Get back to school informed and ready to go with these new fun titles:
1. Aim High, Achieve More: How to Transform Urban Schools Through Fearless Leadership
By Yvette Jackson and Veronica McDermott
2. Understanding How Young Children Learn: Bringing the Science of Child Development to the Classroom
By Wendy L. Ostroff
3. Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day
By Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams
4. Learning Targets: Helping Students Aim for Understanding in Today's Lesson
By Connie M. Moss and Susan M. Brookhart
5. Improving Student Learning One Teacher at a Time
By Jane E. Pollock
6. Guided Instruction: How to Develop Confident and Successful Learners
By Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey
7. How to Plan Rigorous Instruction
By Robyn R. Jackson
8. Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement: Research on What Works in Schools
By Robert J. Marzano
9. Building Student Literacy Through Sustained Silent Reading
By Steve Gardiner
10. Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids' Brains and What Schools Can Do About It
By Eric Jensen
Super Teacher's Job is Never Done!
Photo courtesy of DiscoveryEducation.com
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Monday, August 13, 2012
Teaching $$$?
Whose responsibility is it to teach financial literacy to students? Parents'? Schools'? A combination of both? This is certainly a fascinating topic, one that I feel needs to be better offered to middle and high school students today.
August 2012 | Volume 54 | Number 8
Teaching Financial Literacy Pages 1-7
Teaching Financial Literacy Pages 1-7
Should Schools Teach Financial Literacy?
Studies Show Skills Gap
Should it be the responsibility of schools to teach young people how to open a bank account, save wisely, balance a checkbook, and shop around for the best interest rates? Or, should financial and consumer education fall under the scope of home training?
Call it what you will: financial literacy, financial capability money sense. Studies show that many young adults leave home without it.
The White House outlines the seriousness of the issue in the resource Every American Financially Empowered: A Guide to Increasing Financial Capability among Students, Workers, and Residents in Communities (May 2012). "From saving for retirement and higher education to better understanding credit card, student loan, [and] mortgage debt, personal financial decisions have important ramifications for families and children, as well as implications for our nation's economy" the report says.
A 2009 Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) survey of Americans revealed that about half of the respondents say they have trouble keeping up with monthly expenses, have no money saved for emergencies, and do not save for retirement. Forty-one percent report they have no savings for their children's education.
Junior Achievement's 2012 Teens and Personal Finance survey reveals how young people age 14–18 think about financial matters. Thirty-four percent of youth report that they do not budget or manage their money, compared to 10 percent who said the same thing in 2011. In 2012, 24 percent of teens reported learning how to manage money in school or from teachers, compared with 58 percent who reported the same in 2011.
There's a financial skills gap to fill. It's up to everyone—parents, teachers, policymakers, business leaders—to help youth understand the value of planning financially for the future.
Making Cents of Money
"As a society, we are seeing a rise in credit card debt with young people between the ages of 20 and 24 among the fastest growing group to declare bankruptcy, according to www.DoSomething.org," says Susan Nuna-maker. "Teaching young students to be financially responsible citizens gives them the skills to take hold of their own future financial situations."
Nunamaker, a National Board–certified 3rd grade teacher, created a financial literacy-focused classroom management system to teach her students real-life money lessons. She is the president and founder of the Money Cents For Kids program.
Nunamaker says students are treated as professionals in a real-world classroom setting. They are paid classroom money each week based on their behavior choices in the classroom. With the money, students run their own businesses; rent or buy homes; pay taxes, credit card bills; and cover "Life Happens" incidents.
The financial literacy activities help Nunamaker make connections across the content areas. "When we study multiplication or making change in math, students have already realized the importance of such topics in their own business ventures. When we study persuasive writing, students create commercials and persuasive pieces based on their own stores," says Nunamaker. "When the Great Depression hits in the spring semester and students lose all the money they have been saving in the class bank, there is pandemonium in the classroom. It is a historical event that stays with the students."
Nunamaker says her best success stories have come from students who would be considered children of poverty. "Last year Isis was in my class. She struggled in reading and math. She finally found her place in the classroom when she saved up to open her own business, a styling salon. She was so gifted when it came to braiding hair that she had to place a waiting list on the side of her desk. Once Isis found success in the classroom, she set a goal to open a real salon in the future," says Nunamaker.
"We need to focus on finding students' talents and showing them a purpose for school at a young age. All people have dreams and goals, no matter how young they are. It is also important to model the effects of positive financial choices in the classroom for students who may view poor financial choices at home. The younger we can reach students, the better," says Nunamaker.
Getting Cash for College
College is expensive. It's just a fact. Increasingly, parents are unable to shoulder the burden—for a number of reasons, ranging from rising college price tags to their own underemployment to a lack of planning for their children's education. As a result, young people are borrowing more than they were in the past.
In the United States, student loan debt totals $870 billion, which is higher than credit card debt ($700 billion) and other consumer debt in the nation.
The March 2012 report High Debt, Low Information: A Survey of Student Loan Borrowers asked respondents carrying high levels of debt about their levels of loan literacy. Conducted by NERA Economic Consulting on behalf of the youth advocacy organization Young Invincibles, High Debt, Low Informationfound that about 65 percent say they misunderstood or were surprised by aspects of their student loans or the student loan process.
Respondents were asked open-ended questions about their borrowing experiences. "Looking back, I wish I had asked a million more questions than what I did, but at the same time, I don't think I knew what to ask," says one borrower who owes $150,000 in private and federal loans.
"Unfortunately, we don't provide students with the tools up front to fully understand how much interest will add to their monthly payments, or, for example, how different terms of the loan will affect the amount they pay," says Jen Mishory, the deputy director of Young Invincibles. Mishory also notes that a large number of the respondents say they don't fully understand the difference between federal and private loans.
What advice would Mishory give to young borrowers? "Fill out the FAFSA [Free Application for Federal Student Aid], do a comprehensive search of grants available before turning to loans, [and] almost always max out on federal loans before turning to private loans," she says.
In light of Mishory's recommendations for students to maximize federal aid, it's important to note that nearly 2 million low- and moderate-income undergraduates do not submit a FAFSA to apply for federal aid, even though many of them may be eligible for PELL Grants, according to Every American Financially Empowered.
"As students and families start to look at various schools, they should be asking probing questions of the financial aid offices about their financial aid packages. But frankly, there aren't a lot of great resources out there that really break it down—at least not many that are both comprehensive and easy to navigate," says Mishory. She adds that her organization is in the midst of creating some basic resources, like loan fact sheets and a glossary of financial aid terms. Mishory also recommends www.finaid.org for comprehensive financial aid information.
But what can be done about students wading through high-interest loan payments? "We're really hopeful that the [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau] will play an important role in cracking down on predatory practices," says Mishory. "On the prevention side, we need more standardized and clear loan documents, better education up front, and better information available to incoming and graduating students and their families."
Decline of Financial Education
Survey of the States: Economic and Personal Finance Education in our Nation's Schools, 2011, which was conducted by the Council for Economic Education (CEE), shows that over the past two years, the number of states making economic or financial education a requirement has decreased.
Twenty-two states require that students take a high school course in economics, which in addition to being less than half the nation is also a decrease by three states since CEE's 2009 study. Only 14 states require that schools offer a course in personal finance.
Why has financial education failed to make the education priority list, despite its being perceived as an essential 21st century skill? "It's hard to say why," says Nan J. Morrison, president and CEO of CEE. "The focus on Common Core State Standards leaves so little time and money for professional development. And if teachers don't have the core content knowledge or training, then it is harder to integrate [this information] into the classroom."
Morrison says financial literacy, at its root, is really about recognizing and evaluating choices and developing a habit of thoughtful discussion around money choices. And it's important to develop these skills at a young age.
What will help states make financial literacy a priority? Having accessible professional development resources for teachers and making it easy for teachers to do, says Morrison. CEE has created lessons that can be linked into state standards where appropriate, says Morrison. And she encourages educators to tap into CEE's PD and web resources to make sure that their lessons and content are standard-ready.
CEE is upgrading a set of benchmarks to help gauge students' capability with financial literacy information and skills at the 4th, 8th, and 12th grade levels. The knowledge areas include earning income, buying goods and services, using credit, saving, investing, and protecting against risk.
"We think every state should pass a requirement with a test so that it is integrated into the classroom," says Morrison. Morrison says CEE offers advocacy help at the local and state levels to help communities push for financial education to be implemented in their schools.
Financial literacy isn't a negotiable skill for life in the 21st century. "It's critical for students to have this information to navigate in this complex and ever-changing world," Morrison says. 
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Also, get a list of free financial literacy resources at www.ascd.org/eu-aug12-financial.
|
Sunday, August 12, 2012
A must read about black students and suspensions....
African-American students are suspended at more than three times the rate of theirwhite peers, a nationwide analysis shows. Read on.....
Nearly one in six African-American students was suspended from school during the 2009-10 academic year, more than three times the rate of their white peers, a new analysis of federal education data has found.
That compares with about one in 20 white students, researchers at the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles, based at the University of California, Los Angeles, conclude. They use data collected from about half of all school districts in the nation for that year by the U.S. Department of Education’s office for civil rights.
And for black children with disabilities, the rate was even higher: One in four such students was suspended at least once that year.
In some districts, as many as one out of every two black students was suspended.
“These numbers show clear and consistent racial and ethnic disparities in suspensions across the country,” said John H. Jackson, the president of the Schott Foundation for Public Education, based in Cambridge, Mass., which supports equity in schooling for all students and efforts to improve outcomes for African-American boys. “We are not providing [these students] a fair and substantive opportunity to learn. Any entity not serious about addressing this becomes a co-conspirator in the demise of these children.”
Black students are suspended at a higher rate than white students in 39 of the 47 states studied. But the gap between black and white students’ suspension rates varies widely from state to state.
*MD and WI each had a large district removed from the sample so the size depicted on the right is no longer accurate and their estimates should be reviewed with caution.
NOTES: Florida and Hawaii were not analyzed in the report. Errors in Florida's enrollment figures led to the exclusion of 217,000 suspensions in that state. Hawaii’s data "contains serious flaws" the researchers said.
New York City was excluded because the district is disputing its data with the office for civil rights, so that led to the removal of New York.
The District of Columbia was not included in the analysis as a state, but a district.
Maisie Chin, the executive director of Community Asset Development Re-defining Education, or CADRE, in Los Angeles, helped form Dignity in Schools, a New York City-based group focused on eradicating zero-tolerance discipline policies and school “push out” of students deemed difficult to deal with.
The real value of the data this report provides, she said, is that it helps the public see suspensions and the disproportionate ways in which they are handed out as a systemic problem.
“We’re thrilled that it’s coming out on a national level,” Ms. Chin said.
The researchers decry not only disparities in how suspensions are parceled out, but also their sheer numbers.
In the report, “Opportunities Suspended: The Disparate Impact of Disciplinary Exclusion From School,” the director of the Civil Rights Project’s Center for Civil Rights Remedies, Daniel J. Losen, and research associate Jonathan Gilliespie analyze the 3 million suspensions reported to the federal Education Department as part of the biennial collection of civil rights data.
“That’s about the number of children it would take to fill every seat in every major league baseball park and every [National Football League] stadium in America, combined,” they write in the report, released Tuesday.
Mr. Losen said when he was a young teacher, he frequently sent students to the principal's office for misbehaving. With training and time, he learned to work on students' behavior in his own classroom, keeping students from missing class.
“The bottom line is, we have to reject this frequent use of suspension. We have to reject this as the status quo,” he said, especially considering that many suspensions are not for major offenses, but minor infractions. “There are alternatives.”
Florida and Hawaii were excluded because of errors in the reported data. The study also does not provide suspension estimates for New York state because New York City’s data on suspensions are being reviewed by the office for civil rights.
This report provides the first large-scale analysis of suspension rates in public schools across all states. Previous research has flagged individual states’ records on suspension and expulsion.
The rates of suspension look starkest at the district level.
Of the nearly 6,800 districts studied by the Civil Rights Project researchers, 839 suspended at least 10 percent of their students at least once. In some districts, including Chicago; Memphis, Tenn.; Columbus, Ohio; and Henrico County, Va., 18 percent or more of the students enrolled spent time out of school as a punishment. Some 200 districts sent more than 20 percent of students away at one point or another during the school year.
The Pontiac, Mich., city school system, where about 64 percent of the 5,300 students are black, ranked first for suspending the largest percentage of black students—for every 100 black students, 68 were suspended at least once during the 2009-10 school year, the analysis found.
In Fort Wayne, Ind., however, where only 25 percent of about 32,000 district students are black, 56 out of every 100 black students was suspended at least once.
“I am surprised that we would rank that high, but like a lot of school districts, this is obviously something we are looking at and something we have been addressing over the last couple of years,” said Krista Stockman, a spokeswoman for the Fort Wayne district.
The district is implementing culturally responsive positive behavioral supports and interventions, or PBIS, an approach to discipline that involves increasingly intensive interventions to change students’ behavior, she said. “We certainly realize that when kids come into our schools, they often don’t come with the same background and home experiences that our teachers and our staff may have come from.”
The district in Hartford, Conn., has the highest rate of suspensions for Latino students at 44.2 percent, according to the report, meaning 44 out of every 100 Latino students was suspended at least once. The district also ranks ninth for suspending African-Americans, where 53 percent of all black students were suspended at least once. Hartford, with about 21,000 students, is almost entirely a minority district. Latinos represent the largest group, with 51 percent, while African-Americans make up about 40 percent of enrollment.
Illinois, in fact, had the worst record of 47 states analyzed for the gap between the rates of suspensions for black students and their white peers, at 21.3 percentage points, followed by Missouri and Connecticut, where the black-white gaps were just over 18 percentage points.
A report last year from the Council of State Governments Justice Center in Bethesda, Md., and the Public Policy Research Institute at Texas A&M University found that more than half of students in Texas were suspended or expelled at least once between 7th and 12th grades.
Of the students tracked by the Texas study’s researchers from 7th grade through one year past when they were scheduled to be seniors, 75 percent of black students were expelled or suspended, compared with 50 percent of white students. In addition, 75 percent of students with disabilities were suspended or expelled, compared with 55 percent of students without a disability.
The problem with suspensions is simple, yet devastating, the authors say: The students—many of them already at risk for low performance or dropping out—are not in class, which leads to a litany of negative consequences.
“Suspensions matter because they are among the leading indicators of whether a child will drop out of school and because out-of-school suspension increases a child’s risk for future incarceration,” they write.
The study from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA recommends that states and districts be required to report suspension data, by race, each year, and that suspension rates be used to measure states’ and districts’ education performance.
The authors also want more federal enforcement of civil rights laws to address the disparities in discipline they and others have found. And federal efforts should invest more in systemic improvements to approaches to school discipline and teacher training in classroom management, they argue.
Some may hypothesize that students of color are more likely to exhibit inappropriate behavior in the classroom, said Russell Skiba, a professor at the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University, in Bloomington, but research doesn't support that.
But there is evidence that African-American students are punished more severely than other students for minor infractions.
Other efforts are in earlier stages. Earlier this year, the Chicago school board voted to eliminate automatic 10-day suspensions for the worst school-based offenses, the publication Catalyst Chicago reported. Principals can still order five-day suspensions, but they have to justify additional time out of school.
And in places where change isn’t happening on its own, civil rights groups are pushing for it.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has filed civil rights complaints with the federal Education Department against five Florida districts for what it says have been discriminatory disciplinary practices against black students, compared with their white peers.
Stephanie Langer, a staff attorney in SPLC's Florida office, said the complaints focus on a range of disciplinary practices, including out-of-school suspension, expulsion, alternative placements, and school-based arrests. The districts, she said, enroll relatively modest percentages of African-Americans, but the numbers of black students who are targeted with tough disciplinary practices are “egregious.”
The five Florida districts are Bay, Escambia, Flagler, Okaloosa, and Suwannee counties, where, she said, SPLC found that individual administrators were often violating their district's own policies when meting out discipline for relatively minor infractions.
Ms. Langer said a combination of zero tolerance policies and giving “administrators and principals unfettered discretion to act as they choose in the moment” was behind the high rates of discipline for black students.
Aware of a growing chorus of voices criticizing the disproportionate rates of punishment, some states are also taking steps to change their policies.
For example, the Maryland board of education has been working on policy changes for more than a year to curb suspensions and expulsions, state education department spokesman William Reinhard said.
“The belief of the board was ... too many kids are spending too much time out of the classroom, where they don’t get the educational services they deserve under Maryland law,” Mr. Reinhard said.
“They end up being dropouts or not progressing the way they should,” he continued. “And there was some concern about students from particular ethnic backgrounds being overrepresented in the suspension data. This is their way to say, ‘Hey, we can do better than this.’ ”
The Maryland board has given preliminary approval to a policy that would eliminate zero-tolerance discipline policies with automatic consequences and require schools to adopt an approach to discipline that focuses on improving students’ behavior, not just meting out punishment. Suspensions and expulsions would be allowed only as a last resort.
But changing policies and practices or banning suspensions isn’t universally popular. Local school officials in Maryland, for example, told the state board about their concerns with the proposed policy shift.
And sometimes, suspensions are simply a necessity, said Sasha Pudelski, the government-affairs manager for the American Association of School Administrators in Alexandria, Va.
“We support evidence-based alternatives to out-of-school suspension and expulsions, but when the safety of other students, teachers, and school employees is at risk, suspension can be an appropriate choice, particularly if a student’s behavior is beyond the capacity of a school to address,” she said. The group does support examining policies and practices when disproportionate numbers of one group of students are represented by suspension and expulsion data.
“Where school or school district policies and state laws increase the number of out-of-school suspensions,” Ms. Pudelski said, “administrators, school boards, and state policymakers must look for alternatives.”
Researchers Sound Alarm Over Black Student Suspensions
That compares with about one in 20 white students, researchers at the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles, based at the University of California, Los Angeles, conclude. They use data collected from about half of all school districts in the nation for that year by the U.S. Department of Education’s office for civil rights.
And for black children with disabilities, the rate was even higher: One in four such students was suspended at least once that year.
In some districts, as many as one out of every two black students was suspended.
“These numbers show clear and consistent racial and ethnic disparities in suspensions across the country,” said John H. Jackson, the president of the Schott Foundation for Public Education, based in Cambridge, Mass., which supports equity in schooling for all students and efforts to improve outcomes for African-American boys. “We are not providing [these students] a fair and substantive opportunity to learn. Any entity not serious about addressing this becomes a co-conspirator in the demise of these children.”
Suspension Gaps
Black students are suspended at a higher rate than white students in 39 of the 47 states studied. But the gap between black and white students’ suspension rates varies widely from state to state.
| State | Black-White Percentage-Point Gap |
| IL | 21.3 |
| MO | 18.4 |
| CT | 18.1 |
| TN | 16.4 |
| MI | 15.9 |
| WI* | 15.3 |
| MN | 15.3 |
| DE | 14.4 |
| NV | 14.4 |
| OH | 14.0 |
| NE | 14.0 |
| IN | 13.6 |
| AR | 13.2 |
| SC | 13.2 |
| PA | 13.2 |
| KS | 12.8 |
| OK | 12.5 |
| TX | 12.3 |
| GA | 12.2 |
| CA | 12.1 |
| VA | 11.6 |
| MS | 11.2 |
| IA | 10.9 |
| AL | 10.7 |
| NC | 10.2 |
| WV | 9.9 |
| CO | 9.7 |
| KY | 9.3 |
| NJ | 8.7 |
| RI | 8.6 |
| LA | 8.3 |
| AZ | 7.8 |
| WA | 7.8 |
| OR | 7.6 |
| MA | 7.1 |
| AK | 6.4 |
| MD* | 6.1 |
| NH | 5.3 |
| SD | 4.9 |
| UT | 4.2 |
| ME | 4.1 |
| WY | 3.8 |
| VT | 2.2 |
| ND | 2.0 |
| NM | 1.7 |
| ID | 1.0 |
| MT | -0.3 |
*MD and WI each had a large district removed from the sample so the size depicted on the right is no longer accurate and their estimates should be reviewed with caution.
NOTES: Florida and Hawaii were not analyzed in the report. Errors in Florida's enrollment figures led to the exclusion of 217,000 suspensions in that state. Hawaii’s data "contains serious flaws" the researchers said.
New York City was excluded because the district is disputing its data with the office for civil rights, so that led to the removal of New York.
The District of Columbia was not included in the analysis as a state, but a district.
The real value of the data this report provides, she said, is that it helps the public see suspensions and the disproportionate ways in which they are handed out as a systemic problem.
“We’re thrilled that it’s coming out on a national level,” Ms. Chin said.
The researchers decry not only disparities in how suspensions are parceled out, but also their sheer numbers.
In the report, “Opportunities Suspended: The Disparate Impact of Disciplinary Exclusion From School,” the director of the Civil Rights Project’s Center for Civil Rights Remedies, Daniel J. Losen, and research associate Jonathan Gilliespie analyze the 3 million suspensions reported to the federal Education Department as part of the biennial collection of civil rights data.
“That’s about the number of children it would take to fill every seat in every major league baseball park and every [National Football League] stadium in America, combined,” they write in the report, released Tuesday.
Mr. Losen said when he was a young teacher, he frequently sent students to the principal's office for misbehaving. With training and time, he learned to work on students' behavior in his own classroom, keeping students from missing class.
“The bottom line is, we have to reject this frequent use of suspension. We have to reject this as the status quo,” he said, especially considering that many suspensions are not for major offenses, but minor infractions. “There are alternatives.”
Racial Gaps
This latest collection of civil rights data was the most expansive to date, including information that accounts for 85 percent of all public school students in the country.Florida and Hawaii were excluded because of errors in the reported data. The study also does not provide suspension estimates for New York state because New York City’s data on suspensions are being reviewed by the office for civil rights.
This report provides the first large-scale analysis of suspension rates in public schools across all states. Previous research has flagged individual states’ records on suspension and expulsion.
The rates of suspension look starkest at the district level.
Of the nearly 6,800 districts studied by the Civil Rights Project researchers, 839 suspended at least 10 percent of their students at least once. In some districts, including Chicago; Memphis, Tenn.; Columbus, Ohio; and Henrico County, Va., 18 percent or more of the students enrolled spent time out of school as a punishment. Some 200 districts sent more than 20 percent of students away at one point or another during the school year.
The Pontiac, Mich., city school system, where about 64 percent of the 5,300 students are black, ranked first for suspending the largest percentage of black students—for every 100 black students, 68 were suspended at least once during the 2009-10 school year, the analysis found.
In Fort Wayne, Ind., however, where only 25 percent of about 32,000 district students are black, 56 out of every 100 black students was suspended at least once.
“I am surprised that we would rank that high, but like a lot of school districts, this is obviously something we are looking at and something we have been addressing over the last couple of years,” said Krista Stockman, a spokeswoman for the Fort Wayne district.
The district is implementing culturally responsive positive behavioral supports and interventions, or PBIS, an approach to discipline that involves increasingly intensive interventions to change students’ behavior, she said. “We certainly realize that when kids come into our schools, they often don’t come with the same background and home experiences that our teachers and our staff may have come from.”
The district in Hartford, Conn., has the highest rate of suspensions for Latino students at 44.2 percent, according to the report, meaning 44 out of every 100 Latino students was suspended at least once. The district also ranks ninth for suspending African-Americans, where 53 percent of all black students were suspended at least once. Hartford, with about 21,000 students, is almost entirely a minority district. Latinos represent the largest group, with 51 percent, while African-Americans make up about 40 percent of enrollment.
Illinois, in fact, had the worst record of 47 states analyzed for the gap between the rates of suspensions for black students and their white peers, at 21.3 percentage points, followed by Missouri and Connecticut, where the black-white gaps were just over 18 percentage points.
A report last year from the Council of State Governments Justice Center in Bethesda, Md., and the Public Policy Research Institute at Texas A&M University found that more than half of students in Texas were suspended or expelled at least once between 7th and 12th grades.
Of the students tracked by the Texas study’s researchers from 7th grade through one year past when they were scheduled to be seniors, 75 percent of black students were expelled or suspended, compared with 50 percent of white students. In addition, 75 percent of students with disabilities were suspended or expelled, compared with 55 percent of students without a disability.
The problem with suspensions is simple, yet devastating, the authors say: The students—many of them already at risk for low performance or dropping out—are not in class, which leads to a litany of negative consequences.
“Suspensions matter because they are among the leading indicators of whether a child will drop out of school and because out-of-school suspension increases a child’s risk for future incarceration,” they write.
The study from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA recommends that states and districts be required to report suspension data, by race, each year, and that suspension rates be used to measure states’ and districts’ education performance.
The authors also want more federal enforcement of civil rights laws to address the disparities in discipline they and others have found. And federal efforts should invest more in systemic improvements to approaches to school discipline and teacher training in classroom management, they argue.
Some may hypothesize that students of color are more likely to exhibit inappropriate behavior in the classroom, said Russell Skiba, a professor at the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University, in Bloomington, but research doesn't support that.
But there is evidence that African-American students are punished more severely than other students for minor infractions.
Policy Changes
Some districts are taking steps to change suspension and expulsion policies, including Baltimore, which has been working for years on alternatives to suspension. Officials there call the strategies ineffective and say such practices often punish students for multiple minor infractions.Other efforts are in earlier stages. Earlier this year, the Chicago school board voted to eliminate automatic 10-day suspensions for the worst school-based offenses, the publication Catalyst Chicago reported. Principals can still order five-day suspensions, but they have to justify additional time out of school.
And in places where change isn’t happening on its own, civil rights groups are pushing for it.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has filed civil rights complaints with the federal Education Department against five Florida districts for what it says have been discriminatory disciplinary practices against black students, compared with their white peers.
Stephanie Langer, a staff attorney in SPLC's Florida office, said the complaints focus on a range of disciplinary practices, including out-of-school suspension, expulsion, alternative placements, and school-based arrests. The districts, she said, enroll relatively modest percentages of African-Americans, but the numbers of black students who are targeted with tough disciplinary practices are “egregious.”
The five Florida districts are Bay, Escambia, Flagler, Okaloosa, and Suwannee counties, where, she said, SPLC found that individual administrators were often violating their district's own policies when meting out discipline for relatively minor infractions.
Ms. Langer said a combination of zero tolerance policies and giving “administrators and principals unfettered discretion to act as they choose in the moment” was behind the high rates of discipline for black students.
Aware of a growing chorus of voices criticizing the disproportionate rates of punishment, some states are also taking steps to change their policies.
For example, the Maryland board of education has been working on policy changes for more than a year to curb suspensions and expulsions, state education department spokesman William Reinhard said.
“The belief of the board was ... too many kids are spending too much time out of the classroom, where they don’t get the educational services they deserve under Maryland law,” Mr. Reinhard said.
Related Blog
The Maryland board has given preliminary approval to a policy that would eliminate zero-tolerance discipline policies with automatic consequences and require schools to adopt an approach to discipline that focuses on improving students’ behavior, not just meting out punishment. Suspensions and expulsions would be allowed only as a last resort.
But changing policies and practices or banning suspensions isn’t universally popular. Local school officials in Maryland, for example, told the state board about their concerns with the proposed policy shift.
And sometimes, suspensions are simply a necessity, said Sasha Pudelski, the government-affairs manager for the American Association of School Administrators in Alexandria, Va.
“We support evidence-based alternatives to out-of-school suspension and expulsions, but when the safety of other students, teachers, and school employees is at risk, suspension can be an appropriate choice, particularly if a student’s behavior is beyond the capacity of a school to address,” she said. The group does support examining policies and practices when disproportionate numbers of one group of students are represented by suspension and expulsion data.
“Where school or school district policies and state laws increase the number of out-of-school suspensions,” Ms. Pudelski said, “administrators, school boards, and state policymakers must look for alternatives.”
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Great resource on close reading!
Check out this helpful video by David Coleman video about close reading.
http://vimeo.com/27056255
Definitely worth the view and time!
http://vimeo.com/27056255
Definitely worth the view and time!
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
How to REALLY Differentiate
One of the Assistant Principals I will be working with this year at my new school sent along this list that I couldn't resist posting. I think it helps us all remove the summer cobwebs and start to get focused for the fall ahead!
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I wanted to share these great strategies on differentiation from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Since we all provide valuable feedback to teachers these tips may be of use to you as an instructional leader.
Get real. It’s impossible to look at any classroom and pretend that all students are alike. Instead, focus on the differences that exist, value the diversity, and allow each student the opportunity to shine. Teachers should be open to different approaches and strategies as long as students are able to explain their reasoning. Students want the chance to be original, resourceful, or ingenuous.
Blend whole-class, group, and individual instruction. It is more effective and efficient to use different strategies in different situations. When using groups, rotate students based on demonstrated knowledge, interest, and/or learning style preferences with the aim of moving all students to a higher level of achievement. Use the groups to set up learning activities that: teach new concepts, apply concepts previously learned, and also revisit skills not mastered.
Be proactive. Embrace accountability. You as a teacher are responsible and obligated to plan a variety of ways to facilitate learning. Instruction may be differentiated in content, process, or product according to the students’ readiness, interests, or learning style. Students must be able to express themselves in what they learn, how they learn it, and how they demonstrate their understanding. As you progress as a great teacher, you will become more comfortable using multiple instructional strategies and a variety of representations at the same time to increase the chances of reaching all students.
Acknowledge that students have different learning styles, learn at different speeds, are at different comfort levels of thinking abstractly, and differ in abilities to make connections. Offer choices and flexibility in the classroom. When appropriate, set up learning centers to provide choices. Make sure the centers include varied activities such as skill practice, problem solving, manipulatives, games, working with technology such as computers or calculators, graphs and other visuals, and writing opportunities. This will provide for a more comfortable, engaging, and inviting learning environment for students with different levels of understanding and different interests.
Never separate assessment from instruction; rather integrate assessment into instruction by making informal assessments a way of life in your classroom. In the classroom, focus on qualitative assessment more than quantitative assessment. It is imperative to get to know each student’s achievement levels and strengths and weaknesses. Pre-assessment is a critical first step that should be used before designing any lesson. Don’t assume what your students know or don’t know; find out!
Get to know your students! Outside of the classroom, keep up on your students’ interests. Try to find time to make a basketball game or a theatre production to show that you are interested in them outside of mathematics class. In the classroom, use personal interest inventories regularly. Once you know your students interests, you will be able to better create assignments that fit your students’ interests. Students will be more engaged in the learning if they feel it was developed around their interests.
Use a variety of forms of assessment: formal tests, homework assignments, journals, discussions, and presentations. Equally important is that you follow through; use the results of assessments to continuously plan lessons on skills that are not yet mastered by your students.
Reflect on lessons, projects, evaluations, and everything else that goes on in your classroom. Focus on how you could modify lessons to better fit the students’ needs and interests.
Focus on the students! It may be easier for you to lecture and assign drill and practice, but remember that your ultimate goal is to be in the best interest of your students’ learning. Use more inquiry-based teaching practices and investigations.
Realize that teaching is evolutionary. Great teaching doesn’t happen overnight. It takes patience and consistent dedication. Focus on becoming comfortable differentiating one new lesson at a time. Your plan must include more than the content. You also will need a plan for managing time and keeping students focused. You may worry about disruptions, but in a collaborative learning environment, students will be more engaged and disruptions may decrease. Students are unique, so the same approaches aren’t going to work year to year or even day to day. As teachers, we must monitor each learner, their learning, and make continuous adjustments.
Take the time to briefly pre-teach or even re-teach to meet the needs of students before introducing new content goals. Use heterogeneous groups to facilitate a tutoring and mentoring relationship between students, but be careful not to overuse this strategy. Hold students accountable for their own learning. The more skilled students deepen their understanding by articulating concepts, and the less skilled have a chance to learn ideas from a different source. Sometimes a peer’s words are easier to internalize and may be less intimidating than working one-on-one with the teacher.
When differentiating your classroom, don’t leave out the gifted students. Be cautious that you are assigning open-ended rich inquiry activities instead of more work or always using peer-tutoring and mentoring relationships. Differentiating should allow ALL students to be enriched. Differentiating is NOT adjusting the workload assigned based on ability levels or grading differently based on perceptions of students’ capabilities.
Arrange your classroom in clusters to promote mathematical literacy. Get your students comfortable with the norms associated with collaborative learning; it’s a necessary prerequisite to differentiated instruction, and it also creates more opportunities for interaction. Imagine a teacher in a classroom of 32 students. In a 50 minute class period, she can’t dedicate even two minutes to a student individually, but in groups of 4, she could dedicate more than 6 minutes to a group. Additionally, when working with one group, the other groups would be on task communicating and making progress.
-----
I wanted to share these great strategies on differentiation from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Since we all provide valuable feedback to teachers these tips may be of use to you as an instructional leader.
Get real. It’s impossible to look at any classroom and pretend that all students are alike. Instead, focus on the differences that exist, value the diversity, and allow each student the opportunity to shine. Teachers should be open to different approaches and strategies as long as students are able to explain their reasoning. Students want the chance to be original, resourceful, or ingenuous.
Blend whole-class, group, and individual instruction. It is more effective and efficient to use different strategies in different situations. When using groups, rotate students based on demonstrated knowledge, interest, and/or learning style preferences with the aim of moving all students to a higher level of achievement. Use the groups to set up learning activities that: teach new concepts, apply concepts previously learned, and also revisit skills not mastered.
Be proactive. Embrace accountability. You as a teacher are responsible and obligated to plan a variety of ways to facilitate learning. Instruction may be differentiated in content, process, or product according to the students’ readiness, interests, or learning style. Students must be able to express themselves in what they learn, how they learn it, and how they demonstrate their understanding. As you progress as a great teacher, you will become more comfortable using multiple instructional strategies and a variety of representations at the same time to increase the chances of reaching all students.
Acknowledge that students have different learning styles, learn at different speeds, are at different comfort levels of thinking abstractly, and differ in abilities to make connections. Offer choices and flexibility in the classroom. When appropriate, set up learning centers to provide choices. Make sure the centers include varied activities such as skill practice, problem solving, manipulatives, games, working with technology such as computers or calculators, graphs and other visuals, and writing opportunities. This will provide for a more comfortable, engaging, and inviting learning environment for students with different levels of understanding and different interests.
Never separate assessment from instruction; rather integrate assessment into instruction by making informal assessments a way of life in your classroom. In the classroom, focus on qualitative assessment more than quantitative assessment. It is imperative to get to know each student’s achievement levels and strengths and weaknesses. Pre-assessment is a critical first step that should be used before designing any lesson. Don’t assume what your students know or don’t know; find out!
Get to know your students! Outside of the classroom, keep up on your students’ interests. Try to find time to make a basketball game or a theatre production to show that you are interested in them outside of mathematics class. In the classroom, use personal interest inventories regularly. Once you know your students interests, you will be able to better create assignments that fit your students’ interests. Students will be more engaged in the learning if they feel it was developed around their interests.
Use a variety of forms of assessment: formal tests, homework assignments, journals, discussions, and presentations. Equally important is that you follow through; use the results of assessments to continuously plan lessons on skills that are not yet mastered by your students.
Reflect on lessons, projects, evaluations, and everything else that goes on in your classroom. Focus on how you could modify lessons to better fit the students’ needs and interests.
Focus on the students! It may be easier for you to lecture and assign drill and practice, but remember that your ultimate goal is to be in the best interest of your students’ learning. Use more inquiry-based teaching practices and investigations.
Realize that teaching is evolutionary. Great teaching doesn’t happen overnight. It takes patience and consistent dedication. Focus on becoming comfortable differentiating one new lesson at a time. Your plan must include more than the content. You also will need a plan for managing time and keeping students focused. You may worry about disruptions, but in a collaborative learning environment, students will be more engaged and disruptions may decrease. Students are unique, so the same approaches aren’t going to work year to year or even day to day. As teachers, we must monitor each learner, their learning, and make continuous adjustments.
Take the time to briefly pre-teach or even re-teach to meet the needs of students before introducing new content goals. Use heterogeneous groups to facilitate a tutoring and mentoring relationship between students, but be careful not to overuse this strategy. Hold students accountable for their own learning. The more skilled students deepen their understanding by articulating concepts, and the less skilled have a chance to learn ideas from a different source. Sometimes a peer’s words are easier to internalize and may be less intimidating than working one-on-one with the teacher.
When differentiating your classroom, don’t leave out the gifted students. Be cautious that you are assigning open-ended rich inquiry activities instead of more work or always using peer-tutoring and mentoring relationships. Differentiating should allow ALL students to be enriched. Differentiating is NOT adjusting the workload assigned based on ability levels or grading differently based on perceptions of students’ capabilities.
Arrange your classroom in clusters to promote mathematical literacy. Get your students comfortable with the norms associated with collaborative learning; it’s a necessary prerequisite to differentiated instruction, and it also creates more opportunities for interaction. Imagine a teacher in a classroom of 32 students. In a 50 minute class period, she can’t dedicate even two minutes to a student individually, but in groups of 4, she could dedicate more than 6 minutes to a group. Additionally, when working with one group, the other groups would be on task communicating and making progress.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Need to change the grading scale?
Many teachers today feel that our grading systems are obsolete and do not reflect authentic, meaningful assessment of students. I often agree and was encouraged to read a recent ASCD article that directly addresses this issue. How can we learn from school systems who are changing long-time grading practices for the better?
June 2012 | Volume 54 | Number 6
How To Master the Art of Communication
June 2012 | Volume 54 | Number 6
How To Master the Art of Communication
Bound by Tradition
Today's Grading Practices Reflect the Past
Few topics in education generate as many differing opinions and as much controversy as grading. That's why change, when it comes, comes slowly to grading practices. Just the mere mention of grading reform sets off ripples of anxiety across education communities.
"District leaders as well as teachers recognize that grading is the one element in their improvement efforts that remains dreadfully misaligned," says Thomas R. Guskey, professor of educational psychology in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky and an expert on grading.
"District leaders as well as teachers recognize that grading is the one element in their improvement efforts that remains dreadfully misaligned," says Thomas R. Guskey, professor of educational psychology in the College of Education at the University of Kentucky and an expert on grading.
"They have worked hard in recent years to clarify standards for student learning and to develop authentic assessments to measure accurately how well students have achieved those standards. But they report students' learning progress to their families using report cards that look much the same as they did 100 years ago."
Those grading practices have remained in place because they are familiar, even though they might not accurately reflect what students are learning. In the Educational Leadership article "Five Obstacles to Grading Reform," Guskey explains that grading is bound by tradition.
"Because no one addressed the topic of grading in their teacher-preparation programs, teachers typically base their grading policies and practices on what they experienced as students," he says. "Likewise, most parents interpret grades in the context of what they experienced in school."
In fact, too often teachers use grades as punishment, deducting points for absences, missed homework, bad behavior, or lack of class participation. However, lowering students' grades won't necessarily change their behavior, says Douglas B. Reeves of the Leadership and Learning Center.
"You see proficient students getting D's and F's for cutting class," Reeves says. "We have a rich tradition of using grading not as assessment but as punishment—but it just doesn't work."
One of the factors that prompted grading reforms at Minnetonka High School in Minnesota was a teacher survey in which teachers were asked to describe the reasons for assigning a B– grade. Assistant Principal Jeffrey A. Erickson says teachers identified 13 different reasons—only one of which had to do with knowledge of the material.
Although students at Minnetonka High School still receive letter grades, the school has adopted standards-based assessments. Teachers are now required to use formative and summative assessments, and grades in these two categories determine the quarter and semester grade. Within the summative category, teachers of the same course must conduct at least four common assessments, one of which must be a performance task.
"Grades should reflect what students know and are able to do," Erickson says. "Grades no longer are used as control mechanisms."
And so how does Erickson's school deal with kids cutting class? "In the past, consequences for unexcused absences were not seen for 17 weeks, when report cards were issued," Erickson says. "We still wanted to have consequences, so in the first year, we moved to immediate interventions."
In the first year after instituting the change, the school saw a radical decrease in unexcused absences, and suspensions decreased by 40 percent. Now when students have an unexcused absence or miss a class, staff members follow up within 36 hours by calling parents and conferring with the student, Erickson explains.
"Second, teachers must recognize that since they strive to have students achieve multiple learning goals related to academic achievement as well as responsibility, work habits, study skills, et cetera, they must report student learning in each of these areas separately. It simply requires abandoning the practice of combining all of these diverse sources of evidence into a single symbol or grade."
Standards-based assessments, which seek to measure student performance within different areas of a subject, incorporate some of the criteria listed above. The idea is to identify the areas in which students need improvement and target those areas.
Robert J. Marzano, an expert on standards-based grading, says, "Educators want more specificity, and they are realizing that a single grade does not mean much. Parents and students are realizing it as well."
In the November 2011 issue of Educational Leadership, Marzano and Tammy Heflebower outline the four elements of an effective, standards-based assessment program:
One way Marzano suggests evaluating students' understanding of a topic is by using a scale of 1 to 4, with the higher number reflecting proficiency of more complex material. There is no downside to these types of reforms, Marzano added; teachers can still use an overall grade with these systems, if they so choose.
But better grading policies don't necessarily equate to more student learning, Guskey says. "Honestly, I know of no well-designed, systematic studies that have shown this to be so," he says.
"But why would we expect changing grading practices or the report card to affect student learning in any way, positive or negative? Standards-based grading and reporting are more about communicating better and giving more accurate information to families and students in order to provide thebasis for improving student learning."
"There is no logical defense for that span between 60 and 0," Reeves says. A student who earns one or two 0s but does well on every other assignment is still at risk of failing the course. Rather than give students 0s for failing to submit assignments, missing class, or being late, teachers should require students to complete the work during the day, Reeves suggests.
This position can generate a lot of very angry e-mails from teachers, Reeves says. They are frustrated with students who don't complete assignments and have little ammunition besides grades to reinforce deadlines.
"I understand their frustration; but why continue to punish them with grades if it doesn't work?" he says. "When you give kids an F or zero, they get off the hook [without doing the assignment]. A much tougher consequence is getting the work done."
In keeping with that philosophy, some schools have chosen to eliminate zeros completely, instead focusing on having students complete the missing work in a timely way. When the Collier County School District in Florida eliminated zeros for elementary school students in 2008, some teachers and community members viewed the move as coddling students and feared they would not learn to accept the consequences of their actions, according to the Naples Daily News.
But Beth Thompson, the chief instructional officer for the district, says that now students are getting their assignments done, whether it's before or after school or during their breaks in the school day.
"A zero doesn't tell you if students have mastered the skill or not. It just says a student failed to turn the assignment in," Thompson says. "What we're trying to get across to teachers is to separate achievement from effort and behavior."
Collier County School District is also now using standards-based assessments for preK through 2nd grade and expects to have standards-based assessments in place for all elementary students by the 2014–2015 school year.
So far the only concern about the new system among parents is that it could eliminate the traditional honor rolls, because students would no longer be issued one grade at the end of the quarter. However, students will still be recognized for achievement at the end of the quarters and school year, Thompson says.
Despite the flaws in the current grading systems, no one is abandoning grades anytime soon, Guskey notes, because students and parents want to know if students are meeting expected learning goals.
"While grades are not the only way to communicate that information to families and students, they represent a valuable, abbreviated summary of teachers' judgments of students' performance," Guskey says. "If used appropriately and supplemented with specific guidance for making improvements, grades can be meaningful."
Those grading practices have remained in place because they are familiar, even though they might not accurately reflect what students are learning. In the Educational Leadership article "Five Obstacles to Grading Reform," Guskey explains that grading is bound by tradition.
"Because no one addressed the topic of grading in their teacher-preparation programs, teachers typically base their grading policies and practices on what they experienced as students," he says. "Likewise, most parents interpret grades in the context of what they experienced in school."
In fact, too often teachers use grades as punishment, deducting points for absences, missed homework, bad behavior, or lack of class participation. However, lowering students' grades won't necessarily change their behavior, says Douglas B. Reeves of the Leadership and Learning Center.
"You see proficient students getting D's and F's for cutting class," Reeves says. "We have a rich tradition of using grading not as assessment but as punishment—but it just doesn't work."
Making the Mark in Minnesota
As more educators realize how little connection there is between grades and students' mastery of skills and how devastating one poor grade can be to a student's academic career, grading changes are coming.One of the factors that prompted grading reforms at Minnetonka High School in Minnesota was a teacher survey in which teachers were asked to describe the reasons for assigning a B– grade. Assistant Principal Jeffrey A. Erickson says teachers identified 13 different reasons—only one of which had to do with knowledge of the material.
Although students at Minnetonka High School still receive letter grades, the school has adopted standards-based assessments. Teachers are now required to use formative and summative assessments, and grades in these two categories determine the quarter and semester grade. Within the summative category, teachers of the same course must conduct at least four common assessments, one of which must be a performance task.
"Grades should reflect what students know and are able to do," Erickson says. "Grades no longer are used as control mechanisms."
And so how does Erickson's school deal with kids cutting class? "In the past, consequences for unexcused absences were not seen for 17 weeks, when report cards were issued," Erickson says. "We still wanted to have consequences, so in the first year, we moved to immediate interventions."
In the first year after instituting the change, the school saw a radical decrease in unexcused absences, and suspensions decreased by 40 percent. Now when students have an unexcused absence or miss a class, staff members follow up within 36 hours by calling parents and conferring with the student, Erickson explains.
Be Clear and Communicate Policies
Guskey says that changes to a school's grading policy should be purposeful and well-communicated. "Teachers must be clear about the purpose of grades and must communicate that purpose to everyone involved in the process: students, their families, fellow teachers, and school leaders," he says."Second, teachers must recognize that since they strive to have students achieve multiple learning goals related to academic achievement as well as responsibility, work habits, study skills, et cetera, they must report student learning in each of these areas separately. It simply requires abandoning the practice of combining all of these diverse sources of evidence into a single symbol or grade."
Standards-based assessments, which seek to measure student performance within different areas of a subject, incorporate some of the criteria listed above. The idea is to identify the areas in which students need improvement and target those areas.
Robert J. Marzano, an expert on standards-based grading, says, "Educators want more specificity, and they are realizing that a single grade does not mean much. Parents and students are realizing it as well."
In the November 2011 issue of Educational Leadership, Marzano and Tammy Heflebower outline the four elements of an effective, standards-based assessment program:
- Eliminate an overall grade.
- If you can't eliminate the overall grade, also include performance data for different areas.
- Expand the assessment options available to students. Besides traditional exams, include probing discussions between students and the teacher, unobtrusive assessments by the teacher, and student assessments.
- Allow students to continually upgrade their scores on previous measurement topics. If students did not score well on assessments in the first quarter, allow them to raise their scores in those areas and then include those scores with the second quarter assessments.
One way Marzano suggests evaluating students' understanding of a topic is by using a scale of 1 to 4, with the higher number reflecting proficiency of more complex material. There is no downside to these types of reforms, Marzano added; teachers can still use an overall grade with these systems, if they so choose.
But better grading policies don't necessarily equate to more student learning, Guskey says. "Honestly, I know of no well-designed, systematic studies that have shown this to be so," he says.
"But why would we expect changing grading practices or the report card to affect student learning in any way, positive or negative? Standards-based grading and reporting are more about communicating better and giving more accurate information to families and students in order to provide thebasis for improving student learning."
Changing the Grading Scale
Other changes researchers encourage include eliminating grading on a curve or tightening up the numerical spans on the 100-point scale. Consider that while the difference between an A and a B usually is 10 points, if an A is 90 percent and a B is 80 percent, aD often is 60 percent and an F is 0."There is no logical defense for that span between 60 and 0," Reeves says. A student who earns one or two 0s but does well on every other assignment is still at risk of failing the course. Rather than give students 0s for failing to submit assignments, missing class, or being late, teachers should require students to complete the work during the day, Reeves suggests.
This position can generate a lot of very angry e-mails from teachers, Reeves says. They are frustrated with students who don't complete assignments and have little ammunition besides grades to reinforce deadlines.
"I understand their frustration; but why continue to punish them with grades if it doesn't work?" he says. "When you give kids an F or zero, they get off the hook [without doing the assignment]. A much tougher consequence is getting the work done."
In keeping with that philosophy, some schools have chosen to eliminate zeros completely, instead focusing on having students complete the missing work in a timely way. When the Collier County School District in Florida eliminated zeros for elementary school students in 2008, some teachers and community members viewed the move as coddling students and feared they would not learn to accept the consequences of their actions, according to the Naples Daily News.
But Beth Thompson, the chief instructional officer for the district, says that now students are getting their assignments done, whether it's before or after school or during their breaks in the school day.
"A zero doesn't tell you if students have mastered the skill or not. It just says a student failed to turn the assignment in," Thompson says. "What we're trying to get across to teachers is to separate achievement from effort and behavior."
Collier County School District is also now using standards-based assessments for preK through 2nd grade and expects to have standards-based assessments in place for all elementary students by the 2014–2015 school year.
So far the only concern about the new system among parents is that it could eliminate the traditional honor rolls, because students would no longer be issued one grade at the end of the quarter. However, students will still be recognized for achievement at the end of the quarters and school year, Thompson says.
Despite the flaws in the current grading systems, no one is abandoning grades anytime soon, Guskey notes, because students and parents want to know if students are meeting expected learning goals.
"While grades are not the only way to communicate that information to families and students, they represent a valuable, abbreviated summary of teachers' judgments of students' performance," Guskey says. "If used appropriately and supplemented with specific guidance for making improvements, grades can be meaningful."
Copyright © 2012 by ASCD
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Awesome new titles to check out!
As if your summer reading list wasn't long enough already -- ha!
1. Teaching Reading in the Content Areas: If Not Me, Then Who?,. 3rd edition
By Vicki Urquart and Dana Frazee
2. Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day
By Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams
3. Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids' Brains and What Schools Can Do About It
By Eric Jensen
4. Building Your School's Capacity to Implement RTI: An ASCD Action Tool
By Patricia Addison and Cynthia Warger
5. Implementing the Framework for Teaching in Enhancing Professional Practice: An ASCD Action Tool
By Charlotte Danielson and others
6. Formative Assessment Strategies for Every Classroom: An ASCD Action Tool, 2nd edition
By Susan M. Brookhart
7. How to Create a Culture of Achievement in Your School and Classroom
By Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Ian Pumpian
8. Everyday Engagement: Making Students and Parents Your Partners in Learning
By Katy Ridnouer
9. Strengthening and Enriching Your Professional Learning Community: The Art of Learning Together -- Excited to use this in my new school!
By Geoffrey Caine and Renate N. Caine
10. How to Give Effective Feedback to Your Students
By Susan M. Brookhart
1. Teaching Reading in the Content Areas: If Not Me, Then Who?,. 3rd edition
By Vicki Urquart and Dana Frazee
2. Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day
By Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams
3. Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids' Brains and What Schools Can Do About It
By Eric Jensen
4. Building Your School's Capacity to Implement RTI: An ASCD Action Tool
By Patricia Addison and Cynthia Warger
5. Implementing the Framework for Teaching in Enhancing Professional Practice: An ASCD Action Tool
By Charlotte Danielson and others
6. Formative Assessment Strategies for Every Classroom: An ASCD Action Tool, 2nd edition
By Susan M. Brookhart
7. How to Create a Culture of Achievement in Your School and Classroom
By Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Ian Pumpian
8. Everyday Engagement: Making Students and Parents Your Partners in Learning
By Katy Ridnouer
9. Strengthening and Enriching Your Professional Learning Community: The Art of Learning Together -- Excited to use this in my new school!
By Geoffrey Caine and Renate N. Caine
10. How to Give Effective Feedback to Your Students
By Susan M. Brookhart
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