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Long thread: I'm not here to comment on the politics of reopening in my town. @NoreenMalone depicts it here-with a bit of snark and extra drama, but pretty accurately. 1/ https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/12/school-reopening-teachers-unions-parents-brookline-massachusetts.html
Everyone has been working very hard, but the crisis has been eye-opening+caused ppl to confront unpleasant realities+let go of some fairy tales. The piece alludes to some pre-Covid discussions in town about curriculum, assessment, teacher autonomy, etc. that I'll weigh in on.2/
Concerns from some parents+teachers about top-down management, “standardization”, data-wielding MBAs who want to change the world+cries of ‘we're not a turn-around district’ predated the letter from the K tchrs+investigations into the amount of time spent on SS and science.3/
When I started paying attention, around the time of the K teacher letter in 2019, my own impression was of a stew of confusion, presumptions abt motives, and low-resolution, high-emotion beliefs. 4/
Above all, I was struck by the ignorance about what kids need in order to learn to read--from all parties. (That wasn’t a big surprise to me after my experience with my son when he was in 1st grade many years earlier). 5/
After the K teachers publicly voiced their concerns and there was an outcry from parents, it took hours of confusing curriculum subcommittee discussion to even begin to understand what was going on.6/
Btw, what was the “new” approach to literacy referenced in the article? (It was introduced at least 10 years ago, right around the roll-out of Common Core, as noted in the article) This new approach was F&P Guided Reading, LLI & Benchmark Assessment System. 7/
What about that “literacy metric-obsessed” administrator’s alleged comment that poetry has “no inherent value”? I watched the SC meeting video from 2017 where the topic of poetry came up that is likely the source of that reference. Here’s what actually happened: 8/
The administrator presented SC w/an ex of a written composition like what the state assessment (MCAS) is asking 3rd graders to do+w/ disaggregated data on how Brookline Ss did. She explained that in her view, “proficiency” on MCAS was the bare minimum that we should aim for 9/
She said, “One of the things that I continually hear in this district is: “Is this a chase for the scores; are we chasing numbers? Are we only focused on MCAS...again, it’s not the important thing; it’s the bare minimum; it is not the most challenging test, not an AP exam...10/
...I want to make sure we know what it’s asking our students to do….When we’re asked about this we can say yes...we really do believe our students should be able to have coherent thoughts+use evidence from passages, etc.11/
"...Or we can say actually that’s not something we think is important in this district+we’re ok with Ss not being able to do it. We’ll make that decision+then be able to move on with confidence that we are comfortable when students are not doing well on this assessment.” 12/
One SC member voiced a concern that this looked like it was setting “a very high bar". Later in the discussion, the SC member expressed her concern that a focus on basic writing skills shouldn’t make us lose things like poetry writing. 13/
“We’ve had chldrn who've done incredible wrtng over the yrs...ofc some aren't going to be good poets, but they can try their hand at it. It increases their ability to think about what they’re reading. There are things we don’t want to lose in our quest for skill-based writing"14/
The administrator replied, “I'm not a fan of taking away poetry, but there are certain skills that students need if they are going to our AP classes, honors classes+college. We want kids to enjoy learning but we also want them to be productive+to be able to be successful...15/
"...when they make that transition. I did not write a poem when I went to college, but that’s because I chose not to. But we want kids to be able to write well, to be able to write research papers to be able to write argumentive essays...16/
"...and all the academic things that are sometimes a barrier for Ss making it to the next level in education so I want to make sure that we’re always thinking about that.” 17/
Something else from that meeting: The administrator presented case studies of 2 schools in the district that actually did close the achievement gap. Their African American students were performing just as well, even better than white students. 18/
With literacy, it was a teacher-led effort that involved screening, progress monitoring, strengthening their child study team. A few questions, but not too much excitement or interest from the SC about that.19/
One more topic the administrator raised was the little to no coherence in the curriculum (not just pedagogy, but actual content) across schools+even across classrooms in the same school. The administrator explained that one goal was to work toward more coherence. 20/
One SC member said this matched his experience as a parent. Another was skeptical, “Are you suggesting that’s (coherence) not happening now? There’s a big difference between schools? What is your evidence for that?” 21/
Meanwhile, parent groups were pushing back against anything that smelled like “standardization” or challenges to teacher autonomy. 22/
I can't believe I'm writing such a long thread and I promise to anyone reading that I only have a few more to go! (I've had a bit of 
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Interestingly, one big topic of discussion among parents and in SC after school closure this spring was the need for more coherence. Parents had a close-up look+could see vast differences btwn what diff teachers and diff schools were doing. 23/
They were thrust into the front seat+needed to take an active role w/their kids' learning. They started to ask, what’s the goal here anyway? What should I expect my child to actually be learning? 24/
Some SC members looked to these same administrators for answers to these now urgent questions that they had all but dismissed 3 years prior. 25/
I’ll leave it to you all to ponder questions like, what are good schools? Is there a diff btwn coherence+standardization? Is it too much to expect schools to teach all 3rd graders to write brief, coherent paragraphs abt something they've read w/more or less correct spelling? 26/
How about poetry? And what do you think the reaction would be if on the ELA MCAS 53% of Black Ss met expectations & 27% exceeded, while only 34% of white Ss met & 3% exceeded? How'bout if 14% of white Ss didn’t meet expectations *at all*. Would there be concern in Brookline? 27/
(That last bit is the exact opposite of the 2019 outcomes) /the end
And if anyone wants to see the slides and video from that 2017 meeting, here you go: https://www.brookline.k12.ma.us/site/Default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=4&PageID=1&ViewID=6446ee88-d30c-497e-9316-3f8874b3e108&FlexDataID=6368
