Governor's+Institute+for+Innovation+in+Education

Governor's Institute for Innovation in Education, December 17, 2007

 * //Open space theme//**: High school reform: Ensuring student success in career and college in the 21st century.


 * //Fort LeBoeuf School District Challenge//**: Making the curriculum more rigorous/challenging and more relevant; connect with the curriculum and the real world/global world; challenge teachers to collaborate with other educators.

//School Leader Development Building 21st Century Schools// Initial Thoughts:

1. What are some key assumptions about what students need to learn for the 21st century that need to be stressed at Fort LeBoeuf School Dsitrict?
 * Web 2.0 tools - can be taught through the business education department in all courses - revise curriculum; social bookmarking, wikispaces, internet etiquette, etc.; teach more than software but the "how to" use resources to complete projects
 * Global opportunities - can be taught in social studies department as well as in the world language courses; connect through e-pals for collaboration with teachers in other countries
 * Communication - can be taught in the language department--video conferencing, verbal communication through web conferencing, etc.

2. Are there alternative assumptions and strategies that Fort LeBoeuf School District needs to adopt to help all of its students succeed?
 * What is relevant today?
 * Alternative courses to offer more rigorous courses
 * Alternative locations for students to attend to obtain more rigorous course
 * Revise the thought process for class rank
 * Revise the thought process for credit

Visit [|www.teachertube.com] to view "When I Become a Teacher" - entertaining!

Double plan periods during the day and the one period is used for CFF teacher training. Bring in substitutes and coordinate the schedule so fewer subs. After school training. Comp. time given for some and/or Act 48 hours given to the attendees. Act 80 days - time given for training.
 * //CFF Teacher Training://**

Dr. Willard R. Daggett, International Center for Leadership in Education, December 18, 2007
Internataionl Center for Leadership in Education, Inc. 1587 Route 146 Rexford, NY 12148 Phone (518) 399-2776 Fax (518) 399-7607 info@LeaderEd.com�315�www.leaderEd.com


 * There is no "magic pill" for every district. "Educating children is not like stocking the shelves of a grocery store. There is a formula to figure out how to stock shelves, but there is no formula for schools. It is a myth American schools are failing. It is not true. We may not have the highest standards. Must be careful in defining expectations. We address someting that no other nation does--we excellance and equity at the exact same time. Excellence and equity is in conflict. Excellance is not the only mission of public education and is different for every child. American schools is about making every child capable of succeeding. We have not figured out as a nation how to make kids be as capable as they can be." (Daggett)

Rigor/relevance framework

Application Model 1. Knowledge in one discipline 2. Application within discipline 3. Application across disciplines 4. Application to real-world predictable situations 5. Application to real-world unpredictable situations

"To function independently need to reach levels 4 and 5. The PSSA tests are written at levels 1 and 2! This is the state and art of testing. If all you have is knowledge, you will lose it very quickly. If you don't teach people how to apply knowledge, they will not retain the knowledge." (Daggett)

Knowledge Taxonomy 1. Awareness 2. Comprehension 3. Applicaiton 4. Analysis 5. Synthesis 6. Evaluation Daggett calls this the rigor taxonomy

Bloom's taxonomy on left side of chart, application level on bottom of chart. Quadrants A and B are on the bottom of the chart with levels C and D at the top. Highest performing schools have more kids taking art and perform better on the tests. More career and tech kids take the better the kids are performing. The more C and D levels taught, the better the kids perform at levels A and B. C is very sophisticated knowledge with analysis/synthesis application--this is college preparation. We do not connect it so they do not retain it. The high performing schools have moved to level D where the anchors are written in real-world terms. But we are taking kids out of art/career tech courses to make them take courses they do not want to take and does not necessarily take them to the levels of analysis, synthesis, evaluation levels of taxonomy.

Relevance makes rigor possible for most kids (Daggett) Retain, understand, use it. Relevance is in the eyes of the beholder. Every student has a difference in relevance. "Less is more." (Daggett) Let the kid select was is relevant to them and the teacher be the coach/facilitator. Relevance is teaching to the B and D side of the quadrant.

Organized to deliver in quadrants A and C in the American high schools. We did not create it but were born in it.

Examples:

-Art class -Career and tech courses -College Preparation || -Takes a lot of time || -Takes a lot of time -playing football (every pass play is a math problem) -gingerbread house construction ||
 * Quadrant C - Analysis and Synthesis
 * Quadrant D
 * Quadrant A || Quadrant B

1. Needs Assessment - do NOT define the problem prior to conducting the needs assessment - Learning criteria - begin with the end in mind -8 Components - those we often see in FLBSD schools Eight Implementation Steps to Excellence 1. Create a culture to support rigor and relevance for ALL students -relevance makes rigor possible; will get more kids to higher standards -you cannot make change happen until pressure for change is greater than resistance to change -create a culture of change in your schools

Challenges: -technology - e-mail, web pages, Google, Web 2.0, iPODs, laptops, cell phones, digital cameras, blogs (91% of kids use), wikis, tagging, text messaging, podcasts, PDAs, MySpace/Facebook -globalization

Today's Youth -digital learners -multimedia -find and manipulate data -analyze data and images We have lost a generation of kids who are connected to the world outside of school and schools have NOT changed but become museums.

-Survey students on: I enjoy being at school Teachers make school an exciting place to learn School is boring Teachers have fun at school Learning can be fun At school I am encouraged to be creative My classes help me understand what is happening in my everyday life I learn new things every day school is a welcome and friendly place teachers care about my problems and feelings I am proud of my school students respect teachers teachers respect students students respect each other


 * will not do well on PSSA's if engagement is not high
 * core learning high, scores high
 * core learning low, scores low

HPS - eliminated department chairs because link to the past; but together multiple chair person with a common plan period

Actions that help you achieve what you believe in.

Take back our schools. Do not let one piece of legislation drive your school. Let it be one of the considerations. What do we believe in as FLBSD?

Reflect on this song: You do you need to know what is not on the test. They never teach anything not on the test. Music, art are not in your schools because it is not on the test.

Core Academic Learning - Achievement in the core subjects of English language arts, math and science and others identified by the school.

We have made NCLB the enemy. HPS (high performing schools) say core learning is something we believe in. FLBSD believes in core learning.

Core academic data indicators % meeting state proficiency Average acores on ACT/SAT/PSAT % requiring English/math remediation in college % graduation requirements

Brockton High School - HPS CORE LEARNING - The Floor of Begin with the end in Mind 96% on free and reduced lunch 3rd highest test scores in Massachusetts graduated 92% of the incoming freshman STRETCH LEARNING - Another word of rigor Demonstration of rigorous and relevant learning beyond the minimum requirements. Rigor is in the eyes of the beholder and different for every kid. This is not true in PA schools. Rigor is declining over the years.

1/3 of faculty gets excited--never seen an idea they didn't like revolution is an order--DON'T DO IT; revolutionists get killed evoluationary - MAKE CHANGE VOLUNTARY let this group change if they want and the middle 1/3 will follow once the success is seen by year 3 - 5 the bottom 1/3 will come MAKE CHANGE EVOLUTIONARY AND VOLUNTARY and see if it makes a difference in your building; if after 5 years the negatives are still not on board, then consult them to get out of the profession.

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT - Another word for relevance The extent to whicih students are motivated and committed to learning; have a sens of belonging and accomplishment; and have relationships with adults, peers, and parents that support learning. Get kids excited about learning. Not what I am excited about, but what the KIDS are excited about! get students obedient and motivated

STUDENT LEARNING DATA INDICATORS -credits earned - requirements of PA -electives - blow off/fluff - PA is ranked 47th based on the numbers of credits students can earn in HS

PERSONAL SKILL DEVELOPMENT - relationsips -service learning aprticipations i nclub/sports teamwork

PERSONAL SKILL DEVELOPMENT Guiding Principles - learned from family in the old times and the nuclear family of the day--Walton's, Clever's, Lassy; not receiving this at home now and we as educators must now MODEL this due to the negative media because of midguided principles - media slipped, we slipped but yet the guiding princples are very important - list came from the NYS 1950 Scope and Sequence for Humanities Education scope came from the Bible, Curan (concept of a relgious based society), Boy Scout creed and Girl Scout creed. -responsibility -contemplation -initiative -perseverance -optimism -courage -respect -compassion -adaptability -honesty -trustiworthiness -loyalty

HPS - got back to common sense and took back THEIR schools; released all scores not just the successful areas of the PSSA; parents can be come

McBride High School Neighboring school district - NOT HPS CORE 7% on free and reduced lunch 40% more/student than Brockton graduate 87% of incoming freshman students are obedient

Case studies from two schools at:

2.

Brain Research Relative to Successful Schools Sight section has three different zones. Short term memory (Quadrant A) zone 1: I see an image. zone 2: I know the image is a cat. zone 3: I know the cat is Sylvester. Association area of the brain: Take information from Quadrant A - short term memory Prefontronal cortex is Quadrant B & D where you take knowledge you have and apply knowledge to situations to the working memory/judgement/problem solving/decision making (Quadrant C or association area) The more you use information the more the brain, the more pathways - AEIOU - the QWERTY keyboard is the slowest keyboard vs the DVORAK keyboard. Do not change because we cannot change because we laid a pathway because the plascity of the brain will make it difficult for us to change. America is the only nation left using the QWERTY keyboard while all of the other nations have changed over the past five years. By 20's neurons do not grow as fast and the older you get you will begin to lose the neurons. Research has taught us that you must create multiple pathways/roads to keep from the neurons dropping and that is why Quadrants B & D work. In otherwords, have alternative methods for the detour. This why having students to courses in the Arts and Career Tech assist them in developing more pathways in order to learn new pathways/roads.

We have created students who have created single pathways by teaching to the test. Public education system has created a generation of young people who will have the highest rate of dementia in their senior years. Plasticity of the brain must be created in the first 20 years. The kids will not know the knowledge in five years from today. Figure out what is most important and dump 1/3 of the anchors and with the 2/3 of the anchors left teach with high levels in Quadrants B & D.

Routine work, done by people, done by machines - cannot survey and this is the low level. Teach kids to be creative, innovative, design in order to be in Quadrants B & D and use the prefrontal cortex of the brain.

Technology Useage: Kids are native to this while adults are immigrants

Read 180 will not work if you try to drive it into your current instruction because it needs to change education. I CAN Learn Algebra

5. Concentrate on Effecitve Instructional Practices

6. Address Organizational Structures Gold Seal Lessons - Daggett has - lessons addressed to state standars, but PA does not have a ninth grade math course. HPS in the country are making the senior year the most rigorous year the students have ever had and push the electives in ninth grade. In ninth grade the core is whatever your teachers are certified to be. HPS are driving electives into ninth grade. HPS on average are leaving hs with 24 college credits. Looping - HPHS are looping teachers in grades 8th and 9th! Not all 8th grade teachers, but a small team to help with the transition. This helps the ninth grade teachers to be better eighth grade teachers the following year.

7. Monitor Student Progress monitor around the learning criteria not on just PSSA but on personal engagement and personal development; review and refine the process.

School reform is not something you do but is an ONGOING process.

June 22 - 25 HPHS, HPMS, HPES - Model Schools Conference at Disney in FL

What works? rigor and relevance Academics into: Arts and CTE Interdisciplinary Academies Electives in 9th grade Foreign language - why not study Chinese if this is the 21st century? Looping Technology - read 180,I CAN learn

PA does not have any school sin the top HPHS nor the 25 HPHS. With support from the Gates foundation, will be moving that up to 600 schools with the other 40 states.

"You need to put a little skin in the game or you are not serious about school reform," Daggett.