The Things That Matter

“Many of the things you can count, don't count. Many of the things you can't count really count.”

-Albert Einstein

Last weekend, I read this year's One Book, One Sullivan selection, The Bitter Side of Sweet, and I was struck by the recurring sentiment of only counting the things that matter. This week, we will be administering the MAP test to our students. I want to make it very clear that the data we will get from these tests is helpful for the purpose of evaluating our curriculum. It is good data to use to inform some of our decision making, but by no means do I put these test scores near the top of the things that matter in regards to what our teachers do every day. 

Much more important to me are the number of students who count one of our teachers as the most influential person in their life, who approach me in the hallway upset and give me the name of a teacher as the person they'd most like to speak with about whatever it is that has them in tears, who light up at their sporting event or concert when they see their teachers in the audience, who are excited to show me their grades on Skyward when I walk through classrooms, who truly see the value of their education because of the impact you have on them. Those are the things that count. 

MAP scores and PARCC scores... those things are nice to look at every once in awhile to make sure we are staying on the right track, which is necessary, but they are by no means the things that count the most in our building.