Another principle of a Reggio-inspired school is that of documentation. Traditionally, documentation is a qualitative and authentic approach which allows all members of a community: parents, teachers and students to assess the process and product of the students individually and collectively as they approach the content of their learning and then in turn express that learning. The expression of learning can take on multiple forms and formats [e.g. writing, painting, sculpture, performance, construction, etc.] all of which is collected through transcription, photography, videotaping and display. The displays come in the form of holding boards and presentation boards. Holding boards are collections of student work in progress from which teachers derive patterns of thought and questions emerging with the students. Presentation boards are chronicles of projects from beginning to end. As a principal, I see three purposes of documentation. The first is the validation of the Image of the Child, the overarching principal in the Approach, which insures that all children see themselves as relevant and respected members of the learning community, each coming to the classroom with theories, perspectives and questions, which are then addressed through the agency of the students via the many projects in which the students carry out their learning. The second is as assessment of student learning on the part of instructional staff, and the third is assessment of instruction. All documentation is viewed as data. As a public school in Michigan, our students are also required to take the MEAP, standardized assessment which provides a quantitative measure of not only student learning, but also of instruction. Through the data supplied by the assessment, we are able to determine where gaps exist in student learning [e.g. which standards are not being met] and which gaps exist in instruction [e.g. which standards are not being taught effectively. As a public Reggio-inspired school we are, by design, a marriage of a progressive approach within a traditional framework. This mirrors the dual assessment practices of qualitative and quantitative in which we engage each day.