Headlines

In a speech before the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, President Obama listed how he would like to see education change.

One item is that he would like merit pay for teachers.

Other items President Obama stated he wants are to develop standards "that don't simply measure whether students can fill in a bubble on a test but whether they possess 21st century skills like problem-solving and critical thinking, entrepreneurship and creativity." He also said "The solution to low test scores is not lower standards; it's tougher, clearer standards.”

Which item do you think will get the headlines? Which would bring more meaningful change?

How Sad

Two things struck home about what we expect an educated student to be.

The first happened as I had just finished four days at the Illinois Computing Educators Conference, the premier event in Illinois showcasing ways to improve student learning using technology tools. I presented during two of the days and enjoyed attending many sessions during the other two. It was also nice spending time networking with old and new acquaintances. The toughest time slot to present is the last session on the last day, for a number of reasons.

However I found that I enjoyed the very last presentation the most. Sharon Peters, a grade 7-9 teacher in Montreal, Canada described Take 2: The Student's Point of View. It is a collaborative effort in which schools are given professional quality videos only for the cost of an external hard drive and shipping. The videos last year were taken in Sudan, specifically the Darfur Region. Video included segments shot in refugee camps, interviews with people, burning villages just after they been attacked, relief efforts, etc. They were taken by Karin Muller, a PBS documentary producer, and you can see some of the clips she sent to schools at http://thesudanproject.ning.com/video . Karin is presently spending three months a year in regions of conflict around the world. Find out more by going to http://www.changemakers.net/node/14708 .

Students use the videos to create various products their teachers asked them to do for the purpose of demonstrating learning. Sharon Peter’s students are in the process of creating an original documentary on the genocide in Darfur.

The second happened the next day. I read in the newspaper a story proclaiming that several local schools made the Illinois Honor Role, a list of schools recognized for improvement on the ISAT, Illinois’ No Child Left Behind assessment. One principal stated that she believed “stressing vocabulary and the types of word problems featured on the ISAT helped increase scores.”

How sad that some quality educators can have their students focus on 21st century skills ( http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=254&Itemid=119 ), while other quality educators are pressured to focus their time and talents on having students practice for multiple choice tests. Some systems need to set their priorities of what is expected of their students differently.

You might want to read Deborah Meier's blog article Confusing Test Scores With Being "Well-Educated" on this topic located at http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/Bridging-Differences/

A Wake-Up Call


I was reading the Chicago Tribune this morning with the radio on in the background (multitasking - but the weather info is more up-to-date on the radio). The Paul Harvey radio show was on and I was ignoring it as usual, until I heard …..

"Wiring classrooms for Internet access does not enhance learning".

What? Did I hear right? Someone named Greenfield at UCLA really was quoted saying this?

I turned on the laptop and found the following article in the UCLA News: Is technology producing a decline in critical thinking and analysis? Studies shed light on multi-tasking, video games and learning By Stuart Wolpert dated 1/27/2009
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/is-technology-producing-a-decline-79127.aspx


Yes, Patricia Greenfield, UCLA Distinguished Professor of psychology and Director of the Children's Digital Media Center said this.

What she was referring to was a review of a research study that stated students who used internet access during a lecture (my emphasis) processed the lecture less than students without internet access at the moment.

In other words, college kids who were surfing didn’t pay as much attention during a lecture. (Well, DUH!) (Besides that, I don’t know if we really want to promote lecturing as a teaching tool. For those who do not know the data on how lecturing affects long-term memory, check out the Learning Pyramid research at the bottom of this web page http://mrlevine.wikispaces.com/administrator-research )

What the Paul Harvey Report failed to mention were other of her findings, such as “By using more visual media, students will process information better.” Isn’t that the key to learning? Don’t other studies show that the more students process information (i.e. use higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy) the more they can demonstrating understanding (i.e. the more they really learn)?

One caveat that Professor Greenfield gave was "However, most visual media are real-time media that do not allow time for reflection, analysis or imagination — those do not get developed by real-time media such as television or video games. Technology is not a panacea in education, because of the skills that are being lost.” (Another Well, DUH!)

So, why don’t teachers build in time for reflection, analysis or imagination into their learning activities? Why don’t teachers use online tools to foster reflection and analytic discussion? Why don’t teachers demand that the products they have students create show an imagination (i.e. creative) component?

I think that what Professor Greenfield should have stated is “Wiring of classrooms for Internet access without any solid educational plan for effectively using the available tools does not enhance learning".

Change? How much? To what Degree?


It is fairly obvious that the present Bush Administration’s Department of Education is locked into their process of “test and punish” with relation to No Child Left Behind. Responding to much criticism over many years, their idea of profound change of the process is to develop a pilot program in which schools can now be labeled with different levels of failure.

The announcement of this new (March, 2008) policy creating a spectrum of failure came with the following press release: “Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today announced a new pilot program under No Child Left Behind aimed at helping states differentiate between underperforming schools in need of dramatic interventions and those that are closer to meeting the goals of No Child Left Behind. I'm announcing a new pilot that will help states improve underperforming schools. This "differentiated accountability" program will invite up to 10 states to create more nuanced ways of distinguishing between schools in need of dramatic intervention, and those that are closer to meeting goals.” http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2008/03/03182008.html

This new policy sounds as effective in dealing with the deficiencies of NCLB as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

As you know by now, Arne Duncan has just been named the U.S. Secretary of Education in the Obama administration. Will he propose changes to Congress concerning the reauthorization of NCLB? If so, then what kinds of changes?

Some hints might come from his writings. Arne Duncan was one of the original task force members & signatories of the position paper A Broader, Bolder Approach to Education. http://www.boldapproach.org/statement.html

Some of the points made in the position paper were:
-- “The effectiveness of NCLB has also been weakened by its unintended side effects, such as a narrowing of the curriculum”
--“…the broader, bolder approach pays attention not only to basic academic skills and cognitive growth narrowly defined, but to development of the whole person…”
--“[The new approach] assigns value to the new knowledge and skills that young people need to become effective participants in a global environment…”
--“… test scores alone cannot describe a school’s contribution to the full range of student outcomes.”
--“New accountability systems should combine appropriate qualitative and quantitative methods, and they will be considerably more expensive than the flawed accountability systems currently in use by the federal and state governments.”

In a speech Nov. 17, 2008 in New York, Arne Duncan stated of Obama “He is interested in results. … Rather than debate governance models – he urges an open mind to new strategies and approaches. He will support whatever works best.” http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/2008/11/transition-chic.html

Obama’s campaign education platform stated: “Obama and Biden believe teachers should not be forced to spend the academic year preparing students to fill in bubbles on standardized tests. They will improve the assessments used to track student progress to measure readiness for college and the workplace and improve student learning in a timely, individualized manner. Obama and Biden will also improve NCLB's accountability system so that we are supporting schools that need improvement, rather than punishing them.”
http://change.gov/agenda/education_agenda/

The important questions are will Mr. Duncan continue the tradition of rearranging deck chairs? Or will more substantial change to NCLB occur?

What do you think?



(Titanic image courtesy of National Institute of Standards and Technology)

ALLIES

During a recent graduate class discussion of how to improve training, equipment and tech support for teachers to use with their students, the participants were planning ways to make their needs known. They discussed who they should bring their case to. One participant then stated “Admin, superintendent, not a teacher - it’s all the same to me!!”

I responded “I would suggest that one knows one's allies. [One of the district-level administrators discussed] is one of the people who decide what kinds of things will be taught in these [graduate] classes. She, along with [another administrator] are allies to those who want more professional development offered in what you all have been asking for. I know that they agree with the vast majority of things teachers taking this course have been saying. They also are doing as much as possible in letting others know your desires and needs. I had invited [these administrators] to monitor these discussions. As I previously have told all of you, I recommend one know one's allies.”

Mark Wagner in his workshop "Learning to Network & Networking to Learn: Beyond The Tools..." located at http://networktolearn.wikispaces.com/tenaya states that one way to cultivate change is to develop a network of educational leaders who are willing to
· Make connections with each other and make attempts to find others who would be willing to join them in dialogue. These connections also can become your personal learning network (PLN)
· Make conversation with and contributions to others in your PLN.
· Make plans with those in your PLN to help you all achieve your goals to improve learning opportunities for your students. Find the best-practice research and the examples needed.
· Make requests to the powers-that-be. This is where you need your allies in your PLN. There is strength in numbers, in persistence and in a great vision.


I’ll leave you with two questions:

1) Who is part of your PLN?
2) (The question Mark asked his workshop participants) How has your personal learning network impacted you, your work, or your students?

PROFILES AND ASSESSMENTS

Intriguing!

A Superintendent of a local school district was quoted in the newspaper stating "As a district and as a community, we must begin to define what we believe a successful school and a successful graduate looks like. We must look for measures beyond state test scores to show that we are moving in the right direction."

I wondered if he was thinking along the lines of those in Nebraska http://www.elladvocates.org/media/NCLB/Time30may07.html or North Carolina http://www.dpi.state.nc.us/graduationproject/ who determined what the profile of 21st century citizen should be and then devised processes to educate and assess students as the attain those skills. (For an excellent description of what North Carolina is doing, peruse the Watauga High School site http://www.watauga.k12.nc.us/graduation_project/index.html .)

What he meant instead was to use available data, such as the number of students taking AP classes, numbers in the gifted program, etc. in order to flesh out a more complete profile of what students in the district are like.

Oh well.

Finances or Vision?

In the graduate class I am now teaching, a discussion among the participants (all educators) ensued about the reasons why they don't have adequate amounts of technology. Most think that the financial issue is the main hindrance to supplying teachers and students the technology they need.

Chris Lehman, Principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, PA (discussed the difficulty most schools have in using technology the way it should be.

Chris said "And the problem is that our entire structure has to change to make it easier. You can't teach 150 kids a day this way [using the traditional factory model of education]... you have to find new ways to look at your classroom. Everything from school design to …... to class size and teacher load to curriculum and assessment -- everything we do in schools -- has to be on the table for change if we are to achieve the kind of schools that video is speaking about." http://practicaltheory.org/serendipity/index.php?/archives/963-Pearson-Presents-Learning-to-Change.html

One of my students in the graduate class reflected this when she said: "I'm beginning to feel that the only initiative they [the school district powers-that-be] are interested in is to raise test scores."

In my opinion, even if all students met the standards on the tests they would still be woefully short of what real learning is all about, the kinds of things mentioned in the 21st Century Skills report.
http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/documents/FINAL_REPORT_PDF09-29-06.pdf ( Note the executive Summary on page 9)

If the vision of how our kids should be taught would really be bought into by the powers-that-be, don't you think that the finances would be found to help reach that vision?

Maybe the problem therefore is the vision of how we expect our students to learn.

The District in which the educators work has new Superintendent. He made a comment on the district web page that is extremely intriguing: ""As a District and as a community, we must begin to define what we believe a successful school and a successful graduate looks like. We must look for measures beyond state test scores to show that we are moving in the right direction." http://www.u-46.org/npps/story.cfm?nppage=669

Could the Superintendent possibly be thinking along Chris Lehman's lines?

Any comments?