Wednesday, June 16, 2010

What American Teachers Can Learn From Japan - THE DAILY RIFF - Be Smarter. About Education.

What American Teachers Can Learn From Japan

"Traditional (U.S. teacher) professional development can be likened to a cooking show. Many people watch the show but few actually try the recipe. Even those who actually try it, often run into problems since they are working alone . . . Lesson Study (in Japan) is more like a cooking group that tries the recipe and then collaboratively thinks about how to modify and improve upon it."

"Lesson Study"
How To Improve Teacher Quality In America
A Journal

By Bill Jackson

There has been much talk recently about how to improve teacher quality in America, especially in the areas of mathematics and science where international studies show that we lag consistently behind many other industrialized nations. In the U.S., teachers initially learn how to teach through undergraduate and graduate courses in schools of education. In addition, during the undergraduate experience, a teacher may spend a few weeks or months in an actual classroom as a student teacher. After that, teachers are put in the classroom with the expectation that they are able to teach effectively. Any additional training they receive usually comes in the form of workshops led by outside "experts" but these opportunities are usually few and far between.

Countries with high achievement in mathematics like Japan, take a very different approach to professional training of teachers called Lesson Study ---- a form of professional learning where teachers collaboratively plan, teach, observe, discuss and reflect on actual classroom lessons. I became involved in Lesson Study in 1999 as an eighth grade classroom teacher and it literally transformed my teaching and knowledge of mathematics. (You can read more about this in Part One in my guest post "Singapore Math Demystified".) Today, many schools in the U.S. are

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog

More on the violence/testing connection

Here's Tribune writer Deborah Shelton's take on the NYU study of neighborhood violence and its potential effect on student test scores.

Neighborhood homicides can have a detrimental effect on Chicago schoolchildren's academic performance, whether they witness the violence or not, according to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Using Chicago crime reports and the reading and vocabulary assessments of a sample of Chicago children, sociologist Patrick Sharkey of New York University found African-American children scored substantially lower on reading and vocabulary tests within a week of a homicide in

Shop Talk: To Teach, a Journey in Comics with Bill Ayers

Event Details

When

06/18/2010
5:00pm - 6:30pm

Where

Ron's Barber Shop

6058 W North Ave

Chicago, IL, 60639-3952

See map: Google Maps

County:

Cook

Fee:

Free. Open to the public.

“Myths tower above the world of teaching like giant, fire-breathing dragons,” says Bill Ayers in his new graphic memoir, To Teach: A Journey in Comics. Chapter by chapter, sharp black-and-white drawings give life to Ayer’s vision of teaching in this extraordinary comic book. Join us at Ron’s Barber Shop for this conversation with Bill Ayers about the different struggles that teachers face.

IRRPP will provide a limited number of free books to discussion participants.

More about Bill Ayers Bill Ayers is a school reform activist and Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is founder of the Center for Youth and Society and founder and co-director of the Small Schools Workshop. He has written extensively about social justice, democracy, and education. His book, Fugitive Days, is a memoir that chronicles the anti-war movement of the 60s.

This series is presented in partnership with The Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy (IRRPP) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and The Public Square.

Free and open to the public. For more information, call 312.422.5580.

If you need a sign interpreter or require other arrangements to fully participate, please call 312.422.5580. For parking locations near the facility, please visit ChicagoParkingMap.com.

This Week In Education: Tests: Too Many Tough Tests -- Or Too Few?

Tests: Too Many Tough Tests -- Or Too Few?

by Alexander Russo

Post_full_127474113107_EducationMicrolending

I asked FairTest's Bob Schaeffer what percentage of tests he thought qualified as high stakes in the sense that they directly affected students' or teachers' lives. My guess was 10 percent. He came up with an interesting back of the envelope calculation of 30-50 percent (see below). It's an interesting rundown, though I think that overstates the case by quite a lot. For me, the problem isn't that there are too many high stakes tests but rather that there are too many low-quality / low rigor tests that are too easy for most kids and schools to pass, and then too little done for the relatively few kids and schools that can't pass muster. Many if not most tests are not high stakes in the way people might think.
"In the 50% of states which have exit exams, passing the 10th grade test is a near-absolute gatekeeper for access to a regular high school diploma In Florida, Texas, etc. tests are also used for promotion/retention decisions, typically in 3rd grade (need to check with Jack Jennings or ECS to see how many states now have such policies). Not sure of the source, but I have heard it said repeatedly that, for a young child, fear or being

Hawaii passes law mandating 180-day school year - Boston.com

GLOBE EDUCATION NEWS

Students at Flag Day celebration reflect on meaning of Stars & Stripes

While political pundits speculate whether the country seems more divided than ever these days, Isabel Basow answers this seemingly complicated question with a simple metaphor. (By Alex Katz, Globe Correspondent)

Cherie Jimenez has turned her life around from drugs, prostitution, and abusive relationships and is helping other women to do it, too.

A lot of people knew Cherie Jimenez in the 1970s. They just didn’t all know about each other. (By Linda Matchan, Globe Staff)

Catholic University names BC law dean as president

WASHINGTON — John H. Garvey, a Boston College Law School dean with a long record of scholarship on some of the most divisive issues in the Catholic Church, will be named president of the Catholic University of America today. . (By Daniel de Vise, Washington Post)

Metco students, parents upset by school cutbacks

School officials in Lincoln and Sudbury voted last week to merge two of their three Metco programs, a cost-saving measure that has angered Boston students and parents who say they were excluded from the process and are worried about the future of the program. (By James O’Brien, Globe Correspondent)

Salem plans Horace Mann charter high school

Salem is preparing to seek state approval to open its own charter school even as organizers of the Road to Success Charter High School ready a revised plan for a charter school serving Lynn and Salem. (By John Laidler, Globe Correspondent)

This Week In Education: UPK: Back From The Dead

UPK: Back From The Dead

by Alexander Russo

Just when you think universal preschool (UPK) is finally dead, it comes back again. This time its return comes in the form of a massive cover package in The American Prospect featuring scads of pro-early childhood education articles by the likes of Sara Mead and Cornelia Grumman. Don't they know that there's a recession on, and no one has time or money to think about the little kids?

Reading for Life Sara Mead
Literacy Begins at Birth Cornelia Grumman
Lessons From New Jersey Gordon MacInnes
Missing Out on Reading Hedy N. Chang and Phyllis W. Jordan
Health Education Monica Potts

Teachers: To Retire, Or To Stay On Another Year?

by Alexander Russo

“I wanted to stay, selfishly, for me. That would not have been the best decision for everyone else concerned. It wouldn’t have been the best for the younger teachers who got pink-slipped, it wouldn’t have been good for my family, financially.” Teachers torn as retirement looms (MLive.com)

Blog U.: ABC’s and PhD’s: Stuff - Mama PhD - Inside Higher Ed

ABC’s and PhD’s: Stuff
By Dana Campbell June 16, 2010 8:14 am

I didn’t write last week because I was overwhelmed in getting ready for our annual migration west. We spend the summer months doing research, writing, traveling and visiting our west coast-located parents and extended family. Especially because we live so far from family, this summer flexibility is one of the greatest perks of an academic career, as far as I’m concerned (I’ve blogged about this before). But no matter how far in advance I plan, the week before we leave is inevitably a hectic affair whereby my husband and I race the clock to pack up most of the stuff in our house before we turn over the keys to our summer renters and race to the airport, not to return for two and a half months.
This year we filled our entire front porch with old stuff that we took in load after load to our local thrift store (actually the store at which we purchase much of the clothes, toys, and stuff in our house, too!) You might think that after 11 years of such pre-summer cleanup our house would be organized and uncluttered, but no, it magically refills every year, and each year I find many sealed boxes labeled “To be opened after summer 2005,” and the like (which I am loathe to even open). I am amazed by the amount of stuff we have.
One of my own personal theories is that those who are more environmentally conscious have

School Tech Connect: The Republic of Nonsense

The Republic of Nonsense

by Tim

I like Texas; I'm from Texas. Texas is a friend of mine. So I can say this little piece without being accused of messin' with Texas:

Texas, the nation is tired of your bullsh*t in education data.

Whenever Texas coughs up some statistical achievement, people later find the snake oil.

Arne Duncan is Margaret Spellings in drag, and

Report: Empowerment helped; grading system “deeply flawed” | GothamSchools

Report: Empowerment helped; grading system “deeply flawed”

by Maura Walz

Chancellor Joel Klein’s strategy of empowering principals while holding them more accountable for results helped struggling schools get better. But his A to F grading system is “deeply flawed” and needs improvement.
That’s the message of a new, incredibly detailed report from the New School’s Center for New York City Affairs.
The report is the result of a study of hundreds of schools, including in-depth interviews with principals and school visits. The authors focused especially on the Bronx’s District 7.
The report is being released this morning at a panel discussion featuring Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch; the Department of Education’s accountability chief Shael Polakow-Suransky; John Garvey, until recently the City University of New York’s liaison to the public schools; and MS 223 principal Ramon Gonzalez.
We’ll have more details after the panel. For now, here’s the report: