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== = = = CHECK OUT THE NAVIGATION SIDEBAR FOR THE BULLET POINTS PAGE. = = = =Post 3 "takeaways" from Chapter 8=

LAURA'S TAKEAWAYS

SMALL SCHOOL UNITS: Schools need to be organized into smaller, personalized units with teaching teams who work with students for more than just one year. “A number of studies have found that, all else being equal, schools have higher levels of achievement when they create smaller, more personalized units in which teachers plan and work together around shared groups of students and common curriculum.” (p. 239)

“The schools’ practices included: creating small units within schools, keeping students together over multiple years, forming teaching teams that share students and plan together, ensuring common planning time for teachers, involving staff in schoolwide problem solving, involving parents in their children’s education, fostering cooperative learning.” (p. 239)

“Small schools have been found to reduce the influence of poverty on school and district performance.” (p. 245)

STRUCTURES FOR PERSONALIZATION: The small school units will allow for greater personalization of instruction but more importantly, it allows students and teachers to develop close, caring relationships. “The schools’ efforts to ensure that students are well known include the construction of small learning communities; continuous, long-term relationship between adults and students; advisory systems that systematically organize counseling, academic supports, and family connections; and __small class sizes__ and __reduced pupil loads__ for teachers that allow them __to care effectively__ for students.” (p. 246)

This was my favorite quote in the chapter: “Schools should not be mass production. It needs to be loving and close. That is what kids need. YOU NEED LOVE TO LEARN.” (p. 234 and 248) (From a Vanguard student)

SUPPORTING INNOVATION AND SUSTAINING SCHOOL CHANGE: There needs to be greater support for innovative schools that prove to be successful, and school governance needs to shift from a system of bureaucratic accountability to a system of professional accountability. “Sometimes successful schools and programs fade because special foundation or government money has dried up, and the district does not the foresight or wherewithal to preserve what is working. Other times, the challenges of replenishing the capable, dynamic teachers and leaders who have created a successful school prove too great to sustain the model.” (p. 265)

“To create a new paradigm, the role of the district must shift: from enforcing procedures to building school capacity, from managing compliance to managing improvement, from rewarding staff for following orders and ‘doing things right’ to rewarding staff for getting results by ‘doing the right things,’ form rational educational opportunities to expanding successful programs, from ignoring (and compounding) failure in schools serving the least powerful to reallocating resources to ensure their success.” (p. 270)

TIFFANY’S TAKEAWAYS

STRUCTURES FOR PERSONALIZATION Innovative systems allow teachers and students to create positive, constructive relationships that often extend beyond a single semester of instruction. In advisory systems, teachers are attached to a small group of students for 2-4 years whom they meet with frequently. Advisors act as student’s academic advocate, point of contact for parents, students, and other teachers, help students set goals, and build needed skills. (p.246-249)

INTELLECTUALLY CHALLENGING AND RELEVANT INSTRUCTION All students should be provided a challenging and engaging curriculum focused on building analytical skills with college readiness in mind. These should be supported by specific instruction on key academic skills, support for students with weaknesses in key areas, varied instruction, and real-world connections. Students need to feel challenged and supported while learning a curriculum they feel is relevant to their own lives and future goals. (p.250-253)

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING AND COLLABORATION The most successful schools use a data driven, inquiry based, and collaborative professional learning model. Professional learning is multi-level and occurs at the school level, within departments, across learning teams, and between individual teachers. Professional learning is peer or expert led, with an emphasis on the sharing of best practices and group ownership. All teachers are given the opportunity to take on leadership roles. (p.260-264)

MY FAVORITE QOUTE, TOO! “Schools should not be mass production. It needs to be loving and close. That is what kids need. YOU NEED LOVE TO LEARN.” (p. 234 and 248) (From a Vanguard student)

MATT’S TAKEAWAYS Success of Charter Schools These schools worked on creating smaller class sizes, keeping groups of students with their teachers for 2 or more years, as well as including more cooperative, project-based learning. They also ensure that students are well-known. since they work together for 2 years with the same teachers, the students get to know each other really well, and the teachers get to know the students as well. (p.236)

Performance-based Assessments

Senior Projects or portfolios required for graduation. I have seen these as they are required in Pender County and students spend a large portion of their Junior and Senior years developing and creating a Senior Project that calls on them to move out of their comfort zone. (p. 257) New York schools created portfolios which use all of the core subjects. As part of the graduation process, students must complete a portfolio that includes samples from tests, researched material, etc. These assessments include the following: 1. Written and constructed or performed products requiring in-depth study 2. Oral presentation by the graduating candidate before a committee of peers and teachers 3. Rubrics embodying the standards which student’s performances are judged 4. Rating scales to assess student’s products and oral presentation “The portfolios are not only evaluation instruments; they are also learning experiences that engage students in what Fed Newmann and colleagues call “authentic achievement.” (p. 258-259)

Small schools As touched on before, when teachers have more opportunities to get to know the students they teach, they can find out who their students are, and the varying talents, interests, learning styles, cultures, predipositions, language, background, family situtations, and beliefs about themselves and what school means to them. Small schools allow for closer relationships among students and teachers. (p.237) “Many of the successful urban high schools teach a college preparatory curriculum supported by performance assessments that enable students to apply their knowledge.” (p.236)

SALLY's TAKEAWAY'S

1. Structures for Personalization

Factors for school personlization include advisory systems and smaller class sizes. "Students do n ot have to fall through the cracks to get needed assistance. Support is proactive and built into the central organization of the school" (page 247).

2. Intellectually Challenging and Relevant Instruction

Key elements are an engaging curriculum, explicit teaching, flexible supports, active learning strategies, real world connections and applications and community service and internships.

"Students reported that, even when they found they did not like the work, or setting they had chosen, or when they experienced conflicts on the job, their internships made them feel more capable, responsible, and confident about solving problems and succeeding in the world beyond school." (page 256).

3. Collarboration

Key elements: Collaborative professional learning and school based inquiry.

"essential to each of the school's success in maintaining a coherent instructional focus that is base on its students' needs and its school vision" (page 262)