Thoughts as we begin the year

It's State Fair time and, for schools, that means report cards will be out. The Minnesota Department of Education releases report cards for Minnesota schools during the State Fair. Much of the "grade" a school receives is based on the results of the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments(MCA's). The results of those tests were released a couple of weeks ago. Already there has been much discussion by administrators about our results in Rockford. As is the case with most schools in Minnesota, we would like to improve our scores.

Sometimes it feels like testing is consuming larger and larger chunks of our time in education at the expense of delving deeper into the content. My personal belief is that, in education, our purpose is to help students to delve deeper into the content and enhance their critical thinking and problem solving abilities. However, we are required, by law, to be accountable through the use of the MCA's. So, we must work to accomplish both tasks. I believe this is not only possible, but our responsibility.

If you've read The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman, you are well aware of the changes that have occurred to make the economic playing field more level for people throughout the world. This means the competition for those entering the workforce is going to be much greater than it may have been as short as ten years ago. I believe this means we need to change the way we do business in school. One piece of that is to improve both the technology available to students as well as our ability to help students utilize technology to demonstrate content knowledge and skills. To do so will require resources that are limited in supply: time and money.

As we begin this school year, we will be working to integrate a more "21st Century" approach to education as well as improving our students' ability to do well on the MCA's. Given that, in life, we all deal with limited resources our challenge is great. We are, however, committed to reaching our goal. We appreciate your support!

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