After spending a few hours last week reading through various state visions or portraits of a graduate, my impression was that these descriptions felt similar to statements I have read many times before over many years, yet at the same time there was something about them that felt very, very different.
The thing that felt familiar was states, as they should be, are using large canvases and broad brush strokes to paint big pictures. Their portraits are of a high school graduate who is a well-rounded individual ready to contribute as an active citizen of their community, city, state, country, and well, the world. And being prepared for that role requires that the graduate possess the following:
- Communication skills
- Problem-solving abilities
- Critical Thinking
- Adaptability
- Teamwork and Collaboration
These skills and our belief in their importance is not new, of course. We now may be referring to them as durable skills, but as the bard reminded us, “What’s in a name?” 21st century skills by any other name would smell as sweet.
On the surface, one difference from past vision statements was the explicit focus on the student’s awareness of, respect for, and ability to function in a world much broader and culturally diverse than their own. The devil’s in the details, but the general theme of a high school graduate being able to thrive in a world beyond and much different than the neighborhood in which they were raised is not new.
What really felt different this time around, however, was the obvious shift in emphasis from content to skills. Although virtually all states give a nod to appropriate academic content knowledge (aka, their state content standards), content knowledge was simply one of a half dozen boxes displayed in their slick infographic. Furthermore, I found little detail about how that knowledge and skills related to the overall purpose and goals of K-12 education.
Instead, the language in the portraits often reads more like definitions of each of the skills than a vision or framework for how a prepared graduate will apply their skills in college, career, and the world beyond high school. There is certainly a case to be made for skills for skills sake. Ars gratia artis, if you will, given that the broader meaning of the Latin word arsincludes crafts and skills along with the arts. And it is certainly true that we cannot predict what jobs, gigs, or careers today’s students will be pursuing 25, 10, or even 5 years from now.
Still, I would like to see a portrait of a well-rounded high school graduate include more of the language describing the timeless purpose of education found in the majority opinion of Kentucky Chief Justice Stephens in the 1989 landmark case Rose v. Council for Better Education:
“to provide each and every child with at least the seven following capacities: (i) sufficient oral and written communication skills to enable students to function in a complex and rapidly changing civilization; (iii) sufficient knowledge of economic, social, and political systems to enable the student to make informed choices; (iii) sufficient understanding of governmental processes to enable the student to understand the issues that affect his or her community, state, and nation; (iv) sufficient self-knowledge and knowledge of his or her mental and physical wellness; (v) sufficient grounding in the arts to enable each student to appreciate his or her cultural and historical heritage; (vi) sufficient training or preparation for advanced training in either academic or vocational fields so as to enable each child to choose and pursue life work intelligently; and (vii) sufficient levels of academic or vocational skills to enable public school students to compete favorably with their counterparts in surrounding states, in academics or in the job market.”
The extent to which these seven capacities or the skills contained in today’s portraits are of an ideal that can never be achieved (like 100% proficiency) is subject to debate. What’s clear, however, is that schools, districts, states, publishers, researchers, and test makers are going to be hard at work designing programs to achieve them.
And that is what has me nervous this morning.
Nothing To Fear But Ourselves
The road to Hell is paved with well-intentioned tests and programs designed to improvee student learning.
Achieving these holistic portraits of a high school graduate requires a holistic approach and solution.
Our tendency in education, however, is to think small. And I include assessment, curriculum, and instructional folks in that statement. We like to take a big problem and break into down into smaller, workable chunks.
- What knowledge and skills can be assessed on an on-demand test?
- What individual standards does the desired skill or competency comprise?
- What can we include in a lesson, unit, or course?
We love to decompose tasks. And in principle, there is nothing wrong with breaking larger problems down into manageable tasks. There is nothing wrong with scaffolding and incrementally building up proficiency. More often than not, however, we have found ourselves as I did as a child: disassembled pieces strewn about me with no clue how to put the toy back together again.
With these durable skills, the critical question will not be what lessons, units, or courses, can we build to teach critical thinking, problem-solving, or collaboration and teamwork. Although inevitably, we will build such lessons, units, or courses.
The question is not even which existing courses are best suited to foster critical thinking, problem-solving, or collaboration and teamwork. Although inevitably, we will ask that question as well.
Rather, the question must be how to we fit content into a curriculum built around the durable skills? In other words, instruction in the durable skills must be infused throughout the curriculum. Some schools made this switch in thinking years ago, but it will not be easy to make the shift at scale. It will take time, preparation, and dedicated effort.
A solid curriculum, however, is not sufficient to achieve success.
Success will be impossible unless a focus on the portrait of a high school graduate and durable skills is not also at the center of the school’s culture.
In this era of personalization, we tend to minimize the importance of a common shared culture – or we are even afraid to discuss the concept. School culture, however, is the starting point for nurturing and growing students: critically-thinking, problem-solving students with communication skills, who are adaptable and collaborate well with others. The primacy of durable skills must be reflected in the set of fundamental beliefs, shared values, norms and expectations, and the traditions and rituals that define the school; that is, its culture.
From their initial days as students, the school is the first community in which these future high school graduates we envision must learn to survive, thrive, and apply the knowledge and durable skills that are learning. Beyond providing a safe environment that supports social and emotional growth and well-being, the school culture must help us realize our vision of a high school graduate.
Image by M_wie_Moehre from Pixabay
Embrace the Absurd 