Teach Effectively!

In “Building A Better Teacher,” Elizabeth Green presents cases personifying two perspectives on teaching effectively—one we often hear referred to as “classroom management” and the other regularly called “good content.” She uses Doug Lemov and Deborah Ball, respectively, as her exemplars of the cases.

Professor Ball, dean of the University of Michigan’s school of education, is widely noted for her studies of teachers’ content knowledge in mathematics. Mr. Lemov, a consultant and promoter of charter schools, has a forth-coming book documenting concepts about teaching practices that span content areas.
Continue reading ‘Sorta building a better teacher, maybe’

Isabel Sawhill and Jon Baron published an editorial in Education Week calling for a new approach to the venerable Head Start program, one founded on evidence about effectiveness. They argue that in the wake of the discouraging Head Start Impact Study reported by US Department of Health & Human Services, it’s time to bring research into the nation’s play pre-schools.

A new approach is needed. One that has been suggested—defunding these programs—would amount to giving up the fight against major social problems such as educational failure and poverty that damage millions of American lives. A far better alternative is to use rigorous evidence about “what works” to evolve Head Start and other federal efforts into truly effective programs over time, and to use sophisticated models to trace their longer-term effects on children’s life prospects.

Continue reading ‘Evidence-based education in Head Start?’

Today in Washington (DC, US) the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute launch a public service Web site that allows visitors to learn about the healthiness of localities on a county-by-county basis across the US. The news got me thinking—Danger!—about the possibility of creating a similar resource for consumers of education: Providing a scientifically credible metric for the quality of teaching in each local education agency around a country.
Continue reading ‘Rating LEAs’ teaching?’

My colleague and friend, Jim Kauffman, published an editorial in the Charlottesville (VA, US) Daily Progress over the past weekend. It’s a good one.

In his view, most educational reform proposals miss the mark. They overlook the critical element. Make a note about what element you think is ignored, then read Professor Kauffman’s editorial. I suspect that many readers of Teach Effectively will have notes about the same overlooked factor that he identifies.

I’d point readers to the Daily Progress for a chance to read it, but I can’t find the article on that Web site. However, thanks to the author, I have a PDF of the editorial. Download it by clicking on the accompanying image or by following this link.

An editorial in the Des Moines (IA, US) Register makes the case that students’ learning outcomes should be employed in the evaluation of teachers’ effectiveness. The focus of the editorial is (of course) local to the state of Iowa, but the implications are relevant for many other geographic regions and governmental entities.

When West Des Moines teachers are evaluated, their students’ progress on standardized tests doesn’t affect their ratings. It may be part of the conversation, but that’s about it. “It’s not something commonly done in Iowa,” said Superintendent Tom Narak.

But the Iowa Legislature should require it.

Today’s students have to be able to compete in a global economy. The role of teachers in the 21st century matters more than ever before. Schools should identify those who improve student achievement, and those who don’

Link to “ Use student achievement to measure teachers.” The editorial writer refers to the McKinsey report on education.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced funding of new educational initiatives 19 November 2009. The initiatives focus on creating intensive partnerships with school systems and developing means for measuring effectiveness in teaching.

In “An Effective Teacher in Every Classroom,” Vicki Phillips (Director of the education initiative in the foundation) wrote, “Nothing is as important to a student’s success in school as an effective teacher. You know it, and we know it. That’s why I am so excited about today’s commitment of $335 million to support our vision of putting an effective teacher in every classroom in America.” In announcements of its funding for education, the foundation identified several educational agencies and groups with which it will partner in hopes of improving outcomes.

I call readers’ attention to the second initiative, the one funding a project called “Measures of Effective Teaching.” I am pleased to learn that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is working toward measuring effective teaching. The Gates Foundation has repeatedly invested in initiatives to improve education, and it has candidly evaluated those efforts and reported their results to the public. Based on the foundation’s experience with previous projects, it has reshaped and redirected its efforts. I see this as movement in a valuable direction.

An important step toward supporting teachers and ensuring that all students have access to high quality instruction is to develop fairer and more useful measures of teacher effectiveness. This is the goal of the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project, which will support independent education researchers–in partnership with school districts, principals, teachers, and unions–to develop objective and reliable measures of effective teaching. Rather than relying solely on how well a teacher’s students do on assessments, the MET project seeks to uncover and develop a set of measures that work together to form a more complete indicator of a teacher’s impact on student achievement.

Researchers will collect data about factors that might reflect effective teaching. These areas include the following (drawn directly from the site):

• Student feedback through surveys
• Student work
• Supplemental student assessments
• Videotaped classroom lessons
• Teacher reflections on their videotaped lessons
• Assessment of teachers’ ability to recognize and diagnose student problems
• Teacher surveys on working conditions

I applaud the effort to include a broad range of measures in the research. This list taps some potentially valuable sources (e.g., recognition and response to student problems), but it lacks clear measures of the critical result: Student learning. Although I think basing measures of effectiveness solely on students’ outcomes is insufficient, I hope that the researchers will ultimately include data from objective assessments of students’ learning. I hope students’ outcomes are still in the mix.

Read the press release announcing about the Gates Foundation committing $335 million to promote effective teaching and raise student achievement. Also visit the foundation’s portal for its education efforts and read Vicki Phillips’ comments.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) published a policy paper examining a report the Human Rights Watch and the ACLU about corporal punishment in US schools. It provides a clear and powerful indictment of what amounts to a state-sanctioned assault on children.

A Violent Education
Corporal Punishment of Children in U.S. Public Schools
Continue reading ‘Corporal punishment needs to be beaten’

Outliers, by Malcom Gladwell, is an interesting read. But I got to wondering about the message of the book. I understand that Gladwell maybe didn’t mean for it to have a message for educators. But, then again, maybe he did. I just don’t know. But I do know that the book left me unsatisfied as far as knowing what to do as an educator is concerned. OK, so timing, luck, opportunity, hard work, a culture of high demand are all important in creating outliers. The implications for educators seem to be that students should work hard and seize opportunities. The implications for teachers seem to be that we should try to create opportunities and encourage hard work. Beyond that? I dunno. We can’t change a lot of the things that Gladwell thinks are important, like when people are born, where they’re born, their families, their cultures. Then, too, I’m thinking that only a relatively small percentage of people can become outliers regardless of any of these things.

Gladwell does mention KIPP as an example of an educational program that shows dramatic results because it emphasizes a culture of hard work and achievement. He says the students in KIPP are chosen through a lottery system. Sounds great! One little issue, though. KIPP chooses through a lottery only those who’ve applied. If you don’t apply, then KIPP doesn’t put you in the lottery. Doesn’t even consider you. Now, I may be a little cynical about proposals to revolutionize public education, but probably if KIPP wants to go head-to-head with other schools, then it needs to select at random from all those potential students who live in a catchment area, regardless of whether they’ve applied. So, KIPP would include students who don’t want to go to school at all and those who don’t want to work hard and those who aren’t motivated to apply—in short, kids at random without any protective screen whatsoever. And KIPP would have to report on drop outs and students suspended or expelled.

Oh, never mind. If you’re looking for outliers… well, welcome to Lake Wobegon North, where all the children are not only above average, they’re all WAY above average!

Actually, Gladwell has some interesting observations. Only thing is (and he never proposed that purpose for his book), they don’t tell us much about how we go about making things better for kids in typical public schools.