Educator Effectiveness Academy 2012

As part of the Race to the Top grant, the Maryland State Department of Education is conducting 10 regional Educator Effectiveness Academies (EEA) again this summer. The academies are designed to help teams from each public school begin to understand the curricular changes that teachers and students will begin to see over the next few years here in Maryland classrooms.

Mrs. Warner, Mrs Kelley and Mr. Spicher joined me this past week as we attended the EEA in Howard County at Marriotts Ridge High School. We learned a lot about the new state curriculum and began working on our school's transition plan. This plan will guide the professional learning activities we will use to help our staff members focus on  ways to fully implement of the Common Core State Curriculum including Maryland's STEM initiatives.

To read more, click here: Regional 'educator effectiveness academies' begin at Marriotts Ridge High

or visit:
lhttp://mdk12.org/instruction/curriculum/index.html

“As Maryland moves from the State Curriculum to the Maryland Common Core State Curriculum, teams of educators from around the state engaged in developing curriculum frameworks and tools that will provide all Maryland educators with the information and resources they need to insure that our children receive a world-class education."
                   —Judy Jenkins, Director of Curriculum

A Tsunami of Reform! The Impact of Common Core on the Middle School Program of Study

This past Thursday evening, I had the opportunity to help make the case for a change to the current Howard County Middle School Program of Study. This change is needed in large part to prepare for the new Common Core curricular demands. 

Along with several central office administrators and school principals, we shared the need for changes to be made to the current Middle School Program of Study. We are advocating for the following:

• Infuse literacy instruction into all courses as appropriate.
• Require reading instruction only for students who need it. 
• Provide systemic interventions/seminars for below level students.
• Provide opportunities for students to participate in Inquiry and Innovation Modules which promote both STEM and disciplinary literacy.
• Offer world languages to 6th graders.
• Offer seven  50-minute instructional periods.
• Increase instructional time for math, English, science, and social studies
• Provide physical education all year.

Not surprisingly, there are critics to this plan. Most of the criticism is around the curricular decision to remove the long-standing requirement that all students take a stand-alone reading class each year. In fact, based on Maryland School Assessment data, Howard County's reading program has been a huge success in large part to the dedication and commitment of the reading staff at each school and central office personnel! So, the obvious question is, "Why change something that has been so successful?" Simply stated, when Maryland agreed to adopt the new Common Core and accept Race to the Top federal grant monies, they put in motion the "Third Wave of Maryland School Reform." Or what I like to say, 

 Maryland's Tsunami of school reform!

The new curricular demands of the Common Core will expect proficient and advanced readers to come to middle school equipped with the fundamental reading skills and the ability to begin the process of "reading to learn" through the vehicle of disciplinary literacy. This process is best accomplished by a content specialist using authentic content and not in a class where reading skills are taught in isolation. However, it is recognized that students who are below grade level or have significant reading weaknesses will continue to receive customized reading support through their participation in a daily reading intervention class.

Another concern that critics have raised about this proposal is whether all teachers should have a Program Implementation Period in addition to their 50 minute personal planning period. Currently, all middle school staff have a 50 minute personal planning period and a 50 minute administrative duty period (in the new proposal this would be called a Program Implementation Period). During the Program Implementation Period, teachers will continue to be assigned to do instructional collaboration, analysis of data, development of assessments, enhancement of parent communication, or administrative tasks such as lunch duty. Under the new proposal, Related Arts teachers (Art, Music, PE, Health Education, Family and Consumer Science and Technology Education) would not have a Program Implementation Period and instead teach their specialty area six out of the seven periods daily. As a trade off, Related Arts teachers would not be required to do the duties that are required for those teachers who have a PIP. While I truly understand how this may seem to be unfair at first glance, there are two considerations that made up this decision. First, the plan was supposed to be cost neutral due to current budgetary realities. Second, we believe that Related Arts teachers are the best people to teach their content to students. In order for students to be exposed to the content specialists' expertise in the arts or technical subjects, these teachers would be needed to teach the same load that they currently have.  

While these concerns are legitimate, as principals and curriculum specialists we have to prepare to move our students up the hill of higher expectations and achievement in order to be prepared for the Common Core tsunami that is imminent. It is irresponsible for us not to act now when we know a major wave of change is approaching. It is critical that we  prepare our teachers, students and communities for this new reality. We must align with the new expectations and evaluation tools that will be used for both staff and students. 

Consider this - Over the next two years, Maryland teachers and principals will be evaluated using a new evaluation system. Approximately 50% of that evaluation will be based on how well students perform on annual Core Curriculum tests. Further, a new curriculum will need to be learned and implemented. Can we afford to wait and do all of these changes in the same year? I don't think it is responsible to think we can.

I look forward to seeing what our Board of Education decides to do on January 26th when they are scheduled to vote. I believe they are still taking public comment at boe@hcpss.org. This is not an easy decision to make. However, it will be one of the most important decisions this Board makes about middle level education here in Howard County. This vote will set the direction middle schools will take over the next decade. This past Thursday evening, I truly appreciated and was impressed by each Board Member's questions and sincere interest in learning about the complexities of this issue. I am confident that they will come to the right decision for our students and staff.

To see the work session, click here  http://hcpsstv.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=6 

What do you think?

Common Core: Top 10 Questions?

Interim Maryland Schools Superintendent, Bernie Sadusky, answers top 10 teacher questions about Maryland's transition to the Common Core.

Click here to see the video: http://media.msde.state.md.us/2011/TOP/TENFS.mov

Standards of Mathematical Practice

Love these...

1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.

Mathematically proficient students start by explaining to themselves the meaning of a problem and looking for entry points to its solution. They analyze givens, constraints, relationships, and goals. They make conjectures about the form and meaning of the solution and plan a solution pathway rather than simply jumping into a solution attempt. They consider analogous problems, and try special cases and simpler forms of the original problem in order to gain insight into its solution. They monitor and evaluate their progress and change course if necessary. Older students might, depending on the context of the problem, transform algebraic expressions or change the viewing window on their graphing calculator to get the information they need. Mathematically proficient students can explain correspondences between equations, verbal descriptions, tables, and graphs or draw diagrams of important features and relationships, graph data, and search for regularity or trends. Younger students might rely on using concrete objects or pictures to help conceptualize and solve a problem. Mathematically proficient students check their answers to problems using a different method, and they continually ask themselves, “Does this make sense?” They can understand the approaches of others to solving complex problems and identify correspondences between different approaches.

2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.

Mathematically proficient students make sense of quantities and their relationships in problem situations. They bring two complementary abilities to bear on problems involving quantitative relationships: the ability to decontextualize—to abstract a given situation and represent it symbolically and manipulate the representing symbols as if they have a life of their own, without necessarily attending to their referents—and the ability to contextualize, to pause as needed during the manipulation process in order to probe into the referents for the symbols involved. Quantitative reasoning entails habits of creating a coherent representation of the problem at hand; considering the units involved; attending to the meaning of quantities, not just how to compute them; and knowing and flexibly using different properties of operations and objects.

3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.

Mathematically proficient students understand and use stated assumptions, definitions, and previously established results in constructing arguments. They make conjectures and build a logical progression of statements to explore the truth of their conjectures. They are able to analyze situations by breaking them into cases, and can recognize and use counterexamples. They justify their conclusions, communicate them to others, and respond to the arguments of others. They reason inductively about data, making plausible arguments that take into account the context from which the data arose. Mathematically proficient students are also able to compare the effectiveness of two plausible arguments, distinguish correct logic or reasoning from that which is flawed, and—if there is a flaw in an argument—explain what it is. Elementary students can construct arguments using concrete referents such as objects, drawings, diagrams, and actions. Such arguments can make sense and be correct, even though they are not generalized or made formal until later grades. Later, students learn to determine domains to which an argument applies. Students at all grades can listen or read the arguments of others, decide whether they make sense, and ask useful questions to clarify or improve the arguments.

4. Model with mathematics.

Mathematically proficient students can apply the mathematics they know to solve problems arising in everyday life, society, and the workplace. In early grades, this might be as simple as writing an addition equation to describe a situation. In middle grades, a student might apply proportional reasoning to plan a school event or analyze a problem in the community. By high school, a student might use geometry to solve a design problem or use a function to describe how one quantity of interest depends on another. Mathematically proficient students who can apply what they know are comfortable making assumptions and approximations to simplify a complicated situation, realizing that these may need revision later. They are able to identify important quantities in a practical situation and map their relationships using such tools as diagrams, two-way tables, graphs, flowcharts and formulas. They can analyze those relationships mathematically to draw conclusions. They routinely interpret their mathematical results in the context of the situation and reflect on whether the results make sense, possibly improving the model if it has not served its purpose.

5. Use appropriate tools strategically.

Mathematically proficient students consider the available tools when solving a mathematical problem. These tools might include pencil and paper, concrete models, a ruler, a protractor, a calculator, a spreadsheet, a computer algebra system, a statistical package, or dynamic geometry software. Proficient students are sufficiently familiar with tools appropriate for their grade or course to make sound decisions about when each of these tools might be helpful, recognizing both the insight to be gained and their limitations. For example, mathematically proficient high school students analyze graphs of functions and solutions generated using a graphing calculator. They detect possible errors by strategically using estimation and other mathematical knowledge. When making mathematical models, they know that technology can enable them to visualize the results of varying assumptions, explore consequences, and compare predictions with data. Mathematically proficient students at various grade levels are able to identify relevant external mathematical resources, such as digital content located on a website, and use them to pose or solve problems. They are able to use technological tools to explore and deepen their understanding of concepts.

6. Attend to precision.

Mathematically proficient students try to communicate precisely to others. They try to use clear definitions in discussion with others and in their own reasoning. They state the meaning of the symbols they choose, including using the equal sign consistently and appropriately. They are careful about specifying units of measure, and labeling axes to clarify the correspondence with quantities in a problem. They calculate accurately and efficiently, express numerical answers with a degree of precision appropriate for the problem context. In the elementary grades, students give carefully formulated explanations to each other. By the time they reach high school they have learned to examine claims and make explicit use of definitions.

7. Look for and make use of structure.

Mathematically proficient students look closely to discern a pattern or structure. Young students, for example, might notice that three and seven more is the same amount as seven and three more, or they may sort a collection of shapes according to how many sides the shapes have. Later, students will see 7 × 8 equals the well remembered 7 × 5 + 7 × 3, in preparation for learning about the distributive property. In the expression x² + 9x + 14, older students can see the 14 as 2 × 7 and the 9 as 2 + 7. They recognize the significance of an existing line in a geometric figure and can use the strategy of drawing an auxiliary line for solving problems. They also can step back for an overview and shift perspective. They can see complicated things, such as some algebraic expressions, as single objects or as being composed of several objects. For example, they can see 5 – 3(x – y)² as 5 minus a positive number times a square and use that to realize that its value cannot be more than 5 for any real numbers x and y.

8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

Mathematically proficient students notice if calculations are repeated, and look both for general methods and for shortcuts. Upper elementary students might notice when dividing 25 by 11 that they are repeating the same calculations over and over again, and conclude they have a repeating decimal. By paying attention to the calculation of slope as they repeatedly check whether points are on the line through (1, 2) with slope 3, middle school students might abstract the equation (y – 2)/(x – 1) = 3. Noticing the regularity in the way terms cancel when expanding (x – 1)(x + 1), (x – 1)(x² + x + 1), and (x – 1)(x³ + x2 + x + 1) might lead them to the general formula for the sum of a geometric series. As they work to solve a problem, mathematically proficient students maintain oversight of the process, while attending to the details. They continually evaluate the reasonableness of their intermediate results.

Source: http://www.corestandards.org/

Educator Effectiveness Academy

This coming week, a team of teachers from Wilde lake Middle School and I will be traveling to Arundel High School to participate in one of the eleven Educator Effectiveness Academies being held this summer in the state of Maryland. All public schools in Maryland were required to identify a team of teachers this past spring who would attend this grassroots professional development program to begin the transition to the Common Core. This will be the state's official kick-off to the next wave of school reform that has been championed by President Obama and Education Secretary Duncan and developed by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governor's Association. The academies are designed to help educators begin to understand the new Common Core State Standards, which are the foundation for the new Maryland Common Core State Curriculum. 

The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, STEM, and English Language Arts (ELA); Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects (“the Standards”) are the culmination of an extended, broad-based effort to fulfill the charge issued by the states to create the next generation of K–12 standards in order to help ensure that all students are college and career ready in literacy no later than the end of high school. They are designed to provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are meant to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers.

The Standards set requirements not only for English language arts (ELA) and Mathematics, but also for literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects. Just as students must learn to read, write, speak, listen, problem solve and use language effectively in a variety of content areas, so too must the Standards specify the literacy skills and understandings required for college and career readiness in multiple disciplines. Literacy standards for grade 6 and above are predicated on teachers of ELA, history/social studies, science, and technical subjects using their content area expertise to help students meet the particular challenges of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language in their respective fields. It is important to note that the 6–12 literacy standards in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects are not meant to replace content standards in those areas but rather to supplement them.

The newly adopted standards also lay out a vision of what it means to be a literate person in the twenty-first century. Indeed, the skills and understandings students are expected to demonstrate have wide applicability outside the classroom or workplace. Students who meet the Standards readily undertake the close, attentive reading that is at the heart of understanding and enjoying complex works of literature. They are able to problem-solve using a variety of methods and demontrate critical thinking skills. They habitually perform the critical reading necessary to pick carefully through the staggering amount of information available today in print and digitally. They actively seek the wide, deep, and thoughtful engagement with high-quality literary and informational texts that builds knowledge, enlarges experience, and broadens worldviews. They reflexively demonstrate the cogent reasoning and use of evidence that is essential to both private deliberation and responsible citizenship in a democratic republic. In short, students who meet the Standards develop the skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening that are the foundation for any creative and purposeful expression in language.  (Source: modified from http://www.corestandards.org/)

I am looking forward to attending the Educator Effectiveness Academy and learning more about the common core. In particular, I am interested in developing a greater knowledge of the Common Core State Standards and the Curriculum Frameworks for Mathematics and English Language Arts, understanding the relationship between Maryland’s vision of STEM and the Curriculum Frameworks, and beginning to create our school's transition plan that will guide our staff in preparing to implement the changes that will be necessary.

It is exciting work!

Stay tuned...I plan to share more when I learn more.

Dr. Fennell Talks to Howard County Math Teachers About the Common Core

Interesting thoughts from Dr. Fennell about the current state of mathematics instruction.

Here is a link to his presentation to Howard County educators on September 3, 2010.

http://hcpsstv.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=553

Who is Dr. Francis (Skip) Fennell?
Dr. Fennell is a mathematics educator and has experience as a classroom teacher, a principal, and a supervisor of instruction. He is currently Professor of Education at McDaniel College and recently completed a 2-year term as President of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Widely published in professional journals and textbooks related to elementary and middle-grade mathematics education, Dr. Fennell has also authored chapters in yearbooks and resource books published by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. In addition, he has played key leadership roles the Research Council for Mathematics Learning, the Mathematical Sciences Education Board, the National Science Foundation, the Maryland Mathematics Commission, the United States National Commission for Mathematics Instruction, and the Association for Mathematics Teacher Educators. Dr. Fennell recently served on the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, chairing the Conceptual Knowledge and Skills Task Group. (Source: Dr. Fennell's website)