High Expectations and support

One of the tensions we often struggle with in public schools is how high expectations can be interwoven with systems for student support. The state has embarked on the somewhat hypocritical path of ratcheting up expectations for all students (a good thing) but eliminating study halls which for most schools, is a time when students could receive extra support or even dare we allow it, a breather.

This question of rigor and recognizing that kids like adults need additional support and timely breaks is a constant tension that manifests itself in schools. Our recent decision to set as policy that only long-term projects can be assigned during extended vacation is one way we have attempted to set some parameters around school life and family life.

Teachers are constantly caught in this bind between for lack of a better term, rigor and reality. For instance, some teachers have to struggle with a policy that forbids them to assign extra reading over a break with the demands of an AP curriculum which expects that a tremendous amount of material needs to be covered. Teachers want to provide more time for students to understand material but know that they must cover certain concepts in a timely manner if students are to get adequate exposure before taking state tests in their junior year.

There are no easy answers to this conundrum; much of what this space will be dedicated to is detailing how we are trying to provide those systems of support (for teachers and students) so that rigor across the curriculum can be achieved in a manner that does not lead to teacher or student burnout . Can we support kids and provide teachers the opportunity to explore certain concepts in depth, and at a clip which is fast-paced but not overwhelming? What trade-offs are we willing to make? More student support time means less time for direct instruction. There are no clear-cut, easy solutions.