I spent Sunday-Wednesday this week serving on an WASC (Western Association of Schools and Colleges) accreditation committee for a school in the Bay Area. Just as observing other classrooms is a great opportunity for teachers to reflect deeply about their own beliefs and the practices they use based on those values, getting the chance to look deeply at all dimensions of another school, from governance to finance to admissions to marketing to site to what and how children learn, how assessment is used, how all students are supported and how parents, families and the community are engaged is an incredible (and exhausting) opportunity for me to reflect on how TBS approaches all of these critical areas as well.What I realized during my visit was how lucky I feel to work at TBS. We are truly a child-centered school, in which the developmental needs and characteristics of children form the basis for everything we do. From the physical arrangement of the classrooms, to the scope and sequence of our curriculum, to our strong emphasis on professional development for faculty, we are constantly asking the question "what are the needs of our students, and how can we improve the educational experience they have?" To have my personal values and philosophy so in line with the place where I work is an incredibly powerful and motivating experience.
This visit also made me excited for our own upcoming accreditation self-study, which we'll be conducting next year. Approached bureaucratically, a self-study is just a series of hoops to jump through, but I know that we'll use this as an authentic opportunity to rigorously investigate all aspects of our program, for the same reason we always return to - a commitment to improve the education we provide for students.
No comments:
Post a Comment