John Musso from the American School Business Officials joins Saul Wagner from Hertz Furniture on The Balancing Act to discuss the importance of classroom furnishing and design when it comes to teaching and student learning.
High School
Blog Entries
Growing up, were you ever teased relentlessly by classmates? Did your parents go through a divorce, or did you lose a loved one? In high-school, were you frequently overwhelmed by classes, sports and college applications? If you managed to avoid all these scenarios, then you’re among a minority because events of this nature are commonplace for America’s children. As they cope with these stressors, learning frequently suffers and students need someone to turn to for help and support – that someone is a school counselor. ...
When it comes to high stakes testing, of any kind, its purpose should always be questioned. What is the value-add of a high school exit exam? Should it test students’ basic skills? College and career readiness? Do today’s tests do either?
A few weeks ago, a school board member in Florida took a version of the state’s 10th grade high school test, the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test. Students must pass this test to graduate, and they have five opportunities to do so. The school board member averaged a D on the reading section, noting that: “In our system, that would get me a mandatory assignment to a double block of reading instruction.” This individual has two masters’ degrees and a successful professional career. He admits that while the material tested wasn’t fresh in his mind, he also didn’t use it in his work, thereby making him wonder how relevant it really was for the average student’s success after leaving school. ...
Native American National Heritage Month is a chance to highlight a component of American history that is often overlooked. Native American Heritage Month celebrates those, along with their tribal ancestors, who were here thousands of years before Columbus or Cortes set foot in North America. The unique nature of America’s immigration history results in distinct parameters for discussions on race, ethnicity and heritage and unprecedented diversity. While we all have our individual ancestral heritage, this land – our country – has a complex and rich history that is far older than that of America and the Declaration of Independence. If we still claim, or even think, that this land belongs to us, should we not celebrate its entire history? That journey reveals some uncomfortable moments and brings up challenging discussions; all the more reason to have them. History is not just the past and it should not be left without context and relevance. ...
We often speak of the importance of teaching students 21st century skills, especially what the Partnership for 21st Century Skills calls “the 4 Cs” – creativity, communication, collaboration and critical thinking. But what does that actually look like?
Ask Bijal Damani. At the Microsoft Partners in Learning Global Forum, this business teacher from India told me about a course-long project she uses to improve the 21st century skills of grade 11-12 students and to prepare them for the real-life challenges that they may face once they enter university and the job market.
In this project (which is also a competition), 120 students divide themselves into teams of ten. Each team then comes up with an innovative product that solves a problem to make the world better (so while something like chocolate flavored cigarettes is “innovative,” it wouldn’t count here).
Once the students decide on a product, they have to come up with a marketing plan for it. That plan must include a newspaper advertisement, a magazine advertisement, a radio jingle and a TV advertisement. They have to determine the price of their product. And they have to create a website for ...
While it continues to be my firm belief that the changes and improvement we’re all working towards in public education will take a collaborative effort of parents, educators, community members, policymakers and students themselves, I was reminded last week that collaborative efforts never get off the ground without inspired leadership when the NASSP announced the 2012 National High School Principal and 2012 National Middle School Principal of the Year. Both Michael Foran, Principal of New Britain High School in New Britain, CT, and Linda Archambault, Principal of R.O. Gibson Middle School in Las Vegas, NV, the 2012 winners, assumed leadership of two troubled schools five years ago and both have succeeded in changing the culture of the school in ways that have resulted in improved working conditions for the professionals and impressive achievement gains for the students they serve.
Michael Foran began his leadership of the largest high school in the state of Connecticut by making swift and necessary changes to improve the urban school’s climate. He established a working environment based on collaboration and open communication, teacher engagement and stakeholder involvement. With a high minority population, Foran wanted to ...
In 2001, The Learning First Alliance wrote a report titled “Every Child Learning: Safe and Supportive Schools – A Summary,” which advocated for systemic approaches to supporting positive behavior in our nation’s schools. The Alliance argued for school-wide approaches to improving school climate, safety and discipline: “In a safe and supportive learning community, civility, order, and decorum are the norms and antisocial behaviors such as bullying and taunting are clearly unacceptable.” Ten years later, schools across the nation continually contend with the harsh and terrifying realities of bullying and the sad reality is that we still have a long way to go when it comes to ensuring a safe and supportive environment for our nation’s children. Fortunately, recent attention to the issue suggests that we are all beginning to take important steps in the right direction. ...
Recently I have been harping on the impact of budget cuts on public schools. And I've come across another potential victim of these cuts: Early college high schools, a school improvement model that allows students to take college courses while still in high school. Early college high schools often target disadvantaged students who would be the first in their families to attend college. Many of these students earn associate degrees by the time they graduate high school.
But a recent EdWeek article pointed out that many of these schools are struggling to cover costs – some have even had to close for financial reasons. This is despite findings that these schools have increased access to college for underrepresented students and enabled them to succeed in postsecondary education. One forthcoming study will show that students in early college high schools appear to have higher proficiency rates on standardized tests, higher attendance rates and higher four-year graduation rates than students in a control group.
The article implied that these several of these programs are struggling financially for mainly two reasons: One, state subsidies for the programs have decreased. And two, many ...
Last week Education Secretary Arne Duncan gave a speech on the “new normal”—the challenging fiscal circumstances that public schools and districts will face over the next several years. He also called attention to concerns with the quality of our public education system. In other words, he asked us to do more with less.
Unfortunately, he is right. All of our schools don’t work for all of our students. And as high a priority as education is, state and local budgets (which provide the vast majority of funding for our public schools) are in a world of hurt. While education funding is desperately important, will it increase any time soon?
So yes, we have to do more with less. But how? According to Duncan, we have to do more of what works—and less of what doesn’t. He suggests we be smarter about how we use technology in learning. How we pay teachers. How we support our neediest schools. And how we reduce class sizes.
Duncan’s comments on class size reduction can be taken a couple of ways. He first points out that, “up through third grade, research shows a small class size of 13 to 17 students can boost achievement.” He then suggests, “in secondary schools, districts may be able to save money without hurting students, while allowing modest but smartly targeted increases in ...
Seven years ago, Washington’s Everett School District awoke to a harsh reality. A change in how the state calculated graduation rates revealed that only 53% of the district’s students graduated on-time. Officials were shocked and embarrassed. They sprang into action.
Today, Everett’s on-time graduation rate is just under 84%. Its extended graduation rate is just over 90%. And the improvement has occurred across the board, in all ethnic groups and special populations.
To what do they credit their success? Getting a group of committed adults focused on the problem and meeting regularly to try to solve it. And they also moved from numbers to names—getting personal about who is not on track to graduate and what they can do about it. Everett’s Chief Academic Officer Terry Edwards recently told us more.
Public School Insights: Your district has recently gotten some press because of its improved graduation rates. Could you tell me a bit about the success you have had?
Edwards: It is something that I call “An overnight wonder that took seven years to get here.”
About seven years ago, in 2003-2004, the state of Washington changed how it calculated graduation rates. It moved from looking at the number of graduates in the senior class plus those who dropped out over the past four years to a cohort model, the on-time model that the federal government has adopted. This model looks at the number of kids who enter in ninth grade and the number who graduate four years later.
When we converted to that model, our district’s graduation rate was 53%. That was very hard for Everett to accept, because we had always believed that we were a very good school district and doing a good job. 53% was shocking and embarrassing. And it did not seem to follow what we perceived as reality. We did not see hundreds of children standing around on street corners in ...
Last night, I got some forty spam comments from essay mills. This sort of thing happens pretty often, but it's beginning to get under my skin. Do many college or high school students actually submit essays from these mills as their own work? How big is this problem?
I have no love for comment spammers in general, but these spammers strike me as especially dastardly. Take, for example, college-paper.org, which has flooded this blog with comments. The site's tag line is "Intelligence Made Easy," which pretty much sums things up.
The site makes no pretense of helping students with their writing, as some essay sites do. "Are you missing out on the things you want to do because you are working on your research paper?" the site asks visitors. Get someone else to do your work, because, golly, thinking for yourself is hard. So is acting with integrity. (And do college students really need to cut down on the hours they spend studying?)
And here's the kicker: All those spam comments? Plagiarized from other sources. ...
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