If you care about effective instruction and you don’t know about Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies, you’re missing something worthwhile. The Cambridge Center provides a wide variety of resources regarding the underpinnings and applications of behavioral science. There’s plenty about precision teaching, Direct Instruction, and more. Sentient beings should go there. Sentient and caring beings should give the Cambridge Center money.
Sphere: Related ContentArchive for May, 2005
Eighty-eight Washington DC (US) schools that failed to meet standards for annual yearly progress will be targets for intervention, according to a story by V. Dion Haynes in the Post.
For most schools on the list, the intervention will consist largely of coaching by teams of outside education experts, such as university professors, or teachers from successful schools in the system. But 16 schools that have failed to show adequate progress for three or four consecutive years will be subject to staff replacements and takeover by an outside management company, officials said, although the specific action to be taken at each school has not been determined.
Regardless of whether the intervention will provide coaching or new management, I have to wonder what the schools will do. Will the coaches direct teachers to use effective practices? Will the new management teams require adoption of curricular materials that have a record for promoting students’ success? Will the coaches and managers decide whether their reforms are working on the basis of students’ outcomes?
If there’s someone interested in a research project, these schools (and others around the US that are in similar situations) provide a wonderful opportunity to examine the effects of reform efforts. It doesn’t have to be a political study; one could simply characterize the changes along a few dimensions—curricula selected, staff development provided, structural change (e.g., class size), etc.—and monitor students’ achievement and behavior longitudinally. The schools would almost certainly sort themselves into comparison groups.
Sphere: Related ContentHere’s a site for an organization—the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence—that just might map the future of educational certification. These folks don’t require that you complete a set of experiences. They require that you show what you can do. Of course, they’ll have to break the stranglehold that some other “teacher education” organizations have on preparing people to teach (yes, I’m using those quote marks to indicate hedging).
Sphere: Related ContentThe folks at Staff Development for Educators have a Web site that advertises staff development resources. The list of training opportunities describes a mix of methods and topics, including these: “Guided Reading, Four Blocks™, Differentiated Instruction, Six-Trait Writing, Four Square Writing, Singapore Math, Learning Centers, Kindergarten, Reading Comprehension, Discipline and much more….” So, who are these people and what are they offering? Here’s their own description.
Staff Development for Educators (SDE) was founded more than twenty-five years ago by two educators with a revolutionary idea: Teachers learn best from other teachers. Jim and Lillian Grant held their first teacher get-together in a school lunchroom in tiny Temple, New Hampshire, more than two decades ago. Educators gathered from across New England to learn the best techniques from the best teachers in the region.
Since then, SDE has grown to become one of America’s leading providers of professional development resources for PreK through grade 12 educators. Today, SDE provides timely solutions to all your staff development needs, through the combined resources of its four specialized divisions:
I found myself feeling a little skeptical about these practices and the philosophy. So, I skimmed the site looking for evidence about the research basis for SDE’s efforts. Couldn’t find it. Must’ve looked in the wrong places. All I got was testimonials.
Let me apologize if you’ve already thought of this, but…uhm, could this be an illustration of why American education can’t get out of the doldrums? What’s up here? If the product SDE is selling is so good, why not show us the basis (other than testimonials) for its goodness?
Show us your data, please!
Sphere: Related ContentIt’s difficult to find a news article that is positive about education, particularly about special education. Here is one that is rather editorial but positive about teaching and taking responsibility for achievement. Thought you might want to take a look.
There is hope for education if you just look
Sphere: Related ContentFrom the Akron (OH, US) Beacon Journal, here’s the headline and lead for the story:
Posted on Fri, Apr. 29, 2005
Special-education students charged with raping classmate
JOE MILICIA
Associated Press
CLEVELAND - Three teenage boys have been charged with raping a fellow special-education student who said he was attacked three times last week.
We have got to do a better job of teaching students appropriate behavior. There are sources of good information (e.g., the work of Hill Walker and his colleagues).
Other reports (lots of redundancy):
Sphere: Related ContentJulia Steiny, who writes a weekly column for ProJo—the Providence (RI, US) Journal—reported on the high achievement level of a school that has 54% of its student body in special education. According to the column, Boston’s George Conley School made annual yearly progress despite having at least a half dozen special services classes plus many students for whom English is a second or other language.
The bulk of the column implies that the reason for this remarkable achievement is the organziation of the school. There isn’t much about the instruction that’s going on there.
In 1998, Boston Public Schools embarked on an unusual initiative they call Unified Student Services, which melds special education with other student-support systems like counseling, health and after-school. The philosophy is: All students have special needs; some students have disabilities. The strategy was to build up each school’s capacity to support all special needs, including disabilities, at the school itself. So Boston Public Schools considers all students to be on a continuum of needs, some of which will be temporary and of low intensity, some on-going, frequent and highly-specialized.
But no longer is special education a silo unto itself, with its own budget spent only on those kids who meet its criteria. No longer do parents have to fight like tigers to get their child into special education just to get him some help or counseling. The special education teacher along with other support staff — social workers, psychologists — provide services to whichever child needs it, regardless of whether she has been anointed with the special-ed label.
The column contains some remarkable statistics about how the special education population has declined in Boston. It is said to have gone from 22% to 17%. This makes it odd that the school Steiny features has 54% in special services. Sounds as though the criteria for being counted as needing special education has changed, no?
Sphere: Related ContentThe William Dwyer Awards for Excellence in Education are sponsored by the Economic Council of Palm Beach County and Education Foundation of Palm Beach County. These awards recgonize execptional teachers in five different areas. In the special education area, Michael Berg, Tradewinds Middle School near Lake Worth (FL, US), placed first. He is quoted as saying, “I believe that students with learning disabilities need an environment with a consistent routine and an environment that encourages them to take risks.”
According to the story, Berg depends on motivation to help his students.
Berg has found ways to motivate his students and improve their reading skills. One method was inviting a local artist into his classroom. The artist taught students about dance, music and costume design. Berg prepared reading assignments on the same topics.
“These particular students were not successful in the past and needed this nontraditional approach that incorporated their love of music and art,” Berg said in his application. “Often a teacher needs to go outside the classroom and into the community.”
I have to hope that he uses powerful instructional procedures in addition to these motivational techniques. If not, he’s only really addressing those students who won’t, not those who can’t.
In another of the series of stories on these awards, there is a quotation from Anne Haskell. She teaches in the social studies and law areas at Sago Palm Academy, and she said, “I believe that all students can learn. Students should have universal access to good teaching with consistently high expectations.” She’s got it right!
Sphere: Related Content