Holistic Learning

Having just left my evening volunteer time at the District Advisory Committee (DAC), I received a response to my question about having someone from the district outline the Equity Plan.  We also had someone come and share with us her segregation study too.  

What I'd like to now understand is about 'equity of curriculum and academic achievement'.  I would like to see what holistic teaching strategies are being taught across the district.  It hurts me when I see programs/curriculum being deemed to be successful in schools of high poverty that are based on drills/regurgitating information, rather than those that teach best practices and for our children to be problem-solvers.  This wouldn't fly in a higher income populated school.

Short-term success and increase in test scores can be gleaned from these types of programs (like one I'm still learning about which I heard teaches words in isolation--which was showcased in the presentation today as a 'success-factor' in the mentioned low-income Title 1 school); but TRUE long-term success for our kids cannot. 

Literacy Squared, for example, would be a program of best practices in that it teaches words in context vs. just drilling words in isolation.  We need to be careful as a district to allow for these programs to take over in extreme ways and be the 'silver bullet' of what can help our Title 1 schools be 'successful'.

Beyond Academics: What-a-holistic-approach-to-learning-could-look-like