The Magical Tassel

Happy Independence Day!  July 4^th and great American celebrations commence with BBQ, fireworks and patriotic music.  Though not astronomically correct, it feels like mid-summer, especially to educators.  We have another year under our belts and our minds in weaker moments turn to the year to come.  Perhaps not today as we distract ourselves with our nation’s birthday, but soon. 

I reflect on the group of high school seniors who are no more for as of early June they became high school graduates.  Today is truly Independence Day for that group across our land because with one turn of a magical tassel affixed to the world’s most awkward hat all the ways we think about the individuals in this group changed.  They were transformed and the institutions that serve this group transformed with them.  They were set free by the magical tassel turn.  In my career I have turned thousands of tassels in this great American Magical Show we call the High School Graduation Ceremony, and it occurs to me I have not articulated how important this event is to educational institutions and the students we exit and the lives they commence. 

In three short months in the summer after high school, children become adults.  An 18 year old in May is treated very differently than an 18 year old in September.  During those three months, the turn of the magical tassel has symbolically transferred the responsibility for each of these young adults from the public schools to the individual student.  What a rite of passage!  Let me be clear about the change that happens with that turn of the tassel.

Prior to the turn of the tassel, the student’s behavior, the student’s dress, the student’s manners, even the food the student eats were the responsibility of the public school.  After the turn of the tassel, presto! the student becomes responsible for all these attributes.  No one will monitor caloric intake, facial hair, ear rings, tats, skirt length or cleavage revealed.  No one will monitor whether they bully or get bullied, no one will be held accountable for the annual dental cleaning, vision testing, vaccinations, hearing tests, or physical fitness of the student.  How these 18 year olds function in June is totally different than how they functioned in May, and the schools have released another crop of young adults into society.

Prior to the turn of the tassel, what the student learned and how well he or she learned it was the school’s responsibility.  Tests were given to be sure schools were doing it well, teachers passed tests to be sure  they were doing it well, data were collected and run in the local paper to show how the schools that serve 18 year olds in May were performing.  It was the school’s job to teach and the school was held accountable.  After the turn of the tassel, presto! It is the students’ responsibility.  If a high school student fails a course, it is the teacher’s fault.  If a college freshman fails a course, it is the student’s fault.  If a high school student quits, he or she is a “drop out” and it is the school’s fault.  If a college freshman quits, they have “flunked out” and it is the student’s fault.  If a high school student fails to make a certain grade on a standardized test, it is the teacher’s fault and the school’s fault and the school system’s fault.  If a college student fails to pass a professor made test that has not been reviewed by any psychometrician for validity or alignment, then it is the student’s fault.  Yes, in three short months after the turn of the tassel the 18 year old is now responsible for his or her learning and behavior, not the institution that serves him or her.  What a magical tassel this is!  There are no other three month spans in the life of an American that yield such change.

As early rumblings of holding colleges accountable for student learning began, we in public education began to hear the term “college readiness.”  Oh my, so if we hold universities accountable for student learning it is still the public school’s responsibility because students who fail in college must have been ill-prepared in high school.  It is our fault again for not making students college ready.  The tassel may turn and free the student, but it has yet to free the high school.

Prior to the turn of the tassel high school teachers hold themselves responsible for student learning and student success.  High schools hold themselves responsible for student learning and success.  High school parents hold the high schools responsible for student learning and success (and much more, including popularity, extracurricular success and the assurance that the senior year not be too strenuous.)  Teachers teach for learning and assume teaching has not occurred unless there is measurable evidence of the learning.

After the turn of the tassel, professors hold the students responsible for their own learning and success.  Colleges hold themselves responsible for placing an expert in each class who is charged with delivering the content, not the reception or retention of the content, hence the word “professor” he who professes, as opposed to teacher, he who teaches.  The burden for learning falls on the student.  Parents of college students cannot go on line and check their kids’ grades, nor do professors schedule parent conferences to confer on areas of weakness.  Nope, the kid is on his or her own.  Their magical tassels have been turned.  There will likely not be tutorials, staged interventions, make up work or extra credit.  This is college.  There is no 22 to 1 ratio requirement, there is no required staff development on pedagogical techniques for professors, and there are no required continuing education hours on the professional and practice of teaching.  Nope, this is license to transmit content with the fully accepted assumption that it is the student’s job to learn.  The institution is independent of the student and is not accountable for the student’s learning.

I have observed an interesting phenomenon over the years of increasing public school accountability.  The more we hold public schools accountable for student outcomes on standardize tests the more rigid the instruction, the more directed the instructors and the more responsibility the school has assumed for student learning.  And though scores go up on these tests, the more the colleges lament the lack of preparation of the entering students to assume responsibility for their own learning.  Could it be that there is an inverse relationship between public school accountability and collegiate success?  I think so.  The more we hold public schools accountable, the less likely students will be successful in college.  The assumptions are bipolar regarding who is responsible for student success and public schools must assume more and more responsibility for such success diminishing our ability to promote student responsibility for such success, thereby decreasing the likelihood of collegiate success. 

The assumed responsibility shifts from public school to individual student with the turn of the magical tassel.  At that point, students are declared free and schools are finally free of their responsibility for virtually every aspect of the young adult’s life.  Mortarboards are thrown in the air, tassels hung on rear view mirrors and families and friends celebrate.  But the turn of that magical tassel has caused a huge cultural shift in the expectation for success for each of those kids.  No longer is it the school’s job to teach and make kids successful.  It is the student’s job. 

Happy Independence Day, high school grads.  The magical tassel has set you free.