Assessment is a hot topic today, but what do you think of when you hear the word? Lately I have noticed a shift in the context surrounding assessment. Most often these days I hear the word when teachers and administrators are discussing standardized tests of some kind. The hue and cry for “hard data” has created an environment in which this type of data is emphasized. I recently facilitated a discussion with a school district administrative team in which we outlined the district-wide and school-wide assessments being administered in their school districts. In some grades there were as many as 6 different standardized assessments being given – some more than once a year.
Early in my teaching career the word assessment was seldom used. We mostly talked about grading students, evaluating students and testing. Most of these “assessments” were formative in nature, teacher created and specific to what was taught and the manner in which it was taught. I can remember discussing the “book assessments” that came with the textbooks and teacher guides with teacher colleagues. We all agreed that they were poorly constructed and emphasized rote memory over higher level thinking skills. And…the assessments seldom seemed to match the style and form of our instruction. So…..we all created our own and aligned them with our instruction – seldom assessing something we never taught.
That was then…this is now. How is “assessment” discussed in your school?
As many of our readers would know, in recent years Teacher Colleges and Colleges of Education have come under fire for their teacher preparation programs, spawning various alternative routes to teacher certification.
Recently, a panel of experts released a report after a 6 year study indicating that they can find no real differences in teacher quality in either approach.
I personally think this will give more credibility to alternative certification efforts around the country. If traditional programs are not superior – then why not continue to expand the alternatives?
Identifying barriers to change
I have always enjoyed Dr. Scott McLeod’s take on things. He is a professor at Iowa State and the author of the blog “Dangerously Irrelevant.” You have to like any blog with a name like that!
This week he posted a little activity he has used with groups who are trying to identify barriers to change and possible solutions to those barriers.
If you have ever lead a committee trying to implement something new – you know that you need every tool you can find!
Our district-wide leadership development and Transformational models just received formal support from BOTH the NEA and the American Association of School Administrators. Why? Because we start with different assumptions about schools, staff and leadership than do most other groups…and therefore the changes we have put in play in districts from coast to coast have been sustainable. Those assumptions?
1. The fulcrum and change is the school and district culture – not new policies, curriculum, structures or even teaching strategies
2. The highest leverage item for creating and sustaining high-performing school cultures is effective leadership
3. Effective leadership is a team sport. Therefore our work focuses on developing capacity of the entire leadership team, not just an individual leader
As a result, teachers are part of leading the school alongside the Principal, which gives administrators a deep bench and a lot of relief! Trust is built which leads to the ability to handle budget cuts, transitions and other stressors. And sustainability for the effort is built in vs. being dependent on one leader. Getting quick results in test scores in one school is relatively easy. Getting sustainable results in an entire district or region is a lot tougher, and takes commitment from all stakeholders. As Fullan wrote: Change is technically simple, but socially complex.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Today John Wilson, the National Education Association (NEA) Executive Director, joined a growing chorus of leaders acknowledging the efficacy of the Failure Is Not an Option® model implemented by the HOPE Foundation.
“The HOPE Foundation has shown – over and over again – that its collaborative model of school improvement is sustainable and effective,” said Wilson. “School transformation should be led by and done WITH educators, not to them. The NEA believes that the HOPE Foundation offers a model of proof and promise to schools striving to make the right kind of change to help students succeed.”
This framework for transforming low-performing schools has succeeded in urban, suburban and rural settings throughout the United States.
The Failure Is Not an Option® model focuses on helping leadership teams build a framework for sharing best practices, transforming school cultures, and sustaining student success.
The decade-long record of success has been documented in two independent studies by Zarimba and Associates, PlaNet Research and by student achievement data in formerly low-performing schools in settings as diverse as Milwaukee, WI, Pottstown, PA, Pixley, CA and the Bronx, New York.
The model became popular following release of the award-winning book Failure Is Not an Option®: Six Principles that Guide Student Achievement in High Performing Schools, and is more fully documented in the newly released second edition (2010), co-published by the HOPE Foundation, the NEA and Corwin Press.
Indeed, after a beta test of a half-dozen campuses, all 52 schools of Fort Wayne (IN) Community Schools (FWCS) began the intensive Failure Is Not an Option® Courageous Leadership Academy last fall. In late December, the FWCS administration became aware of a $15M shortfall, at the same time the district was working to reorganize 11 schools to lead the district’s reform efforts.
Negotiations with the Fort Wayne Education Association began in January, and by mid-March, 96 percent of teachers approved a contract that included significant changes in the way the 11 schools would be staffed. The hiring structure for the schools focuses on a commitment to the school and building a team designed to succeed and eliminates rights to positions based on seniority.
“One reason we have been able to make substantial progress with all of our employees in creating an achievement oriented culture is because the HOPE training has given us a common language across the district that nearly everyone has internalized,” explained Dan Bickel, FWCS Area Administrator for Elementary Schools. “Contract talks have moved smoothly, more quickly and with high levels of support because, in part, so many employees had a common understanding of what everyone was trying to accomplish.”
Today’s announcement comes on the heels of record federal funding by the U.S. Department of Education for improving the nation’s lowest performing schools. While many schools will be closed down, Alan Blankstein, president of the HOPE Foundation, and author of Failure Is Not an Option®, argues against that option: “In most cases helping leadership teams to change the school culture will produce better student outcomes than will massive firings and school closings.”
An example of the kind of “change” Blankstein talks about can be found in one formerly low-performing school in Brooklyn, NY. It was rated “D” by the New York City Department of Education and slated for closing until its new principal, Marion Wilson, began turning the Jackie Robinson Public School 375 around. Three years later, the school received an “A” rating.
“We are a real-life example,” said Wilson. “These principles really do work.”
For more information on schools that have successfully transformed visit the HOPE Foundation Web site www.hopefoundation.org. For more information in the district-wide Courageous Leadership Academy click here. To receive a copy of the second edition of Failure Is Not an Option® click here.
Leading schools and teaching in schools is one of the toughest vocations there is. So what keeps YOU going? Is it the light bulb that goes on when a child learns? Is it the satisfaction of watching them mature before your very eyes?
Over at Leader Talk, the post for yesterday helped describe the perserverance required to plug away.
I started teaching in 1979 a few years before “A Nation at Risk” was published, setting off decades of school bashing that hasn’t let up yet. For many educators in the trenches it has been demoralizing to work so hard and to see so little public acknowledgement for it. Yet, because there are still gaps to close in this business, we toil on, largely unappreciated. We need Courageous Leaders more than ever, a fact that the HOPE Foundation has embraced and Alan Blankstein points out so eloquently.
It seems like our appreciation often comes one parent and one student at a time. It is enough to keep us going.
No more goofing off at recess!
What do you think of this? Good idea? Bad Idea?
Some schools are starting to structure recess in order to cut down on discipline referrals etc. Should recess be a controlled envirnoment or should playing the organized games be a optional?
Gender Wars in Education
Most of the focus on gender issues in K-12 have focused on girls in Math and Science. Since these reports first surfaced, schools have tried to examine their practices to see if they were perpetuating these differences through their own practices. Equity in these issues became an effort and schools tried to bring more girls into the Math and Science programs. Success is still mixed by some accounts but a recent study shows that girls have caught up with boys in Math.
Now the gender wars turn to boys. The recent focus on Reading and Math has schools focusing on boys who seem to have more difficulty in Reading than girls by some reports.
In the News
Thousand Oaks, CA – March 2010 -
How did a tough, “D” school in Brooklyn that was about to be closed down become an “A” school in less than 3 years? How did a large school district in the Midwest use data to drive effective school improvement that led 15 of their 88 schools to make Adequate Yearly Progress for the first time? The answer to these questions lies within author Alan M. Blankstein’s award-winning book, Failure is Not an Option.
HOPE Success Stories
We all need a success story now and then. I selected one by Shawn Smiley in the HOPE archived newsletters.
At Shambaugh Elementary and Fort Wayne Community Schools, we have used grant money from various sources (Title I, state funding, and the Wallace Foundation) as an opportunity to close achievement gaps and sustain student success. Different schools in our district have made different “how” and “what” choices based on the needs of our students. At Shambaugh, we are creating a school culture built around our students specifically. We use strategies for student success that are measurable, visible, and identifiable for the short and long term, and combine this approach with relevant and applicable professional development specifically designed to target the needs of our students.
Grant monies support our existing School Improvement Plan, which identifies student needs. Gaps in our students’ learning and achievement show up especially in gender and race, and we all understand that the overall success of our schools hinges on our success in these areas.
We made a conscious effort to change our mindset of educating and engaging students in the building, and to create specific plans to implement change. We changed our procedures and how we talk to students, and found we increased attendance, provided more specific and relevant instruction, and were able to ensure the safety and productivity of all stakeholders.
We have created a 30/90 intervention block that includes every student, from the lowest achieving student to the highest achieving student, which has created an environment where behavioral episodes have dropped 34% in the past year and a half.
Components of the intervention block include but are not limited to:
90 minute uninterrupted literacy block for every student. No student is removed during this time. This block is provided and maintained daily.
30 minute intervention block.
During this 30 minutes:
Special Ed. Direct students receive services,
RTI intervention students receive services, and
Teachers identify 4-6 students left in the room with a common academic need (determined through hard data).
Classroom teachers work in a separate area on a specific skill/standard.
Classroom assistants enter the grade level with the remaining students (generally “at or above” grade level) to facilitate their own “Intervention”. This normally includes working higher level thinking problems in addition to what they receive during the normal day.
Maintaining and providing relevant and planned Professional Development for teachers and assistants.
Ensuring students are not being pulled for various services throughout the day, causing continual classroom disruption and lack of consistency for the students.
Empowering every adult to be accountable for change
Implementing our Data Wall to better encompass and understand building levels as a whole that produce a successful school.
