Improve Our Schools NOW!

Relocating this blog...

2006-04-23T09:45:00.000-05:00

I've finally had it with Blogger... too many service disruptions and "connection reset" errors (which may just be some nice little glitch with the filter software in my district because I connected just fine at home.)

This blog has been moved to http://www.ed421.com and has also been renamed to "Change Agency". I am redirecting the feedburner, technorati, and blogrolling links -- so if you receive this feed from any of those three then you won't have to do anything.

The new site, which is hosted on HostGator and powered by Word Press offers greater flexibility and more options (like categories). Now I can play with the design a little bit and stretch some of my creative muscles (see Mom, the degree in graphic design and art is still useful every now and then!)

I hope you enjoy the new blog...

Those darn kids!

2006-04-21T15:02:00.000-05:00

I just heard from one of my colleagues at another high school campus in our district that the students have successfully circumvented the district filters by using proxy servers to access MySpace. :)

...of course... now the district is trying to block all of the proxy servers...

Conjunction Junction, what's your function?...

2006-04-21T10:44:00.000-05:00

Nice post over at Schools Matter on the power of SchoolHouse Rock lyrics (I can still recite them to this day) and the reduction of courses in music, histroy, and the arts in this era of high-stakes testing. But all of those kinds of classes -- and media like SchooHouse Rock -- are just "fluff", right? They do nothing to increase student achievement in science and math, do they?...

SchoolHouse Rock is a great example of using a specific medium to increase student learning. It merged the television medium, which at the time was THE medium, with music and animation (to capture the attention of children), to teach basic knowledge and concepts in social studies, grammar, math, and science.

I don't keep up with current children's television programming, but I would love to hear about any current programs that are effective with young children in the way that SchoolHouse Rock was for children of the 70s and 80s. Please post comments with links to websites or resources where we can learn more...

"...hooking up words and phrases and clauses
Conjunction Junction, how's that function?
I got three favorite cars
That get most of my job done.
Conjunction Junction, what's their function?
I got "and", "but", and "or",
They'll get you pretty far.

"And":
That's an additive, like "this and that".
"But":
That's sort of the opposite,
"Not this *but* that".
And then there's "or":
O-R, when you have a choice like
"This or that".
"And", "but", and "or",
Get you pretty far."

Congress promises scrutiny of test scores - Apr 19, 2006

2006-04-19T15:18:00.000-05:00

CNN.com - Congress promises scrutiny of test scores - Apr 19, 2006
Oh boy... here we go... now THIS is going to be interesting!

Some leaders said Congress may need to intervene. The Education Department and others owe the public an explanation, said the Republican House Education Committee chairman's office.
"All stakeholders involved in the discussion should be willing to step forward and explain to parents and taxpayers why they have asked for special accommodations," said Steve Forde, spokesman for committee chairman Howard McKeon, R-California.

Yeah... and while they're at it -- how 'bout an explanation for these results from a Survey Released Showing Vermont Teachers' Attitudes Toward NCLB | Vermont Society for the Study of Education

No Child Left Behind?.... yeah, right... it's a little more like MILLIIONS of children left behind...

'No Child' loophole misses millions of scores - Apr 18, 2006

2006-04-18T17:49:00.000-05:00

This article -- 'No Child' loophole misses millions of scores - Apr 18, 2006 -- has been blogged about all day long and I'm certain that it's all over the Internet by now...

The only thing I have to add about this issue of uncounted scores is that everyone involved in accountability on every campus across the nation already knew about this. We've known from the beginning that if any sub-pop does not contain enough students to be "statistically significant", then those scores don't get counted and those students scores don't count against your school's accountability rating.

Here's a quote from the article:

States are helping schools get around that second requirement by using a loophole in the law that allows them to ignore scores of racial groups that are too small to be statistically significant.
Suppose, for example, that a school has 2,000 white students and nine Hispanics. In nearly every state, the Hispanic scores wouldn't be counted because there aren't enough to provide meaningful information and because officials want to protect students' privacy.

So -- let's suppose your cutoff number is 30 students. If you have 29 Hispanic students in your school then their scores won't count against you. But if you have 31 Hispanic students then their scores do count in your accountability rating. Oh -- and their rate of participation (attendance) counts too. So don't try and keep two of those students home from school on the day of testing.

Now... how many of you out there still think No Child Left Behind is about "doing what's best for all students"...

How many of you are still not convinced that most school and district administrators are only concerned about the numbers instead of being concerned about the individual students.

MySpace, Immigration, Self-Expression

2006-04-18T10:12:00.000-05:00

Okay -- not going to get too intellectual here... just want to point out that MySpace (and all of the other sites like it) is clear evidence that our students want to be creative and want/need a venue for self-expression that has no limitations...

My question to everyone who thinks we should continue banning MySpace is this:

Do you want students to continue using MySpace they way they have been, or would you prefer to help them use MySpace in a safer, more productive way that leads to them being able to express themselves more intelligently and more safely?

I still insist that regardless of how districts block the website, the students are going to access the site and use it to network, communicate, and express themselves.

On a related note -- the recent immigration protests and walkouts by students are evidence that they want a voice and they want to be a part of something that matters.

In case you weren't on a school campus in the past few weeks -- you need to know that most administrators knew AHEAD of the walkouts that emails and IMs (online and on cell phones) had gone out to students in efforts to get them to all walk out at the same time. Most administrators who got this warning decided to block school exits and post more teachers and police officers around the buildings in order to keep kids in class.

The effect was a message to students that they don't have a right to have a voice.

What should have happened instead?

Schools should have been proactive. Schools should have kept the students in first period and adjusted the curriculum to focus on the immigration issues and give the students the opportunity to talk about the issues, learn more about the issues, and to feel that their voices were being heard. Schools should have taken a proactive stance and helped the students understand that the way to advance their community is to stay in class and focus on educating themselves -- instead of walking out and missing out on instructional time.

Instead, students walked out, got punished, and only then did some schools stop and give students the opportunity to hold discussion forums or hold letter-writing campaigns.

Most distressing of all is the school in Inglewood, California that made the mistake of LOCKING THE SCHOOL DOWN and forcing students to use buckets instead of allowing them to go to the restrooms -- all in order to keep the students from walking out of the school to take part in the protests. The actions of this principal leave me at a loss for words...

Asking the hard questions...

2006-04-18T09:49:00.000-05:00

In Battling the Hamster Wheel, Grace Sammon poses three very important questions that should be driving all school reform efforts in our country. She asks us to consider:

1) Should our schools, as they are currently configured, exist?
2) Do our mission statements reflect what we believe about education and what today's students need to know and be able to do?
3) Do we have an absolute commitment to put into place the policies and practices that we need to meet our mission?

If you read these questions and answer "yes" to the first one, and then respond "yes" to the second one... I wonder if you are aware of the dramatic changes that are occurring right now in the workforce -- and if you truly believe that our students will enter a workforce that resembles what we currently have right at this moment.

Two recent Ed Week articles ask us to reconsider some assumptions that we have about students, public education, and what we are preparing our students for... In Economic Trends Fuel Push to Retool Schooling, Lynn Olsen proposes that our current push to prepare all students for college is out of line with what business executives, scholars, and some policy-makers feel is needed for the workforce of tomorrow. The article A Second Look at Compulsory Education goes even farther asking us to examine our assumption that secondary education must be compulsory. Both of these articles are quite provocative in that they ask all of us to re-examine what we believe with regard to the goals of education.

Which takes us back to the first question listed above: "Should our schools, as they are currently configured, exist?"

Both of these articles lead us to answer "NO" to that question.

If I were to add anything to the three questions listed above, I would add a question that I found in this post by The Savvy Technologist. He writes about a recent presentation that he gave at an education administrators conference. After waking the audience up with some very intriguing predictions about emerging technologies and technology integration in the classroom (AND workforce), he left his audience with this question:

What are you doing right now to prepare your students to collaborate seamlessly across cultures in jobs that probably don’t yet exist?

20 Reasons to Eliminate NCLB

2006-04-18T09:23:00.000-05:00

This list of 20 Reasons to Eliminate NCLB from the Schools Matter blog is a very nice collection of very specific and well defined reasons for eliminating -- not reforming or revising -- the No Child Left Behind Act... I just wonder when we are going to hit a critical mass of people (educators, parents, community members) who are ready to begin taking the actions listed in the post to eliminate NCLB and begin real school redesign/reimagining.

TAKS season again...

2006-04-14T10:19:00.000-05:00

Next week our students will take the Math, Science, and Social Studies portions of the TAKS test. I work on a high school campus and in the spirit of this upcoming TAKS week, I would like to post a sample test question from Math:

The following tests will be given on one campus in a single year:
TAKS retest for Seniors -- October, 4 days; February, 4 days
TAKS test for 9th, 10th, and 11th grade students -- February, 1 day; April, 3 days
SDAA (State alternative to TAKS) -- 4 days
End of Course Testing for 9th grade in four core subject areas -- April, 4 days
Standford 10 testing for all grade levels -- March, 4 days
AP Testing -- May, 10 days
Fall Semester Finals -- December, 4 days
Spring Senior Finals -- May, 4 days
Spring 9th - 11th grade Finals -- May, 4 days
All of the tests listed require the school to shut down instruction for the specified grade levels and none of the tests listed occur on the same days. For example: The Spring Finals for Seniors do not occur on the same days as the Spring Finals for 9th through 11th grade.
If the school year is 180 days long, how many days of instruction are lost due to test taking? (Note: this calculation does not include the number of days lost due to: reviewing for tests, prepping for tests, or pulling students out for tutoring for specific tests.)
A) 40 days
B) 46 days
C) 52 days
D) Too many days!
Answer: The correct answer is "B", but if you selected "D" then you recieve double credit for this question because additional instructional time is lost in prepping, reviewing and tutoring for the TAKS and final exams. Even if you count one day of review or prepping for each day tested, your total days lost adds up to 92 days -- which is OVER HALF of the total 180 instructional days availble per year.

Hmmmm... and we wonder why our students don't seem to be scoring as well as students from other countries or why they aren't prepared for the rigorous work of college courses?

An Analogy...

2006-04-14T10:06:00.000-05:00

I received this in an email recently -- It's a great analogy...

No Child Left Behind

This is so GREAT, and it puts the RIDICULOUSNESS of the "No Child Left Behind" nonsense into perspective. Whether you're a teacher or the friend of one, I hope you'll appreciate the analogy. Be sure to read to the end...

No Dentist Left Behind

My dentist is great! He sends me reminders so I don't forget checkups. He uses the latest techniques based on research. He never hurts me, and I've got all my teeth. When I ran into him the other day, I was eager to see if he'd heard about the new state program. I knew he'd think it was great.

"Did you hear about the new state program to measure effectiveness of dentists with their young patients?" I said.
" No," he said. He didn't seem too thrilled. "How will they do that?"

"It's quite simple," I said. "They will just count the number of cavities each patient has at age 10, 14, and 18 and average that to determine a dentist's rating. Dentists will be rated as excellent, good, average, below average, and unsatisfactory. That way parents will know which are the best dentists. The plan will also encourage the less effective dentists to get better," I said. "Poor dentists who don't improve could lose their licenses to practice."

"That's terrible," he said.

"What? That's not a good attitude," I said. "Don't you think we should try to improve children's dental health in this state?"

"Sure I do," he said, "but that's not a fair way to determine who is practicing good dentistry."

Why not?" I said. "It makes perfect sense to me."
"Well, it's so obvious," he said. "Don't you see that dentists don't all work with the same clientele, and that much depends on things we can't control? For example, I work in a rural area with a high percentage of patients from deprived homes, while some of my colleagues work in upper middle-class neighborhoods. Many of the parents I work with don't bring their children to see me until there is some kind of problem, and I don't get to do much preventive work.

Also many of the parents I serve let their kids eat way too much candy from an early age, unlike more educated parents who understand the relationship between sugar and decay.

To top it all off, so many of my clients have well water, which is untreated and has no fluoride in it. Do you have any idea how much difference early use of fluoride can make?"

"It sounds like you're making excuses," I said. "I can't believe that you, my dentist, would be so defensive. After all, you do a great job, and you needn't fear a little accountability."

"I am not being defensive!" he said. "My best patients are as good as anyone's, my work is as good as anyone's, but my average cavity count is going to be higher than a lot of other dentists because I chose to work where I am needed most."

"Don't' get touchy," I said.

"Touchy?" he said. His face had turned red, and from the way he was clenching and unclenching his jaws, I was afraid he was going to damage his teeth. "Try furious! In a system like this, I will end up being rated average, below average, or worse. The few educated patients I have who see these ratings may believe this so-called rating is an actual measure of my ability and proficiency as a dentist. They may leave me, and I'll be left with only the most needy patients. And my cavity average score will get even worse. On top of that, how will I attract good dental hygienists and other excellent dentists to my practice if it is labeled below average?"

"I think you are overreacting," I said."'Complaining, excuse-making and stonewalling won't improve dental health'...I am quoting from a leading member of the DOC," I noted.

"What's the DOC?" he asked.

"It's the Dental Oversight Committee," I said, "a group made up of mostly lay persons to make sure dentistry in this state gets improved."

"Spare me," he said, "I can't believe this. Reasonable people won't buy it," he said hopefully.

The program sounded reasonable to me, so I asked, "How else would you measure good dentistry?"

"Come watch me work," he said. "Observe my processes."

"That's too complicated, expensive and time-consuming," I said. "Cavities are the bottom line, and you can't argue with the bottom line. It's an absolute measure."

"That's what I'm afraid my parents and prospective patients will think. This can't be happening," he said despairingly.

"Now, now," I said, "don't despair. The state will help you some."

"How?" he asked.

"If you receive a poor rating, they'll send a dentist who is rated excellent to help straighten you out," I said brightly.

"You mean," he said, "they'll send a dentist with a wealthy clientele to show me how to work on severe juvenile dental problems with which I have probably had much more experience? BIG HELP!"

"There you go again," I said. "You aren't acting professionally at all."

"You don't get it," he said. "Doing this would be like grading schools and teachers on an average score made on a test of children's progress with no regard to influences outside the school, the home, the community served and stuff like that. Why would they do something so unfair to dentists? No one would ever think of doing that to schools."

I just shook my head sadly, but he had brightened. "I'm going to write my representatives and senators," he said. "I'll use the school analogy. Surely they will see the point."

He walked off with that look of hope mixed with fear and suppressed anger that I, a teacher, see in the mirror so often lately.

****************************

If you don't understand why educators resent the recent federal NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT, this may help. If you do understand, you'll enjoy this analogy, which was forwarded by:

John S. Taylor, Superintendent of Schools for the Lancaster County, PA, School District.
Be a friend to a teacher and pass this on.

Plugged-In and Multitasking...

2006-03-21T18:10:00.000-06:00

This week's issue of Time magazine has a feature article on The Multitasking Generation. The article discusses the technology-integrated lifestyle of today's teenagers -- and it covers some research that has been done on the effectiveness of multitasking.

While it presents both positive and negative aspects of how plugged-in this generation is, the strongest points made in this article are in one of the side-bars called "Tips for Parents." The sidebar, by Dr. Edward Hallowell, a psychiatrist and author of the new book: CrazyBusy : Overstretched, Overbooked, and About to Snap! Strategies for Coping in a World Gone ADD,offers some guidelines for parents of Generation M:

1) Do see for yourself what it's all about. Get on IM. Download an MP3 file. Play a video game. Create a MySpace account. Let your kids be your guide, but talk to them about how to use these technologies safely and wisely.

2) Don't be a disapproving elder. Every older generation believes the younger generation is on the road to perdition. Your kids need your curiosity and involvement, not pious, uninformed pronouncements.

3) Do set limits, monitor content and teach "techno-manners" for everyone: No cell phones at the dinner table. No playing video games while someone is trying to talk to you. No ignoring Mom and Dad when they come home because you are glued to a screen.

4) Don't be a screen-sucker. Monitor your own online behavior and television viewing. A major reason for the disappearance of the human moment in families is the parents' -- not just the kids' -- addiction to screens.

5) Do look for the good. Search for what's positive and innovative in the ways in which your children are using and adapting to technology. Try to imagine how it could be used to enhance relationships and learning.

6) Don't let technology steal your kids from you. Enjoy your children. Cherish the face-to-face conversations, the shared laughter, the dinner with all the family, the bedtime story, the car ride without the iPod, cideo game or fold-down DVD.

7) Do take time to hang out with your kids. Do mundane, nontechnological things: wash the car together, play Ping-Pong, debate politics, take them out for ice cream (no cell phones or iPods allowed.) Spend time together with ears and eyes available for them.

Excellent advice -- I don't think I could have stated it any better!

MySpace and Abstinence

2006-03-12T09:12:00.000-06:00

With all of the recent news articles about the dangers of kids using MySpace you would think that we've never seen such an epidemic of predators finding children through online communication tools -- or through any other means.

The hype over MySpace has become so persistent that my school district just banned the site with it's filtering software. Funny... somehow the district missed the whole story -- our students can still access Xanga and all of the other social networking sites.

In a recent blog post about the media hype surrounding MySpace, Wesley Fryer (Moving at the Speed of Creativity), expresses concern over media sensationalism and their lack of responsibility towards educating people instead of scaring them to death. I agree completely with his views on educating parents, students, and the community as a whole about the many resources and opportunities available online -- and available through these kinds of social networking sites.

Let's be honest about what MySpace really is: It's an online networking tool, orginally developed for the self-promotion of unsigned musicians and bands. There is nothing inherently evil or dangerous about MySpace.

However, like many online tools, it can be abused, and yes, there is danger when inexperienced web users like children and teenagers use a networking or communications tool with complete trust and little scrutiny of who they are communicating with.

But -- using district filtering software to ban the site from campus computers will not solve the deeper issue of the need to teach kids how to use online resources effectively, efficiently, wisely, and safely.

This is very similar to the current policies we have about teaching kids abstinence instead of teaching them about safe-sex. If you really think that teaching kids to abstain from sex will stop them from having sex then you are 1) really out of touch with teens today and/or 2) you completely forget what it was like to be a teenager with raging hormones.

Our teenagers are having sex. By NOT teaching them about safe-sex and only promoting abstinence we are doing them a disservice and potentially putting them in danger.

Our kids are going online and using social networking resources. By NOT teaching them about Internet Safety and NOT teaching them how to use these tools responsibly we are doing them a disservice and potentially putting them in danger.

When we fear that sexual predators may drive up in a car and try to abduct our children do we ban our children from playing outside or walking to school? No -- we teach them not to talk to strangers and not to get into any car with a stranger.

I think its time for the adults to stop letting our fear win -- it's time for the adults to step-up to the plate and teach our kids how to use the Internet in safe and responsible ways because it is a part of our life and much like the sidewalk that they must walk down to get to school, the Internet will continue (and increasingly) be the path that our students will take to gather information and to communicate with friends, family, co-workers, and business associates.

Educators have a responsibility for teaching students the most effective and most efficient ways to use all information resources. Parents have also have responsibilities in this area. Parents should monitor Internet use and talk to their children about what they are doing online.

Having said all of that, I must acknowledge the real reason that our district probably filtered the site out with its software. Regardless of the potential for using the media hype as a great "teaching moment" to address issues of Internet safety, the district must know that there is greater potential -- at least for now -- that a parent will file a lawsuit against the district for allowing their children to have access to this website. How very unfortunate that this is our reality.

"The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do."
B. F. Skinner

"This is perhaps the most beautiful time in human history; it is really pregnant with all kinds of creative possibilities made possible by science and technology which now constitute the slave of man - if man is not enslaved by it."
Jonas Salk

More Info on Using Data to Improve Student Learning

2006-03-08T15:30:00.000-06:00

Following up an earlier post about collecting and analyzing data, here are a few additional resources from Dr. Victoria Bernhardt:

Using Data to Improve Student Learning in Elementary Schools

Using Data to Improve Student Learning in Middle Schools

Using Data to Improve Student Learning in High Schools

Designing and Using Databases For School Improvement

NASSP Releases Middle Level Reform Guide

2006-03-08T15:28:00.000-06:00

NASSP follows up their highly influential Breaking Ranks II: Strategies for Leading High School Reform with a new guide focusing on Middle Level Reform.

The new guide was set to be released on March 1st with first shipments occurring around March 30th. Breaking Ranks in the Middle: Strategies for Leading Middle Level Reform will provide middle level school leaders with hands-on strategies to improve the performance of their students and better prepare them for the transition to high school.

Educators who have been working on high school reform understand that significant change occurs when the reform efforts focus on all secondary grades and not just at the high school levels. Without a reform focus on the middle level grades we are working too hard too late in the game.

This new publication from NASSP will give needed guidance for improving student achievement in a way that effectively supports the current efforts at the high school level.

Texas Educators Take up Call to Run for Legislature

2006-03-08T15:26:00.000-06:00

This recent Education Week article, Texas Educators Take up Call to Run for Legislature, covers the results of a recruiting drive by a parent organization to put teachers in the state legislature. The movement stems from parents’ and educators’ frustration with the inability of the current legislative body to enact significant and realistic school improvement reform and school finance reform.

In total, more than two dozen candidates with backgrounds in education are running for the GOP-controlled legislature. The list includes teachers, former administrators, and some who have served on local school boards.

In a state burdened with a failing school finance system, overly-mandated classrooms and school systems, and students and teachers exhausted from a high-stakes testing culture, it would be refreshing to finally have legislators who have some clue about what really needs to happen in school improvement and finance reform.

Tired of the Hamster Wheels...

2006-03-03T16:41:00.000-06:00

Someone recently asked me why I was starting this blog. It’s simple. I’m tired of running in place and getting nowhere with regard to real, sustainable school improvement.

I’m angry with a status quo that accepts the structures of our education systems. They just aren’t working and I’m tired of people thinking that we can improve schools piece by piece.

In her new book, Battling the Hamster Wheel, Grace Sammon expresses her own frustration with our “cycles of reform” and lack of progress due to obstacles and infrastructures that don’t provide what is needed to really improve our schools. Detailing first-hand experiences (from over 19 years in the field trying to improve schools), she explains the reality that we face and why so many of our efforts fail. She goes beyond “theories” and describes the real obstacles that prevent improvement.

I read this book and became angrier with the system in which I work. This book calls for honesty about what is really going on in school reform, in education systems/organizations, in policy making, and in the classroom. She uses the metaphor of a “hamster wheel” to describe the feeling that many of us have as we continue to fight rigid, bureaucratic systems that inhibit progress.

Her hypothesis about what is going on today in education is simple: “…we have neither recognized that the schools we have created can no longer serve the needs of all students nor have we made a commitment to build the capacity of our educators to make the necessary changes in the schools to meet with success.”

This book is highly recommended reading for anyone else who is tired of our “cycles”… anyone tired of the “hamster wheel” feeling… anyone ready to start making changes that matter and that have a real impact.

We are using this book in our schools and within our district with different leadership teams as a “book study” and a way to generate new thinking about our practice as leaders, teachers, and learners.

Sammon also included a handy “Study Guide” for each chapter at the end of the book that gives leadership teams, teacher teams, and individuals thought-provoking questions and activities to apply the information to their own schools or districts.

And that is why I started this blog – because I’m angry and tired of running in place and I am now ready to jump off of the “hamster wheel” and find ways that I can make a bigger difference in improving our schools….

To order Grace Sammon’s book -- click here.

For a visual representation of what the "cycle of reform" usually looks like... check out this "hamster wheel."

Data-Driven Decision-Making

2006-03-02T21:05:00.000-06:00

"Data-Driven Decision-Making" -- in the world of education reform this term is one of the hottest being tossed around right now. "Data, data, data" is all anyone is talking about these days...

But -- what are most educators -- and by that I mean teachers and administrators -- doing when they say that they have started making "data-driven decisions"?

I question this because I've recently been engaged in conversation with administrators in my district who love to toss around the jargon, but when you begin to really question them about what they are doing it becomes clear that many of them really don't know:

1) What the data that they are looking at is really measuring
2) What the data really means
3) How to analyze or interpret the data in a meaningful way

The result is that most of the administrators and educators that I know tend to look at a set of data -- usually the standardized tests scores of the students -- and make generalized assumptions like "the teachers must not be teaching the right things or using the best instructional practices" or "the students still aren't improving in math so we should increase the number of math classes they are taking each year!" The reality is that standardized test scores do not give anyone the information needed to make the kinds of decisions given in that example. And yet, 99% of the time, this is exactly what happens when educators are handed a set of data.

What should be happening, and what isn't happening enough, is that educators should -- when handed a set of data -- begin to ask themselves...

What is this data?
What is it telling me/us?
What is it measuring exactly?
How is it measuring it?
Is this norm-referenced or criterion-referenced and what does that matter to me, the educator?
What do I really want to know?
Does this data tell me that?
If so, then what more information do I need to develop a hypothesis about the information revealed in this data and how do I get that additional data?
If it doesn't tell me what I need to know, then what kind of data do I need? How do I get that data?

Ideally, as educators we should have access to multiple data sets that can give us an accurate picture of what students are learning, how well they are learning it, what instructional practices and school procedures/policies are working and which ones aren't and WHY?

In her book, Data Analysis for Continuous School Improvement,Victoria Bernhardt discusses in great detail the various kinds of data that we can collect, how to interpret that data, and how to triangulate the various data to give us a more accurate picture of what is happening in our classrooms.

Those of us who are working with other administrators and educators to improve our schools must demand this type of inquiry in our "data-driven decision-making" if it is going to have the impact that we desire.

Too often in education reform we tend to throw the jargon around without asking ourselves what it really means. I challenge you to ask yourself and your colleagues if you really know how to make effective data-driven decisions.

New blog to discuss issues related to school reform.

2006-03-02T15:19:00.000-06:00

The purpose of this blog will be to discuss issues surrounding the direction our policy makers are going with regard to education reform and school improvement.

Discussions will focus on specific topics and will reference current literature and research supporting specific viewpoints.