A new report by LFA and Grunwald Associates, with support from AT&T, examines how parents perceive the value of mobile devices, how they see their children using mobiles, and what they think of the possibilities for mobile learning.
Rural
Blog Entries
A few weeks ago, we were excited to learn that Crook County Middle School's Michael Geisen, a forester-turned-science teacher, was named by the Council of Chief State School Officers as the 2008 National Teacher of the Year. Selected for an innovative teaching approach that focuses on the individual needs of students, school/community connections, and collaboration with his colleagues, Geisen is now spending a year traveling nationally and internationally as a spokesperson for education.
He recently spoke with Public School Insights about a variety of topics including what he hopes to achieve as teacher of the year, his belief in the need to redefine "basic skills" and "intelligence," the support teachers receive (or should receive), and how he personalizes teaching to foster a life-long love of learning while increasing standardized test scores.
Listen to 5 minutes of highlights from our interview (or read through the transcript below): ...
Luajean Bryan is a star.
Just ask her principal at Walker Valley High School in Tennessee, the students who flock to her advanced math and science classes, or the people at USA Today who named her to their 2006 all-star teaching team.
Bryan recently spoke with us about the innovative teaching practices that have won her local admiration and national attention. Her emphasis on hands-on learning is exciting students and swelling enrollments in higher-level science and math classes. With support from the NEA Foundation, for example, she accompanies students into caves and on untethered hot-air balloon trips to help them learn first-hand about mathematic and scientific principles that govern the world around them. ...
In a few days, a new and expanded edition of Richard Louv’s best-selling book, Last Child in the Woods, will hit bookstores around the country. Louv’s book has fueled an international movement to combat what he calls “nature deficit disorder,” children’s growing alienation from the natural world. (Louv’s term for the disorder is quickly catching on, turning up in major newspapers, on television, and even in a February cartoon by Bloom County creator Berke Breathed.)
A quotation from our recent telephone interview with Louv elegantly captures the thrust of his argument: “[T]he message we’re sending kids is that nature is in the past and probably doesn’t count anymore, the future’s in electronics, the boogeyman lives in the woods, and playing outdoors is probably illicit and possibly illegal.” ...
A group of phenomenally creative students at Fleming County High School In Flemingsburg, KY have created a downright lyrical public service announcement promoting the education profession. Their short animated film won a 2008 Public Service Announcement competition sponsored by the Future Educators Association, a division of Phi Delta Kappa International.
The PSA is both a moving celebration of the educator's calling and an example of sophisticated multimedia work high school students are doing around the country. Be sure to check it out and share it with others! ...
The National Association of Secondary School Principals has released a list of Breakthrough Middle and High Schools for 2008. NASSP and the Metlife Foundation have recognized these schools, all of which serve many poor students, for dramatically improving student achievement. ...
No one slips by Lee Ann Galusha.
As a teacher at Chenega Bay School in Alaska’s remote Chugach school district, she knows where each of her students, mostly native Aleutian islanders, is on a trajectory towards mastery of standards. That’s because demonstrated performance on a variety of measures—and not grade levels or Carnegie units—determines student progress. The results of this strategy have been astonishing, earning Chugach a national reputation for student achievement gains that place it far ahead of districts with much wealthier students. (Click here for PublicSchoolInsights.org’s story on the district)
To find out more about this system, PublicSchoolInsights.org spoke with Galusha last week.
Here’s what we learned….
The Basic Overview: ...
Success Stories
Fremont County School District's 180 Degree Turnaround
Story posted March 26, 2013
Results:
- In 2012 the district made AYP for the first time
- During the first four months of the 2012-2013 school year, multiple grades in the elementary and middle schools have seen 7 months to 19 months growth in student learning
Fremont County School District #38 is located on the Wind River Indian Reservation. 98% of 440 students are members of the Arapaho Tribe.
CHALLENGE
For many years, the students of Fremont County School District #38 were far behind in their reading, writing, science, and math skills and abilities. Students often transferred from one grade to the next, several grade levels behind where data-driven norms suggested that they be. In addition, frequent changes in district leadership meant no sustained systematic approach to addressing achievement by school leaders. Teachers were left to do what they could on their own and students suffered from years of systems' breakdowns. One of the many negative results of the disorganization plaguing the district was that Fremont #38 was continually unable to meet the Annual Yearly Progress goals set by the state under the No Child Left Behind legislation. The lack of strong systems and ...
Story posted October 16, 2008; Results updated March 26, 2013
Results:
• A 17% turnover rate for teachers with fewer than five years of experience in 2011.*
• In 2011, the district outperformed state proficiency levels in all grades across all subjects.
Like many small rural school districts, the Springville-Griffith Institute Central School District in Western New York faces challenges in hiring and retaining teachers. Home to rural farms and small manufacturing facilities, the district serves a diverse population of about 2,500 low- to middle-income students. Many district teachers are nearing retirement, potentially exacerbating teacher retention woes. District leaders worried that high turnover rates would impede student learning. ...
Arts Education Broadens Horizons in Washington State
Story posted May 5, 2008. Results updated November 26, 2012.
Results:
• In 2011, Paternos School District improved on its 2010 state test performance across almost every subject in all but one grade.
• Students in both 7th and 8th grade reading improved proficiency rates by over 15% between 2010 and 2011; students in 7th and 8th grade math also had improved proficiency rates of over 15% in the same time period.
• Despite serving a significantly higher percentage of low-income students, Paternos exceeds state proficiency averages in several grades for both reading and math.
Pateros School District, a small rural district in north central Washington, is working with a regional arts group in an indirect approach to improving student achievement. ...
Story posted June 10, 2010. Results updated December 20, 2011.
Results:
• In 2011, the school performed as well, or better than, the state as a whole on reading and math tests at every grade level (no data available for seventh grade math), despite serving a significantly higher percentage of students in poverty
• Named a 2010 Breakthrough School by the National Association of Secondary School Principals
It is no accident that the staff at Fieldale-Collinsville Middle School adopted a central tenet of Breaking Ranks in the Middle—to banish anonymity by creating a personalized learning environment for all of its students. The school was created six years ago when the four middle schools in Henry County, VA, were consolidated into two middle schools.
The consolidation left the students, the staff members, and the community angry and disjointed. No one felt any joy in coming to a middle school that was housed in a former high school. The hallways and classrooms were out of proportion with the students, and the 900-student school was an extreme change for the rural area.
The closing of many of the area’s manufacturing plants and subsequent rising unemployment rates compounded the difficulties— unemployment in the area is the highest in the Commonwealth of Virginia at 20%, with almost 50% of the students eligible for meal subsidies. The board of education, supported by the community, recognized that an effort had to be made to provide a quality education for every student.
After a challenging first year of consolidation, the staff, led by principal Moriah Dollarhite, embraced the idea of grade-level teams, breaking the school into small groups to create camaraderie and school spirit. Content teams were also created to monitor instruction and ensure that all lessons were tied to the state learning standards.
And finally, a lead teacher team, representing all content areas and ...
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