Never end a lesson without it!

February 20th, 2012 No Comments
mel_sm

Recent research may help school leaders with two important challenges that they face on a daily basis. First, in these tight budget times with fewer teachers, larger classes, and fewer resources, how do we improve student performance? How do we do more with less? What are some no-cost ways that we can improve our schools?

Second, given the complexity of course content, particularly in high schools, how do we enhance our skills as instructional leaders? How do we give meaningful feedback to teachers that will enhance their instruction even though we may have little or no background knowledge regarding the content of the course? For example, how do we give feedback to a world language teacher when we have never studied the language and cannot understand a single word they said in the lesson?

A recent study summarized in Science magazine and reported in a New York Times article titled To Really Learn, Quit Studying and Take a Test may be a key to unlocking some keys to the teaching and learning process. However, to find those gems, school leaders need to read between the lines.

Practicing Retrieval

When I read the abstract, my first thought was that this study would serve to support and defend

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Will the Common Core State Standards really improve student achievement?

February 19th, 2012 No Comments
mel_sm

Essential Question: Will the Common Core State Standards improve student achievement?

Not according to a recent study.

As reported by Catherine Gewertz in Education Week, a Brookings Institution report points out “there is not much of a connection between standards—even rigorous ones—and student achievement.”

“If there was a connection, we would have seen signs of improvement from states’ own individual standards—all states have had standards since 2003—but NAEP scores don’t bear that out, author Tom Loveless argues.”

  • We didn’t need a study to tell us what we already know.
  • Standards alone will not improve student achievement. Teaching improves student achievement. Teacher knowledge of the subject matter improves achievement. Good teacher-student relationships improve student achievement. Increased instructional time improves student achievement.
  • The key is the implementation of the standards and we know that implementation is the major weakness of school improvement.
  • We know how students learn and we know what works in the classroom.
  • The problem is we are not doing what we need to do on a consistent basis in every classroom every day, with every student. We are doing very well with some students, which proves that we just need to do for the rest of the students what we already know how to do for some students.
  • With the exception of Massachusetts and a few others, state standards are not aligned to NAEP. So, it makes sense that proficiency rates in those states would not relate at all to NAEP. There is no connection between the two.
  • Current state standards were never meant to indicate college or career-readiness.
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“If the CCSS is fully implemented it will fundamentally change the way math is taught.”

February 15th, 2012 1 Comment
stu

Every math teacher has encountered the question. Midway through a lecture the hand goes up and the query is posed: “When will we ever have to use this stuff?” The response a teacher gives to that class can have a profound impact on not only that lesson but the course of those students’ math careers.

Because of that precise educational moment of truth one of the main points of emphasis with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for mathematics is the requirement to show real world applications of the material being taught. This objective, if fully embraced, will result in a significantly altered the approach to teaching math, especially at the elementary level. In order to create the connections necessary to clarify for students the power, potential, and prevalence of the curriculum they are being taught, the teacher must have a solid mathematical background and experiences which will allow him or her to dramatically illustrate the place of mathematics in a student’s environment.

The wrong answer

In too many classes the answer to “Why do we have to learn how to factor” is “Because you will need to know it.” This is what I refer to as “the why/because rationale for mathematics” and it is one of the primary reasons so many individuals either dislike or fear math at an early age. Enter the CCSS math philosophy.

Mel Riddile recently sent me an article on five steps that need to be taken to effectively implement the new standards. The changes were:

  1. Combine content and practice.
  2. Don’t rely solely on the textbook.
  3. Make connections across the standards.
  4. Create a classroom environment where students feel free to invent strategies.
  5. Engage students in rich mathematical discussions.

As I read those strategies, I realized that they had been employed for many years in my own classroom.

A fresh start for everyone

I began every course I taught with a subject the students had not previously encountered.

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Got a minute?

February 14th, 2012 No Comments
mel_sm

A minute is all it will take to read one of my summaries of current articles on the Common Core State Standards.

Recently, I was explaining “close reading” to a colleague. After I hung up, I remembered the summary of an article that I had posted on my Common Core newsletter. So, I immediately emailed it to him.

As a school leader, I never seemed to have enough time to read.

So, here’s how I will help you.

I find content of interest to busy school leaders.

I read it.

I filter out the salient points for the benefit of busy school leaders.

I post the summary on the “go to” site for everything you ever wanted to know about the Common Core State Standards.

I curate it for future reference.

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Great Teaching Techniques Are Not Enough: Pt. 1

February 12th, 2012 No Comments
stu

by Stuart Singer, The Teacher Leader

I once asked a high school basketball coach why he continued to work diligently with an obviously awkward and ineffectual six-foot-six-inch sophomore. “Well it’s actually quite simple,” he replied. “I can teach just about anyone how to dribble, read defenses and when to shoot. What I can’t teach is how to be tall.” I was reminded of that conversation when I read a post by Mel Riddile indicating the need for a strong math background in order to teach mathematics. He had some persuasive evidence:

“In a paper presented at the 2012 Calder Research Conference entitled “Certification Requirements and Teacher Quality: A Comparison of Alternative Routes to Teaching,” Tim Sass of Georgia State University offered a simple, yet unsurprising, observation. Teachers, particularly math teachers, who know their subjects better, improve student achievement more than teachers who have less expertise in their content areas. In other words, teachers have to know math before they can teach math, and the better they know it, the better they teach it.”

Teachers need both skill and knowledge

Hiring teachers and coaching basketball players share some similar realities. Given a choice of a shorter more accomplished athlete and a much taller one with limited skills but a vastly greater potential, the coach had no doubt which was the wiser choice. During my many years of hiring teachers, I found a comparable pattern. When comparing the success of individuals possessing more refined teaching skills to those with significantly stronger math backgrounds whether obtained in traditional mathematics, engineering or physics, the latter had better outcomes for student success.  A few examples can help illustrate this difference.

The best of hires, the worst of hires

While I made dozens of hiring decisions during my career,

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Digital Textbooks: An Apple for the Teacher?

February 9th, 2012 No Comments
stu

by Stuart Singer, The Teacher Leader

Just as they did 30 years ago, Apple is seeking to play a significant and profitable role in American education. In 1982 the late Steve Jobs convinced Congress to give tax breaks to his company in return for placing computers in schools throughout the country. The plan was a win-win-win. Districts could get technology at a reduced price, Apple could sell truckloads of hardware and an entire generation began to identify computers with a certain iconic logo.

The company’s new goal is to replace traditional textbooks with Apple iPads. They have partnered with the major producers of textbooks in this endeavor. According to the Washington Post this proposal has been the result of a carefully thought out plan:

“Apple is aggressively pushing a strategy that would secure its dominance among a variety of schools, from New York City’s public system to Stanford University…

Since it launched the iPad in 2010, Apple has flown teachers to its Cupertino, Calif., campus to play around with the device and learn about a classroom in Escondito, Calif., that uses the iPod Touch to help students do their homework and uses the iPad for teachers to organize and deliver their lessons.”

Not everyone is a believer

Replacing textbooks with hand-held technology has its detractors. There are concerns that committing to Apple products precludes using materials that are available on other devices. And there are questions about the educational value of classroom technology.

As reported by the Post:

“Some experts doubt the effect of gadgets on student performance. Lawmakers have criticized federal programs that brought high-speed Internet connections and computers to technology labs in the 1990s but that were rarely used. Teachers complained that they weren’t getting technology training, and education experts questioned the need for classes in word processing and presentation skills.”

An adjustment that is long overdue

Despite those negative comments, a switch from print to electronics is a necessary step. Textbooks have become a major financial sinkhole in education. Districts spend enormous amounts of money on items that have a finite physical life span, are under utilized by students and teachers alike and become quickly out of date. My former system

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Digital Learning Day: A Random Act of Kindness

February 1st, 2012 No Comments
mel_sm

The following true story was sent to me by a colleague, who wishes to remain anonymous:

After a day of cleaning out closets, I recently went on Freecycle.org, to post some items I had for giveaway.  As I perused the recent postings by other Freecyclers, I noticed this post, “WANTED: Computer running Windows XP or later with flat screen monitor. Must be able to access Internet.”

It just happened that I had a Windows XP desktop with a flat screen monitor that had not been used in several years because I had purchased a Mac laptop.  I had unplugged the computer and put it in the basement, not knowing what to do with it.  I also had a color printer that I no longer used.

So I responded to the posting via e-mail, asking for more information. The poster, Cathy, wrote that her daughter was in high school and needed a computer for homework. It had to be able to access websites for research and had to be fairly fast because her daughter was “not patient” when it came to waiting for web pages to load. Cathy wrote that she could not afford to buy a new computer at this time and since their old computer had crashed, she had been taking her daughter, nightly, to the office where she worked so the homework could get done.

Once I heard the urgency of her situation, I offered the computer to her but I told her that I would first need to remove my personal files, which could take some time. Cathy said that would be wonderful and that she would just continue to take her daughter to her office while they waited.

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Good Education Needs a Quality Environment

January 31st, 2012 No Comments
stu

by Stuart Singer, The Teacher Leader

While great teachers, students and administrators can overcome the worst of conditions to create academic success, there is little question that outdated educational facilities can make a difficult task, educating adolescents, downright daunting. In a recent post, Mel Riddile discussed the adverse effects of a crumbling school building from an administrative perspective. Based on my extensive first-hand experience with this issue, I can corroborate his concerns as a classroom teacher.

A little bit of history

When I first began teaching in 1968 my school was one of the new kids on the block. Built in 1959, it was more than adequate for the demands of education during the Richard Nixon presidency. However as the Carter and Reagan administrations came and went, the structure began to show its age. While other schools in the district were being renovated on a regular basis, our school remained untouched. When pressed for an explanation, district leaders said that when there was a financial shortfall in a fiscal year school, remodeling was postponed. Inexplicably, they added that the policy mandated that when a school missed its turn it would lose its opportunity until its next scheduled renovation many years later. Adding to the intrigue was that our school which possessed the highest free and reduced lunch rate in the system was bypassed in this manner on multiple occasions. When the school celebrated its thirtieth anniversary it was structurally unchanged from the first day it opened its doors. As a staff we were slowly succumbing to a sense of being second-class citizens in a very wealthy school district.

When tragic becomes ridiculous

My personal experiences in this area would have been laughable if they had not been so indicative of the inefficiency of the system’s maintenance. One cool October morning in 1978 as I prepared to enter my classroom I noticed that the inside of the window on the door was covered with droplets and the knob was warm. After opening the door I was struck in the face by a rush of steamy, hot air. One step into the room resulted in my shoe sticking to the floor. The twenty-year old pipe delivering hot water to the 1950 style radiator had burst under the concrete floor; the extreme heat had caused the desks to melt into the linoleum. A few days later workmen equipped with jackhammers made a six by three-foot hole in the front of the room to disconnect the pipe. Students had to step over the 18-square-foot pothole to get to their desks. Though classes continued in the room, the floor remained in that condition for nearly two months.

A few years later two workmen

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Math Instruction, Teacher Preparation, and the Common Core State Standards

January 29th, 2012 No Comments
mel_sm

“You have to know math in order to teach math.” – Tim Sass, Calder 2012

The Essential Question

How could Teach For America grads, with five weeks of teacher preparation, and other alternatively certified teachers realize better student performance in math that traditionally certified teachers? The answer is simple. The implications for implementation of the Common Core State Standards are profound.

The Answer

In a paper presented at the 2012 Calder Research Conference entitled “Certification Requirements and Teacher Quality: A Comparison of Alternative Routes to Teaching,” Tim Sass of Georgia State University offered a simple, yet unsurprising, observation. Teachers, particularly math teachers, who know their subjects better, improve student achievement more than teachers who have less expertise in their content areas. In other words, teachers have to know math before they can teach math, and the better they know it, the better they teach it. The study demonstrated that alternatively certified teachers has higher SAT scores and better preparation in specific content areas. The differences manifested themselves greatest in math instruction.

The Implications: Elementary

The Common Core State Standards will require that teachers have a deep conceptual understanding of mathematics. This is a big problem in many schools. It is not an ability problem as much as it is a preparation problem. While my expertise is not at the elementary level, my friends at that level, even in resourced, high-performing schools and districts, have told me for years that finding elementary teachers with solid preparation in mathematics and the sciences is extremely difficult. From my experience at the secondary level, we could find the math and science teachers, but we had to compete with every other school in the area for their services. They are in short supply.

Not only will the content of math instruction change as a result of the new standards, but students will be expected to apply math principles and concepts to real world situations. While content knowledge is not as much of a problem at the secondary level, the changes in the way students are assessed will pressure secondary math teachers because, for many, this is a new way of teaching. At the elementary level, both the content and process will change. What this means is that, at the elementary level, we do not have the capacity to deliver the new math standards. What this means for school leaders is that we have a massive re-training effort ahead of us.

The Implications: Secondary

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2012 Wish List for Education—Recognize the True Job Creators

January 26th, 2012 1 Comment
stu

by Stuart Singer, The Teacher Leader

For education 2011 was not a good year. It was littered with cheating scandals, continuing lackluster academic performances by American students and a dearth of political urgency to address the causes. If these trends are not quickly reversed the ramifications will be staggering. A failure to seek and implement immediate remedies that will substantially improve the skills of the country’s students will continue to intensify the key problems facing the United States going forward—unemployment and the economy. Decisive and in some cases unpopular actions must begin in the upcoming year to ensure that this country will be poised to create a workforce prepared to compete in the 21st century.

The real job creators

The centerpiece of virtually every economic discussion is the need to protect and encourage the people perceived to be the job creators. While these arguments are not new—the issues of reducing regulations and taxes on business have been at the forefront of political dialogues for years—there is a body of data that indicates that much of these presumptions are misguided.

The numbers are revealing. There is a direct correlation between employment, wages and education. In 2010 the unemployment rate for individuals without a high school diploma was 14.9%. Completing high school cuts that number by 30% to 10.3%. But the most impressive change is at the level of a two-year associate’s degree. The unemployment level among this group is 7.0% a drop of more than 50% from those without a diploma.

The earnings of those who are employed reflect a similar pattern. While the average weekly income of a person who has not completed high school is $444, that number soars by 75% ($767) for an Associate’s degree and rises by 250% ($1,038) for a college graduate.

Improve education, grow the economy

So what can be done in 2012 to improve education? First of all, educational leaders need to embrace the tenets

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