... * You might remember Montgomery High, a seemingly ordinary school south of the Otay Valley Park that had become a battleground for Sweetwater Union High School District because of its lackluster scores. It brought in a peppy new principal, changed its schedule, and tried to implement a slew of changes to how teachers teach, sometimes rankling teachers and their union.
So what happened? Well, Montgomery saw some big gains on the state test.
The percentage of students who met state goals in math, for instance, more than doubled. The share of students meeting state goals grew nearly 13 percent in English, nearly 15 percent in history and 12 percent in science. I haven't heard the official word yet, but the scores likely mean that Montgomery will avoid state takeover.
* Scores also surged at another school under siege: King-Chavez Arts Academy.
This charter school in Barrio Logan has had a roller coaster of a year. After the controversial firing of most of its teachers two years ago, the school landed on a state list of persistently low-achieving schools that are supposed to create dramatic plans to turn themselves around. But at the same time that it was being labeled as a failure, the Arts Academy saw English scores rise 14 percent and math by nearly 23 percent.
* We also profiled another school that landed on that state list of low achieving schools: Burbank Elementary. Scores jumped there, too, giving some credence to its plans to keep on with reforms it has already started rolling out, instead of reversing course.
* Finally, we stopped into San Ysidro High to see how teachers like Jessica Vargas were trying to toughen up classes to help English learners pass the high school exit exam. In every grade, more English learners reached state goals, though it is still quite rare -- 8 percent instead of 2 percent among high school juniors, for instance...
Arne Duncan wants to publicize the individual performance records of teachers. He says he wants to highlight the work of "super performers." The problem with that is he would have to revamp No Child Left Behind to read the performance of individual teachers. That's fine, but he can't count on the cooperation or collaboration of the rest of the staff.
He would also need to find a way to accommodate all those parents who would demand placing their kids with that teacher. They certainly would not want to place their kids with just a "good teacher."...
Maura Larkins comment:
This problem can be solved. Individual teachers could decide whether they want their performance published. In exchange for big bucks, teachers could publicly demonstrate that they deserve the increased pay. I don't think that the worst teachers should be given the same responsibilities as the best teachers. The strongest instructors should have responsibility for several weak teachers (and their classrooms). These master teachers would give instructions to the regular teachers, as well as giving some lessons to students. All schools would get equal proportions of master teachers and regular teachers.
The verdict is in and the result is not really flattering for children in the USA – according to the survey conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the reading scores (a dismal 221 on a scale of 500) of fourth graders across the nation has not improved at all over the period of a year. The same tests conducted for eighth graders did not show much improvement either with the scores rising just one point (from 263 to 264) in a whole year. There is more reason to hang our heads in shame when we consider that this lack of improvement is despite the efforts of the No Child Left Behind law and the Reading First program that was a part of it. So where are we going wrong and what can schools do to boost their students’ reading scores?
• Get them to read, read and read some more: The best and easiest way to easily understand what you read and be able to infer facts from what you have read is to read as much as you can. The more you read, the more your comprehensive ability increases. The written word does so much more than tell you a story – it improves your vocabulary, boosts your comprehension capabilities, and even allows you to become a writer in your own right. So if schools want to get their students to improve their reading scores, they must encourage and insist on reading habits right from the time the child is able to make sense of a string of words.
• Minimize the use of technology in the classroom: While technology is a good thing, there are times when it hinders with the natural learning process by allowing you to take shortcuts that don’t help your brain in the long run. So if students are permitted to use calculators to work out formulae, if they’re allowed to use cell phones to remember vital facts, and if they’re allowed to look up the Internet for the solution to every single problem they’re given, how are their brains going to be pushed enough to develop and grow? Reading and comprehension skills are associated with the ability to reason and infer facts and solutions from the given set of information. So unless children are allowed to challenge their brains in more ways than one, they will always remain poor readers and writers.
Reading is as important as, if not more important than Mathematics and the Sciences because it forms the basis for every other subject. If you’re able to comprehend the essence of a paragraph with just one reading, you don’t really have to struggle to study the subject in question. Reading itself constitutes studying, so that’s all the more reason for schools to focus on boosting their students’ reading scores.
By-line: This guest post is contributed by Anna Miller, who writes on the topic of online degree. She welcomes your comments at her email id: anna.miller009@gmail.com
Reference
In spite of high-profile efforts to improve the reading skills of the USA's poorest schoolchildren over the past several years, their reading abilities barely improved last year compared with 2007, results of a federally administered test show.
Reading scores essentially didn't budge in 2009, both for students overall and minority students, according to results issued Wednesday on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP. Fourth-graders' scores were unchanged at 221 points on a 500-point scale, and those of eighth-graders rose just one point, from 263 to 264.
Want your child to be a good reader? Here are a few tips:
• Before your children start school, read to them for 30 minutes every day. Ask them to find letters and words on the page, and talk with your children about the story.
• Have plenty of children’s books in your home, and visit the library regularly. Let your kids pick out their own books.
• Set a good example by reading newspapers, magazines and books.
• Set up a reading area in your home. Keep books that interest your children in places where they can easily reach them.
• Ask your children to describe their daily events. Talking about their experiences makes children think about them. Giving detailed descriptions and telling complete stories also helps children learn about how stories are written and what the stories they read mean.
• Limit television time.
SOURCE: Reading Is Fundamental (rif.org)
San Diego’s fourth- and eighth-graders made modest gains on a federal reading assessment administered in the nation’s largest urban school districts, according to data released Thursday.
The “Nation’s Report Card” shows results of reading tests taken by fourth- and eighth-graders last academic year in 18 big-city districts.
Administered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the tests gauge students on their ability to comprehend, interpret and evaluate various types of text — from poetry to nonfiction.
The average score for San Diego fourth-graders improved by 3 points to 213 from the 2007 assessment. That’s above the average score of 210 for other large-city districts in 2009, but the overall national average was 220.
Although the jump in scores was deemed statistically insignificant by NAEP, 29 percent of San Diego fourth-graders scored at or above the proficient level in 2009, compared with the 25 percent who scored proficient or higher in 2007.
Among San Diego eighth-graders, 25 percent of students scored at or above proficient in 2009, up from the 23 percent who ranked proficient or better in 2007.
For local eighth-graders, the average score was 254 last year, two points higher than the average score of 252 for large cities and below the national average of 262. In 2007, the average eighth-grader’s score was 250 on the same exam.
At least one expert believes the “relatively flat” performance may have something to do with the churn of superintendents in the San Diego Unified School District.
“San Diego has kind of been stuck. It hasn’t been moving very much lately compared to some of the other urban districts like Atlanta, New York and District of Columbia,” said David Gordon, a member of the governing board that steers the National Assessment of Educational Progress. “Improvements in reading have been made where there is consistent and stable leadership and focused professional development.”
San Diego is searching for its fourth schools chief in less than five years, and the district has earned a reputation for fostering difficult relationships between its superintendents and school board.
Consistency with leadership, curriculum and teaching is a trend among urban districts that have made the most gains in reading scores, said Gordon, who is also the Sacramento County superintendent of schools.
In 2009, San Diego Unified’s eighth-graders were in the national spotlight for their impressive gains in math scores administered by NAEP. But progress in math, Gordon said, does not always rely as heavily on administrative consistency.
Troubling to educators is evidence that the persistent achievement gap between white students and their minority counterparts continues, the scores show. For example, the average score of a Hispanic fourth-grader in San Diego was 43 points lower than the average score for white students, according to the 2009 data. That’s a deeper chasm than the 36-point difference reported in 2003. The gap also grew between students who qualify for government-subsidized meals compared with those who don’t. San Diego Unified officials saw the good and the bad in the latest statistics...
Reading achievement in D.C. public schools has climbed in the fourth grade in recent years, the federal government reported Wednesday, while progress nationwide has stalled despite huge instructional efforts launched under the No Child Left Behind law.
A report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress shows that fourth-grade scores for the nation's public schools stagnated after the law took effect in 2002, rose modestly in 2007 and remained unchanged last year. By contrast, the long-troubled D.C. schools have made steady advances since 2003, although their scores remain far below the national average.
The national picture for eighth-grade reading was largely the same: a slight uptick in performance since 2007, but no gain in the seven years when President George W. Bush's program for school reform was in high gear. The District's eighth-grade reading scores showed meager growth in that time.
When Bush signed the law, hopes were high for a revolution in reading. Billions of dollars were spent, especially in early grades, to build fluency, vocabulary, comprehension and a love of books that would propel students in all subjects. The goal was to eliminate racial and ethnic achievement gaps. But Wednesday's report shows no great leaps for the nation and stubborn disparities in performance between white and black students, among others...
Sam Hodgson Carol Manivone teaches her fourth grade class about bibliographies at Euclid Elementary.
Was conforming the secret to raising scores at Euclid Elementary? Of course not. It was the collaboration. But apparently conforming is a good way to get the collaboration. It seems that weak teachers benefit from being told exactly what to do.
...Teachers lost some freedom to decide when and what they'd teach; not everyone was pleased. But the change fit into a bigger push from Jacobson and the state monitors to get teachers on the same page, teaching the same thing at the same time. Teachers decided to keep it even after the state stopped eyeballing their scores. Bounce from one fourth grade classroom to another at Euclid on the same day and you'll see both sets of kids penning biographies of Marie Curie and Martin Luther King Jr.
"If one person is off in left field," asked second grade teacher Starla Ortiz, "how can we discuss what was successful and what wasn't?"
Conforming allowed teachers to work together: They could talk about their strategies on similar lessons instead of talking past each other. Teachers from each grade gather to look at regular, shared tests throughout the year, meeting for a whole day every six weeks and for shorter sessions more often. They analyze what kids understand and what they don't. They learn from coworkers whose kids ace the tests.
And they decide together how to re-teach the things students missed, then give students a quick, common quiz to make sure it worked. The philosophy is that two heads -- or many more -- are better than one. It also prevents gaps in learning, because everyone knows what is being taught and when. It might sound simple, but many schools lack organization -- or trust -- and fail to coordinate...
Johnson said that trust is one of the key ingredients in surprisingly successful schools: Teachers focus on getting kids to master their classes, not just finish them. They work together and share problems and successes. They back each other up -- but they don't let each other slack off. While reformers often talk about school accountability, Johnson said, they often fail to understand how school culture can be a powerful form of social accountability. Teachers don't want to let fellow teachers down.
That pressure is even more potent when they all have the same students, which now happens at Euclid. Teaching the same things at the same time also freed teachers to send children from class to class. Euclid teachers call it "deploying." Teachers temporarily divide up the students in their grade based on their abilities. Each teacher coaches a group with similar skills, allowing them to focus on their needs.
"You don't close your door. It's not like that anymore," said Carol Manivone, a fourth grade teacher. "Now they're all our kids."
And that altered how teachers teach. Euclid educators are constantly checking whether kids get it. When Ellen Leuthard poses questions to her second graders about grammar, they hold up whiteboard slates, allowing her to instantly see who understood and who didn't. Euclid may not look very different from the outside, but it actually changed what happens inside classrooms. Many schools don't...
As far as education reform is concerned, 2010 is off to a good start. The California Legislature approved important reforms for California's application for federal Race to the Top funds on Tuesday, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed them on Thursday.
It's amazing what Sacramento can do with the proper motivation (like up to $700 million in federal grant money).
The Legislature was always going to approve SBX5 1, the basic nuts-and-bolts reforms that were required for the state's application. The bill identifies schools that are performing weakly and requires them to pursue improvements, and allows schools to link student performance data with teacher evaluations. But the powerful California Teachers' Association hated SBX5 4, which empowered parents to bring reforms to troubled schools and allows students in the 1,000 worst-performing schools across the state to transfer out - even across district lines. It's a small, and welcome, miracle that SBX5 4 managed to squeak past.
Now comes the hard part.
California's educational system is still structurally dysfunctional, and neither these new laws nor all the federal money in the world will change that. (Though speaking of money, that's a problem too - education is likely to be back on the chopping block when budget battles commence in Sacramento.) As helpful as the federal money will be, that dysfunction can only be solved by state and local leaders, most of whom are hesitant. We've got a lot of work left to do.
