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Troy Patterson

Public schools aren't failing | CharlotteObserver.com - 0 views

www.charlotteobserver.com/...lic-schools-arent-failing.html

msm299

shared by Troy Patterson on 08 Feb 15 - No Cached
  • In fact, both show that American public school children are doing remarkably well.
  • For example, the NCES report shows that in schools with less than 25 percent poverty rates, American children scored higher in reading than any other children in the world. In. The. World.
  • The takeaway is simple. Our middle-class and wealthy public school children are thriving. Poor children are struggling, not because their schools are failing but because they come to school with all the well-documented handicaps that poverty imposes – poor prenatal care, developmental delays, hunger, illness, homelessness, emotional and mental illnesses, and so on.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • public school children outscored their private school counterparts, and nationally, charters are outperformed by traditional schools the majority of the time.
  • “the charter school movement [is] quickly becoming a backdoor for corporate profit.”
  • research is clear that money spent addressing the issues of child poverty are the most effective way to move test scores up
  • “Nobody understands the challenges and shortcomings of American schools better than the people who have dedicated their lives to them.” Yet educators are rarely asked for their expertise.
  • If policy makers were to listen to educators – and to students and parents – they would hear that the real crisis in public education is the loss of our collective commitment to the common good.
Ron King

Michael Haberman: Why School Culture Matters, and How to Improve It - 1 views

www.huffingtonpost.com/...-culture-matter_b_3047318.html

shared by Ron King on 29 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • Ron King on 29 Apr 13
     
    From elementary school to high school, school choice is an integral part of U.S. urban education today. In New York City, eighth graders just learned if they'd been accepted into one of their top high school selections, and in the coming weeks, families will learn where their children will be attending kindergarten in the fall.
Troy Patterson

Principal: Why our new educator evaluation system is unethical - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...evaluation-system-is-unethical

msm245

shared by Troy Patterson on 30 May 13 - No Cached
  • A few years ago, a student at my high school was having a terrible time passing one of the exams needed to earn a Regents Diploma.
  • Mary has a learning disability that truly impacts her retention and analytical thinking.
  • Because she was a special education student, at the time there was an easier exam available, the RCT, which she could take and then use to earn a local high school diploma instead of the Regents Diploma.
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • Regents Diploma serves as a motivator for our students while providing an objective (though imperfect) measure of accomplishment.
  • If they do not pass a test the first time, it is not awful if they take it again—we use it as a diagnostic, help them fill the learning gaps, and only the passing score goes on the transcript
  • in Mary’s case, to ask her to take that test yet once again would have been tantamount to child abuse.
  • Mary’s story, therefore, points to a key reason why evaluating teachers and principals by test scores is wrong.
  • It illustrates how the problems with value-added measures of performance go well beyond the technicalities of validity and reliability.
  • The basic rule is this: No measure of performance used for high-stakes purposes should put the best interests of students in conflict with the best interests of the adults who serve them.
  • I will just point out that under that system I may be penalized if future students like Mary do not achieve a 65 on the Regents exam.
  • Mary and I can still make the choice to say “enough”, but it may cost me a “point”, if a majority of students who had the same middle school scores on math and English tests that she did years before, pass the test.
  • But I can also be less concerned about the VAM-based evaluation system because it’s very likely to be biased in favor of those like me who lead schools that have only one or two students like Mary every year.
  • When we have an ELL (English language learner) student with interrupted education arrive at our school, we often consider a plan that includes an extra year of high school.
  • last few years “four year graduation rates” are of high importance
  • four-year graduation rate as a high-stakes measure has resulted in the proliferation of “credit recovery” programs of dubious quality, along with teacher complaints of being pressured to pass students with poor attendance and grades, especially in schools under threat of closure.
  • On the one hand, they had a clear incentive to “test prep” for the recent Common Core exams, but they also knew that test prep was not the instruction that their students needed and deserved.
  • in New York and in many other Race to the Top states, continue to favor “form over substance” and allow the unintended consequences of a rushed models to be put in place.
  • Creating bell curves of relative educator performance may look like progress and science, but these are measures without meaning, and they do not help schools improve.
  • We can raise every bar and continue to add high-stakes measures. Or we can acknowledge and respond to the reality that school improvement takes time, capacity building, professional development, and financial support at the district, state and national levels.
Ron King

Standards Based Grading: District-Wide Journey - 1 views

mctownsley.blogspot.com/...sed-grading-district-wide.html

shared by Ron King on 07 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • Ron King on 07 Apr 13
     
    It's a pretty exciting time to work in my current school district. About twenty years ago, the elementary school implemented a standards-based report card. Over the past several years, we've seen a grassroots movement in the area of assessment and grading reform in our secondary buildings. Dozens of teachers and building leadership teams have visited and/or inquired about what's going on in our high school and middle school, which is one of the reasons we'll soon be co-hosting a standards-based grading conference in eastern Iowa (before you ask, we've reached our registration capacity and the waiting list has been closed as well).
Troy Patterson

Two months in, Eli Broad's new foundation president still learning the ropes | Pass / F... - 0 views

www.scpr.org/...ead-of-philanthropic-education

msm270

shared by Troy Patterson on 08 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • “It would look like a national system,” said Broad, describing what he would see as a perfect education infrastructure. “Rather than having 14,000 school boards across America, it would get governors involved, big city mayors involved, and it would have a longer school day and a longer school year.”
  • It's been a direction fueled by lots of money. In the past 13 years Broad has donated $800 million to education initiatives. A lot of it has gone to charter schools. In 2012, the KIPP charter school group got more than $2 million and Green Dot received $775,000 to supplement public funding. The online tutoring group Khan Academy received $1 million that year, too.
  • Broad has known all along he needs allies in public office to carry out his vision. He's generously donated to elections — from school boards to the U.S. presidency. He leans Democrat in Washington but anti-union on school boards.
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  • After three decades in Washington, Reed says he was ready to leave the political gridlock and lead a results-driven effort such as the Broad Foundation.
  • Troy Patterson on 08 Mar 14
     
    Two months in, Eli Broad's new foundation president still learning the ropes
Troy Patterson

Hybrid Classes Outlearn Traditional Classes -- THE Journal - 0 views

thejournal.com/...learn-traditional-classes.aspx

msm291

shared by Troy Patterson on 20 Dec 14 - No Cached
  • Students in hybrid classrooms outperformed their peers in traditional classes in all grades and subjects, according to the newest study from two organizations that work with schools in establishing hybrid instruction.
  • The results come out of those classes where students either took the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) tests or Keystone Exams to measure academic achievement.
  • In one example, hybrid learning eighth grade math students at Hatboro-Horsham School District (PA) passed the PSSA tests and Keystone Exams at a rate10 percent higher than their non-hybrid peers in five schools.
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  • In another example, third grade math students in the hybrid learning program at Pennsylvania's Indiana Area School District outperformed students in traditional classes by 10 percentage points on the PSSA exams.
  • scored proficient or advanced on PSSA tests at a rate 23 percent higher than the previous year with gains in all subjects: reading (up 20 percent), math (up 24 percent) and science (up 27 percent).
  • "We use a rigorous accountability system that helps us measure and report on hybrid classroom outcomes," said Dellicker President and CEO Kevin Dellicker.
  • The cost of implementing hybrid learning through the Institute's model could be considered modest. During the 2013-2014 school year, according to the report, the schools spent an average of $220 per student (not including computing devices) to transform their learning models.
Troy Patterson

16 Modern Realities Schools (and Parents) Need to Accept. Now. - Modern Learning - Medium - 0 views

medium.com/...eed-to-accept-now-64b98710e4e9

msm332

shared by Troy Patterson on 23 May 16 - No Cached
  • What’s happened to get people thinking and talking about “different” instead of “better?”
  • The Web and the technologies that drive it are fundamentally changing the way we think about how we can learn and become educated in a globally networked and connected world. It has absolutely exploded our ability to learn on our own in ways that schools weren’t built for.
  • In that respect, current systems of schooling are an increasingly significant barrier to progress when it comes to learning.
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  • The middleman is vanishing as peer to peer interactions flourish. Teachers no longer stand between the content and the student. This will change the nature of the profession.
  • Technology is no longer an option when it comes to learning at mastery levels.
  • Curriculum is just a guess, and now that we have access to so much information and knowledge, the current school curriculum bucket represents (as Seymour Papert suggests) “one-billionth of one percent” of all there is to know. Our odds of choosing the “right” mix for all of our kids’ futures are infinitesimal.
  • The skills, literacies, and dispositions required to navigate this increasingly complex and change filled world are much different from those stressed in the current school curriculum.
  • In fact, instead of being delivered by an institution, curriculum is now constructed and negotiated in real time by learner and the contributions of those engaged in the learning process, whether in the classroom our out.
  • “High stakes” learning is now about doing real work for real audiences, not taking a standardized subject matter test.
  • While important, the 4Cs of creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and communication are no longer enough. Being able to connect to other learners worldwide and to use computing applications to solve problems are the two additional “Cs” required in the modern world.
  • Our children will live and work in a much more transparent world as tools to publish pictures, video, and texts become more accessible and more ubiquitous. Their online reputations must be built and managed.
  • Workers in the future will not “find employment;” Employment will find them. Or they will create their own.
  • Embracing and adapting to change must be in the modern skill set.
Ron King

Phillips Exeter Academy | Hands On Math - 0 views

www.exeter.edu/...7327_7401.aspx

Hands On Exeter math

shared by Ron King on 03 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • Ron King on 03 Aug 12
     
    The Exeter Mathematics Institute courses are tailored and designed for the needs of each school district. These sample course descriptions are examples of courses that have been offered in various school districts over the years. In most of these courses, we use the same Exeter Mathematics Problem Sets that are used during the Exeter school year. In the Geometer's Sketchpad course and in all of the hands-on courses, we use materials that have been specifically developed by Exeter Math Institute instructors. All of these materials are available using the links below
Ron King

Teaching along the Edge - 0 views

cindirigsbee.com/teaching-along-the-edge

shared by Ron King on 09 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • Ron King on 09 Dec 13
     
    A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to serve as a discussant after a group of panelists, all teachers in the "spring" of their careers (even one first year teacher), spoke on transforming classrooms and schools. The panel discussion was part of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Education's symposium called "Education for a New Era." This particular session was entitled "Teaching Along the Edge," and the moderator, Dr. Jocelyn Glazier (a former high school English teacher and current associate professor at UNC), shared that she wanted "to find the places where there is light" in education. She shared that "education is a practice of freedom," and she hoped the panelists would look at current inequities and move students "beyond basic skills."
Troy Patterson

What poor children need in school - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...t-poor-children-need-in-school

msm259

shared by Troy Patterson on 19 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • Most educational policy elites, whether in government or in the nonprofit sector, mean well.
  • Yet policymakers tend to come from a relatively privileged slice of American society.  And they tend to possess a set of beliefs and assumptions distinct to their background. 
  • But in most cases, the fact that decision-makers inhabit a different world from students—and particularly, poor students—is a matter of great significance.
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  • Poverty limits opportunity in all senses.  It restricts career paths, as policymakers recognize.  But it also denies young people equal time, resources, and exposure to discover their interests and foster their passions.  It constrains lives.
  • Schools, of course, did not create this problem.  But they do exacerbate it.  Over the past decade, well-intended policymakers concerned with closing the achievement gap have promoted policies and practices that reduce learning to something easily quantified.
  • Reformers need to understand that their narrow efforts to close the quantifiable “achievement gap” are creating another kind of educational inequity.  In other words, as they seek to close one gap they are opening up another.
  • Concerned only with the cultivation of ostensibly job-oriented knowledge and skills, they have neglected everything else that makes schools great. 
  • Our best schools are places where children gain confidence in themselves, build healthy relationships, and develop values congruent with their own self-interest.  They are places of play and laughter and discovery.
  • For contemporary education reformers, improving test scores is the only measure of school quality that matters.  And they have had some modest successes in this regard.  Yet they have merely reshuffled the deck. 
Troy Patterson

More Than Half of Students 'Engaged' in School, Says Poll - Education Week - 1 views

www.edweek.org/...28gallup.h33.html

msm272

shared by Troy Patterson on 09 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • Students who strongly agree that they have at least one teacher who makes them "feel excited about the future" and that their school is "committed to building the strengths of each student" are 30 times more likely than students who strongly disagree with those statements to show other signs of engagement in the classroom—a key predictor of academic success, according to a report released Wednesday by Gallup Education.
  • "Many, many, many teachers, principals and superintendents have known for literally decades that if we don't engage students to care about being in school, that's going to get in the way of learning," he said.
  • "One of the big problems with No Child Left Behind and even [the Common Core State Standards] is that we are only focused on students' cognitive learning,"
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  • A broad focus on testing and new standards can lead schools to neglect the individualized social and emotional needs of students, the report’s authors say.
  • researchers classified 55 percent of students as “engaged,” 28 percent as “not engaged,” and 17 percent as “actively disengaged.”
  • students surveyed in 2013 who said they strongly agreed with two statements—“My school is committed to building the strengths of each student,” and “I have at least one teacher who makes me excited about the future”—were 30 times more likely to be classified as “engaged”
  • Gallup recommends that principals address teacher engagement to help students succeed.
  • The share of workers described as "not engaged" among teachers, however, was slightly larger than it was for the general workforce—56 percent versus 52 percent.
  • To build engagement among teachers, the report recommends that principals ask them questions about curriculum, pedagogy, and scheduling, and incorporate their feedback into decisionmaking. School leaders should also pair engaged administrators and teachers to collaborate and generate enthusiasm for student-centered projects, the report says.
  • Gallup report validates that a "highly skilled principal is the linchpin to schoolwide success."
  • Principal behaviors that encourage collaboration and meaningful relationships "don't happen by chance," Ms. Bartoletti said in a written statement. "They emerge from a defined set of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, which requires dedicated and ongoing development."
Troy Patterson

eSchoolNews.com » Expert: Federal school reform plan is wrong » Print - 0 views

www.eschoolnews.com/...print

msm msm168 education educationreform

shared by Troy Patterson on 30 May 11 - No Cached
  • Troy Patterson on 30 May 11
     
    The president is wrong. Arne Duncan is wrong. The media are wrong. Many state administrators are wrong: This was the message on the current state of school reform in a Feb. 18 keynote session at the American Association of School Administrators [2]' National Conference on Education.
Troy Patterson

Sir Ken Robinson has a lot to say about U.S. school reform (it isn't good) - The Washin... - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...u-s-school-reform-it-isnt-good

msm305 school reform

shared by Troy Patterson on 04 May 15 - No Cached
  • Troy Patterson on 04 May 15
     
    "Sir Ken Robinson has a lot to say about U.S. school reform (it isn't good)"
Troy Patterson

Are Our Schools Safe Places for Kids who are Different? | - 0 views

blog.williamferriter.com/...ces-for-kids-who-are-different

msm305 schools

shared by Troy Patterson on 26 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • Troy Patterson on 26 Apr 15
     
    "ARE OUR SCHOOLS SAFE PLACES FOR KIDS WHO ARE DIFFERENT?"
Troy Patterson

Oregon House Considers Adding 'Future Plans' As High School Graduation Requirement| The... - 0 views

www.21stcenturyfluency.com/blogpost.cfm

msm msm168 learning

shared by Troy Patterson on 30 May 11 - No Cached
  • Troy Patterson on 30 May 11
     
    While schools across the country continue to balance budgets and consider different methods to make their students college-bound, Oregon representatives may have come up with their own solution to get students ready for the future. In an attempt to increase Oregonians' employment options, the Oregon House of Representatives recently passed a bill that requires high school students to demonstrate a clear path for future education or job opportunities before they can graduate.
Troy Patterson

Waiting for a School Miracle - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...01ravitch.html

msm msm168

shared by Troy Patterson on 02 Jun 11 - No Cached
  • Troy Patterson on 02 Jun 11
     
    To prove that poverty doesn't matter, political leaders point to schools that have achieved stunning results in only a few years despite the poverty around them. But the accounts of miracle schools demand closer scrutiny. Usually, they are the result of statistical legerdemain.
Ron King

Ground Rules for Great Principals - 0 views

www.weareteachers.com/...und-rules-for-great-principals

shared by Ron King on 01 Jul 13 - No Cached
  • Ron King on 01 Jul 13
     
    We asked teachers to share what they believe to be the most important qualities in a school leader. Here is the best advice any school leader is ever going to get.
Troy Patterson

10 Realities About Bullying at School and Online | MindShift | KQED News - 0 views

ww2.kqed.org/...-bullying-at-school-and-online

msm327

shared by Troy Patterson on 23 Apr 16 - No Cached
  • “most educators aren’t aware of the function bullying serves in school,”
  • The majority of kids don’t bully other kids and haven’t been victimized
  • Kids pick on others as a way to secure their standing among their peers or to move up a notch.
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • aggression is intrinsic to status and escalates with increases in peer status until the pinnacle of the social hierarchy is attained.”
  • Children from single-parent homes, and those with less educated parents, are no more apt to bully than kids with married and learned parents. African-Americans and other minorities show the same rates of bullying as their white counterparts.
  • The popular notion of bullies as sullen social outcasts who come from broken homes is a myth.
  • What adults call bullying kids call drama.
  • Cyber-bullying is just an extension of what’s happening in the classrooms, halls, and cafeteria
  • online cruelty merely makes visible what kids are doing in person behind the backs of adults.
  • ust another way for kids to express hostility towards targets they’ve already gone after—or are in retaliation against those who have attacked them in school.
  • Kids don’t intervene because doing so would jeopardize their own standing, they lack the tools to assist, and because they don’t think it will help anyway.
  • Adolescents are fixated on their social standing, and anything that jeopardizes their fragile position will be avoided.
  • students receive scant training on how to help in such a way that it won’t backfire.
  • “Asking students to be empowered and responsible bystanders is tantamount to telling them to be good readers or safe drivers without giving them instructions, guidance, and opportunities to practice,”
Troy Patterson

Mindfulness makes a difference in schools | District Administration Magazine - 0 views

www.districtadministration.com/...ulness-makes-difference-school

msm355

shared by Troy Patterson on 05 Apr 17 - No Cached
  • Districts that succeed in making mindfulness a regular part of the school day—and an impactful part of students’ lives—start by training the adults in their buildings to become competent practitioners, says Saltzman, whose Menlo Park, California-based mindfulness practice operates training programs in schools.
  • And a little time spent on mindfulness at the beginning of class can pay off. “A teacher may think, I can’t add another thing to my day,” Saltzman says. “But what teachers find is, if they start class with five minutes of mindfulness—movement, breathing, journaling—most teachers will report ending up with more teachable time.”
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