The Other 17 Hours

Educators know from firsthand experience that achievement in the classroom is often linked to students' lives outside school. On the blog The Other 17 Hours, teachers at Thurgood Marshall Academy in Washington, D.C., highlight the connection between extracurricular activities and academic success by celebrating the various pastimes, projects, and programs their students enjoy after class lets out.

Programs like the Green Club's organic garden and Law Firm Tutoring—a project that brings together students and local lawyers—exemplify just how enriching after-school pursuits can be when students follow their natural interests and engage with the world beyond the classroom. Whether you're trying to foster extracurricular activities at your school or just looking to see what others are up to, The Other 17 Hours is a great a place to explore how students can continue their education after the school day is over.

Remembering J. H. Fischer

On Friday, the New York Times reported on the passing of J. H. Fischer, who as superintendent led desegregation of Baltimore schools following the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

Baltimore was the first large American city to integrate its schools, and the Times credits Fischer's low-key but firm leadership on the issue: "He showed steely resolve when faced with boycotts, strikes and protests. Any students kept at home by their parents, he warned, or engaging in strikes, would be treated as truants...by seizing the initiative, Mr. Fischer caught potential opponents off guard."

In the February 1955 issue of Educational Leadership, Fischer wrote about how he believed educators should approach the task of desegregation. Read the article "Implementing the Decision" (PDF).

He emphasizes the need for coalition-building when implementing a major reform such as desegregation:

The most admirable programs for educational change have often come to grief when educators, whether unconsciously or by design, have cut the schools loose from community support and have sought to go it alone. Conversely, the most lasting gains are those which have been achieved when school and community, jointly aware of problems but sharing common aspirations, have moved ahead at a pace and in a direction upon which both could agree.

In fact, the Times obituary notes his own efforts were successful in large part due to collaboration with the school board and Baltimore's mayor. 

He also stresses the importance of keeping reform in proper perspective. Children and their well-being, he states, should be the ends of reform efforts, rather than simply the means to achieve larger social goals.

Fischer's advice is well-crafted to apply not simply to the issue of the day, but also to all school reform implementations educators continue to grapple with.

In "My Back Pages," we look at important issues through the historical lens of the Educational Leadership archives. ASCD members can access EL issues from 1943 to the present by signing in at www.ascd.org.

On Friday, the New York Times reported on the passing of J. H. Fischer, who as superintendent led desegregation of Baltimore schools following the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

Baltimore was the first large American city to integrate its schools, and the Times credits Fischer's low-key but firm leadership on the issue: "He showed steely resolve when faced with boycotts, strikes and protests. Any students kept at home by their parents, he warned, or engaging in strikes, would be treated as truants...by seizing the initiative, Mr. Fischer caught potential opponents off guard."

In the February 1955 issue of Educational Leadership, Fischer wrote about how he believed educators should approach the task of desegregation. Read the article "Implementing the Decision" (PDF).

He emphasizes the need for coalition-building when implementing a major reform such as desegregation:

The most admirable programs for educational change have often come to grief when educators, whether unconsciously or by design, have cut the schools loose from community support and have sought to go it alone. Conversely, the most lasting gains are those which have been achieved when school and community, jointly aware of problems but sharing common aspirations, have moved ahead at a pace and in a direction upon which both could agree.

In fact, the Times obituary notes his own efforts were successful in large part due to collaboration with the school board and Baltimore's mayor. 

He also stresses the importance of keeping reform in proper perspective. Children and their well-being, he states, should be the ends of reform efforts, rather than simply the means to achieve larger social goals.

Fischer's advice is well-crafted to apply not simply to the issue of the day, but also to all school reform implementations educators continue to grapple with.

In "My Back Pages," we look at important issues through the historical lens of the Educational Leadership archives. ASCD members can access EL issues from 1943 to the present by signing in at www.ascd.org.

Fitness and Health (1963)

In the March 1963 issue of Educational Leadership, Charles Bucher, a professor of education at New York University, discusses the central role of education in helping students develop healthful habits and follow a fitness regimen.

Read the article: Editorial: Fitness and Health (PDF)

Bucher notes that, just as educators teach English so that students can communicate and mathematics so that they can calculate bills accurately, teachers must educate children about health and physical fitness so that they can stay healthy and vital. To do this, he says that students "need to know scientific facts essential to good health, possess desirable health attitudes, develop skills to make activity exciting and enjoyable and be physically active."

To help educators evaluate their health and physical education programs, Bucher reviews a number of key terms and concepts. Among other issues, he explores how health education and physical education differ, how fitness implies more than just physical prowess and includes a "full and balanced existence," how education must be an integral part of a larger instructional program to be successful, and how interschool athletics represents only one piece of a larger puzzle.

In "My Back Pages," we look at important issues through the historical lens of the Educational Leadership archives. ASCD members can access EL issues from 1943 to the present by signing in at the right.

ASCD Submits Healthy People 2020 Comments

In a post earlier this month, we described how Healthy People, an initiative that develops national objectives to improve the health of all Americans, opened its proposed 2020 objectives for public comment through December 31, 2009. The health objectives are updated every 10 years and are intended to address a broad range of health needs, encourage collaboration across sectors, help individuals make informed health decisions, and measure prevention efforts.

ASCD recently submitted comments in support of objectives that align with our goal of providing children with healthy learning environments that enhance their academic, physical, and emotional well-being. Each of our comments highlights the inextricable connection between health and learning. Taken together, they underscore the need for a coordinated, whole child approach to health promotion and school improvement.

We commented on everything from the importance of increasing rates of high school completion to the urgent need for adolescents to have close relationships with caring adults. You can access all of ASCD’s comments by searching for "ASCD," or you can review all submitted comments by objective. And there's still time to submit your own comments.

Please let us know what you think of ASCD’s comments and what objectives you've commented on.

Assigning vs. Redefining Homework

In last week's most-clicked ASCD SmartBrief story, Teacher Magazine interviews ASCD author Cathy Vatterott on developing homework policies that are responsive to students' needs and particular circumstances. For example, when students don't do homework, instead of issuing zeros, Vatterott recommends considering why homework goes undone.

Do students have a quiet place to do homework? Do students have home, work, or extracurricular responsibilities that take up after-school time? Is the homework too difficult to complete without help? Do students need to work on developing their organizational skills? These are just a few scenarios Vatterott suggests considering when setting an equitable homework agenda.

Get to know Cathy Vatterott by previewing sample chapters of her book, previous blog posts, and an issue of ASCD Express on the theme "Rethinking Homework."

Health Care for All

Health Care for All

If education and a healthy lifestyle are fundamental to future success, what do you do when you discover 20% of your students
go without healthcare?

In "Health Care for All," Kinoshita Elementary School in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., took two major steps to meet students' health and safety needs.

First, they hired a bilingual community liaison to connect Kinoshita's 97 percent Latino family population to community resources, including low-cost or free healthcare. Second, they formed partnerships with local agencies and organizations that could provide students with a range of services—from expedited service at local health clinics to free uniforms.

Kinoshita took an inventory of student access to healthcare and then developed an action plan to close gaps in coverage. How does your school systematically consider students' health and safety needs?

Teaching the Language of Thinking (1987)

Language is the vehicle for almost all teaching and learning, but sometimes the language teachers use in classroom does not fully represent the task or is not accessible to those who hear it. For example, the direction, "Let's look at these two pictures," might really mean the teacher wants students to compare two pictures. In other cases, students may lack the background vocabulary to know what the term compare means.

In a 1987 Educational Leadership article, authors Arthur L. Costa and Robert Marzano offer several strategies for supporting a language of cognition in the classroom.

Read the article: Teaching the Language of Thinking (PDF)

Though not explicitly targeted to English language learners (ELLs), the benefits of these strategies for ELLs are obvious. Teaching students precise vocabulary and then using it in the classroom, posing critical questions instead of issuing orders, probing for specificity when encountering vague terms in texts or classroom discussions, metacognition or thinking-aloud problem solving, and reading for linguistic cues or the logic of language all support ELLs in acquiring academic content.

The Role of Technology in Education

Library and technology expert Doug Johnson states, "My best decisions are made when I think of myself first as a child advocate, second as an educator, and lastly as a technologist." In his Blue Skunk Blog, a refreshing site geared toward school librarians and other media specialists, Johnson offers level-headed advice and thoughtful commentary on the role of technology in education.

While never getting too wrapped up in fads and trendy gadgetry, Johnson is up-to-date on the latest developments and the implications they may have on teachers and students. Posts range in topic from dealing with school library fatigue to multitasking in the digital age.

A way to sort posts by tagged subject area would be a great addition to the site, but considering the unfailingly engaging and thought-provoking content, it’s a minor quibble. For librarians and educators interested in technology, Blue Skunk Blog is worth a visit.

Reading Practice Improves Brain Connections

Last week, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University demonstrated that, after six months of intensive remedial reading instructions, children who struggled with reading not only improved their skills, but changed their brains. After intervention, brain scans of the poor readers in the CMU study showed new, stronger White matter connections, which are important for helping the brain perform complex cognitive tasks.

The Carnegie Mellon study is one of the few that has shown that the brain can actually change its connections through learning and adaptation, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. One of the CMU researchers said studies like this show "we're not at the mercy of our biology."

Do your students know they have the power to change their brains? 

The Turnaround Trap

Post submitted by Frederick M. Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.

Even when everyone agrees change is essential, it is enormously difficult to change established institutions. I explore this point in depth in my forthcoming ASCD book Education Unbound: The Promise and Practice of Greenfield Schooling. It may be most relevant in the context of school "turnarounds"—a  subject that is much in the news.
 
The Obama administration believes in turnarounds. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has called for turning around 5,000 low-performing schools in the next four years. The president has gone so far as to suggest that the efficacy of school turnaround is demonstrated by research. And, of course, the administration’s $4.35 billion Race to the Top initiative places substantial weight on state assurances that they will turn around lots of low-performing schools. Good stuff, no?

Unfortunately, not. This is a case of good intentions gone awry. In two decades of experience with state takeovers of low-performing schools or districts, we've yet to see a clear success. Only a handful of providers, like Academy for Urban School Leadership, can perhaps tally a few dozen successes among them. By throwing a big slug of federal dollars and moral support behind self-promoters promising to turn around lots of schools, the administration is setting up a potentially reasonable idea as one more oversold fad, and making it likely we'll waste a slew of dollars in the process.

Given the good intentions, it's only natural to root for turnarounds. But, while the phrase "turnaround" may be relatively new to those in education, “silver bullet” enthusiasm has a long track record in other sectors. And that record makes the case for steely-eyed realism. Even in the business world, where management enjoys many more degrees of freedom, turnarounds are an iffy proposition. Peter Senge, director of the Center for Organizational Learning at the MIT Sloan School of Management, has observed,

"Failure to sustain significant change recurs again and again despite substantial resources committed to the change effort (many are bankrolled by top management), talented and committed people 'driving the change,' and high stakes. . . . There is little to suggest that schools, healthcare institutions, governmental, and nonprofit institutions fare any better."

Turnarounds mostly fail because troubled organizations usually need more than new leaders, practices, and urgency—they need to be rebuilt free from the rules, norms, policies, and contracts that shape them. Today's vague, enthusiastic calls for school turnarounds don't create those conditions. As I explain in Education Unbound, we too often substitute a cheery faith in the transformative power of new leaders or good intentions for the real work of creating conditions where excellent new providers can emerge and thrive. Our education system requires—and deserves—creative new approaches to tackling barriers to entry, talent, spending, and quality control.

Read Rick’s response on school turnarounds at the National Journal’s Education Experts panel blog. Education Unbound is the ASCD February 2010 Premium Member Book; Rick will be a distinguished lecturer at ASCD’s Annual Conference, March 6-8 in San Antonio, Tex. 

Pawn or Origin? Enhancing Motivation in Disaffected Youth (1977)

How can educators motivate students to learn? In the March 1977 issue of Educational Leadership, Richard deCharms, professor of psychology and education at Washington University, explores the psychological underpinnings of motivation and offers some practical solutions to reach disaffected students. 

Read the article: Pawn or Origin? Enhancing Motivation in Disaffected Youth (PDF)

Drawing on a distinction between what he calls "pawns" and "origins," deCharms describes two different types of behavior—the sort that is externally determined and the sort that is internally motivated. He warns against attempting to force students to learn, noting that "when pupils are treated as Pawns, they don’t learn, they misbehave." In contrast, when they find an internal source of motivation and the behavior originates within—that is, when they are "origins"—they learn more readily. 

 

Bookmark This! K-12 Online Conference '09

Free and open to everyone that joins their conference Ning or visits their blog, the K-12 Online Conference officially got underway this week. By the time it "closes" December 17, over 50 presentations will be posted for download and discussion—not to mention the more than 120 archived presentations from past conferences that will also be available.

The conference focuses on the intersection of technology and learning, from practical guides for integrating Web 2.0 and innovation in your classroom to more philosophical state of 21st century learning keynotes.

After peeking at K-12 Online's impressive lineup of presenters and jam-packed session schedule, it's hard to believe this is all free. Anyone interested in innovative teaching should definitely bookmark this.

Teaching Students, Not Just Standards, with Visual Literacy

Post submitted by ASCD author Lynell Burmark.

In this climate of standards and standardized testing, of politicians posturing and parading, the pressure is on to make square pegs fit into round holes. Even the Gates Foundation has joined the parade, announcing a $1 million grant to the National Parent Teacher Association last week so that the PTA can engage parents in the push to adopt national K–12 curriculum standards.

Standards and high-stakes tests focusing on language arts and math (to the exclusion of "electives" like art, music, and physical education) reduce the education experience for some students to words and numbers. Yet serious research, inspired publications, and classroom experience (including the irrefutable "teacher's gut") all reveal that these elective methodologies are frequently the best, if not the only way to reach students who are flailing, failing, and dropping out of our increasingly standardized education system.

ASCD's most beloved authors don't mince words on this topic. The queen of differentiated instruction, Carol Ann Tomlinson, advises us to "begin where the students are, not in front of the curriculum guide." Robert Marzano concedes that to cover all the standards, students would have to attend school K–22! And Thomas Armstrong, with his wonderfully accessible prose, applies Howard Gardner's 40 years of research documenting Multiple Intelligences, implicitly encouraging us to change our assessments from "How smart are you?" to "How are you smart?"

Sleep: The E-ZZZ Intervention

Sleep: The E-ZZZ Intervention

Sleep-deprived students tend to be more restless, irritable, and impulsive than other students, and their achievement suffers.

Research shows that even small, temporary increases in sleep (30–40 minutes more a night) have a substantial effect on students' classroom performance—memory, motor speed, attention, and other abilities associated with math and reading test scores improve.

But what can educators do to get kids to sleep more, and preferably not during instruction?

In their recent EL article, Christi and David Bergin recommend

• Regular, supportive communication with parents about promoting healthy sleep habits.
• Capping extracurricular activities at 9:00 p.m. during the school week.
• Limits on homework and ample lead time (and frequent check-ins) for big assignments.
• Lobbying your central office for later start times. (If you need talking points, how about this West Des Moines school district that gained $700,000 annually by starting later?)

Are sleepy students common at your school? How's your school responding?

A Teacher Walks Into the Principal's Office . . .

Transitioning roles from classroom teacher to administrator, Deirdra Grode gets her first taste of classroom management from the principal's perspective.

Read her latest column, "Working Together to Tackle Classroom Management."

Grode learns that communication and a shared vision on discipline determine whether administrators provide meaningful support for classroom management, or whether the principal's office is just a temporary detour for disruptive students.

Grode believes her discipline style as principal will benefit from her experiences with classroom management as a teacher.

How do teachers and administrators work together to tackle classroom management at your school?

What Should H.S. Do?

International accounting and consulting firm Deloitte released a survey this month that reveals a gap between what low income parents and students want from high schools and what high school educators see as their main job. Forty-two percent of parents and 48 percent of students surveyed rank college preparation as the top aim of high school, while only 9 percent of teachers gave primacy to college prep.

High schools would benefit from shifting focus from a preoccupation with immediate assessment gains to preparing students for long-range success in college and careers, Deloitte advises. Deloitte says high schools need to be redefined as a launchpad to college and careers. 

Skeptics say the wording of the Deloitte survey may have created more of a disconnect between parents, students, and teachers than actually exists. In the survey, most teachers said their main job was either to get students to master the subject they teach or to teach basic life skills. For many teachers, content mastery and college preparation go hand-in-hand, critics note (in the Orange County Register).

Do you detect the disconnect Deloitte claims? If so, what's feeding the gap in expectations? How would you define your community's high schools?

Scope vs. Intimacy

Post submitted by ASCD Scholars facilitator Jen Morrison.

I believe that the more students one affects, the less impact on any one person an educator has. Do the actions of a school superintendent bring more about change than those of a building principal? In your school district, is a student more under the influence of the superintendent or secretary of education/ministry of education? Or do all of these roles take a backseat to the leadership of the classroom teachers with whom students work each and every day?

Blog Watch: History Meets Technology in Practice

Teacher Nate Kogan’s blog The History Channel This Is Not… has plenty to recommend it, not only to fellow history teachers, but also to all educators who are grappling with how to intelligently integrate the ever-expanding list of online tools into practice.

In a post that brings together these two strands, Kogan writes about using Wikipedia in a U.S. history survey course. Students, he discovered, had been instructed repeatedly not to use Wikipedia, "because anyone could edit it, and therefore the site (undoubtedly edited by nefarious internet goblins) might lie to them." However, he found them invariably drawn to the site anyway.

In a way that shows—rather than tells—teachers how to use new online tools, he embeds the assignment document into his blog, using the versatile publishing tools of Scribd. The assignment asks students to review and edit history-related Wikipedia pages—and it's easy to see how teachers in other content areas could adapt the assignment for their students.

More recently, Kogan shared his experience using online tools such as TinyChat and Drop.io to connect with absent students, which could be especially useful during flu season; described using Google Forms to conduct a quiz; and even posted a video of a student exercise that involved using active learning to describe early civilizations.

Read Kogan's blog at http://nkogan.wordpress.com.

Finding Our Way Back to Healthy Eating

Finding Our Way Back to Healthy Eating:  A Conversation with David A. Kessler

Today, kids are more likely to eat for reward than fuel, says former FDA commissioner David Kessler in an interview in this month's EL.

"Kids are growing up, not just with food that's been highly developed to be stimulating—layered and loaded with fat, sugar, and salt, which stimulates intake—but they're also constantly bombarded with food cues," he says. With fat, sugar, and salt available 24/7 and on every corner, what can schools do to help kids develop healthy eating habits?

One way is to make sure the lessons taught in the lunchroom don't contradict those taught in science or health classes. Teach kids how to make nutritious choices, and provide in-school healthy options and opportunities for students to exercise good food judgment. 

In the same issue of EL, "What the Research Says About . . . School Meals and Learning" points to some of the barriers to more nutritious school meals (higher cost, less appeal to students). Several articles ("Good Food in the City," "Saving Marvin Sweettooth," "Coordinated School Health: Getting It All Together") show schools that have steered their communities back to healthy eating.

How has your school supported healthy eating? How have you handled barriers to healthy eating?

Public Comment Period Now Open for Healthy People 2020

Healthy People, a national initiative that provides health promotion and disease prevention objectives to improve the health of all Americans, has opened its proposed 2020 objectives for public comment. The national health objectives, updated every 10 years to reflect new research and trends, are intended to address a broad range of health needs, encourage collaboration across sectors, help individuals make informed health decisions, and measure prevention efforts.

The Healthy People 2020 objectives are open for public comment through December 31, 2009. ASCD plans to specifically comment on objectives that align with our mission to provide children with healthy learning environments that support their academic, physical, and emotional well being. Our comments will be available to the public by December 18. We encourage other interested individuals and organizations to also comment on the objectives. Together, we can help ensure the Healthy People 2020 objectives are relevant to public health needs and help prepare our young people for healthy and fulfilling lives.