Today is the one-year anniversary of the Prichard Blog, and I've celebrated by spending most of the day working through different strands of teaching quality. In the nature of blogs, though, my posts on the issue are now displayed in the opposite order from the way I wrote them. The real order of my thought has been:
I'm convinced that the teaching quality challenge is a single web, but it gets described from a variety of starting points and it takes some work to see it whole.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Teaching quality and state action
Finally, after a day of addressing different angles on teaching quality at the student, classroom, and school level, I want to turn to state-level action to build that kind of instruction. Here's my list of the important next steps:
1. Teacher preparation
Teacher preparation programs must focus on standards, evaluating student progress, analyzing the resulting data, and planning effective instruction to move each student forward and on sustained classroom practice of those skills. My understanding is that having already upgraded the expectations for principal preparation and masters' degrees, the Education Professional Standards Board is getting ready to work on preparation of new teachers as the next big push forward.
2. Pre-tenure development
New teachers need sustained mentoring, expanding the current internship program to last two years and receive full funding, rather than repeated reductions, for both years. They should also see clear standards defining the quality of work needed to earn tenure, receive regular information on how close they are to those standards, and get strong support to reach that level by the end of their fourth year of work. In its Race to the Top application, the Department has proposed important work on this issue, work that should go forward with or without RTTT funding.
3. Growth beyond tenure
Tenured teachers should work with a clearly defined ladder of growing quality, with their evaluations providing credible feedback on where they are strong and how they can get stronger--again on the key process of standards, assessments, data, instruction, and collaboration. The main point should be helping the large majority of teachers who already do satisfactory work do even better work. This effort, too, is on the RTTT and KDE agenda.
4. Principals and superintendents
Top administrative leadership should be defined as fundamentally about developing teaching quality. Preparation programs should focus on that role, and properly funded two-year internships should strengthen reinforce those skills. Evaluations for educators in those roles should emphasize effectiveness in supporting classroom educators' growing effectiveness. Tasks that are not part of that primary focus should, whenever possible, not be the responsibility of the men and women we ask to be provide that central instructional leadership.
5. Persistently weak schools
Our current improvement strategies work for most schools: if schools enter state assistance, most get the right help to exit again. For the smaller group that has consistently done work that is much too weak, we need a fresh approach. House Bill 176 zipped through the legislature last week in order to strengthen our RTTT application, and I hope it signals a new readiness to push harder in the cases where past efforts have not succeeded in turning a school around.
And the fundamental thing about state leadership
Good policy is a start, but steady implementation is the only way to meaningful results. Some teachers can work in isolation and achieve excellence--but most need to think and work with supportive colleagues. Some schools become professional learning communities on their own, but many will get there sooner if their boards and superintendents make it a priority. Some districts are doing what it takes and getting rapidly stronger at that work, but experience says districts move at different paces--and Kentucky's constitution says we are to build a common system rather than accept big differences based on geography.
It will not be enough for state leaders to describe what needs to happen in classrooms. Whether that's done in stature, regulation, plans, or published advice, the words are never more than a beginning.
From state agencies and elected leaders, the big changes will need robust, persistent, demanding attention, applying sustained weight on the key levers above. That follow-through is what makes the main difference for our children and our shared future.
1. Teacher preparation
Teacher preparation programs must focus on standards, evaluating student progress, analyzing the resulting data, and planning effective instruction to move each student forward and on sustained classroom practice of those skills. My understanding is that having already upgraded the expectations for principal preparation and masters' degrees, the Education Professional Standards Board is getting ready to work on preparation of new teachers as the next big push forward.
2. Pre-tenure development
New teachers need sustained mentoring, expanding the current internship program to last two years and receive full funding, rather than repeated reductions, for both years. They should also see clear standards defining the quality of work needed to earn tenure, receive regular information on how close they are to those standards, and get strong support to reach that level by the end of their fourth year of work. In its Race to the Top application, the Department has proposed important work on this issue, work that should go forward with or without RTTT funding.
3. Growth beyond tenure
Tenured teachers should work with a clearly defined ladder of growing quality, with their evaluations providing credible feedback on where they are strong and how they can get stronger--again on the key process of standards, assessments, data, instruction, and collaboration. The main point should be helping the large majority of teachers who already do satisfactory work do even better work. This effort, too, is on the RTTT and KDE agenda.
4. Principals and superintendents
Top administrative leadership should be defined as fundamentally about developing teaching quality. Preparation programs should focus on that role, and properly funded two-year internships should strengthen reinforce those skills. Evaluations for educators in those roles should emphasize effectiveness in supporting classroom educators' growing effectiveness. Tasks that are not part of that primary focus should, whenever possible, not be the responsibility of the men and women we ask to be provide that central instructional leadership.
5. Persistently weak schools
Our current improvement strategies work for most schools: if schools enter state assistance, most get the right help to exit again. For the smaller group that has consistently done work that is much too weak, we need a fresh approach. House Bill 176 zipped through the legislature last week in order to strengthen our RTTT application, and I hope it signals a new readiness to push harder in the cases where past efforts have not succeeded in turning a school around.
And the fundamental thing about state leadership
Good policy is a start, but steady implementation is the only way to meaningful results. Some teachers can work in isolation and achieve excellence--but most need to think and work with supportive colleagues. Some schools become professional learning communities on their own, but many will get there sooner if their boards and superintendents make it a priority. Some districts are doing what it takes and getting rapidly stronger at that work, but experience says districts move at different paces--and Kentucky's constitution says we are to build a common system rather than accept big differences based on geography.
It will not be enough for state leaders to describe what needs to happen in classrooms. Whether that's done in stature, regulation, plans, or published advice, the words are never more than a beginning.
From state agencies and elected leaders, the big changes will need robust, persistent, demanding attention, applying sustained weight on the key levers above. That follow-through is what makes the main difference for our children and our shared future.
Teaching quality, scaffolding, and sparking sunlight
Listen long enough to the assessment for learning discussion, and you'll hear the word "scaffolding." There, the key idea is that after we articulate a clear, deep, fairly short list of standards students should meet each year, those standards need to be broken down into more concrete steps. Those steps make up a clear ladder that students can climb.
The ladder or scaffolding is not just to be clear for teachers.
It's meant to be information they share with students. More than that, the idea is for students to get feedback on their work that says: "You're here on the ladder, and your next step is to go this step higher. It's definitely in reach, and here's what you need to do."
It's also meant to be shared with parents, so that there's a shared understanding not just of where kids are and where they're headed but of how possible it is to get there with steady effort.
Those climbable ladders, in turn, can change the whole school experience for many students. Stiggins writes, "In other words, assessment practices that permit—even encourage—some students to give up on learning must be replaced by those that engender hope and sustained effort for all students."
That hope isn't a fake thing or a willed thing. It's a valid, accurate description of where students stand, organized in a way that invites them to keep working and allows them legitimate, growing confidence in their own ability to succeed.
In the Assessment Manifesto, it's amazing to tunnel through the fairly technical description of good and bad testing and come out in the middle of what I've called the "sunlit vision" of individual students experiencing school as so much more positive and so much more successful.
The sunlit vision isn't different from the gap-closing, learning-community, assessment-for-learning model, but the description starts from a different angle--from the lived experience of individual children in their daily school-lives.
The ladder or scaffolding is not just to be clear for teachers.
It's meant to be information they share with students. More than that, the idea is for students to get feedback on their work that says: "You're here on the ladder, and your next step is to go this step higher. It's definitely in reach, and here's what you need to do."
It's also meant to be shared with parents, so that there's a shared understanding not just of where kids are and where they're headed but of how possible it is to get there with steady effort.
Those climbable ladders, in turn, can change the whole school experience for many students. Stiggins writes, "In other words, assessment practices that permit—even encourage—some students to give up on learning must be replaced by those that engender hope and sustained effort for all students."
That hope isn't a fake thing or a willed thing. It's a valid, accurate description of where students stand, organized in a way that invites them to keep working and allows them legitimate, growing confidence in their own ability to succeed.
In the Assessment Manifesto, it's amazing to tunnel through the fairly technical description of good and bad testing and come out in the middle of what I've called the "sunlit vision" of individual students experiencing school as so much more positive and so much more successful.
The sunlit vision isn't different from the gap-closing, learning-community, assessment-for-learning model, but the description starts from a different angle--from the lived experience of individual children in their daily school-lives.
Teaching quality and assessment for learning
Assessment for learning is a phrase I'm hearing everywhere, and it's about something good for students. It looms large in Senate Bill 1 and is a big piece of Kentucky's Race to the Top application.
The core idea is the process of teachers checking steadily on student progress toward clear standards and using what they see to adjust instruction and ensure further progress. It does not have to look like formal testing, and it especially does not have to look like testing that takes time away from teaching. Ideally, students' regular learning process on one day gives teachers the information they need to plan effective work for future class periods--or even to adjust what's happening right then in the classroom. Ideally, the assessment and the learning become a seamless, unified process.
In his 2008 Assessment Manifesto, Rick Stiggins describes how significantly higher levels of student performance emerge when schools combine:
The gap-closing schools caught my eye because I looked at the annual accountability results, but when I asked how they got there, they described their own work as built on an understanding that came from classroom and benchmark assessment work as well. They also described teamwork to analyze student progress--shown in those assessments--that fits the PLC model.
Assessment for learning isn't different from the gap-closing approach or the PLC approach. It's the same process described from a third angle.
Earlier posts on the Stiggins manifesto and its three-part concept of sound assessment are here.
The core idea is the process of teachers checking steadily on student progress toward clear standards and using what they see to adjust instruction and ensure further progress. It does not have to look like formal testing, and it especially does not have to look like testing that takes time away from teaching. Ideally, students' regular learning process on one day gives teachers the information they need to plan effective work for future class periods--or even to adjust what's happening right then in the classroom. Ideally, the assessment and the learning become a seamless, unified process.
In his 2008 Assessment Manifesto, Rick Stiggins describes how significantly higher levels of student performance emerge when schools combine:
- That ongoing type of classroom assessment used to plan immediate instruction.
- Interim or benchmark assessments multiple times a year used by schools and programs to figure out whether their major strategies are effective, need tweaking, or need major rethinking.
- Annual accountability assessments used to identify schools that are reaching high standards and decide if any schools need outside assistance to get back on track to those standards.
The gap-closing schools caught my eye because I looked at the annual accountability results, but when I asked how they got there, they described their own work as built on an understanding that came from classroom and benchmark assessment work as well. They also described teamwork to analyze student progress--shown in those assessments--that fits the PLC model.
Assessment for learning isn't different from the gap-closing approach or the PLC approach. It's the same process described from a third angle.
Earlier posts on the Stiggins manifesto and its three-part concept of sound assessment are here.
Teaching quality and professional learning communities
The schools that deliver consistent high achievement follow a common path: they move students to similar, high standards by teaching them in varied ways . That requires steady attention to what students are understanding, with regular adjustments to make sure the key skills and knowledge connect effectively for each one.
The crucial question is how to develop classrooms that consistently reflect that approach.
The crucial answer is in teachers working together, articulating standards, designing instruction, evaluating results, and refining instruction in response to the resulting data. That collaborative approach, and the schools that operate by it, are richly described in the literature on professional learning communities or PLCs.
At their heart, PLCs are teams where teachers are actively "getting smarter off of one another." They're trading and borrowing and strengthening each other's ideas, and they're sustaining one another's energy to keep improving what they can do for their students. As a team, they're much stronger than they would be working in professional isolation.
The PLC approach isn't different from the gap-closing approach. It's the same process described from a different angle.
Earlier posts on the professional learning community approach are indexed here.
The crucial question is how to develop classrooms that consistently reflect that approach.
The crucial answer is in teachers working together, articulating standards, designing instruction, evaluating results, and refining instruction in response to the resulting data. That collaborative approach, and the schools that operate by it, are richly described in the literature on professional learning communities or PLCs.
At their heart, PLCs are teams where teachers are actively "getting smarter off of one another." They're trading and borrowing and strengthening each other's ideas, and they're sustaining one another's energy to keep improving what they can do for their students. As a team, they're much stronger than they would be working in professional isolation.
The PLC approach isn't different from the gap-closing approach. It's the same process described from a different angle.
Earlier posts on the professional learning community approach are indexed here.
Gap-closing schools and teaching quality
Leaders from those schools gave us powerful confirmation of some key ideas about what works to help all students succeed. Their answers seemed to us to turn repeatedly to five key principles:That's a summary of what I learned in 2002-03 from Kentucky's schools with the strongest results for students who often get "caught in the achievement gap," including low-income students, African-American students, and students with disabilities. The results of that analysis were published by the Kentucky Association of School Councils in the Spring 2003 issue of Insights.
- Students have positive relationships with adults and peers.
- Students respond to high expectations they understand.
- Students flourish with appropriate, engaging, meaningful instruction.
- Students are motivated through choice, ownership and energy.
- Students' individual needs are recognized and addressed.
A bit later, Steve Clements and Patty Kannapel's Black Box study saw seven consistent traits in a set of high-poverty high performance schools, from which I want to highlight just one:
Faculty work ethic and morale. The faculty and staff worked very hard to meet their studentsʼ needs, regularly analyzing data on individual students and planning appropriate instruction or interventions. They helped families and students find transportation, clothing, health care, and other services, and they worked after school and on weekends to provide help with tutoring, portfolios, assessment preparation, or parent programs. They did this work with enthusiasm and dedication; there were no reports of overload or teacher burnout.When I was working my way through what individual educators told me about their best work, I summarized what I heard as " we love them and teach them." When I was working my way through how whole schools did that kind of work consistently, I changed the summary to "we love the students enough to try, and we love each other enough to succeed."
The teaching quality that generates student success appears to me to come, always, from that combination of classroom focus and schoolwide collaboration.
The Insights issue on Closing the Achievement is available from KASC here. The "Black Box" study is summarized in more detail here and available for download here.
Happy blog-birthday (and teaching quality again)
To celebrate the Prichard blog's first year, I've taken a table at my beloved Hub cafe, and I'm planning to spend the day trying to integrate the different threads of the teaching quality discussion.
As an overview, I'm convinced that differentiated instruction, professional learning communities, and assessment for learning are at heart versions of the same approach. They're the recipe for getting the next generation ready for work and college and global competition and the path to closing achievement gaps.
Only, the idea is just complex enough, and just different enough from how most of us were taught, that it's hard to keep the varied threads connected the right way.
My goal for today is to describe the connections better. I'll do that with multiple posts, each starting from a different angle and working in toward the center. I want for the result will read like a single web of thinking: I'm sure the connections can be made but less sure I'm ready to explain them all.
If you want to join the celebration, please do send comments: ideas, anecdotes, opinions, hard questions, and simple questions are all valuable parts of sorting this out.
As an overview, I'm convinced that differentiated instruction, professional learning communities, and assessment for learning are at heart versions of the same approach. They're the recipe for getting the next generation ready for work and college and global competition and the path to closing achievement gaps.
Only, the idea is just complex enough, and just different enough from how most of us were taught, that it's hard to keep the varied threads connected the right way.
My goal for today is to describe the connections better. I'll do that with multiple posts, each starting from a different angle and working in toward the center. I want for the result will read like a single web of thinking: I'm sure the connections can be made but less sure I'm ready to explain them all.
If you want to join the celebration, please do send comments: ideas, anecdotes, opinions, hard questions, and simple questions are all valuable parts of sorting this out.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Rosenwald (Act II)
Richard Day reported today on work to restore Rosenwald schools, and I can't resist chiming in.
The work of the Rosenwald Fund has a profound Kentucky connection. Edwin Embree, the Fund's 20-year president, spent most of his childhood in Berea, Kentucky, and saw his work as a continuation of the values he learned from his grandfather, John G. Fee.
For years after the great school-building investment, Embree made the Fund "the most active foundation in the United States fighting racial discrimination. " For example, Rosenwald fellowships provided crucial early support to the careers of Marion Anderson, Ralph Bunche, Charles Drew, and Ralph Ellison.
In 2006, Berea College's alumni magazine ran an article on Embree's work and the Fee connection authored by a now-retired Berea professor Alfred Perkins. It's available for download here. I recommend it heartily, with the small disclaimer that I've been hearing about the Embree work for years from Dr. Perkins, also known as my dad.
The work of the Rosenwald Fund has a profound Kentucky connection. Edwin Embree, the Fund's 20-year president, spent most of his childhood in Berea, Kentucky, and saw his work as a continuation of the values he learned from his grandfather, John G. Fee.
For years after the great school-building investment, Embree made the Fund "the most active foundation in the United States fighting racial discrimination. " For example, Rosenwald fellowships provided crucial early support to the careers of Marion Anderson, Ralph Bunche, Charles Drew, and Ralph Ellison.
In 2006, Berea College's alumni magazine ran an article on Embree's work and the Fee connection authored by a now-retired Berea professor Alfred Perkins. It's available for download here. I recommend it heartily, with the small disclaimer that I've been hearing about the Embree work for years from Dr. Perkins, also known as my dad.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
What did the Governor just say?
The Governor's budget address is live now, and he said "This budget maintains the General Fund appropriation for SEEK, the basic funding formula for teaching in the classroom which represents some 77 percent of our K-12 spending."
Maintaining the appropriation may mean that the base guarantee can go up. That's because the state share of the guaranteed amount is always the amount needed after districts raise their required 30¢ share. As long as property values rise, the 30¢ tax level brings in more money each year, and the state can fund a growing guarantee without appropriating more money.
And yet, there are two great things to worry about even as the governor offers that good news.
First, the governor is speaking this minute on expanded gambling as the source he recommends to fund his budget--and saying that without gambling much deeper cuts will be needed.
Second, if property values slip, rather than growing, then the local share of SEEK will go down. If the local share goes down, then the state must either provide more funding for the guarantee--or cut the guarantee itself. The governor's proposal assumes that values are still rising, and I very much hope that assumption is correct.
Maintaining the appropriation may mean that the base guarantee can go up. That's because the state share of the guaranteed amount is always the amount needed after districts raise their required 30¢ share. As long as property values rise, the 30¢ tax level brings in more money each year, and the state can fund a growing guarantee without appropriating more money.
And yet, there are two great things to worry about even as the governor offers that good news.
First, the governor is speaking this minute on expanded gambling as the source he recommends to fund his budget--and saying that without gambling much deeper cuts will be needed.
Second, if property values slip, rather than growing, then the local share of SEEK will go down. If the local share goes down, then the state must either provide more funding for the guarantee--or cut the guarantee itself. The governor's proposal assumes that values are still rising, and I very much hope that assumption is correct.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Preschool an investment we must sustain
Pain is predicted in all quarters as budget cuts are considered inevitable in important social service, public protection and education programs. Most would agree these programs provide necessary and valuable services to Kentuckians, and the consequences of reduced spending could be dire.That's the opening of Bob Sexton's opinion piece today in the Herald-Leader. Read the full argument, with details on the long-term returns on each dollar spent on early childhood support, here.
But there is one area in particular that, in our view, should be spared the ax: early care and education for Kentucky's children.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
AFT on constructive evaluation
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, spoke last week on "A New Path Forward: Four Approaches to Quality Teaching and Better Schools." From the prepared text of the speech, here are the key points on evaluations:Our evaluation proposal includes the following key components:For the full text, click here, and scroll down the right hand column to "Additional Resources."
Professional Standards
First, every state should adopt basic professional teaching standards that districts can augment to meet specific community needs. Standards should spell out what teachers should know and be able to do. How else can we determine whether a teacher is performing as she should?
Standards for Assessing Teacher Practice
Second, to assess how well teachers meet these standards, multiple means of evaluation should be used, because teaching requires multiple skills and involves several kinds of work.
Classroom observations, self-evaluations, portfolio reviews, appraisal of lesson plans, and all the other tools we use to measure student learning—written work, performances, presentations and projects—should also be considered in these evaluations. Student test scores based on valid and reliable assessments should ALSO be considered—NOT by comparing the scores of last year’s students with the scores of this year’s students, but by assessing whether a teacher’s students show real growth while in his classroom.
Implementation Benchmarks
Next, implementation benchmarks must be established, because even the best ideas do little more than gather dust if we don’t put them into action. Take California. It has long-standing but little-used professional standards. At the very least, principals and superintendents charged with implementing this new evaluation system need to take responsibility—and be held responsible—for making it work.
Systems of Support
Finally, because evaluation should help teachers improve throughout their careers, not just at the beginning, every district should have ways to support and nurture teacher growth. This includes solid induction, mentoring, ongoing professional development, and career opportunities that keep great teachers in the classroom.
Some quick thoughts on these ideas:
- "Assessing whether a teacher’s students show real growth while in his classroom" will require trusting educators to do most of the judging of that growth or using a lot of standardized testing to get teacher-free information.
- The notable sharp edge is in the statement "Principals and superintendents charged with implementing this new evaluation system need to take responsibility—and be held responsible—for making it work." Indeed. Writing policy is no substitute for actually implementing it.
- It's a clear outline of what a strong system needs to include.
Friday, January 15, 2010
And we're off!
Thank you for your very very hard work
on this very very important project!
on this very very important project!
January 15, 1970
Most school assemblies fade from memory, or merge into a vague blur. Not that one.
As we walked in, every twentieth student was handed a mask from the art class and assigned to sit in two rows of chairs at the front: white masks to the front, black to the back. That, we were told, was the world our teachers grew up in, and the world we were blessed not to inherit.
We didn't just sing "We shall overcome" that day. We sang "Before I'll be a slave, I'll be buried in my grave," and we sang "Gonna keep on a walking, keep on a talking, walking up to freedom land."
And Mrs. Richards told us bluntly: "No national holiday. This is a day for learning. You belong here in school, and we all--adults and children-- belong at work building the dream."
Like your parents, your best teachers get into your bones. In big decisions and small ones, you notice what they will respect and what would make them quietly shake their heads. Only rarely do you choose a path that could draw even one of those forbidding glances.
My best teachers were men and women who walked the real walk of civil rights, talked the real talk of sharing our lives with people from different backgrounds, and taught their students not to let anyone turn us around on that long walk into beloved community.
I'm still scoring my work against their expectations today.
As we walked in, every twentieth student was handed a mask from the art class and assigned to sit in two rows of chairs at the front: white masks to the front, black to the back. That, we were told, was the world our teachers grew up in, and the world we were blessed not to inherit.
We didn't just sing "We shall overcome" that day. We sang "Before I'll be a slave, I'll be buried in my grave," and we sang "Gonna keep on a walking, keep on a talking, walking up to freedom land."
And Mrs. Richards told us bluntly: "No national holiday. This is a day for learning. You belong here in school, and we all--adults and children-- belong at work building the dream."
Like your parents, your best teachers get into your bones. In big decisions and small ones, you notice what they will respect and what would make them quietly shake their heads. Only rarely do you choose a path that could draw even one of those forbidding glances.
My best teachers were men and women who walked the real walk of civil rights, talked the real talk of sharing our lives with people from different backgrounds, and taught their students not to let anyone turn us around on that long walk into beloved community.
I'm still scoring my work against their expectations today.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
SB 1, Common Core, RTTT: Three giant steps
Here's how three major initiatives that I've blogged a lot recently fit together.
Senate Bill 1, passed in 2009, requires Kentucky to upgrade its standards for what students will learn. Our new law says the standards must be shorter, clearer, and better focused on students being ready for college, work, and global competition. To match the new standards, Kentucky will use new tests starting in the spring of 2012. Current teachers will receive specialized training on how to teach the new standards well, and teacher preparation programs will equip future teachers with the same skills. Standards for language arts and mathematics will be adopted early this year, probably in February 2010, with standards for other subjects completed by December 2010.
Kentucky is not developing its new standards alone. Instead, we are working with 47 other states to develop “common core” standards in language arts and mathematics. Nationally respected experts are leading the effort, using learning research and information on how each subject is taught in the countries with the world’s highest academic results. They have already released standards for the end of high school, with more standards for each grade due out early in 2010.
Because of our Senate Bill 1, Kentucky will be one of the first states to adopt the common core standards. Our public higher education system will also endorse the new standards, and we expect to be ahead of most states in preparing current and future teachers to use the standards effectively. In the future, Kentucky and other states will be able to collaborate on developing tests, textbooks, technology, and professional development to help teachers use the new standards effectively.
Nearly all states are now competing to win Race to the Top grants from the United States Department of Education. The winning states will share $4 billion in funding to implement their plans to make their school systems among the best in the world. The plans must address:
• Standards, including classroom implementation and good tests to check student progress.
• Data systems to help teachers identify student needs and effective learning strategies.
• Evaluation and support systems to strengthen teachers and school leaders.
• Major changes to schools that repeatedly fail to deliver acceptable student performance.
Since Kentucky is already committed to Senate Bill 1 and the common core standards, the Race to the Top competition is an opportunity to get the funding we need to implement those changes quickly and well. Kentucky plans to request $200 million to be spent over five years, with half of the funding going to school districts for local work and half being used at the state level to implement changes that will support excellence in all schools. The winners of the first Race to the Top grants will be announced in the spring of 2010, with additional grants made later in the year.
(In case it's helpful, I've also made a PDF version readers can download here.)
THREE GIANT STEPS FOR KENTUCKY EDUCATION
AN OVERVIEW OF KEY DEVELOPMENTS
AN OVERVIEW OF KEY DEVELOPMENTS
SENATE BILL 1
Senate Bill 1, passed in 2009, requires Kentucky to upgrade its standards for what students will learn. Our new law says the standards must be shorter, clearer, and better focused on students being ready for college, work, and global competition. To match the new standards, Kentucky will use new tests starting in the spring of 2012. Current teachers will receive specialized training on how to teach the new standards well, and teacher preparation programs will equip future teachers with the same skills. Standards for language arts and mathematics will be adopted early this year, probably in February 2010, with standards for other subjects completed by December 2010.
COMMON CORE STANDARDS SHARED BY MANY STATES
Kentucky is not developing its new standards alone. Instead, we are working with 47 other states to develop “common core” standards in language arts and mathematics. Nationally respected experts are leading the effort, using learning research and information on how each subject is taught in the countries with the world’s highest academic results. They have already released standards for the end of high school, with more standards for each grade due out early in 2010.
Because of our Senate Bill 1, Kentucky will be one of the first states to adopt the common core standards. Our public higher education system will also endorse the new standards, and we expect to be ahead of most states in preparing current and future teachers to use the standards effectively. In the future, Kentucky and other states will be able to collaborate on developing tests, textbooks, technology, and professional development to help teachers use the new standards effectively.
THE FEDERAL RACE TO THE TOP COMPETITION
Nearly all states are now competing to win Race to the Top grants from the United States Department of Education. The winning states will share $4 billion in funding to implement their plans to make their school systems among the best in the world. The plans must address:
• Standards, including classroom implementation and good tests to check student progress.
• Data systems to help teachers identify student needs and effective learning strategies.
• Evaluation and support systems to strengthen teachers and school leaders.
• Major changes to schools that repeatedly fail to deliver acceptable student performance.
Since Kentucky is already committed to Senate Bill 1 and the common core standards, the Race to the Top competition is an opportunity to get the funding we need to implement those changes quickly and well. Kentucky plans to request $200 million to be spent over five years, with half of the funding going to school districts for local work and half being used at the state level to implement changes that will support excellence in all schools. The winners of the first Race to the Top grants will be announced in the spring of 2010, with additional grants made later in the year.
(In case it's helpful, I've also made a PDF version readers can download here.)
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
A Jefferson County presentation
Grading the Jefferson County schools was today's Louisville Forum topic. I spoke along with Kevin Noland, Ben Oldham, and Bob Rodosky. Here's the prepared version of what I said in my opening comments on the issue:
Louisville Forum Draft Remarks
Susan Perkins Weston • January 12, 2010
I want to begin with praise for your community’s commitment to education.
Yesterday, I pulled my favorite data files and compared Jefferson County to the rest of the Commonwealth: to the other 119 counties taken as a group or to 173 districts as a group.
Here are some of your strengths:
• In your adult population, Jefferson County has one third fewer high school dropouts than the rest of the state, 14 percent compared to 21.
• You have half again as many college graduates, 26 percent compared to 17.
• In 2007, you had 74 percent more taxable property per pupil than the rest of the state.
• You set yourself local school taxes 25 percent than the rest of the state. That is, you had more property to tax and you taxed your wealth at a higher rate.
• Your added effort allows your public schools to spend 19 percent more per pupil.
I’d also like to add one final number to put your population in perspective: 22 percent of your county’s children live in poverty, compared to 23 percent in the rest the state.
Seeing all that, I have no doubt that Jefferson County ought to be in a leadership position. Your schools should be delivering results in the top third of the state, and educators from elsewhere should flocking here to learn about your successful innovations.
Unfortunately, that is not what is happening academically in your schools.
The most recent state reports show reading results for seven grades, but I’m going to report to you on just one grade from each level:
• In fourth grade, 89 percent of districts delivered higher rates of reading proficiency than Jefferson County Public Schools.
• In seventh grade, 82 percent of districts delivered more reading proficiency
• In tenth grade, 57 percent of districts delivered more reading proficiency
For low-income students in the free and reduced lunch program, results were even weaker. Your proficiency and above rates were lower than:
• 92 percent of districts in fourth grade.
• 87 percent of districts in seventh grade.
• 61 percent in tenth grade.
For African American students, compared to other districts with a population large enough to report, your percent proficient and above in reading was lower than:
• 83 percent of districts in fourth grade.
• 81 percent of districts in seventh grade.
• 51 percent of districts in tenth grade.
In math, the results were mildly better. Limiting the numbers just to students overall, your percent proficient was worse than:
• 81 percent of districts for fourth grade.
• 77 percent of districts for seventh grade.
• 37 percent for eleventh grade.
To sum that up: none of those results were in the top third, and all the elementary and middle school results were in the bottom quarter of the state.
Further, the trends are not positive.
From 2007 to 2009, Jefferson County’s percent proficient or above in reading went down for white, black, Hispanic, and Asian students. It went down for students in the free lunch program. It went down for students with limited English proficiency. Statewide, those percentages went up for every group except Limited English.
In other subjects, proficiency either declined more or improved less than the state in math at all levels, in science at all levels, in social studies at all levels except high school, and in writing at all levels except high school.
In public education, Jefferson County is not where you want to be and not where you belong in light of your resources or commitment. Your children deserve more. The proud people of Jefferson County should expect more, demand more, and be about the business of creating schools that deliver more.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
QuickNotes from a busy blogger
Kentucky's preliminary draft Race to the Top application is available on-line here, with a hat tip to a tweet from Commissioner Holliday. Scroll all the way to the bottom to find the draft.
"In a major speech Jan. 12 at the National Press Club, [American Federation of Teachers] president Randi Weingarten unveiled a serious and comprehensive reform plan to ensure great teaching, taking on systems that have been ingrained in public education for more than a century." That's from the press release (with a link to the full speech) here.
Finally, the Louisville Forum tomorrow will discuss "Education by the Numbers: What's JCPS' grade." Speakers will include Kevin Noland, Robert Rodosky, Ben Oldham, and yours truly. Details are here, including how to register to attend, are here.
I'll have thoughts on all three once I dig out from an avalanche of other work.
"In a major speech Jan. 12 at the National Press Club, [American Federation of Teachers] president Randi Weingarten unveiled a serious and comprehensive reform plan to ensure great teaching, taking on systems that have been ingrained in public education for more than a century." That's from the press release (with a link to the full speech) here.
Finally, the Louisville Forum tomorrow will discuss "Education by the Numbers: What's JCPS' grade." Speakers will include Kevin Noland, Robert Rodosky, Ben Oldham, and yours truly. Details are here, including how to register to attend, are here.
I'll have thoughts on all three once I dig out from an avalanche of other work.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Teacher Prep: focusing on practice
By January 5 press release, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education has:
announced the formation of an expert panel on clinical preparation and partnerships, signaling the beginning of a sea change in the preparation of the nation's teachers. The work of the Panel, called the NCATE Blue Ribbon Panel on Clinical Preparation, Partnerships and Improved Student Learning, will culminate in recommendations for restructuring the preparation of teachers to reflect teaching as a practice-based profession akin to medicine, nursing, or clinical psychology. Practice-based professions require not only a solid academic base, but strong clinical components, a supported induction experience, and ongoing opportunities for learning.That planned new intensity about teaching practice is:
- already found in the world's top-performing systems.
- crucial to equip new teachers to implement balanced assessment.
- deeply appropriate as the start for careers that will be built in professional learning communities.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
RTTT and binding district agreements
Politics K-12 reports that:
Folks at two organizations that advocate for districts, the National School Boards Association and the American Association of School Administrators, tell me they've been fielding lots of questions on this issue. It sounds like in some places district officials aren't clear on whether the MOUs are supposed to be binding or not, meaning they're not sure if they have to follow through if a state gets selected for a grant.In case that's a question for anyone in the Bluegrass State, I've read the full application. In the instructions to reviewers on scoring the 45 "state success factor" points that depend on district commitments, here's what counts:
The participating LEAs (as defined in this notice) are strongly committed to the State’s plans and to effective implementation of reform in the four education areas, as evidenced by Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) (as set forth in Appendix D) or other binding agreements between the State and its participating LEAs (as defined in this notice) that include—Bottom line: states will get those 45 points if and only if their districts sign binding commitments that accept implementation requirements. They won't get the points for anything less.
(a) Terms and conditions that reflect strong commitment by the participating LEAs (as defined in this notice) to the State’s plans;
(b) Scope-of-work descriptions that require participating LEAs (as defined in this notice) to implement all or significant portions of the State’s Race to the Top plans; and
(c) Signatures from as many as possible of the LEA superintendent (or equivalent), the president of the local school board (or equivalent, if applicable), and the local teachers’ union leader (if applicable) (one signature of which must be from an authorized LEA representative) demonstrating the extent of leadership support within participating LEAs (as defined in this notice).
Monday, January 4, 2010
So, what's NOT cut?
Some very important programs were spared from cuts in the current round of reductions, including:
Similarly, the $495 thousand cut from CPE will be missed, but it should be seen in proportion to the $1,218 million originally budgeted for postsecondary education.
These are real cuts, but they are also relatively small real cuts.
- Preschool
- Professional development
- Extended school services
- School safety
- The School for the Blind
- The School for the Deaf
- The Professional Standards Board
- The School Facilities Construction Commission
- Teacher health and retirement benefits
- SEEK funding
- KCTCS funding
- University funding
- Financial aid
Similarly, the $495 thousand cut from CPE will be missed, but it should be seen in proportion to the $1,218 million originally budgeted for postsecondary education.
These are real cuts, but they are also relatively small real cuts.
CPE takes half-million dollar hit
The Council on Postsecondary Education will lose $495,100 under budget reductions announced today.
The Governor's "Order Directing The Reduction of Certain Appropriations" shows no cuts to KCTCS or any of the universities, with the full amount coming from the line item for the Council itself.
That seems to be the standard 6 percent cut was applied the Council's operating budget of a bit less than $9 million. Financial aid was not cut, and it looks as though strategic investment and incentive funding and other grant programs were also spared.
The Governor's "Order Directing The Reduction of Certain Appropriations" shows no cuts to KCTCS or any of the universities, with the full amount coming from the line item for the Council itself.
That seems to be the standard 6 percent cut was applied the Council's operating budget of a bit less than $9 million. Financial aid was not cut, and it looks as though strategic investment and incentive funding and other grant programs were also spared.
What $30 to $40 million are districts getting?
The Governor's press release is headlined "Governor Signs Budget Reduction Order, Gives Excess Education Dollars to Districts" and subtitled "$30 to $40 million to be distributed among every school district in state."
Where did that money come from?
In April 2008, the legislature included it in the original SEEK budget for this school year.
In June 2009, the legislature changed that. It altered part of the formula, so that the money would not be sent to districts during the school year. It also added language saying that any remaining money could be sent at the end of the year. Between the lines, the message seemed to be: "We may have to cut these dollars. Don't count on them. We'll send them if we can, but no promises."
Today, the Governor's announcement seemed to say: "Do count on these dollars. We can send them. You'll get the checks in June. Revenue is bad, but not bad enough for us to hold the dollars back completely."
Accordingly, it isn't new money, extra money, or excess money. It's simply original money, promised in 2008, pulled back in 2009, now scheduled to be delivered in 2010.
Where did that money come from?
In April 2008, the legislature included it in the original SEEK budget for this school year.
In June 2009, the legislature changed that. It altered part of the formula, so that the money would not be sent to districts during the school year. It also added language saying that any remaining money could be sent at the end of the year. Between the lines, the message seemed to be: "We may have to cut these dollars. Don't count on them. We'll send them if we can, but no promises."
Today, the Governor's announcement seemed to say: "Do count on these dollars. We can send them. You'll get the checks in June. Revenue is bad, but not bad enough for us to hold the dollars back completely."
Accordingly, it isn't new money, extra money, or excess money. It's simply original money, promised in 2008, pulled back in 2009, now scheduled to be delivered in 2010.
State K-12 cuts
The official press release, the Herald-Leader's Bluegrass Policy Blog and the Courier-Journal all cover the big picture on the budget reductions Governor Beshear announced today, including the fact that some P-12 programs will be cut.
By e-mail, Commissioner Holliday offered this more detailed list:
The "Partnership for Successful Schools" line puzzles me. That's the name of the nonprofit group that merged with the New Cities Institute last year, but the state budget has no line item for that group. It does have a $430,000 per year line item for the Partnership for Student Success, and an $86,000 cut would be an even 20 percent of that line. As a working hunch, I think that's the program that's actually being cut. If that's right, the impact will fall on students participating in that relatively small program.
The most important news for K-12 education, though, is that $30 to $40 million in "excess" SEEK dollars are likely to be distributed to districts. That's worth its own post, coming right up.
By e-mail, Commissioner Holliday offered this more detailed list:
-
$45,000 from assessment funding
$86,000 from the Partnership for Successful Schools
$399,900 from life insurance benefits
- $ 765,000 from the KEN education technology network
-
$ 975,000 from the Kentucky Education Technology System
$1,714,300 from Family Resource and Youth Services Centers
$2,016,400 from textbooks
$3,000,000 from Read to Achieve carry-forward dollars
-
$1,000,000 from Math Achievement carry-forward dollars
That's a total of just over $10 million in funding lost, and a bit more than 9 percent of the $108 million total spending reductions.
The "Partnership for Successful Schools" line puzzles me. That's the name of the nonprofit group that merged with the New Cities Institute last year, but the state budget has no line item for that group. It does have a $430,000 per year line item for the Partnership for Student Success, and an $86,000 cut would be an even 20 percent of that line. As a working hunch, I think that's the program that's actually being cut. If that's right, the impact will fall on students participating in that relatively small program.
The most important news for K-12 education, though, is that $30 to $40 million in "excess" SEEK dollars are likely to be distributed to districts. That's worth its own post, coming right up.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
2010: Some starting ideas
Over the holidays, a college friend asked "What have you found about education, in a nutshell? And what do you think of NCLB? What changes would you make?" I answered this way:
Together, they're the core ideas we need to help American students can make substantial progress in the next few years, and Kentucky is positioned to lead that progress if we focus on those key issues through the New Year.
1. Old-style schools have teachers who do the same thing for all students and (unsurprisingly) get quite different results for different kids. There's an alternative where teachers start out with a high standard, try some stuff, check who got it, try something different, and keep varying what they do to get more students to success. That model doesn't eliminate differences in kids' ability or their family backgrounds, but it makes them much smaller and raises overall achievement significantly.To drop back into the vocabulary of education policy, 1 and 2 describe balanced assessment and professional learning communities, while 3 and 4 are, respectively, summaries of the weaker and stronger achievement strategies identified in the McKinsey report on top-performing schools.
2. Most teachers cannot reorganize to that model on their own. What works is collaborative teams that get together at least weekly to look at how students are going and figure out those next steps together. That's also a huge cultural shift for educators, because the default setting is that, no matter how big the building, each teacher is really working alone.
3. We (and other developed countries) have tried all kinds of indirect stuff to get teachers to make the shift. Testing, added money, consequences for testing, mandates, flexibility, offers of better jobs, threats of termination, the whole gamut. None of that works very well--including NCLB. Teachers go into their separate rooms and try things that don't work, and keep trying and keep trying and keep trying the same things that don't work. This does not make them different from most people. Watch people who open restaurants: nearly all of them do at least a couple of parts of the business so weirdly that they go bankrupt within a year or two.
4. The thing that is working is direct effort on teaching quality. Teacher preparation programs focused directly on practice teaching. Good model lessons and good mentors. Principals selected because they're obsessed with good teaching and then given plenty of help with how to strengthen other teachers. That's what the countries that are now beating the socks off of us are doing differently. Doing that doesn't eliminate differences in teachers' ability, but it does make the differences much smaller and overall teaching more effective, and student achievement notably higher.
Together, they're the core ideas we need to help American students can make substantial progress in the next few years, and Kentucky is positioned to lead that progress if we focus on those key issues through the New Year.
2009 in (blog) review
Looking back on 2009, I've chosen one post from each month to represent PrichBlog's first calendar year.
January: Testing proposals
The day we launched, Bob Sexton called for Kentucky to consider balanced assessment, international benchmarking, end-of-course testing, and program reviews of subjects we can't test in a satisfactory way. With all four ideas now on the fast-track to Kentucky implementation, I'd call it a very successful set of ideas.
February: Portfolios and writing
Almost certainly the hardest post I've written, this one concluded "to create effective writers' classrooms in every school, organized around the practices that produce stronger writers and deeper understanding of core content, we need a new strategy. Portfolios alone will not make that happen."
March: Postsecondary productivity
"Kentucky produces comparatively fewer bachelor’s degrees for the level of funding than other states." That's from the Chamber of Commerce report on our higher education system, and a finding we shouldn't ignore. Later in the year FY 2008 rankings of higher education revenue per full-time equivalent student showed Kentucky to be:
The Student Loan People advertised high and low that people who went into teaching math and science would not have to pay back their loans. Thousands of people believed them. Then the Student Loan People hit financial hard times, and decided not to keep their promise. It's disaster. (Full sequence of posts here.)
May: Professional learning communities
Different results for students will require different practices by teachers. The PLC model is one where teachers and school leaders respond collaboratively to student performance data: "they study the results, analyze the standards, and keep adjusting instruction to get move each student ahead."
June: Top-performing systems
McKinsey & Company's powerful report on the world's top performing systems provides a systematic, global analysis of the pivotal role of teaching quality. In Kentucky, we've tried all the best indirect levers to change what happens in the classroom: testing, funding, testing consequences, adding mandates, subtracting mandates, and both centralized and decentralized efforts to raise student achievement. Those thing have brought us some important results, but not the full change our children need. The McKinsey study makes a convincing argument that focusing directly on teaching quality --recruitment, practice-based preparation, career-long professional growth and support, and effective monitoring-- is the investment that yields the best return. (Much more on the report findings here.)
July: The state SEEK funding decline
On the one hand, Kentucky's base guaranteed funding per pupil is the same for 2009-10 as it was for 2008-09. On the other hand, the state is spending $33 million less on that guarantee, because it's counting on districts to carry more of the weight. That's because districts pay first, raising 30¢ for every $100 of taxable property, and the state pays only what's needed beyond that to complete the guarantee. Later, I added district level details here.
August: Balanced assessment's "sunlit vision"
Balanced assessment is an approach to smart, sound, effective implementation of testing approaches that support better instruction. It is also about creating classrooms where students develop legitimate new confidence in their own potential and convert that confidence into significantly higher achievement.
September: Common Core standards
New standards, designed to be fewer, clearer, higher, and focused on getting every student ready for college and work success, are being developed by a partnership that includes all but a couple of states. The first public release of standards for the end of high school came out in early fall, with grade-by-grade versions expected in January and Kentucky planning to adopt them in February.
October: Joe Brothers' mighty question
At the October KBE meeting, Chairman Brothers issued a a mighty challenge "What you just said to me is no different than what I heard in 1987. So why should I be hopeful? Why should I spend the two hundred hours I spent to come to this meeting once every two months and talk about the same thing I was talking about in 1987 at the local level?" It's an important question, and I offered a possible answer here, with some added thought here.
November: The uncertain Courier-Journal
A C-J editorial made a good point by urging the Governor's new task force to look at how education reform has worked better in some areas in some areas of the state than others, but sadly did not speak directly of the local challenges in the Jefferson County Schools (blogged here, here, here, here, and here). My response:
Speaker Stumbo heard that only 12 percent of high school freshmen finish college, but that simply isn't true. Maybe the Speaker misunderstood someone who advised him, or maybe that someone did the arithmetic wrong. But since 1990, Kentucky has never had more than 60,000 kids the right age to be in ninth grade, and since 2000, Kentucky has never produced fewer than 15,000 bachelor's degrees per year, with impressive growth since the 1997 reform. With numbers like that, the 12 percent figure cannot possibly be sound. As I wrote in the comment section "We've got plenty of real Kentucky kids who need us to do a better job. We don't need to spend our time weeping over how we've failed imaginary children who never lived here at all."
And now, onto 2010!
January: Testing proposals
The day we launched, Bob Sexton called for Kentucky to consider balanced assessment, international benchmarking, end-of-course testing, and program reviews of subjects we can't test in a satisfactory way. With all four ideas now on the fast-track to Kentucky implementation, I'd call it a very successful set of ideas.
February: Portfolios and writing
Almost certainly the hardest post I've written, this one concluded "to create effective writers' classrooms in every school, organized around the practices that produce stronger writers and deeper understanding of core content, we need a new strategy. Portfolios alone will not make that happen."
March: Postsecondary productivity
"Kentucky produces comparatively fewer bachelor’s degrees for the level of funding than other states." That's from the Chamber of Commerce report on our higher education system, and a finding we shouldn't ignore. Later in the year FY 2008 rankings of higher education revenue per full-time equivalent student showed Kentucky to be:
- 6th in adjusted net tuition paid by students and their families.
- 11th in adjusted public appropriations.
- 4th for adjusted total education revenue.
The Student Loan People advertised high and low that people who went into teaching math and science would not have to pay back their loans. Thousands of people believed them. Then the Student Loan People hit financial hard times, and decided not to keep their promise. It's disaster. (Full sequence of posts here.)
May: Professional learning communities
Different results for students will require different practices by teachers. The PLC model is one where teachers and school leaders respond collaboratively to student performance data: "they study the results, analyze the standards, and keep adjusting instruction to get move each student ahead."
June: Top-performing systems
McKinsey & Company's powerful report on the world's top performing systems provides a systematic, global analysis of the pivotal role of teaching quality. In Kentucky, we've tried all the best indirect levers to change what happens in the classroom: testing, funding, testing consequences, adding mandates, subtracting mandates, and both centralized and decentralized efforts to raise student achievement. Those thing have brought us some important results, but not the full change our children need. The McKinsey study makes a convincing argument that focusing directly on teaching quality --recruitment, practice-based preparation, career-long professional growth and support, and effective monitoring-- is the investment that yields the best return. (Much more on the report findings here.)
July: The state SEEK funding decline
On the one hand, Kentucky's base guaranteed funding per pupil is the same for 2009-10 as it was for 2008-09. On the other hand, the state is spending $33 million less on that guarantee, because it's counting on districts to carry more of the weight. That's because districts pay first, raising 30¢ for every $100 of taxable property, and the state pays only what's needed beyond that to complete the guarantee. Later, I added district level details here.
August: Balanced assessment's "sunlit vision"
Balanced assessment is an approach to smart, sound, effective implementation of testing approaches that support better instruction. It is also about creating classrooms where students develop legitimate new confidence in their own potential and convert that confidence into significantly higher achievement.
September: Common Core standards
New standards, designed to be fewer, clearer, higher, and focused on getting every student ready for college and work success, are being developed by a partnership that includes all but a couple of states. The first public release of standards for the end of high school came out in early fall, with grade-by-grade versions expected in January and Kentucky planning to adopt them in February.
October: Joe Brothers' mighty question
At the October KBE meeting, Chairman Brothers issued a a mighty challenge "What you just said to me is no different than what I heard in 1987. So why should I be hopeful? Why should I spend the two hundred hours I spent to come to this meeting once every two months and talk about the same thing I was talking about in 1987 at the local level?" It's an important question, and I offered a possible answer here, with some added thought here.
November: The uncertain Courier-Journal
A C-J editorial made a good point by urging the Governor's new task force to look at how education reform has worked better in some areas in some areas of the state than others, but sadly did not speak directly of the local challenges in the Jefferson County Schools (blogged here, here, here, here, and here). My response:
Jefferson County has financial, educational, and cultural wealth most Kentucky districts can barely imagine. Its schools ought to be the envy of the state. Excellence is entirely within their reach, but only with leadership that speaks frankly about current weak performance and boldly about the need for much higher achievement in the coming years.December: 12 percent graduate from college? Nope.
Speaker Stumbo heard that only 12 percent of high school freshmen finish college, but that simply isn't true. Maybe the Speaker misunderstood someone who advised him, or maybe that someone did the arithmetic wrong. But since 1990, Kentucky has never had more than 60,000 kids the right age to be in ninth grade, and since 2000, Kentucky has never produced fewer than 15,000 bachelor's degrees per year, with impressive growth since the 1997 reform. With numbers like that, the 12 percent figure cannot possibly be sound. As I wrote in the comment section "We've got plenty of real Kentucky kids who need us to do a better job. We don't need to spend our time weeping over how we've failed imaginary children who never lived here at all."
And now, onto 2010!
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Easier said than done (a college teaching debate)
A Chronicle piece entitled "I Hate Myself When I'm Teaching" just caught my eye. It's a letter from a second-year professor exhausted by what she's doing and unsatisfied by the classroom results, with an answer from "Ms. Mentor" that comes way too close to telling the writer that it's fine just to accept lots of students engaging little and learning less.
No. No, no, no. No.
I delivered workshops for two years before I did a good one. I did them for five years before, handed better materials by a colleague, I finally experienced leading a great one.
Good teaching is a learnable craft, a teachable skill, a profession that requires systematic development. Settling for frustrating most of your students and never quite being happy and at ease in their company is unnecessary and unworthy.
Mercifully, the comments are better than the "mentor," by more than a mile. The first great resister says:
No. No, no, no. No.
I delivered workshops for two years before I did a good one. I did them for five years before, handed better materials by a colleague, I finally experienced leading a great one.
Good teaching is a learnable craft, a teachable skill, a profession that requires systematic development. Settling for frustrating most of your students and never quite being happy and at ease in their company is unnecessary and unworthy.
Mercifully, the comments are better than the "mentor," by more than a mile. The first great resister says:
Changing your attitude will surely help. But learning to teach well is what will help the most. Find out who the best teachers (not the best researchers, nor the easiest teachers) are on your campus and talk with them about their methods.For new teachers at every level, my New Year's wish is that you find great colleagues--the ones ready to collaborate, to share teaching techniques that make their students come alive, and to lure you into a lifetime of seeking and finding the methods that work for each new group of students you meet. There isn't any better work than successful teaching, and there isn't any better place to be than among educators willing to help you succeed.
Ho, ho, ho!
Signing off for the family Christmas celebration and the associated feast of conversation with my near-and-dear ones. Back on January 2.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
RTTT without charters
"Our application will not have any provision for charter schools in it because we don't think there will be adequate time or support in the legislature by the deadline we're facing," Holliday said.The Herald-Leader has that quote and more on Kentucky's likely decision to apply for Race to the Top while being frank about the weak state interest in charter schools.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Admit fewer to remediate fewer?
Inside Higher Ed's article on rising math standards for admission has important detail on Kentucky's pending move to a higher readiness requirement on the mathematics section of the ACT and some developing responses from postsecondary institutions:
Sue Cain, coordinator of developmental education and the college readiness initiative for the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, said a number of four-year institutions in the state are considering raising their admissions standards so that they will not have to offer remedial courses. In Kentucky, she noted, each public institution must provide remedial coursework to any students it chooses to admit. Practically, this means all but the state’s two research institutions -- the University of Kentucky and the University of Louisville -- offer numerous remedial options for their students because their admissions standards allow for students who need remediation.The whole article is worth a read both for multistate perspective and for other insight on the Kentucky changes. Earlier PrichBlog reporting on this transition can be found here and here.
Sustained high school math (we're ahead)
Inside Higher Ed reports:
Kentucky decided years ago to require four years of math for every high school graduate (not just those going to college) starting with the class of 2012 students who now in their sophomore year.Aiming to improve student proficiency and achievement in mathematics, multiple systems of higher education have recently raised either their minimum standards for admission or their benchmarks for enrollment in credit-bearing courses in the subject.
The University System of Maryland made such a revision to its undergraduate admissions policy two weeks ago, when its Board of Regents approved a measure requiring that entering students take four mathematics courses in high school instead of the previously required three: algebra I, geometry and algebra II.
Substantial: The impact of the Rose litigation
The Campaign for Educational Equity releases today the second report in its Education, Equity, and the Law series, "Substantial and Yet Not Sufficient: Kentucky's Effort to Build Proficiency for Each and Every Child" written by Susan Perkins Weston, independent consultant working on Kentucky education issues, and Robert F. Sexton, executive director of the Prichard Committee.
"Substantial and Yet Not Sufficient" provides an analytic overview of the origins, impact and implications of Kentucky's landmark educational adequacy litigation, Rose v. Council for Better Education. It provides important new material and insights regarding the political mobilization for school reform, legislative action, statewide implementation, and recent fiscal difficulties that have occurred over the past 20 years since the case was decided. The authors make their case that Kentucky's 1989 court ruling and 1990 legislation unquestionably led to substantive improvement for all students in the state. Based on their experience, they also share a set of thoughts about what counts as successful work to build school systems that serve all students well.
That's from the official announcement. Bob and I are delighted to be part of this important series, and the paper is available for download here.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Geography of poverty
Those numbers offer a mighty clear pattern: our highest child poverty is in Southeastern Kentucky, while our lowest is ringed around Louisville, Lexington, and Cincinnati.
This data and much more is available in the the new Kentucky Kids Count Databook here.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Episodic memory and effective teaching
In the body of brain research that matters for effective instruction, one of the issues is understanding how human memory works. Episodic memory is one of the most powerful kinds, attached to strong emotions and important events.
From 1963 to 2001, the simplest way to explain episodic memory was to ask a single question: "Where were you when you heard that Kennedy had been shot?" That was the great shared episode. Even people too young to have a personal answer understood how it worked from experiencing the emotions of people a bit older.
In 2001, of course, we got a new question: "Where were you when you heard that the Towers had been hit?" Some middle school and most high school students have first-hand answers, and my guess is that most elementary students can already share their parents' stories. That matters for teaching because new learning is the most effective when students can connect it to something they already know and value. Showing students how a lesson in history or geography or culture is related to 9/11 is an important way to make the lesson meaningful in that class and memorable into the future.
All of which is a roundabout approach to the photo above, now running on the Daily Dish blog. The headline is "Rebuilding," and the caption reads "The Freedom Tower is finally reaching for the sky (at the fourth of 94 floors, to be exact)." I didn't know how deep my own episodic memory went until I looked at the picture and discovered that I was, again, in tears.
(Source note: my understanding of the research discussed above comes indirectly from Jensen's Teaching with the Brain in Mind and more directly from the extraordinarily memorable Brain Research workshop Ronda Harmon developed for the Kentucky Association of School Councils.)
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
12 percent graduate from college? That's not true.
Jack Brammer and Beth Musgrave reported by blog today that Speaker Greg Stumbo "said he was particularly alarmed to learn Tuesday that only 12 of every 100 students in Kentucky who enter the ninth grade graduate from college."
I'd be alarmed, too, if I though the 12 of 100 was true.
Fortunately, I know it is false.
For the last four years, our colleges and universities have awarded more than 18,000 bachelor's degrees per year. That could only be 12 percent of a ninth grade class if the ninth grade class in question had 150,000 students in it.
Our total population aged 5 to 17 has been between 700,000 and 750,000 for the last two decades. Dividing that equally over 13 grades, we should not have had more than 60,000 of the right age to enter high school in any of those years.
There is simply no way to fit the numbers together.
The 12 percent figure is simply, bluntly, not true.
I'd be alarmed, too, if I though the 12 of 100 was true.
Fortunately, I know it is false.
For the last four years, our colleges and universities have awarded more than 18,000 bachelor's degrees per year. That could only be 12 percent of a ninth grade class if the ninth grade class in question had 150,000 students in it.
Our total population aged 5 to 17 has been between 700,000 and 750,000 for the last two decades. Dividing that equally over 13 grades, we should not have had more than 60,000 of the right age to enter high school in any of those years.
There is simply no way to fit the numbers together.
The 12 percent figure is simply, bluntly, not true.
RTTT: repeating costs versus one time investments
According to an Associated Press wire story:
The smarter way to use RTTT funds is for one-time investments with long-term benefits. For example, to:
RTTT stimulus dollars ought to do support equivalent infrastructure, allowing us to do better work with our regular education resources for a generation after the grant runs out.
That's a valid Race to the top issue if--but only if--the state plan adds recurring expenses.The Louisiana School Boards Association voted to oppose state participation in a bid for up to $300 million in federal dollars....LSBA said that it is concerned local school districts would have problems financing improvements when federal dollars run out in four years.
The smarter way to use RTTT funds is for one-time investments with long-term benefits. For example, to:
- Equipping all current teachers to implement balanced assessment, the core practice we've needed but not fully supported for two decades..
- Equipping all our teacher preparation programs to nurture the same skills in future educators.
- Designing, piloting, and implementing a permanent data system to track student growth from early childhood to college.
- Retooling our evaluation systems to identify multiple levels of effectiveness, making sure the system has reliable results and broad support, with the intent of having it be a routine part of school and district work by 2014.
RTTT stimulus dollars ought to do support equivalent infrastructure, allowing us to do better work with our regular education resources for a generation after the grant runs out.
RTTT an urban game? I don't see it.
EdWeek's Politics K-12 blog reports that some states think Race to the Top is tilted to heavily urban states. They cite Vermont and North Dakota, which may be planning to wait until the second round of RTTT competition. As nearly as I can tell, the argument is mainly that charters are harder to implement in rural states, which does indeed fit Kentucky. There's also a suggestion that Vermont thinks it does not need to change how it distributes highly effective teachers, but I don't see the rural connection there.
For myself, I think a rural state--our rural state--can make up the lost charter points with a robust commitment to clear standards, strong assessments, potent data systems, effective evaluations and professional development, and a robust plan for turning around weak schools.
For myself, I think a rural state--our rural state--can make up the lost charter points with a robust commitment to clear standards, strong assessments, potent data systems, effective evaluations and professional development, and a robust plan for turning around weak schools.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Evaluation complications: teachers without test scores
Wow.
That's two different evaluation programs, one for teachers whose students are tested in their subject, and another for teachers whose students are not tested that way. For one group, scores loom large, while for the other they play a tiny role. That's a disturbing difference, capable of dividing a school and providing perverse incentives for teachers to seek out transfers into untested subjects.
The Race to the Top criteria call for all states to ensure that "student growth" becomes "a significant factor" in teacher evaluations. Last week, the Kentucky Board of Education indicated starting support for Commissioner Holliday's desire to do something similar here. The graph above is, to my eyes, the best demonstration I've yet seen of just how challenging that effort is going to be.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Climbing to standards, twice over
In the balanced assessment discussion, there's a regular emphasis on:
- Short, clear, high standards that are widely shared.
- Local, hands-on work to break each standard down into smaller steps, done locally so that the people who will implement understand how the parts fit together.
- Helping students see--early and often-- where they stand on those steps.
- Ensuring that students see how to climb higher.
- Working constantly to figure out the best way to help them climb.
- Clear, high, brief statewide standards for effective teachers and leaders.
- District-level development of specific evaluation procedures, done locally to build hand-on understanding and support for implementing those procedures.
- Setting the system up so that all the affected educators can identify which needed strengths they currently have.
- Setting the system up so those same educators can see clearly how to become even stronger at their craft.
- Expecting school leaders to work pretty much continuously on helping other educators build those needed capacities.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Almost $40 million already cut from SEEK program
Kentucky is sending districts $39,723,567 less in SEEK funds this year than the state provided last year.
Five districts are receiving more than ten percent less than they received last year :
So, let's stop saying the state hasn't cut P-12 funding yet. We've actually seen cuts to the Department of Education, the Education Professional Standards Board, and to smaller state funding grants, and we've seen nearly $40 million cut from SEEK itself.
To see figures for your own school district, click here to download a complete list.
To see my original sources, download KDE's 2008 2009 Revised SEEK Final Summary (dated 3/12/09) and 2009-10 SEEK Tentative Summary.xls (dated 9-16-09). In the 2009-10 file, notice that the "adjust to appropriation" column shows dollars that are coming from the federal stimulus legislation: I've added those into the amounts I'm counting as part of state spending.
Five districts are receiving more than ten percent less than they received last year :
- Murray Independent: 21 percent of its SEEK allocation and $1,065,487
- Frankfort Independent: 15 percent and $533,212
- Lewis County: 12 percent and $1,451,375
- Jackson Independent: 12 percent and $268,275
- Lyon County: 10 percent and $252,727
- Jefferson County: $5,237,711 and 2 percent of its SEEK allocation
- Pike County: $1,615,926 and 4 percent
- Letcher County: $1,512,569 and 9 percent
- Lewis County: $1,451,375 and 12 percent
- Floyd County: $1,357,355 and 5 percent
- Harlan County: $1,303,802 and 7 percent
- Hopkins County: $1,253,451 and 4 percent
- Perry County: $1,253,250 and 7 percent
- Daviess County: $1,247,349 and 3 percent
- Christian County: $1,214,699 and 3 percent
- Murray Independent: $1,065,487 and 21 percent
So, let's stop saying the state hasn't cut P-12 funding yet. We've actually seen cuts to the Department of Education, the Education Professional Standards Board, and to smaller state funding grants, and we've seen nearly $40 million cut from SEEK itself.
To see figures for your own school district, click here to download a complete list.
To see my original sources, download KDE's 2008 2009 Revised SEEK Final Summary (dated 3/12/09) and 2009-10 SEEK Tentative Summary.xls (dated 9-16-09). In the 2009-10 file, notice that the "adjust to appropriation" column shows dollars that are coming from the federal stimulus legislation: I've added those into the amounts I'm counting as part of state spending.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Equity litigation and politics (in New Jersey)
In 1970, four New Jersey cities challenged the constitutionality of the state’s school“Assessing Success in School Finance Litigation: The Case of New Jersey” is a lucid new telling of of the Robinson and Abbott sequence of cases. Written by Margaret Goertz and Michael Weiss, it's part of a new series from the Campaign for Educational Equity, and available here.
funding system, arguing that large wealth-based variations in per pupil expenditures across the state’s districts deprived students in low-wealth communities like theirs of a “thorough and efficient” education. Since then, in over 20 decisions handed down over the last 35 years, through Robinson v. Cahill (1973-1976) and later Abbott v. Burke (1985-2005), the New Jersey Supreme Court has sought to ensure that all students in New Jersey, particularly in distressed urban areas, have equal access to a quality education.
Comparing that story with ours, three things stand out.
First, the 2008 property tax base in the New Jersey's struggling high poverty districts was $455,794 per pupil. In 2007, Kentucky's statewide average assessment was $382,797 and only sixteen districts* had a stronger tax base than those Abbott districts. What the Garden State calls poor, the Bluegrass calls "relatively wealthy."
Second, the original Robinson ruling came in 1973, and the New Jersey court cases are still coming. Here, the Rose ruling came in 1989, and the Kentucky Education Reform Act was law less than a year later.
Finally, New Jersey is a splintered state on issues of school funding. A child in one of the original Robinson districts (East Orange) could walk out of her elementary school and be in one of the state's proudest and wealthiest districts (Glen Ridge) in less than five minutes--but that border is completely sealed if the question is how the two towns' very separate schools should be funded. In Kentucky, the SEEK formula truly has institutionalized the core concept that the state takes the lead in funding our schools, and all our districts have a shared stake in maintaining the SEEK guarantees.
We have our disagreements, our failures, and our unmet needs, but compared to New Jersey, we truly can speak of our commonwealth operating a system of common schools.
* Anchorage ($872,409), Southgate ($705,899), Fayette ($691,096), Boone ($622,251), Campbell ($609,173), Jefferson ($600,863), Lyon ($572,279), Kenton ($543,241), Beechwood ($525,020), Woodford ($524,683), Franklin ($503,754), Shelby ($471,828), Danville ($462,683), Fort Thomas ($458,687), Burgin ($458,224), and Oldham ($457,543).
Friday, December 4, 2009
Common core standards see (small) delay
Flypaper's Amber Winkler reports from a briefing this morning on the status of the Common Core language arts and mathematics standards:
- The K-12 back-mapped standards in reading and in math will be released for public comment on January 4th.
- “Early” February is still the timeline for the final draft of both the end-of-high-school standards and the back-mapped ones in both subjects.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
College readiness benchmarks: rubber about to meet road
In 2007, the Council for Postsecondary Education voted to raise the ACT scores it counts as college readiness benchmarks. The rules now say that students need an 18 in English, a 19 in mathematics, and a 20 in reading to be counted as college-ready. Starting with the fall of 2010, if their scores are lower, they can enroll at KCTCS or a public university, but they will have to take a non-credit course or a course with added academic support during their first year to catch up in the weak subject.
Today, the Courier-Journal reports on how institutions are scrambling to get ready for those requirements. Some highlights:
Today, the Courier-Journal reports on how institutions are scrambling to get ready for those requirements. Some highlights:
- "The new regulation will increase the number of first-time college students needing remedial math by 7 percent; and remedial reading by 10 percent, said Sue Cain, the college readiness and developmental education initiative coordinator for the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education."
- "The state's community colleges might feel the biggest impact, with officials there estimating between 17,400 and 20,000 new students will need to take remedial courses"
- "Officials at the state's two research institutions — the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky — say they likely will not see a large increase in students needing developmental education, in part because they have selective admissions. The average ACT score for incoming freshmen at UK this fall was 24.7, and 24.5 at UofL."
- "Lana Jennings, director of Murray State University's developmental education program, Murray State University Community College, said students often are initially shocked to learn they need to take remedial classes."
This is my town!
The Advocate-Messenger reports:
The brutal fact about education today is that even though Danville and Boyle County schools are doing a good job, there is a challenge ahead for teachers and administrators, and room for improvement.Danville and Boyle County superintendents Carmen Coleman and Mike LaFavers want to get the dialogue started.
Technology, jobs and resources were among the topics discussed at a community forum Tuesday night at Inter-County Energy with the superintendents. Preparing children for the future is an ever-growing challenge as teachers work to teach students skills needed for jobs that don’t exist and technology that hasn’t been invented yet.
I was there. It was great. I couldn't be more excited about where we're headed.
Which $20 million would you cut?
Yesterday’s post worked on big picture on the cuts the Commissioner has been asked to propose. Now let’s look at some of the detail.
Here’s the 2010 enacted budget amount for each line-item Commissioner Holiday has listed as possible targets for reduction:
- $100,000 for the Appalachian Tutoring Program
- $200,000 for statewide teacher recruitment
- $250,000 for the Georgia Chaffee Teenage Parent Program
- $381,500 for the Leadership and Mentoring Fund
- $387,500 for the Middle School Academic Achievement Center
- $430,000 for the Partnership for Student Success
- $484,400 for the Elementary Grade Arts & Humanities Initiative
- $500,000 for the Every1Reads program in Jefferson County
- $500,000 for the Save the Children rural literacy effort
- $610,300 for the state writing program
- $616,500 for the costs of transporting students to the School for the Blind and School for the Deaf and then home again
- $720,900 for dropout prevention
- $994,700 for teachers' professional growth grants
- $1,400,000 for the Collaborative Center for Literacy Development
- $1,507,900 for the Commonwealth School Improvement Fund, which gives weakest schools grants to implement their plans to raise student performance
- $1,600,000 for teaching academies
- $1,686,700 for educator quality and diversity grants
- $2,100,000 for community education
- $2,500,000 for education technology in coal counties
- $6,900,000 for math achievement and the Center for Mathematics
- $7,121,500 for gifted and talented services
- $10,972,100 for services to children who have been placed in the care of state agency
- $11,757,600 for locally operated vocational schools
- $15,300,000 for the Kentucky Education Network
- $19,500,000 for Kentucky Education Technology System grants to school districts
- $22,558,100 for incentive grants for schools to implement early reading intervention programs
- $26,824,800 for the Department of Education’s personnel and operation costs
- $57,145,000 for family resource and youth service centers
- $75,127,000 for preschool
I can't find any easy choices on that list!
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
P-12 cuts pending? [UPDATED]
[UPDATE: I replaced the graphs in this post because the originals did not include KDE operating costs in the dollar amounts that are subject to the potential cuts.]
Commissioner Holliday notified superintendents Monday that he has been asked to plan for cuts of up to $20 million to P-12 education. His e-mail is here, and the Herald-Leader reporting here. In this post, I'd like to add a sense of scale to some of the Commissioner's specifics.
First, he says that "this budget reduction planning effort does not apply to SEEK, local school district health insurance or local district life insurance." Those three items are a huge part of the total, roughly like this:
Commissioner Holliday notified superintendents Monday that he has been asked to plan for cuts of up to $20 million to P-12 education. His e-mail is here, and the Herald-Leader reporting here. In this post, I'd like to add a sense of scale to some of the Commissioner's specifics.
First, he says that "this budget reduction planning effort does not apply to SEEK, local school district health insurance or local district life insurance." Those three items are a huge part of the total, roughly like this:
The immune programs were decided by the Governor. However, it's worth noting that the Commissioner is not considering cuts to all the remaining program. He says he is not considering "flexible focus funds" and his list of possible cuts does indeed leave out extended school services, professional development, and safe schools. Beyond that, his list leaves out highly skilled educators, the School for the Blind, the School for the Deaf, state testing, the state share of school lunch costs, and the state share of Infinite Campus costs. Here's an idea of how that further reduces the possible cuts:
Source details for those who love them: This analysis started with the spending figures that the Department presented to the Kentucky Board of Education in October, using the column for the "enacted 2010 budget." Enacted means the amounts approved by the General Assembly, leaving out any cuts that have since been ordered. From that list, I eliminated one line item: the $21,700,100 originally budgeted for textbooks has already been nearly wiped out by earlier cuts. That's a sandlot method that makes the remaining amounts are a better representation of funding still vulnerable to the axe.
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