MeTA musings

Today, I will be leading a two hour workshop for a cross-section of educators at three neighboring districts. 




Two hours seems like just enough time to challenge thinking, demonstrate how it worked in my classroom AND have ample time to answer questions.  Other than a three-day workshop, I co-led this summer, this will be the first time I've been allotted more than an hour.  I continue to believe that...

Without challenging one's educational beliefs related to grading, the formative assessment cycle tends to be viewed as an add-on.  So many educators claim they believe all students can learn at varying rates, but few secondary teachers embrace this philosophy through their grading practices

 and with two hours, I am hypothesizing many more will be able to get past the philosophical hurdle known as "grades."  

A really great conversation started on Twitter between @druinok and @russgoerend.  Twitter allows (encourages?!) those of us lurking on the outside to unashamedly join the conversation with a few clicks of the mouse, so I did.  It started something like this:

Context:

1. You're giving standards-based grading a try for the first time this year, OR
2. You're continuing to tweak the standards-based grading system you used last year...

...and the majority of your students bomb the assessment which will ultimately be entered into the gradebook.  It might be the first or second (or third or fourth depending on your system) time you've asked your students to demonstrate understanding of XYZ standard and they still aren't "getting it."  According to your SBG plan, it is now up to the students to re-assess on his/her own schedules. 

My thoughts:

1. Does it make sense to move on?  
2. Does it ever make sense to move on when students don't understand the big ideas?   
3. Should re-assessments always be optional?  In other words, if our magic number is two assessments, why not a third?

I think both tweeps in the conversation contributed meaningful points about making re-assessments optional.  Add in your two cents in the comments.  

Students in my school district have been back in the classroom for a week and a half now.  I have been absent from the classroom.  I'll be the first to admit it has been a bittersweet start to the school year, so I thought it might be therapeutic to share some initial observations from the central office:

Standards-based grading
Many of my former colleagues are busy tweaking and implementing their standards-based grading schemes.  Shawn informed me the entire high school science department has switched to a standards-based grading philosophy this year.  A few teachers have emailed asking for feedback on assessments, grading plans and feedback mechanisms.  I hope my role as Director of Instruction never drifts far from helping teachers become better teachers.  When it does, I believe my effectiveness and motivation will fade, too.  

Professional development
At the systems-level, I led my two days of professional development focused on collaborative learning teams.  I really believe that "together we are better" and look forward to seeing teachers collaborate around student learning.  I'm most excited about collaborative learning teams, because it is not an initiative.  CLTs are the medium we will be utilizing for the continuous improvement process ahead of us.  In 2011-12, the district will focus on aligning our content standards with the Iowa Core essential concepts and skills.  These teams will collectively respond to questions such as "How will we respond when students experience difficulties in learning?"  The easy and comfortable way for our staff to continue would be continuing to function with what I call "pockets of excellence."  We have many talented teachers in the district, but our mission statement says we are in the business of providing "diverse and challenging school experiences."  Nowhere does it state these experiences should be limited to students who are fortunate enough to be in Mr. Jones' 4th grade class or Mrs. Doe's Algebra 2 section.  All of our students deserve a quality education.  Through collaborative learning teams, I believe consistency in excellence will blossom quickly. 

Office work and meetings
During the last work week, I tallied up nearly fifteen hours of meetings.  Meeting topics included management and collaborative learning teams visioning with the administrative team; three Skype calls with curriculum directors around Iowa to discuss professional development and state reporting; learning more about ordering standardized test materials; Media Services updates; ensuring IEPs are met with technology hardware and software; and two building staff meetings to follow-up on August collaborative learning team professional development.  During the first week of school, I visited classrooms in all three buildings in the district.  Friday afternoon I found myself caught up in state reporting and at one time left the office to seek out some teaching and learning.  Thirty minutes later, I had observed two math lessons and I was rejuvenated for the rest of the day's work.

Looking ahead
After a few state reports are finished by the middle of the month, I hope to settle into a routine of classroom observations and increased interaction with the teaching staff.  As a trained secondary teacher, I know I have a lot to learn about elementary students so that seems like a natural place to start.  I have offered up my services to substitute for teachers so they can observe their collaborative learning teammates teach lessons.  This, too, is a step of faith for me as I'm not sure what it would be like to teach sixth grade reading.  My position feels fairly "flat" right now with steep learning curves in multiple areas.  I hope to flatten out the responsibilities of the job which do not focus much on teaching/learning so that areas such as classroom observations and meaningful conversations with teachers can be prioritized. 

An undergraduate classmate recently contacted me.  As it turns out, a colleague of his suggested he read Shawn's blog.  After reading for a while, he had an "oh my gosh...this guy knows Matt and Russ.  I went to college with those guys!" type of moment. 

The reason Doug contacted me was to ask a few questions about standards-based grading.  A little bit of background on Doug's educational philosophy before posting his questions.

I am 100% in favor of students’ new results/grades to replace the old. I really feel like that is the most responsible and accurate method for showing student learning; now I just need to figure out how to make it work.

and

I am comfortable with the validity of my assessments, though I understand the “fluke” concerns. My math colleague’s system works in such a way that students’ final grades are on a 5 point scale. Each individual quiz, however, has a maximum of 4 points. If a student earns a score of 4/4 once (and a score lower than 4 on the other assessments), his final grade would be 4/5. If he earns a 4/4 on two separate occasions, he receives a 5/5, as this would suggest mastering the concept). Does this make sense? I like elements of this system, but I still cannot wrap my mind around it in an English classroom.

By now, you probably understand that Doug is familiar with standards-based grading, but wants to make it work for him in his high school English classsrom.  Doug even understands that this shift is more than changing the way grades are reported.

Also, I completely agree that a major culture shift must occur, and we are hoping to do that school-wide (since we are a new school).

In my opinion, Doug is in a pretty sweet spot.  He is in a new school and surrounded by colleagues who want to buck the status quo when it comes to grading, assessment and feedback.  Let's put our minds together and see if we can help him out.  How might standards-based grading work in a non-linear discipline such as English? 

So my first standard in class is “Use of Evidence: Use evidence from primary and secondary sources to support your original claims.” (Okay, it is actually standard #12, but it is easy to use for an example). In the first assessment of this (an essay), Jose struggles and earns a score of 2/5 (a 4 is proficient). On the next opportunity to assess this, he earns a 3/5, so the gradebook now shows a 3 instead of a 2 for that concept (since that is his most recent performance, as Cornally suggests). Then a lightbulb turns on for Jose, and he realizes that he has three more assessments left in class in which he will be tested on this standard; he doesn’t need to do well on each one of them—he only needs to do well on the last one! So he doesn’t even do the next two, but he works his butt off on the last one and masters that standard, earning a 5 out of 5. Is that the score he really deserves to get in the gradebook?

 and

If I am looking at the quality of thesis statements (which is one of my actual standards), that is something I might assess 5 times throughout a quarter through major essays, short paragraphs, etc. I see how I can replace scores, but I still struggle with the students missing assignments.

Thoughts?

On April 21, 2010 Eric and I were invited to speak to 250+ teachers and administrators in the Eastern Iowa.  Our afternoon presentation followed Margaret Heritage's morning session on formative assessment.  The day was part of a year-long Iowa Core Leadership Series sponsored by Grant Wood AEA.  The folks at Grant Wood were kind enough to record the entire day, but it's taken me until this week to post it online.  I hope you'll enjoy watching us in action as much as we enjoyed challenging the traditional assessment and grading schemes of those in attendance.  Bear with us for the first few minutes as we work through a few technical glitches on the stage.


From Points to Learning from Matt Townsley on Vimeo.
April 21, 2010 - Grant Wood AEA Iowa Core Leadership Series: Educators Matt Townsley and Eric Townsley discuss changing the culture of their secondary classrooms from an emphasis on points to learning. Standards-based grading is a theme throughout this nearly thirty minute presentation. For more information, visit http://tinyurl.com/points2learning

Feel free to critique our presentation in the comments.