Dismantling the “Teach to the Test” Mindset | Sal Khan & CA District Leaders

0:00 How do we use educational technology?

0:03 How do we use innovation to then give teachers

0:06 permission to dismantle that mindset of teaching to the test?

0:12 Because I think once we dismantle the mindset of teaching

0:15 to the test and teaching in that silo-based thinking of education,

0:20 then it's gonna give teachers the agency

0:23 to then just integrate everything into the core curriculum.

0:27 And we're gonna have a new way of thinking.

0:30 And a new way of teaching.

0:31 And that's what I think is gonna be a big shift that needs to happen

0:34 because we've been teaching the same way forever

0:36 and ever and ever and ever and ever.

0:38 Where do you think the teachers are getting that signal

0:40 to like get narrow and teach to the test?

0:43 Is that historically the leadership's been

0:45 doing it or they just implicitly assume?

0:48 I think there's been so much pressure on school districts to raise test scores.

0:57 That's how we're evaluated.

0:59 In the dashboard.

1:00 And I think there's been maybe a lack of innovative leaders, maybe.

1:08 I know Amy, you're such an innovative leader that you give

1:11 that agency to your leaders to say it's okay to be innovative,

1:15 but not everybody has that because they're scared at what they're going to get.

1:20 And maybe they're afraid at giving or maybe pulling...

1:26 They're so tight with the ranks that there's, you know, if they give a little,

1:30 they might not get what they're going to, you know what I mean?

1:34 So I think that we're afraid of loosening the ranks--

1:37 And your thesis is if you actually lose it a little bit,

1:40 give a little more autonomy, that your scores won't actually suffer.

1:42 In fact, it might improve because we're a little more engaged.

1:45 Yes.

1:46 Yes.

1:46 And the cognitive demand of that type of work is higher as well.

1:48 So the lab measure would hopefully reflect that.

1:52 But I don't think we're training our teachers to do that because we are...

1:59 We're just not there yet, right?

2:00 We're not training our teachers because we're training

2:02 our teachers to do the test right now.

2:05 So how do we fix that?

2:06 Well, we're still training our teachers to do best first instruction.

2:08 And like this one size fits all, I hold all of the knowledge and it's my job

2:14 to give it to you in one way, to everyone.

2:17 I mean, the philosophy behind all that is just really...

2:21 Antiquated- Antiquated, yeah.

2:23 I feel like education knows it doesn't work, but, I mean,

2:27 am I very limited two years of experience behind the curtain.

2:31 It just feels like there's so many other

2:34 pressures between unions and curriculum and textbook vendors.

2:40 And there's so many other external drivers

2:44 that don't allow for change to happen.

2:47 So there's a recognition that it's not working, but...

2:51 Might I add too, we're a profession of apprenticeship.

2:53 So we've seen somebody do our job for 16 years prior to now having our job.

2:58 So I put forward potentially models of excellence.

3:02 How often are teachers exposed to these integrated learning opportunities,

3:07 with a high cognitive demand, and have real world relevance.

3:11 I've seen somebody doing my job for 16 years,

3:14 it's going to be a challenge to adjust,

3:18 and what are the structures in our system that provide the support?

3:23 So even as a teacher,

3:24 if I recognize all I have in my toolbox is what I was exposed to prior,

3:28 what access do I have to new tools and how to use those?

3:32 Well, that, to me, that causes an equity issue, right?

3:34 Because if the question is what access do I have of the tools,

3:38 you're automatically assuming that it's the teacher's role to be

3:41 the primary person that gives the access to the students.

3:45 And so the other teacher that really likes that tech,

3:47 and likes Khanmigo and is into it,

3:49 then those students are gonna benefit from it,

3:51 which is a very small percentage of the total teachers in the district.

3:56 So if I'm unlucky enough to have a teacher

3:59 who doesn't like that, who is afraid of AI,

4:02 and won't use Khanmigo, then it's an equity problem.

4:04 I am now, because I'm dependent upon a teacher to let me use it,

4:08 I don't get the benefit from the tech.

4:11 And how sad for that.

4:12 And how sad for that.

4:13 Right?

4:13 I mean, that's the thing about what I feel like we've

4:16 seen across the AI and tech vendors is it's all so still,

4:20 no model teacher centered.

4:22 All the control lies with the teacher,

4:23 and until we somehow miraculously give PD to every single teacher to show

4:27 them how amazing it will be if they could differentiate with AI,

4:31 and personalize with AI, our kids are suffering as a result because

4:35 we're just aren't able to upskill them that quickly.

4:39 And we could provide PD to a lot of teachers,

4:41 but if they're still hesitant, are they going to use it?

4:44 So how do we change that?

4:46 Right, because PD's not sufficient to change behavior,

4:48 you have to do the behavior,

4:50 lifetime of behavior, adjust behavior, see the behavior model.

4:54 Behavior change is complex, right?

4:56 So simple professional development.

4:58 We're almost doing what we're asking teachers not to do.

5:01 We're professing and then asking them to apply or mimic,

5:04 which, how well does that work?