Yesterday, Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, spent the day talking with teachers and students at King Middle School in Portland. He learned a great deal about expeditionary learning....the keystone to King's curricula, commented on the looping practice that keeps students and their teachers together for two years, and reflected on how engaged students at King MS are in their learning.
For anyone familiar with King MS, none of these areas of focus would be surprising. But, I found even more interesting what was not said by Duncan. Nowhere in the dozen or more articles I read of the event was there mention of No Child Left Behind or Race to the Top or any of the other school reform agendas touted by the Department of Education.
And what makes it so interesting is that (in my humble opinion), King Middle School is the antithesis of what NCLB and RTTP stand for. King works because it pays attention to every student...supports and encourages every teacher to teach in a way that meets the needs of this age group...and has a visionary leader who isn't afraid to lead. Of course, there are many other reasons why King MS is so successful, but the key is that it works because it focuses on what we know about learning...not about punishing schools for poor test scores.
Take a look at the link above and see what happened yesterday at King Middle School.
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