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Integrated Living. Separated Learning? (Part 2)

June 26th, 2009

This article, written by Jason Flom, is cross-posted on Ecology of Education
In such an integrated world, where the reverberations of problems and solutions ripple far beyond their localized sources, we must learn to think in terms of systems (called systems thinking), to see beyond compartmentalized events, and work with others from diverse backgrounds and cultures toward common goals.

That’s a tall order for a human race often short on patience, tolerance, and understanding.

Additionally, thoroughly analyzing influencing factors beyond the immediate manifestation of a problem is often impossible alone, and cannot be attained by accident. Successful systems thinking requires both critical faculties and collaborative cooperation. Helping students navigate that balance is part of our responsibility as educators: it must be intentionally taught, cultivated, and prioritized.

Project Learning can provide much of the framework and substance for learning skills farther up Bloom’s taxonomy. However, simply providing students with projects and experiences is akin to drinking decaf coffee: its got the taste without the kick.

What’s the kick? Reflection and skill development.

Learning that prepares students for identifying, evaluating, and tackling problems that cross over systems and cultural boundaries must be diversified. No one style or approach can possibly cover the gazillions of options. Students need opportunities to immerse themselves in sweeping projects in which they apply a broad range of skills.

But they also need opportunities to learn, practice, and hone specific skill sets. Exploring and finding the balance between integrated projects and separate skill development should be a primary objective for both reflective practitioners and innovative administrators.

The problem we face today is the over-emphasis on what one of my students’ parents referred to as “the low hanging fruit” — basic skills. With almost exclusive focus on filling a student’s tool box with testable skills (without accompanying opportunities to employ those tools in novel and complex situations), we risk sacrificing holistic, integrated, and systems thinking in order to hold teachers and schools accountable. The sacrifice results in not just bland teaching and irrelevant schooling — the real consequence is that we inadvertently limit the potential of our students.

The compartmentalizing of all skills and learning makes for a cubicle education, while outside the schoolhouse doors students are living in an iPhone world.

Perhaps that is the perfect compliment — isolated schooling and integrated living? With today’s students forever connected to one another through sprawling digital networks, perhaps they are learning systems thinking themselves, and it is only the basic skills they need from schools.

I, myself, am not ready to gamble that. For now, I’ll continue to build curriculum around broad scope projects, breaking them down into bite size, skill development chunks, doing my best to take advantage of integrated living through an understanding the pieces.

Image: MIT Senseable City Lab

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Posted in Collaboration, Education, Jason Flom, Project Learning, globalization, integration, learning

Chicago, Duncan, Tests

June 26th, 2009

this is being posted near simultaneously at Education Policy Blog, School Matters, and Edurati

I recently received an email from Wade Tillett, a teacher, parent and activist in Chicago Public Schools, about a 2-minute statement he made June 24th, and included an additional statement he made at a public hearing at Arne Duncan’s last Board meeting in December. He informed me that

I spoke about
how CPS is using test scores to fail individual students (the data I
sent you and which you posted earlier), and to fail entire schools.

CPS uses standardized test to override teachers, students, parents and
the community to fail entire schools. The policy the board
voted on today will further “raise the bar” (4), which means they
will put more schools on “probation” – as if they are criminals (5).
This sets the stage for further school closings and privatization. If
CPS really believes that this policy is a fair measure of a school, why
doesn’t it apply to charter schools (6)?

With his permission, I am posting below his complete statement as delivered, with associated footnotes. I will offer a few comments of my own at the end.

Statement by Wade Tillett, Chicago Public School Parent and Teacher.
Chicago School Board Meeting
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
125 S. Clark St., Chicago

Hello. I’m Wade Tillett. I am a Chicago Public School Parent and
Teacher.

In 2000, The Cato Institute published “Edupreneurs”: A Survey of
For-Profit Education which talks about how 90 percent of the “$740
billion education market” is not yet used for profit. Further they
stated:

“The failure of government-run schools to prepare students for the
rigors of the modern economy is a pressing policy problem, but it is
also an opportunity for the private sector. ”

Let’s read that again.

“The failure of government-run schools to prepare students for the
rigors of the modern economy is a pressing policy problem, but it is
also an opportunity for the private sector. ” (1)

Wouldn’t this opportunity be even greater then, if there were greater
failure?

Susan Neuman seems to think so. She should know because she was there
when they were drafting NCLB. She served “as Assistant Secretary for
Elementary and Secondary Education during George W. Bush’s first
term, …. she says… there were others in the department…who saw
NCLB as a Trojan horse for the choice agenda — a way to expose the
failure of public education and “blow it up a bit.” “There were a number
of people pushing hard for market forces and privatization.”” (2)

(In other words, the wolves are circling.)

The point of NCLB, to some involved in its creation, was not to fix
public schools, but to destroy them. Constantly rising scores inevitably
force many schools to be labeled as failing.

And once these forces are set in motion, they sort of perpetuate
themselves.

Selective enrollment, magnet schools and charter schools often accept
only students with a certain score on the bubble tests. (“Diamonds in
the rough” as Mr. Duncan just called them.) Thus, neighborhood schools
are left with more students with lower scores, while other schools start
out with more students with higher scores. A vicious cycle is set in
motion.

This, of course, does not matter to CPS or NCLB. In fact, that’s how
some people wanted it to work. You know, to blow it up a bit.

Mr. Duncan and the school board here continue to pretend that blowing up
schools is the way to save them. Let’s remember that the real reason
people wanted to blow up schools was to get at that $700 billion
dollars.

And wasn’t that the same amount we spent to bail out the financial
industry? Is this the right time to implement the business model for
education? Look around us!

When all the dust settles, we’re going to be left with what others
regard as the crumbs of a public education system.

If you don’t believe me, perhaps you’ll believe two former assistant
secretaries of education, Chester Finn and Diane Ravitch, once prominent
NCLB advocates, who now write:.

“[If NCLB continues,] rich kids will study philosophy and art, music and
history, while their poor peers fill in bubbles on test sheets. The
lucky few will spawn the next generation of tycoons, political leaders,
inventors, authors, artists and entrepreneurs. The less lucky masses
will see narrower opportunities.” (3)

Stop destroying neighborhood schools.

Notes:

1. “Edupreneurs”: A Survey of For-Profit Education, Carrie Lips,
November 20, 2000, Cato Policy Analysis No. 386.

http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-386es.html

2. No Child Left Behind: Doomed to Fail?, Claudia Wallis, Jun. 08,
2008, Time.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1812758,00.html

3. Leaving “No Child Left Behind” Behind, Richard Rothstein,
December 17, 2007, The American Prospect.

http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=leaving_nclb_behind

Notes from today’s meeting:

4. Monique Bond, CPS spokeswoman.

http://www.chitowndailynews.org/Chicago_news/New_performance_policy_would_raise_bar_for_CPS_schools,29028

5. A CPS representative explaining the proposed policy stated that
approximately 40% of CPS elementary schools and 60% of high schools are
now on “probation” or level 3.

6. Proposed school performance, remediation and probation policy for the
2009-2010 school year.

http://bubbleover.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/schoolclose.pdf

Now for a few words of my own:

First, it is worth reminding people of the previous role played by Susan Neuman given her visibility in the new Bolder, Broader approach which is currently getting so much attention. And is critically important to remind people that at least some of those who advocated for No Child Left Behind did so because they saw it either as a means of decreasing legitimization of public schools and/or they wanted access to the public funds being spent on education in order to profit therefrom.

Second, the impact of NCLB in narrowing educational opportunities in arts, music,philophy, etc., for those schools with high poverty – when those schools are often the only access these students have to such things – is already ongoing. Similar impacts are now beginning to creep into middle class schools because of the financial crisis and the impact it has on school funding, which we should remember at the local level is heavily dependent upon real estate values that have plummeted as a result of the series of financial blows, including but not limited to the impact of subprime mortgages and securitizing of mortgage-backed assets. Tillett rightly points out how much we seem willing to bail out financial institutions that largely created the crisis – with the great assistance of those in government of both parties who abdicated responsibility for ensuring oversight and financial stability – while too many seem unwilling to cushion the blows affected on others, whether homeowners in trouble or local governments in crisis. Yes, ARRA helps some, but merely in holding part of the status quo ante, and not in addressing the damage already being done by NCLB.

It is important that voices that speak clearly – as parents and teachers – be included in the ongoing discussions about our schools and their future. And remember, the longer we delay addressing the critical issues before us, the more our future in the form of those students currently being deprived of a quality and complete education will suffer, now and in the future.

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Integrated Living. Separated Learning? Part 1

June 26th, 2009


(This article, written by Jason Flom, is crossposted on Ecology of Education)

I marvel at my phone. It surfs the internet, finds my e-mail, lets me twitter, takes calls, and gets along well with my computer. It’s a calendar, a stopwatch, a newspaper, and a means of distracting my daughter when she needs distracting. It’s the height of integration (for now). So many systems amalgamated. So many advances in technology blended together.

Yet it serves as only a sign and symptom of a much larger trend: increasing connections.

We live in integrated worlds. Myriad spheres overlap and influence other spheres. As the layers and connections increase, so does the complexity and the reverberations of actions, both positive and negative. While many of use get pretty excited by the integrated nature of our technology, it is the interrelated systems of nations and cultures that pose the largest long term impact.

A short list of challenges in today’s world:

  • Climate change
  • The Great Recession
  • Rising extinction rates
  • Famine
  • Poverty
  • Access to potable water
  • Basic rights
  • Education for all

This list is by no means exhaustive or comprehensive. Social and environmental issues run the gambit from site specific challenges to global ramifications. We have about as much hope of cataloging them all as of convincing a 2 year old that whining is an ineffective method for achieving one’s goals.

What’s more, this list isn’t new. Most of these issues have followed (perhaps even pushed) humanity from the savannas of Africa to all corners of terra firma.

So, what’s the point?

The point is this: The complexity of these issues escalates exponentially as the connections and interactions between people and nations increase. Actions by one party potentially impacts others on a much grander scale than ever before. And as the networks grow, so do the effects of our decisions and our patterns of living. (An example of this theory in action: Iranian elections.)

Of course, in this case, the enabling keystone of expanded spheres of influence is technology, which has effectively flattened the world by decreasing the role of proximity as the necessary cornerstone for communication, collaboration, and conflict. (Technology has also exacerbated the divide between the haves and the have nots, but that is fodder for another post.)

The result is that our problems, as people of Earth, are now, more than ever, shared problems. Solutions to those problems cannot be found or enacted in isolation. Want to minimize global climate change? One must act locally and globally. Watching An Inconvenient Truth won’t be enough. Adjusting one’s consumer patterns can make a difference, but real change will happen when a mass of interconnected citizens who demand or create action. (Or a great calamity forces us to rethink.) Technology allows previously isolated groups to join together, for better or for worse, and drive change.

What does this have to do with education?

Everything.

Image: MIT Senseable City Lab

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Posted in Jason Flom, Sphere of Influence, Systems thinking, X Collaboration X Education X globalization X Integration, learning, technology

Analysis of Forest Grove v. T.A

June 22nd, 2009
By Brian Jason Ford, Esq., Legal Editor

This post first appeared as a special edition of the DBYD Difference, the education law newsletter of Dischell, Bartle, Yanoff & Dooley, P.C.

It’s just a little bit of history repeated…
Analysis of Forest Grove v. T.A. – SCOTUS’s latest take on the IDEA
A special edition of the DBYD Difference
In this special edition of the DBYD Difference, we will cover the Supreme Court’s decision in Forest Grove v. T.A. in an easy-to-digest Q&A format. Also, I am going to play fast and loose with syntax. So you will have an easier read, I will sometimes refer to the student’s entitlement to tuition reimbursement even though the parents are technically entitled.
Q: Where can I read the decision for myself?
A: Here: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/08pdf/08-305.pdf. You’ll get the majority opinion as well as a dissent by Justice Souter, who was jointed by Justices Scalia and Thomas.
Q: What issue was the Court deciding?
A: The Court was trying to figure out if a student who had never received special education from his public school district could be eligible for private school tuition reimbursement.
Q: What are the basic facts of the case?
A: T.A. was a student in Forest Grove for many years. His teachers all recognized ADHD-like behaviors, but T.A. was not evaluated until his freshman year. At that point, T.A. received an evaluation from the District, and was found ineligible for special education. In T.A.’s junior year, he obtained a private evaluation and received an ADHD diagnosis from the private evaluator. The private evaluator also recommended placement in a private, residential school. T.A.’s parents took the evaluator’s advice and enrolled him in the private, residential school. At this point T.A. parents hired an attorney and, to make a long story short, sought tuition reimbursement from Forest Grove.
Q: What is so important about 1997?
A: Until 1997, the IDEA said nothing about tuition reimbursement explicitly. Rather, the IDEA said that students are entitled to “such relief as the court determines is appropriate.” 20 U.S.C. § 1415(i)(2)(C)(iii). The Supreme Court used this language to allow tuition reimbursement in two very important cases: School Comm. of Burlington v. Department of Ed. of Mass., 471 U. S. 359 (1985) and Florence County School Dist. Four v. Carter, 510 U. S. 7 (1993). The Burlington and Carter cases established a framework by which courts determine tuition reimbursement cases. Congress amended the IDEA in 1997 to address tuition reimbursement directly. The law now says quite a few things about tuition reimbursement, but the part that matters most for this case reads as follows:
“If the parents of a child with a disability, who previously received special education and related services under the authority of a public agency, enroll the child in a private elementary school or secondary school without the consent of or referral by the public agency, a court or a hearing officer may require the agency to reimburse the parents for the cost of that enrollment if the court or hearing officer finds that the agency had not made a free appropriate public education available to the child in a timely manner prior to that enrollment.”
You can find the above at 20 U.S.C. § 1412(a)(10)(C)(ii). The emphasis is mine. For our purposes, “under the authority of a public agency” means “from a public school district.”
Q: What did Forest Grove argue?
A: Forest Grove argued that the italicized language is a limitation on parents’ rights to tuition reimbursement. Their logic is that if students who previously received special education from their district are entitled to tuition reimbursement, then students who did not receive special education from their district are not entitled to tuition reimbursement.
Q: What did T.A. argue?
A: T.A. argued that the language in the IDEA entitling students to “ such relief as the court determines is appropriate” was not changed in 1997. It is this unchanged language that forms the basis of Burlington and Carter – the cases that allow tuition reimbursement even before the IDEA said anything about tuition reimbursement. Therefore, T.A. argued, courts could still award tuition reimbursement as equitable relief despite the new language about students who previously received special education.
Moreover, Forest Grove’s argument would create an unfair loophole for school districts – according to T.A. If you use Forest Grove’s logic, school districts could avoid all tuition reimbursement by simply withholding special education. According to T.A., Forest Grove is really saying: if you never received special education you can never be entitled to tuition reimbursement; and Forest Grove gets to decide if you get special education to begin with.
To be fair, I should note that Forest Grove disagreed with this characterization more than a little bit. Forest Grove claimed that the IDEA and state law determined who gets special education.
Q: Cut to the chase! Who won?
A: T.A. won. The Court decided that the 1997 amendments impose no “categorical bar” to tuition reimbursement, even if the student had never received special education from a public school before enrollment in the private school.
Q: Huh?
A: The Court said that the general rule in Burlington / Carter still applies. When school districts fail to offer FAPE (a free, appropriate public education) to students who qualify for special education under the IDEA, parents are allowed to go out and buy FAPE on their own… then seek reimbursement from their school district. Whether or not the school district ever offered an IEP to the student does not matter. All that matters is that (1) the student was entitled to FAPE, (2) the school district did not offer FAPE, and (3) the private school was appropriate to meet the student’s needs.
Q: So the Court is just upholding old cases? Did anything change?
A: The answer to this question depends largely on where you live. One of the reasons why SCOTUS took this case was because different courts in different jurisdictions answered this question differently. If you live in a place where courts placed a blanket prohibition on tuition reimbursement unless the student received an IEP prior to private placement, your life just changed quite a bit.
Q: BONUS QUESTION FOR EDUCATION LAW NERDS – What about limitations on reimbursement such as those provided at 20 U.S.C. § 1412(a)(10)(C)(iii)?
A: Great question! The Court did not answer it. Instead, they sent that question back down to the lower courts to figure it out. This clearly implies that the limitations are still in place and, at the end of the day, T.A.’s parents may still be left holding the bag.
This post is subject to a disclaimer.

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Posted in Brian Jason Ford, Education Law, SCOTUS, Tuition Reimbursement

Growing Personally and Professionally Produces Meaningful Results

June 21st, 2009

A few times every year, I get to lead a professional development event known as “Writer’s Stylus.” Each time, including just last week, it proves to be an exciting professional development. We begin the week thinking we already teach writing. We end the week as writers, producing an essay that has undergone multiple waves of revision. We end the week as writing teachers with a vision for developing young writers, not just students with good writing skills. We end the week as different individuals and professionals, and as a different community than when we started.

The week of training illustrates three principles that transfer to any area: personal growth aids professional growth, professional growth often requires re-evaluating long-held beliefs and practices, and when combined, personal and professional growth produce meaningful results.

Personal growth aids professional growth.
“At the beginning of the week, I would never have worded this sentence like this,” the teacher explained. “But by learning how to revise my own writing, I can see the difference structuring it this way and using the stronger verb, ambushed, makes.”

“I needed someone to tell me to make it personal—that it was okay to write in my own voice,” explained another teacher. “That turned what was a very direct and didactic essay into something that makes its points through simply relating my experience.”

For all of us, the first noticeable growth was personal. We learned how to revise our own writing. We examined texts crafted by master writers. We noticed things in good writing that we’d never seen before, and we implemented those ideas into our own drafts. We grew as writers.

Our ideas, first either overwhelming or overly sketchy, developed into clear and clever expressions of ourselves. As a group, we got to know each other through rough drafts, coaching sessions, and moving final versions of our essays. The process of writing created a community of writers.

But we also grew as teachers. Because we knew what characterized and went in to crafting good writing, we recognized the weaknesses of our instructional approaches. We began to identify skills we needed to teach our students, but teaching in new and more effective ways means letting go of less effective habits.

Professional growth often requires re-evaluating long-held beliefs and practices.
Our growth as writers changed how we examined our instruction. In looking through writers’ eyes, we recognized much of what we call writing instruction fails to teach writing at all. We have students do too much drafting and not nearly enough revising. We spend too much time having students mark up pre-printed sentences and not nearly enough time crafting original ones. And we get hung up on students forming diagrams for other people’s sentences to the point that we value a correct diagram over a well-constructed original sentence.

Our old ways of thinking argued with us. What would our teaching friends who love diagramming say if they knew we were not going to overemphasize it? If we spent more time in writing and revising, what would happen to the dozens of practice activities and worksheets our textbooks provided? Would coaching young writers as individuals mean that our classes would cover fewer uses of quotation marks than we had in years past?

We asked these questions, and often we ended up laughing at ourselves. Wait, we kept reminding each other, we’re teaching writing. To learn to write, students must write. They must revise. They most journey through the full process. No one ever expressed themselves clearly and in ways that deserve attention by diagramming or underlining preprinted sentences.

Re-evaluation told us the truth. Yet, even with our new eyes, the results astonished us.

Personal and professional growth produce meaningful results.
“I felt like I was trying to hug an elephant.” We worked all week on the essays, and what started as “hugging an elephant” ended up a piece of writing that would rival anything Erma Bombeck ever wrote. “I called my essay, ‘Lettuce. Rejoice!’” she explained. Then she read, “I relished walking the rows of my neighbor’s garden…”

Look at that. Just look at the verb choice in that first sentence! Relished! Would any other verb have brought gardening and vegetables to mind nearly as well?

Several volunteers shared their revised essays, and the quality of each one surprised and delighted us. From essays on adopting and raising children to those detailing personal mission experiences, the results were meaningful—valued, important, significant—both to the writer as an individual and to us, the community, as writers.

Growth is a beautiful and productive process. We need to seek it for ourselves, both personally and professionally, and we need to let it influence our educational practices. When we do, the results may allow us to stand back an say, “Lettuce. Rejoice!”

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Posted in Professional Development, instructional writing, personal growth, writer's stylus, writing, writing process

On the uses and misuses of Advanced Placement – a personal reflection

June 20th, 2009

I teach 3 sections of Advanced Placement US Government and Politics, mainly to 10th graders. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, it gives me access to some of the brightest students in our school, students who stretch me as a teacher. On the other hand, I have the responsibility of preparing them for the Advanced Placement test, which determines whether or not they will receive college credit. While this is a semester college-level course spread out over a year, I am more than a little restricted because of the necessity of preparing them to sit for the test.

There are two recent “events” which lead to my writing this posting. The first was serving as a Reader (grader) for the AP exam for the course I teach. The second was the concurrent release of Jay Mathews’ Challenge Index, which uses a ratio of number of advanced placement tests taken divided by number of graduating seniors to create a ranking. The combination of these two events has lead to my seriously thinking about the impact of Advanced Placement in our public schools, and thus to the writing of this post.

I invite you to read the results.

At the beginning of this month I spent a week in Florida serving as a Reader. I read several thousand answers to one of the Free Response Questions on this year’s examination. Learning more precisely how the test is scored will be of value as I replan the course for next year. But that experience was eye-opening in many ways.

First, let me explain the structure of the examination for the AP course I teach. There are two sections. The first consists of 60 selected response (multiple choice) questions which, like the SAT, has a correction for guessing. Without totally explaining that correction, let it suffice to say that random guessing mathematically would lead on average to no raw points, but elimination of at least one answer per question puts the test taker ahead of the game. The students have I believe 45 minutes to answer the 60 questions, which represent half of the raw score.

The second section consists of 4 “free response questions” (FRQs) which are NOT essays – there is no credit for how well written, nor for topic sentences or conclusion. A rubric is established for each question, anchor papers (sample answers) are culled to guide the Readers who score them, and there are lists of what is and is not acceptable for each point of the rubric. While the questions may have varying number of points in the rubric, in theory from 4 to 10 (the highest this year was 6) the FRQs weight equally as 1/8 of the total value of the test. Students have 100 minutes to answer the 4 FRQs.

Our test had over 170,000 sets of papers. We had around 600 readers. We had in theory over 700,000 individual questions to answer, with each reader reading only one of the four questions. We are trained in multiple stages to ensure consistency, with multiple sets of eyes looking at each paper early on, then as we become more ‘reliable’ as scorers, a decreasing amount of downstream checking – by table leaders and/or question leaders. By then of the scoring period, because I read very quickly, I had read something over 2,000 sets of papers. Well, that is, I had processed over 2,000, since on more than a few students chose not to answer that question, or in some cases, any question, and/or offered nonsense information. Our question had a rubric of 6 points, and the average rubric score was around a 2.7.

I can imagine some of you asking why a student would sit through the 100 minutes of the test section for the FRQs and write nothing at all, or perhaps instead write deliberately totally off topic. Perhaps because the student was required to take the test by her school? Why? That leads to the challenge index.

Jay Mathews invented the Challenge Index, which rates high schools using a calculation of total number of Advanced Placement Examinations taken the previous year in each school divided by the number of graduating seniors. A ratio greater than 1.0 gets one on the list. Our high school has been on the list since Mathews first released it about a decade ago (and you can visit this page at the Washington Post for more information). The intent was to find those high schools which challenged their students. Mathews decided to use this measure as the result of an article by Cliff Adelman which argued that even sitting for an AP exam, whether or not one passes the exam, better prepares the student for college work. Here I note that the passing rate on the exam has no effect on the calculation of the index (and thus on the rating of the school). In the past Mathews has tweaked the calculation, in some cases uses International Baccalaureate (IB) exams as well as AP exams, and in some cases sitting for courses that are cross-registered with local institutions of higher education where a college level examination is required.

Mathews, for those who do not know his work, wrote a book on the achievements of Jaime Escalante at Garfield HS in Los Angeles, challenging his largely inner city Hispanic kids to take AP Calculus – you may well have seen the film that resulted, “Stand and Deliver,” starring Edward James Olmos as Escalante. In introducing the index in 1998, Mathews wrote

Nearly every professional educator will tell you that ranking schools is counterproductive, unscientific, hurtful and wrong. But I am going to do it anyway, not because I believe my system is scientifically infallible, but because I think it provides insight into one of the most significant emerging issues in American education: whether our high schools are working hard enough to challenge and elevate students.

From his experience as a reporter and as a parent, he began to question the restrictions some schools and systems used to limit enrollment in AP courses, which he viewed as more challenging than the course students would otherwise take. It is worthwhile to read the essay linked above, because it explains the rationales Mathews offers both for creating the index and for ranking the schools.

Here I should disclose several things. I got to know Jay Mathews about the time of the first index being published, although not for that reason. I had read a book he had written largely about a school attended by one of his children, and it was about my alma mater, which led to contact between us. Although I often find myself in disagreement with Jay, we developed a friendship and I have appeared in his column on several occasions. Thus I find myself conflicted because while I admire the intent behind the index, I find it destructive and misleading.

Let me first note the following – in the 1998 index the school at which I teach Eleanor Roosevelt, was ranked 16th in the DC metro area with an index of 1.173. That also, if memory serves, put us in the top 100 in the nation, excluding schools that got to totally select their student body (we admit about 1/3 of ours by exam to our science and tech program). In 2008, we have fallen to 82nd in the area, even though our index score has risen to 1.289. Having been at the school since 1998, I can assure you that our rigor has not decreased in any way, either on an absolute basis or in comparison to other schools in the region, even though many more now offer many more AP courses than before. It is the explosion of advanced placement that leads to the different results. And I believe that one can argue that explosions results directly from the Challenge Index. And I question whether it is the right course for our schools to follow.

Our school system, Prince George’s County (MD), now requires all high schools to offer a base of 8 AP courses. The system pays for exams, which are required, because we give a weighted grade for an AP course – an A is worth 5 versus 4 for any other course, a B is a 4 versus a 3, and so on. At least now the teachers of the AP courses are required to receive appropriate AP training – that was not the case when we began to offer AP Gov in 10th grade. When we moved the course from 9th to 10th so that students would have had all of American History before taking government (previously they had the 2nd half in 11th grade, 2 years after taking government), I argued for allowing students to take AP in lieu of the regular course of Local, State and National Government. Our then superintendent decided all 21 high schools should offer at least one section of AP, but only 4 teachers,2 from our high school, were appropriately trained to do AP.

Many school systems began expanding their AP offerings after the Index first appeared. The College Board, which controls AP, began to question the validity of such courses, in part because of how many of the increasing number of exams scored so badly – here I will note that in 2007-08 academic year, in order to receive a passing score of 3 (out of a possible 5) on the exam, students needed less than 50% of the raw points. A few years back those wishing to use the AP designation on a course had to submit a syllabus to ascertain whether what was being taught was in fact at the college level. My syllabus was immediately accepted. Most of the AP government teachers in our system submitted a common syllabus prepared centrally, which was rejected as not meeting the requirements of the program.

Let me add one additional note: many colleges will limit the number of credits a student can receive via AP or IB, and will for AP courses only give credit for the maximum score of 5 on the zero to 5 scale. Now imagine you are a student who will graduate with ten or more AP courses, and you are required to sit for the AP exam in each. Why bother preparing for the exam, right? That is in part the explanation for some of the blank booklets or totally non-responsive answers we encountered.

What was far more troubling as a reader was seeing the number of answers where the student was attempting to answer the question but was not responsive to the prompt of the question, could not present a coherent series of statements, and/or lacked basic understanding of the material.

As noted, I read several thousand answers to one question. The rubric had six points. The number of papers I read which met all 6 points was in the single digits. And it is not that the rubric required us to be all that finicky in awarding points. Remember also that our average score was around a 2.7 out of those 6 points. And remember also that last year on our exam one needed less than 50% of the raw points to receive a “passing” scaled score of 3 (out of 5). If you find something wrong with this picture, so do I. There are far too many sitting for the AP examination who are not, as demonstrated by their FRQs, capable of working in this subject at a college level.

One can certainly argue for students being challenged. I do not believe an Advanced Placement course is the only way to accomplish that. In fact, I have found teaching AP to 10th graders has in some ways restricted my ability to challenge my students as much as I did when I taught the course to 9th graders, and did not have to worry about “coverage” – the amount of material my students had to learn to be prepared for what might appear on the AP exam. To give just one example, there is no defined universe of Supreme Court cases that could appear. I cover in some form or other almost 100. Yet this is not a course in legal history or in the Supreme Court.

Mathews does not currently include cross-registered courses in the calculation of his index. We have students who run out of the math, including Calculus B/C, sometimes by their sophomore year, often by the junior year. This is one case where we offer courses through cross registration with local universities. We have a man from Catholic U who teaches Calculus III and Differential equations. These course do not get a weighted GPA, nor do they count as part of the Challenge Index. Thus even though we are definitely challenging these students, the Index gives us no credit for doing so.

The students in our Science and Technology program can, if they are well prepared, do a Research Practicum in lieu of 3 of their courses as senior. They receive a grade, equal to 3 courses, but it is not weighted. They are working in laboratories with real-word scientists, often doing original work. They might be at the USDA lab in Beltsville MD, or working with someone in a university science department. They are doing work that is beyond the freshman level of college in its demands and challenges. Were they not involved in this program, most would be taking at least two and in some cases 3 more AP courses. The Index gives our school no credit for our challenging our students in this fashion.

I could go further. One of the most demanding courses in our school is Genetics, taught by a man with a Ph.D. It is the equivalent of a college level genetics course. The students do not receive a weighted grade. Nor is participation in the course included in the calculation of the index.

We have active parents at Eleanor Roosevelt. Some have argued with Mathews on both the calculation of the index and the concomitant ranking of schools by their scores. Mathews argues that any school with an index of >1.0 is already in the top 3% of schools in the nation, so that the rankings are not all that important. Then why publish rankings? I can remember when I was exploring teaching at a school in another system. The day I met with the Assistant Principal was the day the index was published, and the school in question was listed in the top 20 in the nation. As I was coming in to his office he was arranging to have the list reproduced and distributed.

We are obsessed with rankings in this nation. And that can lead to distortions. One of the more egregious examples of this has been in the rankings of Colleges and Universities, especially that done by US News and World Reports. As it happens, there is an op ed in today’s Boston Globe entitled Our obsession with college rankings which came about in part because of how Clemson University successfully improved its ranking – they limited classes that would otherwise have 24-25 students to 19 in order to have a higher percentage of class with less than 20 students, which meant that the remaining classes often expanded to more than 50.

If you know how an index is calculated, you can do things to manipulate the score you receive. We have seen this outside of education, for example, in ratings of cities as places to live. All of these are yet again example’s of Donald T. Campbell’s 1976 postulate that

The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decisionmaking, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor.

One statement from the Globe piece, while written with respect to universities, is I believe quite applicable to this discussion:

It is the public’s obsession with the numerical rank, and not the actions of US News or schools like Clemson, that misleads us into believing that some schools are innately better than others and pressures students into dreaming of schools that are not right for them.

We have an obsession with reducing complex situations to single numbers so that we can do comparisons that provide much less meaningful information than the weight we give the results of those comparisons.

I am not opposed to Advanced Placement. I would not continue to teach my three sections, which next year may contain over 100 students, if I did not find value in the program. I know that some students sign up for the course for the weighted grade. Others do hope to receive the college credit. And a few sign up because they want me as a teacher, particular those who are younger siblings of students I have previously taught – although in a few cases that decision is made by the parent rather than the student. I always have some students who really are not prepared to do the work required. Still, I believe that I am able to stretch the vast majority of my students, and I always especially enjoy those who stretch me as a teacher – that helps keep me fresh. Insofar as I am challenging my students, Mathews is right about his emphasis on AP, although I believe I could challenge them even absent the AP designation.

And I do not disagree that one measure of a school is how much it is willing to challenge its students. I do not limit who can take my class. We do require a recommendation from the current social studies teacher, and check English grades and overall academic performance. Even in the few cases where a student is not recommended for AP, or recommended with reservations, the parent can override that recommendation and insist on the student taking the class. AP can provide a framework within which good teachers can find ways to challenge themselves and their students.

Still, I remember the large number of answers I read and rated during that week in Florida, and wonder if we may be overdoing it? I have had brilliant students, some of whom graduate with 14, 15 or more AP courses, with 5s on all their exams. So long as they have time to still be teenagers, to participate in activities like music, theater, sports, or simply hanging with friends, I don’t object. I worry that we may push some into academic endeavors at the expense of developing the students in other ways.

If the reason is to improve how the school “ranks” on an artificial index, such a use of AP is truly a misuse, and may represent an abuse – not only of the academics, but of the students. If you think the word “abuse” too harsh, then perhaps substitute “academic malpractice.”

I will continue to teach AP because it enables me to challenge some very bright students, and to experience how their minds and insights can challenge me, stretch me even further as teacher and as person. I will also continue to teach ordinary kids, those who might not be considered as academically able, because I know that they can surprise me if I can find the way of connecting them with the subject matter. Every year I get a couple of students who took regular government with me in a non-honors class as a sophomore who decide to come back and take AP as a senior or even as a junior.

I read over 2,000 answers. Less than a dozen got all 6 points on the rubric. Some of the papers I most enjoyed reading did not get all 6 points, but showed a depth of insight that blew me away. Reading so many papers could be mind-numbing, except so often I encountered students who were willing to stretch themselves. That is a proper purpose of Advanced Placement. AP is not the only way to accomplish that, but it can well serve that purpose, properly applied.

I do hope we do not continue down the path of our current obsession, believing that more AP is inevitably better. The quality of the instruction is not necessarily better nor more challenging merely because the course has an AP designation – after all, one can have the most wonderful syllabus and still not be able to communicate its contents to the students, nor to engage the students in the process of learning.

And I wish, almost certainly futilely, that we would stop distorting the meaning of AP by using it as a means of ‘ranking’ schools.

My school year is now officially over. This summer I will be working with students at the other end of academic performance, students needing extra help to meet state requirements in government to graduate from high school. I wanted to complete this reflection before I mentally transition next month.

All of my students deserve the best teaching I can give them. All students are capable of learning, of being stretched. I expect that this summer will stretch me as a teacher and person, albeit in a different fashion.

As a teacher, I find that I must take time to look back, to reflect, to learn. This essay is a part of that process. I hope it is of value to at least one person who encounters it.

Peace.

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Posted in Advanced Placement

Book In An Hour: A Classroom Strategy

June 13th, 2009

By Liz Becker

This past winter I had the opportunity to attend a workshop with Organization of American Historians distinguished lecturer, Dr. Lendol Calder. This is the first place where I came across the strategy called Book In An Hour. Since then I’ve tried to find additional internet resources on this strategy, but they appear to be few and far between. I know other people would find it useful, so I decided to write up the strategy and post it. If you know of additional resources or ways to adapt this strategy, I would enjoy hearing from you.

What: The Book In An Hour strategy is a jigsaw activity for chapter books. Keep in mind this strategy can take more than an hour depending on the reading and presentation method you choose for your students.

Why: While many teachers view this activity as a time saver, I view it as a way to expose students to more literary and historical materials than I might have been able to do otherwise. There are many books that I would love my students to read, but I know that being able to do so is not always my reality. This strategy gives me an avenue to expose them to additional literature and other important historical works without taking much time away from the other aspects of my courses. It also provides opportunities for differentiation. This strategy can be adapted to introduce a book that students will be reading in-depth. Instead of jigsawing all of the chapters, use the same strategy with only a few selected chapters to create interest and engagement.

Procedures:

1. Decide if you are going to divide students up into groups or jigsaw with individual students. If you are using groups, I recommend making them heterogeneous or creating them in a way that subtly facilitates differentiation. I also encourage you to give each student in the group a role (facilitator, recorder, reader, questioner, creative designer, whatever fits the needs of your adaptation of the strategy).

2. Divide the book into sections. You can either break it down so each group/individual has approximately the same reading load (these sections can be randomly assigned) or differentiate and assign sections based on reading skills. Be sure each student has their assignment written down. You could write the chapter assignments for each group on large note cards or bookmarks, hand out a direction sheet that includes the assignments, have students write them down, etc .

3. Hand out the reading sections to groups/individuals. Some teachers choose to take apart the actual books, rebinding them so students only have the section they are assigned.

4. Students then read their assigned sections. If you are using groups, it seems to be better to allow them to read their section together in class. There are several methods you can implement as students read to improve comprehension and to help them prepare to present their information to the rest of the class. If they are in a group, they may read together and complete the set of tasks you give them while doing so. They may also read individually, with set times to stop and complete the group tasks before reading more. The tasks that you can have students complete as they read include asking questions (since they only have part of the story…this is also a great opportunity to work with students on asking higher level questions), identifying plot, setting, characters, chronology of events, significant events, cause/effect, compare/contrast, documented evidence (in historical scholarship and other research readings), items related to a theme or focus question, presentation ideas, and anything else that fits your purpose. Students can record their findings on a teacher-created template, notebook paper, index cards, or anything that works for you. Lendol suggested using big paper, 12″ x 18″ or larger. The paper is placed in landscape position and the left side is folded in about ¼ of the of length of the paper. Below is a diagram of how he set it up for his students. Note: In the questions section, students can be directed to use a number of responses or prompts such as “I wonder if…”, make predictions, ask about missing prior events/knowledge, ask leveled questions (using a structure such as Bloom’s Taxonomy), etc.

The paper is folded to create the sections, and the front becomes a flap that folds over.

5. Have students create their presentation. You can give them a specific format, or leave the choice up to them. Options include (but certainly are not limited to): skits, posters, cartoons/comics, movies, Keynote or PowerPoint presentations (please not just slides to be read…students should present!), song playlist or soundtrack that highlights themes, events, characters, etc. You can incorporate technology and have students create a webpage, wiki, blog, Glog, Wordle, podcast, and more. The sky is the limit for ways the information can be brought together. Do whatever best fits your class and your purpose.

6. Have students present their information, using your selected method, to the other students in the class. Be sure that there is a way for students to interact and get answers to their question. They need to see the whole picture when everything is done.

7. It is a good idea to have a whole class conversation on the themes or focus question for the book. Direct the conversation to meet your needs and discuss how the book fits in to your overall unit plan. It is good to be sure students understand why this book was important enough to study. You can also have charts to be filled out as a class (poster style or on the white/chalkboard) that include topics such as historical events, themes, characters, plot, setting, timeline, cause/effect, compare/contrast, etc.

8. You can let the final discussion or presentations be your method of assessment for the book, or you can have students complete a synthesis activity using numerous writing styles and prompts or other methods you find useful.

I suggest obtaining student feedback on Book In An Hour, especially the first few times you use it, so you may better tweak it to the learning needs of your students. This is an interesting strategy that has the potential to motivate students to read the entire book on their own. Again, if you have ideas for other adaptations, questions or other feedback, please feel free to comment. I’d love to hear how this works in your classroom.

Resources Consulted:

* Smith, Cyrus F., Jr. “Read a Book in an Hour: Variations”
* Daly, Lana “Read One Book in an Hour”
* A special thanks to Dr. Lendol Calder for introducing me to this strategy. Dr. Calder’s website on the practice of “Uncoverage” of history can be found here.

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Posted in Liz Becker

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Institutional Constraints: Administration

June 11th, 2009

By jerrid kruse –   Teaching as a Dynamic Activity

In my last post, I introduced how resistant institutions are to change and labeled the specific roadblocks “institutional constraints”.  In this series I will provide some strategies and ways of thinking that I have found useful for navigating the political hurdles of implementing reform-based instruction.  This post will focus on working with/around administrators.  Ideally, we would want our administration to have the same goals as us, but even those who claim to have lofty goals for students often say very different things with their actions.  I feel very lucky to have the support of my administration in my current school and hope some of the strategies below will help you gain administrator support.

Initially, you want to try to gain your administrators support, don’t assume you have an uphill battle if you don’t.  Have a lesson of which you’re particularly proud? Invite your principal or other admin to stop by your class to see what your students are doing.  Don’t wait for “evaluation day”.  Inviting your administrators in allows you to demonstrate that you take pride in your teaching and you have confidence in your own competence. Are you an education blogger? Tell your admins about your site and encourage them to visit.  I have always felt blogs are an excellent reflective tool.  Now use your reflections to demonstrate your desire to continually learn and improve your practice.  Still at school 2 hours after “contract time”? Stop in the office to “check your mailbox”, and if an administrator is still there, stop in to say hi/goodnight.  Some of my best conversations with administrators have happened in instances like this – the hectic day is over and the office isn’t buzzing with people.  Of course, you’re also demonstrating your high level of commitment.  These actions are not dishonest or manipulative, you are just working to draw your administrators’ attention to the positive things you are already doing!

Volunteering can get you onto administrators’ good side as well. Volunteering for committees or curriculum teams not only shows your willingness to be “part of the team”, but also places you in positions to help move your entire building toward reform.  Yet, you want to be careful in these committees (dealing with colleagues will be a future post).  One last action is to ask permission for things you might assume you wouldn’t need to.  Want to hang students’ work throughout the building? Ask your admin’s permission, not because I think you should need it, but because you will be sending a message about yourself and the level of respect you have for the people running your building.  Additionally, you draw their attention to your students’ work – further highlighting the great things you do in your classroom!

Perhaps you have taken the above steps, but your administration has some expectations with which you disagree.  Or you want to do some things in your class or building that makes your admin uneasy.  This situation is when 4th order thinking comes into play (see previous post).  First, consider how what you are doing or want to do fits with the administration’s expectations and how you can convince them of that.  Instead of choosing to oppose your administration, choose to seek ways to meet your goals within their expectations.  For example, my district expects objectives to be written on the board for students each day.  These objectives are supposed to tell students what they will be learning that day.  Ok, I personally don’t like objectives for students because 1) the learning in my class can change quickly based on student feedback and 2) if you need to be told what you have learned, have you really learned it?  I see two ways around this expectation.  The way that I chose is to have a question written on the board for students to think/write about when they come into class.  This question serves as an indication for what the class topic will be and gives me some insight on student thinking when we discuss the question.  I have been able to convince my admin that the question serves the same purpose as the “objectives”, but it more closely lines up with my goals for students – critical and reflective thinkers rather than being told what to learn.  Another strategy I thought of trying is having students write objectives as a class at the end of class.  Kind of a “what did we learn today” task.

Of course, you may find yourself in a situation where you cannot get your admin’s support and you cannot work within their expectations and still work toward your own goals.  In this situation, the classroom door is a powerful tool, shut it.  However, these are not ideal working conditions so you may need to re-evaluate if you want to be a part of that district.

Please leave comments sharing your own ideas how to work with or around administrators with whom you do not see eye to eye.

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Posted in jerrid kruse

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Learning from Mistakes Takes the Right Feedback

June 9th, 2009

I slammed my foot and, to my surprise, picked up speed. The lawn mower headed straight for the newly planted apple tree in our backyard. The sound of mower blades slicing through a thin tree trunk caught my father’s attention. He strode across the lawn, and I prepared to be banished from the riding lawn mower. But my father laughed.

“Do you know what you did?” I nodded and explained I had stepped on the clutch rather than the brake, freeing the mower to roll downhill and over the sapling. “Okay,” he said, “where’s the brake?” I showed him which was the brake and which was the clutch. Chuckling, he explained, “You’ve got it. Don’t worry about the tree. It was dead anyway. Now we won’t have to look at it. Keep going.”

Mistakes, claims Jonah Lehrer, “should be cultivated and carefully investigated.” To the brain, “Disappointment is educational.”1

Dopamine, a neurotransmitter that influences emotion, provides a sense of pleasure when what we anticipate happening matches reality, but when our expectations are not met—when our actions do not produce the desired result—we feel disappointment. Through disappointment, we gain an opportunity to literally rewire neuronal connections, to learn, but only if we attend to our mistake: “Self-criticism is the secret to self-improvement.”2

Since we learn, in part, by attending to our errors, what kind of feedback should we, as teachers, give to our students?

Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck contrasted the results of two different types of feedback. One group of students were praised for their intelligence: “You are smart at this.” A second group of students was praised for their efforts: “You worked hard and look at the results.”

The findings? Students praised for their intelligence became easily discouraged when they encountered difficult tasks and lost 20% of their achievement between pre- and post-testing. These students were only content when they could compare their results with students who preformed worse on tasks or tests. In contrast, students praised for their efforts sought challenge, welcomed mistakes, and increased achievement an average of 30% between pre- and post-testing. Lehrer explains:

The problem with praising kids for their innate intelligence—the “smart” compliment—is that it misrepresents the neural reality of education. It encourages kids to avoid the most useful kind of learning activities, which is learning from mistakes. Unless you experience the unpleasant symptoms of being wrong, your brain will never revise its models.3

Dweck’s findings mirrors those of Dr. Jennifer Mangels: individuals who believe intelligence is a fixed entity (i.e., you get the intelligence you’re born with) focus on performance and respond to negative feedback (i.e., the identification of an error) by withdrawing and extending little effort. In contrast, individuals who believe intelligence is malleable (i.e., smart is something you become not something you possess) respond to negative feedback with a mastery-orientation, seeking means of correction and learning. Such learners are resilient, responding to set-backs with renewed energy directed toward learning.4

How can we direct student response to feedback so that the mastery-orientation overcomes the performance-orientation? How can we guide student disappointment to careful investigation of mistakes?

Dr. Robert Brooks (2007) suggests couching feedback in “we” statements. For example, rather than telling a student that a response is incorrect and to “try harder,” Brooks suggests, in one-on-one conversation, saying, “This strategy you’re using doesn’t seem to be working. Let’s figure out why and how we can change the strategy so that you are successful.” Such a response invites a careful investigation of the mistake and makes the interaction a problem-solving experience. A classroom environment that welcomes error as a gateway to learning contributes to better feedback responses.5

My dad responded in a way that kept me moving forward in my learning and mowing the lawn successfully for several years. Disappointment led to reflection and investigation, correction, and renewed interest in getting it right. Guess I learned more than where to find the brake that day.

  1. Lehrer, J., How We Decide (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2009), 51, 48.
  2. Ibid., 51.
  3. Ibid., 53-54.
  4. Brooks, R., Mindsets for School Success: Effective Educators and Resilient, Motivated Learners. Presented at Learning and the Brain: Using Brain Research to Enhance Cognitive Abilities and Achievement (Nov. 2007).
  5. Mangels, J. A., Motivating Minds: How Student Beliefs Impact Learning and Academic Achievement. Presented at Learning and the Brain: Using Brain Research to Enhance Cognitive Abilities and Achievement (Nov. 2007).

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Posted in Carol Dweck, Jennifer Mangels, Jonah Lehrer, Robert Brooks, dopamine, effort, feedback, intelligence, lawn mowers, learning, mistakes, teaching

DFER Fundraiser for U.S. Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO)

June 5th, 2009

Democrats for Education Reform is hosting a low-dollar fundraiser ($25/person) for U.S. Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) this Tuesday, June 9th, from 6 to 8 pm at the Capitol City Brewery in Washington, DC. You can register by clicking here.

Senator Bennet came to his new position from the Superintendency of Denver Public Schools, where his record was extraordinary. He instituted one of the most innovative merit pay systems in the country (with the teachers union members’ support) which pays high-performing teachers and those who teach in high-need schools more. He hit the pavement to bring students back into the system, while closing failing schools so that those students would return to a renewed system. During his tenure at DPS, he advised then-candidate Obama on education issues and was a short-list candidate for Secretary of Education.

He is already a crucial part of the discussion in the Senate and within the Democratic Party about what meaningful education reform will look like. Here’s what the Denver Post had to say: “U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet staked out his claim to help shape national education reform … announcing in his maiden speech on the Senate floor that he would draw up comprehensive legislation by year end. The bill could include some of the most critical elements of a national reform agenda supported by the Obama administration and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan: merit pay for teachers, voluntary national standards, and evaluations of students’ performance as they advance from grade to grade, known as longitudinal tracking.”

We’d like every stripe of education reform advocate to meet this rising star in the Democratic Party, so I hope you’ll join us on Tuesday at the Capitol City Brewery!

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Posted in DFER, Edreform, Education, senate