Learning to Teach to Bridge the Achievement Gap - NYTimes.com:
"Kathleen Martin stood in front of a white board covered with math problems, her class clustered at her feet. As they talked through the solutions together, the students repeated the headings over each problem on the board: “Algebra and Function,” “Probability,” “Data Analysis.”"
“So I see three addends here,” said Mrs. Martin, in her third year of teaching, “and I know I am going to find the sum.” The children then call out the addends — make that the numbers — in unison. They are adding six, four and zero.
Mrs. Martin teaches first grade at Leroy Anderson Elementary School in San Jose, a regular public school. Of its 430 students, 90 percent receive subsidized lunches. For 70 percent, English is a second language and 70 percent are Hispanic.
Those can be the demographic ingredients for a watered-down curriculum and the excuses for academic failure. Indeed, four years ago Anderson was, academically, the worst elementary school in Santa Clara County, with the lowest score on California’s Academic Performance Index. But when scores were released this fall, Anderson had jumped 136 points in a year, to 810 out of a possible 1,000.
Only a handful of Bay Area schools notched triple digit increases. In the past three years, Anderson’s scores rose 206 points.
"Kathleen Martin stood in front of a white board covered with math problems, her class clustered at her feet. As they talked through the solutions together, the students repeated the headings over each problem on the board: “Algebra and Function,” “Probability,” “Data Analysis.”"
“So I see three addends here,” said Mrs. Martin, in her third year of teaching, “and I know I am going to find the sum.” The children then call out the addends — make that the numbers — in unison. They are adding six, four and zero.
Mrs. Martin teaches first grade at Leroy Anderson Elementary School in San Jose, a regular public school. Of its 430 students, 90 percent receive subsidized lunches. For 70 percent, English is a second language and 70 percent are Hispanic.
Those can be the demographic ingredients for a watered-down curriculum and the excuses for academic failure. Indeed, four years ago Anderson was, academically, the worst elementary school in Santa Clara County, with the lowest score on California’s Academic Performance Index. But when scores were released this fall, Anderson had jumped 136 points in a year, to 810 out of a possible 1,000.
Only a handful of Bay Area schools notched triple digit increases. In the past three years, Anderson’s scores rose 206 points.