As the Pasco County school district shifts to a more rigorous set of educational standards, Superintendent Kurt Browning has been making the rounds to explain the changes to parents.
(B.C. Manion/Staff Photo)
During his most recent stop at Wiregrass Ranch High School — the final of 13 community meetings — Browning told parents that the district must change the way teachers teach and students learn. He also called for greater involvement by parents to help prepare students for entering school and to reinforce learning at home.
The district’s current performance must improve, Browning said, especially since the district is ranked 34th out of the state’s 67 districts.
“I’m not the least bit happy with 34,” Browning said.
Society has changed and the district must change, too, to meet its goal of producing students who are ready for college, careers and life, Browning said.
“We’ve got to make a connection between what’s happening in the real world and in the classroom,” Browning said.
Along those lines, the district is shifting to Common Core State Standards and raising the bar on expectations. The standards define what students should know as they proceed through school in order to graduate from high school fully prepared to enter college and the work force.
“We’re embracing a new way of teaching and learning,” said Rayann Mitchell, a senior supervisor in the division of curriculum, assessment and instruction.
The new standards are causing teachers to think differently about the way they teach, Browning said.
Instead of standing at the front of the classroom lecturing, teachers are now pushing for more collaboration between students and self-directed learning, Mitchell said. When parents visit a classroom, they may see different ways of teaching and learning. Instead of being seated in neat rows, students may have their desks pushed together so they can collaborate on projects, divvy research assignments and share what they’ve learned.
Teachers are being challenged in new ways, too. They’re using technology to help deliver lessons, and they’re using a new set of educational standards. The standards aim at helping students develop a deeper understanding of concepts and an ability to use their knowledge to tackle new academic challenges, Mitchell said.
Under Common Core, students will spend more time reading for information and less on literature as they advance through their school years. Elementary students will spend about half of their time on literary texts and the other half reading for information. Secondary students will spend about 30 percent of their time reading literature and the rest reading information.
Students will read a wide range of information and also will dig deep into content, Mitchell said.
“We want them to be able to pick up anything they want to read and to be able to figure it out,” she said.
In mathematics, the shift is toward developing a deeper understanding so that students can use efficient and effective ways to solve problems. Besides communicating their math knowledge through writing, they’ll also be expected to explain it, orally.
Teachers need to help students become self-directed learners, Mitchell said.
School districts cannot use a one-size-fits-all approach to instruction. “Every child learns differently,” Browning said. “There are going to be some kids that just aren’t going to get it.”
The district must address those needs. “We’re about pushing kids, but we’re not about pushing kids along,” he said.
Students may complain to their parents that school is hard, Browning said. But school is supposed to be challenging. It isn’t supposed to be easy. Learning requires work.
There are many ways that parents can help. Parent involvement begins before children enter school, he added, noting some youngsters arrive at school without knowing such basic things as the alphabet, colors, numbers or seasons.
Having nonfiction materials at home for children to read, engaging children in family projects, and helping with homework, are among the ways parents can support their children’s education, Browning said.
Sometimes, children are frustrated by homework because they say they haven’t learned a concept yet in school, one parent noted on a comment card. The district’s policy is that homework is intended to reinforce what’s been learned in school. It’s a way to practice new learning, Mitchell said. If materials are being sent home and the child doesn’t understand, parents should reach out to teachers.
Browning encourages parents to talk with teachers, and if they can’t resolve their issue there, to talk with principals. He invites them to take their issues up the chain of command until they reach him if problems cannot be resolved.
The community forums have been informative, Browning said. For one thing, the district has learned it needs to communicate more with parents. To that end, it will launch a monthly newsletter next school year to keep in touch with parents. The newsletter will be emailed to any parent submitting an email address.
The community meeting also addressed some misconceptions about the Common Core standards. Skeptics have claimed that Common Core are standards that are being pushed on local districts by the federal government, but Browning said that isn’t true.
The National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers collaborated with teachers, researchers, education experts, and members of the higher education and business communities to design and develop the standards.
Local school districts are in charge of the educational materials used to ensure students meet those standards, Browning said.
This year, Florida students will continue taking the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, Browning said. Next year, there will be another assessment, though state officials have not yet decided what that will be.
The school district’s goal is to equip students for challenges they’ll encounter beyond high school. So, Browning told parents that when international companies locate in Tampa Bay, “I want your kids to be able to compete for those jobs.”
Sources of help for parents:
• PTA.org
• The ‘In Sync’ education link at Pasco.k12.fl.us.
Published March 19, 2014
