The Big Miss in Education Reform: Fiction
“Kids who are given time and permission to consider what they might do next, in terms of reading and learning, take charge of their own learning in new and authentic ways. Scripted assessments leave little room for kids to think about what next steps they might want to take. We rarely even ask students what they want to explore, read about, discover. Rather, next steps are clearly defined for all students, warehouse style. This contradicts everything we know about the uniqueness of individual learners. Yet our primary measurement tools seek to package learning results in the same box for all kids.”
Believing You Can Get Smarter Makes You Smarter
“This research showed a relatively easy way to narrow the Black-White academic achievement gap. Realizing that one’s intelligence may be improved may actually improve one’s intelligence, especially for those whose groups are targets of stereotypes alleging limited intelligence (e.g., Blacks, Latinos, and women in math domains.)”
Why Teacher Autonomy Is Central to Coaching Success
“But genuine autonomy is a key aspect of coaching work, one that can be complex and challenging for coaches to manage. Indeed, when coaches and leaders recognize the importance of autonomy, they may need to rethink many traditional elements of professional development, including accountability, feedback, and fidelity.”
Four Reading Motivators for Teenage Boys
“One solution that can have tremendous positive effects on motivation is incorporating self-selected reading as part of the English language arts classroom. Conferring with students individually over self-chosen reading provides opportunities to validate and support boys independent reading. Once you have learned a bit more about your male students reading preferences, you can find texts with similar genres, themes, or topics to include in whole-class reading. You can also better select texts for a classroom library.”
Early Intervention Can Improve Low-Income Children’s Cognitive Skills and Academic Achievement
“As a group, children who live in poverty tend to perform worse in school than do children from more privileged backgrounds. For the first half of the 20th century, researchers attributed this difference to inherent cognitive deficits. At the time, the prevailing belief was that the course of child development was dictated by biology and maturation. By the early 1960s, this position gave way to the notion popularized by psychologists such as J. McVicker Hunt and Benjamin Bloom that intelligence could rather easily be shaped by the environment. There was very little research at the time to support these speculations but a few psychologists had begun to study whether environmental manipulation could prevent poor cognitive outcomes. Results of studies by psychologists Susan Gray and Rupert Klaus (1965), Martin Deutsch (1965) and Bettye Caldwell and former U.S. Surgeon General Julius Richmond (1968) supported the notion that early attention to physical and psychological development could improve cognitive ability.”
What You Practice Is What You Value
“Rather than wait for years of trial-and-error experience to perfect their craft, new teachers can actually grow quickly, step by step. At many schools, instructional leaders like Madison routinely rehearse specific instructional skills with teachers like Aly. In doing so, leaders ensure that students thrive on a steady diet of increasingly effective teaching.”
