Thoughts on Testing

This coming week, all of our students will be taking standardized tests offered by the Educational Records Bureau.  The tests take time to administer and will require us to modify our regular schedule for the next four days.  Like many other things in the world, views on standardized testing has become quite polarized with advocates and opponents filling op-ed pieces in attempts to persuade schools to either embrace or eschew their administration.

At The Beech Hill School, standardized tests provide useful feedback for students, parents, and the institution.  However, these tests are not the only, or even the most important, data point used in assessing learning, growth, curriculum, and delivery.  In just four days of testing, however, the battery of assessments provides such a broad snapshot, it is hard to imagine getting rid of this tool.  Furthermore, it provides an opportunity to spend time in Skills classes discussing standardized test taking strategies.

Just this week, Harvard University has announced that they would, again, begin to require standardized testing, like the SAT and ACT, in the admission process.  They are following the lead taken by Brown, Dartmouth, and MIT.  When big name universities move in this direction, other schools follow.  So, it is entirely likely that by the time our students are applying to colleges, standardized testing will be more broadly required than it is today.  Practice taking assessments, like the ERBs will only make things like the SATs and ACTs less daunting.

In the end, BHS will continue to use standardized testing in ways that support our programs and our students.  To remove standardized testing from our cache of tools used to improve student and institutional outcomes would not be wise.  Going forward, we will continue to integrate test preparation and testing as an important piece of a very broad and robust educational program.

Easter Pie

Last week, my family celebrated Easter.  Over the past few years, it has become tradition for me to make my version of my Grandma Farone’s Easter Pie.  There is no actual recipe, as Gram did not work from recipes. She did, however, write down an approximation of the recipe some years ago for my mother.  The recipe is dated and calls for things that I have a hard time finding here in central New Hampshire – prosciuttini and basket cheese are not readily available – even at the new Market Basket – which seems to have everything!

What I make is not exactly the same as Gram’s, but it tastes enough like Easter Pie to me that it mentally transports me to the “kids’ table” at Grandma Farone’s house.  I really value this touchstone to my family history, and my kids have come to expect that I make this heavy meat and cheese laden pie every year.  It makes me happy to think that this tradition has helped to connect my past to the present and perhaps, the future.

Although The Beech Hill School is young, we have established a number of traditions.  Some, like Mountain Day are institutional and will – hopefully, last well after all of the current faculty and staff have left the school.  Others, like the 7th Grade Financial Literacy Project, are directly connected to an individual, like Ms. Fries.  The students at BHS have come to love this project – with alumni remembering it fondly and younger students eagerly anticipating their chance to complete it.

Like Easter Pie, the traditions at BHS will change over time.  Some traditions might not age well and some will resonate more deeply for some than others. In just over twelve years, the students and faculty – past and present – have created an abundance of deep and meaningful memories that will help to connect all BHS students long into the future.

Bookends

Since the COVID outbreak and in the years following, time seemed to move differently.  I would say things like, the other day – and I really meant several weeks ago.  Likewise, I struggled to place things cleanly on my mental timeline – like did my daughter play in a certain lacrosse tournament two summers ago or was it three.  In conversations that I have had with friends, the pandemic has impacted others in the same way.

My son, Nate, now a senior in high school, just returned from spring training with his high school baseball team at Dodgertown in Vero Beach on Thursday.  As I was waiting to pick him up at Logan, I realized that it was four years ago that I was in Vero Beach, picking him up from spring training, that year with his Cardigan Mountain School team.  It was on that trip – Thursday, March 12, 2020, that a number of sporting events, like March Madness and The Players Championship were cancelled, and in my mind, was when I realized that COVID was going to be a very big deal.

Clearly, COVID was a really big deal and unlike other events that float on my personal COVID timeline, my son’s spring training at Dodgertown was a clear maker of the beginning of major alterations to life.  Now, four years later, Nate is safely back from Dodgertown, Logan was packed with people and the CDC has removed almost all COVID related protocols.  While my personal time-line during the COVID years might never be fully accurate, it looks as if my son’s spring training trips will serve as bookends for the pandemic.

At least I hope so!

Seeing is Believing

Sad to say, but as my children have grown older, it is harder to find times when our whole family can be together.  This week, we were fortunate to schedule a mini-vacation in and around New York City.  We had a great time seeing a show on Broadway, walking all over lower Manhattan, and experiencing a wide range of culinary treats.  Throughout the visit, we noticed the significant difference between life in New York City and what life is like in New Hampshire, which led to conversations about what it must be like to live in New York.

Our family is lucky to have the opportunity to travel and to experience a way of living that is different.  It is my belief that experiences such as this help me and my family to better understand the world in which we live.  When I used to teach 6th Grade Geography, I would frequently tell the students in that class that if I had unlimited resources, their class would be a yearlong trek throughout the world experiencing the places firsthand, that we could only read about or see in movies.  While technology has allowed students to experience more of the world without leaving the classroom, it can never replace actually “being there.”  

In the wake of COVID, BHS teachers are once again taking students on field trips with increased frequency. In the future, I envision opportunities for BHS students to travel outside New England – perhaps even internationally.  For now, I am excited for our students to, once again, have the opportunity to experience learning beyond our campus. 

The Sound of Silence

Usually, when our students are in “The Forest,” an area of wooded landed just past our campus, there is an abundance of noise that can be heard all the way back to the main school building.  When I hear this, it brings a smile to my face, as it is the happy noise of middle school students enjoying our Outdoor Program.  This Friday, however, students were stationed throughout The Forest and the only thing that one could hear was the sound of birds and the wind in the trees – and the occasional snapping sound of a stick burning in a fire.  

This Friday, all students in grades 6 through 8 participated in our annual Winter Solo.  After a brief organizational meeting, students went off to their individual places in the woods with a ferro rod and an aluminum foil packet of food they made earlier in the day.  The typical chatter and clamor of Outdoors was replaced by focused industriousness.  It was truly a sight to behold!

Once all the fires were extinguished and the students emerged from The Forest, they beamed with pride and self-satisfaction.  While they certainly were not in the wilderness, nor were the weather conditions treacherous – our students were challenged, and they provided clear evidence of their learning.

I can’t recall the last time that I was so pleased by the sound of silence during Outdoors!