Teaching What Matters Most: Standards and Strategies for Raising Student Achievement - Book Review

Theory Into Practice, Summer, 2003 by Karon N. Lecompte

By Richard W. Strong, Harvey F. Silver, and Matthew J. Perini. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2001. 137 pp., $22.95 (paper). ISBN 0-87120-518-1

Teaching What Matters Most: Standards and Strategies for Raising Student Achievement is a collection of pedagogical approaches that stress meaningful learning. The approaches discussed encompass issues of race and diversity through teacher reflection. The authors relate that reflection on the standards-based movement drove them to think, reflect, and discuss a possible set of standards that would, "lead to measurable improvement on state tests, and allow for teachers to be creative in meeting the needs of all students." Four standards--focusing on concepts rather than content--emerged: rigor, thought, diversity, and authenticity. Following is a summary of the four standards outlined by the authors, including a brief critique of each. The review concludes with a few comments about the educational promise put forward by these standards.

Rigor. Rigor can be using every possible method that might stimulate children's thinking, then holding each child to his of her fullest potential. The authors define rigor as, "the goal of helping students to develop the capacity to understand content that is complex, ambiguous, provocative, and personally of emotionally challenging." Three points are evident in their definition. First, the authors contend that rigor is a curriculum goal. This goal is accomplished by providing complex and challenging material for students in order to help them not only develop the ability to practice the skills to decode and understand rigorous material, but also to provide them an enriched, challenging learning environment while developing the aforementioned skills. The second point the authors make is that rigor requires students to work with difficult materials and ideas. Rigorous content requires students to give it their all, helps them handle new knowledge or situations, allows them to be openminded and flexible in their thinking, encourages them to persevere though the content may be difficult to grasp, and creates a heightened sense of pride, accomplishment, and motivation when the goal to understand the material is reached. Third, the authors direct teachers to ways in which content can be rigorous. How to increase rigor in the classroom is a decision that each educator must make because he/she must take into account the personality of the classroom and the time constraints on each day. Rigorous learning broadens teachers' tools of assessment, taking them away from more traditional means, such as short answer tests. The authors believe that educators must assess the rigor in their curriculum and their tools for teaching as well. Overall, rigorous learning is not about the quantity of content covered, but rather the high quality of learning in the classroom.

Thought. Thought is an expansion of one's mind. It is imaginative--whether daydreaming of pondering a complex question. Thought can be recalling something or planning the best way of going about doing something. Strong, Silver, and Perini define thought as, "the pursuit of purpose under conditions of uncertainty." This definition recognizes that students think as they learn and this thinking is an act of labor. In fact, classrooms should be places that foster thinking and reflection.

Diversity. Three chapters of this book directly address diversity, defined here as more than just race; diversity means individuality. Diversity entails more than an awareness of multicultural teaching and learning. It is an attitude of appreciation for individuality. In their definition, the authors adopted the notion that "teachers are committed to the full development of each and every student's unique potential by varying instruction, assessment, and content to support students in their use of their own resources and challenge them to acquire and understand the resources of others." This definition has three distinct characteristics: (a) it acknowledges that students learn differently and it is the responsibility of teachers to respond by offering a variety of learning opportunities; (b) it recognizes the key role of assessment; and (c) it supports the goal of helping students understand the resources, talents, and perspectives of other people. Diversity, in this sense, supports teacher reflection in cultural contexts. By the very nature of this definition of diversity, teachers must think and reflect on individual students in the classroom. Moreover, they must not only think about their individual students, they must reflect on their own humanness and act responsibly toward creating a classroom environment that accepts all children as successful learners. This requires that teachers think beyond race and understand diversity in terms of caring for each and every person.

Authenticity. Something that is authentic is real. The authors consider this notion in the context of learning and conclude that "authenticity is the curriculum goal in which teachers help students acquire real world skills and knowledge by developing their abilities to read, write, solve problems, and apply concepts in a manner that prepares them for their lives beyond school." Further, this definition of authenticity is analyzed in four dimensions. Kinds of work, sources, communication, and problem-based learning offer educators a framework to build authentic experiences in their classrooms.