School visits this week: Walhalla High and Seneca High

I was able to visit in classrooms at both Walhalla High and Seneca High this week. 

Walhalla High School

I spent some time in in three classrooms at Walhalla High on Wednesday of this week.

My first stop was the concert band class.  There was good conversation as I entered. Students were getting ready.  The teacher inquired about a student who had been sick, but returned with some special needs for the day (she could play as long as she didn’t cough).  They warmed up, and they sounded great.  The most important part was the teacher having the students spend time to critique musical work.  They critiqued the warm up, they critiqued a selection of new music being played on a CD, and then they critiqued their own performance of work they just heard on the CD.  The teacher inquired: How can we make this musical selection sound better? Are we covering up the flutes?  How can we demonstrate more power in the music without just playing louder?  These students were thinking and being creative. Kudos is extended for the musical talent in the room.  

My next stop was a US Government class.  The students were discussing the major compromises at the Constitutional Convention.  Groups reenacted the arguments between northern and southern states, large and small population states, and those who imported and exported goods.  The students clearly understood that in 1787 the term “compromise” seemed like a reasonable solution (kind of contrary to today’s world of government).  The teacher prompted and cajoled students as they made their arguments.  It all culminated in a final compromise in which the Bill of Rights would be added as they the first amendments to the document. I applaud the thinking and persuasive arguments.  

My final stop was chemistry.  Students were studying changes in the state of matter.  They had a neat project that will be due next week. The project is related to stoichiometry (I think it has something to do with the math behind the science).  The class reviewed changes in state of matter, and they prepared for the upcoming test by engaging in a review game:  Groups were to answer questions (no talking allowed) by passing an answer sheet.  I hope they did well on the test, and I’m glad I didn’t have to take this honors level assessment. 

It was a great Wednesday at Walhalla High.

Seneca High School

Yesterday I visited classrooms at Seneca High School.  I arrived a little early and made my way to the classrooms.

I started off in an English 3 classroom.  The students were finishing up their bell work of analyzing a passage for evidence of character, diction, detail, figurative language and imagery.  The class read a poem by Langston Hughes (Harlem), and then they counted off by fives to work comparing the poem with their current novel (Autobiography of My Dead Brother).  The students were working hard and being assisted by the teacher as I exited. On a side note, I kind of interrupted with a bit of coughing and I apologize for the distraction; however, the teacher came to the rescue with a mint (great teachers always save the day).  

I moved upstairs to see a biology class.  The students were reviewing Standard 4 (the molecular basis for heredity) as they prepared for a benchmark test to be given this week.  The teacher was helping the students understand testing protocols and strategies that may be employed on this upcoming test (and, more importantly, on the End of Course Assessment that will determine 20% of their final grade).  It seemed like every question provided extraneous or distractor information and the students had to navigate around this information to answer the questions correctly.  I heard things about mutations, DNA, RNA, etc.  I’m so glad that I don’t have to repeat biology.  However, these kids were doing a good job of answering and getting the questions correct. I appreciate the teacher helping the students understand the protocols and strategies for taking a standardized test.  

My final stop was an Algebra 1 class.  The teacher had the students factoring problems with perfect square trinomials.  I asked a student sitting in a desk behind me to explain what he was doing.  He was able to do so perfectly (a very good sign of effective instruction).  As students factored a problem, they brought it to the teacher.  Lots of positive reinforcement was being doled out to the students at a high energy level.  The students, with the assistance of the teacher, looked at some of the logic related to the parts of the equation.  They seemed to get it (I can’t say that I got it). These students also have to take a end-of-course test in this subject area.  

I enjoyed my time at Seneca High on Thursday.  However, please don’t ask me anything about RNA or factoring perfect square trinomials.  The instruction was effective for the students, but I think I would need a little more tutoring to get it.  

WOMS student artwork on display in NYC ...

A seventh grade student, Amber, from West-Oak Middle School recently had her artwork on display as part of the Big Screen Plaza Event in New York City.  This event is part of the 2012 National Art Education Association Convention.  My congratulations to Amber and her art teacher at West-Oak Middle!

About this Artwork:

by Amber (Grade 7)
West Oak Middle School
Westminster, SC
taught by Avis Ellis

Artist Statement:

Amber's piece is Dinner With Van Gogh. Amber's was inspired by Vincent van Gogh's painting, The Irises. Amber's painting is done in the style of Judy Chicago by painting on dinner ware covered with canvas. Amber's medium is acrylic paints.

You can click here to see the online view of the artwork and the display.

This collection of artwork was generated by students nationwide whose teachers attendied the NAEA National Convention in NYC.

Tread carefully when using “value added” data …

Linda Darling-Hammond, a Stanford University professor, had a great commentary this week on value added education.

New York City recently released a rating of its teachers based on test scores.  Soon the “worst teacher” in the city was singled out and labeled. 

According to Darling-Hammond, “reporters chased down teacher Pascale Mauclair, the subject of the ‘worst teacher’ slam, bombarding her with questions about her lack of skill and commitment. They even went to her father’s home and told him his daughter was among the worst teachers in the city.”

However, “Mauclair is an experienced and much-admired English-as-a-second-language teacher. She works with new immigrant students who do not yet speak English at one of the city’s strongest elementary schools. Her school, PS 11, received an A from the city’s rating system and is led by one of the city’s most respected principals, Anna Efkarpides, who declares Mauclair an excellent teacher. She adds: ‘I would put my own children in her class.’”

Using test score data requires caution and deliberate care.  There have been experiments in Tennessee and New York  that illustrate that “value added models” did not improve student achievement when they were used for incentive pay models.

Also, “in the District of Columbia, contrary to expectations, reading scores on national tests dropped and achievement gaps grew after a new test-based teacher-evaluation system was installed.”

The same can be seen in other areas of the world.  For instance, in Portugal “a study of test-based merit pay attributed score declines to the negative effects of teacher competition, leading to less collaboration and sharing of knowledge.”

The waiver being requested by the SC Department of Education is paving the way for changing teacher evaluation.  It is also setting up the structure to use “value added” measures as a component of pay. 

I agree with Darling-Hammond, such a system has the potential to harm teaching and learning. We need to tread cautiously when using value added data.  There's always the potential to abuse such data. Just ask Ms. Mauclair at PS 11 in New York City about her experience.

Click here to read Darling-Hammond’s commentary in Education Week.  

We can take things for granted …

I’ve been a little frustrated.  Two weeks ago I had a cold.  It became bronchitis.  The resulting cough irritated my vocal chords.  As a result, I ended up with almost no voice.

Well, it is almost three weeks later and I still don’t have much of a voice.

The current problem goes back to a couple of surgical procedures I had while serving as an elementary principal.  Procedures required for anesthesia can sometimes damage your vocal chords.  That’s what happened to me.  So, I spent about a year with a very hoarse, raspy voice.  Then came Teflon.  The doctor fattened up one of my damaged vocal chords with an injection of Teflon so that I could speak more easily.  It worked.

You kind of take your voice for granted.  I keep trying to talk and nothing seems to come out.  I know I need to keep quiet, but that can be hard to do in my line of work. 

So, if you see me and I don’t speak you’ll now know why.  I hope a week or so of limited vocal communication will do the trick.  

Redshirting: Holding kids back from kindergarten

I enjoyed reading Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers.  The book helps to explain why some folks have an advantage in life.  For instance, Gladwell points out being the oldest among your peers may be an academic or athletic advantage (he uses hockey players as an example).  However, some parents are using these concepts to keep children from attending kindergarten ("redshirting") until they are almost a year older than their peers.

Sixty Minutes did a story on this last Sunday night, and I appreciate one of our elementary principals sharing this with me.

You can see the story in the embedded link below.

Evaluating performance with test scores is complicated …

Many states are moving to a “value-added” component of teacher evaluation.  It looks at student test scores and measures the value-added by the teacher in student performance.  In theory it sounds reasonable, but in reality so many variables influence a student’s test scores in any given year.  Also, most teachers do not have a standardized test for their subject matter.

In yesterday’s New York Times (click here to read the article) there was an example of another problem cropping up with using and releasing valued-added data.  There have been several studies, and the entire process has been questioned as to whether it improves student performance and accurately measures teacher performance. 

The article looks at fifth grade in a NY City schoolhouse.  The teachers have impressive credentials and work tirelessly to prepare students each week.  “In 2009, 96 percent of their fifth graders were proficient in English, 89 percent in math. When the New York City Education Department released its numerical ratings recently, it seemed a sure bet that the P.S. 146 teachers would be at the very top. Actually, they were near the very bottom.”

How could such a group of teachers be rated so poorly?  According to The Times, “The short answer is: Numbers lie.  And not only do they lie, but they are out of date, in this case covering student test results from 2007 to 2010.”

The students had a negative gain in student performance.  They scored at the top (97 percent proficient) to having lower scores in the next grade level (89 percent proficient).  The students moved from a grade where test prep was important (4^th grade scores were always used in school ratings) to a grade that focused on real-life curriculum (testing had not been used to “grade” schools in the past). 

The students made gains, but the focus in the curriculum was different.  The fifth grade teachers were preparing the students for life, and not specifically for taking a standardized test.  The principal of the school calls this data “invalid value-addeds” when looking at and explaining these results. 

Here’s an example of differences in the teaching approach:  “Across the hallway, Ms. Sangree might have scored higher than 11 in English by doing more test prep. There is a standard test-prep formula for writing an essay: Topic sentence; three sentences that give examples to support the thesis, one from literature, one from current events, and one from personal experience; concluding sentence. Instead, her class has spent weeks working on research papers about the Mayans.”

As we move in this direction in our state, I hope folks are paying close attention to research in this area and the problems that exist with “value-added” methodology in rating teachers.