Politics and this blog

I was reminded by a member of this community that this blog is designed to invite discussion of middle school education, not to politicize and/or editorialize about local issues.  As a result, I have removed my recent post on the the experimental pod at CMS.  The comments of this member of our community were right on and I appreciate his/her reminder.  As always, I invite comments and if one so chooses, I can be reached at 775-8793 or tbaldasaro@sau16.org for individual conversations.  

-Tony

"Great" School Diagram and G2G Update

At the March 25th meeting of the Exeter Region Cooperative School Board, I unveiled the "Great" Schools Diagram  which was developed through the work of CMS's Good to Great Committee (G2G).  

By way of reminder, CMS mobilized G2G as a response to Dr. John Cronin's analysis and reportof the NWEA results of CMS  students from 2004-2006.  On page 12 of his report, Dr. Cronin referred to CMS  as "a reasonably good school with aspirations to become a great one."  That statement, which he said several times during his November visit, led to the genesis of G2G.

As G2G reviewed the recommendations of Dr. Cronin, page 10 of his report gave us some insight as to our purpose. It reads:

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.

With the declaration from Dr. Cronin that a change in grouping would not appear to have an effect on the performance of students at CMS, G2G focused on the "Constellation of Change" about which he wrote and spoke.  Our discussions, both with the committee proper and the faculty-at-large have led to a focus on three key domains:  Curriculum, The Holistic Well-being of Students (which includes the social, emotional, academic, and physical well-being of our students), and the Constancy of Purpose that Dr. Cronin spoke of so eloquently at his presentation (See the "Great" Schools Diagram to see how the three domains intersect). Moreover the G2G committee has come to the conclusion that in order to provided a high quality education for each student, the three domains must be acutely balanced.  Specifically, if any one of the three domains is deficient the ability of the school to deliver high quality education will be compromised. 

With the "Great" Schools Diagram model in mind, G2G is now involved in a couple of processes.  First, trying to determine how well each domain is currently woven into the fabric of the school.  Are we lacking in any of the three domains?  More than one?  All three?  Further, can specific reasons be determined as to why any one or some combination of the three domains are deficient?  Is there a domain (or 2?  or 3?) in which CMS is outstanding?  Why are we outstanding?  Is there a common trait between those areas in which we are outstanding that can be replicated?  Which leads to the second process.  Developing action plans to address deficient domains and replicate those that are outstanding.  More will come of this process on a later post.

What Are the Purposes of Assessment?

Source

1.  Student Learning:  Assessment is a way for educators to measure progress, strengths, and areas of growth.  Many teachers assess their students using a pre-test, mid-term, and post-test to gauge student learning.  This may take place throughout a unit or the entire school year. 

 

2.  Improvement of Teaching:  Teachers use assessment to determine what is effective in their teaching practices; what is working and what needs improvement.  A variety of assessment tools may be used in order to determine what types of instruction are most beneficial in meeting the needs of students. 

 

3.  Communication:  Assessment should serve as a means of communication between educators, students, administrators, and parents.   Parents and students often look at assessment to see WHAT is being learned, HOW progress is being measured, and the TYPE of instruction being received.  Educators and administrators use assessment to evaluate teaching practices and to determine if there are gaps in the curriculum.   

 

4.  Program Evaluation:  Assessment can prove a good measure of one’s program, revealing evidence of the effectiveness of that program, throughout the year, assessment can offer direction to the program and modifications can be made to increase both student and instructional success. 

 

5.  Program Support:  Consistent assessment can be used to validate one’s program.  Data gained is objective and can show evidence of goals and objectives being met by both student and teacher.  With clear data presented, a strong measure of program support may follow. 

 

6.  Motivation:  Assessment shows progress.  When improvement is shown, students feel positive about their learning environment.  Documented assessment can offer proof of growth, thus enhancing students’ motivation to perform to the best of their ability. 

Do We Kill Creativity?

Sir Ken Robinson's February 2006 speech at TED is incredible, thought provoking, and inspiring.  For those that have not seen it, please take 25 minutes out of your day to watch.  It makes you think about how we educate our students.  

Designing Presentations

I've been following Ben Wildeboer on Twitter for a bit.  He has provided more resources for developing and delivering effective presentations.  I'm afraid that students simply assume that the sign of an effective presentation is that it used PowerPoint.  On the contrary, the use of PowerPoint can, in fact, take away from your presentation.  Ben's collection of "Wisdom Bits" provides a number of resources for teachers, parents, and students to use when designing effective presentations.

Cell Phones in Schools

During his presentation last Tuesday, Ray McNulty told of a high school he visited where the largest category of discipline referrals was cell phone infractions.  (Cellphones were strictly forbidden in this school.)  When he asked the students about their use of phones, in addition to the chatting with and texting friends (which neither he, nor I, can excuse) the students spoke of using their phones as watches, timers, calendars, and to communicate with parents.  The most creative use, however, was one student who used the camera on her phone to take pictures of her homework assignments and class notes that were written on the whiteboard.  Those all seem like logical (and educationally justifiable) uses of relevant technology.  

Will Richardson recently blogged about a conversation he recently had with high school students in a New York City public school.  The most fascinating point to me was how anyone can "google" on their cellphone by texting a question to 46645. 

Do your kids learn differently than you? YES!

Ever wonder how your child can listen to their iPod in one ear, their cell phone in another, while they IM and study for their french test all at once?  They learn and work differently than previous generations.  They are, as Ian Jukes says, master multi-taskers.  Take a look at this blog post to learn more.

What do we do on "Inservice Days"?

Often times, people come up to me and ask what goes on during those mysterious "inservice days". Well, Tuesday was one of those days and I thought it would be worth sharing  a bit about the program.

The entire SAU professional staff met at the high school for two presentations. Ray McNulty, Senior Vice President, International Center for Leadership in Education and Dr. Stephanie Spadorcia, from Lesley University both spoke to the group about literacy, specifically, 21st Century Literacy. After their presentations, all faculty returned to their respective schools, broke into small groups and discussed how what they learned in the morning could be applied to their classroom everyday.

I'd like to share my thoughts about what Ray and Stephanie shared with us, respectively.  I'll report some of the general remarks of the staff on a later post.

First, I'd like to comment on Dr. Spadorcia.  Her presentation focused on four current issues:  scientifically-based educational practices, response to intervention, high-stakes assessments, and the widening of the achievement gap.  More specifically, she addressed how effective reading instruction can address all four of those issues.  She made the argument that the "Whole-to-Part Model of Silent Reading Comprehension" can be one such strategy.  Ultimately, she said, the ability to read and comprehend silently is of vital importance to today's learner.  If you think about it, it makes sense.  How often do you read aloud and/or are read to once you reach high school and beyond (Although she does believe that all students should read aloud and just be read to not read aloud themselves at upper grades - it is actually more difficult to read aloud and comprehend as you increase in skills no matter the age.  Students need to hear words multiple times before they can pronounce it correctly - think of the first time your biology teacher wrote the work deoxyribonucleic acid or adenosine triphosphate on the board.  In fact, she specifically said, "Oral language, hearing others read aloud, and discussions are the most effective means of supporting vocabulary growth".  She credited www.nifl.gove/nifl/pfr.html for that research.)  She really punctuated the fact that students need to be skilled in the area of silent reading comprehension if they are to be literate in the 21st century.

Dr. Spadorcia broke silent reading comprehension into what she called the "three legs" of the reading table.  They were Word Identification, Language Comprehension, and Print Processing Beyond Word Identification.  She said that just like a table, if any one of these three parts are missing (or undeveloped) the ability of the student to read at grade level is unstable.  She then spoke of several practical strategies to increase proficiency in all three areas.  I would encourage all of you to review her presentation to learn more about those strategies.  Early feedback from the teacherswas that they were glad she shared strategies that could be used the following day in their classroom.

One of the most interesting things I learned from Dr. Spadorcia is the importance in blending strategies from both phonics and whole language instruction. In short, she said that neither way, in and of itself is the one right way to teach reading, that students need to employ both phonics and whole language strategies to be proficient readers.

Ray McNulty shared with the faculty his belief that education systems need to change to adapt to the needs of 21st century learners.  He spoke of the "false proxies" we have created to signify learning such as finishing a course or textbook, listening to a lecture or getting a high score on a standardized test.  He emphasized that teaching and learning are two separate entities and that learning should focus on meaning, engagement, inquiry, exploration, personalization, collaboration and trust.  Mostly, he stressed that educators need to become agents of change. Instead of reacting to change (i.e. NCLB & Standardized Assessment), educators need to be proactive and author and cultivate those changes that are needed to help students compete in a global economy.   He spoke passionately about the idea that what has worked in education in the past will not necessarily work today (or tomorrow).  The needs of society today are much different than they used to be.  For example, our students are immersed in what he called "millennial-oriented Technology" (blogs, wikis, tagging, IM, Myspace and Podcasts for example).  Many students talk of "powering down" when they enter a classroom and "powering up" when they leave. He distinguished between digital immigrants and digital natives.  Immigrants work at conventional speed, natives a twitch speed.  Immigrants like linear problem solving, natives like random.  Immigrants read text first, natives "read" graphics first.  Immigrants are "work" oriented, natives are "play" oriented.  Couple these observations with the fact that the skills needed in todays workforce are changing, that employers are looking for workers who can solve problems, communicated effectively and in diverse manners, apply technological skills to access, apply and create new information, are leaders, and who have a thirst for lifelong learning, self direction and renewal and schools, for the most part, are not only missing an opportunity to capture a fleeing school population, but also to prepare students for 21st century work opportunities, opportunities that are quickly going over seas.

In short, it was a thought-provoking, perhaps even thought-challenging lecture.  I encourage all readers to view his presentation and to visit the institute's website.

Teachers take a pie in the face for Pi Day!

To celebrate Pi day, Mr. Wiggin - the 8th grade math teacher on the VIP team - hosted not only a pie eating contest, but gave students an opportunity to throw a pie in the face of their teachers. Additionally, the winner of the pie eating contest won the grand prize, throwing a pie in the face of Assistant Principal, Mrs. Faulkner.  Congratulations to Mr. Wiggin and the VIP team for a spirited and well-deserved celebration.

CMS Finalist for "ED"ies Award

As indicated in my last post, a team from the CMS community traveled to Concord on Tuesday, March 4th to deliver our presentation as to why we should be the NH Middle School of the Year for 2007-2008.  On Friday, March 7th, Mr. O'Malley received the call from the "ED"ies committee that CMS has indeed been chosen as a finalist.  On April 15th (yes...tax day!) members of the "ED"ies committee will be spending the day at CMS to see our school in action. 

Many people have asked about the process and the number of schools who were in the running.  I don't really know that exact answers to any of those questions.  However, what I have been able to surmise is that approximately 6 schools were asked to come present to the committee.  I believe 3 of those schools are being visited.  

None the less, we are very excited to host the committee.  We think they will be amazed by the professionalism of our staff, the dedication of our students, and the support of our community. If we are chosen as the NH Middle School of the Year for 2007-2008, it will be the result of the CMS community!

CMS Invited to Present to the Eddies Committee

On Tuesday March 4th, 10 members of the CMS community traveled to Concord to present its case as to why CMS should be the New Hampshire Middle School of the Year for 2007-2008. CMS was chosen from a larger group of New Hampshire middle schools to develop and deliver a presentation laying out why it should be awarded the "ED"ie  award for middle school excellence.  The committee will decide whether or not we make it to the next step.  If we do, we will be hosting the committee at our facility for a day later in March.  We certainly hope they come to visit. Needless to say, we are extremely proud of our school and would love the opportunity to "show it off".  

By the way, CMS has history with the "ED"ies as Karen Whitmore, CMS 7th grade English teacher, was chosen as the New Hampshire English teacher of the year for 2006-2007.  

If you would like to read our application, please click here.

We'll keep you up to date.  For more information, contact Tony Baldasaro at 775-8793 or tbaldasaro@sau16.org.

CMS Faculty Discusses Good To Great

On January 30th, the CMS faculty met in small discussion groups to continue the discussion about self-improvement and the move to "Greatness".  A summary of those break out groups can be viewed here.  Currently, the Good to Great Steering Committee is reviewing these reports.

A summary of our NECAP results has been posted.  Please visit here to see those results.

NECAP Results

The NECAP results were made public January 29, 2008.  We'll have more to say about how CMS students performed on them, but to have a look at how CMS students have historically performed on the NECAP, please click here.  There are three separate spreadsheets.  The first is the "whole" school.  The second represents our students who have Individual Education Plans (IEPs).  The final spreadsheet shows how CMS's economically disadvantaged students have historically performed on the test.

The Good to Great Steering Committee has developed the following agenda for the early release day on Wednesday, January 30, 2008.  

12:30 Meeting begins in the Auditorium

12:30 - 12:45 - Brief overview of the work of the Good to Great Steering Committee and of the goal/purpose of the day.

12:45 - 1:45 - Discussion break out groups.  Each group will be facilitated by 2 Good to Great steering committee members.  Discussions will focus on four keys areas:

    A.  Sharing of “What Makes a Great School?” brainstormed list. (see below)

    B.  Common Planning Time

    C.  Social & Emotion Needs of CMS students

    D.  Curriculum

Topic A was developed by the Good to Great steering committee.

Topics B, C & D were the most discussed topics from our Good to Great break out sessions in December.  

1:45 - Debrief and whole group discussion in the auditorium

To learn more about what the Good to Great steering committee has identified as qualities of great schools, please visit:

 http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dvqrj85_10f2t9wffv