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Ben Rimes

The Test Generation - 11 views

  • "The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor.
    • Ben Rimes
       
      How many decades have teacher's experienced this firsthand as students try to cheat, weasel, and otherwise fabricate their way to the reward, whether it's a gold star, a piece of candy, or some extra credit.
  • In 2005, for example, Alabama reported that 83 percent of its fourth-graders were proficient in reading, even though the NAEP found that only 22 percent of these children were proficient readers. The harsh punishments associated with NCLB had encouraged Alabama and most other states to dumb down their tests and then teach directly to them.
  • The letter is a thinly veiled attack on teachers' unions and the job security for which they fight. Mike Stahl, former executive director of the Pikes Peak Education Association, says union membership in Harrison has decreased by half under Miles' leadership, and that teacher turnover, at about 25 percent from year to year, "is the highest in the state among like-sized or larger districts." According to Stahl, Miles "is very anti-union and very prone to retaliation for speaking in opposition to district or superintendent plans. ... There was no collaboration with staff or union in the development of this plan. As a result, district teacher morale is extremely low."
    • Ben Rimes
       
      This is where a lot of the proponents of education and teacher evaluation reform fall. In the area that no longer concerns itself with building effective cooperation, teamwork, and a positive work atmosphere, a shame really.
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  • Since Miles became superintendent, Harrison's scores on state exams in math, reading, and writing have steadily increased. In reading, for example, 54 percent of Harrison students were proficient in 2005, compared to 61 percent in 2010. Critics who chalk those gains up to "drill and kill" teaching might find at least one thing to love about Harrison District 2: Its test score-based teacher-evaluation system is matched by intense professional-development efforts of the sort promoted by education experts from across the political spectrum.
    • Ben Rimes
       
      The silver lining of this system.
  • But "really systemic, momentous things are happening right now, and I am at the ideological epicenter of that change," he added. "If nothing else, it's really interesting
    • Ben Rimes
       
      Don't our schools deserve reform and/or experimentation that is better than just "really interesting?"
  • Rival groups of education researchers interpret the reliability of value-added differently but even the technique's defenders have urged caution, as have the Educational Testing Service and the Department of Education's own Institute for Education Sciences. Experts raise a number of powerful objections: that value-added measurements are often based on poorly designed, unsophisticated standardized tests; that the ratings are particularly volatile (a teacher who scores very well or very poorly using value-added has only a one-third chance of getting a similar score the following year, and it takes about 10 years of data to reduce the value-added error rate to 12 percent for any individual teacher); and that the technique gives the impression that the teacher is the only factor in student achievement, ignoring parental involvement, after-school tutoring, and other "inputs" that research shows account for up to 80 percent of a student's achievement outcomes
    • Ben Rimes
       
      Although "value-added" seems great on the surface, having to wait around for 10 years to get a 12 percent error rate and then deal with all of the uncontrolable factors, makes student performance assessments seem like a joke almost.
  • A consensus is emerging on what those best practices are, and they have little to do with test-driven instruction. Research by Linda Darling-Hammond, a Stanford University teaching expert and former Obama adviser, has found that in Finland, South Korea, and other high-performing nations, teachers spend just 50 percent of their workday in the classroom with students, compared to about 80 percent for American teachers. During the rest of their day, Finnish and South Korean teachers work with other adults to plan lessons, observe one another's classrooms, and evaluate student work. This balance is especially important for beginning teachers; powerful evidence suggests that the single most helpful teacher-training exercise is to spend time inside a master teacher's classroom and to get feedback from that master teacher on one's own practice.
    • Ben Rimes
       
      Reflective practitioning through blogging as a systemic model for teacher PD would be one way to encourage growth in this area.
  • The teachers are grouped to maximize the sharing of best practices; one team includes a second-year teacher struggling with classroom management, a veteran teacher who is excellent at discipline but behind the curve on technology, and a third teacher who is an innovator on using technology in the classroom.
    • Ben Rimes
       
      Interesting group composition, and would be easy to put together in any school with proper surveys and cooperation among teaching "families".
  • When I visited MSLA in November, the halls were bright and orderly, the students warm and polite, and the teachers enthusiastic -- in other words, MSLA has many of the characteristics of high-performing schools around the world. What sets MSLA apart is its commitment to teaching as a shared endeavor to raise student achievement -- not a competition. During the 2009-2010 school year, all of the school's teachers together pursued the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards' Take One! program, which focuses on using curriculum standards to improve teaching and evaluate student outcomes. This year, the staff-wide initiative is to include literacy skills-building in each and every lesson, whether the subject area is science, art, or social studies.
    • Ben Rimes
       
      This is what schools should be doing. Foster community, cooperation, and collaboration among the teachers, not isolating them in content area groups, and separating them based on department. Inter-disciplinary teaching teams is a first start, but having everyone in a district adopt the same goal, and work together would be huge.
  • As Nazareno walked me through MSLA's hallways, introducing me to kids and teachers, she reflected on how her profession is changing. "I'm not afraid of being held accountable. I haven't dedicated a career to have kids unable to read or do science," she said. "But people need to understand that teaching and learning are very complex processes, and any time you try to measure anything that's highly complex, you can miss the nuances." Nazareno paused outside a classroom door and lowered her voice. "We had a girl in the second grade whose mother died. At the school next door, a girl was brutally murdered. That's all they've been talking about there for two weeks; they lost a lot of instruction time." She raised her eyebrows. "How do you factor that into value-added?"
    • Ben Rimes
       
      Education ultimately is about navigating the real world, and attempting to make meaning from our daily individual experiences, or building community around shared experiences.
Barbara Lindsey

The Tech Curve: RSU #19 Google Apps for Education Plan - 9 views

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    Great description of how one school district is using Google Apps for lifelong learning and teaching. Terrific embedded video on advantages to migrating over to Google Email for educational institutions.
April H.

Creating & Connecting - Research & Guidelines on Online Social --and Educational--Netwo... - 0 views

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    Compilation of several surveys that looked at social networking. Respondants were students, parents, and school district administrators.
Dean Mantz

Teacher Magazine: Why I Hate Interactive Whiteboards - 10 views

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    This blog post does provide some good points in opposition to IWBs. Good conversation piece.
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    I provide technology training with five different school districts, all using several different types of IWBs. In districts where teachers see IWBs a way to make it easier for them to continue what they've already been doing, that is "stand and deliver", then I agree completely with the author. However, when teachers see IWBs as a way to involve students in and excite them about their own learning, then wonderful things happen. These tools can provide students with outstanding discovery and creative outlets and real learning happens. It's all about the teacher, not the board.
Ben Rimes

3 Questions Schools Should Ask About WiFi -- THE Journal - 11 views

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    3 simple aspects of wireless networking that a district administrator for technology should be asking when looking at implementing a wireless plan. Capacity seems to be key.
Dean Mantz

Education Week: Districts Scrutinizing Teaching Applicants' Potential - 12 views

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    Very interesting and excellent process ( in my eyes) for schools to hire teachers!
Dean Mantz

Santee School District | Instructional Technology - 8 views

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    Digital Storytelling examples using Pixie, iMovie, Frames, iPhoto and more.
Dean Mantz

MEDIA Carts: SMART Boards - 0 views

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    Kent School District informational technology resource page. The site provides tutorials, guides, SMART Technology assistance, and other resources.
Matt Clausen

Warlick's Open Letter to the Next President - 0 views

  • The greatest gain will come from the collective knowledge and experience of the education community. Infrastructure must be invented and implemented that cultivates an ongoing professional conversation across the entire education landscape.
    • Matt Clausen
       
      I like this quote; how do we do this well within even just within a building or district?
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    David Warlick has four things the POTUS ought to know about making U.S. schools better. Last month I posted a manifesto of sorts to my Web site. I was following a meme started by a group of other edubloggers called "Five things policymakers ought to know!" T&L editors asked me to tweak it a bit to give our next President some big-picture twenty-first-century education advice. Here's my take.
Matt Clausen

The Edjurist - Information on School and Educational Law - Blog - The Recent ... - 0 views

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    The discussion at Wes Fryer's blog in part concerned the implications that the December 2006 e-discovery amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) have upon technology use in the schools, particularly Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, Wimba, social networking sites, and microblogs.
anonymous

docstoc | John Blake - 0 views

shared by anonymous on 11 Apr 08 - Cached
Clif Mims liked it
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    Just started looking at this site. Have not tried to see if it is blocked by our district content filter. I have been using Google Doc, but this may be easier faster to share documents with my students in class.
Dean Mantz

Guidelines for Educators Using Social Networking Sites - Home - Doug Johnson'... - 0 views

  • My friend and colleague, Tech Director Jen Hegna over in the Byron (MN) schools developed this set of guidelines for the staff in her district. (She was motivated, she said, partially by posts here and here on the Blue Skunk. Cool!) Anyway she's given permission for me to share her work here and says readers are welcome to use and adopt as well:     Guidelines for Educators Using Social Networking Sites August 2009 (DRAFT, DRAFT, DRAFT)
Dean Mantz

Suggested Resources for Internet Safety Lessons.pdf (application/pdf Object) - 7 views

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    Internet Safety and Digital Citizenship curriculum structure for Illinois school district.
Clif Mims

Recommended iPod Apps from Escondido Union School District - 11 views

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    Organized by grade levels and subjects
Dean Mantz

Recommended iPod Apps (Grade Levels & Subjects) Escondido Union School District - iRead... - 9 views

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    Google spreadsheet providing recommended iPod Touch apps for education by grade level and subjects.
Dean Mantz

Teaching Parents Digital Citizenship at Katy ISD -- THE Journal - 1 views

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    How one TX school districts gets parents involved in teaching Digtial Citizenship.
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