Archive for the 'Curriculum' Category

“Universal Proficiency is Unattainable. Period”

Published by Robert Pondiscio on November 11, 2008 in Assessment and Testing, Curriculum and Educational Policy. 8 Comments

The current economic climate make it unlikely that President-elect Obama can enact the full range of education intitiatives his campaign promised, but one pressing issue cannot be deferred, writes Diane Ravitch on Forbes.com.  The reauthorization and redesign of NCLB.  Six years after its bipartisan passage, she notes, we have nothing to show for it.

NCLB has turned every school into a test-preparation factory, focused solely on reading and mathematics. They are the only subjects that count in a school’s ranking, so teachers routinely reduce attention to history, science, foreign language, literature, geography, the arts and other non-tested subjects. With this narrowing of the curriculum, students may be getting dumbed down even if their scores go up. Do we really want a society where our fellow citizens know nothing of history, literature, science and the arts?

First, Ravitch says, the Obama administration should “eliminate the goal of universal proficiency by 2014, because it is unattainable. Period. No state or nation has ever achieved 100% proficiency.” 

Second, it should recognize that the federal government is best at providing accurate information, such as what children in each grade need to know to be abreast of international standards (that is known as the curriculum) and whether our children are meeting those standards (that is, testing); third, the administration should expect states and districts to fashion appropriate reforms and remedies for their schools.

Congress, Ravitch concludes, is not the right place to decide how to fix our schools. And more money isn’t the answer if we don’t have the right vision for improving education.

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21st Century B.C. Skills

Published by Robert Pondiscio on October 30, 2008 in Core Knowledge, Curriculum and Education Theory. 4 Comments

Eduwonk Andy Rotherham gives voice today to something that has been irritating me for a while now–the careless and self-indulgent tossing about of the phrase “21st Century Skills” to describe the simple outcome of a sound, basic education.  Problem solving, critical thinking and cooperative learning have been with us in this country since we hunted in groups using spears with Clovis points.  As Andy puts it:

 We’re not the first society where those skills have been needed or valued.   What’s changed is the need —  for both equity and economic reasons — to give many more students a high quality education that allows them to develop these skills.   In other words it’s about broadening access to a good education rather than a radically different conception of what a good education is.   If dressing that up as 21st Century Skills helps sell an equity agenda, that’s great, otherwise we are flattering ourselves some about just how revolutionary the world we live in really is.

Amen.  The sooner we stop nattering on about “21st Century” skills the better, especially since the phrase tends to be code for devaluing the content-rich curriculum that makes critical thinking possible.

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B is for Birds and Bees

Published by Robert Pondiscio on October 24, 2008 in Curriculum. 0 Comments

With one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in Europe, the British government is bringing sex education to all schools in England, including kindergarten-age children.  ”It’s vital that this information doesn’t come from playground rumor or the mixed messages from the media about sex,” Schools Minister Jim Knight said Thursday.  For the very young, sex ed will mainly be about “self-awareness.”

“We are not talking about 5-year-old kids being taught sex. What we’re talking about for key stage 1 (ages 5-7) is children knowing about themselves, their differences, their friendships and how to manage their feelings.”

Needless to say, not everyone’s enamored of the plan.  Says one mum: “I am not the parent who calls her son’s penis a wee-wee. But I should decide if the word penis enters my child’s vocabulary at 5 or not.”

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Grammar Makes a Comeback

Published by Robert Pondiscio on October 20, 2008 in Curriculum. 4 Comments

The government has released a draft curriculum that unequivocally calls for the explicit teaching of the basic structures of the English language. Grammar will return to the classroom along with punctuation, spelling, pronunciation, and phonics, for all students from the first years of school.

Oops, I left out a key word.  The Australian government.  The draft curriculum also retains the teaching of critical literacy, ”a model analysing gender, race and class in literature to expose inherent prejudices and agendas,” The Australian reports.  The critical literacy component had been hotly debated.

The draft addresses the debates, saying the “explicit teaching of decoding, spelling and other aspects of the basic codes of written English will be an important and routine aspect” of the curriculum. The draft says critical literacy is the analysis of texts in terms of “their potential philosophical, political or ideological assumptions and content”.

The principal author of the curriculum notes that critical literacy “should not occupy a big part of the curriculum, but it had a role in enabling students to protect themselves against propaganda and being manipulated.”

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Required Reading

Published by Robert Pondiscio on September 28, 2008 in Assessment and Testing, Core Knowledge, Curriculum, Education News, Educational Policy, Homeschooling, No category, Parents, Research and Reports, School News, Teaching and Weekly Roundup. 0 Comments

A weekly roundup of the week’s most important news, information and blog posts about curriculum, teaching, education policy and other items of interest.

Core Knowledge

Counterfeit Equity
A new report from the Brookings Institution’s Tom Loveless notes many students are being pushed into algebra without having mastered basic skills such as multiplication, division and fractions. 

Hardy Perennials
From generous grading for failing work to “no homework” policies, there’s lots to cheer about if you’re a fan of lower standards and diminshed expectations.

Notes on a Scandal
Officials in South Carolina are investigating old test results at a poor, inner-city Charleston elementary school that had been hailed as a miraculous success story. 

Core Knowledge School Raises Money With Math
O’Dea Core Knowledge Elementary School students in Ft. Collins, Colorado are raising money for their school each time they take a math test until Oct. 3. Students are asking friends and family to pledge money for each correct math problem they get on a marathon test.  

Best of the Blogs

The Community Schools Con at the Education Gadfly
Checker & Co. find the idea ”gooey and emotional, focusing on the externalities of daily life that drip into America’s classrooms-poor healthcare, single parent families, unemployment–rather than on what schools can do with the kids who actually turn up there.”

Evolution in Play in Texas at Curriculum Matters
Texas officials are embarking on a revision of their state’s science standards, a process that has generated a furious debate in several states in recent years—most of it focused squarely on the topic of evolution. A first draft of the new standards, released this week, seems likely to please the scientific community.

Cool People You Should Know: Sean Reardon at Eduwonkette
Until recently, we did not have a clear portrait of the differences between black and white high-achievers in elementary school. Thanks to Sean Reardon, a Stanford sociologist of education who studies school segregation and the sources of racial/ethnic achievement gaps, we’ve come a long way.

My Kingdom for a Parking Space at It’s Not All Flowers and Sausages
“If one more person tells me to do it for the kids, I might throw a kid at them,” writes Mimi, who teaches at a NYC elementary school.  “It just seems at times as if this job teeters on the brink of being inhumane.”

Teaching and Curriculum

FCAT analysis finds misconceptions about science
Associated Press
Florida students have misconceptions about science, and they need more practice demonstrating its concepts and relating them to the real world, according to an analysis of the state’s standardized test.

Recalculating the 8th Grade Algebra Rush
The Washington Post
“Nobody writing about schools has been a bigger supporter of getting more students into eighth-grade algebra than I have been,” writes Jay Mathews.  “Now, because of a startling study, I am having second thoughts.”

Joy in School
Educational Leadership
If the experience of “doing school” destroys children’s spirit to learn, their sense of wonder, their curiosity about the world, and their willingness to care for the human condition, have we succeeded as educators, no matter how well our students do on standardized tests?

Education Policy

NCLB Testing Said to Give ‘Illusions of Progress’
Education Week
Harvard University researcher Daniel M. Koretz says rampantly inflated standardized test scores are giving the misbegotten impression that, as in the fictional town made famous by radio personality Garrison Keillor, all children are above average

Consensus on Learning Time Builds
Education Week
Under enormous pressure to prepare students for a successful future—and fearful that standard school hours don’t offer enough time to do so—educators, policymakers, and community activists are adding more learning time to children’s lives.

Study Details Barriers to Career-Changers Going Into Teaching
Education Week
Experts are pointing to a new opinion survey and research analysis as evidence of a need to overhaul teacher training, compensation, and support, in order to appeal to potential career-changers interested in teaching.

Are high-stakes tests making the grade?
Richmond Times-Dispatch
After a decade, have standards and high-stakes tests improved public education in Virginia? It depends on whom you ask.

Colorado Targets Achievement Gap
The Rocky Mountain News
School districts must focus on and organize help for failing students if Colorado is to close the achievement gap between rich and poor students.

Homeschooling and Parenting

Minneapolis Sets Covenant on Black Achievement
Education Week
The Minneapolis school board and the local African-American community have taken an unusual step toward healing fractured relations and improving schooling for black children by signing a “covenant” that places responsibility for improvement on the shoulders of parents and district leaders.

Homeschooling Surges in U.S. as Parents Reach for Legal Rights
Fox News
States and school districts have a disjointed jumble of ordinances and measures that can make it tough for parents to know exactly what they are permitted to do as homeschoolers.

Father Abandons Nine Kids Under “Safe Haven” Law
KETV.com
A Nebraska father who dropped off his nine children at a hospital emergency room apparently cannot be charged under the state’s new Safe Haven law, which says any child under the age of 19 can be left at a hospital if they’re in immediate danger.

Et Alia

Learning From Mistakes Only Works After Age 12, Study Suggests
Science Daily
Eight-year-olds learn primarily from positive feedback (’Well done!’), whereas negative feedback (’Got it wrong this time’) scarcely causes any alarm bells to ring, a new study suggests.  Twelve-year-olds are better able to process negative feedback, and use it to learn from their mistakes. 

Stand-up desks provide a firm footing for fidgety students
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Several schools are experimenting stand-up workstations in the classroom.  Anecdotally, teachers report greater attentiveness, fewer behavioral problems, better posture and more enthusiasm.

Bay Area Schools Need Earthquake Proofing
Contra Costa Times
Engineers say nearly 8,000 older school buildings in California are prone to collapse during a major earthquake.

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A National Teachable Moment

Published by Robert Pondiscio on September 19, 2008 in Curriculum. 0 Comments

It’s a newsroom cliche that some stories write themselves. Like this one: It’s been an historic week of stock market and economic turmoil driven by a massive debt and liquidity crisis. So the U.S. Treasury Department chooses this week to unveil…(wait for it!)…A program to teach schoolkids about the responsible use of credit! 

The theme of the campaign (I swear I’m not making this up) is “Don’t let your credit put you in a bad place.”  David Colker of the Los Angeles Times couldn’t resist waggishly leading his story on the program with, “See Sally. See Sally run from the bank. Run Sally run!” 

The quote of the week, if not for the ages, comes from Don Iannicola, Treasury’s deputy assistant secretary for financial education.  “The events unfolding in the last few months can be seen as a national teachable moment,” Iannicola tells the Times. 

Gee, ya think?

Just a suggestion, perhaps all government bailouts of Wall Street financial institutions ought to come with the requirement that the firms’ execs take — and pass — the course.

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Required Reading

Published by Robert Pondiscio on September 7, 2008 in Core Knowledge, Curriculum, Education News, Educational Policy, Teaching and Weekly Roundup. 1 Comment

A weekly roundup of the week’s most important news, information and blog posts about curriculum, teaching, education policy and other items of interest to the Core Knowledge community.

Core Knowledge

Reading Strategies: A Little Goes a Long Way
Teaching students comprehension strategies does help, Dan Willingham writes, but too much time is currently devoted to them.

On Reading: Why Content Knowledge Matters
Reader bring background knowledge to the task of reading so that they are ready to fill the gaps that writers will leave,” Dan Willingham observes.  “Small wonder that students who score poorly on reading tests suddenly look like terrific readers when given a passage on a topic that they know a lot about,” he writes.

10 New York City School to Focus Reading Skills on Content
The New York Times
In a bid to correct what he called a “knowledge deficit” among New York City public school students, Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein announces a pilot program that would overhaul the way children in 10 city schools are taught to read.

Reading and Knowledge: An Interview With E.D. Hirsch
E. D. Hirsch speaks with Public School Insights about the Core Knowledge Reading Program, discussing the connection between content and reading comprehension.  ”If you push out subject matter,” Hirsch notes, “you’re also pushing out reading comprehension.” 

Let’s Be Careful Out There
Not everything you need to know to be effective has been covered in class.  Veteran teachers offer their advice for first year teachers. 

Best of the Blogs

There He Goes Again at Britannica Blog
Charles Murray’s new book goes far beyond what research and common sense allow to say that we should identify children’s innate capacity in first grade and sort them into different kinds of educational experiences. Karin Chenoweth writes neither science nor history is really on his side.

Holding Teachers Accountable Ain’t That Easy at The Tempered Radical
I’m ready for accountability to be introduced to education, primarily because I want the opportunity to be rewarded differently based on my abilities as an educator.  But real barriers must be addressed before teachers can be fairly held accountable for “student learning.” 

Johnny Says: Show Me the Money at The Education Gadfly 
K-12 education must welcome promising innovations and responsible experiments, but Liam Julian argues the consequences of paying students for right behavior far outweigh whatever benefits might be accrued.

This Strange New Era of Reform at Bridging Differences
Diane Ravitch says the mantle of “reformer” has passed to those who would dismantle public education, piece by piece.

What Does Florida Tell Us About Broader/Bolder? at Jay P. Greene’s Blog
Given that we can’t spend our way out of our K-12 problems (and it wouldn’t work if we tried) we should instead seek ways to improve the bang we get for our existing bucks. Fortunately, Florida shows that it can be done.

Teaching and Curriculum

Great Teaching, Not Buildings, Make Great Schools
The Washington Post
Great buildings don’t make great schools, writes Jay Mathews. It might be better if we spent our money on principals and teachers who inspire, who don’t take lethargy or resentment for an answer.

Students face a long list of obstacles on the way to college degree
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In a seven-part series, the Post-Gazette examines some of the obstacles to success in college and what both students and schools can do to overcome them.

College is Not a Must
Christian Science Monitor
Despite what the public is willing to acknowledge, Walt Gardner writes, the importance of a bachelor’s degree has been wildly oversold.

Education Policy

Democrats, teachers unions now divided on many issues
USA Today
A funny thing happened to the Democratic Party on the way to an education platform: The party has visibly split with teachers unions, its longtime allies, on key issues.

Better Education Through Innovation
The Los Angeles Times
If we want to spur innovation in education, says Newark Mayor Cory Booker and others, the Department of Education should act more like the National Institutes of Health. 

Homeschooling and Parenting

Raising the Bar:  How Parents Can Fix Education
The Wall Street Journal
It’s time for some radical change in your local schools that only parents can bring about: start insisting that your children fully apply themselves to their studies — and commit yourself to doing your part.

Back to (Home) School
Eduwonkette
Homeschooled children are more likely to be white than Black or Hispanic; to be in a household with three or more children than one with fewer children; to live in a two-parent household with one parent in the labor force than in another configuration; and to have college-educated parents.  Homeschooling also weakens the case for teaching as a profession.

Et Alia

Educators Risk Their Lives to Save School Gunman’s
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Instead of running away from gunshots Tuesday morning, Principal Paul Lombardo and Assistant Principal Jeff Lyons chased a 15-year-old student with a .40-cailiber handgun

Sid the Science Kid Works Hard to Inspire to Inspire Others
The New York Times
Sid, who is animated in a process called digital puppetry, is an ambassador for what education types might call science readiness. “Sid the Science Kid,” a series for preschoolers that begins Monday on PBS, is done in that hyperactive style that adults have determined is what the very young prefer, seeks to put across the fundamentals of science.

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Reading Strategies: A Little Goes a Long Way

Published by Dan Willingham on August 28, 2008 in Core Knowledge, Curriculum and Literacy. 10 Comments

Yesterday I argued that the knowledge readers bring to a text is essential to reading comprehension. But does even a knowledgeable reader comprehend automatically? Mustn’t the reader apply comprehension strategies to extract meaning from the text? The short answer is that teaching students comprehension strategies does help, but too much time is currently devoted to them.

Reading comprehension strategies include things like question generation (students are taught to generate questions about a text and then answer them) comprehension monitoring (students are taught to become aware of when they do not understand), and summarization (students are taught techniques to summarize meaning). Often, multiple strategies are taught.

The National Reading Panel  reviewed 205 studies examining the effectiveness of teaching students reading strategies, and there is little doubt that they help, and that the effect is sizable.

There are two aspects of the data which deserve special attention because they hold implications for classroom application. First, the effects of teaching students reading strategies are weak or absent before the third grade.  This finding is readily understandable—students are still learning to decode, and simply can’t juggle in mind the tasks of decoding, comprehending, and trying to implement a strategy. It’s only when decoding has become fluid so that the reader doesn’t need to think about it much that enough mental space is free to accommodate a strategy.

Second, when it comes to teaching students to use reading strategies, shorter programs seem just as effective as longer programs. This finding is crucial, because it ought to make us think differently about what reading strategies actually do. It’s natural to think that strategies improve the reader’s skill in extracting meaning from a text. But if that were true then more practice ought to make you better at it. Instead, comprehension strategies feel less like a skill and more like a trick—something like “check your work” in mathematics. It’s a very smart thing to do, and students should be explicitly taught to do it, but it doesn’t require extensive practice.

What might the trick of comprehension strategies be? A good guess is that they encourage students to think differently about reading. There is so much emphasis on decoding in early reading instruction (as there must be) that it is understandable that a student might think “If I’ve decoded, then I’ve read it.” But an adult knows that if you get to the bottom of a page and don’t know what you’ve read, you haven’t really read it, even if you’ve decoded everything. That conception of reading—that the point is communication—must click for students, and comprehension strategies may have most of their impact in getting students to think about reading as something they do to understand. Once they understand that, most of what comprehension strategies advise is something that students will do naturally: try to find the main idea, check your own comprehension, and so on.

The bottom line is that teaching comprehension strategies is a good idea, but it appears to be a one-time boost. There is no evidence that more practice yields more benefit. More information on this subject can be found here: http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/issues/winter06-07/CogSci.pdf

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Big Day in the Big Apple

Published by Robert Pondiscio on August 25, 2008 in Core Knowledge, Curriculum and Literacy. 0 Comments

Richard Whitmire dropped a hint last week calling it “the biggest development in reading instruction that won’t make the front pages of any national newspaper. But it should.”  Today came the announcement: a three-year, $2.4 million pilot project to test a new Core Knowledge Reading Program in New York City Schools.  Chancellor Joel Klein made the announcement, along with Core Knowledge founder E.D. Hirsch, Jr., and Amida Gentile of the UFT.  The DOE’s press release is here.

Lots to say about this initiative, but here’s coverage in the New York Times, Edweek, and New York’s WABC-TV.

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Exhilarating Drudgery

Published by Robert Pondiscio on August 21, 2008 in Curriculum and Essay. 3 Comments

The Internet puts the world’s knowledge at the ends of our rapidly twitching fingers, yet the academic research skills of “average” students are poorer today than when they “had to trek to a library, sift through periodicals, muddle through card catalogs, and blow off dust from stacks of books, just to access potential material for a term paper,” observes ed.org columnist Ron Isaac, who wonders “What has replaced this exhilarating drudgery?”

Too often a student will go online, key in, say, “Shakespeare,” double click, and then muster the energy for one more click so that their ready-made dissertation will be printing while they split to check out YouTube or to surf some video channel. At the next commercial break they will scoop up their term paper from the tray, sandwich it between colored covers, and adorn it with some “photoshop” work and computer graphics. They may also type a preface to the teacher along the lines of “I hope you like this. Have a nice day!” and add the finishing touch of an “emoticon” smiley-face.

He’s painting with a broad brush, obviously, but Isaac raises a legitimate point with his observation that “everyone professes a passionate belief in the importance of teaching students critical thinking, but generally it’s left at that. The ability to think critically is not a secondary sexual characteristic that happens involuntarily. Nor does it materialize from the study of a non-existent curriculum. It is, rather, the product of many years of literal note-taking ( sometimes a lonely endeavor) and reflection.”

 

 

 

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