Saturday, May 31, 2008
Education 2nd Priority in Election 2008
The Pew Research Center released a May, 2008, study that show education as the second highest priority (78% and tied with health care at 78%) of voters, behind the economy (88%). I wonder how many voters equate education with schooling? I didn't look, but I wonder if Pew researchers asked that question or just used the general descriptor of education.
Two Million Minutes
Every high school student has the same amount of time to acquire tools to compete globally.
High school students today will create the products, serices, and delivery mechanisms for the next several decades.
Two Million Minutes: A Global Examination offers a thoughtful overview useful to Tableteers and others preparing case statements for including mobile PCs in schools.
How many minutes does each student attend your high school taking a full academic load in four years?
This clip serves as a good discussion reminder to the topic in a school board meeting.
High school students today will create the products, serices, and delivery mechanisms for the next several decades.
Two Million Minutes: A Global Examination offers a thoughtful overview useful to Tableteers and others preparing case statements for including mobile PCs in schools.
How many minutes does each student attend your high school taking a full academic load in four years?
This clip serves as a good discussion reminder to the topic in a school board meeting.
11 Year Olds Read Wiesel's "Night"
Joh offers a thoughtful review of Elie Wiesel's 1086 Nobel Peace Prize winner Night. It's slim and intense about Elie's childhood experiences in Nazi deathcamps Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
Joh's school requires 11 year old students to read this chilling book. Sounds like good required reading for all 11 year olds.
I emersed myself in such records decades ago and listened to stories from survivors and their families while at Brandeis University, hired a brilliant person who escaped twice as a child under Nazi machinegun fire, and then took a break from those decades until working with families that survived the Armenian geneocide.
I think it's time to read Elie's book.
Thanks, Joh, for the reminder, and kudos for finishing it yourself.
Joh's school requires 11 year old students to read this chilling book. Sounds like good required reading for all 11 year olds.
I emersed myself in such records decades ago and listened to stories from survivors and their families while at Brandeis University, hired a brilliant person who escaped twice as a child under Nazi machinegun fire, and then took a break from those decades until working with families that survived the Armenian geneocide.
I think it's time to read Elie's book.
Thanks, Joh, for the reminder, and kudos for finishing it yourself.
Tools to Organize Online Research
Bethany Smith describes online tools she uses to organize her research.
How do you keep track of research papers in order to find, use, and cite them on demand?
While on her site, check out other posts.
Great blog for those interested in learning transparency.
How do you keep track of research papers in order to find, use, and cite them on demand?
While on her site, check out other posts.
Great blog for those interested in learning transparency.
Weapons of Math Destruction - An Inconvenient Truth
Check out this cartoon by Weapons of Math Destruction titled "An Inconvenient Truth" that compares results of Direct Instruction with Discovery Learning in Project Follow Through. DI blows away DL. How do we explain these results, asks a DL character?
Everday Math Responds to National Math Panel Report
Barry Garelick offers snippets of response from the Everday Math program view of the National Math Panel report. The tenor of comments indicate strong dissatisfaction with PK12 math instruction in general. I offer this link for mobile PC independent software developers as an indication of the "noise" that surrounds public school math instruction. A robust, dynamic open market exists for effective mobile mathematics software!
Everyday Mathematics is a comprehensive pre-kindergarten through 6th grade mathematics curriculum developed by the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project, and published by Wright GroupMcGraw-Hill.
Over 175,000 classrooms and 2.8 million students are currently using EM, and it is being adopted by a steadily increasing number of schools each year.
On March 13, 2008, the National Mathematics Advisory Panel presented its Final Report to the President of the United States and the Secretary of Education. Copies of these reports are available in PDF, Webcast Briefing, and Webcast PowerPoint Presentation.
Responses to Garelick's posting challenge teachers' instructional judgment more than the EM program.
Everyday Mathematics is a comprehensive pre-kindergarten through 6th grade mathematics curriculum developed by the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project, and published by Wright GroupMcGraw-Hill.
Over 175,000 classrooms and 2.8 million students are currently using EM, and it is being adopted by a steadily increasing number of schools each year.
On March 13, 2008, the National Mathematics Advisory Panel presented its Final Report to the President of the United States and the Secretary of Education. Copies of these reports are available in PDF, Webcast Briefing, and Webcast PowerPoint Presentation.
Responses to Garelick's posting challenge teachers' instructional judgment more than the EM program.
Direct Instruction Math Students Outperform Constructivist Students
Ken DeRosa describes tested results of student mathematics performance in a constructivist and a direct instruction class in mathematics. DI students outperformed students in the classroom of the more experienced teacher's constructivist class. This study was not definitive, but it illustrates a possibility for students to increase learning rates by teachers adjusting instruction.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Tall Poppy Education Syndrome
Tall Poppy Syndrome, an inclination in media and among the general public to belittle the achievements of prominent people.
Business definition by BNET .
Education definition of Tall Poppy Education Syndrome (TPES) by Bob Heiny / Tablet PC Education Blog:
The inclination of educators to play down (belittle) ideas, recommendations, and achievements of successful ways to increase student learning rates beyond conventional schooling practices.
Does the Tall Poppy Education Syndrome seem a useful descriptor for distinguishing between teacher responses to in-house sdtudent learning compared with data and practices from non-traditional learning venues?
Do you think of examples of TPES? How about slower than necessary adoption by schools of Tablet PCs, Ultra Mobile PCs, MID PCs and other mobile PCs to increase student learning rates?
What may teachers do to use TPES to student learning advantage?
Business definition by BNET .
Education definition of Tall Poppy Education Syndrome (TPES) by Bob Heiny / Tablet PC Education Blog:
The inclination of educators to play down (belittle) ideas, recommendations, and achievements of successful ways to increase student learning rates beyond conventional schooling practices.
Does the Tall Poppy Education Syndrome seem a useful descriptor for distinguishing between teacher responses to in-house sdtudent learning compared with data and practices from non-traditional learning venues?
Do you think of examples of TPES? How about slower than necessary adoption by schools of Tablet PCs, Ultra Mobile PCs, MID PCs and other mobile PCs to increase student learning rates?
What may teachers do to use TPES to student learning advantage?
Does Educator Inbreeding Limit Mobile PC Learning in Schools?
I wonder to what extent slower than possible adoption of school based mobile PC learning exists because of teacher hiring inbreeding?
Gina Ruiz warns, in Workforce Management Online (May 2008), that HR inbreeding results in hiring virtual clones of existing employees.
Candidates are usually strong cultural matches with an organization who tend to hit the ground running and have a low likelihood of early departure ... It’s simple human nature; people often gravitate toward individuals with similar tendencies and characteristics.
Continuously recruiting clones stifles the flow of fresh talent with new ideas, according to Peter Weddle, CEO of recruiting consultancy Weddle's.
John Sumser, another recruiting consultant, points out, "If companies are trying to get out of a rut or rehabilitate a dysfunctional workforce, referral programs are going to hamper those efforts because all they will do is produce more of the same type of worker ..."
Debates about merits and liabilities of teacher inbreeding in schooling have ebbed and flowed for decades among educators, our supporters, and our distractors. In a broad sense, maintaining the status quo of teacher recruitment, performance, and retention has won the argument to date.
Maintenance exists as a function of teacher preparation programs conducted by teachers (vs. content scholars such as mathematicians and astrophysicists), credentials that verify a teacher's rite of passage, teacher peer review programs, collaborative curriculum planning groups, and other such functions that encourage agreements rather than uniqueness among teachers.
All of these programs make sense as long as teachers respond promptly to external social dynamics, such as the rapid deployment of mobile learning devices and robust economic changes.
At the same time, some argue that a unique function of education as a social institution, and its organizations such as schools, is to provide social continuity over social change. Therein exists a seed of political discourse about schooling and how learning should occur.
In that context, have schools failed to adopt mobile PC student learning as rapidly as possible because of professional inbreeding?
I think, "Yes, and teachers will likely continue to seek political support to strengthen our control over what happens in classrooms irrespective of data that indicate mobile student learning accelerates learning rates for students who use it."
Sadly, my response is not unique.
The good news, the computer industry continues to develop new devices and functions to allow users to accelerate their learning even further than reported existing measures. With that reality in our face, I wonder what we as teachers should do about our inbreed ways?
Thanks, CC Holland, for the link.
Gina Ruiz warns, in Workforce Management Online (May 2008), that HR inbreeding results in hiring virtual clones of existing employees.
Candidates are usually strong cultural matches with an organization who tend to hit the ground running and have a low likelihood of early departure ... It’s simple human nature; people often gravitate toward individuals with similar tendencies and characteristics.
Continuously recruiting clones stifles the flow of fresh talent with new ideas, according to Peter Weddle, CEO of recruiting consultancy Weddle's.
John Sumser, another recruiting consultant, points out, "If companies are trying to get out of a rut or rehabilitate a dysfunctional workforce, referral programs are going to hamper those efforts because all they will do is produce more of the same type of worker ..."
Debates about merits and liabilities of teacher inbreeding in schooling have ebbed and flowed for decades among educators, our supporters, and our distractors. In a broad sense, maintaining the status quo of teacher recruitment, performance, and retention has won the argument to date.
Maintenance exists as a function of teacher preparation programs conducted by teachers (vs. content scholars such as mathematicians and astrophysicists), credentials that verify a teacher's rite of passage, teacher peer review programs, collaborative curriculum planning groups, and other such functions that encourage agreements rather than uniqueness among teachers.
All of these programs make sense as long as teachers respond promptly to external social dynamics, such as the rapid deployment of mobile learning devices and robust economic changes.
At the same time, some argue that a unique function of education as a social institution, and its organizations such as schools, is to provide social continuity over social change. Therein exists a seed of political discourse about schooling and how learning should occur.
In that context, have schools failed to adopt mobile PC student learning as rapidly as possible because of professional inbreeding?
I think, "Yes, and teachers will likely continue to seek political support to strengthen our control over what happens in classrooms irrespective of data that indicate mobile student learning accelerates learning rates for students who use it."
Sadly, my response is not unique.
The good news, the computer industry continues to develop new devices and functions to allow users to accelerate their learning even further than reported existing measures. With that reality in our face, I wonder what we as teachers should do about our inbreed ways?
Thanks, CC Holland, for the link.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Do Teachers Limit Student Learning?
Nancy Flanagan asked in response to a comment on one of her posts about a month ago, if anyone really thinks teachers restrict learning. She's a thoughtful writer, an experienced teacher, and an education policy wonk (that's a kudo). Jane, a parent, admonishes teachers, in response to a considered post by Mathew Needleman, for not offering enough learning for her daughter.
I've thought about Nancy’s question frequently, both before and after her post, but wanted to formulate a more complete description than a simple Yes or No. Her question reminded me of Ogdan Nash’s Portrait of the Artist as a Prematurely Old Man.
It is common knowledge to every schoolboy …
That all sin (consists of) a sin of commission and … a sin of omission …
Well, remember to do it by doing rather than by not doing.
In that spirit, no neutral or middle ground exists. I must answer either yes or no. Reluctantly I and likely most teachers, answer, "Yes, teachers restrict as well as foster some learning."
A question remains open about how to assess whether teachers net more learning than we restrict. On step toward a response consists of describing the context in which learning and restricted learning occur.
Perhaps this outline will assist parents like Jane to formulate their demand to their school boards for learning for their children. I also hope teachers will consider these points when arranging for students to exceed minimum state learning requirements.
Context of Teachers Restricting Learning
The Open Learning Paradigm identifies several factors that indicate restricted learning in schools. Someone can probably formulate these points into indices of validity of school programs.
1. An emerging mass market of independent learners.
An emergence of a mass market of independent learners (EMMIL) helps me to understand how advanced technologies confound conventional thinking about learning, schooling, their public funding, and public school efforts to attract and hold personnel. Mobile PCs and other advanced communication technologies have inspired what I call EMMIL. It competes for time, attention and control with schooling practices to fulfill their personal learning interests that overlap irregularly with conventional academic expectations.
By choice, individual teachers may include open learning as part of lessons in order to assist students to go beyond required minimum state learning standards. Some teachers may call it “extra credit,” while others set it as a classroom standard for earning a “B” or higher grade.
2. Incomplete curricula and instruction.
Every educator knows that a relatively few schools offer more advanced curricula and instruction than most schools. Some, like the Boston Latin School, are public; others, like Phillips Exeter Academy, are private. Curricula and instruction in any school that do not include similarly advanced content for the fastest learning student limit what might be learned in that school and classroom by any student, irrespective of why boards of education made their choices explicitly or by default.
For example, Peddie School has built its reputation on academic rigor, a friendly culture, and a focus on the whole student: mind, body and spirit. Our academic program continues to transform itself and grow in meeting the demands of an ever-changing world ... including new courses in forensics, DNA, neurobiology, robotics, physiology, evolution, genetics, quantitative chemical analysis, and organic chemistry. We have also added course offerings in arts, history and mathematics.
These schools offer content that exceeds AP and IB public school programs. Schools that omit comparable classes limit student learning. Teachers may incorporate such top tier school content into their lessons, probably without school board approval, in order to assist all students to stretch beyond their comfortable learning patterns.
3. Inefficient instruction.
Every educator and student knows that some lessons by some teachers take less time for students to reach learning criterion than by other teachers.
For example, one public school district found that students took 25 percent less time to reach learning criteria and scored better on standardized exams when they used the districts online independent learning programs over the same content that followed teacher directed daily classroom instruction. (The district has not yet reported these data for public review, but these data appear valid, reliable, and consistent with anecdotes from other schools, including my fifth grade students who completed through self paced independent learning all of their assignments and almost half of the sixth grade requirements at Azusa Public Schools in California decades ago.)
This report challenges three commonly asserted assumptions used by educators to justify schooling as it exists: (i) that students necessarily learn most when guided by classroom teachers; (ii) that teachers need more not less time for students to exceed minimum state standards; and (iii) that cooperative learning should replace competitive independent learning.
More
There’s more, later. I’m especially interested in figuring out how to measure the net balance of gained and limited school learning. I wonder what others think of the idea that educators limit student learning?
Note: Clayton Christensen's book Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns follows the same general logic for bringing about changes in schooling. I have known about the formalized idea of disruptive innovation for over a decade. It supported rather than guided my thinking about social change. His latest book scooped me!
I've thought about Nancy’s question frequently, both before and after her post, but wanted to formulate a more complete description than a simple Yes or No. Her question reminded me of Ogdan Nash’s Portrait of the Artist as a Prematurely Old Man.
It is common knowledge to every schoolboy …
That all sin (consists of) a sin of commission and … a sin of omission …
Well, remember to do it by doing rather than by not doing.
In that spirit, no neutral or middle ground exists. I must answer either yes or no. Reluctantly I and likely most teachers, answer, "Yes, teachers restrict as well as foster some learning."
A question remains open about how to assess whether teachers net more learning than we restrict. On step toward a response consists of describing the context in which learning and restricted learning occur.
Perhaps this outline will assist parents like Jane to formulate their demand to their school boards for learning for their children. I also hope teachers will consider these points when arranging for students to exceed minimum state learning requirements.
Context of Teachers Restricting Learning
The Open Learning Paradigm identifies several factors that indicate restricted learning in schools. Someone can probably formulate these points into indices of validity of school programs.
1. An emerging mass market of independent learners.
An emergence of a mass market of independent learners (EMMIL) helps me to understand how advanced technologies confound conventional thinking about learning, schooling, their public funding, and public school efforts to attract and hold personnel. Mobile PCs and other advanced communication technologies have inspired what I call EMMIL. It competes for time, attention and control with schooling practices to fulfill their personal learning interests that overlap irregularly with conventional academic expectations.
By choice, individual teachers may include open learning as part of lessons in order to assist students to go beyond required minimum state learning standards. Some teachers may call it “extra credit,” while others set it as a classroom standard for earning a “B” or higher grade.
2. Incomplete curricula and instruction.
Every educator knows that a relatively few schools offer more advanced curricula and instruction than most schools. Some, like the Boston Latin School, are public; others, like Phillips Exeter Academy, are private. Curricula and instruction in any school that do not include similarly advanced content for the fastest learning student limit what might be learned in that school and classroom by any student, irrespective of why boards of education made their choices explicitly or by default.
For example, Peddie School has built its reputation on academic rigor, a friendly culture, and a focus on the whole student: mind, body and spirit. Our academic program continues to transform itself and grow in meeting the demands of an ever-changing world ... including new courses in forensics, DNA, neurobiology, robotics, physiology, evolution, genetics, quantitative chemical analysis, and organic chemistry. We have also added course offerings in arts, history and mathematics.
These schools offer content that exceeds AP and IB public school programs. Schools that omit comparable classes limit student learning. Teachers may incorporate such top tier school content into their lessons, probably without school board approval, in order to assist all students to stretch beyond their comfortable learning patterns.
3. Inefficient instruction.
Every educator and student knows that some lessons by some teachers take less time for students to reach learning criterion than by other teachers.
For example, one public school district found that students took 25 percent less time to reach learning criteria and scored better on standardized exams when they used the districts online independent learning programs over the same content that followed teacher directed daily classroom instruction. (The district has not yet reported these data for public review, but these data appear valid, reliable, and consistent with anecdotes from other schools, including my fifth grade students who completed through self paced independent learning all of their assignments and almost half of the sixth grade requirements at Azusa Public Schools in California decades ago.)
This report challenges three commonly asserted assumptions used by educators to justify schooling as it exists: (i) that students necessarily learn most when guided by classroom teachers; (ii) that teachers need more not less time for students to exceed minimum state standards; and (iii) that cooperative learning should replace competitive independent learning.
More
There’s more, later. I’m especially interested in figuring out how to measure the net balance of gained and limited school learning. I wonder what others think of the idea that educators limit student learning?
Note: Clayton Christensen's book Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns follows the same general logic for bringing about changes in schooling. I have known about the formalized idea of disruptive innovation for over a decade. It supported rather than guided my thinking about social change. His latest book scooped me!
Monday, May 12, 2008
Students Like Smarthinking
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System students support SMARTHINKING online tutoring, according to a Fall 2007 survey. The survey explored the satisfaction of Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system students enrolled in the Minnesota Online gateway system who use SMARTHINKING online tutoring.
91.7 percent of students surveyed agreed or strongly agreed they enjoyed a positive experience with SMARTHINKING.
Exit surveys also showed that 93 percent of students would recommend SMARTHINKING to a fellow classmate or friend.
SMARTHINKING is an award-winning online tutoring and academic support to students.
91.7 percent of students surveyed agreed or strongly agreed they enjoyed a positive experience with SMARTHINKING.
Exit surveys also showed that 93 percent of students would recommend SMARTHINKING to a fellow classmate or friend.
SMARTHINKING is an award-winning online tutoring and academic support to students.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
School Learning Candor Checklist
The School Learning Candor Checklist (SLCC) results in an index of how straight forward educators have communicated about their behavior to increase student learning rates, the primary reason schools exist. SLCC is to schooling what the Rittenhouse Rankings are to businesses. This school candor index complements traditional assessment paradigms to reflect educators' efforts and accomplishments. It shows the balance of empirical facts with opinions and judgments in communications about student learning.
SLCC provides information for contextual surveys of school impression management, communication points feedback reports, language effectiveness, workshops to adjust in dynamic external settings, and coaching to accelerate learning rates.
Mission Vision
To offer a checklist that provides references for assessing the delivery of candid and creative information about student learning rates in schools.
Assumptions
Schools exist first to assist people to learn more quickly and easily than figuring out the same results on their own in other settings. Therefore, all school business should contribute in identifiable ways to increasing student learning rates and learning efficiency.
School communiqués should describe how their topics affect student school learning.
Educators hold diverse ideas about appropriate and acceptable schooling as well as student learning rates. They also use different practices to discuss their ideas with each other and with non-educators.
People respond to what's inspected more than to what's expected.
SLCC indexes these variations in order to allow comparisons that identify affects of these ideas on student learning rates.
Checklist
This checklist consists of 10 generic questions. Each indicates an aspect of accuracy of a school communiqué about the school's primary purpose, increasing student learning rates. Communiqués include emails, informal memoranda, documents, reports, speeches, meeting minutes, and other ways of telling anyone about school activities and accomplishments.
Uses
Students, educators, parents, boards of education members, media, and other interested parties may use this checklist to estimate the extent to which educators address their primary duty, to increase student learning rates with each school activity.
This index identifies the extent to which the underlying structure and context of school reports fits the central purpose of schools, the relative efficiency of student learning, and the results these communiqués accurately transmit information about the primary school purpose.
Instructions
Answer each question with a YES or NO.
Ten Questions
1. Does the school have a formal, board of education/trustees/overseers policy that defines student learning rates and ways to measure them?
2. Does each school educator have a copy of this policy to use in building curricula and lesson plans?
3. Does each lesson plan include how much it will likely contribute to any student's learning rate?
4. Does each memorandum, report, letter, press release, grant application, and other communiqués to anyone from any school employee tell how the topic contributes to any student's learning rate and how it increases or decreases that rate?
5. Does the communiqué offer references to empirical evidence of how it contributes to any student's learning rate?
6. Does the communiqué tell how much cost it adds to liabilities against that increased learning rate?
7. Does the communiqué tell what else any educator will do to increase any learning rate more?
8. Does the communiqué tell how it contributes to increasing any learning rate?
9. Does the communiqué include more words and images about student learning rates than other topics?
10. Does the communiqué tell how much it will contribute to any student's learning rate?
Calculating a School Learning Candor Index (SLCI)
Add the number of YES answers and NO answers.
Divide the number of YES answers by the number of NO answers to yield to yield a School Learning Candor Index.
For example, Shortform Elementary School Memorandum B received 0 YES answers and 10 NO answers to yield an SLCI of 0. Targeted Elementary School communiqués received 1 YES and 9 NO answers to yield an SLCI of 0.111
Interpreting SLCI
School Learning Candor indices range from 0.0 to 1.0. Scores indicate the balance of candor to fog, that is, the degree of fit between the central purpose of the school and candid communiqués about progress toward that purpose. Fog indicates school discussions not tied directly to student learning rates:
1.00 to 0.90 - Candid communiqués - best fit;
0.89 to 0.80 - Mostly candid communiqués - good fit;
0.79 to 0.70 - Balanced candor and fog - minimum fit;
0.69 to 0.60 - More fog than candor - room to increase fit; and
0.00 to 0.59 - Too much fog and not enough candor - dramatic reversal required to indicate school meets any expectations to increase student learning rates - poorest fit.
Some refer to lack of candor as truthiness, meaning that statements reflect the truth the presenter wants rather than an objective, empirically demonstrated truth. Anything less than candor, then could reflect opinion and judgment rather than fact.
So What; Who Cares? (Internal and External Validity)
SLCI offers a way to demonstrate the degree to which school communiqués reflect the central purpose of schooling as accepted by educators and as understood by community members.
Without such indices, educators do not have a way to demonstrate that their official behavior gives priority to the single student entitlement of earning increasing learning rates. These indices show how educators give priority to that entitlement over textbook assignments, legislative mandates, budget meetings, and other school routines.
I see this as a first draft to see if the idea can convert to measured behavior, such as writing and speaking about schooling. I think of next steps, but must figure out what order to post them and how to tie them more directly into other learning efficiency posts.
Please let me know of your interest in SLCC, how you use it, what changes you think appropriate, and if you want to upgrade it somehow. I'd enjoy working with someone on this project also.
SLCC provides information for contextual surveys of school impression management, communication points feedback reports, language effectiveness, workshops to adjust in dynamic external settings, and coaching to accelerate learning rates.
Mission Vision
To offer a checklist that provides references for assessing the delivery of candid and creative information about student learning rates in schools.
Assumptions
Schools exist first to assist people to learn more quickly and easily than figuring out the same results on their own in other settings. Therefore, all school business should contribute in identifiable ways to increasing student learning rates and learning efficiency.
School communiqués should describe how their topics affect student school learning.
Educators hold diverse ideas about appropriate and acceptable schooling as well as student learning rates. They also use different practices to discuss their ideas with each other and with non-educators.
People respond to what's inspected more than to what's expected.
SLCC indexes these variations in order to allow comparisons that identify affects of these ideas on student learning rates.
Checklist
This checklist consists of 10 generic questions. Each indicates an aspect of accuracy of a school communiqué about the school's primary purpose, increasing student learning rates. Communiqués include emails, informal memoranda, documents, reports, speeches, meeting minutes, and other ways of telling anyone about school activities and accomplishments.
Uses
Students, educators, parents, boards of education members, media, and other interested parties may use this checklist to estimate the extent to which educators address their primary duty, to increase student learning rates with each school activity.
This index identifies the extent to which the underlying structure and context of school reports fits the central purpose of schools, the relative efficiency of student learning, and the results these communiqués accurately transmit information about the primary school purpose.
Instructions
Answer each question with a YES or NO.
Ten Questions
1. Does the school have a formal, board of education/trustees/overseers policy that defines student learning rates and ways to measure them?
2. Does each school educator have a copy of this policy to use in building curricula and lesson plans?
3. Does each lesson plan include how much it will likely contribute to any student's learning rate?
4. Does each memorandum, report, letter, press release, grant application, and other communiqués to anyone from any school employee tell how the topic contributes to any student's learning rate and how it increases or decreases that rate?
5. Does the communiqué offer references to empirical evidence of how it contributes to any student's learning rate?
6. Does the communiqué tell how much cost it adds to liabilities against that increased learning rate?
7. Does the communiqué tell what else any educator will do to increase any learning rate more?
8. Does the communiqué tell how it contributes to increasing any learning rate?
9. Does the communiqué include more words and images about student learning rates than other topics?
10. Does the communiqué tell how much it will contribute to any student's learning rate?
Calculating a School Learning Candor Index (SLCI)
Add the number of YES answers and NO answers.
Divide the number of YES answers by the number of NO answers to yield to yield a School Learning Candor Index.
For example, Shortform Elementary School Memorandum B received 0 YES answers and 10 NO answers to yield an SLCI of 0. Targeted Elementary School communiqués received 1 YES and 9 NO answers to yield an SLCI of 0.111
Interpreting SLCI
School Learning Candor indices range from 0.0 to 1.0. Scores indicate the balance of candor to fog, that is, the degree of fit between the central purpose of the school and candid communiqués about progress toward that purpose. Fog indicates school discussions not tied directly to student learning rates:
1.00 to 0.90 - Candid communiqués - best fit;
0.89 to 0.80 - Mostly candid communiqués - good fit;
0.79 to 0.70 - Balanced candor and fog - minimum fit;
0.69 to 0.60 - More fog than candor - room to increase fit; and
0.00 to 0.59 - Too much fog and not enough candor - dramatic reversal required to indicate school meets any expectations to increase student learning rates - poorest fit.
Some refer to lack of candor as truthiness, meaning that statements reflect the truth the presenter wants rather than an objective, empirically demonstrated truth. Anything less than candor, then could reflect opinion and judgment rather than fact.
So What; Who Cares? (Internal and External Validity)
SLCI offers a way to demonstrate the degree to which school communiqués reflect the central purpose of schooling as accepted by educators and as understood by community members.
Without such indices, educators do not have a way to demonstrate that their official behavior gives priority to the single student entitlement of earning increasing learning rates. These indices show how educators give priority to that entitlement over textbook assignments, legislative mandates, budget meetings, and other school routines.
I see this as a first draft to see if the idea can convert to measured behavior, such as writing and speaking about schooling. I think of next steps, but must figure out what order to post them and how to tie them more directly into other learning efficiency posts.
Please let me know of your interest in SLCC, how you use it, what changes you think appropriate, and if you want to upgrade it somehow. I'd enjoy working with someone on this project also.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Truthiness Defined
Truthiness n
1. "truth that comes from the gut, not books" (Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," October 2005);
2. "the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true" (American Dialect Society, January 2006)
Merriam Webster Word of the Year 2006
I wonder the extent to which truthiness reflects a status of candor of educators to each other and to people outside of schooling.
For example, it appears that statements that speak categorically negatively about No Child Left Behind, assert that teaching is an art, not a craft, and claim education equals schooling stretch their seed of truth into truthiness.
Hmm, perhaps these examples also serve as a step toward developing a schooling truthiness index. It might be fun to put one together. Does anyone else think so?
1. "truth that comes from the gut, not books" (Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," October 2005);
2. "the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true" (American Dialect Society, January 2006)
Merriam Webster Word of the Year 2006
I wonder the extent to which truthiness reflects a status of candor of educators to each other and to people outside of schooling.
For example, it appears that statements that speak categorically negatively about No Child Left Behind, assert that teaching is an art, not a craft, and claim education equals schooling stretch their seed of truth into truthiness.
Hmm, perhaps these examples also serve as a step toward developing a schooling truthiness index. It might be fun to put one together. Does anyone else think so?
CEO Candor Declines Sharply
These latest results in the annual CEO Candor benchmark survey of 100 Fortune 500 companies by Rittenhouse Rankings Inc. reveal that CEOs are increasingly less able or willing to articulate a clear understanding of their businesses.
President, L. J. Rittenhouse (see p. 2, #34 for bio sketch) said, “Not only is the overall measure of CEO candor declining, but the quality of candor is deteriorating. Since clear communication is essential for effective and ethical behavior, this growth in dangerous fog is particularly disturbing.”
Candor sank to a new low with the measure of unclear statements or “fog” increasing by 21 percent over 2006 and up 85 percent from five years ago.
The survey shows that confusing and misleading statements or “dangerous fog,” increased 66 percent up from 39 percent five years ago.
In contrast, statements that require simple clarification or add useless clutter, or “benign fog,” declined to 34 percent, down from 61 percent.
Dangerous fog in the 2007 survey included 1,500 points for Orwellian language up from
only 190 points a year ago.
“Orwellian language,” explained Rittenhouse, “is named for author George Orwell, who championed straight talk and exposed “doublethink” a concept updated by Stephen Colbert as “truthiness” – using words to describe ‘the truth we want to exist,’ rather than facts.”
In the 2007 survey, 70 percent of the companies had examples of Orwellian language up from only 17 percent in the 2006 survey.
The Rittenhouse RankingsTM ethics based model demonstrates the correlation between candid clear CEO communication and superior financial performance. It challenges traditional investment paradigms by showing that the quality of the leadership and the cohesiveness of the underlying corporate culture and values determine the reliability of financial accounting.
Her model systematically analyses the presence of facts and opinions, that yield candour (more for its absence), gleaned from CEOs' shareholder letters.
The most important corporate value in the model is Stewardship, central to the The Rittenhouse ModelSM of a Stewardship-Based Business which shows the importance of balance in creating a sustainable businesses
Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway calls stewardship the financial golden rule: to treat investors as you would want to be treated.
I wonder if anyone offers a school learning candor index for public review? Various academic progress reports approximate it. How would school superintendent, principle, and other school newsletters and reports score on a school learning candor index? How much fog, truthiness, etc.?
Hmm. Let me know if anyone knows of one or is interested in building and applying a stewardship model index and reports to school learning? Seems interesting to me. Seems like a natural software program for a Tablet PC or other Ink (mobile) PC
L.J. RITTENHOUSE has advised CEOs as an investment banker and investor relations consultant for over 20 years. She publishes yearly the Rittenhouse RankingsTM which demonstrates the correlation between candid clear CEO communication and superior financial performance. She is the author of Do Business with People You Can Tru$t.
President, L. J. Rittenhouse (see p. 2, #34 for bio sketch) said, “Not only is the overall measure of CEO candor declining, but the quality of candor is deteriorating. Since clear communication is essential for effective and ethical behavior, this growth in dangerous fog is particularly disturbing.”
Candor sank to a new low with the measure of unclear statements or “fog” increasing by 21 percent over 2006 and up 85 percent from five years ago.
The survey shows that confusing and misleading statements or “dangerous fog,” increased 66 percent up from 39 percent five years ago.
In contrast, statements that require simple clarification or add useless clutter, or “benign fog,” declined to 34 percent, down from 61 percent.
Dangerous fog in the 2007 survey included 1,500 points for Orwellian language up from
only 190 points a year ago.
“Orwellian language,” explained Rittenhouse, “is named for author George Orwell, who championed straight talk and exposed “doublethink” a concept updated by Stephen Colbert as “truthiness” – using words to describe ‘the truth we want to exist,’ rather than facts.”
In the 2007 survey, 70 percent of the companies had examples of Orwellian language up from only 17 percent in the 2006 survey.
The Rittenhouse RankingsTM ethics based model demonstrates the correlation between candid clear CEO communication and superior financial performance. It challenges traditional investment paradigms by showing that the quality of the leadership and the cohesiveness of the underlying corporate culture and values determine the reliability of financial accounting.
Her model systematically analyses the presence of facts and opinions, that yield candour (more for its absence), gleaned from CEOs' shareholder letters.
The most important corporate value in the model is Stewardship, central to the The Rittenhouse ModelSM of a Stewardship-Based Business which shows the importance of balance in creating a sustainable businesses
Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway calls stewardship the financial golden rule: to treat investors as you would want to be treated.
I wonder if anyone offers a school learning candor index for public review? Various academic progress reports approximate it. How would school superintendent, principle, and other school newsletters and reports score on a school learning candor index? How much fog, truthiness, etc.?
Hmm. Let me know if anyone knows of one or is interested in building and applying a stewardship model index and reports to school learning? Seems interesting to me. Seems like a natural software program for a Tablet PC or other Ink (mobile) PC
L.J. RITTENHOUSE has advised CEOs as an investment banker and investor relations consultant for over 20 years. She publishes yearly the Rittenhouse RankingsTM which demonstrates the correlation between candid clear CEO communication and superior financial performance. She is the author of Do Business with People You Can Tru$t.
Friday, May 09, 2008
Imposter Syndrome or Peter Principle among Executives
Sean Silverstone suggests that some managers see themselves as executive imposters, (also known as imposter phenomenon, imposterism and “neurotic imposture, according to Gill Corkindale ) .
Do you feel as if you are pulling the wool over the eyes of your workmates, hiding your incompetence? You are not alone. There is even a name for it: Imposter Syndrome.
Typically, they are managers on fast-track careers in their late 30s or early 40s who have been promoted to a new role in which their experience is being tested to the limits.
Silverstone describes "truly competent people" who do not think of themselves as such. Those who have "a kind of executive inferiority complex."
He distinguishes competents from those who have risen to the top of their incompetence as defined by former special ed teacher Lawrence Peter in the Peter Principle.
Hmm. Now a label for it. I've often thought that some supervisors and managers act as imposters, but hadn't put a label on them.
His label of Imposter Syndrome offers a disquiting thought: how might the concept apply to schooling executives and other schoolers? I don't want to go there now, but maybe someone else will use the Imposter Syndrome and the Peter Principle to make thoughtful contributions to the Contrarian Institute of Educators.
Check out Gill's follow-up post about overcoming imposter syndrome. She first sets out definitions and symptoms. It's useful nominal level thinking for someone to systematize an empirical index to assess and change behavior related to such inadequacy.
I wonder how these concepts might help explain some educator contributions and restraints to student learning efficiencies?
Do you think the imposter syndrome might in part account for the strong opposition of some educators to NCLB? I've often wondered how much feelings (whatever that means) of personal inadequace of educators account the strength of such opposition and to motivation (again, whatever that means) for mounting formal defenses of teaching, such as decades old discussions of professionalism, anti-testing, anti-accountability, performance pay, instructional quality, teaching as an art, etc.
Please let me know what you think, and if you decide to explore such questions in the spirit of comity. I'm curious what you think.
Do you feel as if you are pulling the wool over the eyes of your workmates, hiding your incompetence? You are not alone. There is even a name for it: Imposter Syndrome.
Typically, they are managers on fast-track careers in their late 30s or early 40s who have been promoted to a new role in which their experience is being tested to the limits.
Silverstone describes "truly competent people" who do not think of themselves as such. Those who have "a kind of executive inferiority complex."
He distinguishes competents from those who have risen to the top of their incompetence as defined by former special ed teacher Lawrence Peter in the Peter Principle.
Hmm. Now a label for it. I've often thought that some supervisors and managers act as imposters, but hadn't put a label on them.
His label of Imposter Syndrome offers a disquiting thought: how might the concept apply to schooling executives and other schoolers? I don't want to go there now, but maybe someone else will use the Imposter Syndrome and the Peter Principle to make thoughtful contributions to the Contrarian Institute of Educators.
Check out Gill's follow-up post about overcoming imposter syndrome. She first sets out definitions and symptoms. It's useful nominal level thinking for someone to systematize an empirical index to assess and change behavior related to such inadequacy.
I wonder how these concepts might help explain some educator contributions and restraints to student learning efficiencies?
Do you think the imposter syndrome might in part account for the strong opposition of some educators to NCLB? I've often wondered how much feelings (whatever that means) of personal inadequace of educators account the strength of such opposition and to motivation (again, whatever that means) for mounting formal defenses of teaching, such as decades old discussions of professionalism, anti-testing, anti-accountability, performance pay, instructional quality, teaching as an art, etc.
Please let me know what you think, and if you decide to explore such questions in the spirit of comity. I'm curious what you think.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Diagramming Sentences Online Hotlist
Judith Sotir offers an excellent Internet hotlist of links about diagramming English sentences. This link is worth a bookmark. Teachers will find it useful as a reference for teaching diagramming sentences in middle school for those students who missed it earlier. Students at all levels will find it a useful reminder source as they develop the habit of mentally diagramming sentences while they write essays and present formal talks. Thanks, Judith, for another helpful contribution to schooling. I urge PK12 teachers to monitor your site for other useful nuggets.
Campus Technology 2008
Campus Technology 2008 welcomes attendees to its 15th annual summer conference.
July 28-31, 2008, Boston, MA
Leading innovators and experts in technology for higher education guide faculty, instructional designers, eLearning program managers, information technologists, and campus administrators into the new realm of teaching and learning in a Web 2.0 world.
Register.
July 28-31, 2008, Boston, MA
Leading innovators and experts in technology for higher education guide faculty, instructional designers, eLearning program managers, information technologists, and campus administrators into the new realm of teaching and learning in a Web 2.0 world.
Register.
Online Education as "Disruptive Innovation"
Clayton M. Christensen, an author of Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns , finds schools respond to advanced technologies in ways similar to businesses.
"... established organizations are trapped in the(ir) industry’s architecture, through webs of “interdependencies,” such as the compensation system for sales forces and the expectations of existing customers, who do not want to bear the cost of adopting innovations that initially are inferior to what they were used to getting, he said.
This book changes the conversation about using teacher certification, performance pay, and other closed system tactics to increase public school academic performance.
Using an S-curve model, these authors forecast that by 2017 to 2020, online learning will account for 50 percent of high school course enrollments. S-curve mathematical models are accepted ways of predicting business activities.
They anticipate online high school enrollment to rise sharply within four years, based on current projections of supplies of qualified teachers and costs of traditional and computer-based learning.
Tablet PC educators will find this book instructive for ways to support and expand their adoption of mobile PCs to increase learning rates of more students. I especially like the use of the Dayton Hudson adaption of new technology in retail business as a useful model for public schools to spin off online and other advanced tech units that address learning.
This book follows the same general logic used to formulate the mass market of independent learners.
(Read a review by edweek.)
"... established organizations are trapped in the(ir) industry’s architecture, through webs of “interdependencies,” such as the compensation system for sales forces and the expectations of existing customers, who do not want to bear the cost of adopting innovations that initially are inferior to what they were used to getting, he said.
This book changes the conversation about using teacher certification, performance pay, and other closed system tactics to increase public school academic performance.
Using an S-curve model, these authors forecast that by 2017 to 2020, online learning will account for 50 percent of high school course enrollments. S-curve mathematical models are accepted ways of predicting business activities.
They anticipate online high school enrollment to rise sharply within four years, based on current projections of supplies of qualified teachers and costs of traditional and computer-based learning.
Tablet PC educators will find this book instructive for ways to support and expand their adoption of mobile PCs to increase learning rates of more students. I especially like the use of the Dayton Hudson adaption of new technology in retail business as a useful model for public schools to spin off online and other advanced tech units that address learning.
This book follows the same general logic used to formulate the mass market of independent learners.
(Read a review by edweek.)
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Free HP Upline Data Storage
HP Upline is a data storage service that lets you put your data in a more secure, online headquarters location.
Automatic backup makes securing data simple, not just one time, but as often as you choose.
And with any Internet connection you can easily access, share, manipulate and store your data from anywhere.
Try Upline.
Automatic backup makes securing data simple, not just one time, but as often as you choose.
And with any Internet connection you can easily access, share, manipulate and store your data from anywhere.
Try Upline.
Benefits of a Connected Campus
Hear experts detail benefits of Sprint Campus Connect in a free, 60-minute Webcast moderated by Campus Technology Editor-in-Chief Katherine Grayson.
Date: May 8, 2008
Two sessions: 12 p.m. EDT or 3 p.m. EDT
Sponsored by: Sprint Nextel and Rave Wireless
You'll also hear how Park University implemented Sprint Campus Connect to:
1. Share critical information quickly and efficiently on and off campus
2. Provide students with mobile access to learning tools and university resources
3. Enhance safety through a personal safety tool that links students directly to campus security
4. Build out coverage and capacity for little to no upfront cost.
Register.
Date: May 8, 2008
Two sessions: 12 p.m. EDT or 3 p.m. EDT
Sponsored by: Sprint Nextel and Rave Wireless
You'll also hear how Park University implemented Sprint Campus Connect to:
1. Share critical information quickly and efficiently on and off campus
2. Provide students with mobile access to learning tools and university resources
3. Enhance safety through a personal safety tool that links students directly to campus security
4. Build out coverage and capacity for little to no upfront cost.
Register.
Waiting to be Won Over: Teachers Speak
Education Sector, a national independent nonpartisan education think tank, has released a new report Waiting To Be Won Over: Teachers Speak on the Profession, Unions and Reform.
American public education is in the midst of intense change, and teachers, in particular, are facing pressure to produce better outcomes for students.
Ann M. Duffett, Steve Farkas, Andrew J. Rotherham, and Elena Silva examine teachers' opinions and attitudes toward teacher unions, teacher unionism, and a range of current district reforms, including those aimed specifically at improving teacher quality.
“I’ve been around four years, and I’ve heard people say, ‘If you want to get out of the system, get out of it now before you’re locked in,'" said a Milwaukee teacher surveyed for the report.
“I have to say I just don’t know what it would be like if we didn’t have a union. I’m losing faith in the union more and more all the time, but I don’t know. … What would it be, if we didn’t have one ?" said a New York City teacher.
Researchers surveyed 1,010 K–12 public school teachers about their views on the teaching profession, teachers unions, and a host of reforms aimed at improving teacher quality.
Some key findings from the survey include:
Seventy-six percent of teachers say that too many burned-out veteran teachers stay because they don't want to walk away from benefits and service time accrued. And over half (55 percent) say that it's very difficult and time-consuming to remove teachers who shouldn't be in the classroom.
Only 26 percent of teachers say that their most recent formal evaluation was useful and effective in helping them to improve their teaching. Seventy-nine percent support strengthening the formal evaluation of probationary teachers. And nearly a third of teachers (32 percent) say that tenured teachers should be evaluated on an annual basis.
Teachers are less likely today (than they were in 2003) to support paying teachers more based on test scores. Only half of teachers support the idea to measure teacher effectiveness based on student growth or "value added."
Teachers are more likely today (than they were in 2003) to say unions are essential. The jump among new teachers (<5 yrs) who say the unions are essential is especially striking.
Teachers say they would support the union taking an active union role in improving teacher evaluation, supporting and mentoring teachers, guiding ineffective teachers out of the profession, and negotiating new/differentiated roles/responsibilities for teachers.
The findings presented in this report offer guideposts for discussing how to transform schools and student learning to meet today’s challenges and create a teaching profession that people seek to join.
This is an internal validity check about a schooling process without linking it directly to student learning rates. As you review this report, consider the relatively heavy emphasis on "teaching" over learning.
In the spirit of comity, does the public care about teacher opinions or teacher results?
I wonder, can a public occupation such as teaching endure that does not yield results other people want, such as slipping competitive schooling advantage? Teachers in other countries are moving ahead of U.S. teaching-learning results. That's fact, not opinion.
American public education is in the midst of intense change, and teachers, in particular, are facing pressure to produce better outcomes for students.
Ann M. Duffett, Steve Farkas, Andrew J. Rotherham, and Elena Silva examine teachers' opinions and attitudes toward teacher unions, teacher unionism, and a range of current district reforms, including those aimed specifically at improving teacher quality.
“I’ve been around four years, and I’ve heard people say, ‘If you want to get out of the system, get out of it now before you’re locked in,'" said a Milwaukee teacher surveyed for the report.
“I have to say I just don’t know what it would be like if we didn’t have a union. I’m losing faith in the union more and more all the time, but I don’t know. … What would it be, if we didn’t have one ?" said a New York City teacher.
Researchers surveyed 1,010 K–12 public school teachers about their views on the teaching profession, teachers unions, and a host of reforms aimed at improving teacher quality.
Some key findings from the survey include:
Seventy-six percent of teachers say that too many burned-out veteran teachers stay because they don't want to walk away from benefits and service time accrued. And over half (55 percent) say that it's very difficult and time-consuming to remove teachers who shouldn't be in the classroom.
Only 26 percent of teachers say that their most recent formal evaluation was useful and effective in helping them to improve their teaching. Seventy-nine percent support strengthening the formal evaluation of probationary teachers. And nearly a third of teachers (32 percent) say that tenured teachers should be evaluated on an annual basis.
Teachers are less likely today (than they were in 2003) to support paying teachers more based on test scores. Only half of teachers support the idea to measure teacher effectiveness based on student growth or "value added."
Teachers are more likely today (than they were in 2003) to say unions are essential. The jump among new teachers (<5 yrs) who say the unions are essential is especially striking.
Teachers say they would support the union taking an active union role in improving teacher evaluation, supporting and mentoring teachers, guiding ineffective teachers out of the profession, and negotiating new/differentiated roles/responsibilities for teachers.
The findings presented in this report offer guideposts for discussing how to transform schools and student learning to meet today’s challenges and create a teaching profession that people seek to join.
This is an internal validity check about a schooling process without linking it directly to student learning rates. As you review this report, consider the relatively heavy emphasis on "teaching" over learning.
In the spirit of comity, does the public care about teacher opinions or teacher results?
I wonder, can a public occupation such as teaching endure that does not yield results other people want, such as slipping competitive schooling advantage? Teachers in other countries are moving ahead of U.S. teaching-learning results. That's fact, not opinion.
Friday, May 02, 2008
Ten Trends: Educating Children for Tomorrow's World
It's dated, but Gary Marx's 2002 Ten Trends: Educating Children for Tomorrow's World still serves as a useful shorthand reference for anticipating near term social evolution teachers will likely address. I especially appreciate his topic sentence:
The status quo is a ticket to obsolescence.
Yet, I take issue with his inference that these forecasted trends hold some kind of dominance over schooling. In a way, they're based in extrapolations from political theories.
For example, Marx suggests that classrooms should rely more on collaboration (a pedagogical adaptation of communitarian theories).
With due respect, collaboration counters a primary fact: individuals learn, not "groups" or other social fictions we call aggregates.
I suspect that collaboration stiffles more individual student learning than it enhances. That would be an interesting hypothesis to test; probably someone has.
Anyway, Gary's trends serve as useful references for case statements to use mobile PCs such as Tablets, UMPCs, MIDs in classrooms.
The status quo is a ticket to obsolescence.
Yet, I take issue with his inference that these forecasted trends hold some kind of dominance over schooling. In a way, they're based in extrapolations from political theories.
For example, Marx suggests that classrooms should rely more on collaboration (a pedagogical adaptation of communitarian theories).
With due respect, collaboration counters a primary fact: individuals learn, not "groups" or other social fictions we call aggregates.
I suspect that collaboration stiffles more individual student learning than it enhances. That would be an interesting hypothesis to test; probably someone has.
Anyway, Gary's trends serve as useful references for case statements to use mobile PCs such as Tablets, UMPCs, MIDs in classrooms.
Best Practice Videos
BNET Business Network offers another series of best practice short (6-7 minutes each) online videos students and teachers will find useful for improving presentations and judgments. Learn ways Steve Jobs captures your attention, Malcolm Gladwell (Blink) explains how removing information can sometimes clarify decisions, etc. Active Tableteers of various ages will likely find these techniques useful in classrooms as well as professional meetings.
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