by Robyn Jackson, Mindsteps
The High Standards Myth: This myth leads some to equate high standards with high expectations. They argue that if you raise the standards, you will raise teachers’ expectations. Thus, they judge whether a teacher has high expectations for her students by how high her standards are.
But there is a BIG difference between high expectations and high standards. The difference between an expectation and a standard is that the standard is the bar and the expectation is our belief about whether students will ever reach the bar. Thus, it is possible to have high standards and low expectations.
Raising standards is not the same as raising expectations. Holding students more accountable for more and more information does not change what we believe about their ability to master that information.
The bottom line is that raising standards will not raise expectations. In fact, higher standards may actually lower expectations.
If teachers already don’t believe that students are capable of meeting their standards, how will they believe that students will be able to meet newer higher standards once the bar is raised?
This came home to me recently when I worked with a group of GT, honors, and AP teachers to help them increase their enrollment of traditionally under-represented students in their courses.
I got to the part of my presentation where I talked about how teachers need to have high expectations of their students even if their students bring academic currencies into the classroom that look different than the traditional ways students use to show that they are smart and that they can handle more rigorous work.
As teachers were working in groups to discuss this concept, I overheard one teacher say, "I have very high expectations of my students. If you looked at my syllabus, you'd see that my standards are VERY high. The problem is, my students come to me missing so many of the basic skills that they can't reach those standards."
I stopped at her table and leaned in to hear more.
"It's really hard to get an A in my classroom," she continued. "I don't believe in dumbing down the curriculum. That's why honors and AP classes aren't for everyone. Not everyone can handle more rigor."
I was horrified but I tried not to show it.
Instead, I pulled up a chair and sat down at her table. "I couldn't help but overhear," I began. "I just want to clear up that high standards is not the same as high expectations."
She looked at me and it was clear that she didn't understand. So I went on. "Your standards are your standards. Your expectations are what you believe about whether students can meet the standards."
Blank stare.
Continue reading at: https://mindstepsinc.com/2018/11/high-standards-equal-high-expectations/