Sunday, July 3, 2011

NOT Rocket Science

One of the things I love about education is the challenge of it. Since my first year of teaching 11 years ago, I remember reading and talking and asking lots of questions trying to find that elusive magic bullet. What is it that we can do to eliminate the achievement gap? It turns out it isn't that complicated. Here's the secret: do whatever it takes to make sure every student learns, every single day. If they don't, then re-teach in a different way and assess again.

Roland Fryer and Geoffrey Canada talk about this issue. Check it out:

www.aifestival.org/session/afternoon-conversation-geoffrey-canada-and-roland-fryer-jr

There are five things we can do to eliminate the achievement gap*:

1) More time in school.

2) Teacher quality

3) Using data to drive instruction – every 3 weeks, re-teach, re-assess, make sure kids get mastery

4) Differentiating instruction

5) Culture, expectations, accountability

(*research based data shows these five things are correlated with significantly reducing the achievement gap).


Now, if only we could get teachers on board with this....

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Changing School Culture

Thanks to a colleague, I'm reading a great book about changing school culture. I've wondered how to go about changing mindsets so that everyone has the "do whatever it takes" attitude when it comes to student achievement. The strange thing is that many teachers will say that they are doing all they can, that they can't do anymore. We have to keep going until all students achieve. The very idea that one can do this job in 7.75 hours is ridiculous and unprofessional yet our profession is part of a union that fights for the right to arrive at work at 7:00 and leave promptly at 2:45. If we are to make real changes for our students, we cannot adhere to that schedule. Imagine a surgeon who had a particularly difficult operation. What if his hours were up in the midst of surgery? Would he leave the patient on the table? Never. But that's what some teachers are fighting for. I'm not into teacher bashing because it gets us no where. It's time for solutions. Time to use the union to move our profession forward instead of backward. Rather than clinging to some crazy schedule or structures that support weak teachers, why not work to increase our pay and require more education for teacher licensing? Why not work toward a longer school day and paying teachers more who choose to work in high poverty schools? Why be so defensive?

Monday, June 6, 2011

Last Days of School

Everything is important. Every moment. I know everyone is tired and we are all looking forward to some time to rest and recover. But we need to stay focused on our work for now.

Research says that students lose 2.5 months of learning over the summer and the time spent recovering the learning in the fall simply puts student learning back even more. This problem is more critical with poor children. I know everyone thinks we're being nice by showing movies on these last days and going on field trips, but really, we're doing some real damage that can't be made up. Students will spend much of their summer indoors watching movies. School is for learning. Step it up people. It's the least we can do.