revenge of the C student

from Education Week

Robert J. Sternberg often writes about a lecture-style psychology course he took as a college freshman in which he got a C. “There is a famous Sternberg in psychology,” the professor told him at the time, “and it looks like there won’t be another.”

To Mr. Sternberg, the vignette illustrates that conventional assessments don’t measure all the abilities students need to succeed in life.

A nationally known psychologist, he has spent much of his career designing new measures that might more accurately capture the full range of students’ intellectual potential at the university level.

Now, a team of Yale University researchers is using the same ideas to rethink the tests that schools use to identify pupils for gifted and talented programs in elementary schools.

The team’s Aurora Battery, named for the colorful spectrums created by the northern and southern lights, is being translated and tested with tens of thousands of 9- to 12-year-olds, not only in the United States, but also in England, India, Kuwait, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, and other countries.

If the preliminary results from those tests are borne out, its developers say, the new assessment could yield a very different pool of gifted students—one that includes a higher proportion of students from traditionally underrepresented minority groups than is often the case now.

[snip]

“This test has the potential to capture a more diverse population of students with a more varied and better-qualified array of skills,” said Elena L. Grigorenko, a psychology professor and the leader of the Yale study team in New Haven, Conn.

[snip]

Traditional intelligence tests, these researchers say, measure only a narrow subset: memory and analytical skills. Also known as “g” for general intellectual ability, those skills come in handy for comparing and contrasting, analyzing, judging, and classifying, and they are the kinds of abilities that teachers tend to value and emphasize in the classroom.

If people who score high on such measures succeed later on in life—and studies show that they often do—it’s partly because the educational system is geared to reward their particular mental skills, Mr. Sternberg said.

Someone should alert Robert Sternberg to the fact that this problem has been solved. Once you've got Connected Math, block scheduling, and portfolio assessment the kids who got straight-As back in the day become reliable B students.

Implement the middle school model in your town et voilà. IQ gap gone.

In its entirety, Aurora is a comprehensive battery that includes a group-administered paper-and-pencil test, a parent interview, a scale for teacher rating of students, and some observation items. The paper-and-pencil test gauges creativity, for instance, by asking students to imagine what objects might say to one another if they could talk, or to generate a story plot to fit an abstract illustration on a children’s-book cover.

A question assessing students’ practical skills with numbers directs test-takers to draw a line mapping the shortest route between a friend’s house and a movie theater.

Ideas of Practical and Creative IQ Underlie New Tests of Giftedness
by Debra Viadero
Education Week
Vol. 27, Issue 38, Pages 1,16

At last!

A standardized test that can tell me whether any of my kids has the sense it takes to come in out of the rain.

Seeing as how our family motto is no common sense-y, I'm guessing no.

data loops and other strange beasts

from Education Week:

Whether schools will know how to make use of data collected through value-added statistical techniques is an open question, however.

Daniel F. McCaffrey, a senior statistician in the Pittsburgh office of the Santa Monica, Calif.-based RAND Corp., studied 32 Pennsylvania school districts taking part in the first wave of a state pilot program aimed at providing districts with value-added student-achievement data in mathematics.

He and his research colleagues surveyed principals, other administrators, teachers, and parents in the districts involved in the program and compared their responses with those from other districts having similar demographic characteristics.

“We found it was really having no effect relative to the comparison districts,” Mr. McCaffrey said.

Even though educators, for instance, seemed to like the data they were getting and viewed the information as useful, few were doing anything with the results, he said. Twenty percent of the principals didn’t know they were participating in the study, Mr. McCaffrey said, noting also that the program was still young at that point in the evaluation process.

Despite such challenges, other speakers at the conference argued that the use of value-added methodology should become more widespread. Said Robert Gordon, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank: “The way we will learn about implementation problems, I think, is to implement.”

New Uses Explored for ‘Value Added’ Data
by Debra Viadero
May 28, 2008

Oh yes, I agree. There is much to be learned from implementations of all types. One after another. Implementation upon implementation upon implementation.

Implementation is the path to enlightenment.


data-driven loops & noise

a KIPP parent describes her daughter's school

by April McCaffrey

I am now a proud parent of a KIPPster and straight-A student. I am more involved in my daughter’s school than I ever have been before. KIPP, which stands for Knowledge is Power Program, understands how to truly work together as a team, and the program emphasizes the capabilities of our children.

[snip]

I knew right away that KIPP was right for us. Within 3 weeks, I saw a difference in my daughter, Sylvia. Prior to KIPP, she’d been an average student. She was a slow in understanding math concepts and not a great test-taker. I was forever frustrated by her old school’s fast pace and was told that Sylvia needed to learn much more quickly. Although she would score 100% on reading comprehension, the number of words Sylvia could read per minute was below average. I had a difficult time prioritizing the speed over understanding. Sylvia found relief from her difficulties with fractions only when the class moved on to another subject. The schools were so focused on end-of-the-year standardized testing that my sensitive daughter began losing sleep with worry. She was tired, stressed, and felt inadequate.

KIPP has changed how Sylvia feels about school and her ability to succeed by using a variety of learning methods including:

Longer school days. KIPP students begin school at 7:25 AM, and are released at 5 PM Monday through Thursday, with a half-day on Friday. Although that may seem like a long day, the additional time is a benefit to all. The teachers have more time to spend teaching their subjects, the students do not lose lunch or recess, and the extra-curricular activities, such as P.E., Technology, Art, and Music, are built into the curriculum.

Longer school year. KIPP students have 3 weeks of summer school. The teachers use that time to assess the students and divide them into classes according to their skill level.

It had never occurred to me that part of the reason for the long day wasn't (always) to catch kids up, but to give kids more time to learn --- !

And note: homogeneous grouping.

What Is A "Private School"? -- Segmenting The Market

In the United States (at least in some circles) "my kid goes to private school" has become a chant of status. However, not all private schools mean "highly selective institution of highly rigorous and demanding curriculum".

The "private school" universe should be properly segmented:

• Schools having a religious foundation


• Parochial schools of the Roman Catholic Church (PBS Ethics & Religon special) --typically under the authority of the local diocese.


• What the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) calls "religious conservative schools" -- typically Christian, teaching "back to basics" and a biblically-based science curriculum (i.e., creationism rather than evolution).
  
• Religious-affiliation schools requiring (or putting a strong emphasis on) attendance at a given church or membership in a given sect (think of the academies of the Seventh Day Adventists).
• Schools run by religious orders, but not under the control of any particular parish--the Sacred Hearts, the Notre Dames of suburbia. At least here in the San Francisco Bay area, the schools ' curricula include theology, but accept students of all (or no) religion, and do not require a profession of faith. Note: There has been a huge growth in Jewish day schools, and I have heard anecdotally that some non-Jews have enrolled because of the excellence in education.
  




• Secular Schools


• Private schools that follow a particular branded philosophy (such as Montessori schools, or Waldorf Schools*).


• Proprietary schools, stand-alone or chain, whose tuition includes a profit for the proprietors. (NECS lumps these into "nonsectarian private schools"--not distinguishing between not-for-profit and for-profit. ) Examples include:
  
  • CardenSchools
  
  
  • Challenger Schools (a chain based in Utah)
  
  
  • Stratford Schools (a chain based in Danville, California)
  
  
  • Pinecrest Schools (a chain in Southern California)
  
  
  
• Truly independent schools, usually with membership in the National Association of Independent Schools. Independent schools are non-public, not-for-profit, pre-collegiate institutions governed by boards of trustees.

What makes an independent school different from a private school? All independent schools, to deserve the name, must be not-for-profit. All independent schools are governed by a self-perpetuating board of trustees. The role of the board is to:

• Establish the school's mission


• Safeguard the mission


• Manage the school and its assets for future generations.

(more on governance in a future post)

That's not to say that a for-profit enterprise can't be good. It is just different.

The Council for American Private Education (CAPE)is an association of associations. It has a page outlining all the different types of schools that make up the CAPE landscape. The mission statement for CAPE follows:

Our nation is blessed by a rich diversity of private schools -- some rooted in religious traditions, some that provide intensive academic experiences, some that reflect a particular pedagogy, and some that are specialized for specific populations. These diverse schools and strong, often faith-based, communities help fulfill the American ideal of educational pluralism and collectively contribute to the common good.

One of the associations that make up CAPE is The National Independent Private Schools Association, an association of for-profit (proprietary) elementary through high school institutions.

Another type of private school is the proprietary academic school organized as a for-profit corporation. There are about 1,000 in the country, according to Jim Williams of the National Independent Private Schools Association. "We are the tax-paying schools," Williams says. "Most schools start with an idea, the vision of someone. Many of the people who start proprietary schools are disenchanted public-school or disappointed independent-school teachers who don't want to deal with a board of directors or a school board." He points out that most of the elite prep schools of the 19th century began as proprietary schools with fees paid to headmasters. "People who get involved with proprietary schools are pleased with what they see," Williams says.

================

*Some people make the case that a Waldorf school is actually a religious school
system hiding behind a facade of progressive, arts-based education.

Independent School Governance 101

In the post What Is A Private School: Segmenting the Market, I promised more about governance in an independent school. I was prompted to do so by the post
A private public school, or a public private school?, The Crimson Avenger asks some questions about governance:

If you lay out explicitly what you believe and what you strive to accomplish, you can say to your parents and your community members: This is a private institution; you do not have to participate. However, if you do, you have to understand that the guiding principles of this school will remain constant: they will not change, and it is this vision that you are buying into. Within this framework, which is set in stone, our stakeholders have a real voice in how we accomplish these ends, and we have boards set up that you can join, and that hold sway on the operations of this school.

If you do this – and make sure your boards make decisions on good data – you can have a public model of a private school.

What do you think – am I wrong about how public schools operate like private institutions? Am I wrong that a private school can be democratically run by its stakeholders?

The Crimson Avenger was responding to Allison's May 12 comment,

I'd like to add what I know about not-for-profit schools' governance. (A version of this post was written in response to the abrupt closure of a for-profit chain of specialty schools, CEDU. You can read the whole sorry CEDU story here)

How are for-profit schools different than not-for-profit schools? What's the difference between an independent school and a proprietary school?

Some of the features of independent schools are similar to public schools, some are different.

Accreditation—
All California schools, public and private, that want to be accredited undergo a multi-year evaluation process administered by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). I bs.

Association Membership—There are several regional and national associations of independent schools. The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS) the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) and the Pacific Northwest Association of Independent Schools (PNAIS) are the four most important to the CEDU groups. The CEDU schools were not a member of these groups.

Governance—Most independent schools are governed by its Board of Directors, who are all unpaid volunteers dedicated to the school. NAIS publishes several handbooks and resources to guide independent school trustees in their work; all of the following is drawn from those sources.

Many schools use “Directors” and “Trustees” interchangeably, so the “Board of Directors” or the “Board of Trustees” means the same body. The Board is the legal governing body of most non-profit organizations. While the Board is not the owner, it holds the non-profit corporation, its assets, liabilities, and mission, in trust for the public. In the case of schools, for parents, students, future students, and the community at large.

The Board of Trustees of any independent school has nine basic roles:

1. The Board defines the mission of the school and clarifies its philosophy


2. The Board establishes or affirms policies within which the mission can be fulfilled. These policies govern the day-to-day operation of the school in all areas of board concern: legal issues, financial matters, definition of additional authorized programs that the school will offer (e.g. summer camp, child care, etc.)


3. The board is accountable for the financial well-being of the school, including capital assets, operating budgets, fund-raising, and endowment.


4. The Board selects a Head to administer the School, and, having appointed him/her, they provide support and formal periodic evaluation of his/her performance.


5. Working through the Head, they ensure that all laws and regulations are being followed, and that day-to-day operations are consistent with Board policy and the school’s Mission and philosophy.


6. Working with the Head and representatives of the School's constituency groups (staff, parents, alumni, friends of the School), they take the leadership role in a process of on-going strategic planning and self-study. They formally adopt from time-to-time long-range plans and provide a structure for their implementation.


7. The Board assumes a key role in fund raising for the school.


8. The Board serves as ambassadors for the school, promoting its good name and letting the public and constituency groups know about its success stories.


9. The Board guards the privacy and confidentiality of the matters they decide.

A strong and healthy Board of Trustees does not:

1. Attempt to manage the day-to-day operations of a school themselves. A healthy board has exactly one employee: the Head of School. This means among other things that any individual Board Member has exactly zero input into admissions decisions, hiring and firing decisions, any disciplinary actions the Head or the faculty may take and so on.


2. Interfere with the Head's job of managing the staff. This means if someone (say a faculty member) comes to a Board Member with a complaint about another faculty member, the Board Member’s duty is to direct the complainant to the Head of School.


3. Attempt to evaluate the educational program. While individual Board members may have some expertise in educational or administrative matters, the Board as a whole is has delegated the educational program to the head. The Board defines the kind of school it wants, and hires the Head to turn the dream into reality. The Head hires and supervises the staff that actually works with the students.


4. Criticize the school, its programs, its faculty, or its leadership structure outside of Board meetings.


5. Break the confidentiality of the Board decision-making process.

How do boards decide if a matter brought before them is an issue appropriate to themselves, or should be dealt with by the administration?

Board issue	Administrative/staff issue
This issue affects the entire organization (example: how much financial aid to allow for in budget)	This issue affects only individuals (example: which student gets how much financial aid)
This issue establishes new policy. (example: deciding to add a program such as summer enrichment)	This issue is an implementation of policy (example: planning this year’s summer enrichment program)
This is an issue dictated by law (example: nondiscrimination policy)	This is an issue not dictated by law (example: uniform-wearing policy)
This issue is brought to the Board by the administration (example: administration requests board develop a policy on appropriate use of a new technology )

Board membership criteria: traditional vs. new

There are two phrases that used to be popular to describe service on any non-profit board: “Give, Get, or Git”—give money generously, get other people to give generously, or get off the board—and “Choose Board Members who have two of three Ws: Wealth, Wisdom, or Work.”

The new adage is that independent schools need the 3 Rs: those who can (beyond their specific expertise) contribute significantly in Raising students, Raising image, and Raising money.

What Board service entails: Most independent school expect Board Members to give generously in several different areas.
Giving of Time: The Board plans for itself general business meetings, informational meetings, and one or more “retreats”, focused on a single issue. Trustees are also expected to attend important school events such as graduation. The average number of hours per month varies on the individual trustee, but certainly an average of eight hours per month is a conservative estimate.

Giving of Money: Every trustee is expected to make a generous annual donation to the school, according to his or her individual financial circumstances. In some instances, that may mean giving $100 per year; for others, which may mean over $100,000 per year. Also, every trustee is expected to help in fundraising by encouraging other people to give money or time to the school.

Giving of Support: Every trustee is expected, outside of the Board meetings, to speak only of the school’s strengths and hopes. The discussion of weaknesses and disappointments is reserved for discussions between Board members.

Giving of Confidentiality: Every trustee is expected to keep board matters and discussions confidential.

How does somebody get to be on a Board of Directors? Almost all independent schools have "self-perpetuating" boards. That is, the Board finds new members for itself, through a strategic screening and selection process.

What the bylaws say about board service: Most schools are governed by a legal document, the bylaws, which are written and adopted by the founding board. As the school matures, the bylaws are amended. Most schools specify a minimum and maximum number of directors, the duration of their terms of service, and how many terms they may serve consecutively. Many independent schools have other limitations, such as restricting the number of current parents who may serve. Almost all schools specify that trustees serve as volunteers, without being paid for their time or services.

There are advantages and disadvantages for any independent school to having current parents in the majority on the board. In general, the disadvantage is that current parents are naturally very concerned with the school as it is today or this year, while the true role of the board of trustees should be focusing on the school as it will be in the next decade. The National Association of Independent Schools suggests that a healthy board consist of less than 60% current parents.

The Board Recruitment process:

Healthy independent schools have a process whereby the Board:

• Identifies what skills and strengths are represented on the board currently
• Identifies what skills and strengths will be needed in coming years
• Identifies people who are already committed to the school who will meet the school’s needs
• Identifies people in the community who are not yet familiar with the school, but who meet its needs, and take steps to make the school attractive as a volunteer opportunity.

The group within the board responsible for board recruitment then selects a “short list” of people that would be good board candidates, and finds out if they are ready, willing and able to serve. From that “short list”, a slate is presented to the whole Board for election to the Board. The election is usually unanimous. The election of new board members typically takes place at the Annual Meeting, in the spring.

Mathematically Sane's review of the NMP Report

For fans of Mathematically Sane, here is their review of the National Math Panel report. My editorial comments are in green. They are not meant to intrude but to "enhance" your reading experience.



Friday, March 21, 2008
Really Says it ALL!
Presidential Math Panel Vows to Increase Learning Disabilities
Tuesday, March 18, 2008 5:17 AM
Gary Stager

In the last year of his term, the President of the United States and theDepartment of Education are now trying to do for math what they did for reading. The notable achievements of Reading First include massive fraud, profiteering, junk science, federal control over classroom practice, fear and hysteria. [Ed: They also found unprecedented success in school districts that had been written off by many.] While the National Reading Panel was stacked with ideologues sharing the same educational philosophy, the National Math Panel co-opted the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) by appointing the organization’s President to serve on the committee.

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, never known for its radicalism, swung hard towards “the basics” last year in its Curriculum Focal Points and now finds itself in the uncomfortable position of having to disagree with NCTM’s President and the President of the United States. “Skip” Fennell did neither his members nor millions of American schoolkids any favors by participating in this unnecessary process. These federal education expeditions seek to narrow both the range of content and pedagogy permissible in public schools. The private and religious schools the GOP wants to support with taxpayer-funded vouchers are immune from these intrusions. The one-size-fits-all prescriptions for what ails public education are justified by claiming that schemes are research-based. [Ed; "Research-based". Where have I heard that before? Aren't Everyday Math and Investigations "research-based"?]

The rigid definition of “scientific evidence” enforced by Department of Education may be fine in testing remedies for restless leg syndrome, but is ill-suited for the complexities of education. [Ed: Such reasoning may explain why teachers believe that teaching algorithms in the lower grades is harmful to such students]. But hey, these are the folks who have mangled the English language to imply that theory is merely an unproven guess.

There is a lot wrong with the recent math report, but making Algebra the holy grail of K-8 mathematics is wrong-headed and goes unquestioned. Stressing the importance of fractions as critical prerequisites forAlgebra adds insult to injury. In a world-class display of side-splitting math teacher humor, panel member Frances “Skip” Fennell told the New York Times , “Just as“plastics” was the catchword in the 1967 movie The Graduate, the catchword for math teachers today should be ‘fractions.’“ What Fennell doesn’t realize is that the person who said, “Plastics,” in The Graduate was emblematic of everything wrong with society. “Plastics,” was a metaphor for a shallow, superficial, inauthentic culture focused onthe wrong values. The National Math Advisory Panel’s greater focus on fractions represents a “plastic” version of mathematics that will do more harm than good.

It’s easy to see how someone might think that several years worth of fraction study prepares a child for Algebra. Fractions have numerators over denominators, separated by a horizontal line. Many algebraic equations have something over something else, also separated by a line.That’s all you need to know. Right? [ Um, uh...]Not only is the progression from arithmetic manipulation of fractions to Algebra tenuous, but neither of the assumptions underlying the value of teaching fractions or Algebra are ever questioned. [Uhh, well, they did discuss that at the very first meeting. Were you not there, or did you not read the transcript?] The President’s Math Panel, like most of the math education community maintains a Kabbalah-like belief in an antiquated scope and sequence. [Ed: A scope and sequence which managed to be successful for a great many people despite claims to the contrary in Mathematically Sane and other places] Such curricular superstition fuels a multigenerational feud in which educators fight over who has the best trick for forcing kids to learn something useless, irrelevant or unpleasant.

Despite the remarkable statement in the 1989 National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Standards, “Fifty percent of all mathematics has beeninvented since World War Two,” the NCTM has been in full retreat ever since. [Ed: Not everyone remains outwitted by stupidity.] Although much of this “new” mathematics is playful, practical, beautiful or capable of being visualized via the computer, little new content has made its way into the curriculum. [Ed. Well at last we agree. There is little to no content at all in NSF-funded programs like Investigations, Math Trailblazers, CMP, and others.] Against this backdrop of unimaginative heuristics and a leadership vacuum, math class has become increasingly torturous for too many students.

Children who struggle to manipulate fractions do so because the skills are taught absent a meaningful context in a culture where fractions are rarely ever used. [Ed: Rational numbers are fast becoming passe as well.] Fraction fans might argue that fractions are important in following a recipe, but little cooking is done during fraction instruction. Even if kids did get to learn fractions by cooking, they might add, subtract or even multiply fractions, but one hardly ever divides fractions. The fact that there are four arithmetic functions doesn’t justify drilling kids for several grade levels. [Ed: Hats off to you, Mr. Stagers. Just when I think you can't outdo yourself, you do!] I wonder how many members of the Presidential panel can coherently explain how division of fractions works beyond repeating the trick – multiply the first fraction by the reciprocal of the second fraction? [Ed: Can't give you an exact number but I believe Wilfried Schmid, Hung-Hsi Wu, Vern Williams, Tom Loveless, Sandra Stotsky, and Liping Ma can do so. Maybe Deborah Ball. Not sure about Skip Fennel.]

The Report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel does not dispute that teachers spend lots of time teaching fractions. The report merely urges that teachers do even more of the same while hoping for a different result. A definition of insanity comes to mind. It would be bad enough if wasted time was the only consequence of the fanatical fraction focus, but too many students get the idea that they can’t do math. This damages their inclination towards learning other forms of mathematics. Given the importance of mathematics and the widespread mathphobia sweeping the land, students can ill afford to a diminution in their self-image as capable mathematicians. Educators should not be complicit in creating learning disabilities regardless of what the President or his friends say. [Ed: I guess this means you won't be voting for George W. Bush again any time soon!]

down under

tour de force:

The curriculum for public confidence
Published Thursday, 14th December, 2006
by Bruce Wilson

I was the first person in my family to finish secondary school. My father had left school at 12, because he was needed on the farm. My mother left formal school even earlier because of a death and disruption in the family. In neither case were the decisions made about their education considered odd or unsympathetic. Education, at the time when my parents were doing it, was not the answer to the future.

However, increasingly throughout that period, the terms of the educational offer changed. There was a sharp divergence, starting during the 70s, between professional and public understanding of the educational offer. When educators spoke, the public's eyes glazed over. Our rhetoric was full of arcane language and secret business. It was during that period that the profession came to believe that education was no longer about filling up people's minds with a lot of stuff.

I remember from my Diploma in Education, and subsequently, lots of analogies based loosely on the jug and the mug, which is the most pervasive image of traditional education in the professional mind. The analogy sees the teacher as the wielder of the jug, and the student as the mug, the recipient of the contents. In this bad old model of education, the teacher stood over the student pouring knowledge into the student's head, and occasionally splashing it over the student's shoulders. This was taken to be an extremely bad thing, and shortly before my Dip Ed year at La Trobe University had apparently been replaced with a greatly improved new model in which the teacher and the student sat around the jug and discussed it, or wrestled for control of it, or kicked it over in a display of class solidarity. Everyone was very excited about this new model and we students of teaching spent most of the year chatting about it, when we weren't drawing up manifestos for a democratic revolution or going to the football.

This challenge to the control of the teacher was closely related to other changes in the status of authority figures. At about the same time, Roland Barthes was gloating over the dying body of the author, while a number of theologians had a little earlier disposed of God in a bloodless coup. The fuss was about knowledge. That was what filled the jug wielded by the teacher. That was what the author had, and had to be dispossessed of. That was what God represented. Somehow, while we weren't watching, knowledge became a bad thing. It was erased from the educational offer, or at least reduced substantially in importance. Knowledge became identified among the leaders of the the teaching profession as a badge of privilege, a way of reinforcing social inequality. Knowledge was the carrier of power relationships. In the place of knowledge we substituted process. What mattered was that students investigated, explored, constructed their own understanding of the world. The content of those investigations was not what counted.

But the users of education, parents and students, were unaware that the fine print had changed. They were still expecting, and still expect today, that education should result in greater knowledge, while the providers of education hold a rather different view about the outcomes of education. (If not knowledge, then what?)

There are many reasons why we have seen a decline in public confidence in schooling, and notably in public schooling. This article will not address most of them. But in the area of curriculum, we lost the public when we decided that something other than knowledge was the purpose of education.

[snip]

There are four changes which would probably make a significant difference to public confidence.

Firstly, we should have one curriculum in Australia rather than some indeterminate number. A curriculum which was developed nationally would not in itself dramatically change public understanding: many people think we already have a national curriculum....The work should be undertaken by an agency independent of, but responsive to, those who presently manage education systems. This will help ensure that the work is designed to meet educational needs rather than political exigencies, and avoids the cluttered and opaque theoretical foundations which afflict many current curriculum documents.

Secondly, we should write our curriculum in English. No Australian curriculum document at present is comprehensible to a lay reader. We should aim for documents which are simple, explicit, and designed to be read and understood by interested parents. This approach has a number of advantages, beyond making our intentions clear to the users of education. It would assist teachers, who are mostly obliged to use official curriculum documents, to understand what we expect of them. It would enable the documents to be used in support of education rather than, as at present, as evidence of our failure. Finally, it would provide a practical illustration of the benefits of education, demonstrating that as educated individuals we can write something which is accessible to a non-expert reader.

Thirdly, we should fill those documents with explicit statements of the knowledge which we intend to impart to young people. We should base these statements on the disciplines, which represent the most powerful ways yet devised of understanding the world. Our purpose should be to teach young Australians their history and geography, introducing them to the artistic, scientific, cultural, moral and linguistic traditions which should sustain them. Our aim should be to guarantee every child a framework of knowledge which can provide a foundation point from which to comprehend and gain power over the world. Most Australian curriculum at present offers a mass of ill-digested competing frameworks, which complicate the documents and bury the really important things beneath a heap of someone's good ideas.

And fourthly, we should make the documents brief. We can do this by avoiding turgid and impenetrable introductions, lengthy lectures about teaching and extended riffs on a range of overlapping frameworks. Most obviously, we can do it by including less stuff.

I do not claim that these changes would restore public confidence in schooling. They would, however, make the curriculum a tool for restoring confidence rather than a club to beat it to death.

and again:

We should base these statements on the disciplines, which represent the most powerful ways yet devised of understanding the world.

Race Between Education and Technology

The book is out. These are major academics, fyi.

Excerpt here. (pdf file)


blurb:

This book provides a careful historical analysis of the co-evolution of educational attainment and the wage structure in the United States through the twentieth century. The authors propose that the twentieth century was not only the American Century but also the Human Capital Century. That is, the American educational system is what made America the richest nation in the world. Its educational system had always been less elite than that of most European nations. By 1900 the U.S. had begun to educate its masses at the secondary level, not just in the primary schools that had remarkable success in the nineteenth century.

The book argues that technological change, education, and inequality have been involved in a kind of race. During the first eight decades of the twentieth century, the increase of educated workers was higher than the demand for them. This had the effect of boosting income for most people and lowering inequality. However, the reverse has been true since about 1980. [ed.: 1980 was the year in which the 17-year decline in SAT scores bottomed out] This educational slow-down was accompanied by rising inequality. The authors discuss the complex reasons for this, and what might be done to ameliorate it.

Table of Contents

Part I: Economic Growth and Distribution
1. The Human Capital Century
2. Inequality across the Twentieth Century
3. Skill-biased Technological Change

Part II: Education for the Masses in Three Transformations
4. The Origins of the Virtues
5. Economic Foundations of the High School Movement
6. America's Graduation from High School
7. Mass Higher Education in the Twentieth Century

Part III. The Race
8. The Race between Education and Technology
9. How America Once Led and Can Win the Race for Tomorrow

related: public confidence in the schools

In the early 1970s, not only did most Americans believe that the public schools were functioning reasonably well, a sizable majority of adults thought that public education had actually improved since they were kids. Today, only a small minority of Americans share this optimistic view. Instead, the majority now believes that schools have gotten significantly worse. Fully half of all Americans are dissatisfied with America’s public education system, a deep concern shared by black and white parents alike.

The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke
by Elizabeth Warren & Amelia Warren Tyagi

It looks to me as if public confidence in the schools declined at the same time Goldin and Katz find public education no longer keeping pace with developing technology -- and no longer serving to decrease inequality.


Steve Levitt summarizes The Race in 2 sentences
Jimmy graduates

The anemic response of skill investment to skill premium growth
The declining American high school graduation rate: Evidence, sources, and consequences
Pushy parents raise more successful kids

The Race Between Education and Technology book review
The Race Between Ed & Tech: excerpt & TOC & SAT scores & public loss of confidence in the schools
The Race Between Ed & Tech: the Great Compression
the Great Compression, part 2
ED in '08: America's schools
comments on Knowledge Schools
the future
the stick kids from mud island
educated workers and technology diffusion
declining value of college degree
Goldin, Katz and fans
best article thus far: Chronicle of Higher Education on The Race
Tyler Cowan on The Race (NY Times)
happiness inequality down...
an example of lagging technology diffusion in the U.S.
the Times reviews The Race, finally
IQ, college, and 2008 election
Bloomington High School & "path dependency"
the election debate that should have been

A private public school, or a public private school?

Allison left a comment on a previous post that’s been gnawing at me. It’s not that I disagree with her necessarily, but rather that she has uncovered (unintentionally or not) what I believe to be a great truth in education.

In response to a comment I made about building a private school model that relies on both tuition and community support, she writes:

The value of using only tuition in a for profit model is that you can really be a private institution. Once you allow funding sources from other places like "the community", you've increased your stakeholders again, and you're back to the place where you aren't in control, because "the community" has its own ideas of what's an acceptable "education". If you're a for-profit private company, you have the most autonomy, and that's the best for implementing your ideas with the least number of stakeholders.. For-profit public companies have external shareholders to be beholden too, as well--that also poses problems.

Without intending to, she has just laid out the exact line of thinking of our current public school administrators.

Remember that, from an administrator’s point of view, their money doesn’t come from the public – it comes from the government. That’s who signs their checks. The last thing they want is support from the community, because it would come with strings, and they’d end up dealing with a long list of stakeholders. They’d lose their status as sole authority.

(And sure, they take some types of support, as long as it’s on their terms: unrestricted cash contributions from the PTA, parent volunteers to whom they can assign projects, and so on. But nothing that would require them to share or give up the helm.)

So, ironically, it turns out that our public schools are operating like private institutions: as autocracies with no one to answer to but themselves.

When I suggested the idea of a private school that made up for low tuitions with community support, I was interested in going in exactly the opposite direction: a school that thrived through the engagement of its supporters. Not just “only-on-my-terms” engagement, but stakeholders with a voice.

How would that be possible without creating conditions of chaos or drift? By doing what public education has failed to do: creating a set of firm guiding principles governing the mission of your school.

We haven’t had a national conversation about the purpose of public education in decades (if we ever did), and as a result we have no shared set of objectives to guide what a school should and should not do. But if we were to do that on an individual school level, at least for this hypothetical private school, I think it could work.

Imagine if we had a guiding statement like this:

At ????? Elementary School, we believe that our sole job is to help children build the academic foundation they need to excel in their school careers and, ultimately, as citizens and workers once they leave school. To this end, we believe the following:

• Children should be taught to mastery in reading, math, and writing
• Children should build their knowledge of the sciences to help them understand the world around them
• Children should understand the civic and political structures of the United States, and why we believe it is the best system in the world; they should also learn its history, including both its triumphs and its missteps
• We cannot know whether learning has occurred unless we assess students. Assessments are conducted regularly and are used to measure accomplishment and to guide future instruction
• Every child should meet high and objective standards set collaboratively with our stakeholders
• If a child has not learned, it means we have not taught. (with apologies to Zig Englemann)

(These are just for examples, btw – don’t get hung up on them :-))

If you lay out explicitly what you believe and what you strive to accomplish, you can say to your parents and your community members: This is a private institution; you do not have to participate. However, if you do, you have to understand that the guiding principles of this school will remain constant: they will not change, and it is this vision that you are buying into. Within this framework, which is set in stone, our stakeholders have a real voice in how we accomplish these ends, and we have boards set up that you can join, and that hold sway on the operations of this school.

If you do this – and make sure your boards make decisions on good data – you can have a public model of a private school.

What do you think – am I wrong about how public schools operate like private institutions? Am I wrong that a private school can be democratically run by its stakeholders?

What Shamu Taught Me...

...about a Happy Marriage

My Karen Pryor dog treats and target stick have arrived, and my dogs (Surfer and Abby) are liking the clicker, liking the treats, and are happy to touch their noses to the target or drop their bodies down to the floor.

Neither has, as yet, experienced a lightbulb moment.

I'm gathering my courage to try this with Andrew. His behavior has got to get under control this summer. When Ed gets back from L.A., we're all going to have a go at the training game.



trainer's motto: It's never the animal's fault.

Extra Credit

6th grade math extra credit question:

How many numbers between 1000 and 2000 are the same when you turn them upside down?

The answer was five.

This is math?

And, um, five??

Advanced Placement & TAKS

starsfan0271 wrote:

7th grade English teacher here:

Please let's go back to basics. Our kids need to learn that having poor grammar and typos may be ok for texting, or even commenting on boards, but it's not gonna cut it when trying to express yourself to a wider audience.

Advanced Placement tests for Language require knowledge of the parts of speech--by not explicitly teaching them, we are already hurting our kids chances of earning AP credit and doing well in Freshman comp in college.

5/23/2008 2:46 PM CDT

a little brain-based research is a dangerous thing

Another comment from the TAKS article:

Riebs wrote:

The members and even the well-meaning reporters who are writing are missing the message: teachers are teaching GRAMMAR. The lessons are taught directly and then applied in the current piece of writing the student is performing. When the grading rubric is designed , students and teacher together discuss which skills have been highly focused on in that particular piece of writing ....which is the application of the grammar, punctuation, usage, agreement, skills that have been directly taught, then conference on, then expectantly applied withint the piece. They then decide on the point value of each skill to be scored highly...GRAMMAR IS IN THE DOCUMENT.

We know people who never got it, who struggled with it, and those of us who found it fun because it happened to have been where we were developmentally. Research has taught us in the last 30 years just when that frontal lobe of the brain works...the abstracting part....it used to be that we expected kids to be able to LOCK IN grammar and other abstract skills between ages 12-17...and now we know that research shows that that may even extend for many individuals into the mid twenties...so spending time stuffing skills into kids; heads for momentary understanding takes away depth in the students' connections and engagement in their day. Yes, present grammar as concretely as possible, but don't expect mastery to come early for some concepts....

It is folly for the news media and the state board to talk about not enough grammar in the school day at early ages..teachers are teaching grammar. But take any book that is well published and find no error, no stylistic features no incomplete rhetorical statements for emphasis. You can't find one.

It's not about "being more creative," because in the editing stage before any creative piece is published and posted, students must edit and again...be retaught necessary grammar skills and must negotiate with the professional who is the teacher, just what sylistic license can be taken. And yes, even the babies....first grade on, have SOME editing responsibility...in the end of a piece to be posted.....but very few simply because of developmental level. The good teacher is always nudging for new skills for even the young, like sentence combining to make a young one's developmental begin to grow.

I have sat from March through this May 15th situation, and I can tell you, the games the 9 members of the board have played is astoundingly embarrassing for each and every tax payer in Texas, and I believe Texas will be duly embarrassed as the politicians take a national look at what Texas is doing, for we have supposedly been a leader in No Child Left Behind....ha...big joke...and I have educator daughter in special needs education...so I know what it's all doing at that level, too.

Grammar is tested on TAKS at 4th grade, for sure, within the writing passage those kids are given to do in one sitting....they are expected to have a specific level of control within those pieces of grammar, agreement, correct parts of speech, and all forms of basic punctuation, capitalization...It's just scored in the final copy they present to the state....control of that is necessary for adequate scoring. Remember, they have NO TEACHER INPUT so they must have been taught the importance of editing when they are alone writing for publication, which that test requires.

There's not an adult out there, who could do a piece at the adult level on a TAKS writing test that SOME grammarian and editor out there would not question. We even see careless errors on pieces that come in from adults for publication...so don't tell me grammar is not in the teacher's minds, hearts, and daily classrooms. Their kids can't survive without it, and it is curriculm everywhere in the state text books, but WITH writing strands.

Teachers ARE direct teaching grammar. We have a SBOE that are NOT curriculum savvy, and they are driving research on learning into the dump in Texas, quite unbeknownst to them, even when they care. They may have sat and listened to nearly 7th PHD, CURRICULUM SPECIALISTs, researchers in education in all these meetings, but they have not HEARD...and certainly they have just been showing us that they can't comprehend...but how should that surprise us...they voted comprehension teaching down twice...even as Mr. Craig tried to work it in in an amendment. Two board members, shortly after the voted T document down 9 to 6....said, If we are going to cut and paste from the teacher document into the Standard Works document we just accepted, so that we GET THE TEACHER DOCUMENT, why did we just vote it down? Mr. Allen, Mrs. Knight, paraphrased.

Don't get me started....thanks if you hung in there and read all this stream of conscience writing....please don't edit...I haven't for this conversation. Riebs

Student developmental levels and the last 30 years of brain-based research in exactly HOW the brain learns through engagement is a missing element in many of these bloggers' background. I am a taxpayer, parent, teacher, writing specialist, researcher...literacy professional. I am completely offended by the decision of the board....but I will tell you..I, too, loved diagraming in school. I could see it as a puzzle...just give me a longer one....I loved it....and I never wrote or for the most part EVER considered, even in high school or college (50's/60's) how I was applying grammar skills. I must say, for many of you out there who ARE talking great: grammar: it's how I somehow the reader and correct structurer I am today...people...we are out there. But for most American students, grammar never gave them what you and I have naturally....and they never learned better from it....

BECAUSE OF ONGOING RESEARCH WHEN CAN BE CONFIRMED AS CORRECT....THROUGH THE USE OF SOPHISTICATE EQUIPMENT THAT SHOWS WHEN THE BRAIN IS ENGAGING FOR DEEP LEARNING AND WHEN IT ISN'T, children and adults, for that matter, should learn through engagement that is meaninful, not through isolated bits and pieces.

5/23/2008 12:00 PM CDT

Perhaps this Comment is not the best advertisement for the lifelong benefits of sentence diagramming.

Be that as it may, this is the part that gets to me:

Research has taught us in the last 30 years just when that frontal lobe of the brain works...the abstracting part....it used to be that we expected kids to be able to LOCK IN grammar and other abstract skills between ages 12-17...and now we know that research shows that that may even extend for many individuals into the mid twenties.

I despair.

Yes, research shows that the frontal lobes continue to mature throughout the teen years and into the twenties. Martha Denckla once told me that myelination continues into the 30s but I can't find a current reference for that, so perhaps it happens in the 20s.

This research has nothing to do with the ability to learn abstract material:

The belief that children of particular ages cannot learn certain content because they are “too young” or “not ready” has consistently been shown to be false.
Fact Sheet
National Math Panel

Not only can young people with immature frontal lobes learn abstract material, we have evidence that young people with immature frontal lobes may learn algebra better than older people with mature frontal lobes:

New fMRI evidence suggests that adolescents could be at an advantage for learning algebra compared with adults. Qin and colleagues present findings indicating that after several days of practice adolescents rely on prefrontal regions to support the retrieval of algebraic rules to solve equations, as do adults. Unlike adults, however, after practice adolescents decrease their reliance on parietal regions, which assist in the transformation of the equations, suggesting an enhanced ability for learning algebra. These findings are discussed with regard to adolescent brain maturation.
Algebra and the adolescent brain (pdf file)
Beatriz Luna
Trends in Cognitive Science
Vol. 8, No. 10 October 2004, p 437-439

What "30 years of research" actually shows us, if I may be so bold, is that expecting adolescents to "take responsibility for their own learning" is a very bad idea.

to wit:

Reuben Gur: Well I think it is a frequent experience with people who have raised teenagers, or been around them, that they are every bit as smart as they will ever be and some of them are smarter than their teachers or their parents. Their memory and their ability to absorb new information and ability to reason through complex problems - and yet sometimes they do something that leaves you wide-mouthed, wondering, 'What were they thinking?' And they could then afterwards explain to you perfectly why what they did was wrong, it’s just that it didn’t all fall together at the right moment in the right circumstances. And that’s exactly what may be the result of the fact that the connections between the reasoning part of the brain and the sensory and the action part of the brain and the emotional part of the brain - all those regions need to meet with their context in the frontal lobe and right now there is no highway there, it’s only a rural road that is sometimes disrupted.

Rebels and the cause - the adolescent brain

whole everything

I'm reading the comments on the Texas vote, and have come across a terrific statement of the wholeism taught in ed schools:

paul002 wrote:

Encourage reading and writing first. Worry about grammar later. Do you teach babies the proper way to greet someone before their first word? No, you do not. You speak around them enough so they emulate what they hear. They begin speaking in incomprehensible baby talk and progress to sentences. It is the same with reading and writing. Read to children, teach them to read, and encourage them to read on their own. At the same time, teach them to write. If they are reading, they will try to emulate what they read. As they get better at writing, you can work on grammar and editing. This is why publishers have editors and writers don't do their own editing.

If you want to "go back to basics," then how much more basic can you get than teaching the written language in the same manner that you learned the spoken language?

5/23/2008 8:52 AM CDT

I'd like to slap a sticker on that one.

If I had a sticker.

in Texas

English standards head back to basics
Teachers bitter as divided board expected to alter curriculum today

Texas Education Board rejects English teachers' input on new curriculum standards

The board's social conservatives, joined by Republican moderate Geraldine Miller of Dallas and San Antonio Democrat Rick Agosto, prevailed, 9-6, for a plan that features a back-to-the-basics approach for grammar and reading comprehension. A final vote on the plan is scheduled for today.

[snip]

"Most of the teachers in this state are going to be furious," said Alana Morris, past president of CREST (Coalition of Reading and English Supervisors of Texas).

[snip]

For some board members, though, it came down to process and a different educational approach. The prevailing side wants grammar taught separately instead of incorporating it in the context of writing.

"We believe you need to know those skills first, and then you can incorporate them into your writing," said member Terri Leo, R-Spring. "We feel the other side thinks that you are going to learn things by osmosis, by just writing."

Right you are, Terri Leo, R-Spring. The other side does indeed think that you are going to learn things by osmosis, by just writing:

Top-down [teaching] means that students begin with complex problems to solve and then work out or discover (with the teacher's guidance) the basic skills required.
source:
Educational Psychology, 7th edition
Robert Slavin
p 259
top-down teaching

Hand kids an undifferentiated mass; let them figure it out.

Have I mentioned lately that I spent 7 years of my life trying to determine the relevant parts of autism?

I don't recommend it.

Speaking of undifferentiated masses, today's news from Texas is a case of synchronicity. Just this afternoon I was saying to Barry G that it is past time for our merry band to re-visit the strands.^*


bonus observation: social conservatives, a Republican moderate, and a Hispanic Democrat

Holy moly.

If I were a CRESTy, I would be asking myself whether it's a good idea to be inspiring these folks to make common cause. Which would lead me, I'm pretty sure, directly to the conclusion that I should not be posting sentiments like these on the worldwide web.




fearless leader


Texas Alternative Document
Elaine McEwan recommends Texas Alternative Document
top-down teaching
constructivism: the mother lode

^*the strands decoded

fun with Spanish centered stuff

Just for fun, I ran the Spanish translation of the Prentice Hall letter Catherine posted through Word's translation feature. Here's what the computer thinks this all means in English:

Dear family,

Welcome to ________________. I wait for with illusion a successful year in ________________. In order to prepare to our students for future challenges in mathematics, we have chosen a program that includes an active approach to the learning of abilities to solve problems.

Our text book, published by Prentice Hall, is a program centered in the student. Its style takes to the students to the discovery of mathematical ideas. Soon, once they discover those ideas, they communicate what they have learned and they apply what they know. The program requests to them that they solve problems individually and in equipment. One focuses to situations of the real life to help the students to appreciate the power of the mathematics in its daily life.

Our goal is to form an association with the family and members of the community. United we can create a learning atmosphere that really helps our students. Throughout this scholastic year, we will invite you to participate in scholastic year, we will invite you to participate in scholastic events and projects of the home and the school. His son or daughter will take to the house, periodically, activities that you will share and experiment together in family. All the suggestions or commentaries are welcomes that they want to do to us on our program. If they have questions on the activities of his student in the class of mathematics, them request that leaves a message me ________________. In its message tell me which is the best hour to give back its call to them. They can also write to me to ________________.

It excites the idea to me to work with you to manage to have a satisfactory and successful scholastic year.

Kindly,

________________________

Just imagine receiving this letter in your child's backpack. Now you have an idea of how that Spanish speaking family member is feeling when they read that funky student-centered waste of trees from the good folks at Prentice Hall.

On the positive side of things, this type of computer translation is precisely why it will be awhile before my work as a translator is easily replaced by technology. It's nice to feel I still have a purpose in the 21st century.

Having it both ways; Everyday Math Responds to NMP report

I received a copy of a response that the good folks at Everyday Math prepared in response to the National Math Panel report. Cheryl Van Tilburg who lives in Singapore was kind enough to provide it to me. She got it from the curriculum head at the Singapore American School which her children attend. Yes, they use Everyday Math at that school. Right. "Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink."

One of the authors was Jim Flanders who has been with EM for many years. It is too long to post the whole thing, so here are excerpts, plus some comments written by a math professor who is heavily involved in the issue of K-12 math education.

The basic message that EM puts forth is we do everything the NMP wants but we disagree with it all.

"For many reasons an Algebra course is a "gateway to later achievement", but for reasons we detail later the EM authors do not believe it is the gateway as the panel recommends. There is evidence, in fact, that the gateway is much more flexible than the panel maintains. For example, in the mid- 1990s the U.S. Military Academy changed its first (gateway) mathematics course for all freshmen from Calculus (a primary reason Algebra is so important) to a Modeling course based primarily on discrete mathematics and embedded in computing technology. In short, exactly what are the gateway or critical topics of a 21st-century mathematics education is a matter of considerable debate."

The mathematician's response: "They neglect to mention that as soon as the Military Academy students are done with their Modeling course they have to all take 2 or 3 semesters of Calculus, for which you need that algebra.

"The authors believe that a curriculum focused solely on the panels "Critical Foundations of Algebra" (i.e., arithmetic with whole numbers and fractions) would be a step backward and would not prepare students for success in tomorrow's world. Further, many of the parents of todays children had very unhappy experiences with the panels limited definition of mathematics. Most of them want their children to have the richer mathematical experience that EM has to offer."

Mathematician's response: "Here we have K-12 educators redefining mathematics, partially based on the logic that some parents had"very unhappy experiences" when they were kids learning math. "

"... the authors believe that the paper-and-pencil skills championed by the panel are simply the ones that students learned in the mid 1900s and are insufficient preparation for careers and daily life in the 21st century."."

Mathematician's response: "The necessary math hasn't changed or been redefined. If they were getting all kids to learn the basics, then this branching out might make sense, but such is not the case."

"EM also requires that students explore several computational algorithms. Knowing a variety of algorithms can (1) help with a variety of computational tasks, including estimation, in which a standard algorithm might be inefficient; and (2) help students better understand the concepts behind standard algorithms. Yet EM also encourages and supports teacher in being sensitive to individual differences. Some students may need to focus on one algorithm over all others and suggestions for how to identify such students are in the Teachers LessonGuides."

Mathematician's response:

"Note that like in TERC Investigations, there is no emphasis on learning efficient algorithms. Worse,note that it is what the students themselves "need tofocus on" that determines what a student uses. This student chosen algorithm might work well in an EM class in elementary school, but it ismy understanding that it is very difficult to get students to change once they are comfortable withan algorithm, and such an algorithm may not even be remotely comfortable when the student getsto college. This is a real, and unbelievable, disservice to students."

"They [fractions] are also represented in fraction-manipulating calculators, which are primarily tools for allowing students to do many more calculations with fractions than can be done on pencil-and-paper.

Mathematician's response: "Maybe so, but they won't get the "conceptual understanding of fractions" the NMP wants. "

Perhaps Andy Isaacs and Jim Flanders would care to offer their thoughts?

how do you say "student-centered" in Spanish?

Student Progress Report (pdf file)

Substitute Teacher's Quick Reference. (pdf file) [ed.: check out the final column]

Substitute Teacher's Survival Kit (pdf file)

Letter to the Family (pdf file)

Carta a la familia (pdf file)

Letter of Invitation to Attend Family/Teacher Conference (pdf file) [ed.: family/teacher? not parent? I'm calling that a demotion]

Spanish version (pdf file)


lost in translation

Querida familia,

Bienvenidos a ________________. Espero con ilusión un año exitoso en ________________. Para preparar a nuestros estudiantes para retos futuros en matemáticas, hemos elegido un programa que incluye un enfoque activo al aprendizaje de habilidades para resolver problemas.

Nuestro libro de texto, publicado por Prentice Hall, es un programa centrado en el estudiante. Su estilo lleva a los estudiantes al descubrimiento de ideas matemáticas. Luego, una vez que descubran esas ideas, comunican lo que han aprendido y aplican lo que saben. El programa les pide que resuelvan problemas individualmente y en equipos. Se enfoca a situaciones de la vida real para ayudar a los estudiantes a apreciar el poder de las matemáticas en su vida diaria.

Nuestra meta es formar una asociación con la familia y con miembros de la comunidad. Unidos podemos crear un ambiente de aprendizaje que realmente ayude a nuestros estudiantes. A lo largo de este año escolar, los invitaremos a ustedes a participar en eventos escolares y en proyectos del hogar y la escuela. Su hijo o hija llevará a la casa, periódicamente, actividades que ustedes compartirán y experimentarán juntos en familia.

Son bienvenidas todas las sugerencias o comentarios que quieran hacernos sobre nuestro programa. Si tienen preguntas sobre las actividades de su estudiante en la clase de matemáticas, les ruego que me dejen un recado a ________________. En su recado díganme cuál es la mejor hora para devolverles su llamada. Pueden también escribirme a ________________.

Me entusiasma la idea de trabajar con ustedes para lograr tener un año escolar satisfactorio y exitoso.

Atentamente,

______________________________________

This document poses a conundrum.

Given a choice, would you prefer:

• not having the first clue what school personnel are talking about because your district communicates with parents families via form letters purchased from the publishers of your child's math curriculum
• not having the first clue what school personnel are talking about because you don't speak English

This is the moment where, if I were having this conversation here at home, somebody would say, "That's splitting hairs."


update 5-29-2008, from the instructivist

The sugerencia I would give them is to shove it.

My thoughts exactly.


Teacher's Forms and Letters: the Complete Set
how to get parent buy-in
Everyday Math does it, too
I'm sorry, Bob and Mark
venomous
getting your math message out to parents
Carolyn on getting your math message out to parents
Math Trailblazers Parent Letters
Compare and Contrast
Education Jargon Generator

Singapore Math Trainings, via The Dyslexia Tutor

I've been over there, with hardly any internet access, so my apologies if this is old news to y'all.

The Dyslexia Tutor (Adrienne Edwards) has a post on Singapore math:

Intensive Five-day Summer Institutes in teaching “Singapore Math” are scheduled in Orlando (June 23-27), San Francisco (July 14-18), and Boston (July 28-August 1).

These three will focus on the fundamentals, and are geared to teachers of grades 1-6 who have little or no experience in Singapore Math, “especially those who intend to supplement a non-Singapore Math program or adopt a Singapore Math program.”

Go read her whole post. She has a good description of the Singapore program.


I was over there for this event. It is a brave woman who takes on three mothers-in-law. And we are indeed separated by a common language.

knowledge is good, part 2

Christian Crayton had three words to describe the test prep he did for the ACT college entrance exam as a junior at Chicago Vocational Career Academy: "It was boring."

Crayton, who is 17 and now a senior, said the daily drills "really didn’t do anything for me." He ended up with a 17 out of a possible 36 on the ACT and is unsure whether he’ll go to college.

That intense test prep has been the norm at many Chicago public high schools determined to increase student scores.

But a new study to be released today finds that kind of test prep does little to help. In fact, the study found the more schools do test prep during class, the worse students score on the test.

"Across the board, scores were lower in schools that emphasized more ACT prep," said Elaine Allensworth, lead author of the report by the University of Chicago’s Consortium on Chicago School Research. "They are spending all this time and energy on work that doesn’t help their scores."

The findings may seem counterintuitive, but the researchers said what was important was not the frequency of the prep but actually teaching college-level skills throughout high school.

ACT Prep Work Gets Failing Grade

From High School to the Future: ACT Preparation--Too Much, Too Late

ability grouping in Singapore

The other key factor in preserving academic quality [during 17 years of declining SAT scores 1964-1980] was the practice of grouping students by ability in as many subjects as possible The contrast was stark: schools that had “severely declining test scores” had “moved determinedly toward heterogeneous grouping” (that is, mixed students of differing ability levels in the same classes), while the “schools who have maintained good SAT scores” tended “to prefer homogeneous grouping.”
The Other Crisis in American Education
by Daniel Singal


Singapore, a country whose students have consistently scored above most others in international assessments such as the Third International Math and Science Study (TIMSS), credits ability grouping as one of the key factors in its students' academic success.

Cheri Pierson Yecke, conversations with Chan Jee Kun and Poon Chew Leng, officials with the Singapore Ministry of Education, September 9, 2002.
The War Against Excellence: The Rising Tide of Mediocrity in America's Middle Schools p. 99

Addressing Equity: Curriculum Standards and Support For the Slower Mathematics Student

The topic structure in Singapore’s framework is efficient because topics are not taught and retaught as students move through the primary grades. Instead of repeating topics that students have already learned, teachers simply reintroduce them as a foundation on which to build new mathematical content. This practice, however, may not be suitable for students who have more difficulty with mathematics. The Singapore system recognizes that students who have trouble with mathematics may not attain mastery by following Singapore’s regular program of mathematics instruction and that these students may need special assistance to attain competence.

Beginning in grades 5 and 6, Singapore identifies its weaker students on the basis of a general examination of mathematics and language competency. These students receive special assistance and are taught according to a special fifth- and sixth-grade mathematics framework. This special framework mandates that students in the slower track

• receive approximately 30 percent more mathematics instruction than students in the regular track, and
  

• be exposed to the same mathematical content as students in the regular track, although at a slower pace.
  

The mathematics framework for students needing compensatory assistance adds review material to strengthen students’ understanding of previously taught content. For example, topics on numbers and geometry taught in grade 4 are repeated at a faster pace in grade 5. The introduction of some new concepts such as ratios, rates, and averages, which are normally introduced in grade 5, are delayed until grade 6 for the weaker students (Ministry of Education, 2001a). What is important, however, is that because slower students spend extra time studying mathematics, topics usually taught in grades 5 and 6 do not have to be completely sacrificed to make room for repetition.6

To support the framework for slower students, Singapore has developed a Learning Support Program to help educators identify these students and provide them with extra help (Ministry of Education 2003c). Mathematics Support Teachers (MST), who receive on-the-job supervision and specialized training to ensure that they are professionally competent, deliver compensatory assistance.

In the United States, we expect all students to meet the standards in state frameworks, but the standards do not help teachers address the needs of slower students. In fact, U.S. standards do not acknowledge that students learn at different rates. No Child Left Behind addresses the needs of failing schools, but it does not directly require that failing students receive help. Although some research evidence supports the belief that students benefit when the curriculum is adjusted to match their ability levels (Loveless, 1999), a distinct alternative curriculum would raise concerns in the United States about potential harm to students from ability grouping. Singapore’s approach differs from traditional ability grouping in that Singapore establishes a framework that requires students to master the same content as other students, not a watered-down curriculum as often happens in U.S. ability-grouped classrooms. Singapore also provides extra assistance from an expert teacher.

What the United States Can Learn from Singapore's World-Class Mathematics System (and what Singapore can learn from the United States): An Exploratory Study (pdf file)
American Institutes for Research
January 28, 2005
pp. 34-35

Same content, different speed, good teachers.


stagnation at the top - Fordham report
Tracking: Can It Benefit Low Achieving Children?
Linda Valli on tracking in 5 Catholic high schools, 1
Linda Valli on tracking in 5 Catholic high schools, 2
"school commitment" in Valli's study of tracking in Catholic high schools
7th grade depression starts in 1st grade

ability grouping in Singapore
characteristics of schools where SAT scores did not decline
The Other Crisis in American Education by Daniel Singal
Hiding in Plain Sight: grouping & the achievement gap
tracking: first random-assignment study

SAT equivalence tables
SAT I Individual Score Equivalents
SAT I Mean Score Equivalents

chickens have come home to roost
the deathless meme of the high performing school
Allison on the naturals

Memorial Day 2008

source:
Moore Family Blog

integrate this!

source:
Creating Standards-based Integrated Curriculum: Aligning Curriculum, Content, Assessment, and Instruction
by Susan M. Drake