May 10
3
Welcome
I am pleased to be able to offer you my thoughts on education. I speak with a combination of experience, some trial and error, and research-based expertise. I will be the first to say that I certainly do not have all the answers, but I can share what I have seen and learned over my twenty years in education.
Education is NOT an exact science. If it was, we wouldn’t need schools and teachers. What it is is a human enterprise, with all of the difficulties that entails. Teachers, students, administrators, and, yes, even parents, are fallible. We do our best when we realize this, and do not let it interfere with our personal mission to help improve the education of children.
I hope you enjoy my blog…
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Sep 11
23
Grade Stability – Guskey Study
In the most recent National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) Bulletin (Volume 92, issue 2), there was a fascinating article by Tom Guskey (the hottest selling author in assessment and grading these days). In the article he discusses the results of his study of over 8,000 high school students’ grades, in which he analyzed the “stability” of these grades over a school year. By stability, he means how the very first assessment (test/quiz/assignment) related to the final grade – no matter how many assessments took place between that first one and the final grade. He discovered, much to his surprise, that the grades were “remarkably stable”. In other words, a student’s first assessment grade and their final course grade had little difference.
The implications of this are many, but there are just a few I will focus on: 1) Are initial grades just an early indication of a student’s abilities, and remain stable because they start off fresh at their level of ability? 2) If a student performs at a certain level on a first assessment, does this indicate to them that they are “only a C student” or if they got an A become motivated to continue to do well? 3) Do teachers subconsciously pigeon-hole a student as an A, B, C, etc. student and this becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy as more and more assignments get assessed? 4) And, what if teachers give a relatively “easy” initial assessment that allows a student to score high, does this trigger the motivation necessary for the student to continue to achieve at that level.
To answer these questions, let’s imagine Johnny in his first few weeks of school. When he returns to school in the fall, he is usually well rested and ready to perform. His motivation is high, and he doesn’t yet have work piled high in need of attention. Imagine his first Chemistry (or insert any other subject) quiz; Johnny prepares (possibly over prepares because he has some extra time and motivation) and does well (let’s say he gets an A). Does this set the stage for things to come, even though he may soon become snowed under with work and deadlines? Or, does this create a certain degree of motivation for him that builds until his next assessment, and so on? Perhaps the initial impression the teacher has of Johnny’s abilities impacts their future perspective on Johnny’s work and they grade accordingly.
In the purest sense, maybe the simplest explanation is that if Johnny is an A student, he has prepared himself for his first Chemistry assessment as he diligently has for all of his assessments in the past and will do in the future, so he earns his initial grade and subsequent grades. Contrarily, Susie, who does not normally prepare for her assessments, didn’t adequately prepare this time either, got her usual C and continues on in that vein. What Guskey doesn’t look at is the motivation level of students, or their previous grades. So, does an A student who gets a bad start and scores a C on their first assessment show a different trend than a typically C student who scores higher on their first assessment?
Finally, what if teachers purposefully gave an “easy” initial assessment, allowing students to score high? Would it positively impact their final grades? If only it was that simple – and maybe it is.
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In the most recent issue of The Atlantic, Lori Gottlieb (a psychotherapist and mother) writes about a whole generation of young adults in their 20s and 30s who suffer from “great emptiness” who are “just not happy” and whose biggest complaint is that “they had nothing to complain about”. The root cause of increasing numbers of “empty” and “unfulfilled” in this generation – “over-parenting”! Ironically, says Gottlieb, the parents she heard about in her psychotherapy sessions were the kind of parent we all strive to be – always there for our kids, their “best friend”, helping them through every scrape, over every obstacle. Little do we realize that we may be doing them the greatest disservice possible.
Gottlieb goes on quite extensively to discuss (and psychoanalyze, and present other expert opinion) about how over-parenting (my term, not hers) manifests itself: scooping up and comforting a child who has fallen and skinned their knee – before they have a chance to realize what has happened and process it; never letting your child believe they have any limitations – despite the fact that we all do; and, never, never letting your child fail! She isn’t talking about abject failure of the life-altering sort, but rather any failure of any sort under any circumstances. Without ever experiencing failure as a child, it becomes difficult to impossible to experience failure as a young adult or as an adult.
I have written in a past blog that children who are sheltered from failure of any kind (never cut from a competitive team, never experience struggles in math, never get told they are not succeeding at something) may have their first “failure experience” when they don’t get accepted to their first-choice college (possibly the first time a parent can’t control the outcome of an event in their child’s live). If children are sheltered from failure – or never told they have any flaws, or been critiqued or corrected – they never learn to cope with failure.
Gottlieb goes on to tell about a growing number of college deans who, over the past few years, “have reported receiving growing numbers of incoming freshmen they’ve dubbed ‘teacups’ because they’re so fragile that they break down anytime things don’t go their way.” She quotes Wendy Mogel, clinical psychologist and author of The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: “well-intentioned parents have been metabolizing their [children’s] anxiety for them their entire childhoods so they don’t know how to deal with it when they grow up.” When ego-boosting parents exclaim “good job” for everything a child does – every time they do it – says author Jean Twenge, “what starts off as healthy self-esteem can quickly morph into an inflated view of oneself – a self-absorption and sense of entitlement that looks a lot like narcissism.”
What does this all mean? As parents, do we abandon our supportive, encouraging ways and become more aloof? I don’t think that would solve the problem. I do think, though, that we need to help our children process failure (starting with minor incidents) and teach them that throughout their lives they will experience failure (let’s soften the language and call them setbacks). We need to teach them how we can overcome these setbacks. If, as young adults, they have not learned to overcome setbacks, we have done them a disservice. Perhaps the mantra: “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” needs more airtime in our modern parenting.
References:
Gottlieb, Lori: How to Land Your Kids in Therapy; Why the Obsession with Our Kids’ Happiness May Be Dooming hem to Unhappy Adulthoods. The Atlantic, July/August 2011.
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I was recently doing some reading in preparation for a course I will teach this summer. The article that I found most interesting was written by Franklin Bobbitt, and discussed the importance of keeping the curriculum in schools updated, especially because the new century was upon us. Bobbitt talked about the fear that the curriculum and teaching methodologies might be outdated as we move into a new century. He states that “as the world presses eagerly forward toward the accomplishment of new things, education also must advance no less swiftly. Education must take a pace set, not by itself, but by social progress.”
Another book I am reading for our administrators’ book club, edited by Heidi Hayes-Jacobs (Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World) is emphasizing the same thing – the need to be sure that the new century brings with it a renewed commitment to revitalize curriculum and bringing about educational and change in schools to meet the needs of today’s learners.
The interesting thing about these two points of view is that they were written almost one hundred years apart. You see, Hayes-Jacobs wrote her words in 2010, Bobbitt wrote his words in 1918! They are no less poignant today as evidenced by the echoes of Bobbitt in Hayes-Jacobs’ new millennial points of view.
So, why are educational pundits still trying to change schools for the future, yet they continue to look like the past? I think it is in part due to the inertia that schools have based on the fact that those who are most critical of change in schools were themselves educated in these schools. Those who direct education are the educated. Those who are “the educated” were educated in schools that they believed were successful (look where it got them!). So the impetus to change is insufficient to make significant change – or sufficient impetus to understand and support change when it is attempted.
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Feb 11
15
Online Course Management Systems
As schools become more oriented toward the use of online resources as a repository of resources or to aid in delivery of curriculum, we run the risk of undoing some of the work we do with students to build responsibility. In our school, we use an online course management system called Moodle. On Moodle, teachers post everything from the course syllabus to a daily synopsis of the happenings in class. Also here, teachers put copies of handouts and outline homework in case students neglect to write it down or lose their original documents. Therein lies the rub.
If our goals as a school (be it high school or middle school) include building organizational skills and teaching responsibility, do we not diminish both by providing students with the opportunity to make up for their lack of organization or irresponsibility by having redundancies built in the form of the content on Moodle. We continue to encourage students to write down their homework and keep an organized note book so they can keep on top of their assignments and don’t lose valuable documents. However, why should they do either if we provide everything online for them?
The other side of the dilemma is the role of the parent. The importance of having “parents as partners in education” is obvious. This partnership is critically important, especially in younger students, and becomes (some might lament this) proportionately less as students get closer to college age. In order for parents to be the teachers’ partner they need to be aware of what is going on in classes, what assignments have been given and have access to such things as grading rubrics. This again has its own concerns. At what point is the student the active participant in their education if the parent takes too great a role in assisting and monitoring?
There are no right answers to these questions. The internet has presented more questions than it can answer, and in the case of an online course management system such as Moodle, many questions still remain.
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One way for a school to be able to judge whether it is successful in achieving learning targets is to use an external measure. I have written previously about the SAT, which, it turns out, is not a very strong indicator of student success. Because it is a norm referenced aptitude test, genetics plays a far greater role in the success than does the work done by a school. Other external measures are far more indicative of the success of a school’s program. One such measure is the success rates of Advanced Placement (AP) courses. These courses have been around since the 1950s, and millions of students have challenged themselves with the college-level content offered in these courses.
AP courses offer schools a “check and balance” on their academic programs from the foundational courses early in high school to these capstone courses. The check and balance comes three ways. First, AP course content is dictated by the College Board. The term “dictated” is appropriate because they do not adjust content to fit the abilities of students, the length of the school year, or the time available in class. The content is fixed and it must be learned by the students in preparation for the final exam. Secondly, AP exams are administered under controlled conditions, and the grading of exams is done externally by an anonymous individual who has no vested interest in whether the students achieve success or not. Finally, because the school only controls the teaching of the curriculum, AP exam results indicate the school’s success at preparing students for these exams – which also means they have prepared them in the prerequisite courses leading up to these capstone courses. It is far more indicative of the teachers’ abilities if students succeed.
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Sep 10
17
Standards-Based vs. Letter Grades
I often have a professional disagreement with my middle school colleagues about standards based reporting of students’ academic progress. The reason we disagree is not related to middle school grading, but rather high school grading. My middle school colleagues believe, and rightly so, that rather than measure 6th, 7th and 8th graders on the traditional A to F scale, their academic progress should be reported through narratives. This makes perfect sense considering that a middle school grading scale is in and of itself unnecessary for post-middle school matriculation. In other words, aside from admission or continuance into high school, middle school grades do not form the basis of college admissions. However, the skills and foundational knowledge students learn in middle school is essential, and will certainly prepare them for success in high school, college, and ultimately life.
So, where does the disagreement start? It starts when they try to convince me that high schools should also move to a narrative reporting of student academic progress. This is where I begin to sound “traditional” in my views. How “last century” of me to believe that letter grades are necessary to define learning in this era of 21st century learning. Well, like it or not, if the role of high schools (especially college preparatory high schools) is to not only prepare students for college, but to provide a measure of their academic level for colleges to assess their suitability, then the letter grade is still king.
In a recent conference presentation, Patrick Bassett, president of the National Association of Independent Schools (nais.org), espoused that schools should be reporting grades in a standards-based narrative. They should do away with letter grades. In a conversation with him after his presentation I asked how we could ever begin to make this change if the universities continue to “judge” our students based on letter grades and cumulative GPA. His response; some universities are moving in this direction. The operative words here are “some” and “moving”. Unfortunately, until this becomes the norm rather than the exception with college admissions high schools will continue to report letter grades and GPA.
As an aside; Mr. Bassett did say that the colleges that were looking more closely at standards-based narrative reports as the basis for admissions decisions were the University of California system schools. If this powerful group of schools begins to consider this alternate means of reporting as criteria for admissions, many other schools will soon follow.
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In a recent article in Educational Researcher, one of the education field’s most noteworthy scholarly journals, Atkinson and Geiser (2009) reflect on college admissions tests dating back to the 1920s. “Reflections on a Century of College Admissions Tests” is an extensive analysis of standardized tests and their predictive value when looking at the University of California system schools (the largest student population in any public university system in the US). The study runs roughshod over the SAT and ACT tests saying that despite their long history (SAT since 1926 and ACT since 1959), these tests do little to predict college success. In fact, they state that “much of the predictive power of the SAT actually reflects the proxy effects of socioeconomic status”.
If these purportedly inscrutable tests do not predict college success, what does? The answer: high school grades are the best predictor of college success. I suppose for high school educators we should be pleased to hear that high school grades are the best predictor of college success. Atkinson and Geiser say that: “high school grades were decisively superior to standardized tests in predicting 4-year graduation and cumulative college GPA”. They believe this is because “high school GPA is based on repeated sampling of student performance over a period of years” rather than a one-off SAT or ACT test.
Their research also shows that performance in Advanced Placement (AP) course also has strong predictive value. “College preparatory classes present many of the same academic challenges that students will face in college – term papers, labs, final exams – so it should not be surprising that prior performance in such activities would be predictive of later performance.”
The greatest advantage this should give high school students is that their grades should hold the greatest sway over college admissions. Undoubtedly high school grades play a big part in the admissions process, but unfortunately the SAT and ACT remain a large part of the admissions process.
As high schools, we need not let this deter us from offering a high quality, rigorous education to our students. In the end, their success in college ultimately depends on our work with them in high school.
References
Atkinson, R. C., & Geiser, S. (2009). Reflections on a Century of College Admissions Tests. Educational Researcher, 38(9), 665-676.
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May 10
22
Celebrating Accomplishments
I want to continue on the theme of my entry on dealing with setbacks. Part of the entry was on celebrating accomplishments in schools, which is a double edged sword. In schools we want to celebrate students’ accomplishments. In schools we celebrate athletic feats, academic achievements, and even recognize compliance to some degree. Each of these forms of recognition reflect what post-school society will offer to our children. We see professional athletes recognized as champions (World Series, Stanley Cup, World Cup), we see academics being celebrated (Nobel Prizes, fellowships, grants), we see important members of society being recognized (knighthoods, Order of Canada), so it is not something we only do in schools.
In my opinion, and obviously in the opinion of society, there is merit in celebrating a wide range of accomplishments – but this recognition is out of our control to a great degree. The difficulty at schools is finding a balance in what we celebrate. Every parent likes to have their child receive accolades, whether from school or elsewhere. But, not all children do. Not all children are athletic, or academic, or outstanding in some way. There are lots of average kids out there who do a fine job in their school and personal life, and get no recognition. Is it the job of schools to find ways to recognize these children?
To paraphrase a line from a children’s movie: “When everyone is special; no one is”. Do we conjure up ways to celebrate students outside of the regular praise they get for day to day successes in their classes? If we do, do we run the risk of watering down the celebration of more outstanding accomplishments? What can we do as parents to be sure our children are receiving the positive reinforcement that will keep them motivated to continue to succeed in school and life in general?
I think the best advice is to reinforce that accomplishments that students work for and achieve are life’s own accolades. For example, successfully completing a project for school is an accomplishment – especially for a student who struggles with organization. The subsequent grade is secondary, subjective, and to some degree, out of their control. On a bigger scale, moving from elementary school to middle school, or successfully graduating high school, or getting a college degree are all cause for celebration that the family can recognize. Making these milestones (big or small) as important a part of your family’s culture as birthdays, anniversaries, and other important events will put the ownership on your child rather than some external force of which you or they have little or no control.
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May 10
12
Measuring Success
I had the pleasure of being invited to attend a day-long seminar called “The Effective Manager” presented by Manager Tools (http://www.manager-tools.com/). I will probably blog a number of times about the insights I gained from this learning experience, but in this post I want to talk about “measuring success”.
Measuring success in schools is difficult. In manufacturing, the number of widgets produced per day is a good indicator of success. In banking, quarterly profits seem like a fairly straight forward indicator. In the restaurant industry, perhaps it is meals per hour. In the hotel industry, occupancy. In education…is it standardized test scores; pass/fail rates; college admissions; scholarships; student happiness? Or is success only known when graduates become productive members of society?
It is difficult to know how successful a school is because, especially in international schools, success is a moving target. If we use standardized tests as a measure, what does it mean for a group of students to achieve high scores on a test if only half of the students have been at your school for more than one year? Are you measuring the success of their previous school? Will those same students leave your school and take a standardized test elsewhere only to fare better than their classmates? And what of the individual differences we, as educators, find amongst our students. Perhaps a story might illustrate this best. It is called The Blueberry Story (http://www.jamievollmer.com/blue_story.html). Enjoy.
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May 10
5
Dealing with Setbacks
In his now infamous speech to a high school graduating class, Bill Gates condemns the modern school practice that promotes “success for all”. He says, with tongue firmly planted in cheek: “Life is not fair – get used to it”. He goes on to delineate 11 “truths” (see them at the end of this post) that students will face when they leave high school, the most biting of which being: “Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.”
So, how do teachers and parents alike introduce these harsh realities to children? These lessons are available in schools. They often present themselves disguised as disappointment and failure – which they are. But school, like life, is competitive. In any competitive process, be it trying out for a team, applying to universities, or vying for one’s first job after graduation, there are always going to be those individuals who will be disappointed. There are precious few who have not had setbacks in their lives. How many times have we not received a promotion we really wanted, not made the cut for a team, or not been selected for a position for which we have applied? We have learned from these upsets and setbacks, and have overcome them to move forward.
When our children experience these disappointments they do not have the advantage of our years of wisdom to draw upon. It is part of our role as the adults in their lives to help them gain some perspective on the setbacks they will undoubtedly be faced with at some point. Support them, console them, and encourage them to use the setback as a growth experience. Rather than give up on their dreams, teach them to assess the reasons for their setback, and to find ways to improve themselves with the ultimate goal of becoming a better person despite the circumstances. As harsh as Bill Gates is, his “truths” are real. If we do not teach our children to bounce back from their disappointments we do them a disservice.
RULE 1
Life is not fair – get used to it.
RULE 2
The world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world
will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel
good about yourself.
RULE 3
You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out
of high school. You won’t be a vice president with
car phone, until you earn both.
RULE 4
If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a
boss. He doesn’t have tenure.
RULE 5
Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your
grandparents had a different word for burger flipping
they called it Opportunity.
RULE 6
If you mess up,it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t
whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
RULE 7
Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as
they are now. They got that way from paying your bills,
cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about
how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest
from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try
delousing the closet in your own room.
RULE 8
Your school may have done away with winners and losers,
but life has not. In some schools they have abolished
failing grades and they’ll give you as many times as
you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the
slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
RULE 9
Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get
summers off and very few employers are interested in
helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.
RULE 10
Television is NOT real life. In real life people
actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
RULE 11
Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.
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