So the budget and the education policy hubbub continues. In the meantime, teachers are trying to figure out how to get students to master the very rigorous California content standards and principals are trying to figure out how to support them in doing so. The year-end California standards tests are just 3 short months away. Did you hear me???? Three months.
Here is a short example of what a second grader is expected to know by then: reading 2 of 34 standards: recognize cause-and-effect relationships in a text and identify the use of rhythm, rhyme, and alliteration in poetry. mathematics 3 of 35 standards: Understand and use the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction and Use the commutative and associative rules to simplify mental calculations and to check results. History/Social Science 2 of 17 standards: Describe food production and consumption long ago and today, including the roles of farmers, processors, distributors, weather, and land and water resources AND Label from memory a simple map of the North American continent, including the countries, oceans, Great Lakes, major rivers, and mountain ranges. Identify the essential map elements: title, legend, directional indicator, scale, and date. Science 1 of 26 standards: know many characteristics of an organism are inherited from the parents. Some characteristics are caused or influenced by the environment. PLUS physical education, visual and performing arts, plus drug prevention, eating well, dental care, Constitution Day, Dr. Suess Read Across America..... All this for a seven year old!
So I hope you can see why I would be just a tad indignant when the governor suggests school should be shortened by a week and ranting talk show hosts berate public school teachers. I wish any one of them would give it a try for a week.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
Wish Lists on Wait
Michelle Rhee: Ready, Fire, Train
Virginia's Turnaround Specialists Interview w John Merrow#4: podcast transcript video
Bill Gates, "We have not seen dramatic improvements..."
Barack Obama: Wish List May Have to Wait
Proponents of education reform are beginning to run up against. Relative newcomers to the game are finding out that the solutions are not easy fixes. Improving achievement takes long term planning and, in my opinion, a systems approach. One critical missing factor is a focus on what students are learning (and what teachers are teaching).
Rhee's plan promotes firing many teachers and on professional development for the rest, including support from a Massachusetts consulting firm. Virginia's plan included training people who were supposed to go into a school, reform it an move on. Gate's plan was to change the structure of high schools. Obama's plan includes many of the same, and his nominated Secretary of Education believes that charters and entrepreneurs will do the trick.
Here in California, I am betting on knowing the California content standards and teaching to them. Everyone learning grade level standards. Professional development based on aligning the instructional materials, teaching methods, and assessments with the content standards. Performance evaluations based on the ability of each person to help students learn those grade level standards. This is the only thing I can see working. A state's content standards aren't the bee's knees or the end-all be-all. Nevertheless, they do take each core discipline and impose a logical sequence upon them. They establish a common foundation for offerings of professional development, objectives for classroom visits, communication to parents, and performance demands for students. Why can't we all get motivated behind those, learn them, teach them, assess them and see what happens?
Virginia's Turnaround Specialists Interview w John Merrow#4: podcast transcript video
Bill Gates, "We have not seen dramatic improvements..."
Barack Obama: Wish List May Have to Wait
Proponents of education reform are beginning to run up against. Relative newcomers to the game are finding out that the solutions are not easy fixes. Improving achievement takes long term planning and, in my opinion, a systems approach. One critical missing factor is a focus on what students are learning (and what teachers are teaching).
Rhee's plan promotes firing many teachers and on professional development for the rest, including support from a Massachusetts consulting firm. Virginia's plan included training people who were supposed to go into a school, reform it an move on. Gate's plan was to change the structure of high schools. Obama's plan includes many of the same, and his nominated Secretary of Education believes that charters and entrepreneurs will do the trick.
Here in California, I am betting on knowing the California content standards and teaching to them. Everyone learning grade level standards. Professional development based on aligning the instructional materials, teaching methods, and assessments with the content standards. Performance evaluations based on the ability of each person to help students learn those grade level standards. This is the only thing I can see working. A state's content standards aren't the bee's knees or the end-all be-all. Nevertheless, they do take each core discipline and impose a logical sequence upon them. They establish a common foundation for offerings of professional development, objectives for classroom visits, communication to parents, and performance demands for students. Why can't we all get motivated behind those, learn them, teach them, assess them and see what happens?
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