Steve suggests we utilize technology to monitor student progress; specifically, a tablet-based program that teachers could use for ease of documentation. I couldn’t agree more. In fact, I have been working to create just such a system, called Classhopper. Our first app is now available in the iTunes App Store, and will expand to other platforms soon. This new app, called Bookmark by Classhopper allows teachers to evaluate student proficiency on reading comprehension standards (aligned for every state) based on students’ independent reading. Next, we will be developing software for in-class tracking of phonics and comprehension skills. This type of software can be utilized for all subject areas. The end result will be that we once again respect the expertise of our teachers, while making their jobs just a little easier. Most importantly, we will be eliminating the ridiculous testing practices that have overwhelmed our public schools and impeded learning. It is time to recognize that school time should be used for learning and that teachers really do know best.
It was great to finally read a story about someone who is offering a solution to our student assessment mess. We all lament about how broken the system is, about how much instructional time is being lost and about the damage we are causing to our students. However, there are seldom officials who offer a potential solution. Steve Luikart, Chairman of the Pasco County Board of Education in Florida wrote a position paper, providing suggestions. He says we should use teacher feedback on student performance to track student progress toward learning standards. How refreshing to hear that we should respect teachers enough to allow them to assess their own students. Steve should know. He was an educator for many years before serving on the Board of Education.
Steve suggests we utilize technology to monitor student progress; specifically, a tablet-based program that teachers could use for ease of documentation. I couldn’t agree more. In fact, I have been working to create just such a system, called Classhopper. Our first app is now available in the iTunes App Store, and will expand to other platforms soon. This new app, called Bookmark by Classhopper allows teachers to evaluate student proficiency on reading comprehension standards (aligned for every state) based on students’ independent reading. Next, we will be developing software for in-class tracking of phonics and comprehension skills. This type of software can be utilized for all subject areas. The end result will be that we once again respect the expertise of our teachers, while making their jobs just a little easier. Most importantly, we will be eliminating the ridiculous testing practices that have overwhelmed our public schools and impeded learning. It is time to recognize that school time should be used for learning and that teachers really do know best.
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We have come to know the term "March Madness" as a description of our national college basketball championships. But this year, the term may better describe standardized testing that is gripping public schools in much of the nation. Today is the first school day in March and the first day (outside of piloting done earlier) of PARCC testing in many states. There is much angst about our new standardized tests, which is supposed to measure student performance related to Common Core State Standards. Many parents and educators are saying no to this test, and the other version called Smarter Balanced, for a variety of reasons. There is concern about the test itself and whether it truly measures the standards. There is concern that the standards are not developmentally appropriate. Some people believe the process used to develop the standards was flawed, making the standards themselves flawed. This is a high stakes test that will be factored into teacher evaluations and decisions regarding student placement, graduation, and the future of individual schools. And then there's the technology. Schools and districts have spent an tremendous amount of money upgrading their hardware and infrastructure just to be sure students will be able to take the test. There is fear that students' lack of basic computer skills or preparation for the test (which includes specific computer functions) may negatively impact scores. If you have a child enrolled in public schools, are an educator or a taxpayer where these tests are being implemented, you need to know they are influencing just about everything related to public education. The debate is hot and heavy and likely will not let up any time soon. If you would like to know what all the fuss is about, go to the PARCC website and take a sample test. See if you agree these tests will help us prepare our kids for college and career, or if you agree with Louis CK who says it is nonsense with questions like, "Bill has three goldfish. He buys two more. How many dogs live in London?"
If you have been following the national conversation about the Common Core, you have probably heard how teachers of kindergarten students worry that too much is being expected of our youngest elementary kids. I DO agree that we need to allow kindergarten kids to move more and have a learning environment that more closely resembles an early childhood classroom. I just shudder when I walk into a classroom for five-year-olds that includes little desks and chairs. These kids should have activity centers full of great learning opportunities. They shouldn't be asked to face the front of the room as they sit in individual desks and hear a teacher lecture. They ABSOLUTELY should not be exposed to multiple choice tests. However, when it comes to reading, I don't think the Common Core is asking too much. I have spent a great deal of time understanding the standards for reading, and believe they are appropriate and will provide students with a solid foundation for greater learning in the years to come. If anyone disagrees, I would love to better understand the issues of concern. If you wish to help me understand your concern(s) with the standards (not PARCC or teacher evaluation - that is a completely different issue), please cite the kindergarten reading standard, what you believe is inappropriate about it and why, in the comment box below. I hate that I have to say this, but PLEASE refrain from reducing our conversation to name-calling, irrational rants, or other non-productive practices. The Common Core provides expectations of reading comprehension before students really learn to read. Although it may seem counter-intuitive, it actually makes perfect sense. I don't think anyone would argue that we should be reading to our kids from the time they are babies. We know from experience and from research that this practice improves oral language skills and, later, reading skills. In kindergarten, the teacher begins the year by reading stories TO students, with a strong focus on phonemic awareness and comprehension skills. Students can understand stories long before they can read them on their own, so she will spend most of her guided reading time helping children understand the story. During kindergarten, we are expecting students to transition to reading very simple stories independently. To illustrate what happens at the beginning of the kindergarten year, I am providing this video of our youngest students learning how to identify key ideas and details and character motivation. Please note the repeated use of the word "evidence" which lays the foundation for citing evidence in text as students develop greater competence. This lesson is less than 15 minutes long and is about the longest amount of time students of this age should be focused on this type of activity. The text and the learning objectives are consistent with Common Core expectations for this grade level. The United States has a serious gap in learning, that begins to become evident in elementary students in the area of reading. Although we can see test results sorted for boys and girls, schools and districts have no mandate through No Child Left Behind to address this issue. Instead, we require "Adequate Yearly Progress" (referred to as AYP) in narrowing the gap among racial/ethnics groups and for lower income groups. We just ignore the biggest gap which is between boys and girls. It is not unusual to see girls demonstrating adequate reading skills at a much higher rate than boys. For example, in New York, 35% of girls are proficient in reading in grades 3-8, while only 27% of boys are proficient. I attempted to find data in my home state of New Jersey, but their school report cards are no longer including data sorted by gender. It boggles the mind that our federal mandates do not require states and schools to address the gender gap. Our National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has continually revealed this gap, with as much as 19 percentage points separating boys and girls. This problem is not unique to the United States. Although causes may differ, we can see girls outperforming boys at astonishing rates all over the world, particularly in developing countries.
Here in the United States, educational deficiencies lead to other problems. Boys are more likely to be suspended from school, be involved with gangs and violence, and much more likely to be arrested. In order to help our boys, we have to change our schools. How can we improve outcomes for boys, while not diminishing achievement for girls? There seems to be agreement on a few possible explanations, with associated solutions to this problem. Here are three things we can do to improve educational outcomes for boys. 1. Attract more men to elementary education. As a society, we have been reluctant to accept men as teachers of young children. Walk into almost any preschool or elementary school in the United States, and you are likely to see all or nearly all teachers are women. I have personally worked in several schools where there were no, or maybe just one or two, men in the classrooms. Much more work needs to be done in this area so that boys will have good role models in their early academic lives, and schools will reflect practices and cultures that are more conducive to learning for boys. A faculty that includes women AND men will be good for boys AND girls. 2. Include more movement into the daily school routine and schedule. Every day in most schools, we are asking children to do things they are not naturally inclined to do. Kids just don't want to sit still. This is even more true for boys than it is for girls. Can you imagine sitting on a hard, wooden chair at a little desk for hours on end? This is what is expected of elementary school children. We need to closely examine classroom routines and daily schedules in schools to ensure there is plenty of movement throughout the day to foster learning. A day full of movement is good for boys AND girls. 3. Ensure that reading selections are interesting to boys. Students are not always offered a wide selection of reading materials. Sometimes boys just don't find books that are interesting to them. As a result, boys tend to read independently much less than girls, which prevents them from improving their skills. Since almost all elementary teachers and librarians are women, they don't always gravitate to books that may be more appealing to boys. It is also interesting to note that girls are often more excited about books that are more appealing to girls such as superheroes or gross things. A wider variety of reading materials is good for boys AND girls. Working toward these three things will allow boys and girls to improve reading skills, and allow boys to find the success that has eluded them in our schools. Check out this great new video from A. Maceo Smith New Tech High School featuring its wonderful students and exuberant theater teacher, Scot Pankey. The mission of A. Maceo Smith New Tech High School is to be an outstanding school of choice where students are engaged in projects-based learning that develops 21st Century Skills supported by technology that prepares them for a competitive global society. This is a very new "choice" school located in Dallas, Texas that will graduate its first class this year. I just loved seeing this video, which certainly was a projects-based learning experience involving many students. We need to give our kids lots of these types of authentic learning opportunities in order to prepare them for the world they will inhabit after high school. This video really hit home for me. I know from my experience as a mom and a teacher how much our kids learn through the arts and authentic activities such as this. Last week I had the privilege of seeing projects-based learning highlighted in a brand new film called Most Likely to Succeed. If you need convincing that our schools need to move away from traditional classrooms, toward some "Uptown Funk," just watch this video, and then go see Most Likely to Succeed. Our federal government is now attempting to have us believe that the problem in our high poverty communities is our teachers. The US Department of Education is directing school districts to ensure equity in teacher assignment by adding a requirement for "state educator equity plans" to Title I grant applications. Each state that accepts the funding will be required to submit a plan that shows how it will ensure "poor and minority children are not taught at higher rates than other children by inexperienced, unqualified, or out-of-field teachers.” The theory of action that guides this mandate goes something like this. If we could just get better teachers to work in these places, the kids would learn more. Wow. I have worked in lots of different places, including some high poverty communities and I can tell you from experience, there are really GREAT teachers in these places. These teachers overcome what others see as insurmountable odds to reach their kids. In addition to tirelessly teaching every day and working to improve their own skills, they provide food, clothing and sometimes even shelter to kids in need. They work long hours in sometimes terrible conditions and have their hearts broken on a daily basis. The reason we have less experienced teachers in our tough schools is because this work is really hard. Most teachers know if they don't want to leave the profession, they will have to switch to schools where they won't get burnt out as quickly. So, after just a few years, that is what typically happens. If a teacher still wants to teach (many don't and leave the profession), she will move to a place where she can feel more supported and more readily see the results of her work. Stating that our problems in high poverty districts stem from less effective teachers is about the most insulting thing you could say about the teaching profession.
Secondly, simply looking at experience and credentials (the current proposal) does not tell the whole story. There are incredibly effective beginning teachers who only have bachelor's degrees. There are some amazing teachers who come into the field through alternative routes and others who do incredible work "out of field." Conversely, there are some teachers with more experience and traditional credentials who may not be as good. Since we still lack an accurate way to measure teacher effectiveness, we really don't know how to sort teachers in a way that tells us which teacher is more effective. This is the very heart of the current debate over standardized testing and teacher evaluation. The third flaw in this thinking is that you can somehow improve how local districts and schools select their teachers by making the process more complicated. This process is already cumbersome, filled with regulations, certifications, background checks, politics, school district policies and union rules. Adding yet another layer of complexity will just slow down the process and prevent high poverty districts from getting the teachers they need, when they need them. The result will be larger class sizes and more substitutes when schools are unable to move through the process and hire enough teachers. If we want our kids in high poverty communities to do better academically, it is time we truly supported the teachers who work with them instead of insulting and blaming them for all of society's ills. Beginning this week, I will be devoting every Tuesday to providing new content to support the teaching of reading. I hope you will join me in spreading the word of new, helpful tools designed to improve reading instruction, and make teachers' work easier. Go into any elementary classroom and you will likely see carefully labeled or color-coded bins containing hundreds and hundreds of books. Teachers sort these books based on reading levels, interests, genres and subject areas. Each child selects books throughout the year that match abilities, interests or topics of study in the classroom. Teachers are constantly on the lookout for new books at as low a cost as possible. They have monthly book sales for their students which yield free books for the classroom. They may be lucky enough to have a limited amount of curriculum money that can be used. Most elementary teachers I know will spend their own money to obtain "new" books at yard sales, in the discount bins at book stores, or the discard tables at libraries. Finding, sorting and maintaining a classroom library that will be engaging for children is a continual and time consuming struggle.
We know that a print rich environment is important for emerging readers. We want them surrounded by texts at all times. Many children come from homes where there are not many, and sometimes not any books. Teachers of disadvantaged students feel even more compelled to provide a wealth of reading materials at school. However, when does all of this become too much? Is there a better way for children to have access to "just right" books in the classroom? Is there a better way? As an alternative, what if we were to take the money that is being spent on library books and classroom books and use it to purchase a tablet for each child? Tablets have come way down in price. Decent ones for classroom use can be as low as $160. If each child were issued one in kindergarten, for use through 3rd grade (the highest year we normally see the expansive classroom libraries), the cost per year, per child would only be $40. We could equip each tablet with a digital library such as Myon Reader, for less than $10 per child per year. That means that for fifty bucks a year, we can give EVERY kid access to THOUSANDS of books that can be taken home. Think about a typical elementary school with 500 students. The total cost per year would be $25,000. Although this seems like a tremendous amount of money, if you look at a typical school budget, it is probably doable. Are there additional advantages? Digital libraries provide additional advantages. Myon, for example provides a quick assessment and interest inventory for each child. The system selects materials that are "just right" for the student. (Children can also select books outside of these recommendations.) It provides ongoing information for the teacher including what, how much, and how well each student is reading. The teacher can see compiled information for her entire class as well. This replaces the cumbersome (and not always accurate) reading logs that most teachers and parents and grown to know and and not love. Don't young children need "real" books? I still believe there is something very special about holding and reading a book with a child. I am not suggesting we are at the point that we should eliminate traditional books. However, our young children live in a world where almost all of their later reading will come from digital sources. We are doing them a disservice if we don't provide them with opportunities to engage with digital books at a young age. Since our priority in K-3 is learning to read, we should be looking at how we provide as much assess to books as possible. Currently, more than two out of every three children will exit 3rd grade proficient in reading. They will be at risk for a host of other problems if we can't get them reading early and often. Our nostalgic attachment to traditional books should not trump our children's need to learn to read. Can digital books help make the family connection? Myon allows each child to download up to 10 books at a time. That means the child can go home every day with 10 books - and no need to access the Internet to read them! Another exciting feature of Myon is the availability of narration and Spanish titles. If family members have limited reading skills, they can still sit with a child and experience the book together by allowing it to be read to them. Spanish speaking families have the option of reading many titles in their native language. These two features provide an incredible way to reach the families of many of our children who come from non-reading homes or homes where English is not the first language. It's time. It's time we embraced the technology that is not so new, not very expensive and has the potential to reduce teacher workload, increase the number of books available to children and make connections to families. Our kids deserve no less. My son Daniel frequently worked on student films when he was in college. One film involved the use of fake guns that looked quite realistic. A scene in the film called for the actors to walk up to an exterior door of an apartment building where Daniel lived at the time. The students were not aware there was a police presence at this building at the moment they were filming. The police were unaware the gun-wielding young men were actors. The police drew their weapons and called out to the young men to drop theirs, which they did. They were then handcuffed and questioned at the scene, but not arrested.
Daniel called us on the phone to tell us what had happened. My stomach turned in knots and my heart started racing. In my head I could see horrible images of young men killed by gunfire. Once I was able to process the information, thinking what had happened - but more importantly, what had not happened, I just thought, "Thank God my son is white." This thought has stuck with me ever since. I believe that if Daniel had been black, he would have been killed that day. In this case, the police may have been justified for shooting. They believed the young men were carrying automatic weapons. But thankfully they took a breath and gave them a chance to drop their fake weapons. If you happen to be the parent of a young white man, consider all of the experiences he had while growing up. Think about the times he got into trouble at school, drove too fast, drank underage, got rowdy at a party, or talked back to authority. Most of our children engage in some of this type of behavior while they are navigating through adolescence. If your son is black or brown, he will likely suffer unjust consequences for his actions. If your son happens to be white, he will be less likely to be suspended from school. He will be less likely to be arrested. If he is arrested, he will be less likely to go to jail. He will be less likely to be shot. Instead, he will be more likely to know how to read, graduate from high school and go onto college. We are horrified and outraged by the killing of Michael Brown. Even though we don't yet have all the facts, we know that an unarmed young man who was heading to college is now dead. But our outrage needs to extend beyond this one injustice. We need to consider all of the things that are impacting young men who are not white. Our mistreatment of them begins long before they reach adolescence. It happens in virtually all of our social institutions. This is well described in "Michael Brown and Black Men," an op-ed piece written by Michael M. Blow. Throughout my career I have personally witnessed the criminalization of typical misbehavior of boys. I once visited a detention center where the population was double the capacity allowed by law. Most of the boys, who were mostly Hispanic, were placed there due to arrests at school. When I asked about specific offenses, I was told almost all had disrupted a school function, which was against the law. I met one boy who had talked back to a teacher and another who had kicked a trash can when he was frustrated about a difficult assignment. These boys were in jail, some for months, because they had done something that would only result in a detention in a typical white suburban school. The worst offense I learned about that day after talking to dozens of children and their intake officer was a lunchroom fight with no injuries. In schools where security staff do not have the power to arrest, we will likely see much higher suspension rates for black and brown boys than any other group. Nationally 28.3% of black male middle school students will experience suspension annually, according to the report "Suspended Education; Urban Middle Schools in Crisis." What is truly fascinating about the suspension data is how little attention and outrage it receives. I have had the experience of changing a school's suspension policy so that only truly serious incidents (that posed a safety risk) would result in a student being removed from school. To my absolute horror, teachers and parents complained about the shift in policy, arguing that we needed to throw these kids out. There was no desire among those opposing the policy to understand the consequences of suspension or even the potential success of any alternate disciplinary measure. They just wanted to throw the kids out. If you are the parent of white boy, you can be thankful your child's life will be easier and much more just than his peers who are black or brown. You can take comfort in the fact that a police officer may take a breath before pulling the trigger. If you are the parent of a black or brown boy, you can teach him how to respond in a way that might mitigate his odds of being unjustly suspended, arrested or shot. You can hope and pray that he will not fall victim as Michael Brown did. But all of us together must begin to be honest about how children are treated differently based on the color of their skin. Right now we are outraged by the killing of Michael Brown. This is not enough. In order to change things, our outrage must translate into action. As you read the stories and feel the anger, consider what you can do today in your own community to improve the odds that ALL children will receive a good education, be treated justly, and have a chance at success. |
AuthorJanine Walker Caffrey writes about reading, education and a few other topics related to happiness and life in general. Archives
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