Finding Common Ground

The educators lean forward in their chairs and tilt their heads to ponder the situation from a new perspective. They furrow their brows, contemplating how they will answer the question hanging over the room.

The question that the teachers, principals, and administrators woke up early on a fall Saturday morning to answer is this: What is the message this student is conveying?

Jon Drescher has organized today’s event, the Lehigh/Center for Developing Urban Educational Leaders (CDUEL) Socratic Rounds. Now in its third year, the monthly gathering typically draws about four dozen educators from the Lehigh Valley, Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York, and sometimes further afield. 

The main purpose is to discuss crucial questions facing schools. But a central element in each workshop is the “collaborative assessment protocol.”