Measuring Heterogeneity -- Guest Blogger Landis Green

Why’s it so hard to measure the successes of heterogeneity?

Perhaps it’s the range of topics on my summer reading list, but I’ve been thinking about the testing craze of recent years, especially as it relates to independent schools.  Our schools, at once influenced by and influencing of the broader culture, are constantly walking along a ridge that balances what has been with what will be.  That balance can feel like a struggle—sometimes a mighty struggle—that isn’t new to humankind, but that seems profoundly important in an age of such great and fast transition.  

At a time when those both inside and outside of schools, private and public, are arguing, legislating, and directing those most centrally involved in the work of school to focus on performance outcomes, many of us fear that much is getting lost.  I, for one, am concerned that in an effort to standardize and then hold school people accountable for meeting standards, we are losing the acceptance of heterogeneity that has brought our nation and our culture to this place.

Differing camps can argue about the virtues and values of the range of programs and services being affected by the ongoing debate regarding the sustained testing-related focus in education.  The focus on standardization—which can foster academic, intellectual, artistic, and social-emotional homogeneity—puts at risk what heterogeneity is already present in our schools.   Independent schools have an opportunity—some would argue a responsibility—to inform and, perhaps, lead the conversation regarding what’s gained and lost by standardization.
   
I know of many independent schools that work diligently to find the balance between establishing base-level standards to which all students and teachers should be held accountable while also honoring the unique background, interest, and skill set of the individual members of their school communities.  I also know of few independent schools that don’t have a clear, public, and earnest commitment to fostering a culture of respect and inclusion among both the student and adult members of their communities.
   
Work toward a truly multicultural community sometimes requires us to make difficult choices to bring to an end exclusionary programs or services, while introducing to our school communities language, programming, and events that foster the inclusion of those who might be marginalized in some way.  While those of us who want our schools to reflect a range of human experience journey on, the movement toward standardization and homogeneity subtly whittles away at the potential for future success in creating the type of complex school communities that reflect the diversity of cultures that have been at the center of our country’s rich, resilient, and generally—albeit, evolving—respectful culture.  Our society’s strength lies in the coming together of differing cultures, informed by the differences among us, including the varying religious, racial, socio-economic, and ethnic backgrounds that have been a part of our history from the very beginning—and the diverse talents and passions of the populace.

Please don’t misunderstand my point.  I’m not arguing against standards or scope and sequence or the calibration of programs aimed at educating children in ways that are consistent with our individual school missions or which provide our students with the baseline they’ll need for responsible and healthy participation in a democratic society.  My colleagues and I work tirelessly to create and maintain high standards for our students and ourselves.  

To use language common to my own school—which represents one of the core elements of our formal evaluation of every student in every project, class, and grade—I want our students to develop the habit of perspective.  Doing so—as deeply as one can, understanding the perspectives of others—requires that students first understand and bear witness to their own perspective.  For our students to reach that goal, we as educators must affirm and respect the individuals who are in our care—their strengths, passions, talents, and weaknesses.  A myopic focus on standardization can impede our work.  

All too often absent from the debate about the race toward standardization is the degree to which it compromises the focus on the individual and the unique set of cultural identifiers, talents, and humanity each of us brings to our communities.  Respecting and appreciating the individual—avoiding the homogenization that arises from a one-size-fits-all pedagogical bent—is the surest way for schools and school people to preserve and expand that which is best about our culture.

It’s difficult to measure because it’s immeasurably important.

Landis Green is head of school at Wildwood School, a progressive, K-12, college preparatory day school of 700 students on the west side of Los Angeles.  His work in independent schools encompasses the last twenty years and includes work in a Quaker School in Delaware, a “Town Academy” in Maine, and now a progressive school in Los Angeles. The three very different school communities have all explored in ways unique to their mission the intersection of testing, standardization, and individualization.

Comments

[Gary Gruber]

Landis has scored a direct hit and as a friend and colleague said recently, as long as the university is wagging our tails, we will too often capitulate. One response to that is to get real about what good college counseling (and placement) is all about and recognize individual differences, strengths and talents. One college or university (or a small group of them) does not meet the needs of most high school graduates any more than one test can measure the intelligence or capacity of any one student. This is why a group of schools who have eschewed the AP's have banded together under the Independent Curriculum Group - teach to high standards and let the kids take any test they want.