Evidence-based teaching methods for helping students who are at risk for school failure or who have disabilities.
Writing for the Boston (MA, US) Globe under the headline “Seeking a kinder word for failure: Schools’ morale front and center,” Tracy Jan reported that Massachusetts school officials have debated what words to use to describe schools were too many students fail. Check this lead:
To soothe the bruised egos of educators and children in lackluster schools, Massachusetts officials are now pushing for kinder, gentler euphemisms for failure.
Continue reading ‘Stigmatizing schools’
Over on I Speak of Dreams, Liz Ditz has an extended post examining views about black cultural learning styles. She makes her way through much of the smoke and mirrors of the arguments, providing readers with a well-worth-the-read analysis. Link to it.
Over on EdBizBuzz, one of the Ed Week blogs, Marc Dean Millot has reprinted a letter from Bob Slavin in response to the recently published analysis of Reading First by Sol Stern. Professor Slavin lists a set of concerns that Mr. Stern omitted from his analysis. Read it here.
Please remember that I am a member of the Reading First federal advisory committee. I am not, however, speaking for the committee, my fellow panelists, nor the US Department of Education here.
Yep, those folks at “Weapons of Math Destruction” apparently do not find constructivist approaches to teaching arithmetic and mathematics palatable. In this cartoon, the school administrators have crossed out practice and skills and a parent is responding by preparing to (ahem) regurgitate or recovering from having regurgitated.
Follow this link to get to the full site where you can explore at your leisure.
The US Institute of Educational Sciences released a summary of what educators know about teaching reading and writing to children to whom we often refer as “English Language Learners.” In Effective Literacy and English Language Instruction for English Learners in the Elementary Grades,, Russell Gersten, Scott Baker, Timothy Shanahan, Sylvia Linan-Thompson, Penny Collins, and Robin Scarcella provide explicit recommendations for improvining literacy instruction:
Gersten, R., Baker, S.K., Shanahan, T., Linan-Thompson, S., Collins, P., & Scarcella, R. (2007). Effective Literacy and English Language Instruction for English Learners in the Elementary Grades: A Practice Guide (NCEE 2007-4011). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee.
Link to the download (free) of the report.
The US Central Regional Education Laboratory released a free document on teaching high school students strategies to improve reading comprehension. The publication is a part of the Issues & Answers series, a set of reports from the regional educational laboratories on current education addressing issues that are relevant for educators concerned with local, state, and regional matters. Although the title of the report hints at broader coverage, it appears to focus on peer-assisted learning procedures.
Take a look for yourself. Here’s the citation:
Apthorp, H., & Clark, T. (2007). Using strategy instruction to help struggling high schoolers understand what they read (Issues & Answers Report, REL 2007–No. 038). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Regional Educational Laboratory Central. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs.
Link to the downloadable PDF.
Singapore Math was featured in an article by Mitchell Landsberg on the front of the Web site of the Los Angeles (CA, US) Times on 9 March 2008. To introduce his case study of the success of Singapore math, Mr. Landsberg used a clever bar-math-like lead:
Here’s a little math problem:
In 2005, just 45% of the fifth-graders at Ramona Elementary School in Hollywood scored at grade level on a standardized state test. In 2006, that figure rose to 76%. What was the difference?
If you answered 31 percentage points, you are correct. You could also express it as a 69% increase.
But there is another, more intriguing answer: The difference between the two years may have been Singapore math.
On it’s face, Singapore Math looks appealing. It has multiple strengths: teaching students algorithms; integrated and multiple repetitions; low reading load; etc. What it doesn’t really have is clear and powerful research support; in their synthesis of research on effective programs in elementary mathematics, Bob Slavin and Cynthia Lake could not find strong studies examining the effects of Singapore Math. We—educators concerned with providing effective instruction for students—need those studies.
Link to Mr. Landsberg’s article. Link to the review by Professors Slavin and Lake. Learn more about Singapore Math from a study by Alan Ginsberg and colleagues.
This past week, while I was attending a meeting about the US Federal initiative to improve early literacy instruction, Sol Stern published an analysis of that same program. In his extended article entitled “Too Good to Last: The True Story of Reading First,” Mr. Stern presents his account of how Reading First came into being with a foundation on rigorous scientific evidence, was watered down, became the focus of a frenzy based on “sloppy media coverage,” was abandoned by its initial patron, and finally was eviscerated for political reasons. He calls it a “cautionary tale,” but his treatment makes it read more like a tragedy.
Link to Mr. Stern’s article. Mr. Stern, who usually writes for the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal, presents a view that is consonant with the position advocated by Garrison Keillor to which I referred in an earlier post on Teach Effectively; here’s a link to the earlier post on Reading First by Mr. Keillor.
Obligatory disclosure: I am a member of the Reading First advisory committee, but my statements are my own. I am not speaking on behalf of the committee nor of my colleagues on the committee.
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