Chinese educators visit Lombard school
China’s education system has a reputation of producing academic excellence among its students.
But there’s more to education than academics. A group of about 20 administrators and teachers from Shanghai recently visited Hammerschmidt Elementary School in Lombard to talk about a different aspect of education.
“They have a particular interest in how we balance the academic and the social/emotional learning,” said Maura Zinni, Lombard Elementary District 44 assistant superintendent for teaching and learning.
The Chinese visitors heard the answer, translated into Mandarin by interpreter Apollo Luo.
Social and emotional skills are just as important as academics, so the district works to teach students how to “manage their emotions and respond accurately to others,” Zinni said.
While the visit was meant as an educational exchange for the Chinese delegation, if suburban educators can learn anything in return, maybe it’s this: Ask a lot of questions. And listen to the answers.
This is an edited version of questions posed by members of the Shanghai Changning District Delegation and answers they received from District 44 administrators including Zinni, Superintendent Jim Blanche and Hammerschmidt Principal Dave Danielski.
Q. How does your district help struggling learners?
A. We use data to identify at-risk and high-achieving students. We give kids extra instruction in math or reading if they need it based on the level of their test scores.
Q. What if parents have trouble accepting that their children are struggling?
A. Typically our parents here in Lombard and across the nation are very glad for intervention because it closes the achievement gap. Sometimes they even come to the school and ask for extra help.
Q. In our district, we make students repeat a grade if they don’t meet certain standards. Does that ever happen here?
A. In four years, at Hammerschmidt we haven’t retained a student from going to the next grade. It’s in the best interest of the kid to go on with his peers. Socially and emotionally, holding a child back may do some lasting damage in the future.
Q. Do children here who are struggling learners also often have behavioral issues? How do you work with those students?
A. We have social workers and psychologists available in our schools and we really are developing a system of tiered support for behavior as well.
Q. What about gifted students?
A. Instead of teaching gifted students new topics altogether, we provide challenging activities in math and in writing so we can go deeper with the topics that are introduced.
Q. How does physical education work?
A. Physical education is an important part of developing the whole child. Elementary students get 25 minutes of physical education each day and middle school students get 44 minutes, but having daily physical education is not typical.
We actually believe that (physical education) is a very important part of developing the whole child.
Q. What happens when a student gets sick or hurt? Does the district run into legal issues when students get injured during school?
A. We have a nurse and a nurse’s assistant at our schools, and several students visit the health office every day. Health staff contacts parents if their child needs to go home or was transported to a hospital. We don’t really experience any legal challenges from parents involving injuries to students.