In an article posted on twitter from leadandlearn.com the author provided statistics about Kings Canyon Middle Schools ELA and Algebra test scores from the last four years. The statistics showed number of students proficient or advanced in algebra since 2006. In 2006 there were 47 students, 61 students in 2007, 57 students in 2008 and 61 students in 2009. http://bit.ly/n17xby
The article then talks about the issues King Canyon were faced with as a school and the solutions the leadership and learning team gave them in order to achieve success. I thought this would be a valuable article to post about since we just finished an assignment about the 90/90/90 schools. This school is using some of the same techniques such as data teams and collaborative approach to planning and instruction. This is also something that is important to me because I teach in a school that is using many of these same techniques. This information gives me the confidence to know that we are moving in the right direction.
http://www.leadandlearn.com/sites/default/files/KCMS-White-Paper.pdf?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_content=casestudyKCMS1:&utm_campaign=casestudyKCMS
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Effective Grading Practices from Educational Leadership
In the article titled: Grading Practices: Killing with Kindness the author Bryan Goodwin writes about how grades may not be what they once were.
He wrote about how students ACT test scores rose minimally, yet their grades in math and english rose by a significant amount. He also wrote that nearly twice as many students reported earning an A or A- average in 2006 than in 1992. (Twenge and Campbell, in press)
He wrote about how students ACT test scores rose minimally, yet their grades in math and english rose by a significant amount. He also wrote that nearly twice as many students reported earning an A or A- average in 2006 than in 1992. (Twenge and Campbell, in press)
I struggle to believe that teachers are just giving easy A's. I believe that student's are maybe finding more value in their classes and less value in performing well on one test. Also, I am wondering if we are covering all of the material that is on this test during the students math and english classes? Is this test outdated?
Here is the link if you would like to read it yourself.
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/nov11/vol69/num03/Grade-Inflation@-Killing-with-Kindness%C2%A2.aspx
Weekend Three
The last weekend of class was the best for me. We did many different things during this weekend's class. We had some role play situations that we may face as an administrator. This was an awesome experience for me to see and learn from. I feel like I gained valuable insight from these many different scenarios and hope we continue to do more of those in our final classes.
Weekend One/Second Time Around
In weekend one, we learned about blogs, twitter and other forms of technology. I missed the first class of this weekend, which left me feeling behind everyone else in our class. I have fantastic classmates, however, and they were very helpful in getting me caught up to everyone else. This helped with my stress level.
On the second day of class we had two speakers. The first speaker was Jerrid Kruse. He gave us an awesome way of thinking about technology. This is something that I was interested to hear about and was not expecting it from him. I now follow him on twitter and admire his thinking about many different education ideas.
The second guest speaker we had was Deron Durflinger. He is the high school principal at Van Meter High School. He was a leader in his schools transition to a one to one school. His perspective of technology was a little different from Jerrid's, but I thought they were both very insightful. I also now follow Deron on twitter and feel that both of these men will be great resources for me as I continue into my leadership role.
On the second day of class we had two speakers. The first speaker was Jerrid Kruse. He gave us an awesome way of thinking about technology. This is something that I was interested to hear about and was not expecting it from him. I now follow him on twitter and admire his thinking about many different education ideas.
The second guest speaker we had was Deron Durflinger. He is the high school principal at Van Meter High School. He was a leader in his schools transition to a one to one school. His perspective of technology was a little different from Jerrid's, but I thought they were both very insightful. I also now follow Deron on twitter and feel that both of these men will be great resources for me as I continue into my leadership role.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Urbandale Middle School--Weekend Two
Weekend two was at great experience. We went to Urbandale Middle School and were able to listen and as questions of Lara Justman. She is the assistant principal in this building. I received great insight from her about struggles she has with her job and how she is able to deal with them.
As a team we worked through the process of building a master schedule. We discussed positives and negatives with moving to a block schedule. We also discussed what some of the challenges were for the transition. Lastly, we discussed about how to work around a building under construction and the challenges that it presents.
As a team we worked through the process of building a master schedule. We discussed positives and negatives with moving to a block schedule. We also discussed what some of the challenges were for the transition. Lastly, we discussed about how to work around a building under construction and the challenges that it presents.
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