the candidates

questions & answers

at last it can be told

I am going to say something scandalous: Just because we went to school for teaching doesn't mean that we come out of school as master teachers.

Never Work Harder Than Your Students & Other Principles of Great Teaching
by Robyn R. Jackson

Long term debt unsustainable

Alert, alert. Common sense moment just occurred for President Obama.

So why is the government being positioned as the solution to so many of our problems? Inquiring minds would like to know.

am I hearing things?

Click on this link.

Then tell me if the web site is talking to you.

The answer better be 'yes.'

The market steps in

As the parent of children in the public school system, I receive many solicitations for tutoring services. This pitch for a summer school session, in particular, caught my eye.

Math Facts Boot Camp
Pre-Algebra
Algebra I
Algebra II
Geometry
With the new emphasis on “real world” or “integrated” math, many educators agree that the skills that go into solving math problems, pure and simple, are being lost. Chyten’s math Facts Boot Camps are comprehensive and intensive courses in which the ability to solve equations is brought back to its rightful position, front and center in a student’s math mind.
Five 2-hour session

Although many of our government schools seem to be more focused on making sure students are “engaged” and “love learning” rather than on actually teaching vital skills and concepts, at least it’s reassuring to know that the private market has stepped in to help. Well, it can help those families that can afford to pay $550 [edited to correct price] for this “boot camp” class.

I notice that these boot camps are targeted to middle- and high-school students. For many, this is when the sh*t hits the fan, and parents may be ready to part with their hard earned money as they come to realize what vital skills their children have not yet learned (were not taught, perhaps?) in school.

http://www.chyten.com/ces/site/global/ads/summer_catalog_09.pdf

the experts, such as they are

I think I've mentioned before that Irvington is now so roiled by dissatisfaction with district leadership that each of the various letter-to-the-editor writer-dissenters have acquired a fan base.

I am an avid follower of David K:

...whatever their own views might be, the current board members have utterly deferred to the super, unfortunately so. The current board is intimidated by the "veil of expertise," be it the lawyer's or the super's or the facilities guy, which means we're back to the "structural" problem.

And of Les J's:

I have not understood why salaries and increases for the administrative staff have not been reported out as a matter of course. I work for a public institution and all of our salaries, all of our raises, and, for those few eligible for bonuses, bonuses are a matter of public record and are published in paper and electronic formats. Why is this not the case for Irvington ???

David K.:

It's b/c the Board either doesn't share that philosophy, hasn't thought about having a philosophy on such matters to begin with, or is held captive by counsel whose view presumably is "nothing more than the law dictates." I'm trained as a lawyer -- I get it -- but our school district is supposed to be run by us, not by the "experts," such as they are.

Have I mentioned I've become a community organizer?

Well, I have.

a school district not my own

more fun with nominally high performing schools

Atoning Slavery With Calculators

Brown donates 12,000 graphing calculators to Providence’s middle, high school students


In an ironc twist of fate, Brown University and its African American president, Ruth Simmons, attempt to atone for the university's links to slavery by keeping all kids down on the mathematical plantation.

Rather than work backwards to quantitatively define what knowledge and skills (and GPA and SAT scores) are needed to be accepted into Brown University, they decide to throw some calculators at the problem and see what sticks to the wall. The biggest winner? TI.

"The calculators, which cost a total of $118,000, represent the first step toward fulfilling the university’s pledge to improve public education in the city’s schools."

"Simmons said that Supt. Tom Brady suggested the graphing calculators because they fit nicely with new math and science curricula that will be introduced this fall. "

"Two years ago, Simmons made a personal donation of $25,000 to help buy graphing calculators for the entire freshman class at Hope High School."


“At Brown, Ph.D. students have to teach college,” she said. “Wouldn’t it be great if they taught in public schools? We say, ‘We are the elite. We are professors.’ Well, that doesn’t serve us well. We have to get universities back into every level of education.”

They will have to get education credentials first!

Incentives

The quality of patient care when focused on the patient, the unresponsive school district, Precision Teaching, business acumen, and Don't Shoot the Dog. The connection is

Incentives Matter.

We need to Incentivize the behaviors we want to see more of.

Behavioral Science has shown us that We Improve What We Measure. Positive Reinforcement works best by measuring successes and rewarding them. But even just charting the results with no other reward improves the outcome for what's measured.

So we better measure the right things.

What outcomes do we want to incent?

Often, we're talking about this at the student level. But what if we turned it around, and instead of using e.g. Precision Teaching just on students, we did it to the teachers? The principal? The School Board?

Seriously, if we want transparency from the school board, can we chart it? What if we kept a celeration chart on the web showing the District' Response Time to a parent's request for data? Just KNOWING the chart is publicly available should have an effect.

Or how about keeping a chart showing number of conversations board members have per week with non ed-speak people? ie.e parents or students?

Or a chart showing the number of conversations had without a lawyer present in the room?

Or a chart showing how many parent suggested curricula/materials/ideas were adopted?

Any other suggestions for what behaviors we want to incentivize? Any suggestions for the metrics to do it?

How about in the classroom, by the teacher? How about at the principal level?

Any chance we could get a school board to adopt putting the celeration chart for their principals/teachers/etc on their web site? That would really make a difference.

pass fail

Live from New York

Happy Mother's Day

source: Simply Art


Or, if you're not in a Mary Cassat frame of mind, there's always the Mothers from Hell 2.

I was a charter member of Mothers from Hell 1.

Switched on Mom has a blog!

You probably all knew that.

This is exciting.

Two MCPS officials gave the presentation and led off with one of those painful “warm-up” exercises where they 1) offer a statement like “Most parents want their children to have the opportunity to go to college,” 2) ask those gathered to raise their “Agree” or “Disagree” card–and then 3) have the participants share why they said what they did.

[snip]

“This is more than an information campaign,” the MCPS official intoned, “this is about advocacy.” Roll tape/DVD of the “Seven Keys to College Readiness” – “a pathway identified by MCPS that will increase the likelihood of students being ready for college and earning a degree.” (The video is on the Keys homepage.)

Next the presenter shared a cautionary tale from his own family, of a nephew who was getting A’s and B’s in elementary and middle school but got off track in high school. He should have tried AP classes but didn’t. He didn’t graduate on time with his class, so Uncle MCPS had him move in and he was now taking remedial classes at Montgomery College on his own dime. Tough stuff. But it went further. Uncle MCPS persuaded the kid to tell his story to the camera and to us directly. Roll tape again. “If there had been a better relationship between my parents and the school, I would have done better,” the student said. Ouch.

Sobering Seven Keys Meeting

A better relationship?

Steve H on "language arts"

My son is now in 7th grade and I still don't know what goes on in Reading and Language Arts.

This area gets double the time now. Reading is a full course and LA is a full course. He reads books (all of the same genre - He never gets any history or biography books) but there is not a lot of writing going on. One time, he had to do a board game for a book. That would be his third so far in his school career. One time, he was allowed to do a web page about a book. My son can create a video and upload it to YouTube in minutes (self-taught). What he really needs is more help in writing.

Everything I see about schools screams low expectations.

Twenty-first century skills are vocational. What kids need are knowledge and skills that have passed the test of time; reading, math, history, and critical analysis and writing.

Three board games.

wow

That's a lot of board games.


the high school vanishes

Lucy Calkins, Lucy Calkins, part 3

Becky does Cargo Cult Lucy (you may have to hit refresh a couple of times)

5 figures

nice work if you can get it (contracts here)

Everyday Math, an implementation

Saint Paul public schools use Everyday Math for their curriculum in all elementary schools, regardless of type of school, including "city wide", magnets, or any flavor of "type" attached, be they self-designated Montessori, Core Knowledge, IB, or any other supposed program. I've been trying to understand how Everyday Math is implemented.

Recently, I was able to find a great number of resources on the Saint Paul public web site, including standards, frameworks, tools, curriculum planners, worksheets and other items that the district uses to support its teachers, coaches, admins with EM. I found these illuminating, if not encouraging. Perhaps they will enlighten others whose schools use Everyday Math as well.

Here is the K-6 Framework document for Mathematics. It sets out the overarching vision the district has and lists the standards they say they implement. It's a confusing document, poorly organized. I've excerpted some of it below, but to get a feel for it, it's best to read it.

The framework doc mentions that SPPS has been working with an organization called Institute for Learning, IFL, at the University of Pittsburgh. They help with the planning and execution of the curriculum. (anyone have an opinion of IFL?) The framework says "These principles guide not only administrative leadership, but curriculum, instruction, and assessment in an authentic standards-based model." Some of the IFL's nine principles of learning are excerpted below, mostly the lowlights. (I love how they service-marked one of them--AccountableTalkSM!

1. Organizing for Effort
An effort-based school replaces the assumption that aptitude determines what and how much students learn with the assumption that sustained and directed effort can yield high achievement for all students. Everything is organized to evoke and support this effort, to send the message that effort is expected and that tough problems yield to sustained work. High minimum standards are set and assessments are geared to the standards.All students are taught a rigorous curriculum, matched to the standards, along with as much time and expert instruction as they need to meet or exceed expectations.

...

5. Academic Rigor in a Thinking Curriculum
Thinking and problem solving will be the "new basics" of the 21st century. But the common idea that we can teach thinking without a solid foundation of knowledge must be abandoned. So must the idea that we can teach knowledge without engaging students in thinking. Knowledge and thinking are intimately joined. This implies a curriculum organized around major concepts that students are expected to know deeply. Teaching must engage students in active reasoning about these concepts. In every subject, at every grade level, instruction and learning must include commitment to a knowledge core, high thinking demand, and active use of knowledge.

Commitment to a Knowledge Core
�� An articulated curriculum that avoids needless repetition and progressively deepens understanding of core concepts.
�� Curriculum and instruction organized around major concepts.
�� Teaching and assessment focus on mastery of core concepts.
High Thinking Demand
�� Students expected to raise questions, to solve problems, to reason.
�� Challenging assignments in every subject.
�� Extended projects.
�� Explanations and justification expected.
�� Reflection on learning strategies.
Active Use of Knowledge
�� Synthesize several sources of information
�� Test understanding by applying and discussingconcepts.
�� Apply prior knowledge.
�� Interpret texts and construct solutions.

6. Accountable TalkSM
Talking with others about ideas and work is fundamental to learning. But not all talk sustains learning. For classroom talk to promote learning it must be accountable to the learning community, to accurate and appropriate knowledge, and to rigorous thinking.Accountable TalkSM seriously responds to and further develops what others in the group have said. It puts forth and demands knowledge that is accurate and relevant to the issue under discussion. Accountable TalkSM uses evidence appropriate to the discipline (e.g., proofs in mathematics, datafrom investigations in science, textual details in literature, documentary sources in history) and follows established norms of good reasoning.Teachers should intentionally create
the norms and skills of Accountable TalkSM in their classrooms.

Accountability to the Learning Community
�� Students actively participate in classroom talk.
�� Listen attentively.
�� Elaborate and build on each other's ideas.
�� Work to clarify or expand a proposition.
Accountability to Knowledge
�� Specific and accurate knowledge.
�� Appropriate evidence for claims and arguments.
�� Commitment to getting it right.
Accountability to Rigorous Thinking
�� Synthesize several sources of information.
�� Construct explanations and test understanding ofconcepts.
�� Formulate conjectures and hypotheses.
�� Employ generally accepted standards of reasoning.
�� Challenge the quality of evidence and reasoning.


7. Socializing Intelligence
Intelligence is much more than an innate ability to think quickly and stockpile bits of knowledge. Intelligence is a set of problem-solving and reasoning capabilities along with the habits of mind that lead one to use those capabilities regularly. Intelligence is equally a set of beliefs about one's right and obligation to understand and make sense of the world, and one's capacity to figure things out over time. Intelligent habits of mind are learned through the daily expectations placed on the learner. By calling on students to use the skills of intelligent thinking—and by holding them responsible for doing so—educators can "teach" intelligence. This is what teachers normally do with students they expect much from; it should be standard practice with all students.
Beliefs
�� I have the right and obligation to understand and make things work.
�� Problems can be analyzed and I am capable of that analysis.
Skills
�� A toolkit of problem-analysis skills (meta-cognitive strategies) and good intuition about when to use them.
�� Knowing how to ask questions, seek help, and get enough information to solve problems.

...

Eventually, they do get to the actual standards. Leaving aside whether NCTM or Minnesota standards are any good for now, you can read the standards, and then read what the framework says they need to do for instruction, and you'll see that it never says anything that would actually meet the standard.

Here's an example: For First Grade, the standard says (some pieces left out):

Teachers will:
�� Establish daily 60 minutes—or more—mathematics lessons.
�� Spend 35–40 minutes teaching Part 1 of the lesson,15–20 minutes on Part 2 (the practice and review), and 5 minutes on the closing.
�� Ensure that all students receive Part 1 of the lesson (no pull-outs).
�� Teach math to a heterogeneous group of students. Ability grouping is not recommended for Part 1 of the lesson.
�� Provide Flexible Group Lessons/Activities daily.
During Part 2, at least one or two flexible group lessons that are 5–7 minutes in length,are offered to a small group of students needing extra time/practice to learn an expected Secure skill/standard. (Pull-outs for support services could occur during Part 2 of the lesson.)

Provide students needing enrichment—in pairs or in a small group—activities to extend,enhance,and enrich their math learning, during all of Part 2. These activities must support the learning goals of the topic or strand of the current Everyday Math unit. If you determine they are demonstrating proficiency on the skill taught during Part 1, they may be excused from that as well. (Pullouts for support services could occur during Part 1 or 2 of the lesson.)
�� Teach, in sequence, all lessons in both Teacher Guides of Everyday Math,covering four to five lessons per week.
(Follow the pacing guide of the curriculum.)
�� Use the Everyday Math Games as part of the lesson, part of flexible groups, part of
homework, or at other review times. Students should play the games at school, up to four or five times per week.
�� Have students write their mathematical thinking/processes used to reach a solution, at least two times a week.
�� Create a classroom environment that recognizes and supports the strengths and abilities of diverse learners.
�� With students, create ongoing class charts, including vocabulary aids/graphic organizers.
�� Read Content Highlights at the beginning of each unit to support deeper mathematical knowledge and instruction.
�� Regularly analyze student work with their colleagues.
�� Provide multiple ways of presenting mathematical concepts.

�� Create a classroom environment where students take central roles in the math-talk
learning community.
This includes:
1) students listening in order to understand each other's thinking;
2) students reasoning, defending,and proving their math concepts to one another;
3) students using thelanguage of mathematics in order to engage in Math-Talk/Accountable Talk; (Refer to Principles of Learning #6.)

Read the rest of the document for more. Remember, those were for FIRST GRADE.

Other documents that shed light on how the district operates:

The Math Coaching Vision document is here. This appears to be how math coaches create accountability, at least at their quarterly coaching meetings.

Here is a document explaining what you would be seeing if you visited a District Model Classroom teaching Everyday Math.


This document is called Everyday Math Instruction Evidence . It lists standards and benchmarks of what is supposed to be happening in a classroom during instruction, presumably so the teacher or teacher evaluator can determine if such elements are occurring.

Here are some of the things they are looking for :

a. Creates a rich math classroom environment
- Number Line, Number Grid posted and used
- Student generated charts are available
- Word Wall is available for student use
- Math Literature is read by teacher to class and available to students
b. Provides Part 1, Part 2 and a Closing, including pacing
- All students participate in Part 1
- Students are placed in appropriate flexible groups, for reteaching and for enrichment
- A closing includes students sharing what they learned and/or what still confuses them
- The pacing expectations are closely followed
c. Uses open ended questions - Accountable Talk
- Encourages critical mathematical thinking
- Students use reasoning, defending, and proving skills
- Students use the language of mathematics
- Students and teacher are questioners
- Students take responsibility for their learning

Read the document for more.

Writer's Workshop

SteveH has been asking questions about how to explain what happens in classrooms, and how to relate that to what parents are told about schools, administrators, teachers, etc. He asked if teachers were even teaching, or just going through motions; if administrators have control over what teachers do in classrooms, or not, etc.

I am trying to find out just how bad the current writing curriculum mandated by the Saint Paul, MN public school district is.

The curriculum is called Writer's Workshop.

It's been difficult to find district-wide info such as syllabi, curriculum maps, on WW. Instead, I've been able to find little blurbs on the various elementary schools' own web sites--note that each school speaks differently about the same program. It seems to be a good example of the chaos that Steve is trying to wrap his head around. Here we have a curriculum which is positively abysmal in its goals, implemented district wide, yet appears to mean vastly different things inside each school and each classroom anyway.

I've included here everything I can find about the Kindergarten portion of Writer's Workshop.

All errors are in the original web pages.


from Prosperity Heights Elementary:

"Writer's Workshop
Depending on your class situation and available time, Writer's Workshop activities is a useful and meaningful extension to the current curriculum. Writer's Workshop is a teaching technique that invites sutdents to write by making the process a meaningful part of the classroom curriculum. Writing is an expected activity on a daily basis. Students are exposed to the organization and thought required to create a story or write about a favorite topic. Because they are allowed to chose the topic, students are motivated to create and complete works to read to classmates.

For Kindergarten stduents, whose skills will greatly vary, the goal is to move pre-emergent readers into the writing process by eliciting a story from a drawing, and encouraging the student to move from drawing to writing by guiding the student in the use of phonetics to sound out words. Ideally, students become enamored by the power of their words, and will strive for the independence of fluency. Writer's Workshop can be paired with reading activities to create a powerful motivating tool when teaching literacy. "

From Webster Magnet Elementary:

Writer's Workshop

We are writers! During Writer's Workshop we write, write, write! By the end of kindergarten we will be independent writers using sound spelling and standard spelling to communicate our ideas. We will record our thoughts with labels and sentences. Some of the concepts we focus on in Writer's Workshop are: directionality of print, using letter sounds to write words, using word wall words and environmental print in our written work, the difference between letters, words and sentences and using spaces between words. We know our ideas and stories are valuable and enjoy sharing them with others!

from Randolph Heights (note this applies to their whole program, rather than focusing just on Kindergarten:

Writers Workshop


Randolph Heights is implementing a new writing curriculum - "Writer's Workshop". During Writer's Workshop, students learn about the techniques that authors use to make writing effective.

Each workshop session begins with a mini lesson presented by the teacher. Lessons may be on skills or the craft of writing. Grammar skills suich as subject-verb agreement, capitalization, paragraphing and punctuation are developed during mini lessons. Students are also taught about the writing process - drafting, revising, and editing - during mini lessons.

The next step in Writer's Workshop is planning and drafting. This is when the students are writing in their notebooks. Writing assignments are generated by the mini lessons on skills and craft.

During planning and drafting time, while students are working on writing, the teacher meets individually with students. This time is used to assess progress ona written work and to reteach/review skills taught in mini lessons.

During the last 5 - 10 minutes of Writer's Workshop, students gather together to share their writing with the entire group or to bring closure to the lesson.

This is my personal favorite, which appears on the Crossroads Elementary website, but appears to be a draft document (that I cannot find anywhere else on the spps web site) of Saint Paul Public Schools' Project for Academic Excellence:

Launching Writer's Workshop: Living the Writerly Life
The Literacy Initiative of the Project for Academic Excellence is guided by two sets of standards for what students should know and be able to do: the Minnesota Standards and the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) Standards. In this first unit of study of the year, Writer's Workshop addresses the NCEE Kindergarten Writing Standard 1: Habits and Processes of Writing Standard.

Students will:
* Write daily.
* Generate content and topics for writing.
* Write without resistance when given the time, place and materials.
* Use whatever means are at hand to communicate and make meaning: drawings, letter strings, scribbles, letter approximations and other graphic representations, as well as gestures, intonations and role-played voices.
* Make an effort to reread their own writing and listen to that of others, showing attentiveness to meaning by, for example, asking for more information or laughing.

The teaching objectives of this unit are based largely on the Habits and Processes Standard. As such, they are only begun in this unit and continued throughout the year.

Students will:
* View themselves as confident and competent writers.
* Develop the habits, fluency, and stamina of writers by writing daily, including recording oral stories.
* Develop an understanding that ideas for writing come from many sources, including oral stories that can be remembered, told, and written down.
* Generate their own topics by choosing an idea from their own oral stories or writing folders to work on over the course of a few days.
* Understand the steps of the writing process from collecting entries through publication.
* Reflect on the quality of their writing.
* Practice the rituals and routines of the Writer's Workshop - ways of working independently, productively, and resourcefully in a workshop environment.
* Listen to stories read aloud as a way to develop an understanding that they will be writing stories like their favorite authors.

This is bad enoughm ut it doesn't really say what's happening in a classroom--it could all be perfect teaching of writing for all this says.

So what does happen in a classroom?

I was able to find this link, pointing to a 4th grade class at Galthier Magnet Elementary, pointing to a page for the use of Writer's Workshop. The page says:

Writer's Workshop

Here you will be able to receive help on our current theme in the workshop.

Click on this link to review the what's on our SMARTBOARD for the realistic fiction unit!

Ah, a SMARTBOARD. So shall we see that SMARTBOARD presentation? Read it and weep.

Here is the movie.
This is apparently classroom instruction on how to write realistic fiction for fourth graders.
My favorite part is the end where we see a note to parents saying they need to help their child do their writing homework, including using the "editing checklist" to check their work.

Different Planets

I went to a gathering of top state educators this evening. (Maybe someday I can give more details. I have a number of funny anecdotes.) There was no particular agenda or goals. Everyone just got to talk. I realized that I couldn't talk about anything. I felt like I was at a party where everyone wanted to talk about politics or religion. I clam right up in those situations. I was thinking that they were all so darned sure of themselves. I realized that I felt this same way at many of the school parent-teacher meetings I've attended. They are on a different planet. It's like when one of my brother-in-laws starts talking about politics (or Buddhism). The conversation is one-directional by definition. I contrast this with the bi-directional conversations I have with another brother-in-law. We have interesting conversations about everything, and it's not because we agree.

which picture doesn't belong?

and why?

Now that the School District has admitted that they have no copyright on the information and pictures posted on their website, we are again able to take this public information, gathered, processed, and presented with public funds and post them on the Valhalla Voice.

Here are six pictures from Valhalla's website. Today's question is:

"Which doesn't belong and why?"

The answer is the cow of course. Not because there is no cow in Valhalla, but because there was a cow in Valhalla.

Is it getting to be time to put the public school system out of its misery?

Grade Reversal?

I'm collecting anecdotes!

Specifically about cases in which smart students are getting lower grades than their classmates. 

Perhaps they aren't explaining their answers to math problems.

Perhaps they don't do well with the arts & crafts/"creativity" components of English and social studies assignments.

Perhaps they don't cooperate well in group assignments.

Perhaps they participate insufficiently in class discussions.

Perhaps their classrooms are too cluttered and chaotic for them to concentrate.

Perhaps they are overwhelmed by big, interdisciplinary projects and multi-step directions.

Perhaps they are too uninspired to "go that extra mile" that top grades require.

And perhaps the actual academic requirements in math, science, writing, etc., are so low that they have no way to exhibit their strengths.

Whatever your child's/students story is, please share it here.

(Cross-posted at Out In Left Field)