Student Growth and State Testing: “Can” versus “Must”

120px-Canofworms1By Mark

The current law regarding teacher evaluation states that all teachers must demonstrate impact on student growth as part of their evaluation. Growth (in RCW 28A.405.100 2f) is defined as the change in student achievement between two points in time, and presently states that assessment data for determining growth can be drawn from classroom, school, district, or state based tools.

This terminology did not sit well with the USDE, who labeled Washington's NCLB waiver status to "conditional" last August. Last week (November 12, 2013), OSPI issued a press release that included the following (bold emphasis mine):

Dorn’s second major request involves a change in state law. Paragraph 2(f) of Revised Code of Washington 28A.405.100 states, in part:

“Student growth data … must be based on multiple measures that can include classroom-based, school-based, district-based, and state-based tools.”

The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction secured a waiver from some requirements of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act in August. But the Department of Education termed the waiver “conditional” because it objected to the word “can” in 28A.405.100.

“When the Legislature was debating this back in 2010, I said the language didn’t go far enough,” Dorn said. “The Department of Education wants state-based tests to be a required measure, not a voluntary one. I’m introducing legislation that will basically replace the word ‘can’ with ‘must.’ Test scores should not be the sole measure used to evaluate teachers, but they must be one of the tools we use in our new accountability system.”

This is not a simple syntactical switch. 

What complications do you foresee from a "can" to "must" switcheroo? Or is it the right path to take?

The National Board Wait

by Maren Johnson

The Wait. It can be stressful. One National Board candidate-in-waiting said a few days ago: "Just rip the band-aid off!" A renewal candidate emailed his thoughts in the week before renewal decision release–here's his exact quote: "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggghhhh!"

It's a bit like Christmas Eve, but you don't know what kind of present you will be getting in the morning. All across the country right now, National Board candidates are waiting for score release, the day they find out if they certified, or did not certify yet.

National Board Certification has a cycle. First candidates make the decision to pursue the rigorous certification–it's extraordinary professional development, but also a lot of work! The next phase of the cycle? Completing a portfolio based on a set of national teaching standards. Finally being able to hit "submit" on the ePortfolio is a big moment. Taking the assessment center exercises can be intense, and often happens near the end of the school year. The shared experiences throughout this cycle contribute to National Board teachers having something of a group identity–when meeting for the first time, they know they have a background in common!

We are now in the waiting portion of the cycle. The wait is a unique time. A few years ago, in the last few weeks of waiting to find out if I certified, someone pointed out to me that adults don't always get as many opportunities for anticipation as kids do–and waiting to find out the results of National Board Certification is one, so try to enjoy the period of anticipation! It wasn't bad advice.

Then, of course, the ever-cheerful candidate support providers weigh in with a chirpy, "It's a three year process!" And it is a three year process. And while it may sound trite, simply submitting a complete National Board portfolio is in and of itself a huge accomplishment–it's almost impossible not to develop as a reflective practitioner just by pursuing certification. Candidates who do not certify the first time face disappointment, but often those who decide to continue a second or third time report even greater professional growth. Score release is a time to congratulate those who certify. It's also a time to support those who do not certify in providing more evidence next time if they wish to continue.

So there is a cycle, and with National Board 3.0, that cycle is going to be changing. What will that look like exactly? Well, we should be finding out more this upcoming year. For the moment, however? Let's put our thoughts towards the candidates, the individuals who have worked so hard this past year. Good luck to all those current candidates-in-waiting!

 

College Ready?

File5287936e9b106By Mark

Why do we want every kid to be "college ready"?

True, the new phrase is "college and career ready," but I feel that the word career too often carries a distinctly cubicled and clean-fingernailed connotation. A very informal verbal and non-scientific poll of a few of my own students helped reinforce this to me. When given a list of professions, from plumber to welder to salesperson to doctor, I asked them to identify which ones were careers. Being a doctor, lawyer, businessperson, teacher, and nurse were immediately identified as careers. Without me even giving them the words, most kids identified being a welder, electrician, plumber, mechanic, and engineer as "just jobs, not careers." When I pushed for the difference between a job and career, most kids couldn't articulate it (and by then, the bell was ringing and I needed to get class started). A couple did say something about college being required for a career. In effect, "college and career ready" is redundant.

I got to thinking even more about this when a former student of mine came to ask for some advice about a paper he was writing in his English class. The students were looking at power structures in society and considering different perspectives on literary criticism, and he was learning about the Marxist literary critical perspective by considering the social and power dynamics of his hometown. His essay, tentatively titled "The Hill and the Mill" was attempting to explore the social and economic dynamics of a small town originally built around a local mill (the mill), but which has in the last decade and a half seen an influx of high-tech businesses (the hill).

The resulting shifts in the community are not inherently negative, but certainly precipitate changes in the culture. Many men and women have cultivated success and lucrative careers through hard work in the mill, just as many men and women have done the same up on the hill. Nevertheless, assumptions to the value of each are not unique to this small down. This dichotomy, oversimplified, is the divide in perception of what constitutes a "career" versus a "job."

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Class Size and Deathless Prose: Clamor in the Classroom!

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by Maren Johnson

When you teach five high school classes a day, five days a week, you're not inclined to go home to clear your head and fashion deathless prose. After a day of five classes your head is filled with the clamor of the classroom.

~Frank McCourt, Teacher Man

McCourt, a thirty-year teaching veteran and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Angela's Ashes, is describing the reason it took him so long in life, until the age of 66 actually, to write his first book.

Unlike Frank McCourt, I am not trying to "fashion deathless prose." I am just trying to write this blog post. However, I know what he is talking about. After a day of five classes, interacting with one hundred-and-some-impossibly-large number of high school students, putting together a coherent series of thoughts can be a daunting challenge.

Last year I had a student teacher–an outstanding one. This year, she has her own classroom in a different district. One of my fellow teachers recently gave her Teacher Man, which we also read for a school book study a few years ago. My former student teacher brought the "deathless prose" and "clamor of the classroom" quotation above to our attention. Yes, that "clamor of the classroom" is often a positive thing, but, still, it is a day-long clamor! My former student teacher is dealing with many of the challenges faced by new teachers as they enter the profession. On top of all this, she has some very large class sizes! I have a few of those as well, and some of my colleagues have classes that are downright physically crowded.

My large classes are full of students with large personalities! One student wants to tell about the funny thing that happened to him yesterday afternoon. He has a new story every day. Another student has a long, complicated, and ongoing drama involving a boyfriend. A student is learning English and wants to follow me around asking questions. Another student is learning English and sits silently. One student unexpectedly shows up with some silica salts that change color when dehydrated. This will require a Bunsen burner. Three students are about to leave for the sports event and need their homework right now. All that put together adds up to "clamor in the classroom," seriously complicated by large class sizes!

While the sheer number of daily human interactions itself can sometimes be hard for both students and teachers, there are other reasons large class sizes pose problems. With smaller classes, we are able to provide more individualized attention to each student–and students have more opportunities to make relationships with adults in the classroom and with eachother. Low income students show especially large academic gains when they have small class sizes. Teachers stay in the profession longer when their class sizes are not so large–and this results in more consistent and stable instruction in schools.  School counselors with large caseloads face similar issues.

Back in 2009, the Washington state legislature passed ESHB 2261, which established the Quality Education Council. The Quality Education Council adopted recommendations for specific lower class sizes, but staffing allocations in the state budget have yet to fund these.

Now the Washington state legislature needs to put its own recommendations for lower class sizes, recommendations adopted by the Quality Education Council, into place in our schools.  It might be time to clamor for it.

What They Learn vs. What I Cover

File527fbcb709896By Mark

I had big plans for this three day weekend. 

Like many of my colleagues, when I look at the calendar and see three or four day weekends (or five-day, in the case of Thanksgiving), I don't think necessarily about all the relaxation I can achieve. Instead, I wonder if I could get a few class sets of essays turned around in that extended weekend. Those big writing assignments take time to provide useful feedback upon. For me, that means 15 or 20 minutes per paper to provide critical, focused feedback for improvement.

My kids submit their writing via Google Drive, so I can add margin comments (and cut-and-paste the comments I find myself adding frequently). When I reviewed their papers Friday after school, I knew I had screwed up.

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CSTP is Ten!

988718_10151882181553288_1695042626_nBy Kristin

CSTP turns ten this year. 

Ten years ago I was teaching at Ingraham High School in north Seattle, pregnant with my first child, and somewhere down in Tacoma Jeanne Harmon thought it would be great if teachers were given the tools they needed to be more involved with creating the education policies that affect them and their students.

I don't know when I first took advantage of CSTP.  I can't remember if applying to write for this blog came first, or if I attended a teacher leadership training through CSTP and then learned about the blogging opportunity, but this is what I do remember about that first interaction: we met at a beautiful retreat center in Seattle.  It felt luxurious.  It felt really good to be sitting in a room with grown up tables and chairs, with windows that looked out onto a fountain instead of in a drafty cafeteria.  For lunch we went to the retreat center's cafe and ate delicious food in a beautiful room, and I thought, "This is what happens when teachers take care of teachers." 

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Zombie Brains, Talk Moves, and the Next Generation Science Standards!


Brain in hand
By Maren Johnson

The zombies' odd, shambling gait, and their need to hold their arms straight out in front in order to maintain balance?  That's indicative of
damage to the cerebellum, the part of the brain responsible for motor
coordination.  The zombies' hunger, and thus their unrelenting urge to chase and eat humans?  Clearly
a problem with the hypothalamus, the appetite control center of the brain—the zombies just don't know when they are full! And all that zombie rage? Oh yeah, that's originating in the amygdala, apparently overactive in the case of zombies.

I started the lesson by giving students a chance to surface their prior knowledge: students wrote answers to the questions, "How do zombies look different from humans?" and "How do zombies behave differently from humans?" We then discussed their answers as a group. I was a bit floored by the response. Students who rarely participated were eager to share, and these students knew A LOT about zombies. All that zombie knowledge gathered over the years from movies, TV shows, books, and video games? Now the students had a chance to share it in an academic setting. They also wanted to know more about the biology involved!


Many of the students were wildly excited about this science lesson.  My choice of words here is deliberate–in one of my class periods, it was a bit, well….wild. Students talking all at once, to me and to each other—they were on topic but almost no one could hear anyone. How to contain the chaos yet still direct that positive energy towards learning?


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The Parent Conference

Bela-as-Dracula-bela-lugosi-12028319-456-652-1tspyvoBy Tom

Hi there! Come on in! You must be Paul’s mom.

Yes I am. Hello.

You didn’t bring Paul?

No, he wanted to stay
home. I hope that’s OK.

No problem. It’s good to see you again. We met at curriculum
night, but didn’t really get a chance to talk.

Yes, there was a lot
of people that day.

There was. So Paul tells me your family is from Romania?

I am from Romania. But
Paul was born in America.

So you must either be a vampire or a gymnast.

(laughing) I am not a
vampire! They are all from Transylvania! My family is from Bucharest, south
from Transylvania. But I was a gymnast; most of my life until college! In my
country all of the girls they do gymnastics.

Does Paul do gymnastics?

No, he likes soccer.

Not baseball?

Not baseball, only
soccer.

Well, let’s talk about his academics.

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Student Centered Classroom Management – Part II

Sensei_instruction_1By Kristin

In an earlier post, I promised to write about how I transformed my classroom management so that it was student-centered. 

It all started with my third period – a reading intervention class where every child was behind in his or her skills because of one reason or another - often unscholarly behavior.  In my third period I had five boys who were all good friends, and they were in the habit of socializing instead of working.  I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't ever kick them out – an intervention class is the end of the line, and they were behind because of time spent in the office instead of class. National efforts to end discrimination in school discipline, something my district is under investigation for, echo what we already know - African American and Latino students get in trouble more often than their white and Asian peers.  I made a personal commitment to create a classroom that served the most challenging kids, but it wasn't easy.

There were days that when 3rd period began, the boys continued their conversation about Mohammad's shoes not matching his shirt, or what happened in last night's game. I would get Mohammad to sit down and Michael would pop up, arguing with Stephen.  I'd get Michael and Stephen to sit down and Trey and Mohammad and Donald would get going.  I'd get them to all sit down and work, I'd finally have some time to go work with the other students, then Donald would fart and it all fell apart again.  Luckily, there was Sensei.

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CSTP Turns Ten

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By Tom

I teach fourth grade, which means that my students will turn
ten at some point in the next eleven months. There’s something special about
being ten. In a lot of ways, people are more confident and self-assured at age
ten than they’ll be in a long time, if not forever. When you’re ten, you’ve pretty
much mastered childhood. In another year or so, you’ll be in the throes of The
Awkward Years, and then its adolescence, from where there’s no return. Ten year
olds know a lot, but it’s what they don’t know that makes them so fun to be
around.

CSTP is also turning ten. Like my students, CSTP came along
at a time when those of us in education were getting blindsided by the
stupidity that was NCLB, a misguided law that blamed schools for everything
wrong with education. It was the beginning as the great data bath that has consumed
education for a decade. Then came the current administration, which refined the
blame game by targeting individual teachers, touting overbearing evaluation systems
as the silverest bullet.

As this mess has played out in Washington State, CSTP has
played the role of the adult child in the room, reminding the children
adults that you don’t get anywhere by pointing fingers. You get somewhere by
empowering teachers; by helping them help each other become better. You get somewhere
by encouraging teachers to collaborate and by helping them find a voice and
tell their story.

Like my students, CSTP is young; young enough not to have a
vested interest in the battles that consume so many school reform and
anti-school reform stakeholders. And like my students, CSTP has a long,
promising life ahead of it.

Because I honestly believe we’re at the cusp of something
huge. And I truly think that organizations like CSTP are uniquely poised to
take us there. I think that soon we’ll see a great coming-together of all the disparate
fragments in education. Advances in neuroscience and learning theory will
converge with increased private and public funding and the realization that
every cog in the system is important; every parent, every teacher, every
principal, every lawmaker, every venture capitalist, and – most importantly –
every student. We’ll stop blaming schools and teachers for our shortcomings and
instead of blaming someone new, we’ll realize we can actually solve our
problems by working together. And organizations like CSTP, which have always
had that attitude, will become the drivers of this new spirit of cooperation.

Or maybe I’m just being overly optimistic. Which is what you
get from being around ten-year-olds all day.