Teaching to students' minds, not just to the test

VIRGINIA BEACH

After two years of quiet planning, the superintendent of schools has unveiled his vision. Jim Merrill wants to overhaul teaching and focus on critical thinking instead of test preparation.

For the past decade, the state's public schools have adjusted teaching to fit Standards of Learning tests, the yardstick used to measure school performance.

"You could pass SOLs and still fail a kid," Merrill said.

His new direction is the key idea behind a six-year plan. The School Board will consider a draft at its annual retreat this weekend.

To prepare, the board heard a presentation by Tony Wagner, co-director of the Change Leadership Group at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education. He told them that although about three-quarters of students and teachers believe high school graduates have learned the basics, only about a third of employers and college professors agree.

"We need to teach all students to think," Wagner said.

Merrill's vision includes preparing students with 21st-century skills such as writing, innovation, motivation and collaboration.

"This is what teachers want to do, anyway," Merrill said. "I think that's what they're saying when they say they're sick of teaching to the test. We have dampened them a lot with accountability."

That doesn't mean teaching the state standards will go away.

"It's about changing how you do instruction," Merrill said. Principals will hear his ideas in August, and training would be rolled out gradually.

"I think that's fantastic," Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said of Merrill's plan. "I think we should always encourage schools and teachers to be creative." He said he'd support adjusting the SOLs to measure new skills.

Mary Voss, a Beach parent on the strategic planning committee, said technology is changing faster than students can keep up.

"If we teach them how to find the information they need - how to be learners - they'll be capable of handling whatever's thrown at them," she said.

One major way to get students interested in learning, Merrill said, is by making it relevant and hands-on.

A group of teachers at Lloyd C. Bird High School in Chesterfield County plans to start doing just that this fall. A few dozen students will do several design projects, each tied to their core classes.

For example, the students may be assigned to build a catapult in their engineering class, said coordinator Nancy Hoover. In physics, they'll learn about projectile motion and angle. In math, they'll graph angle and range to learn the relationship, she said.

"We don't have to do this the way we've always done it," Principal Beth Teigen said. If the pilot works, the school hopes to expand the concept.

Wagner told the board that Virginia Beach may be unique if it implements its ideas citywide.

"We have an opportunity, collectively, to do something amazing," he said.

The idea of broad-based change excites Virginia Beach board members. Creative, project-based learning is already being done in some schools and programs around the city.

"What we teach students in gifted education, we should be teaching all of our students," board member Sandra Smith-Jones said. "That's what we're missing."

Merrill said it's worth taking the risk that test scores might stagnate or drop in the short term.

"I feel a very strong, compelling motivation for doing what's really right for a change," he said.

Dominic Melito, head of the Virginia Beach Education Association, said teachers will need to feel they can try new approaches without endangering their jobs. If that happens, test results will follow, he said.

"There's no reason we can't be a model for the region, the state and the nation."

Lauren Roth, (757) 222-5133, lauren.roth@pilotonline.com