It seems we’ve fully moved on from talking about getting our schools and our students back to normal. There is no back. And, if we’re honest, there has never been a “normal.” There’s only change.

And as we navigate this constant – and constantly accelerating – change, many of us are now asking: What is school for?

Have you been wrestling with this question, too? 

This isn’t completely new. So many educators were exploring this question in the before times. The pandemic, and now this semblance of an emergence from it, has accelerated our sense of urgency to explore this question, to explore new visions for education.

It’s one of the central themes I hear in how my own kids (now 3rd and 7th grade) have experienced each stage of their changing education models since 2020. I hear it  in what they want out of school now, what they feel isn’t working for them, what they appreciate, where they experience amazing levels of support and connection from the superheroes in their classrooms and how they’ve seen those same teachers struggle mightily.

It’s top of mind for each educator I’ve spoken with recently, from AASA to ASCD to the virtual events we’ve hosted recently.

And it’s one of the central themes in what’s happening in innovative school districts like Anaheim’s Union High School District. AUHSD’s vision for education centers around empowering students to take ownership and agency of their learning. It’s about education as a place for students to find their voice, connect with their purpose, and emerge ready to create change in their communities.

Dr. Jaron Fried, AUHSD Assistant Superintendent for Education Services, put it so well when he said on our recent Fireside Chat:

“We have seen firsthand throughout AUHSD that when we elevate student voice, we're also helping to form and shape their identity. We're helping to shape and form their sense of purpose. As we connect the content to their real life and find ways to make it more meaningful, students stop asking, ‘why am I learning this.’ They see greater connections, they see more applications.”

AUHSD is connecting educational content – the what of school – with the educational experience – the how of teaching and learning – to each student’s larger life purpose. By creating an education experience designed to help each student find and use their voice.

And that opens the question…how do we find evidence of this kind of learning?

In the AUHSD vision, evidence of learning doesn’t rely solely on standardized assessments. Those are lagging indicators that tell us what students have learned of the material, and only after the fact. 

Granted, assessments matter. But AUHSD has empowered teachers to focus on the experience of learning in the classroom. Their first and foremost focus is not on teaching to the test. It’s on engaging the student.

Evidence of this kind of deep learning is found in evidence of meaningful student engagement (something I explored in last month’s missive). And evidence of meaningful student engagement is found in evidence of student voice in the classroom. (Here’s some of the research that grounds our focus on student voice in the classroom.)

Evidence of student voice in the classroom is evidence that students are actively doing the work, are connected to that work. When AUHSD teachers use TeachFX in their classrooms, as I recently discussed with AUHSD’s Dr. Jeff Kim, they actually see the student talk in their classrooms.

They see where students are engaging in academic conversation, how they’re using academic vocabulary, what teaching practices are working to inspire meaningful dialogue, and even how equitable those classroom conversations are.

Many teachers are finding that their post-pandemic classrooms can be a cacophony of student talk. Many students are desperate to get to talk. To each other, to their teachers, maybe even just to hear their own voices. 

The meaningful engagement supported by student voice and purpose is not just about students talking. It’s about meaningful academic conversations that connect every student to the content, to their educators, and to their classroom community. Because, again to quote Dr. Fried’s Fireside Chat:

“When we can find ways to engage and interact with our students, give them cognitive lift, and help them take a greater, active role in the classroom by speaking and sharing their thinking, it's going to make a tremendous impact on what they learn. Not just in terms of the schooling, but in preparing them for things greater in life beyond school.”

It’s that last sentence. Preparing them for things greater in life beyond school. That’s what school is for.

School has evolved. From the place where kids learned information, to the place where kids gain self actualization through their learning experience.

This vision of what school is for celebrates every educator’s power to help create a better world – by connecting every student to their potential to create a better world.

Right now, we all have the choice to embrace a seismic shift in how education works. And it’s going to take a seismic shift in how we support and empower our teachers.

Because this kind of education culture is about what’s being taught in our classrooms and how it’s taught. Anaheim has integrated the what with the how and provided their teachers with the support, professional development, and autonomy to put that vision into practice in their classrooms. It’s more than I can summarize here, so I encourage you to give Dr. Fried’s fireside chat a listen.

As a parent, I’m so inspired by this vision for what school is for. As part of the TeachFX team, I’m so fired up by every educator I meet who’s already on this journey, and the many who are reaching out to us to learn how to take the first step. If we haven’t yet, I can’t wait to talk with you about it, too.

PS: If you'd like to learn more about how TeachFX partners with educators to connect their visions to what happens in the classroom, start the conversation with us. We’d love to learn about what you’re working towards..