two years to change hearts and minds)