Friday, January 16, 2015
Report Card Completion Changes
Key Points and Deadlines:
Since we will be using NWRDC to print our report cards
(this is different from last year), then we should be able to meet the
timeline sent to me prior to break. (We would not be able to meet the
timeline if we used our own print shop, for a variety of reasons) BONUS- We save money by having NWRDC print them because we are already paying for this service in our support membership!
January 30th- ALL Teacher grades posted by NOON. This earlier time frame (changed from 3:30)
is so that the building secretaries have time to complete their task of sending
posted grades to NWRDC for printing by the end of business that day.
Feb.2-4- NWRDC will print report cards and mail them to DDC by EOB Feb.4th.
Feb. 5th- Courier or plant manager can then pick up report cards from DDC and take to building.
February 6th- Report cards sent home with parents/students
Office will prepare envelopes for sending home.
If a teacher makes a change on a report card, it is the teacher's responsibility to reprint that report card for the student.
SBAC, CCSS, and NGSS Overview
There are some new acronyms out there that you have probably been
hearing. For the purpose of this email, I will attempt
to ruthlessly simplify them. There is a lot of additional information
if you are interested in delving deeper. Links are included.
Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC)
The
state-led consortium involves educators, researchers, policymakers and
community groups in a consensus driven process. (You can imagine the
challenge of bringing all these stakeholders together to do this work!)
Which
states make up SBAC? California, Conneticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho,
Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North
Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, U.S. Virgin Islands,
Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
The
primary function of the SBAC is to develop assessments that are aligned
to Common Core State Standards, and that accurately measure student
progress towards college and career readiness.
SBAC is funded by a grant from the U.S. Dept of Education and some generous contributions from charitable foundations.
Most
of the states that are not a part of SBAC, belong to PARCC (The
Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, which
has developed very similar assessments)
Common Core State Standards (CCSS)
The
state-led effort, driven by the chief school officers and governors, to
develop common standards was begun in 2009, and involved 48 states, 2
territories and the District of Columbia. The goal was to ensure that
all students are measured against consistent, real-world learning goals,
regardless of where they live, that prepare them for college, career
and life. CCSS is aligned to English Language Arts and Math,
specifically.
The standards are designed to
build upon the most advanced current thinking about preparing students
for success in college, career and life. We need college- and
career-ready standards because even in high-performing states, students
are graduating and passing all the required tests but still need
remediation in their post-secondary work.
Standards
do not equal curriculum. Standards establish what students need to
learn, but do NOT dictate how teachers should teach. Districts, schools
and teachers decide how best to help students reach the standards.
The graphic below shows in green the states that have currently adopted the Common Core State Standards.
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
Through
a collaborative, state-led process new K-12 science standards have been
developed. These new standards are rich in content and practice. The
intent is to provide all students an internationally benchmarked science
education.
It has been almost 15 years since
the National Research Council provided the documents on which most state
science standards were based. Since then there have been major
advances in science as well as in our understanding of how students
learn, which should be reflected in updated science standards.
NGSS
identifies content, and science and engineering practices that all
students should learn from kindergarten to high school. Again,
standards do not define a curriculum. Districts, schools and teachers
will have the responsibility of filling in specific content to help
students learn the key ideas in the standards.
We
do not yet have state assessments aligned to NGSS, but they are
coming! Washington State formally adopted NGSS on October 1, 2013.
Until the new assessments are developed, students will continue to test
on the MSP and Biology EOC. Our teachers have been getting training in
NGSS for several years now and have already begun the shift.
Another website that is loaded with information specific to our state is Ready WA: Real Learning for Real Life
One of the common themes you may have noticed is that each of these are state-led
processes. They have involved a wide range of knowledgeable people,
with K-12 teachers making up a large chunk of the decision making
groups.
To stick with the mountain climbing
analogy of my last email, a way to look at the Common Core State
Standards and Next Generation Science Standards is that they are the
mountain students have to climb. We know where the 'camps' are at each
grade level, and we know the peak is our final goal. But what equipment
we bring and how we choose to climb is up to us. Just like it is up to
districts, schools and teachers to select curriculum and teaching
strategies that will get students to that end goal of being college and
career ready at graduation.
There are big
changes afoot, but in White River we saw them coming and started
preparing. I have the opportunity to converse with folks from a wide
variety of districts, and I frequently leave those conversations
thinking, thank goodness I work in White River!
Thursday, January 15, 2015
The Walking Quiz
Active, Engaging Test Prep: The Walking Quiz
With the test a few days away, we were looking for a livelier and more effective way to review the content than having students complete the end-of-the-chapter review questions in their notebooks. We’d done that for the last unit, and we weren’t happy with the number of off-task behaviors we saw: Students fidgeted in their seats, talked with neighbors, and only partially completed the assignment. They weren’t engaged, and they weren’t learning as much as we knew they could have—as their test results clearly showed.
We had a hunch that too much seat time was the problem, as it had been in similar situations recently, and we wanted to manage students’ off-task behavior proactively this time around. So we used an activity that would get students up and moving around the room while answering review questions.
The Walking Quiz
We’d already used our “Walking Quiz” to preview content—to teach vocabulary words or pre-assess a skill—and seen the physical and academic benefits it provided for our class. We thought it could also get students focused and engaged in reviewing content before their test as well. And it worked!We began by reviewing our expectations for the activity. Then students wrote the numbers one through twenty on their answer pages. We set the timer for five minutes and the action began. To an outsider looking in, it may have looked like a chaotic classroom. However, students were active and engaged in reviewing the content. We noticed students moving around the room in an orderly way, working through the questions, and staying on-task, and we even observed some students smiling along the way! At the end of the activity, when we reviewed the answer sheets, we noticed that some students had circled particular words and ideas they wanted to review later that night. Most importantly, many of our students excelled on the test the next day. This activity was a physical and academic success! Here’s the how-to:
Walking Quiz
Preparation:
- Prepare question cards that emphasize current content:
- On one side, write the number of the question.
- On the other side, write the question.
- Management tip: Use thick paper, like cardstock, and write the number of the question on one side. Then flip the paper over from the top edge (the edge you’ll tape to the wall) and write the question on that side. The question will be upside down relative to the number—which will make it right side up when students flip the paper up to read the question. (You might want to try it first on a sticky note.)
- Tape the question cards throughout the room with the number side up.
How to do it:
- Have students number their answer sheet for however many questions you’ve taped throughout the room.
- Give the following directions:
- Students leave their answer sheet and pencil at their desk.
- Each student walks throughout the room looking for question cards.
- When students arrive at a question card, they flip it up, read the question on the back, and figure out the answer.
- Students then return to their desks to record the answer on their answer sheet.
- Students continue this process until they’ve answered all questions.
- Management tips:
- Know your students—would it be better for them to discuss the answers with one another? Would students benefit from keeping a clipboard with them throughout the activity, rather than going back and forth to the answer sheet on their desk? Do what you know will work best for your group of students.
- Students do not have to answer the questions in order. Encourage them to do the quiz by moving to question cards that are not crowded with other students.
- Remind students to carefully record their answers next to the correct number on their answer sheet.
- Management tips:
Variation:
Make sure you have as many question cards as you have students in your class. At the conclusion of the Walking Quiz, each student retrieves a card from the wall and takes it back to their seat. When reviewing the answers as a class, students take turns reading their question and calling on a classmate to provide the answer.Using Movement Proactively
Using strategies like this to incorporate movement into our classrooms reduces off-task behavior and increases learning—and it’s fun for students. What ways have you found to work movement into lessons and reviews? Share your ideas here!
← Read the previous post: "Leading Group Games at Recess"
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Hawk Pride
| An invitation to show your Seahawks pride! | |
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Monday, January 5, 2015
15 Education Predictions for '15
Kindergarten Entry Tests And More Education Predictions for 2015
1) Blended Learning As A Daily PracticeOne thing American schools traditionally have is staying power. While they educate a different population than a century ago, the schools and classrooms are organized much the same. Yet that's starting to change. Blended learning — coupling technology based-instruction with live instruction — is evolving from an idea that was mostly hype to a daily practice for students in all kinds of public schools.
Andrew Rotherham
Bellwether Education Partners, a nonprofit consultancy
2) More Scrutiny of Student DataIn response to fears about student records becoming the proverbial permanent record, there will be more examination, and perhaps increasing regulation, of how long information should be retained in a way that can be associated with an individual student. We'll see more companies responding to public concerns, like Google's response to concerns about its scanning of student emails in Google Apps for Education, Class Dojo's decision to retain student records for only a year, or the Microsoft-led student privacy pledge,
Elana Zeide
Privacy Research Fellow, Information Law Institute, New York University
3) Broader Disclosure On Student Loan Defaults
The gainful employment rule [which seeks to regulate for-profit colleges' access to federal student aid] may turn into a disclosure rule [requiring all colleges to report their student loan default rates]. I could see that gaining a little more traction. Everyone likes the idea of accountability.
Kevin Kinser
Associate Professor, SUNY-Albany, and an expert on for-profit colleges
4) Moving On From Common Core Debates
The Common Core will continue to be litigated in some state houses, like Arizona, but for the most part legislators are getting tired of the issue. We will be looking for the recipes of successful implementation and identifying real classroom challenges. When teachers have a significant voice and opportunities for input on implementation, we are likely to see success.
Carmel Martin
Executive Vice President for Policy, Center for American Progress
5) Reauthorization of No Child Left Behind; More School Choice
I think we're going to see a lot of momentum on education in 2015 — both at the federal and state levels. At the federal level, we're almost guaranteed to see an effort to reauthorize No Child Left Behind. Conservatives should take that opportunity and create options for states to opt-out of the programs that fall under NCLB altogether. At the state level, we'll continue to see worthwhile efforts to advance choice in education. We might even see a few more states succeed in establishing innovative education savings accounts (ESAs) for families, enabling them to completely customize their children's educational experience. I predict that in 2015, recognition will grow for the idea that "public" education means publicly financing K-12 education, but means providing instruction in a wide-variety of settings: charters, private schools, online options and more.
Lindsey Burke
Fellow, Heritage Foundation
6) Customizable, Game-Like Platforms
In terms of game-based learning, I think we'll start to see more customizable game-like platforms that allow teachers to customize the content. A simple example would be a game like Jeopardy [where teachers can write their own answers and questions] — but a smarter version of that. That's where the adoption is going to happen, because teachers want to control the content so that students are really learning.
Jordan Shapiro
Professor at Temple University and an expert on game-based learning
7) Transition For The Online Education Space
"Snackable" learning will become a large part of the online education menu. The industry will start to figure out how learning best fits into the small spaces and snippets of time in people's lives. Online courses will allow users to dive deep OR get information in bite-size pieces. Mobile will be front and center in the morsel movement.
Andrew Wait
President of lynda.com
8) More Options For Student Borrowers
Use and availability of income-based repayment (IBR) schemes, which set repayment expectations at a set percentage of the student borrower's post-college income, will dramatically increase in 2015. This is because policymakers have narrowly defined the student debt problem as a problem of student borrowers struggling to keep up with payments (i.e., avoid default). Therefore, setting payments at a more affordable level would seem to resolve the problems student debt creates.
However, this preferred policy strategy for resolving the student debt problem will only exacerbate the wealth gap between students who have even small amounts of student debt and those who do not have any debt, by increasing the time that it takes to pay off student loans.
William Elliott III
Founding Director of the Assets and Education Initiative at the University of Kansas, School of Social Welfare and an expert on student debt
9) Competency-Based Education Picks Up
Competency-based direct assessment will pick up steam. While most of these programs will also be offered wholly or mostly online and primarily for working adults, a number of competency-based models designed for traditional-age students will also turn heads and reinvigorate longstanding debates about the necessity of more practically focused delivery models.
Tony Friscia
President and CEO of Eduventures, higher education research and advisory firm
10) More Nuanced Kinds Of Data In Schools
I'm predicting that a group of concerned citizens will finally have a way of pushing back against data to give a more nuanced version of what data ought to look like in schools. That means anything from elevating anecdotal evidence to having students create their own assessments and demonstrate proficiency that way. We won't call it going back; if anything, it's more an enhancement for learning.
Also issues of diversity, including race and gender, may be included as part of teacher evaluation, especially as part of efforts to staff the best teachers for the most under-served populations, particularly of color.
Jose Vilson
Math educator and author, This Is Not A Test
11) The Digital Classroom Meets Labor Issues
I think 2015 will be year that brings teaching, labor, data and faculty governance into a necessary conversation. While adjuncts are planning a national day of protest on February 25th, I think the labor conversation is poised to broaden its vocabulary beyond wages and working conditions to issues of data and value creation in the university, curriculum control, and faculty governance.
I am hoping that we see more interrogation of the digital in our classrooms from a labor perspective and that we use that perspective to create solidarity — and much better jobs. Sadly, as the public university struggles with budgets, we are going to see more corporate partnerships like ASU and Starbucks, but I also think we're also poised to see quality public education programs that attend to nontraditional students, as well as community colleges, emerge as key figures in the discussions around the necessity of actually teaching today's students.
Karen Gregory
Lecturer in Sociology in the Division of Interdisciplinary Studies at the City College of New York. Faculty head of the CCNY City Lab
12) Good News By The Numbers
Predictions for 2015 :
- More than 60,000 additional children will enroll in high-quality early learning.
- 600
new commitments by colleges, organizations and companies will help
thousands more students prepare for, and graduate from, college.
- 10 million more students will have high-speed Internet access.
- America's high school graduation rate will set a record — again.
U.S. Secretary of Education
13) Kindergarten Entry Tests
In 2015, we will see kindergarten entry assessments (KEAs) effectively implemented as a key transition from the early years to elementary school. There has been a great deal of discussion over the role of KEAs in recent years. In 2015, education systems will cut through the clutter and invest the needed resources to develop and administer developmentally appropriate KEAs and thus improve instruction for young children.
In 2015, the U.S. will deliver on its promise to early childhood educators. President Obama recently referred to early childhood education as part of the "essential promise of America." In 2015, we will see a genuine acknowledgement that our country simply cannot deliver on its promise without recognizing the value early childhood educators provide in ensuring young children are prepared for school and life.
Rhian Evans Allvin
Executive Director, National Association for the Education of Young Children
14) The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same
I suspect that with the rumored reauthorization of ESEA that we will see an anti-testing narrative, but the entire system will still be tied to testing. [Politicians] will talk about teacher quality, but we will see a renewed emphasis on sending the least qualified candidates (such as Teach For America) to teach primarily poor children. They will talk about local control and will tweak accountability formulas, but the educational system will likely still be controlled in a top-down fashion instead of a bottom-up approach like California recently introduced for school finance. They will talk about turning around 1,000 schools, when in fact very few of the schools stay "turned around" because the poverty in the communities and special learning needs of the students are not being addressed. In essence, our politicians will give us more of the same failed education policy in 2015, while calling it a new direction and/or reform.
Julian Vasquez Heilig
Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, California State University, Sacramento
15) A New Agenda For Public Schools.
This new year of 2015 should hold a new agenda and strategy for public schools. The question at hand should not be, "What system do we use to teach our young?" It should be, "What exactly are we teaching them, and how can we better their experience while doing so?"... I am genuinely afraid for how the school system will look and feel like later along the road.
Jaxs Goldsmith
Senior Class President, Riverside University High School, Milwaukee
New Tech Classes
We hope that you have had a chance to enjoy some much-deserved time
off along with the special times with friends and family that
accompanies the holiday season. We wish you all a safe and enjoyable new
year and are looking forward to great things in 2015. With that said,
we are excited to share with you the January 2015 Tech Training Schedule
and pleased to announce that we have a few online options for folks who
want to explore independent learning opportunities.
Here are a few important reminders:
1. You will find a list of course offerings attached and we will be ready to go for registration the first week of January.
2.
There are two online courses that have been developed by Lori and those
are now available. One is Customizing Your YouTube #255 and the other
is Getting Started with Google Forms #256. If you register for either
online course you will need to email Lori so that we can make a few
minor adjustments to your user profile in Google.
3.
With the end of the semester approaching, we have included both
elementary and secondary Skyward Gradebook courses. If you are looking
for ways to increase your efficiency by utilizing gradebook tools or
simply need a refresher on how to add comments please take advantage of
these course offerings.
5. If you are
working with your students to build their critical reading skills then
take a moment to explore the possibilities that Actively Learn can
provide. This is a powerful tool and can be leveraged to reinforce all
those close reading strategies that you are working on. The added bonus
is that they are practicing these skills in a digital environment that
is similar to the one that they will encounter this spring.
6.
Don't forget that you can use Google Calendar to view these classes and
then copy the course to your calendar for convenience.
Please
remember that we are always open to feedback and are steadfast in our
mission to respond to your needs in the service of improving student
learning. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you need anything.
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