MeTA musings

Once upon a time, Iowa districts created their own local standards and benchmarks.  While local control seemed like a good idea, it was a potential headache for curriculum directors and teams to agree on what should be taught at each grade level and discipline.  Iowa is a little "behind the times" when it comes to embracing statewide content standards....until recently.

Educators are deeply entrenching themselves in the Iowa Core (that is unless, it's dropped, but that's a different topic of discussion) as a result of a new state mandate that includes both what and how.  In other words, Iowa school districts now have a framework for what essential skills and concepts all students should learn and how the instruction should happen:

Beginning with the 2009-2010 school year, each district was required to complete a "self study" (more information here) based on the six outcomes of the Iowa Core.  This permits districts to annually review their work in each of the six areas.  Each local education agency chooses which outcome(s) to focus on in a given year, however several alignment-related deadlines have been mandated by the legislature.

In general, I think the Iowa Core is a really great idea and am thrilled to be leading my district's professional development right now rather than several years ago when it seemed to be raining initiatives in Iowa.  I do have a bone to pick with Outcome 6 and that's the reason I'm writing this post.  Before the nasty comments come in, I should say that I've previously shared this information with two members of the Iowa Core statewide network, so in my opinion, this is not an unfair public rant. :)

The purpose of outcome six is...

Educators implement effective instructional practices to ensure high levels of learning for each and every student.

Sounds good so far.  When digging deeper into the self study for outcome six, things get a little shaky.  Target 6a says:

Educators deepen their understanding of the Iowa Core’s characteristics of effective instruction through collaborative teams.

and the action steps are...

• 6.a.1 - Educators form and maintain collaborative teams.
• 6.a.2  - Educators acquire awareness of the characteristics of effective instruction.
• 6.a.3  - Educators engage in dialogue about practices that support the characteristics of effective instruction. 
• 6.a.4 - Leadership Team facilitates a process to determine the degree to which practices that align with the characteristics of effective instruction are in place in classroom instruction. 

Target 6b says:

Educators study and implement instructional practices that support the characteristics of effective instruction.

and the action steps are...

• 6.b.1 - Leadership Team makes decisions about how to strengthen the district/building professional development plans to address the Iowa Core. (See Outcome 5.)
• 6.b.2 - Educators engage in professional development that follows the Iowa Professional Development Model (IPDM) to implement instructional strategies, models, and/or approaches supportive of the characteristics of effective instruction (see Outcome 5).
• 6.b.3 - Educators implement with fidelity selected instructional strategies, models, or approaches that demonstrate the characteristics of effective instruction.

To summarize, teachers should be forming and maintaing collaborative teams so that they can deepen their understanding of the Iowa Core's characteristics of effective instruction. It all sounded fine and dandy until I took a step back and compared this to what I knew about Rick and Becky DuFour's professional learning communities (pdf) philosophy.  The three big ideas of a professional learning communities are....

1. Focus on learning. (What do we want students to learn? How will we know if they have learned? What will we do if they already know it?)
2. Build a collaborative culture. (Teachers working together are more effective when working in isolation)
3. Focus on results. (Results rather than intentions.  Results are based on student learning)

 Have I taught if my students haven't learned?

Any of this make sense?

--------------------------------------
Thanks to everyone who was able to make the first #iowacore chat on Twitter.  Our next one will take place on Monday, January 17, 2011.  Your input is appreciated to set the time and topic.

Over Christmas break, I read Transforming Professional Development into Student Results by Doug Reeves.  Overall, I felt the book did not live up to its title, however one chapter stood out and continues to stick in my mind.

Reeves proposes a "Leading and Learning" matrix describing the effectiveness of school districts and their level of understanding why they are (or are not) successful.

Monday: 

• Middle school principal  blogs about it his smart phone purchase over Christmas break.

Wednesday: 

• Middle school teacher reads principal's blog and decides to give cell phones a try in the classroom.

Thursday: 

• Middle school teacher consults with district media specialist (Kathy is a rock star, if you haven't met/followed her yet) who sets him up with our district PollEverywhere account and shares a link with him about cell phone use in the classroom.
• Middle school teacher comes up to my office to explain it all with comments such as... "I told the kids I might be the only teacher in this school that does not own a cell phone, but it's time we start using them responsibly in our classroom" and "Tomorrow, the kids in my class will bring their phones.  Two of them do not have phones and they're going to use a laptop from the computer cart so they're not left out.  They walked out of the room excited."  

A friend from church tweeted a picture while he was out shopping today.  See below for the picture.

How would your students react? "Huh?" or "Are you kidding me?!"

Every few weeks, I receive an email from a teacher asking about my experience with standards-based grading.  Usually the questions come from teachers who are interested in changing their practice, but aren't exactly sure how to put theory into practice in their specific context.  I usually respond with how I did it, but also suggest other solutions.  My rationale for this is two-fold:

1. If Frank didn't want my explicit experience, he wouldn't have emailed me. He would have emailed someone else.
2. Even though these ideas may have worked for me and my students, they may not work for Frank's teaching style and/or students.

Here was a recent inquiry:

Hi,

I teach 7^th & 8^th grade math at WWWWW School in RRRRR. I attended your session last year at the state math teachers conference. I was very intrigued by grading learning targets, but it was really the first I had heard about it and didn’t know what to do. This year our PD is actually on formative assessment.

I have some questions on how my classroom would look. Do I still teach as I do now? Do I give the same homework (even tho it’s optional)? Do I go over the homework in class? Do I give the same tests? Right now I just give mid-chapter & chapter tests. Would I give shorter tests more often? How do you do the multiple re-take?  Do I have “mini-quizzes” prepared for each target? How many times do they get to try? Is it within a time-frame ? the grading period?

Right now I give the kids a list of the learning targets at the beginning of each chapter. We talk before & after each lesson about what they were to learn. Before they take a test, I show them how many questions there are for each learning target and also which review questions match up. After the test they have a check list of each question if they got it right or wrong, then summarize what learning targets they knew & which ones they didn’t.

I think this is a start – but I don’t know how to get to the next level. I realize there is no reason for you to help me out – but I don’t know anyone else who is doing this & you seemed passionate about how good this is for the kids. I really do appreciate any advice you can give me.

Thanks,

XXXXYYYY

and my response:

Hi XXXXYYY,

With a district PD focus of formative assessment, you're in a pretty sweet spot.  I'll attempt to answer your questions one at a time.

Do I still teach as I do now?

Most likely the answer is "yes" but you'll hopefully be more transparent with your students -- telling them about the changes you're making and why they are beneficial.

Do I give the same homework (even tho it’s optional)?

This is a good question.  Does your homework specifically focus on the learning targets on a given day?  If so, you may not need to change it.  If not, you may want to examine the problem sets you are assigning and better align them with your learning targets.

Do I go over the homework in class? 

I suggest figuring out a system that works for you and your students.  I posted all of the answers and had students choose the difficult problems they wanted to go over; sometimes I chose the problems if I knew many students were struggling with the idea.

Do I give the same tests? 

See my comments on homework.  If your tests are tightly aligned with your learning targets, then yes.  When I first starting using standards-based grading, I realized many of my assessments needed to be revamped, so I added questions, omitted some questions and re-worded many questions.

Right now I just give mid-chapter & chapter tests. Would I give shorter tests more often?

You could, but don't necessarily need to.  I know of a science teacher who gives assessments weekly over the learning targets that were covered.  Some teachers give an assessment every three or five or eight learning targets.  That's totally up to you.  No matter what you decide, give as much feedback to your students in between the tests/quizzes.  Formal assessments that go in the grade book shouldn't be the only time students receive detailed feedback on their progress.

How do you do the multiple re-take? Do I have “mini-quizzes” prepared for each target?

Students initiate re-assessments and they typically happen outside of class.  I create multiple forms of assessments that go into the grade book.  Students need not take the entire assessment over, just the questions related to the learning target(s) they would like to demonstrate new understanding.  Some teachers I know do re-assessments during class.  Others do it outside of class, but only on pre-determined days of the week. Still others require students to schedule their assessments ahead of time.

How many times do they get to try? Is it within a time-frame ? the grading period?

I permitted students to re-take as many times as they'd like up until a pre-determined date towards the end of the grading period.  Often it was one week or several days before the end of the quarter.  

You're off to a great start!  Let me know how I can help...

Matt

What other common questions are those interested in standards-based grading asking you?  Could some sort of wiki or forum be created to bring all of the bright blogging minds and ideas together?  I'm thinking along the lines of SBGhelp.com -- I'm guessing one of you has already created it and I'm just not aware of it. :)