In Case You Missed It

Want to know what's been happening at ASCD? Read on:

• A new survey shows ASCD's Educational Leadership magazine is the most read trade publication by school administrators. Tune in next week when we release a bunch of free articles for the Best of EL 2010–11.

• Free PD for your school: "How Can I Help My Students Remember What I Teach?," a webinar by @JudyWillis, on Wednesday, August 10, 3:00-4:00 p.m. EST.

• Social media push kids to do better work and pay attention to audience, quality research, and copyright law says OYEA honoree Eric Sheninger (@NMHS_Principal) in a USA Today profile.

• Cheating on high-stakes testing merely requires a "technical fix"? Nope; it's policy and culture, says Yong Zhao.

• Can blended learning curtail the dropout crisis?

• Although there is a need to integrate new technology into schools, there is a time and a place for all types of technology in teaching.

• Learn how to change a teacher's outlook to avoid behavior problems in students.

• Walter McKenzie writes about different L2L Conference activities aiming to revolutionize the way we teach and learn.

• Learn about incorporating RTI and DI in the classroom and making connections between them.

• Read the latest post from the series by Persida and William Himmele on seeing students as "listening objects" and how that contributes to the dropout problem.

• Reaching for a well-rounded education presents challenges for educators.

Add your own highlights in the comments, and check this spot for our regular weekly digest of ASCD activities.

Keeping Our Balance

Do you feel more like a tester than a teacher? Is coercion replacing collaboration? Is constant pressure deforming deforming teaching and learning?

In "Keeping Our Balance," Mimi Brodsky Chenfeld uses the analogy of a skater, spinning on the ice but keeping her balance by focusing on an immovable spot, to describe the current climate for teachers. For Chenfeld, the unwavering spot to focus on is the students themselves. She offers the example of two kindergarten classrooms in the same school: one where kids are at the center of learning and one where external mandates dictate everything, including what, how, and when learning happens.

We live in stressful and absurd times, but "even in the current climate," says Chenfeld, "teachers who persist in using best practices based on young children's needs make a difference."

How do you keep your balance? Is this article's advice realistic?

Rebuilding the German Education System (1948)

The October 1948 issue of Educational Leadership, on the theme of "Education's Place in Remaking the World," has several articles of interest to educators looking for some perspective on international education and the degrees to which the U.S. system has learned from and worked with other countries in the past.

Although articles like "We Can Learn from Austria" (PDF) and "Teacher Preparation in Japan" (PDF) make for good reading, one article in particular stands out. Mildred English shares her firsthand experience in "Rebuilding the German Education System," starkly appraising the state of education in occupied, postwar Germany and detailing the steps being taken to move forward.

• Read the article: Rebuilding the German Education System (PDF)

English explains, "Approximately 70 percent of all elementary school teachers were dismissed under the denazification program," and a fifth of all schoolrooms were destroyed. What's more, textbooks and other student materials needed to be completely rewritten to remove propaganda.

The story of rebuilding all aspects of an education system, from curriculum to physical spaces, is both sobering and engrossing to read. Particularly interesting is her description of committees developed to plan various aspects of curriculum, drawing membership from many community groups and reporting to U.S. staff. She describes these committees as "an effective means of in-service training for school leaders and teachers."

The article ends on a hopeful note, detailing international exchange programs and declaring that "there is ample opportunity for changes in a changing world."

Cool Cat Teacher

Vicki Davis is a Georgia teacher and cocreator of the Flat Classroom Projects, a program that links students from around the world through digital media. Her passion for using technology to empower and engage students comes through clearly on her veteran blog Cool Cat Teacher.

Like many of the best blogs, Davis's has a knack for aggregation, and her Daily Education and Technology News for Schools posts serve as a diverse, useful filter for the busy educator looking for inspiration. For example, one recent roundup noted a new blog focusing on education iPad apps, a video-enhanced blog post on a spoken-word lesson plan for the last day of school, and a tool to save favorite tweets.

There's also plenty of original content, like the handy Facebook Friending 101 for Schools, which provides in-depth case studies and Venn diagrams to help educators navigate the often bewildering world of social networking and the many issues it presents.

Check out Cool Cat Teacher at http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com.

Common Core Curriculum Criteria: Welcome Guide or Pedagogical Intrusion?

Close analysis of text and deep reading will be hallmarks of the new English/language arts common core standards, and associated curriculum should reflect these priorities, according to new criteria issued by common core authors. The documents are meant to guide publishers and anyone developing curriculum to support common core teaching and learning.

Aligned curriculum will require students to demonstrate complex understanding of text, not background knowledge or personal experience, by posing and responding to questions and developing arguments based on what they've read. Aside from the new criteria, there is—as yet—no formal panel or process to vet curriculum. 

Some say the criteria will help teachers better design performance-based tasks aligned with the common core but worry that it will be difficult to validate publisher's claims that materials reflect the criteria. Others add concern that the criteria cross the line from what to teach (the standards) into how to teach. It will be up to states to determine how they use, or don't use, the curriculum criteria.

Too much influence on pedagogy or a welcome guiding document for curriculum—what's your take on the common core curriculum criteria? 

Breaking the Cycle of Misbehavior

Do you know a student who's stuck in a cycle of misbehavior? What do you do when classroom climate-building and problem-solving strategies fall short?

"When Students Get Stuck: Using Behavior Agreements" in the summer issue of Educational Leadership magazine says that behavior agreements, when used sparingly and to build internal motivation, are a powerful tool for breaking the cycle of student misbehavior.

Author Caltha Crowe explains that she first considers whether she's exhausted all other strategies for addressing behavior. If so, she assumes a collaborative and empathetic mind-set for working with the disruptive child, chooses one behavior goal to address, gives constant reminders and feedback to the child in the agreement, involves other teachers and family members (as appropriate), and thinks carefully about rewards and how to wean students off of them.

When behavior agreements work and bring about lasting, positive changes, Crowe says that it's because teachers keep their purpose in mind and "consistently focus on the supports needed rather than on the reward."

Have you used behavior agreements? What worked or didn't work?

In Case You Missed It

Check out some recent updates from ASCD:

• Look beyond the elite countries for education lessons (Doug Reeves on Zambia).
• How do you reach out to English language learners' families in your school? Tell us and enter to win a free book!
• Why are we pitting the subjects against each other?
• What are the benefits of ASCD Institutional memberships? Ask Ohio's Westerville City School District!
• Mike Fisher's webinar on using iPads for authentic learning is now available online.
• How can educators learn from the world? This issue of ASCD Express looks at how different countries have improved.
• How can we transform learning environments so that educators and students get all of the benefits of a proper education? 
• Read the free chapter from our new book on understanding the common core.
• Grace Valentine asks how we can expect students to not bully when teachers and supervisors themselves bully each other.
• Kelle Stewart discusses how Randi Weingarten always has a calm demeanor when addressing education reform and how more people would benefit from that attitude.
• Join teachers and other education leaders on August 18 and 19 in Vancouver, British Columbia, for ASCD's Summer International Institutes on differentiated instruction. 
• Check out ASCD's Meet the Authors page and listen to our most recent Talks With an Author series focusing on the importance of working with Latino families to improve student learning.
• Judy Willis discusses how writing about science or math can help students because it allows them to combine every step of the process in solving a problem.

Add your own highlights in the comments, and check this spot for our regular weekly digest of ASCD activities.

Assessing Pupil Progress—New Methods Are Emerging (1975)

James L. Leary, superintendent for instruction in Plymouth, Mich., schools, knows that grades aren't everything. After all, he relates, "A high school principal recently indicated his concern to me about the fact that the top three students (academically) from the graduating class of '71 are now in mental institutions, having 'bombed out' from drug abuse."

From here, Leary shares strides in making grading a more meaningful endeavor in his 1975 Educational Leadership article.

• Read the article: Assessing Pupil Progress: New Methods Are Emerging (PDF)

Some of these methods, such as student involvement in the evaluation process, open-ended essay responses rather than multiple-choice tests, and more frequent feedback, will be familiar to most educators today.

More elaborate emerging methods Leary describes include high school courses where grades are dropped altogether and assessment in such courses as "World Travel Hints" and "Post-Graduation Survival" that are arrived at in groups in a "helping relationship atmosphere."

As educators continue to pursue elusive ideals of assessment, this time capsule provides a nice balance of time-honored reforms and details distinctly of its era.

Schooled in Sports

K–12 education sports journalism is often hyper-local, following the scores and players of local teams. The topic gets a broader look in Education Week's Schooled in Sports blog, which promises to take readers "beyond the box scores in the world of K–12 athletics."

One theme that blogger Brian Toperek has been exploring of late is the mounting evidence of the connection between physical activity and academic achievement. He's been telling this story in terms of both individual school success stories and hard academic research.

Recent posts include a write-up of a Maryland school's popular running club—which resulted in better overall fitness, fewer discipline problems, and increased test scores—and coverage of new academic research demonstrating a link between exercise and cognitive function.

A quick scroll down the page shows the breadth of topics Toperek weaves into his beat. He's got details on how the NFL's labor problems might affect K–12 school grant programs, a discussion on how schools deal with out-of-control parents at games, and how gender issues are affecting sports like wrestling.

Reading Schooled in Sports reinforces how integral and interesting the school sports issue is.

Making College-Going Personally Relevant for Young Students

Is 6th grade too soon to talk about going to college?

Not at Marina del Mar Elementary School (in Marina, Calif.), where 45 percent of students are Latino, 91 percent are on free or reduced-price lunch, and only 14 percent of students' parents have a college degree.

College Club, a seven-lesson college outreach program for upper-elementary students, targets kids from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Students learn about the choices and planning that pave a college-going future and get to meet and ask questions of college students who have backgrounds similar to their own.

In "Going to College? It's Elementary!," in the Summer 2011 issue of EL, the goals of programs like College Club are to get students proactively invested in their educational futures, to expose them to the language and possibility of college, and to identify the types of colleges that would best extend their career interests.

This article talks about growing a college-going culture in ways that are both personally relevant and age appropriate for young students. How does your school approach "college literacy"?

In Case You Missed It

Here's what's happening at ASCD:

• Read about intervention strategies in the summer issue of Educational Leadership.
• Join educator Mike Fisher for a webinar about using iPad technology in the classroom. Sign up now for the discussion, which takes place Tuesday, July 19.
• Check out information about ASCD's Fall Conference on enhancing teacher effectiveness and improving student learning. The conference will be held in Las Vegas, Nev., October 28–30. 
• Do you know teachers who shine in the classroom and provide excellence in learning? If so, nominate them for ASCD's Outstanding Young Educator of the Year Award.
• Subscribe to the Healthy School Communities' biweekly e-newsletter to get the latest news, resources, and announcements about school health and well-being.
• ASCD EDge^® is pleased to announce that it recently added its 25,000th member. Sign up now and connect with educators around the globe.

Add your own highlights in the comments, and check this spot for our regular weekly digest of ASCD activities.

Building Student Community and Collaboration Online

This one is for my online and hybrid teachers or any teacher who has used technology but has found it difficult to foster collaboration and community.

First and foremost, even though many have been trained not to, your students can collaborate. In fact, students might not know they're already collaborating; my WoW students (World of Warcraft) consistently collaborate to solve quests and gain experience.

The online world of education can be a lonely one, and until collaborative projects  and assessments become the norm (they are not now), it will remain a challenge to leverage community and collaboration online. Here are some tips:

1. Translate their world of collaboration and community to one you want for your classroom. The culture of online games and technology comes with cultural resiliencies. Use them. Ask students to share moments in their online, gaming, or even real lives where they have worked together. Honor them, and make connections to the type of community and collaboration you want.
2. Don't grade discussion board assignments. Yes, I said it. Discussion boards are a formative assessment, not necessarily graded. They're intended as a way to check in on student discussions, but primarily, discussion boards are places for students to grapple with content and concepts. Use scaffolding to have them ask questions of peers, but don't use discussion boards as a punitive tool. Otherwise, students will not use them the way you want them to.
3. Allow for space and time in discussion boards and other collaborative spaces. Some of the best discussions occur over a good chunk of time, longer than we might want. A good discussion can last anywhere from one week to a semester. Students may even want to discuss ideas you may not. Honor student voice, and give space for it. Good learning will occur there and will lead to a sense of community and student ownership. Remember that the learning is occurring synchronously and asynchronously, so time is not the ultimate driving force. Again, this relates to Tip #2 and grading. Once students show they know how to use discussion boards, then you can be more flexible with time and space.
4. Do many team-building activities online. Just like in the first week in brick-and-mortar schools, you need to do a variety of team builders and icebreakers to create a safe place for students.  Hybrid teachers, you need to do both because you need students to see the community and collaboration in both places. The challenge is to take these activities that occur in the physical world and translate them into the activities that work online.
5. Pick the right tool for the purpose. Before you go technology-happy with all the tools available, make sure you limit your choices to ones that foster community building and collaboration. Ask yourself how you want students to collaborate and build community, and then pick your tools. 

I half-joke with teachers I work with, "If I've made you uncomfortable, then I have done my job." Perhaps some of these ideas are causing some cognitive dissonance, and that is great. Just remember, if we want true student communities online and innovative collaboration, then we may need to do things differently than we have before.

Post submitted by Andrew K. Miller, an educator and consultant for the Buck Institute for Education, which specializes in project-based learning for the 21st century. Connect with Miller on Twitter (@betamiller) or by e-mail at andrew@andrewkmiller.com.

Bookmark This! Best Practices Weekly

What effect do different approaches to class discussion have on reading comprehension? How can teachers better understand students' math thinking? How can technology support research-based vocabulary instruction?

If you don't have the time to follow all the latest education research, don't worry—Best Practices Weekly is an easy way to stay informed and close the gap between research and the classroom. 

In a few minutes of video (archived here), Best Practices Weekly presents recent research on a pedagogical topic and provides some brief guidance on how this research could inform your teaching methods. Teacher worksheets associated with the topic expand the ideas presented in the video and help teachers plan how to bridge research to practice.

For free, user-friendly, research-based professional development at your fingertips, share a clip from Best Practices Weekly at your next department meeting. 

Five Essential College and Career Skills

Middle school teacher and author Heather Wolpert-Gawron has written about the skills students will need in higher education and the workplace and the strategies teachers can use to develop these skills.

Wolpert-Gawron asked teachers which skills were most important and came up with this streamlined list of top five priorities:

• Collaboration
• Communication
• Problem-Solving
• Questioning
• Independent Learning

Each comes with a couple of strategies for building the skill—like modeling elements of collaboration, vocabulary and phrases for respectful and professional discourse, extending wait time and posing questions (instead of solving problems for students), discussing different types of questions and using them in student-created assessments, and demonstrating how to use Google advanced search for research.

This top five list is whittled down from a list of 13 skills explored in Wolpert-Gawron's new book on tips for teaching tweens.

Do you agree that these five skills take priority? How do you support these skills in your classroom?

The Power of "Leverage"

Join Education Week Teacher Tuesday, July 19, for a discussion with author Mike Schmoker.

Archimedes, the Greek mathematician and scientist, once claimed that with the right lever, he could move the earth. That is, only reasonable but high-leverage efforts and actions can have an astonishing effect on outcomes. 

Perhaps the greatest current impediment to better schools is our meager understanding of the most high-leverage actions and elements that ensure large, swift improvements to learning. If implemented, they would have an immediate effect on student learning and on college and career preparation. We could move the world of schools with the following well-known, but grossly underimplemented levers:

1. The consistent delivery of reasonably well-structured lessons. They need not be perfect, but they must embody the simple elements almost all of us agree on: a crystal clear purpose; multiple opportunities during the lesson to practice and apply the new learning; high engagement by all students; and multiple, ongoing checks for understanding to ensure that students demonstrate understanding of each phase of a lesson before we move on to the next phase. We know these elements. But have we ensured that all educators know that the influence of such lessons, if delivered consistently, would be jaw-dropping?
2. A decent, coherent curriculum, rich in content, that is actually taught by teachers of the same course. According to Robert Marzano, E. D. Hirsch, and a legion of experts, this may be the largest lever of all, with the greatest effect on learning within the school walls.
3. Lots—loads—of reading, writing, and discussion of content and ideas students are reading and learning about. The largest possible amount of this should be done in the argumentative mode (e.g., through purposeful analysis, evaluation, interpretation, compare and contrast). Students should be doing four to six times as much of these activities as is now the case. About two hours of every six-period school day should be spent on close, analytic reading and writing every day, across the curriculum. The potential effect of such authentic literacy activities could be as much as all the other levers put together.   

Have we done enough to clarify the indisputable impact of such a focus on these high-leverage actions and elements? Not yet. Every teacher, leader, and educator needs to be thoroughly acquainted with the case for these big levers, the ones we underestimate at our student's peril. Failure to focus almost exclusively on these, until implemented, ensures the failure of all other efforts and innovations, stalls college preparation, and perpetuates the achievement gap. It also hurts teacher morale and creates absurdly low expectations of what ordinary schools can accomplish.

These three are more important than any theory, any cutting-edge gimmick or fad or program. The lesson of the last 30 years of school reform is this: Innovation can wait; if we truly want better schools now, not later, we need to focus on these three, and nothing else, until they are fully implemented. This is the place to begin. This school year.

Post submitted by Mike Schmoker, author of  FOCUS: Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning (ASCD 2011).

How to Make the Most of Planning and Monitoring Interventions

Practical guidance for monitoring day-to-day progress of struggling learners can be hard to find. In "Making the Most of Progress Monitoring," authors Lee Ann Jung and Gerry Swan outline several common challenges when implementing Individualized Education Programs or Response to Intervention:

How can educators coordinate interventions across courses and subject areas? How can they monitor and report student progress so that all stakeholders can understand and use the information? How can they determine whether an intervention was successful?

To meet these needs, the authors developed an intervention planning process that can be used schoolwide, with any struggling student. Their plan has five components—it 

• Identifies short-term and long-term measurable outcomes.
• Names clearly defined, consistent intervention(s).
• Establishes a data collection system that specifies when and how data will be collected for ongoing progress monitoring.
• Visually represents data for easy synthesis by teachers and parents.
• Is web-based to enable broader collaboration, integrate media, and automate reports.

See the full article, including sample plans and further illustration of these five points, in the summer issue of Educational Leadership.

What are the challenges to intervention planning and monitoring in your school? Would this process help?

In Case You Missed It

Here's a super-sized recap of events at ASCD, over the past two weeks:

• The latest issue of ASCD Express looks at Rethinking Assessment -- from the formative assessment process to interventions and tools that facilitate assessment.
• If you're a new teacher, or work to support new teachers, you'll want to check out this archived Webinar on tools for novice educators.
• The July issue of Education Update has stories on mentoring new teachers, action research, and classroom collaboration with Skype.
• Curate your own professional learning experience by recapping key content points from ASCD's Summer Conference in Boston.
• After attending the ISTE conference, Tom Whitby shares his ideas of how social media has improved him as a teacher.
• Summer Educational Leadership author Jane Kise on learning styles and giving kids time.
• David Hall believes school improvement conversations centered solely on teacher quality miss these eight essentials.
• Despite the unrealistic demands of an over-packed curriculum -- the convergence of neuroscience and cognitive science, advances in curriculum planning, assessment quality, and instructional strategies can engage the brain as powerfully as the best video game.
• Where are the blogs by teachers working with exceptional children?
• Raising teaching standards without raising leadership standards will not get us far.

Check this spot every week for the rundown of ASCD activities and new publications!

Four Things First: Big Ideas from #ASCDSC11

ASCD's Summer Conference really helped deepen my understanding of Understanding by Design (UbD) and formative assessments, while expanding my knowledge and repertoire of ideas to better assist teachers and administrators implementing 21st century skills in our district's classrooms. I feel validated in the work I have been doing, knowing that the respected leaders at ASCD are promoting the same ideas and strategies.

These were the big themes that shaped my conference experience:

1:1 Technology

We have to find a way to get digital devices into the hands of every student. If (as one group of teachers estimated) students spend 85 percent of their school time with only paper and pencil, then we are not preparing them for their future.

Purposefully Transformative Technology

We must use Web 2.0 tools purposefully to meet learning goals. A fun or creative project that doesn't demonstrate understanding of learning goals is just fluff, whether technology is used or not. Technology shouldn't just replace one way of doing things in the traditional classroom; it should help us reimagine what school looks like. Technology can transform the classroom by enabling global communication and new levels of collaboration.

Aligned Assessments

Assessments must be aligned with the learning goals. Formative assessments are critical to learning and teachers should use many different types to have multiple opportunities for effective feedback. Specifically, I'll be bringing back to my district

• the revised UbD Template shared by Grant Wiggins, as a way to lead in to my new understandings around formative assessment in district presentations;
• the GRASPS process shared by Jay McTighe—a much easier way to help teachers understand what is meant by designing instruction that is relevant and engaging; and
• having a colleague look at your assessments to see if they can identify the learning goals—a process McTighe shared for checking assessment alignment.  

Assessments should be FOR learning, rather than OF learning. E-portfolios could potentially transform assessment processes. However, just collecting stuff in a fun, digital format is of no value. Setting and reflecting on learning goals is what makes portfolios powerful.

Front-Row Tweets

I get a good start on reflecting on my conference learning from the tweets I've posted to Twitter during the conference. This is how I take notes: I'm constantly processing the information as I hear it, tweeting the ideas I find valuable, which at the same time adds them to an archive of my tweets that I can review and reflect on later. Tweeting at conferences has also helped me build an incredible professional learning network, which is the greatest source of my own professional development year-round. My conference tweets are a chance to give back to the incredible educators in my PLN who share great ideas and resources with me daily. I know it's not for everyone, but I highly recommend it!

Post submitted by Nancy White, 21st Century Learning and Innovation Specialist, Academy School District 20, Colorado Springs, CO. Follow her @NancyW on Twitter.

Impressions from the Couch: An Observer's Perspective of #ASCDSC11

Watching the stream of tweets from ASCD's Summer Conference in Boston (#ASCDSC11 on Twitter) was a bit like continuing my learning from both #ASCD11 in San Francisco, and #ISTE11 in Philly, all in one. A few tweets were particularly relevant to my goals and will guide my thinking in the year to come:

• Make curriculum mapping an active process.

(Can't remember who tweeted about this, but I am sure it's in Mike Fisher's blog post that contains video of the tweet stream.)

• @NancyW: #ascdsc11 Student-constructed rubrics can be a powerful way to involve students in assessment process and setting learning goals.

(Last year, my students didn't really engage with the rubrics I created. I need to mobilize student-driven learning and feedback and incorporate it into the assessment process.)

• @ASCD_Inservice: We often have values we're not aware of until we get into a situation where we use the word "should." Robyn Jackson #ascdsc11

(It's very important to evaluate our values and look at where our decisions in the classroom originate. Often times we don't realize how distinctly they impact our teaching and our students' perception of learning.)

Following professional learning on Twitter can be both a catalyst for new approaches and confirmation that you are on the right path. Since attending ASCD's Understanding by Design pre-conference institute in March, I have been really delving into creating relevant essential questions and using the GRASPS model (Goal, Role, Audience, Situation, Product, Standards) for tasks. Numerous #ASCDSC11 tweets on this topic reaffirmed my commitment to developing effective units.

Likewise, watching the tweet stream about Judy Willis' work, I revisited my own understanding of brain functioning and learning and brainstormed more ways to add novelty and visual cues to my daily lessons.

With each opportunity to learn more, I realize both how far I have come in my own education and how far I still need to travel in creating a learning environment that welcomes, energizes, and empowers learners to be and become their very best.

Luckily, for #ASCDSC11 learning, I didn't have to leave my couch.

Post submitted by Joan Young, a 4th grade teacher in Menlo Park, Calif. Follow her on Twitter @FlourishingKids.

Do Our Policies Prioritize Relationships?

Formerly a teacher, now an administrator-in-training, Chris Canter blogs about his yearlong assistant principal internship at Fulton County Public Schools in Atlanta, Ga. Canter was a 2010 ASCD OYEA honoree.

Last week, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan posted a letter on the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) website that placed teacher and student relationships at the center of every classroom. The letter has caused much public debate and my own personal reflection on my experiences in Georgia schools.

I must say that I agree with the secretary wholeheartedly: relationships are crucial. To engage students and fully influence their lives, we must know our students and their individual needs. Further, teachers need better data systems to monitor students, better training to use those data systems, and training on how to overcome challenges unique to their student populations (such as the effects of poverty, crime, and drugs).

I fear, however, that once again leaders are giving lip service to a good idea with little means to address the real issues. If teachers are to build meaningful relationships, they cannot be inundated with historically high class sizes, and standardized tests cannot be the sole determinant of teacher effectiveness. What do those tests say about the effectiveness of a relationship, after all?

To move beyond lip service, we need to provide adequate funding up front, not just to a handful of winning states, for the lower class sizes that enable relationship-building. We need to find testing models that actually measure student growth, not merely student baseline knowledge. Generally, we need legislation that practices what government leaders preach: differentiating for the needs of individual schools rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach to measure school effectiveness.

Truly, teachers are "the force that forges the meaningful connections at the heart of every great classroom," as Duncan suggests. They are, however, being asked to produce more with less, each and every school year. 

Duncan writes that the center of a classroom is not "a state or district policy, and it most certainly is not a federal law," but we cannot write off the profound influence these have on whether or not relationships—the true center of the classroom—hold.

Do you agree that relationships are the center of the classroom? Which policies hinder or help support classroom relationships?