Throwing Curves: New Posts

While Catherine is away, check out new posts at Throwing Curves.

Vocational Education on Throwing Curves

Finland has done an amazing thing -- embraced vocational ed rather than treat it with disdain (as we do in the U.S.). A new post on Throwing Curves gives some reasons to rethink our national strategy of college for all when we know most won't finish with a degree.

Education in Singapore -- the role of good teachers

I found an adorable video on the Singapore Ministry of Education's page. Blog post and video discussing the role of teachers in education is on Throwing Curves: Education in Singapore - the role of good teachers.

Gymnastics and Ed Reform -- something in common

Just wanted to let you know about a new post on Throwing Curves.

Parents and Coaches -- An interesting interaction.

You do not need to be particularly interested or knowledgeable about gymnastics to appreciate the similarities.

Connecticut May Make Changes to MBR

One of the more bizarre aspects of funding schools in Connecticut is the "Minimum Budget Requirement" -- a law that requires towns to budget AT LEAST as much for the schools as they did the year before, no exceptions. The penalty? For every $1 drop in spending, the State takes away $2 in town grants.

This year, a very small change to the MBR is being considered at the State legislature. It isn't enough, but it is a start.

Throwing Curves has a new blog post up on the changes to Connecticut's Minimum Budget Requirement - Small Changes to Town Education Budgets May Be Possible.

Spittleless Politicians, Apathetic Constituents and Collective Bargaining

A new post on Throwing Curves.

There is plenty of blame to throw around, but Rosemary takes an unexpected approach in her latest blog post. Comments on the site are always welcome (and they so encourage us!).

Internet Savvy ? Not.

Kids Aren't As Internet Savvy As They Think

If you read it to the end -- I promise a website worth the click.

Parent Involvement

Parental involvement has real staying power as a catch phrase in education-speak. Possibly because it assumes that parents can always be counted on to take the blame (or blame each other) for most anything going wrong. But there are a few schools that take parent involvement seriously, and could possibly serve as role models. One of the local public schools in my town has taken a few simple steps to move past rhetoric; and I offer it as an example.

1) last May, a Parent's evening was held for parents of 6th graders. The principal, VPrinc, and Guidance Counselor answered questions and gave information. I found this typical and not terribly helpful -- a lot of general information on middle school organization, lockers, classes, blah blah blah. Nothing specific on curriculum, which is what I'd like to hear about.

2) a week before school starts -- a picnic on the lawn for families then about an hour for kids and families to wander the school, find the classrooms they'd be in, lockers, talk to administrators. The event ran past the scheduled end time, but no one was hurried to the door.

3) the second full day of classes -- parents are invited to come immediately after classes to meet teachers for an hour in the cafeteria (although it ran late, again, and nobody threw the parents out). Every teacher was there, all were willing to discuss curriculum and expectations

4) Two weeks into the year -- an open house is held in the evening. We got copies of our child's schedule and followed their day class to class for 2 hours. Every teacher was there, curriculum was discussed, some teachers had detailed syllabi available.

5) 3rd week of classes -- a morning parent open house is held -- from 7:30 to 9:30 parents are invited to attend classes with their child. Parents park all over the lawn. The Principal takes pictures -- the more parents the better. He's told us repeatedly at the first 4 events how he wants to blanket the front grass with parent cars. Yes it's disruptive, but he wants parents to see what their kids are actually doing in class.

The point of all of the events at various times of the day make it easier for parents to find at least one time when they can make it in to the school. The principal asks parents to come to school. He makes it easy to get them there by making the times flexible. No topic is off-limits.

Having sat through two classes with my daughter's teachers (with students present) has given me a far greater understanding of what is happening in my child's school day. I may not like everything going on there, but there is no doubt that transparency is more than empty talk. There are things I will continue to fight to change (still too much emphasis on the child taking responsibility for their own learning), but with transparency and an attitude of openness towards parents, I feel I am involved (for the first time ever in this school district) WITH and NOT AGAINST the school my child attends.

Teacher's Union Opposes Salary Increases

In Washington D.C. a strange thing is happening. A proposal to improve the educational cesspool that is the public school system in the Nation's Capital is being torpedoed by the national teachers unions (despite support from the local union leaders and teachers).

I haven't seen the story reported in any US newspapers, and I wonder why not, since I read education columns quite regularly. If I were any more cynical than I already am, I might think there is a plot by the national unions to keep this particular proposal quiet. Or perhaps I just missed the US press stories due to summer vacations and what not. Anyway, the British news weekly, The Economist, had a short story two weeks ago.

The story begins with a typical indictment of the District's schools -- hugely inefficient, extremely high cost, abysmal test scores, and outrageous student behavior. And then the teachers:

Teachers are virtually unsackable and paid by seniority. Such incentives attract the lazy and mediocre and repel the talented or diligent.

But here's where it gets interesting, the solution is somewhat novel in education reform:

Ms Rhee [Michelle Rhee, School Chancellor] is thrashing out a deal with union leaders that would raise teachers’ wages dramatically. Starting salaries would leap from about $40,000 to $78,000, and wages for the best performers would double to about $130,000 a year. In return, teachers would lose tenure and be paid according to merit, measured in part by their students’ results. Current teachers would have a choice: they could join the new system or stay in the old one. New hires would have to join the new system. Over time, the quality and morale of teachers in Washington should soar. “Imagine the kind of talent the hard-pressed system could attract,” drools the Washington Post.

But wouldn’t all this require a huge expansion of the school budget? Perhaps not. The current system is staggeringly inefficient. The city employs an army of educational bureaucrats and has twice as many schools as it needs. It pays to heat and air-condition some schools that are only a quarter full. Insiders reckon that, within a few years, the new pay deal could be wholly financed by cutting waste. And in the short term private donors are willing to shoulder much of the cost.

The plan’s boosters call it revolutionary, in that it applies to public schools a principle—reward good work and you get more of it—that every other employer has known for centuries. But it will be still-born if the Washington teachers’ union does not agree to it. Local union leaders rather like the idea of higher pay, but the big national unions are appalled at the notion that any teachers might give up tenure. Fearing an unwelcome precedent, they are leaning on the local union to kill the deal.

I can imagine the union drooling all over the pay hikes, but like most behemoth bureaucracies, they'd like the cake too, please. Big pay hikes, no accountability, lifetime tenure. Still, it is disheartening to see the difficulty the District is having getting this approved. If merit pay is a nonstarter in a district performing as badly as Washington D.C., what hope have we in a nominally high performing suburb?

What Can Cookies Do For Students?

A couple days ago, the NYT carried an interesting Op-Ed written by a professor of molecular biology and neuroscience and an editor of Nature Neuroscience on how the brain responds to tasks requiring "willpower." The article, Tighten Your Belt, Strengthen Your Mind, was ostensibly discussing the mortgage/economic crises that some families might be facing; but there are some fascinating observations made in the article that could improve teaching and learning.

The brain has a limited capacity for self-regulation, so exerting willpower in one area often leads to backsliding in others. . . . The brain’s store of willpower is depleted when people control their thoughts, feelings or impulses, or when they modify their behavior in pursuit of goals. Psychologist Roy Baumeister and others have found that people who successfully accomplish one task requiring self-control are less persistent on a second, seemingly unrelated task.

In one pioneering study, some people were asked to eat radishes while others received freshly baked chocolate chip cookies before trying to solve an impossible puzzle. The radish-eaters abandoned the puzzle in eight minutes on average, working less than half as long as people who got cookies or those who were excused from eating radishes. Similarly, people who were asked to circle every “e” on a page of text then showed less persistence in watching a video of an unchanging table and wall.

First thought -- anytime chocolate is involved, it's got to be a good thing. We need more research like this.

But seriously, eating cookies improves your ability to stick to a difficult or boring task. Who else is thinking about automatic recall of math facts? Perhaps all we need to do to hit our national goals is give kids cookies instead of radishes.

Last month when the CMT tests were being administered to all those 3rd through 8th graders, parents were asked to donate boxes of healthy snacks for the classrooms -- granola bars, fresh fruit, carrot sticks, etc. Perhaps we are sealing our own fate with this behavior -- if we'd have sent chocolate chip cookies and tossed the carrot sticks, maybe our kids could all hit goal.

But things get even better as we read through the op-ed:

What limits willpower? Some have suggested that it is blood sugar, which brain cells use as their main energy source and cannot do without for even a few minutes. Most cognitive functions are unaffected by minor blood sugar fluctuations over the course of a day, but planning and self-control are sensitive to such small changes. Exerting self-control lowers blood sugar, which reduces the capacity for further self-control. People who drink a glass of lemonade between completing one task requiring self-control and beginning a second one perform equally well on both tasks, while people who drink sugarless diet lemonade make more errors on the second task than on the first. Foods that persistently elevate blood sugar, like those containing protein or complex carbohydrates, might enhance willpower for longer periods.

If you need to study for a big exam, it might be smart to let the housecleaning slide to conserve your willpower for the more important job. Similarly, it can be counterproductive to work toward multiple goals at the same time if your willpower cannot cover all the efforts that are required. Concentrating your effort on one or at most a few goals at a time increases the odds of success.

Clearly, we all need to stop insisting our kids clean their rooms and clear their dishes if we expect them to sit down and do their homework or study for an exam.

But what does this say about our schools? Minutes off of recess is so common a punishment its not even worth noting. Carrot sticks and fruit for birthday snacks? No rough-housing during recess, when you get recess? Are we expecting our kids to have far more willpower to sit and do dull tasks than is reasonable given the human limitations of willpower? Perhaps schools should rethink the school day in terms of willpower depletion -- classroom tasks can be less engaging (and more productive) if kids are given a freer rein, or more sugar, at other times of the day.

I'm hoping Catherine will jump in here, because she has so much more cognitive studies at her fingertips than I ever will.

Singapore Math v. Everyday Math -- You Be The Critic

I recently had a fantastic discussion with an administrator at my local public middle school. This person is new to the Town and school. My impression is that she is less pedagogically dogmatic than most I have met. She does not have an direct involvement with EM. In Middle School she see the pre-algebra and algebra math of 7th and 8th grade. She hears from many other teachers and administrators that EM is fantastic and wonderful and perfect for our school. However, she, and most other educators in town notice that this "wonderful" elementary math program isn't connecting well to middle school and high school. Kids aren't doing all that great on those high school courses.

The reigning wisdom has been that the problem can't be EM. It must be the middle school math program (with are traditional pre-algebra and algebra courses).

There is a failure to analyze their underlying assumptions. Nobody is willing to consider that EM might not be the best preparation for advancing in math.

But this administrator has shown an interest. I gave her my opinion on the matter at a forum a couple weeks ago and she was interested in what I had to say. I advised that she put EM and Singapore Math side by side and compare to cut through all the rhetoric. She could make up her own mind about it. I finished by saying if there was one thing I could convince this district to do, it would be to teach bar models as a means of problem solving.

She had just read an article about bar models. She wants to know more.

So here is your chance, everyone. If you had limited time available with an interested administrator, and you had 1st through 6th grade Singapore and Everyday Math at your disposal -- where would you start? What pages, links, sections would you highlight or focus on?

Connecticut's Curriculum Standards Revision

The State Dept of Ed website has draft curriculum standards posted. If you are a Conn parent or educator, you might want to take a look at what they are doing. I haven't looked through these things carefully, but I want to get the links up here. The letter accompanying the draft standards invites feedback. I don't see why only educators should have fun with this, so please do take a look. The standards will be in draft form until December 2007.

Draft Connecticut Pre-K through 8 Math Standards

Draft Connecticut Pre-K through 8 English Language Standards

There is a Feed Back Form for both draft standards here.

The biggest change to the standards is the inclusion of "grade level expectations." These are fairly specific and are a big improvement over the old standards. For example, in 2nd grade, students should be able to order simple fractions, tell time to the 1/2 hour, and know the calendar months in order.

The standards are clear. They may not be very high, but they are at least clear.

But there are still too many standards. The mile wide inch deep criticism is even more apparent when you look at each of the tasks to be mastered along the way. Still too much pattern recognition, probability, and graphing in the earliest grades and not enough emphasis on automaticity with basic math facts and fluency with fractions, decimals, and percents in later elementary grades. It's there, but there's no focus and no sense of what is most critical. Because of the sheer number of standards and expectations, how is a teacher or school to wade through them all? If they give equal emphasis to everything, they will not master anything.

So a mixed bag, but a step in the right direction. If you have the time to look at these things, you might consider downloading the feedback form and e-mailing it in to the State Dept of Ed.

After all, how often does anybody in education ask for your input?

Brilliant Move By Biology Teacher

I was driving my 15 year old to school today when he started complaining about his biology teacher. It seems that Mr. M has deviously warned the kids to avoid Wikipedia. If they attempt to research by going no further than Wikipedia - beware -- he is on to them. He has been known to change the answers to the questions/topics relevant to his class just to catch the lazy student cribbing off of Wikipedia.

I think this is brilliant. In fact, he doesn't even have to know how to change Wikipedia answers in order to have the desired effect. How would the kids know if the pages were changed unless they did their research somewhere else too?

I encourage all teachers everywhere to toss this hazard at their kids and see how many scramble. Just planting the seed of doubt is enough. But if you are even a little literate -- try changing a page and see who falls for it.

Of course, this assumes that the kids have been taught how to do appropriate research and the reasons why Wikipedia is an unreliable source.

Parent Report Cards ?

A republican board of ed member in Manchester, Connecticut (not my town) is proposing parent report cards -- giving grades to parents on how well they do at getting involved in their children's education.

Parent Report Cards


Apparently this was tried in Chicago 7 years ago -- and abandoned after 1 year. Hard to believe, but it didn't solve the problems and actually created resentment between parents and teachers. Who could have predicted that?

He said the program would not be punitive, but instead would help the district identify struggling parents who might need support.

They can't identify the struggling parents without grading all of them?

And how do you think that Board will respond when parents demand the right to grade the teachers, administrators and board members?

And Now For Some Good News

I've done my share of complaining about the standards set in the public schools. I thought I should also share something really positive. About a week ago, I heard a presentation by the middle school principal. This is a new guy, he's only had the job 2 years and came from outside the district. His presentation was the annual School Improvement Plan required by NCLB.

I was bowled over, shocked into silence. Why? Simple.

He clearly, unequivocally took responsibility for student achievement.

I have never heard a school administrator do that before.
He didn't blame the students or the parents.
He didn't imply that this group of kids just wasn't as bright as the previous bunch.
He didn't blame his predecessor (and that would have been understandable).

What he did do was great. The plan is a "laser like focus" (his words) on improving writing skills. The Middle School teachers are analyzing the curriculum; they are using formative assessments; they are identifying struggling students (those without an IEP that are "proficient" but haven't mastered the content); then they are providing instruction based on results of the formative assessments.

Students are given extra help during the school day at times most convenient to the student, not the teacher or the administrator. If a student can come in early, they meet then, if after school or during a free period work better, that's when they schedule extra help. Students are identified, they are not expected to know themselves if they need extra help.

He ends with the statement, "Imagine what a tremendous gift it would be if we could send every student on to high school being able to write well."

I can't believe they hired this guy. In a system filled by an unabashed constructivist superintendent, we get this gem. I feel like I should write him a letter of support (even though I don't even have a kid in the middle school at the moment).

Fractions as Division Problems

My daughter had trouble remember how to find a decimal when given a fraction. She knew it was a division problem, but often transposed the numbers. For example, if she needed to find the decimal equivalent of 5/8 she might divide the 5 into the 8 because it just seems more logical when you are 10 to do it that way. She needed help remembering which way to divide.

Her older (15) brother gave her a mnemonic devise he had learned.

Top dog goes in the house.

There you have it, problem solved. This was new to me too, but it really works, she remembers this easily, even though we only talked about it that one night. Now she never forgets. It's great. Try it with your kids.

The numerator (number on top, or the "top dog") goes inside the "house" the half box you draw for division.

Am I making sense here?

Should There Be A National Panel For Science And Math?

Somewhere on Capitol Hill today, hearings were held by a Science and Technology subcommittee on the lagging performance of US students in math and science. A news report about this hearing can be found at Medill Reports.

The proposed council, comprised of representatives from federal and local agencies as well as school districts, would work independently of other federal programs to create national guidance on science, technology, engineering and math curriculum.

Education officials stated that they think a national council is unnecessary and will just create more bureaucracy. But --

The committee’s top Republican, Rep. Vernon Ehlers of Michigan, acknowledged that the increased federal role would be controversial, but said agreement on national standards is essential for the sake of consistency among school districts. American families move on average every four years, he said.

“At the top of the list (of competitiveness) are small, homogenous countries that have the same curriculum throughout the country,” Ehlers said of the leaders in science and math. “There’s a real urgency to this.”

Singapore, anyone?
I wonder if anyone has told him that those small homogenous countries are willing to sell us their curriculum?

Robert Gropp, director of public policy for the American Institute of Biological Sciences, said in a telephone interview university teachers are often frustrated by “hodgepodge” of what local schools are teaching. He expressed hope that this decades-long debate may finally move forward.

A national council could make university-level teaching easier, since national standards could provide a more consistent pool of math and science skills among incoming freshman students.

National standards are a great idea, as long as they are set by mathematicians and scientists that have some idea of content. Input from educators should be encouraged.

Summer School Math

Last Wednesday night, two teachers gave a presentation to our local board of ed about the summer school program. I'll spare you the details (unless you like hyperbole and don't mind if there's little data to support your rosy conclusions). One board member asked if the program should be expanded and how many kids could benefit (again, you have to assume that there is a benefit, because they never demonstrated one).

Here's the numbers, 85 kids attended summer school.
Teacher One: About 20% of elementary students could benefit from additional help over the summer.
The superintendent: There's roughly 800 kids in the elementary school.
Teacher Two: That means about 100 kids could use the program.
Teacher One shouts from the back: "96! 20% of the students would be 96!"
The superintendent smiling broadly: Did you use Everyday Math to figure that?
The Board Chair: I guess we need to triple the size of summer school.

I just sat there dumbfounded.

Yes, she used Everyday Math and got a wildly inaccurate number. 20% of 800 is 160, not 96.
which is just under doubling the current size of summer school.

Search is Underway

I just received an e-mail from my son's private high school, reminding me that they are in the process of searching for a new Head Master. At the same time, my daughters' public school system is also searching for a new leader -- the superintendent. Both school systems are looking for a replacement to take over for the 2008-09 school year. I thought it might be interesting to occasionally compare the processes and procedures and progress of the two searches.

I'm posting first an e-mail that I and several hundred other parents just received over the weekend, edited only to remove identifying information.

Dear Parent,

I would like to give you an update on our progress in the search for a new head of school.

By the end of June the Search Committee and our consultants (name deleted) completed an outreach program designed to contact our many constituencies to get their advice and input. That effort resulted in our having had personal contact with almost 300 individuals through one-on-one interviews and small group meetings with current trustees; key faculty and staff members; some student leaders; and selected former trustees, alumni and parents. It also included receptions for alumni and parents in six cities. In addition, we have been receiving useful input through the special "Head of School Search" section of the school website. We very much appreciate the thoughtful participation of so many individuals in this important process.

By the end of July we completed the job description which forms the foundation for our evaluation of candidates and which we have been using to market the position. [Consultant] has been leading our efforts to identify and develop a pool of candidates. Since early August the Search Committee and [consultant] have met formally three times to discuss the candidate pool and most recently to begin to make decisions about the specific individuals we plan to interview. We are pleased with the size, quality and diversity of the pool. The response to our search indicates that [the school] is held in high regard in the marketplace, and while there are a number of other boarding school searches in progress, we are satisfied that we will be able to engage the candidates we seek out.

We are on schedule to begin interviewing first-round candidates by the end of October and to meet our target of being able to select the new head of school early next year.

I recommend that you check the school website for timely updates on the process and the opportunity for you to provide input. But please do not hesitate to contact me directly at [e-mail deleted] if you have any questions or want to provide any constructive guidance.

So far, I'm really liking the tone being set. There's some transparency, a sense that not only are they gathering input, but they are actually considering it as well.

As for the public school search, well, either they have taken no steps to begin the process, or they just aren't going to tell us about it. There's no indication on the website, the many communications home about everything else under the sun don't inform us of what is going on.

I'm not posting this to dump on the public schools, but I get frustrated by the lack of openness. The public district will be throwing money at the search and probably hiring a consultant (they hire consultants for everything, so this will be no exception). The public school arguably has an easier time of gathering input, as all the parents live here.

If there was one influence I could have at this point, it would be to get the schools far more transparent and more receptive to the opinions of the community.

6th Grade EM

The fun has begun. My middle child is a 6th grader in a EM program heavily supplemented with random, disconnected state testing prep and confusing "problem of the week" type stuff. I went to open house Tuesday evening. The math teacher used her allotted 10 minutes to lecture us on the importance of behavior, neatness, organization, and more behavior. We got one quick slide listing 5 or 6 topics of math -- but otherwise math content and skills and expectations were not addressed. I left thinking this teacher cares alot about behavioral control and neatness, but not so much on the math.

Then I see the first assignment -- my 6th grade daughter is to watch 1/2 an hour of television and count the number of commercials. This is called the "Great TV Ad-Venture"

I am. . . .well. . . . unimpressed.

I immediately thought of Steve -- then realized you are not dealing with this anymore!!! AHHHH! I'm all alone with a 6th grader in EM dealing with this stupidity!