Effective Presentations

Many students (and families) use Microsoft's PowerPoint or Mac's Keynote to create multimedia presentations.  While these tools can be an effective way to present a message to an audience, they are, often, used improperly.  The result is a muted or confusing message to the audience. Check out this blog from JuiceAnalytics.com entitled 8 Ideas for Making Better Slides on how to make more effective presentation slides.  I particularly like point #6.

A Time of Giving

A special "thank you" those who donated to the "Adopt a Platoon" program spearheaded through the students in the S.A.I.L. program.  4 large boxes (over 100 lbs) of much needed supplies will be mailed to Iraq to support American troops.  A collective "hats off" to the students in the S.A.I.L. program for thier outstanding and inspirational effort.

Good to Great

As was written of a December, 14th post, CMS is dedicated to continual improvement .  On December 11, 2007, the faculty of CMS began this process.  The focus of the meeting was on the statement made several times by Dr. John Cronin (NWEA) during his visit to CMS.  The statement was also written in his formal report.  The statement was:

"CMS is a good school, not a great one."

Toe begin the process of moving to "greatness" the faculty engaged in a cross-grade, cross discipline discussion to answer/discuss the following questions:

1.  What can we do and/or stop doing to move CMS in the direction of greatness?

2.  How can a school's greatness be measured?

Notes/data were collected from those discussions and CMS administrators, through an iterative process, looked for not only general themes, but also the frequency of such themes.  A summary of discussions was posted and all CMS faculty were invited to provide additional comments and or edit the summary.  The following are the themes that emerged through that process.

1.  Most groups commented about the over-reliance, over-use, and general amount of standardized testing CMS engages in each year.  Generally, teachers like having data for a variety of uses, including, but not limited to instruction, placement, IEP evaluation, and recommendation for high school, but the disruption caused by standardized testing is wearing on the faculty.  There seems to be a general need for assessment, but in a more reasonable, pragmatic way.

2.  All groups expressed their desire for common planning time for curriculum groups (e.g. all 7th grade social studies teachers).  The idea that common planning time can help CMS move from Good to Great is consistent with current educational research.  Rick Dufour was able to lead Adlai Stevenson High School in Illinois from poor to high quality partially because of their use of common planning time.  More can be read about common planning time and the development of a professional learning community at the following websites:

http://www.mesd.k12.or.us/si/dufour_PLCs.pdf

http://www.allthingsplc.info/

3. Several groups made comments regarding the elimination of non-teaching duties (e.g. lunch duty, hall duty, etc.).  The general thought would be to provide more time for teachers to collaborate, plan, etc.  Two comments in particular best expressed the faculty's sentiment:

"Take away duties for teachers not related to curriculum, instruction, and assessment."

"Stop (Remove!) extraneous duties that take up time."

4.  Several groups expressed support for a systemic model of support for those who are struggling with their academics.  The general idea was similar to the Response to Intervention (RTI) model implemented in many schools.

This theme is consistent with Dr. Cronin's report in which he highlighted the growth achieved by our high achieving students is not seen in our middle achieving students and especially in our our low achieving students.  This achievement gap, as measured by NWEA, between our high achievers and our low achievers is widening!  RTI (or similar program) may be a strategy CMS can employ to reduce that gap.

5.  There was a large contingent of comments expressing the feeling that the CMS faculty is "spread too thin."  It was pointed out that there was a certain irony in the fact that Mr. Baldasaro asked faculty to identify those items on their plates which needed to be removed and in the next breath announced a new "Good To Great" steering committee.  The duality of those events was noted.

Generally, this concept was similar to what Dr. Cronin proposed when he spoke and wrote of "constancy of purpose" and the need to develop a comprehensive long-term improvement plan.  While we prefer the idea of a long-term vision (Good to Great) using short, measurable goals based on that vision, there is a general belief in having a "constancy of purpose."

6.  There was a lot of discussion about the CMS curriculum.  Within this theme, there were many sub-themes.  They were:

More sharing of curriculum.

"Slimming" of the curriculum.

Eliminate obsolete curriculum items - concentrate on key concepts.

Greater adherence to curriculum and grade level standards.

Vertical (6th to 7th, 7th to 8th grade) alignment of the curriculum.

Consistency across grade level content areas.

"High Accountability for all students."

Generally, the conversations centered on the amount of curriculum concepts that needed to be "covered" as opposed to the quantity of the curriculum.  This is a classic "depth over breath" discussion.  Robert Marzano would call for a "guaranteed and viable" curriculum for all CMS students as opposed to a curriculum spread so thin teachers are racing to "cover" it.

7.  A couple of groups discussed the grading and development of more consistent school-wide grading policies.  There is already a group of teachers meeting on a regular basis to discuss the possibility of standards-based assessment and the use of formative assessment in the classroom.  Although that sentiment was not discussed widely during the Good to Great meetings, it has been talked about generally at CMS.

8.  Almost every group discussed the importance of the emotional and social well-being of CMS students - something of an addendum to the discussions related to concerns of becoming too focused on data.  While the focus of the afternoon was on curriculum, instruction and assessment, it is clear through the development of this theme in so many groups that there is a concern on the part of the teachers about the social and emotional well-being of CMS students. Further, there is a belief at CMS that if we are educating the "whole" child, then one can not focus solely on "academic" growth.  There is an interesting study by Kristen Bub (an advanced doctoral student at Harvard) on the connection between behavior and grades.  You can read more here.

9.  There here a couple of comments regarding the supervision and evaluation of teachers.  Two comments centered on the "informal" walk-through process, that teachers felt as though a 5-10 minute walk-through did not provide adequate time for an administrator to make a judgment and provide feedback.  There was also a discussion in at least one group on the importance of feedback for teachers and a suggestion that others in the department (i.e. peer coaching model) complete observations to offer constructive feedback.

10.  There were a number of miscellaneous items that did not fall within a "theme".  They are quoted below:

• "Stop letting the school board 'push' us around.  Need to be more direct and less defensive at school board meetings - things that are going well need to be voiced.  School board needs to hear that emotional rigor is important and that it is part of our mission statement.  The administration is being passive with the board.  The board needs to be told that they aren't looking out for all students."
  
• "[Need] a true "curriculum" coordinator."
• "Observe/visit other 'great' schools to find out what makes them great."
• "Define a 'great' school from administration/board."
• "No attendance policy, no accountability for kids, passing times for kids, no bells, clock differences."
• "Emphasize thematic learning"
• "Stop scheduling like we are a junior high school."
• "Parent Portal - time consuming, takes away from preparation."
• "Current goal setting process is too restrictive/dictatorial and pointless."
• "Teachers have meetings without agendas to be creative and attentive."
• "Is the 'Good to Great' committee just another example of 'whack-a-mole'?"
• "Stop feeling tied to textbooks/old instruction."

The Amazing Ingenuity of Students

As all schools continue to struggle with the use of cell phones and other electronic communication devices in schools, one can't help but be impressed by the ingenuity of students when it comes to using such devices in their classes.  Take a look at this article about cell phone ringtones from the New York Times.

Recent Exeter Newsletter Article

In a recent Exeter Newsletter article entitled, CMS Educators Want Improved Curriculum, Lara Bricker outlined a discussion at the December 10, 2007 meeting of the Exeter Region Cooperative School Board.  For the most part, Ms. Bricker is accurate with not only her description of Dr. Cronin's report of student performance on the NWEA assessments, but of the actual exchange at the board meeting as well.  

There is one part of her article, however, which should be expanded upon.  In the article, Ms. Bricker writes that, "Cronin's analysis revealed that high achieving students at the middle school are the only group of students that meets or exceeds the growth of their peers in similar school systems across the country.  Their growth has been the same regardless of the type of instructional grouping they have been placed in, he said, meaning that flexible grouping or leveling did not produce noticeable differences in student growth"

While it is agreed that Dr. Cronin's report did show that our high achieving students did perform better relative to their control group than our middle and low achieving students did relative to their respective control groups,  it is real important to refer specifically Dr. Cronin's report for a complete description of his analysis of grouping at CMS.  Starting on page 10 of Dr. Cronin's report:

The grouping arrangements in place today work substantively better for high achieving students than low achievers.  In reading and language usage, the flexible grouping arrangement produced better growth for high achievers than the ability grouping arrangements.  Low achieving students have shown poor growth in the flexible grouping arrangement, but did not show substantively better results in ability grouped situations.  In mathematics, the current course assignments produce excellent growth with high achieving students in grades seven and eight, although growth has slipped this past year.  This assignment system has produced poor results with low achieving students and these results have declined further during the most recent school year. 

This leads to the general conclusion that decisions about grouping per se may not have much to with the results produced by the middle school.  The school employes flexible grouping arrangements for reading and groups by achievement in mathematics.  These "conflicting" arrangements have both worked relatively well for high performers and both work very poorly for low performers.  Thus simply making a change in grouping arrangements, whether toward or away from ability grouping, without a constellation of changes that are targeted more directly at improving the quality of curriculum and instruction, is unlikely to make much difference.

It's important to understand that Dr. Cronin concluded that improvements to curriculum and instruction (and we would include assessment) will have a greater impact on student achievement than grouping.  That is why the CMS community is excited to proceed with meaningful discussions about teaching and learning, discussions that we feel will make an impact on student achievement.  In short, we couldn't agree more with the first line of Ms. Bricker's article (with our own addendum in brackets).

"Teachers and administrators at the Cooperative Middle School want to take the school's curriculum [instruction and assessment] from good to great."  

We are dedicated to continual improvement at CMS and look forward to the process of moving from Good to Great.

Cell Phones and iPods

Recently, the Exeter Newsletter ran an editorial entitled Cell Phones Should be Banned in Class, in which they commented on many of the negative features of cell phones and iPods as they relate to school.  They even noted that parents "complicated" the issue by allowing their children to carry theses devices in school and while I agree that such devices should not be used to distract from or inhibit learning, I do believe there are alternative uses of cell phones and iPods - uses that may have a more positive impact on learning.

Since then, I have done a bit of research about some of those more positive, educative ways that new technologies can be used to enhanced student learning.  I wanted to share some of those with you here.

1.   Will Richardson's blog about "participatory media"

2.  Again, Will Richardson, this time about "Digital Citizenship" and the students' role in the creation of new media.

3.  This article from Newsweek talks about the release of "Kindle", Amazon.com's digital book reader.

4.  Will Richardson makes some interesting comments in his blog about the use of cellphones and texting by students that are both scary, but also make one think a bit about their use.

5.  Ian Jukes writes of a "Cell Phone College Class" opening in Japan.

6.  Karl Fisch, the original creator of Did You Know?/Shift Happens, has examples of how students are using iPods and podcasting in their classes at Arapahoe High School in Littleton, Colorado.

7.  Ian Jukes shares this article entitled, "Study:  iPods Help Students Concentrate".

8.  Students2.0 is a new blog created with students from around the world.  They have some very pointed and interesting views.  It is worth reading.  They are worth listening to.

NWEA Visit

A "thank you" to the Exeter Region Cooperative School Board for approving a longitudinal analysis of CMS's NWEA results.  Dr. John Cronin's analysis and subsequent visit to CMS provided valuable insight into the performance of CMS students compared to similar middle school students around the country.  NWEA's ability to compare our students to their "virtual comparison groups" provided the types of controls we are unable to produce in house.  The faculty of CMS appreciated Dr. Cronin's blended analysis as both an assessment expert and a former high school educator.  In short, Dr. Cronin understood not only what the data was indicating, but also the day to day operation of a middle school and the change process associated with school improvement.  The discussions, while rooted in statistical analysis, were also "real" in that CMS's faculty not only understood his conclusions, but realized the power to make meaningful change was in our hands.

The following is an excerpt from an email I sent to Dr. Cronin two days later:

"On a personal note, I told many people after the board meeting on Tuesday evening that I thought Tuesday was the single greatest day I have had in education - and it wasn't because we received an over abundance of good news.  Many of the items you brought to light on Tuesday did confirm some of my thoughts, however, it was more than that.  You challenged us (and me) to take a hard look at the data - something that is never easy to do - and develop a strategic plan to address what the data is telling us. You, frankly, have given me a greater sense of purpose and as I said to [Mr. O'Malley - Principal] after the meeting, I know what my job description is for the rest of the year.  Further, John, not just anyone could have done that.  If you had come out and presented the data, without challenging us, with speaking candidly about your finding, it would not have made the same impact.  Your contributions were invaluable and should have a lasting impact on CMS.  Many people remarked on Wednesday that they wished you were able to stay another day."

If you wish to read Dr. Cronin's report, a copy can be found here.  In summary, Dr. Cronin made the following conclusions:

1.  In general, the seventh grade program made greater growth than the programs at the other two grades.

2.  Reading and Language Usage results were generally near or slightly better than their control groups.  Mathematics results were the weakest of the three subjects tested.

3.  The grouping arrangements in place today work substantively better for high achieving students than low achievers.

4.  Grouping per se may not have much to do with the results.  CMS employs flexible grouping for reading and groups by achievement in mathematics.  Both arrangements appear to work relatively well for high performers and both work very poorly for low performers.  "Simply making a change in grouping arrangements, whether toward or away from ability grouping, is unlikely to make much difference." (pg. 10)

5.  The "largest concern" is that the program at CMS increases the achievement differences between high and low achievers at CMS.  The high achieving students generally outperform their control group, while low performing students generally underperform their control group.  In essence, the instructional program at CMS is widening the achievement gap.  Further, as Dr. Cronin pointed out to our faculty, the "middle" group may be being ignored.  Their results were less decisive as they would beat their control group in some measures, meet their control group in others and underperform relative to their control group in yet others.

6.  There was an overall decrease in scores from the 05-06 school year to the 06-07 school year.

7. Boys at CMS underperformed relative to girls at CMS.  While nationwide statistics show that boys are lagging behind girls in a variety of assessment measures, most alarming to Dr. Cronin was that boys at CMS are growing at a slower rate than girls.  

Per Dr. Cronin's direction, CMS has begun the process of self evaluation and improvement.  I look forward to using this blog to as an avenue in which we can update the community of our progress.