Woo hoo, I inspire debate!

Crypticlife, pointed out that my post on "I hate whole language" had inspired a pretty big reaction on the Teachers Applying Whole Language listserve.

If you go to the Search the TAWL Archives page and put in "I hate whole language" into the subject search field, you get 106 responses.

I read a few, but unfortunately the listserve doesn't allow me to read all the messages and one time (and my finger got tired of clicking).

I did come across a few gems of posts though. Several teachers were asking advice on how they could improve their students decoding skills... duh!

I have been researching several scholarly articles in preparation for the upcoming debate on whole language at Edspresso, and consider myself a lot more educated on the issue. The more I read, the more certain I am that early reading instruction should stress phonetic decoding.

My original impression is that whole language puts the cart before the horse. Whole language is based on the premise that reading is natural, and tries to reverse engineer "skilled readers". This reverse engineering though, neglects to take into account the subconscious phonetic decoding that skilled readers are able to do almost instantaneously.

I actually have several articles and papers in pdf format full of markups and notes, but I am trying to decide if I want to put together a wonkish post on whole language fallacies or wait until the debate mentioned above.

Laziness and the desire to get in a "smoking gun" during the debate cause me to want to wait, but showing off my new found knowledge, kind of makes me want to attempt to look intelligent. In the end though, laziness and procrastination wins out.

The Blame Game!

Via Speed of Creativity, I came across this post at Engines for Education about the Seven Evils of Education.

According to George Schank the original six evils of education are:

Parents -- who oppose all change and want school to be like they imagine it was in their day
Publishers – who spend all that money on wrong-headed textbooks and do their best to keep new ideas away
Press – who print minute test score differences as if they are world-shaking events causing everyone to panic
Politicians – who really don’t give a hoot about education and just like to say how accountable everyone is because of their silly tests and standards
And Princeton (twice)
Princeton -- as in any top university that decides on which courses and which tests all students must pass thus making it very difficult to innovate in high school
Princeton— as in the Educational Testing Service and all the other testing companies getting rich on killing our schools

I will ignore these (for now), but even more ridiculous than the first six, is his new evil "P", professors. Yes professors, as in College Professors. You see the reason kids have to take boring unimportant classes like "math" is because Professors are lazy:

Universities dictate curricula to high schools to make professor’s lives easier. If everyone takes physics and calculus and most never use it, well, professors claim it was good for the students anyway when in fact it was only good for making sure professors don't have to teach it in college. As long as professors don’t have to teach the basics it is okay that high school students are forced to study stuff they will never use in their whole lives. We have ruined an entire generation of high school students who don’t like learning and think the subject matter is irrelevant because professors only want to teach the good stuff.

We sacrifice the joy of learning for an entire generation so professors can have an easier time teaching incoming students.

(Calm down Right Wing Prof. No one could possibly take this guy seriously or could they?)

It's the new game show called the Education Blame Game. We started out with students, and then blame the parents... now its those evil evil professors who expect their students to have basic skills when they get to college. The winner of the game is the one who can blame education failure on the most outside factors (besides for the schools of course).

Ironically, George Schank is an ex-professor.

A Brief History of the Frontal Lobotomy

Update: I am pretty flattered right now, the subject of my term paper, Howard Dully himself, commented on my paper. He has a website over here, and has a book due out in September called My Lobotomy. Glance at my paper for a synopsis, it's a great story.

I have a history of publishing my term papers on my blogs. I know its not education related, but just in case you are interested. It should be noted as I did my research, that I noticed a simularity between the history of lobotomies and education. Bonus points if you accurately predict my grade (out of 100).

Rory D. Hester
Psy 201
March 26, 2007

Frontal lobotomies have achieved a unique place in the culture of the United States. The procedure is lampooned in cartoons, mentioned in popular music (Hanzlick), and the term used frequently in common conversation, often as part of a derogatory remark… i.e. “Did you have a lobotomy or what?” My stereotype image of a neurosurgeon is still that of a mad scientist hacking away parts of people’s brains, even though it has been over 40 years since Walter Freeman performed his last lobotomy. This paper will attempt to give a brief history of frontal lobotomies, including its effects on several patients, and take a look at its influence on future neurological surgeries.

The history of the frontal lobotomy can be traced back to a German scientist, Friederich Golz, who performed experiments that involved the removal of the neocortex of dogs in 1890 to calm them down (Sabattini). This inspired at least one physician to experiment with a similar procedure on six schizophrenic patients, but the procedure was criticized by medical authorities.

In 1935, Carlyle Jacobsen and Dr. John Fulton performed similar experiments on chimpanzees, which got the attention of a Portuguese neuropsychiatrist, Dr. Antônio Egas Moniz, at the University of Lisbon Medical School. Moniz, started experimenting with a procedure called a leucotomy, which involved cutting the nerves that connected the prefrontal and the frontal cortex to the thalamus. His results were mixed however and he strongly advocated that the procedure should only be used on completely hopeless patients.

Moniz’s work inspired a young ambitious neurologist, Walter Freeman, to take up where he had left off. Eventually he developed and perfected a procedure called the "ice-pick lobotomy". This procedure was so quick and easy, that it was able to be done on an outpatient basis. Frontal lobotomies could now be performed on a wide scale basis, and public opinion supported it. Over 18,000 frontal lobotomies were performed in this country, with tens of thousands performed overseas between 1939 and 1951.

Unlike other physicians in the past, Freeman was able to convince both the press and his colleges that the new procedure would revolutionize the treatment of mentally ill patients. A study of popular press articles on frontal lobotomies showed the positive effects of lobotomies were mentioned more than possible negative consequences until the mid 1950’s (Diefenbach). They also noted that Freeman’s enthusiasm for the procedure predated studies on the long term effects of the operation. This surely contributed to the sheer volume of procedures performed.

While today, we look back at this period with a sense of embarrassment, it should be remembered that at the time the procedure was accepted by much of the medical establishment. According to a review of the scientific journals of the day, “The neurosurgeons who performed the operations, and the scientists who justified it, all came from the highest ranks” (Pressman 4). The culmination of neurosurgeons seeking legitimization, the simplicity of the procedure, and a large number of state psychiatric hospitals all created the perfect conditions for a culture of “lobotomy” to take over the psychiatric field. Not only did lobotomies have the potential to cure people they were also “aesthetically pleasing and financially rewarding” (Pressman, 194).

In the 1950’s though, the climate began to change. A large scale study, called the Columbia-Greystone project, failed to provide evidence of positive benefits of the procedure. Then in the 1950’s a new class of drugs began to be developed that enabled psychiatrists to manage many of the symptoms that lobotomies had been used to cure (Vertosick). A national debate began to take place about the morality of damaging healthy tissue of vulnerable patients. Lobotomy started to loose its luster, and gradually faded out from the mainstream of neurosurgery, but not before it was performed on a young boy named Howard Dully.

In 1960, Rodney and Lou Dully, Howard’s stepmother, went to see Walter Freedman about their 12 year old son. According to Dr. Freedman’s notes, Lou Dully was at her wits end with Howard, even though other doctors had told her that he was a normal 12 year old boy. With Freedman’s encouragement, Howard’s parents agreed to have him lobotomized in December of 1960. Howard had no memory of the operation, and after he was told of the operation “he took it without a quiver. He sits quietly, grinning most of the time and offering nothing” (My Lobotomy). Apparently though, the operation was not successful enough for his parents and shortly thereafter he was shipped off into mental institution.

Even though you would never notice anything peculiar about Howard Dully, except of course for his size, he always felt that something was missing inside of him. After an exhaustive two year investigation of his procedure, he was finally able to confront his father about the operation. He was also able to meet some other victims of lobotomies, and come to terms with the procedure. As he notes in the All Things Considered story, "I know my lobotomy didn't touch my soul. For the first time I feel no shame. I am, at last, at peace." He was one of the lucky ones though, the procedure did much more damage to many people, including Rose Marie Kennedy, a relative of President John F. Kennedy, who after having the operation at the age of 23 for mood swings and mile mental retardation, was reduced to an infantile state according to her biography at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

In February 1967, Walter Freeman performed his last lobotomy on Helen Mortenson. She died of a brain hemorrhage, and ended the chapter of Freeman’s lobotomies on demand, though the procedures still has effects on medical ethics and modern neuroscience. A new generation of neurosurgeons is wrestling with the same issues. Today, Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital, perform a procedure called a cingulotomy, which consists of burning dime size holes in the frontal cortex of patients (Eskandar). Even the perception of neurosurgery is that of extreme precision, but the reality is that the brain is an extremely complex organ, and operating on it is similar to repairing a watch with a monkey wrench.

While I support the need for scientists to conduct research and experiments with brain surgery, history tells us that we must be careful. The history of brain research and psychiatry has been riddled with fads, including Freud’s psychotherapy, electroshock therapy, and lobotomies. We have to be careful, that our curiosity about the way the mind works does not blind us into leaping on a large scale onto the next medical fad. The popularity of the Freeman’s lobotomy would be harder to duplicate into days world. The general public is more skeptical of scientists, and the media is much quicker to investigate potential problems with procedures. Though we shake our heads today at what Freeman did in the past, in fifty years, I can’t help but get the feeling that doctors will consider some of our methods almost as crazy. Medicine is best served by the scientific method, but we must remember that unlike other scientific fields, fellow human beings are the guinea pigs.

References

Biography of Rosemary Kennedy. Retrieved March 22, 2007 from John F. Kennedy Presidential Library website:
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/Biographies+and+Profiles/Biographies/Biography+of+Rosemary+Kennedy.htm

Boeree, C. (2001). A Brief History of the Lobotomy. Retrieved March 22, 2007 from Shippenburg University, George Boeree’s web site: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/lobotomy.html

Diefenbach, G., Diefenbach D., Baumeister, A., West, M. (1999). Portrayal of Lobotomy in the Popular Press: 1935-1960*. Retrieved March 25, 2007 from University of North Carolina at Asheville. Department of Psychology website: http://facstaff.unca.edu/ddiefenb/lobotomy.html

Eskandar, E., Cosgrove, G. (2001). Psychiatric Neurosurgery Overview. Retrieved March 22, 2007 from Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery website: http://neurosurgery.mgh.harvard.edu/Functional/Psychosurgery2001.htm

Hanzlick, R. (1983). I’d rather have a bottle in front of me (Than a frontal lobotomy). Lyrics retrieved March 22, 2007 from http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=frontal%20lobotomy

Pressman, J. (1998). Last Resort, Psychosurgery and the Limits of Medicine [Electronic version]. Cambridge University Press. New York.

My Lobotomy: Howard Dully’s Journey. (2005). Retrieved March 19, 2007 from National Public Radio website: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5014080

Sabbatini, R. (1997). The History of Psychosurgery [Electronic version]. Brain and Mind. Retrieved March 22, 2007 from http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n02/historia/lobotomy.htm

Whitaker, R. (2002). Mad In America, Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill [Electronic Version]. Perseus Publishing. Cambridge, Ma.

Vertosick, F. (1997). Lobotomy's back - controversial procedure is making a comeback [electronic version]. Discover Magazine. Retrieved March, 23 2007 from http://discovermagazine.com/1997/oct/lobotomysback1240

I want my Mommy by Imagination Movers

I love this song... move over Wiggles.

Superintendent God

I guess the NY Times article wasn't enough. Now the Fayetteville Observer is in the act of promoting the miraculous school district of Madison, Wisconsin.

Superintendent Art Rainwater, or God as I call him, has eliminated the achievement gap. No really, it must be true... it was published in a newspaper and everything.

Today, Rainwater said, no statistical achievement gap exists between the 25,000 white and minority students in Madison’s schools.

Of course, God works in mysterious ways. God in his infinite wisdom refuses to tell the secrets of his success, unless of course everyone confesses their sins.

But he won’t consult with educators from other communities until they are ready to confront the issue head on.

“I’m willing to talk,” Rainwater tells people seeking his advice, “when you are willing to stand up and admit the problem, to say our minority children do not perform as well as our white students.”

Only then will Rainwater reveal the methods Madison used to level the academic playing field for minority students.

God did make one mistake. He forgot to have the Wisconsin Department of Education update its data.

link

Of course perhaps I am looking at the wrong achievement gap. God is much wiser than I am.

Update: Corrected the link to the story.

Update #2: Right Wing Professor had a look and came to the same conclusion.

Hard Work and School Choice

I am blushing... first Edspresso and then Sara over at The Quick and the Ed linked to my post on choosing a school for my upcoming move to Anchorage.

Both make the excellent point that getting information on schools is difficult even for tuned in, education savvy, web literate parents like myself.

My research had me downloading data from three different websites, making two excel charts, and at one point comparing six adobe acrobat files side by side.

I had to figure out what a "scale score" is, research Alaska standards, make several phone calls to the schools and one to the math curriculum coordinator at the district, and then sort through all the data.

Even after all this, truthfully I would be hard pressed to tell you which of the six schools I considered was the "best". For every plus I found, there was a negative. Nothing was explained clearly. In the end, I am almost sorry to say that it came down to convenience.

The base schools are walking distance from base housing.

At first I felt a little guilty for choosing the schools on base, but then I realized that choice isn't an end... its a means. Just because it's there, doesn't mean I have to choose it. It serves its purpose right now. Some parents decided that the charter schools were the best option for their kids. Perhaps they lived in wrong neighborhood, perhaps the schools were closer, perhaps their philosophical differences with the neighborhood schools was just to great.

I may of chose neighborhood schools right now, but it's nice to know that the option is open for me if I need it in the future.

For now, public schools were the right choice, but it's nice to know that the charter school option is open for me if I need it at some point in the future.

Now if someone could just come up with an easier way to compare the schools, life would be grand.

Update: I am hiring Lynn Truss as my official blog editor. She rightly points out that I should watch my grammar. Of course she is right, though I suppose I could just blame the education system :)

Whole Language Responses

I have had several responses to my "I hate whole language" post, and I figured that I would respond in a post instead of in the comments.

It is probably no secret that I am a "DI" and phonics advocate, and have a huge small prejudice against whole language based upon my experiences with my four school age kids.

I am sure that D-EdReckoning and Nancy Creech will cover the issue much more in depth when they debate the issue on Edspresso next month, but I did want to address some of the points made by my commenter's.

I suppose one of biggest issues with whole language, is that no one seems to be able to articulate it with any great precision. As near as I can figure out, the one common theme among "whole language" advocates is that whole language teachers play an active part in tailoring their techniques to individual children. They use their expertise and experience to identify and address weaknesses. Many might use phonics as a teaching tool, but its only one of many tools to help the child learn how to read.

Mobility61 asks me this:

What kind of teacher would you want for your child? Would you prefer one who is a critical thinker, with a vast store of knowledge of literacy learning and an ability to use any available resource, who is also a learner that is constantly researching and updating her repertoire; or a teacher who follows a teacher's manual and puts children through a series of lessons prescribed by some publishing company far away? To me that seems like a no-brainer.

Rhetorical questions are often a great way to make a point, but occasionally it backfires. D-Edreckonings post on Zig Englemanns unpublished book on Project Follow Through has a great passage that answers this question.

The senior reading teacher and guru in one of our schools instigated an argument with me about reading—what it was, and how best to teach it. In the best cocktail-party style, we were polite, and the small group surrounding us was intent. The teacher’s premise was that the creativeness of teachers should not be trammeled by a lockstep program, like DI. She was well read, and quoted the literature with flourish. After the discussion went on for possibly ten minutes, one of our first-year teachers from the same school interrupted and ended the argument.

She said, “Angie, you know more about reading than I’ll ever know. You know linguistics, and all those theories I don’t understand. All I know how to do is follow the program. I do what it tells me to do in black type, and I say what it tells me to say in red type. But Angie, my kids read better than your kids, and you know it.

And I guess this sums up my greatest problem with whole language. It relies on teacher expertise, and I quite frankly am skeptical about the expertise of teachers.

Meanwhile, eceteacher comments:

It is the enemies of WL, and some poor teachers who call themselves WL, who've made up all this business about not teaching phonics... now think about it; leaving out phonics would make it Part Language, wouldn't it????

The enemy here is undereducated teachers, ones who don't use all their skills but instead grab hold of one technique (phonics could be the one) and think that will work for everyone. As someone who has taught hundreds of children to read, let me assure you that phonics alone will not bring about literacy, and, worse, it will not help children to love to read.

As I have already mentioned, whole language advocates can't even agree among themselves about what whole language really is. It seems to me that any pedagogy that can't even accurately define itself is by definition already doomed to failure.

It seems a little unfair to us as parents to accept the premise that we should entrust ourselves to teachers who can't even articulate a standard method to teaching. Our schools then become nothing more than a crap-shoot... maybe your kid will end up with a good teacher, maybe they won't. Truth be told, this is exactly the same situation we are in now.

At least the "DI" school can define standards and accurately evaluate their teachers. It may be ugly, but I prefer ugly and effective to beautiful and failing.

I will leave with one final word, if whole language is the answer then "show me the numbers".

I don't get innovation

Article after article, blog after blog says that all we need to do is to hire competent principals and give them the freedom to be innovative. If we just allow innovation, our schools will magically close the achievement gap, raise performance, and send every kid to college.

I don't buy it. After 100 odd years of our current education system, shouldn't we have figured out what works by now? Is some principal going to magically discover that if you paint all the walls "blue" student achievement will increase?

Perhaps I am naive, but just about every education reform that can be imagined has been tried at some point in the past. Whole language, parental classes, tough standards, smaller classes, larger classes, inquiry learning, explicit instruction, longer class days, constructivism, small schools, large schools, unschooling, charter schools, private schools, etc...

What's left to try? What possible innovation is a principal going to come up with?

How about this for an innovative idea... lets discard all our prejudices, preconceived notions, and figure out what works in a conclusive scientific manner.

We could take all the various school models and pedagogy's, randomly assign them to various schools. Enforce their implementation (if you don't fully cooperate, you are fired), measure the results, and implement the winning model.

Once we had established a benchmark, we could establish experimental schools to test further innovations. If the innovation managed to improve on the benchmark, then test the innovation in another school. If the innovation was validated, then it could be methodically implemented, while simultaneously monitoring its effect.

Our country has some of the most productive data driven companies in the world. Our businesses routinely use similar methods to improve their customer service and products. Why can't we use data driven decisions and the scientific method to determine how best to educate our most precious commodities... our children.

I hate whole language

Today, one of my 1st graders homework assignments was to write her spelling words four times each.

Before she writes them, I insist that she reads them to me first, so I know that she can read them, and isn't just memorizing letter combinations.

I point to the first word [say].

"say", she repeats back to me

Great, I think. She has it.

I point to the next word [pay], thinking it should be easy as well.

"near" she says.

I realize that she is going from memory by now, since the word "near" is word number 3 on her list.

"near??? try again" I say, "sound it out this time."

"pppppppp ...... aaaaaaaaa ....... yyyyyyyy(not the vowel sound)... near."

"Skye, the word is not near... sound it out again, and this time put the sounds together"

"OK, daddy. ppppppppp... aaaaaaaaaa... yyyyyyyyyy........ ppppp... aaaaaa... yyyyy... pair."

After a few seconds of this, I start to feel sorry for her, as well as feel a little frustrated, so I decide to help her out a bit.

"'ay', makes an "ay" sound... like in the word 'say'. What sound does an 'a' 'y' make?"

"ay" she yells.

"Excellent!"

I point to the "p" while covering up the "ay".

"pppppp" she says hesitantly.

I point to the "ay"

"ay" she says.

"OK, put them together this time."

She tries again... "pppppp ay... p ay... pay"

"Awesome!" I exclaim, "lets do another one."

I decide to skip the word [near] and point to word #4 [May].

"Number three is near" she says with confidence and a big smile on her cute little face.

Did I mention how much I hate whole language?

This Article is the Schnizzell

D-Ed Reckoning: Schemo gets pwned

D-Ed, performs a smackdown on a NYT article about Madison, Wi schools.

To complicated to explain, except it involves deception, statistics, nation standards, more deception, lying, and deception.

Curious aren't you?

School Choice is Hard Work

I recently got an assignment to Elmendorf AFB, AK in Anchorage. Of course I have already wasted hours researching school choices. Here is what I have come up with so far.

Public School Choices:

There are three elementary schools serving the base: Aurora, Orion and Mt Spurr

Demographically all the schools are about the same. Test scores don't vary much, with Mt Spurr and Aurora having a slight edge, mainly in math. This could be caused by demographics on base. Officers who are college educated live in certain housing areas which are in the Mt Spurr and Aurora areas.

I worry about average growth in scale scores. The same set of students tested in 3rd grade in 2005 and 4th grade in 2006 had a negative 39.4 growth in math at Aurora. I attribute this to their use of "Everyday Math". All three schools had pretty poor scale score growth in for all grade cohorts for reading, writing and math.

You can see their disaggregated numbers here: Aurora, Mt. Spurr, and Orion.

The most positive things about the schools are that they are all within walking distance of the base housing, and because they are on base, we can be assured that they will be responsive to parents and provide a safe environment.

Charter School Options:

There are actually two possible charter school options that we have identified.

Eagle Academy Charter School, which is a really structured school that uses "direct teaching". They use Saxon math which is a big plus, and the Core Knowledge for Social Studies. In ELA they use the Spalding Curriculum. I don't know a lot about the Spalding Curriculum, but from what I can gather they use a scripted curriculum and seem to have similar techniques as Direct Instruction.

I do like that the school uses ability grouping and that students will be instructed in math and reading based on what level they are on, not what grade they are in.

The school is 10 minutes north of base, which isn't to far but does present some problems. There are no buses for charter schools, so we would have to provide our own transportation. This is a big problem since my hours are pretty much set in stone. It would also be somewhat of a logistical nightmare for my fiance Shannon, since she will be a nurse, and probably end up working downtown at one of the two hospitals.

Demographically, Eagle Academy is overwhelmingly white. Their scale score growth is moderately greater than the base schools. The number of students scoring advanced on the reading, writing and math tests are way above the district and state average. I am a little cautious about interpreting this, because the charter school is an upscale suburb and they have only been open since 2005, and the available scores were for that first year. You can see their numbers here. I am also value the diversity that is found in on base public schools.

The other charter school I am looking at is Aquarian Charter school. According to its website it is a "stress-free environment filled with joy, music, theatre, and art to enhance the educational program and boost achievement." I know, it sounds like the typical constructivist pedagogy that public schools try and push, but I decided to check it out anyway. In scale score growth between students, it was the only school I saw that had positive gains for all subjects and all grade cohorts. Now there gains were all tiny, and in absolute scores their proficiency level was about the same as the three base schools.

It also suffers from some of the same transportation issues as Eagle Academy, but it is at least in the same general direction as the hospitals.

Except for possibly Eagle Charter, I really have a tough time seeing the advantages of the charter schools. I also wonder if the small advantage that the schools can provide over the base schools counters the benefits of having a local school in which to easily pop over to, plus local schools will allow my kids to walk home and finish their homework. This will give us a lot less stress in the evenings, and allow us to take advantage of the great skiing and snowboarding that the Anchorage area has to offer.

I suppose my biggest gripe over my experience with charter schools, is how much trouble it is to easily find out how they perform academically. I think the two charter schools are probably great options for some of the students in the really low performing schools (yes Anchorage has ghettos). For the parents who live on Elmendorf AFB, it doesn't seem to make much sense.

Highland Tech High - Anchorage School District Charter School

Highland Tech High - Anchorage School District Charter School

As you might know, I have a fetish for the School of the Future, a Microsoft sponsored school based on project learning. You might also suspect that I am a bit sceptical of its curriculum, but we have to wait on the test scores to see.

But... while researching Anchorage schools, I came across the School of the Future's Alaskan clone. It's called Highland Tech.

Highland Tech, according to the website is an alternate charter school that utilizes project based learning, comprehensive assessments and community immersion. It invites local business leaders to evaluate students work. Computers and technology are heavily integrated into subjects. Student also move through the courses at their own pace, and can only move on once they have demonstrated mastered a course. They don't have grades, they have proficiency levels. Conceivably, a student could whiz through the curriculum and graduate in 3 years.

It sounds pretty cutting edge. Obviously it is a model school... right?

Not so fast there. Lets check out there test scores.

82.4%, 84.6%, and 80.4% of their students were proficient in reading, writing, and math respectively. This is roughly comparable to the school district which has proficiency levels of 76.4%, 90.8%, and 79.9%. It appears that Highland Tech is no better than the local school district at improving proficiency.

Of course proficiency scores often hide real performance, since proficiency is just an arbitrary line drawn to say that the kids are at least above some certain level. If we look at the breakdown of the scores, we can see a lot more.

Perhaps the best indicator of the quality of education a school provides is its average scale score growth between two consecutive grades in a cohort of students. Luckily, Anchorage's profile of performance gives us these numbers.

Here are the score differences between the same group of students tested in one grade in 2005 and the next grade in 2006.

6th to 7th grades
Reading -11.5
Writing -.08
Math -26.7

7th to 8th grades
Reading +4.2
Writing +4.5
Math +0.5

8th to 9th
Reading -11.5
Writing -0.8
Math -19.8

9th to 10th
Reading -0.7
Writing +9.5
Math -2.0

It is sort of hard to interpret scale score growth, but I am not impressed. The school seems to struggle particularly in math instruction.

Perhaps we should check out proficiency levels compared to the district instead.

Reading
Advanced 26.7% to 35.6% in the district
Proficient 54% to 46.7% in the district

Writing
Advanced 3.9% to 9.6% in the district
Proficient 68.5% to 67.7% in the district

Math
Advanced 12.4% to 27.5% in the district
Proficient 42.4% to 38.5% in the district

Just in case you were wondering, demographically the school pretty much mirrors the local school district.

It appears that the advanced students suffer the most, especially in math.

Now, some of you will be saying that these test scores could be affected by lots of other factors skewing the results. If the school does a great job of keeping their low performing students in school, wouldn't that affect their overall average? Well of course it would, so let's take a look at their graduation and dropout rates.

School Dropout Rate: 13.6% District: 6.28%
School Graduation Rate: 43.2% District: 63.9%

Damn... that sucks.

I think from the numbers that I have shown, we can conclude that the whole project based learning deal isn't all that its cracked up to be.

Have a great day!

Code Words

Hard recovery for failed US schools csmonitor.com

The Christian Science monitor has an article up on schools that have to go under administration for failing AYP. One of the examples they use is Sobrante Park Elementary School in Oakland Unified School District. The conclusion is that one reform doesn't work. Successfully transformation of schools has to include several reforms including changing the staff, revamping the curriculum, and other revisions.

They cited Sobrante Park as one school that was able to completely transform itself. Of course in the article, they never do tell us exactly how they managed to make the transformation, but they did give one hint.

The teachers adopted a more scripted and uniform curriculum, making it easier for them to collaborate and for the principal to evaluate them.

Sounds suspiciously like they adopted direct instruction.

The results: The school kicked ass in almost every grade, scoring above average compared to the state scores, despite being predominantly poor and minority.

You think all these media organizations would start to notice the trend.

Code Words

Hard recovery for failed US schools csmonitor.com

The Christian Science monitor has an article up on schools that have to go under administration for failing AYP. One of the examples they use is Sobrante Park Elementary School in Oakland Unified School District. The conclusion is that one reform doesn't work. Successfully transformation of schools has to include several reforms including changing the staff, revamping the curriculum, and other revisions.

They cited Sobrante Park as one school that was able to completely transform itself. Of course in the article, they never do tell us exactly how they managed to make the transformation, but they did give one hint.

The teachers adopted a more scripted and uniform curriculum, making it easier for them to collaborate and for the principal to evaluate them.

Sounds suspiciously like they adopted direct instruction.

The results: The school kicked ass in almost every grade, scoring above average compared to the state scores, despite being predominantly poor and minority.

You think all these media organizations would start to notice the trend.

News 14 Carolina | 24 Hour Local News | Triangle | Schools reduce minority achievement gap

News 14 Carolina 24 Hour Local News Triangle Schools reduce minority achievement gap

Between the 2003-2004 school year and the 2004-2005 school year, Tommy's Road Elementary School lowered its achievement gap from 14.8 percent to 9.6 percent.

First of all they don't say which achievement gap they are talking about, but usually its reading. Sure enough the numbers matched the reading achievement gap for students for all grades who scored at least level III on the state reading test. I also found out some other information.

Between the 2004-2005 school year and 2005-2006 area, Tommy's Road Elementary School raised it's achievement gap from 9.6% to 16.6%

Check for yourself at the NC Dept of Education disaggregated data webstite. Select Wayne County school system, then select composite reading scores.

If you check out their school report card, then the numbers are even worse. The gap between blacks and whites passing BOTH math and science proficiency tests is 26.5%. I guess it is a lot better than the District achievement gap of 32.2% and the states achievement gap of 33.5%

Don't reporters ever investigate anymore?

Todays Kids

Right Wing Nation goes off on todays kids (and adults)

Students. Don't. Read.

When undergraduates don't understand why they can't use LOL! in a research paper, we have a serious problem.
...
That's what I have gotten every time I have caught a student cheating and talked to him about it. And I've noticed that in the last few years, students show no shame or embarrassment, no guilt, no remorse.
...
My grade was my responsibility, and my parents were not going to let me get away with foisting it off on somebody else.
...
Every student thinks the rules don't apply to him — just everybody else.
...
We're endlessly entertained by Jessica Simpson's acne, Britney Spears' wearing no panties in public, and the most recent idiotic comments by the airheaded morons in Hollywood.
...
Turn on almost any one of the so-called educational shows (either kids' shows or what passes for documentaries these days) and you are fed a string of those context-free soundbytes.
...
We need to reassert morality and ethics. We need to reassert personal responsibility and end this culture of endless victimization and entitlement. And we need to act before we commit cultural suicide.

Go read it.

Need Help

I recently found out that I might be moving to Anchorage Alaska next august. The Anchorage school district has a pretty good school choice program, and one of the choices they have is Eagle Academy Charter School.

The school supposedly uses Direct Instruction, specifically the Spalding curriculum in english language arts, and Saxon math. They also have grade leveling (pc term for ability grouping), in which students are grouped for their core subjects.

I know we have lots of experience with Saxon math here, but does anyone know anything about Spalding?

I have until March 14th to submit my applications for my kids. I want as much information as possible.

I already know that they kick ass in their test scores, though the school has only been open since 2005. I think a large part of the score difference might be due to the students who enroll there. Alaska's profile of performance does show that they have pretty good scale score growth from year to year though.

The good news is that if I get the assignment, and my kids get in, I will have loads of things to blog about.

ms_teacher: A REACH/Decoding Lesson - What it looks like.

ms_teacher: A REACH/Decoding Lesson - What it looks like.

Ms Teacher has a post up describing a "di" lesson in her remedial classroom.

I was pretty impressed with how comprehensive the lessons are. One of the key points she made was how important it was to have proper ability group placement.

However, what I have found is that with the three or four students who were misplaced, they are struggling with words that all the other students have already learned. The dilemma then becomes do I "punish" the whole class by not awarding them their points, which is where their grade comes from?

One of the things I noticed about her lesson compared to the reading lessons my 1st grader gets, is how much less wasted time there is. In the lessons I witnessed, my daughters teacher seems to be winging everything. Also she has poor time management, because the lesson inevitably ends early with no planned activity or it runs late and has to be cut off.

Sorority Hijinx

Education-ish related.

Check out Rachels Tavern for Too Fat, Too Dark, and Too Smart??

The national office of Delta Zeta Sorority was disappointed with its chapter at DePauw University, so they decided to come in and conduct a review, which resulted in them purging the sorority of all of the women of color and the overweight women.

...

Unfortunately, this story supports all of the worst stereotypes of fraternities and sororities–they’re bigoted, party animals, who don’t care about school.

You have to wonder what gets into people sometimes. You would think that the Sorority national office would have PR people.

Bet you they are going to hire a PR person now.

RedKudu: Saturday Circular

RedKudu: Saturday Circular

I am an education blog surfing fool. It's actually pretty pitiful since I actually do have a real job which has nothing to do with education. I continually run across new blogs though, and recently came across RedKudu, an english teacher with an attitude in Texas.

Though I doubt that I get much traffic that hasn't read her, just in case I want to point y'all over there to check him/her out, especially her Saturday Circulars.

Also check out her post entitled "Teacher Makes Students Cry"

Last week, I began a Stanford Experiment-inspired activity with my seniors, who are reading "Lord of the Flies." It was my intent to introduce to them the concept of group mentality, and the effects of unchallenged rumor and unquestioned leadership - all leading (hopefully) to a greater understanding of the behavior of the boys on the island. Friday I assigned them a simple project, a pamphlet about survival skills which I am later going to use to pave the way to their major research projects next six weeks (it's undoubtedly artsy, but it will have far-reaching impact). Then I allowed them the period to read silently, and begin working on the project.

Near the end of class, I removed a small group of students I’d been observing who had worked consistently all period, took them out in the hall, and told them I wanted them to go back and tell their friends that I had told them they didn’t have to do the project. But I warned them I wasn’t going to tell the other students anything about it. They all willingly agreed to be a part of the plan. (Note, none of the other students had behaved badly, but some had been off-task for some portion of time, and some had turned secretly to other homework. I knew they would later pinpoint this as the reason they were excluded.)

I’d intended for them to wait until they were outside of class, but didn’t time it quite right. A few of them asked their friends quietly what had happened out there, and they were told. The tension (and rumor) rocketed around the room as I pretended to be completely unaware behind my desk. When the bell rang, there were some choice words for me muttered under breaths, which I pretended not to hear.

You will need to click over to read the rest of the story, but it was quite an experiment. It also a perfect example about how to challenge students minds, open them up to new ideas, and instill critical thinking skills. If only we had more teachers like RedKudu.

Reform Targeting

I posted this over in comments at From the Trenches of Public Education.

When I started researching education and entered the edublogging realm, I was a blank slate.

I believed in many of the standard talking points. Preschool will fix everything, all we need is more money, etc..., but was open minded in general.

My thoughts and opinions evolved (and still do) as I learned more.

I am now pretty much in the "drastic reform" camp, but I don't think I have ever been a big proponent of H.S. level reforms. I do like the idea of smaller schools, or at least schools within a school, since I think having stable relationships with teachers is a pretty good thing for students. I think there should be a bit more ability grouping, though with honors, college prep, and regular classes there is some. Having said that, I think that High Schools do a pretty decent job of teaching those who come to them on skill level. Basically for the top 50% to 95% of students, our High School program works relatively well.

It's the lower 50% that really needs educational reform, but by HS they have pretty much already been broken.

In the military we see all sorts of fads as well.

We had Total Quality Management for a while, now the latest fad is ATSO 21 (Six Sigma)... all adaptations of the latest business models out there. Like you, we as workers roll our eyes, try and take the best of the theories and await the next reform.

So I understand the resistance to school reform advocates.

I think a major problem for reform advocates has been an inability to separate the education system into component parts.

Different levels of education need different amounts and type of reform.
Perhaps it is the union mentality of teachers, where HS teachers react negatively to reform targeted at the elementary school level.

I still think there is something to the idea of enlisting HS teachers as allies in the push for K-5 reform.

Certain principles of "di" are going to be universal (the military uses a lot of elements of it teaching recruits), but its probably most critical at the early basic skills level to rely on scripted programs.

I think there probably is a critical mass point where scripted programs can give way to more flexibility in teaching freedom after kids have learned to read and compute at a certain level. It is probably at this point that kids really have been taught how to learn (such a cliche).
Certain concepts of "di" though are certainly worth incorporating into all levels of education. Things like breaking concepts down into components, ensuring mastery, reinforcement of concepts over a period of time, and ability grouping.

Secondary school teachers differ from elementary school teachers. They are usually (or should) have degrees in the content area they teach, more like college professors than elementary school teachers.

I suspect that utilizing DI and scripted programs, a school full of Junior College graduates could outperform our current elementary school programs.

(Cross posted)

Update on my kids and us

It's been a while since I update my regular reader (thank you Bob) on the progress of my kids.

1st grader: I had a meeting with her teacher last week to express my concern about her lack of decoding skills. Her teacher told me that she knew Skye struggled, but half of her class was even further behind. I did get her to guarantee me that she would be enrolled in the after school reading tutoring program starting next month. I think I scared her...

3rd grade girl: Christina has really improved in reading since the beginning of the year thanks to the reading tutoring program. She now completes reading worksheets that use to take her an hour in 15 minutes.

3rd grade boy: I sat in on his TAG pullout program last week for 15 minutes. 20 odd bright kids wasted the whole time coloring repeating patterns of shapes in the name of enrichment. Today, after he had finished his worksheet in math on odds, I managed to teach him factoring. He also impressed me by remembering how to reduce fractions, even though I had only showed him how to do it once before while we were driving to a pick up pizza. He needs a bit more practice to master it, but it shouldn't take long.

6th grader girl: She got an "A+" on her science project two weeks ago. She used pendulums with different weights to prove that gravity pulled equally on objects of different weights. She is definitely our little scientist.

Me. I am coasting through my online psychology class. It is only a Technical College, but it's amazing how easy the course is.

GF: Shannon is about to finish her 3rd to last nursing course. In August she will graduate, and then its the big bucks.

Us: I have put in for orders to Alaska. I will find out in a few weeks if I got the assignment. If I do, we will move sometime in August. It will give me a whole new state's education system to bash.

Blogging Frenzy

I have to admit, I am taking a small part of satisfaction at the blogging frenzy that I had a small part in starting off.

Dennis asked me if I knew of any teachers who had implemented DI.

It must of started him wondering, because he decided to ask his readers about it.

As I indicated earlier, it is hard to find anyone who is more critical of American education than KDerosa, and much of his criticism is centered around his belief that we are using the wrong teaching methods, especially at the elementary level. I would love to hear from any elementary school teachers who know more about Direct Instruction than I do. I'd especially like to hear from teachers who have used Direct Instruction after using other methods. I would also love to hear from teachers or administrators who know why so few elementary schools use this method. It is a mystery to me why I've heard so much about Direct Instruction from parents, like KDerosa and Rory, and so little about it from teachers.

After that it snowballed. Joanne wonders about the same thing as Dennis.

RedKudu notes that the education system is biased against DI. (I just discovered RedKudu, but it is an excellent blog).

This is how I was taught I should be suspicious of direct instruction styles, and why I believe many teachers may not be aware of what direct instruction is, especially if they're getting the same information I did. The teacher-centered classroom, I was told, is also sometimes called "direct instruction." Did the presenter have a grudge or some bias? Probably. Was the info misused, or misinterpreted at the meeting I attended? Possibly. But the school latched onto it, we were told to latch onto it, and two schools later, three grades higher, we're still being told this is the way to go even as grades slump, kids drop out, and the minimum skills expectations are lowered every year to make up for the achievement gap.

Liz over at I Speak of Dreams also wonders about DI.

Meanwhile, in the comments of Dennis and Joanne's original posts, debates take place, questions are asked, and everyone comes out a little bit smarter.

Some highlights from the Trenches:

The Guru KEdRosa says: "Here's my theory. The powers that be in education and schools of education are in ignore mode when it comes to DI. At first they tried criticising it and that didn't work so well because it has a large research base with thousands of students showing that it does work better than what the ed schools were peddling. So now they're resigned to just pretending it doesn't exist."

Amen Brother!

ElementaryHistoryTeacher notes that teachers secretly use "di" without permission.

Dennis starts to get pissed off: "After having done the work to earn a Masters a few years ago, and never hearing about Direct Instruction once during that process, while having some other stuff thrown at me that was pure crap, this makes me a little angry."

Ms. BlueBird notes the obvious: "So, if I'm to understand this correctly, for DI to work the class must be at the same level. Yet at the same time, ability grouping is frowned upon big time."

Ms Teacher from California Live Wire, finally acknowledges she is ultimately responsible for everything, and updates her readers on her experiences with DI.

Like a typical teacher she bemoans that it takes away from her creativity, but acknowledges:

So, overall I've been impressed with the growth I've seen in most of my students. Like I said before, some of them used to hate to read and now, they enjoy it. They understand what they are reading and are able to apply it. Much of my criticism has nothing to do with the program itself; rather it has to do with my District's reluctance to do what they promised to do.

Mean while over at Joannes:

Winston Smith says that his students are begging for explicit instruction.

Anna sums up the argument nicely.

I have used Reading Mastery, Engelman’s DI program for teaching reading. At first I did not like it because I did not enjoy teaching from a script. I became a convert when I saw how effectively it taught students how to read. I think sometimes we forget that things which are boring for teachers are exciting for little kids. It would have been more fun for me to work with storybooks and whole language, no question, but I had to remember that the lesson aim wasn’t to entertain me as a teacher — it was to teach students how to read.

Anna... if you read this... start blogging.

Larry Strauss thinks teachers should see themselves as artists. (Funny me. I thought teachers wanted to be considered professionals.)

Dave is all up on Larry Strauss and spouts the usual gobbly gook, and then manages to do the Vulcan mind meld on DI and Discovery Learning.

If DI includes all of rhese components and allows children to explore at times and tackle unstructured open-ended questions for which there is no clear blueprint for solution, then I applaud DI and I guess I’ve been using it all along. If ‘Discovery Learning’ includes all of these components, then I guess I’ve been using it all along and I applaud that too.

Larry seems to get a bit mixed up about what DI really is, but luckily Ken sets him straight.

Larry thanks Ken and asks some questions. Kens answers them.

Coincidentally, this blogosphere conversation happens at the same time as Zig Englemann releases the 5th chapter of his book on Project Follow Through. Zig describes how despite evidence to the contrary, the education establishment does everything in its power to maintain the status quo and repress DI. See D-EdReckoning for a review and summary.

Crossposted at my KTM II.

My first education policy proposal

Jenny D asks "how do you know if a teacher is really implementing DI, or any kind of instruction?"

Most states (if not all) have alternate teacher certification programs. Often they revolve around content knowledge (especially in math and science).

Perhaps private organizations, such as the National Institute for Direct Instruction should create their own certification programs in conjunction with a forward looking state. These schools would directly compete with education colleges and schools in certifying teachers. Once certified in providing direct instruction, these teachers would be 100% certified to go directly into teaching without further training.

Of course there are many limitations, including opposition by teachers unions and the education establishment. The newly certified teachers would also need to find positions in schools that supported their methodology.

If school choice (competition) is good for schools, why wouldn't it be good for the institutions that produce teachers?

The Bomb or just Bombing?

Denver Post: Science-tech charter school a beacon to Texas reformers

One of Denver's highest-performing high schools will become a model for 35 new schools in Texas as they undertake a massive education reform project, administrators announced Wednesday.

The Denver School for Science and Technology, a charter school nestled in an affluent section of the Stapleton neighborhood, this summer will begin training teachers, principals and administrators from Texas about how the school pulls off such high test scores.

I can sum up the training in a few words: "Our secret to improving test scores is to get rid of the deadwood"

Yep... that's right. I decided to check out DSST so I went over to their website and then checked out their disaggregated CSAP data.

I downloaded their data in reading and math for 2005 and 2006 and compared the numbers between their 2005 9th graders and 2006 10th graders to see how much "real" improvement there was.

The first thing I noticed, was that the number or returning black students was dismal. In 2005 there were 51 black students in 9th grade. One year later, the number of black students in 10th grade was only 36. This is almost a 33% drop out rate. The only American Indian dropped out, there were 4 less white kids, though Hispanics gained 3 students. Number for Asians stayed the same. The net change was from 121 to 104 students. In total the class was 14% smaller from one year to the next. Now let's see if we can figure out just which students dropped out.

In 9th grade, 16 black kids scored unsatisfactory on the CSAP in math. 20 scored partially proficient, 14 proficient, and only 1 scored advanced. One year later, 6 scored unsatisfactory, 15 scored partially proficient, 15 scored proficient, and not a single black student scored advanced. It appears that the loss of most, if not all of the black students was from the unsatisfactory and partially proficient categories. Now I supposed its theoretically possible that the kids who dropped out were all proficient and advanced, and that the unsat and partially proficient kids improved, but... would you bet against it?

Among Hispanic and white kids, the numbers show us that the distribution of students scoring in various categories in math didn't change much. Though I did note that in every single category that they had data for, there were less kids scoring advanced than the year before.

The school did do a tiny bit better in reading, but the kids also started out a little better. In both 9th and 19th grade there was only one black kid in the whole class that scored unsatisfactory. It appears that the big drop of in numbers happened among the partially proficient and proficient students readers. While there were 3 more advanced readers among blacks, there was 7 and 11 less partially proficient and proficient readers. Once again, we can see that the school had a small improvement in reading ability, but that many of their lower performing students likely dropped out. There were minor improvements among whites and Hispanics as far as score distribution goes.

Overall it appears that the school does a decent job of improving the reading ability of students, though at the cost of getting rid of lower performing kids.

Once again we learn that percentages and stats can hide the truth. There are things to admire at this school. They put a premium on values, they provided a safe enviroment, but academically I suspect they are no better than the average middle class school at accelerating the performance of their students. But like other public schools, it appears they fail at teaching and retaining low performing minority students.

So Texans, enjoy your trip to Denver. You might not learn anything that you don't know already, but at least you will escape the Texas heat for a while.

Hat Tip: Joanne Jacobs

Update: I checked out High Tech High in San Diego. California's results are harder to parse, especially since the school switched from Integrated Math to a standard Algebra I, Geometery, Algebra II schedule, but from 9th grade 2004 to 11 grade 2005, the number of black students in each sequential class dropped from 22 students to 13.

In 2006, not a single black student scored proficient or advanced in math. Only 29% of white students did. Silly me for thinking that "High Tech" would mean math proficiency. It probably explains why they switched their math curriculum.

Both High Tech High and DSST emphasize "inquiry" and "project based" learning. It must be so nice to have a digital portfolio of your students work to remember them by after they drop out.

What influence does blogging have on education policy, if any?

Text Savvy notes the general failure of education research to influence education policy. He comes to this conclusion based on the many responses to this question over at The Spencer Foundation, which he found via Chris Correa.

I have to say I agree with him. I suspect that teaching in classrooms today looks much the same as it did 100 years ago.

His comment though provoked another thought in my head. Though blogging is a relatively new phenomena, it has had an enormous influence on certain aspects of society, especially politics. Major corporations and politicians now routinely hire bloggers and attempt to influence the blogosphere.

My question is: What influence does (or will) education blogging have on education policy, if any?

I have several thoughts on the matter, but I would like to see what the edublogosphere has to say about it first.

The Outrage of Project Follow Through - Chapter 3

http://zigsite.com/PDFs/FOLLOW_THROUGH/FT-Chap3.pdf

Chapter 3 is out... yeah! I am not going to bother analyzing it, because others are much more adept at that than I am, but I do want to say one thing. This chapter literally made me shake with anger.

One of the recurring themes in the book, was how much the school establishment worked against the implementation of the Direct Instruction model. I found myself cussing the various antagonists out under my breath as I was reading. The stupidity of some of the characters is amazing.

There was one bright spot in the chapter though. In a fairly long and very descriptive passage, Zig describes a well run kindergarten class room. Here is a teaser:

As soon as the bell rings, the teacher says, “Everybody, you can finish your worksheet later. It’s time for our morning warm-up. So get those thinking engines ready to go. The blue group is ready ... so is the yellow group.”

The aides are positioned on each side of the room. The teacher walks to the chalkboard. “We’re going to start with the days of the week. Tell me what day it is today ... Get ready.”

The teacher claps. As she does, nearly all of the children respond, “Tuesday.”

The story is much more involved, but illustrates how the teacher and the aids work together, like a well oiled machine. It's amazing how much attention to detail is given to every aspect of the learning environment.

As I read the passage, I couldn't help to get a little depressed as I thought about all the trouble my bright 1st grader is having reading, yet here is a story about poor kindergartners from disadvantaged homes who were performing above the level my daughter is now. It's enough to piss you off.

(cross posted at KTM)

School of the Future Luvin'

School of the Future preparing students for what’s to come

Naiomi Dillon of the American School Board Journal is drinking the SOF cool aid.

As with work, the 170 freshmen students
(most of whom hail from lower-income
backgrounds) craft and update their
schedules on a daily basis and frequently
take work home, conducting research or
creating presentations on laptops assigned
to each of them. Instruction is wholly
project based, forcing students to learn
how to collaborate, listen, plan, think critically,
and communicate—all skills considered
essential in the 21st century.

There is also some talk about Microsoft's Education Competency Wheel, which from the tone of the article is the next best invention since... well the wheel.

Seems to me that some people think that all our education system needs to do is to teach kids how to make powerpoint presentations. Content is just a detail.

Students Design New Uniform for School of the Future

6abc.com: Students Design New Uniform for School of the Future

Its been a while since we have made fun of talked about the School of the Future.

It's students have been busy... you know... learning and designing their school uniforms.
I do have to admit, its pretty fricking cool. Of course what's cool today is geeky tomorrow. Maybe we should of got these kids to design our new hideous Airman Battle Uniform.

Instruction versus Exploration

Instruction versus exploration in science learning

I came across this article on the APA website.

This question may be answered by David Klahr, PhD, a psychology professor at Carnegie Mellon University, and Milena Nigam, a research associate at the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Biomedical Informatics. They have new evidence that "direct instruction"--explicit teaching about how to design unconfounded experiments--most effectively helps elementary school students transfer their mastery of this important aspect of the scientific method from one experiment to another.

...

Klahr saw three main reasons to challenge discovery learning. First, most of what students, teachers and scientists know about science was taught, not discovered, he says. Second, teacher-centered methods (in which teachers actively teach, as opposed to observe or facilitate) for direct instruction have been very effective for procedures that are typically harder for students to discover on their own, such as algebra and computer programming. Third, he adds, only vague theory backed the predicted superiority of discovery methods--and what there is clashes with data on learning and memory. For example, discovery learning can include mixed or missing feedback, encoding errors, causal misattributions and more, which could actually cause frustration and set a learner back, says Klahr.

Yet discovery learning has persisted, he says, partly because of a lingering notion that direct instruction would not only be ineffective in the short run, but also damaging in the long run. Piaget thought interfering with discovery blocked complete understanding. More recent cognitive research, says Klahr, shows that "this is just plain wrong."

Study after study disproves the current "inquiry" approach to education, yet if you mention direct instruction among a significant portion educators you might as well just call yourself a martian.

(cross posted at KTM part deux)

Phonics Interactivities

Phonics Interactivities

Today we decided to get serious about providing our 1st grader some "real" phonics education, so we started looking around the internet.

My fiance' Shannon found this great website from sadilier-oxford.

It has some great activities to use to help teach reading in grades K-5.

Math Insurgency

A few days ago I had posted on a group called "Wheres The Math? " that was responsible for the now infamous Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth video.

The groups purpose was to force reform of Washington State's math standards and to advocate against "fuzzy math".

It appears they have had at least a small victory:

Seattle Times: Bergeson OKs independent math review

Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson has agreed to an independent review of state math standards that critics have called at least partly responsible for Washington students' poor math achievement.

...

Mukilteo parent Hugh Taylor, a member of the state "Where's the Math?" group, called U.S. math instruction "uniquely unsuccessful." He said that since the state developed the original math standards, allowing the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to conduct the standards review "would be like the fox guarding the henhouse."

He said he welcomed an independent review, "as long as it's conducted by a mathematician."

As Catherine alluded to earlier, a parent revolution is difficult to pull off, but with a little persistence it seems it is possible to make headway.

Now changing math standards will not by itself eliminate weak math curricula, but by raising the standards it will at least add little pressure.

I suspect that it's a lot easier for well connected middle class parents to force changes than the parents of disadvantaged kids. This is unfortunate because its middle class parents who are more likely to supplement the less that satisfactory math programs in school. Their kids are more likely to pass, despite the weakness' of schools, and cover up the inherent problems.

It's very unlikely there will ever be a mass national uprising, but hopefully all the disjointed successes that happen here and there in the country, inspire other small groups of concerned parents to take on the schools.

I think that the term "Math Wars" might not be appropriate. Instead to borrow a phrase from the Iraq War, as loaded as it is. What we have is a "Math Insurgency".

Black and White

We are having some issues with my son Sean. He is in 3rd grade and a very bright kid. He is in the talented and gifted program and made the A-B honor roll last semester, but lately he is presenting us with some difficulties.

On Monday night we discovered that he turned in a blank reading log for the previous week. This despite him assuring us several times that he had filled it out. We go through stages where we physically check it, but last week was one where we assumed he did. We know he read (he has to read for 15 minutes a night and record what he read) and filling out the log only takes a few minutes, but he totally ignored it (and us).

Tuesday evening he forgot his science book even though he had to do some science homework, and it was listed in his agenda. By nature he is a bit scatter brained (like his dad), but we have repeatedly had this problem and counseled him to check that he has all his books before he leaves the class. In the past, we were usually able to let him borrow his step-sister Christina's books since she is also in 3rd grade, but she didn't have it this time. We wrote a note to the teacher, telling her that we would have him do it tonight, along with any other "extra" homework she saw fit to give.

We also found out on Tuesday, that he had gotten behind in his TAG class. He is meant to make flash cards for a few prefix's and suffix's every month and learn them, but he was a month behind. It didn't take long to make them up, and I am reasonably sure he could memorize the years worth of words in two or three days if he applied himself. He has a good memory and has no problem learning his spelling words. I do have to admit that I hate his TAG program, because it's all enrichment and ran by a kooky art major, but I still expect him to do well in it.

Tonight he remembered his science book so he was able to do the missed assignment plus an extra assignment his teacher assigned, but there was a note in his agenda to work on a social studies composition. When we asked him about it, he told us that he had no idea what she was talking about.

Additionally, he often acts like... well a big dummy. Tonight he was answering questions and we had to make him reread it several times for him to get the answer. At one point, my girl friend got frustrated and told him that the answer was right there in "black and white".

He replied, "I see the black words, but where is the white?"

Later when Shannon had him read the sentence with the answer to the question, he replied "That sentence doesn't have the word 'why' in it."

He is not a bad kid at all. He is very sweet and pretty well behaved, but its like he has no common sense sometimes, either that or its laziness.

It's hard not to pile on punishment after punishment. We think we give appropriate positive feedback to encourage him. Our main problem is that because of the number of kids we have, it's very difficult to micromanage his homework and still teach give our other kids the time they need.

I would tear my hair out if it wasn't the fact, I have none.

Swamp Fox Insights: This week professor closes his eyes to reality

Swamp Fox Insights: This week professor closes his eyes to reality

Swamp Fox Insights takes Professor Paul Thomas of Furman University to task over open enrollment and South Carolina education performance.

He correctly points out that the The better educated a SC student's parents, the further behind their peers they are.

First of all Professor Thomas falls into the trap of blaming poverty for failing schools instead of schools on poverty. He says:

The best way to improve our schools, to raise student achievement, is to address aggressively poverty in our state.

as if the answer to the schools problems were to give the families of poor performing students a bigger house, a car, and more money.

Oh I know he means we need to create jobs, improve healthcare, etc..., but even doing that will probably result in only tiny improvements in school performance.

In Professor Thomas' next article, he argues agains school choice, even public school choice within a district.

I guarantee that if we allow open enrollment, when a new population of students fills our best schools, the next set of report cards will reflect that new demographic. If a top school sees an influx of high-poverty students, test scores will drop, the school report card will reflect that, and that school will no longer be attractive. We have ample evidence that test scores and school report card ratings directly reflect the poverty levels of our schools — not the talent or effort of the teachers or the administration.

I will leave it to Swamp Fox to answer:

Does Dr. Thomas really believe that if creative, talented teachers have the ability to attract some of the resources currently being spent on students whose needs are not being met, that they wouldn't be straining their brains every day thinking up new ways to make their students education better? And does Dr. Thomas really not understand, that after beating their heads against an unchangable public education establishment long enough, that creative, talented teachers either give up and leave or settle into the frustration of surviving in a system they know is not working well. Given the world he lives in every day, can he possibly not understand that?

If Professor Thomas has so little faith in our teachers, then what does it matter if we give parents a choice, the schools are doomed to failure anyway.

Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth

From M.J. McDermott

Spread the word.

D-Ed Reckoning: More on cognitive ability

D-Ed Reckoning: More on cognitive ability

What he said...

The Item - South Carolina

The Item - South Carolina: 2 children killed in Sumter County crash

Yesterday we had an ice story. Shaw AFB and both local colleges implimented a weather delay to report for work. The two local school districts did not.

We held out kids out of school for a few hours until the weather cleared up, because we were worried about the safety of the roads and thought the school districts were a bit stupid.

Today a teacher at a local high school is in the hospital and her two small children are dead after their car hit a tractor trailer head on while rounding a curve during some icy weather, yesterday morning.

The base and the colleges notified everyone the night before, so it wasn't like the districts didn't have any warning.

Safety first.

Good Teaching Update

An anonymous commenter made me realize that my eariler post on good teaching made it seem as if I thought that the things on the list were "bad".

I was trying to make the point that teaching the material should be the #1 goal of any teacher. Anything else is extraneous.

p.s. we have a snow day today... I love sleeping in.

The Conspiracy Theory

Opinion Journal - Aztecs vs. Greeks: Those with superior intelligence need to learn to be wise, by Charles Murray

Is it just me, or has Charles Murray gone off the deep end?

He starts off innocently enough by stating the obvious.

Combine these groups, and the top 10% of the intelligence distribution has a huge influence on whether our economy is vital or stagnant, our culture healthy or sick, our institutions secure or endangered. Of the simple truths about intelligence and its relationship to education, this is the most important and least acknowledged: Our future depends crucially on how we educate the next generation of people gifted with unusually high intelligence.

It might be unpopular, but its probably true. Not only does our system suck at educating the lowest performers, they are under educate our average and top performers as well.

But he should of stopped here, instead he rambles on a bit about how being gifted is a "gift", like high IQ people are some sort of superheros, the saviors of the world. They must acknowledge their awesomeness and use it to guide the lesser mortals.

What really took the cake though is when he started talking about some sort of high IQ cabal that runs our government.

In short, I am calling for a revival of the classical definition of a liberal education, serving its classic purpose: to prepare an elite to do its duty. If that sounds too much like Plato's Guardians, consider this distinction. As William F. Buckley rightly instructs us, it is better to be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than by the faculty of Harvard University. But we have that option only in the choice of our elected officials. In all other respects, the government, economy and culture are run by a cognitive elite that we do not choose. That is the reality, and we are powerless to change it. All we can do is try to educate the elite to be conscious of, and prepared to meet, its obligations. For years, we have not even thought about the nature of that task. It is time we did. (emphasis mine)

It reminded me of some Orwellian novel. If the average would just accept the leadership of the chosen ones, all would be well in the world.

(cross posted at Kitchen Table Math)

Commentary: Good Teaching

Commentary: Good Teaching

Michael F. Shaughnessy over at EdNews finds an old article on "good teaching" from the December 1991 issue of Phi Delta Kappan

1) Whenever students are involved with issues they regard as vital concerns, good teaching is going on.
2) Whenever students are involved with explanations of human differences, good teaching is going on.
3) Whenever students are being helped to see major concepts, big ideas, and general principles, and are not merely engaged in the pursuit of isolated facts, good teaching is going on.
4) Whenever students are involved in planning what they will be doing, it is likely that good teaching is going on.
5) Whenever students are involved with applying ideals such as fairness, equity or justice to their world, it is likely that good teaching is going on.
6) Whenever students are actively involved, it is likely that good teaching is going on. 7) Whenever students are directly involved in real-life experience, it is likely that good teaching is going on.
8) Whenever students are actively involved in heterogeneous groups it is likely that good teaching is going on.
9) Whenever students are asked to think about an idea in a way that questions common sense or a widely accepted assumption that relates new ideas to ones learned previously, or that applies an idea to the problems of living, then there is a chance that good teaching is going on.
10) Whenever students are involved in re-doing, polishing or perfecting their work, it is likely that good teaching is going on.
11) Whenever teachers involve students with the technology of information access, good teaching is going on.
12) Whenever students are involved in reflecting on their own lives and how they have come to believe and feel as they do good teaching is going on.

Wow... so wise. Once again my limited intelligence is revealed. See, I would of thought the list would go something like this.

1. Whenever students master the required material and demonstrate it on appropriate assessments, good teaching is going on.
2. See #1

I have so much to learn.

Vocational Schools

Opinion Journal - Extra What's Wrong With Vocational School? by Charles Murray

Murray's article was rather lame. It read like an exam paper done at the last moment, the night before it was due.

Having said that, he does hit on one important point. There should be other options for people besides University. College is a ridiculously poor at training people for most jobs in the real world. As Murray points out, college has become little more than a litmus test for employers. My brother who is an electrical engineer for Boeing even admits that he maybe uses 10% of what he learned in college, and he has a Masters degree.

For many many jobs, specific technical schools would probably be a much more cost effective and efficient way to train new employees. Witness the U.S.A.F., that manages to train 18 -21 year old kids to work on multi-million dollar aircraft, with only a few months of formal schooling, and a year of on the job training. In my field, nondestructive inspection, 22 year old's are able to leave the Air Force after four years and get a job in the civilian sector earning $40,000 a year.

Having lived in Europe for 12 years, I think that many European countries take a much more pragmatic approach to post secondary education. For example, the German model has industries working in partnership with government to create Berufsschule's (vocational schools) that provide government certified certificates in over 400 different careers.

Moving to a system like this, or similar, would serve several purposes. Employers would get employee's with specific job knowledge, our college graduation rate should improve, and students without the desire to sit through four year's of irrelevant classes would be able to quickly move into the workforce.

Murray though doesn't do the idea much justice. It's as if he adopted it to make up for the political incorrectness of his research into the IQ gap. Of course, because of Murray's perceived political leanings, his suggestions will be ignored... but good idea's being ignored has become the norm in education policy these days, so why should this idea be any different.

(Also posted at Kitchen Table Math)

Hat Tip: Joanne Jacobs