‘PSS moving in right direction on student learning’

Schoolteachers should not only teach nowadays but ensure that students learn and are not left behind. This was one of the focus subjects in this week’s workshop for education officials and educators.

Public School System officials and principals held a two-day workshop on “The Role of Assessment in Improving Student Learning.” The workshop started Monday and education officials, board of education officers and members, and school principals attended the workshop. Today’s session will include some teachers from various schools in the Commonwealth.

Speakers Bruce and Sharon Camblin from Change Systems for Educators, Don Burger from the Pacific Resources for Education and Learning, and Sharon Burger from InSight Consulting are back on the island after three years for a review of how the education system on the island is doing with regards to ensuring student learning.

Bruce Camblin said that, so far, the CNMI seems to be moving in the right direction to enhance student learning.

Susan Burger said the theme of the institute is the use of data to improve student learning, which is why they are focusing on school leaders. Today’s workshop, on the other hand, would focus on teachers.

The workshop aims to get the leaders to consider the implication of standards-based education in moving into a teaching-learning cycle, with emphasis on student learning.

“They must look at the implications of those things for their roles as education leaders,” Susan Burger said.

Another major discussion in the two-day sessions was the changes that come with the shift in the education system from traditional to the standards-based system.

Susan Burger said that, to be effective, school leaders must know how to meet these kinds of changes, which could be more difficult and have more impact than other kinds of changes.

The traditional system includes curricular objectives that are selected by a few central office specialists and textbooks become the de facto curriculum; in the standards-based system, content and performance standards are selected and approved by a broad community-based process.

Susan Burger also said that improving students’ learning is a complex process so leaders should also take note of the complexity of learning. She admitted that it is difficult to impact student learning on a widespread level. “There are lots of things that go into student learning.”

She said one of the tasks of educators is to be aware of that complexity so they should focus on more than one goal in imparting learning.

Burger said a major issue across the nation right now is what educators are expected to perform as teachers and leaders with respect to the “No Child Left Behind Act.”

Traditionally, parents expect educators to be solely responsible in teaching their child, said Burger. Also, she said the traditional mentality in school is that their goal was to sort and select students. She said some students would do well but some would not. “The brightest would move on…if they don’t learn it’s their fault,” she said.

Today everything is in different perspective, she said. The goal is not just to teach as educators but also to make sure that students learn. She said educators now must take a different approach in student learning and one way is to adopt standards-based education.