Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships

I have come to realize that I work in a school setting that places process over people. Our district has recently tried to implement a quality improvement system that was originally designed for a business model, specifically the medical field. Many organizations tried using it in the 1990s, and they chucked it after realizing it left out the personal side of the equation.

The main issue I personally have with the method is that it’s founded on statistics. All decisions for adjustment in curriculum are driven by data—that’s it. There’s absolutely no room for the personal, the student.

My head is spinning that my administration is taking such a huge step back in time in that we are actually paying big money to regress. Our faculty estimated that the district has paid upwards of $70,000 to the consultant group that has “taught” us the strategy. I use the term teach very loosely here. After almost ten sessions, we are no further along than the first meeting. Yet, we are now out a very large sum of money that could have gone toward purchasing needed textbooks that align with the new common core.

Somewhere along the way in my many discussions with very intelligent people, I found out about the triangle of success for the modern school. Imagine a triangle that’s divided into three sections. At the top of the triangle is rigor. We need rigor and high expectations in our classroom—all of our classrooms. Low expectations will always produce low results. In the middle section of the triangle is relevance. We must use subjects in our lessons that are relevant and real to the students. If they can’t connect with it on a personal level, then very few of them will invest. Lastly, the bottom (and the largest portion of the divided triangle) is comprised of relationships. Personal relationships with students are the most fundamental ingredient to their success in education. Research shows that students who are most successful in school have important, personal relationships with at least one of their teachers or faculty.

At the beginning of every school year, teachers and faculty should divide up the student body, and every single faculty member is responsible for intentionally developing a personal relationship with these students. Every single student must have a faculty member he or she can count on to talk to about issues or difficulties. Without this safety net—this ethic of care—data doesn’t mean anything.