ASCD Inservice

ASCD Express Calls for Submissions

ASCD Express is looking for short, 600–1,000-word essays on the theme of "Collaboration to Support Instruction." The theme description is below, and guidelines for submissions are here. Send us your submissions by Tuesday, November 11.

When teachers can rely on instructional leaders in the school for support and guidance, they can improve their classroom practice significantly. But how should such collegial relationships be structured for professional success, which means maximum influence on student learning? This issue will look at collaborative models that encourage mutual sharing of classroom practice and insight among educators with different levels of experience in an atmosphere of trust.

Five Reasons Educators Must Vote

Education is the most important factor in shaping our country's future. As an educator, you have the expertise to determine which candidate's education policies will lead to a bright and promising future for our nation's children.

With five days left until election day, we'd like to share our top five reasons educators should vote. To add your own reasons to the list, share your comments below. 

1. Your vote is uniquely informed by the needs of the hundreds, maybe thousands, of students you have touched. Give them a voice in this election.

2. A vote for education is a vote for the economy, national security, and the environment. 

3. Ensuring that our children are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged requires the commitment of policymakers. Schools alone cannot accomplish this task.

4. By voting, you lead by example and model for your students how to be a responsible and civically engaged citizen.

5. The next president and Congress will decide the course of No Child Left Behind.

If you're not sure where the candidates stand on education, make sure to watch the Teacher's College debate between Linda Darling-Hammond and Lisa Graham Keegan, the respective education advisors for Senators Barack Obama and John McCain.

To receive updates and alerts informing you when your voice can make a difference in shaping education policy, join ASCD's Educator Advocates.

Changes Announced for NCLB

Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings recently announced new changes to the controversial No Child Left Behind law (NCLB) just months before the Bush administration leaves office. Among the most significant changes are a measure that requires states to adopt the same method for calculating graduation rates and a requirement for states to update their formal plans. The formal plans, or workbooks, explain how students are assessed and how states develop content standards.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) expressed his pleasure with the changes in the law, but some critics have their concerns. Usually, changes of this nature are submitted to the Department of Education in February, and the unusual timing may have consequences when the next president takes office in January.

Disrupting Education

Clayton M. Christensen, Michael B. Horn, and Chester E. Finn Jr. discussed disruptive innovation in education at the American Enterprise Institute on October 27. Despite the negative-sounding theme, their discussion wasn't about wrecking the educational system; rather, they discussed how to improve it.

Horn pointed to the theory of multiple intelligences as a reason students struggle to learn in a standardized setting. He argued students learn better in a customized setting where they can learn at their own pace and through methods that work for each individual.

One talking point that the panel continuously debated was the idea of virtual learning—where high school students take online courses but are not necessarily in a traditional classroom with a teacher. Having a virtual school would allow students to take the courses they want and learn in their own manner, and because of the low cost of the "schools," more money could be spent on other educational priorities. By 2019, Christensen and Horn think 50 percent of high school courses will be online. Finn challenged this opinion, saying teachers and teacher unions are too powerful to let their job security be threatened.

Do you think virtual schools would be a positive disruption to education's status quo?

America's Next Top Ed. Sec.: Sebelius?

Sure, the election is still a week away, but is it ever too early to engage in some idle speculation on who might succeed Margaret Spellings atop the Department of Education?

Atlantic blogger Marc Ambinder drops a lot of names in a post imagining the Cabinet in the event of an Obama victory, among them governors Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS) and Janet Napolitano (D-AZ) as possible Ed heads.

Both Napolitano and Sebelius notably launched P-20 Education Councils in their states. Sebelius has spoken passionately of better coordination among educational levels, declaring at the first meeting of Kansas's council, "What we need is a strategic group to focus on how to get it right now, to take that 3 year old through graduate school, make sure we link what's happening in the schools with real skills."

What do you think of these potential nominees? Regardless of who wins the election, who would you like to see in this position?

MathML Strengthens Digital Math Texts

Digital texts are moving beyond simply putting pages on a computer screen.

In Kentucky, a small pilot study is demonstrating the benefits of this textbook technology for students with different learning styles. Instead of re-creating a complex math problem as a static image file, digital texts that use math markup language, or MathML, are able to speak words and equations while highlighting corresponding elements on a computer screen.

MathML-enabled digital texts helped the study's very small cohort of students struggling with printed text outperform peers who used traditional print texts. Many students said that before MathML, they'd see a problem but not know how to say it. Hearing the formula and how to say it was a big help to these students.

The Economics of Dropping Out

In these uncertain economic times, experts say one way to stimulate the economy is to prevent dropouts. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article

• Only half the high school students in the largest 50 cities are graduating in four years. In Detroit the graduation rate is an appalling 25 percent and in Indianapolis it's 30.5 percent.
• Cutting the dropout rate in half would generate $45 billion in tax revenue annually, assuming jobs are available.
• Seventy-seven million people are retiring in the near future, and younger generations are going to have to take over the workforce--something dropouts are not likely to be prepared for.
• Each year dropouts represent $320 billion in lost lifetime earning potential.
• The average difference in lifetime earnings between a dropout and a college graduate is $300,000.
• Dropouts represent 75 percent of those incarcerated in state prisons, and taxpayer money pays for their housing, food, and other expenses. 

Reducing school dropouts is crucial to improving the quality of life in our communities. Are business and civic leaders getting the message?

Tools for the Future

As noted in several past posts, student learning is being shaped by new technology. While many educators are wary of using mobile technology, Wayne Brazell, superintendent of the Laurens County School District in Clinton, S.C., has embraced it and sees tools such as laptops, smart phones, and MP3 players playing a pivotal role in the future of education.

Brazell says the availability and price drops in high-tech products is helping fuel this trend. In his school district, Brazell acknowledges that technology is embedded in students' lives and feels they shouldn't have to "power down" when they come to school. Hear how Brazell is getting his district to "power up" and keep kids engaged through technology:

Brazell interview

Brazell presents "Portable Tools for Powerful Teaching," today at ASCD's 2008 Conference on Teaching and Learning in Los Angeles, Calif. Select conference sessions will be recorded and available for purchase and download November 1 at PlayBack Now.

Dethroning the Sacred Gods of Grading

Educator and principal Tim Westerberg wants teachers to understand how important  effective feedback and formative assessments are in the classroom. Employing these strategies, he says, are essential to being successful with students, and he wants to "dethrone the sacred gods of the current grading systems." 

Westerberg says current grading practices such as extra credit, the 100-point system, and grade averaging need to be reexamined to see if they are practical and helpful. Multiple-measures and similar systems would work better in determining students' grades.

Westerberg also comments on the importance of teacher leadership in schools and feels teachers must assume responsibility for their quality of teaching or their schools will never achieve greatness.

Westerberg interview

Westerberg presents "Classroom Assessment and Grading" today at ASCD's 2008 Conference on Teaching and Learning in Los Angeles, Calif. Select conference sessions will be available for download and purchase November 1 at PlayBack Now.

Education Advisors Square Off at Teachers College

On Tuesday, two education advisors to the Barack Obama and John McCain campaigns sat down and debated their respective candidates' stances on education at Teachers College in New York. Linda Darling-Hammond, an advisor to Obama, and Lisa Graham Keegan, an advisor to McCain, were vague on some issues but did shed some light on how education policy would be shaped under their candidates if elected. Here are some of the highlights:

On NCLB:

McCain feels all students need to be assessed and schools need to be held accountable. All students need to be assessed using the same measures, or students cannot be accurately compared. The best way to assess students is to examine test scores. He is against portfolio assessments but wants to look at value-added methods.

Obama supports its goals but feels the law needs to be changed. He would like to look at alternate accountability methods such as value-added methods. He thinks 21st century skills should be taught and assessed to help U.S. students keep up with the rest of the world. Science, history, and technology should also be given equal time as math and reading. Hammond feels current testing is stuck in the 1950s. Obama would like more essay questions as opposed to multiple choice questions on tests.

No Soldier Left Behind?

When Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) took office in 2007, the first thing he did was introduce and help pass the Post-9/11 GI Bill. The new bill will nearly double the amount of money veterans can receive for higher education and start keeping pace with the rising tuition costs that the current, but dated, GI Bill struggles to keep up with. Unfortunately, the bill will not go into effect until August 2009--eight years after 9/11 and when many Iraq and Afghanistan veterans will already be out of school or have already accumulated a large amount of debt.

Keep the Intent, Reform the Implementation

Ask two educators who specialize in providing leadership for students coping with poverty what they think about NCLB, and they'll tell you:

Keep the intent, reform the implementation.

In particular, said William Parrett and Kathleen Budge, remove single-test score measures of achievement. "NCLB can get better. There is a role for the federal government in public education. A lot of times, federal policy can prompt us to do what we should be doing, morally, anyway. The big challenge with NCLB is making federal level policy work with state and local needs."

Parrett and Budge interview, Pt. 3

Check out parts 1 and 2 of this interview.

Parrett and Budge, of Boise State University, present their session, "Leadership, Poverty, and Kids," at this month's ASCD Conference on Teaching and Learning.

Power Beyond the Classroom

It's clear from Inservice coverage of the vice presidential debate and the three presidential debates that education hasn't been a top issue during this election season. In fact, the country's economic meltdown has dominated political conversations of late, and the candidates' substantive conversations on education can probably be counted on one hand. But in his latest "Is It Good for the Kids?" column, ASCD Executive Director Gene Carter asserts,

Moving forward, the new president, his administration, and the new Congress must refocus their attention on education because it's the single most important factor shaping our country's future. If we don't educate our children well, they won't be able to lead our country and solve its problems years from now.

Carter describes how educators hold a unique power and responsibility when it comes to influencing policymakers and shaping education policy because "they offer elected officials a direct line to students." He describes how ASCD is committed to helping educators exercise their voices beyond their classrooms, schools, and districts so that education policy is developed and implemented with student interests in mind.

Here at Inservice, we want to know how you've exercised your voice beyond the classroom to influence education policy. Do you feel prepared to talk with lawmakers about improving education? Have you encountered barriers to sharing your expertise with legislators?

Show IB Some Respect

High school students taking rigorous International Baccalaureate (IB) courses hoping to get college credit may be disappointed when they arrive on campus. Many universities refuse to recognize IB exam scores, while some of these same schools accept Advanced Placement (AP) scores.

IB courses focus on writing and analyzing more than AP classes and rarely use multiple choice questions on exams, while AP exams rely on the multiple choice format for about half the questions. Some argue that this means AP courses are less rigorous than IB, and that any school accepting AP credits should also accept IB.

Colleges urge students to take advanced courses--shouldn't they honor both IB and AP credits?

Talent Development vs. Schooling

Think of those people who have achieved the highest levels of accomplishment in cognitive, artistic, and athletic fields. What contributed to their greatness? What role did schools play in their success—and what role could they play?

Benjamin Bloom and Lauren Sosniak tackled this issue in "Talent Development vs. Schooling," (PDF) an article in the November 1981 issue of Educational Leadership that provided a glimpse at research led by Bloom on the backgrounds of such highly talented individuals.

Too Much Focus on Students' Weaknesses?

Are teachers focusing too much on struggling students' weaknesses instead of their strengths? That's what Yvette Jackson, chief executive officer of the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education, said in a recent meeting at ASCD headquarters. Her presentation on reversing underachievement in urban schools stressed focusing on students' strengths because "your focus is reality."

She warned against the assumption that underachievers have no strengths and the dangers of using labels (minority, disadvantaged, etc.) to support these assumptions. In order to close the achievement gap, educators shouldn't look at the lack of potential, but rather should have a fearless belief that all students have potential and teach according to that mind-set. 

Do you find yourself focusing on students' strengths or weaknesses? Or both?

Hear Jackson talk about the power of educators to nurture potential in students.

21st Century Skills Take Off in Nine States

Last week's most-clicked SmartBrief article discussed how 21st century skills are driving curriculum reform in states like Wisconsin, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Iowa. Nine states in total have signed on with the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, a coalition of business and education leaders advocating for education beyond the scope of academic content, including skills like financial and technological literacy, communication, collaboration, and problem solving within a global context.

Infusing curriculum with 21st century skills poses challenges to teachers and school officials: These so-called "soft skills" are more conceptual in nature, and therefore more difficult to integrate than straightforward "content factoids." It's also difficult to assess whether students can apply 21st century skills in complex and novel situations using standardized assessments.

West Virginia set up Teach 21, a Web site devoted to helping teachers in the state plan and develop curriculum, to curtail some of these concerns.

Classroom Politics in Racine

A mother in Wisconsin is questioning the Racine Unified School District's decision to use a textbook featuring a chapter on Barack Obama. She expressed her displeasure that neither John McCain nor any other politicians were predominately mentioned in the McDougal-Littell Literature, 8th Grade textbook. "McCain is a prisoner of war—that's a story in itself," she said. "Or Dick Cheney's wife has written children's stories. Was that in any of their books?"

The selections, taken from Obama's 2004 Democratic National Convention speech and his autobiography, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, were selected by a panel of educators within the district. The school system claims it does not support any presidential candidate and that the selection was made to provide a "contemporary and multicultural figure to explore." The 2009 textbook has had the chapter removed.

Do you think this mother's concerns are well-founded?

In related news, the United Federation of Teachers recently sued for the rights of NYC public school teachers to distribute campaign materials in areas off-limits to students and to wear buttons endorsing particular presidential candidates. The court decided in favor of distributing election materials among other teachers but against teachers' wearing political buttons in the classroom. Read the UFT press release here and New York Times commentary on the issue here.

Creating Lifelong Learners

Creating Lifelong Learners is described as a blog that "aims to offer practical tips for elementary teachers in teaching language arts, valuing students and their cultures, appealing to different learning modalities, and integrating technology in the curriculum." Written by teacher Matthew Needleman, the blog is a trove of tips and resources and rich discussion for educators looking to ensure their classrooms and schools are relevant in the 21st century.

One regular feature is the Digital Storytelling Carnival, which compiles examples of innovative student filmmaking projects from around the blogosphere. Also, for those educators concerned about fair use, the blog has featured helpful resources explaining the topic.

Leadership Skills for Working with Kids in Poverty

Leadership does not solely reside in the principal's office, but how can new teachers get involved in school leadership?

William Parrett shares an example of how a veteran teacher and a 2nd-year teacher are collaboratively leading an effort to successfully transition 65 new limited-English-proficient students into their school. He also shares some of the beliefs and practices that will help educators provide targeted interventions for students coping with poverty, without singling out or stigmatizing students as "the poor kids."

Parrett and Budge interview, Pt. 2

Check out part 1 of this interview.

Parrett and Kathleen Budge of Boise State University will present their session, "Leadership, Poverty, and Kids," at this month's ASCD Conference on Teaching and Learning.