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shared by Angela Winston on 16 Mar 11
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EBSCOhost: Quality evidence about leadership for organizational and student learning i... - 0 views
web.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/...pdfviewer
principalship justice values attributes evidence-based ADMS707 Winston
shared by Angela Winston on 16 Mar 11
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Discusses what attributes are held by strong leaders based on evidence based policy. Mentions that leadership is heavily influenced by "the principal's core personal values and by the development of a shared orgaizational values base".
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State Education Finance and Governance Profile: Virginia - Peabody Journal of Education - 0 views
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Describes Education Governance and Finance in Virginia...read all about it! yeyy U.Va.
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shared by REL N on 16 Feb 11
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D.C. schools to use data from teacher evaluation system in new ways - 0 views
www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2011021302584.html
ADMS707 Evidence-based Decision-making VAModels Niemeyer
shared by REL N on 16 Feb 11
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by matching teachers' ratings to the universities they attended, officials are deciding which pipelines deliver the best, or worst, talent.
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"We'll just stop taking graduates from institutions that aren't producing effective teachers."
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Teacher ratings from one cluster of schools might be compared with those from another cluster to assess how a particular instructional superintendent is faring. Principals will be judged in part by the number of "highly effective" teachers they are able to retain from year to year. Instructional coaches will be held accountable for the ratings of the teachers they coach.
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Critics of value-added evaluation models, who have objected to using the data to fire teachers, say that expanding their use is unwise at this point. "The core problem with these data is the creation of incentives to narrow the curriculum," said Richard Rothstein, a research associate with the Economic Policy Institute and one of the authors of a recent report critical of value-added evaluations.
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"It's never been piloted, never been tested," Saunders said. "And the conclusions made using IMPACT as a basis will be just as flawed as the instrument they rely upon."
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DC is expanding the use of the data from value-added evaluation models. "And the conclusions made using IMPACT as a basis will be just as flawed as the instrument they rely upon."
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Pennsylvania School Scraps Segregation Project - 0 views
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This seems fascinating to me. I'm shocked that they thought this might work. I think it alludes more to the "return to values" of the conservative movement in this country than anything else. To me, this has the feel of a conservative, religious movement that has made its way back into a school division. This reemergence of "older" value systems might simply be a fear response to how out of control our empire has become and the repercussions of the wealth disparity on the domestic front. -
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Charles Kolb: Educational Success: America's New Industrial Policy - 1 views
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And we need to approach our education investment as we approach infrastructure or industrial policy.
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NOOOO! We need to better define the type of success we can achieve given that individuals are in different places at different times in their lives. We need to support people where they are and help them move forward in areas and at a pace that is right for them. If a 16-year old is able to perform well in a college program then that is where s/he should be. If a student is gifted in math and abhors and does poorly in history, then we should nurture her/his strengths and stop holding them to their social grade level in math and wasting their time and their passion drilling them in history. Ultimately, they will be happier, more productive, and more willing to contribute to society in a math-related endeavor.
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"define success up." Our new industrial and competitiveness policy as a nation should be focused relentlessly on those talented young children and adolescents who show educational promise. We should double, perhaps triple, federal, state, and private sector resources that support gifted-and-talented programs in our schools. We should nurture this talent the same way some institutions nurture athletic talent. This approach is not elitism; it is smart commonsense.
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Yeah... I think we all saw what happened when we had a leader who was proud of getting "C's" in college. And, then we are not really sure if a "C" actually meant a "D-" but was given to ensure social promotion. I would not go to a surgeon who either did not want to go to medical school or was not able to succeed in her/his training. That is not elitism. It is more than simply common sense. It is effective data-driven/evidence-based decision-making. A person might be terrific and funny and caring (and perhaps rich and attractive too) but they should not be given a role beyond their knowledge and capabilities.
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If such an exam cannot be developed within six months, then perhaps we really have wasted a lot of time over the last 30 years. Algebra in New Hampshire is not different from algebra in California. Reading skills and reading-level assessments should be the same in each state. Grammar doesn't vary across state borders, and gravity tends to work the same way everywhere. The governors are well-positioned to lead a national discussion about what our high school graduates should know and be able to do -- and then devise a test that measures the success of our young people in mastering what they need to know to be successful. The National Governors Association is already doing excellent work in this area -- but it has to move faster.
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f we stopped the gaming in elementary and middle school testing and relied on the teachers and administrators to implement effective local testing and take appropriate actions to ensure learning, we would have more resources (time, money, people) to develop appropriate and resonable assessments at the high school level. These must be based on higher order thinking and include essays, video-taped dialogues/presentations, and some simple answer tests. The evaluation should be done by humans outside the local area and care must be taken to ensure inter-rater reliability. This is done in other countries as well as in the states with the IB diploma programme. It is do-able and the graduates will be well prepared and confident that they can move forward. Our initial pass rates may not be as high as we would like, and we need to be prepared to accept that some students may take more than 12 years or choose to take a less rigorous set of exams; however, we will have a higher level of success overall and our students will be much better prepared as citizens and workers.
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In late December 2010, the Education Trust reported that nearly 25 percent of high school graduates taking the U.S. Army entrance exam cannot answer basic questions in math, science, and reading. Some of the questions were pretty basic: "If 2 plus x equals 4, what is the value of x?"
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We need to change our approach from preventing failure to promoting success.
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all children can learn, not all children are ready to learn at the same time. If some of our classrooms have disruptive students, these students should attend other classes until they become serious about learning.
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And finally, we should learn from the French, who for decades have had a baccalaureate exam that is a prerequisite for advancing to post-secondary education. In France, the "bac" exam is typically taken by 17- and 18-year-olds, but if a student fails the exam, he or she can take it again -- even later in life. The "bac" serves two purposes: it sets a standard for what French high school graduates know and can do, and it serves as a moment of consequence for French young people: they cannot move forward until they have proved their proficiency.
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In several states, where testing has been adopted, we find large discrepancies between how the states report their children's performance on "No Child Left Behind" tests and the often much lower performance found by the objective National Assessment of Educational Progress.
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resources we've squandered. We need a more tough-minded and focused approach that identifies, nurtures, and rewards success
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I'm not sure how I feel about this blog. Part of me says "Oh no!" while the other part says that we need to make education accessible but we would be better served to go with a more individualized approach. Right now it feels as though we often cater to the lowest common denominator which is not fair to anyone. Can we learn something from the operations concept of mass customization? Educators--feedback please!! I'd love to hear what your experience tells you r.e. these issues.
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I am intrigued if not in full agreement with this piece by Kolb. He makes good points about a national baccaulaureate exam...it's true, algebra is algebra, grammar is grammar, in all 50 states. Some of our colleagues would disagree that we need primarily focus on the best and the brightest and that those who are not ready to learn should be sequestered until they are (paraphrasing here). He says, "We really aren't serious as a nation when it comes to education," but I think that we are fast approaching a time when (I hope) it becomes a primary focus of our political debate (from Candy).
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A Board's Eye View : Education Next - 0 views
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“Code of Conduct for School Board Members.” This was intended, wrote the superintendent, in recommending the code, “to set standards for how the Board interacts with itself.” Sounded like sex to me. But the preoccupation with board member behavior was the result of the long-standing tension between the democracy represented by elected officials who oversaw the schools and the professionalism of those hired to run them. The superintendent was definitely attempting to tip the balance in favor of the pros. “We will not attempt to exercise individual authority over the district’s operations, staff, or personnel decisions,” read one of the rules he was proposing for us. Another: “We will not express individual judgments about the performance of the superintendent or staff. . . . We recognize the value of the chain of command. When approached by staff, constituents or the public, we will channel all inquiries to the administrator.” I e-mailed the superintendent, “Is this a joke?” He called and laughed lamely.
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"... the preoccupation with board member behavior was the result of the long-standing tension between the democracy represented by elected officials who oversaw the schools and the professionalism of those hired to run them."
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“We should let people know we are looking for quality, of course, but not to the point of advertising outside official channels.”
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the board never reviewed other major expenditures, such as the installation of a new computer system.
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I asked the superintendent how a new asphalt parking lot was installed at the Greenport School without board approval–or even a bid or a notice or a need. He informed me that a bid wasn’t necessary for a job worth less than $10,000.
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no clarification of what any of this meant–or cost. Don’t ask. “Mandated” was the knowing word from veteran board members.
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almost 16 percent of the children in the school district were disabled, almost double the national average.
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more than 350, were either “emotionally disturbed,” “learning disabled,” or “speech impaired.” These were the kind of catchall categories that allowed a district to dispose of many problem children–in Hudson those children were mostly black–with expensive baby-sitting.
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over the next several months as I learned that the district had been running a deficit for several years. In fact, the state comptroller’s office, which oversees the fiscal integrity of all state and local government agencies, had conducted its own audit and found the same thing: “overexpenditure of budgetary appropriations and the overestimation of revenues.” Money was being moved around, from one fund to another, which was also against the rules, the comptroller noted. And when auditors had asked for records, they couldn’t be found.
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the school board was not where the biggest battles would be won or lost.
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The teacher union president, normally a regular presence at school board meetings, stopped coming so that he wouldn’t have to answer my questions about what was being done to improve things that his teachers controlled. (He had already stopped responding to my phone calls and letters.)
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the debate was as much cultural–and racial–as educational,
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The author was frustrated that the board refused to discuss the academic mediocrity in the schools and then he realized that "the debate was as much cultural-and racial-as educational,...."
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“Mandates” and laws sprouted acres of explanatory weeds–most of them unnecessary. No one ever read the original “mandate.”
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no one seemed to know why the “Parent/Family/Community Involvement Policy” was necessary, but it was assumed that it was required by some Oz-like authority, passed through the policy-writing machinery at some school board association office, and sent to us for our “approval.”
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No one else on the board expressed any hint of having read it. And I was beginning to discern a pattern: the more written, the less understood.
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A concerned parent joined the local school board in hopes of improving the academics. After 6 frustrating months he resigned from the board believing that "the school board was not where the biggest battles would be won or lost."
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Can Everyone Please Shut Up and Listen!? - 0 views
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Schwartz makes a very VALUED POINT! When will stop debating and really address the issue at HAND. The future of our children are at STAKE here!! He makes 5 points: 1. Stop talking and writing 2. Read and listen to opposing and alternative viewpoints from diverse groups of stakeholders including teachers, students, parents, communities other than your own, union leaders, business leaders, administrators, superintendents, et. al. 3. Process it all in continued silence. This is not about writing comments to a blog post or releasing a study to counter what that other study you read found or even a quick retort with your rehearsed line. Really take it in and think about where it fits within your framework for what it's going to take to help our teachers help our students. 4. Think about how your experiences as a student and perhaps your experiences as a parent of a student have shaped and even biased your views on what our schools need. 5. Resume your writing and speaking being mindful to take time-outs to listen and think. -
This fits into our Week 11 --- really thinking. This opinion piece states exactly how I feel right now....and I bet a bunch of others, as well.
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More districts looking at nontraditional candidates to lead schools - Page 3 - Philly.com - 0 views
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Spokesperson from the Broad Superintendents Academy. So... tell me again why someone who has a track record as a strong leader in diverse and large organizations; surrounds her/himself (as a strong leader would do) with and listens to functional/discipline experts; and has more experience addressing financial, organizational, and HR issues than traditional superintendents should not be considered a viable (and maybe even preferable) candidate than someone who is a practitioner whose paradigm is a well run classroom rather than effective (not efficiency at the expense of the core mission and values) organizations?