This annotated bibliography is reformatted and customized by the Center for Positive Practices. Some of the authors featured on this page include Richard J. Shavelson, Michael B. Henderson, Jean Moon, William G. Howell, Edward W. Wiley, David J. Osman, Lisa Nyberg, Sarah Michaels, Colby Hall, and Aida Walqui.
(2014). Looking at the Data: Afterschool Programs Using Data to Better Serve Students. Metlife Foundation Afterschool Alert. Issue Brief No. 66. The Afterschool Alliance, in partnership with MetLife Foundation, is proud to present the final issue brief in their latest series of four issue briefs examining critical issues facing middle school youth and the vital role afterschool programs play in addressing these issues. This brief explores afterschool and data utilization to improve programming. The afterschool field has made great gains in providing supports and an environment that helps their students succeed in school and beyond. Students are discovering an interest in science, gaining confidence in their speaking abilities, missing school less, connecting with caring adults and more when participating in quality afterschool programs. A distinctive benefit of afterschool programs is that their focus and scope of activities is wide-ranging–they are able to meet the unique needs of their community, which could be to offer a dance program in an area where arts have been scaled back during the regular school day or aligning programming with the Common Core State Standards to serve as an additional source of support for students, teachers and schools. The variety of focus areas also means that there are a number of measures–both inputs and outputs–that can be relevant to their programming. Therefore, it is critical that programs have a clear and focused set of goals, gather and synthesize data that are connected to those goals, and implement a continuous improvement cycle that uses the data in order to build on lessons learned and ensure that they are providing their students with the supports they need. Fortunately, more and more programs are recognizing the critical role of data and more resources and tools are becoming available to help programs put the data to use in order to best meet the needs of their students. [More] Descriptors: After School Programs, Middle School Students, Academic Standards, Student Needs
(2014). Team-Based Learning: Moderating Effects of Metacognitive Elaborative Rehearsal and Middle School History Content Recall, Educational Psychology Review. Promoting Acceleration of Comprehension and Content through Text (PACT) and similar team-based models directly engage and support students in learning situations that require cognitive elaboration as part of the processing of new information. Elaboration is subject to metacognitive control, as well (Karpicke, "Journal of Experimental Psychology": General 138(4):469-485, 2009)–successful learners use metacognitive elaborative rehearsal to process and make sense of incoming information even in the absence of structured opportunities or instructional prompts for elaborating. Levels of processing and cognitive load theories suggest that students in PACT classrooms may outperform students in comparison classes because PACT engages and supports deep cognitive processing (via elaboration and discussion) at the time of learning, allowing participants to better conserve and more consistently reallocate cognitive and metacognitive resources (compared to students in the non-treated group) for encoding content. In other words, PACT may moderate the relationship of "metacognitive elaborative rehearsal" and content retrieval. Extant data from years 1 (n?=?419) and 2 (n?=?704) of the PACT/RFU project suggests such an effect. As hypothesized, there were no mean differences in reported metacognitive rehearsal use across the groups because metacognitive elaborative rehearsal was not taught. However, regression coefficients for content recall on metacognitive elaboration were greater in the treatment group in both samples suggesting that an instructional emphasis on deep processing leads to better content recall. The findings are discussed in the context of the Common Core State Standards and the large-scale testing programs in place currently across the USA. [More] Descriptors: Metacognition, History Instruction, Recall (Psychology), Correlation
(2014). Vocabulary, Concept, Evidence, and Examples, Science Teacher. Reading is critical for scientific thinking. It is a foundation for many of the skills in which scientists and engineers must be proficient, such as conducting research, developing informed conjectures, and engaging in reasoned argument (NRC 2012). Yet, students frequently find science reading difficult, time-consuming, and frustrating. Strategies they have used in other contexts, such as fiction reading, do not usually help in reading science content (Bazerman 1985). In response, the authors' physics professional learning community developed a simple tool to help students become better science readers. They call the strategy Vocabulary, Concept, Evidence, and Examples (VCEE). VCEE encourages students to use science inclusively, interacting with the text instead of regarding the text as separate from what scientists do. It follows James Gee's Discourse Analysis (2011), which suggests that all distinct groups have an in-language, a style, and artifacts special to their group. The in-language can include slang and technical jargon. Artifacts can include written texts, key words, tools of the trade, and symbols. Taken together, these elements form what Gee refers to as a Discourse. Examples of these groups include teachers, scientists, and street gangs. VCEE, an example of scientific Discourse, highlights the key methods scientists use while reading an article. It also reinforces the concepts in the reading. Basically, VCEE is a method of how scientists read selected material. The VCEE strategy is simple and quick, so students can complete the task with little effort beyond the reading itself. If used regularly, it should lead to a higher level of engagement in the classroom, as the students arrive better prepared to think and speak like scientists. It is aligned to the "Common Core State Standards" for science literacy and for reading informational texts. [More] Descriptors: Reading Comprehension, Reading Strategies, Teaching Methods, Scientific Research
(2014). Methods and Strategies: Seeding Science in Elementary Schools, Science and Children. Lisa Nyberg believes the education of science core ideas and practices must begin as soon as possible with children. She imagines never teaching letters, words, sentences, or reading skills to young children, and then handing a book to a fifth grader who is expected to read, understand, and perform immediately. With the current language arts and mathematics emphasis, this scenario would never happen, but Nyberg says that it does happen with science when many elementary students have an incomplete scaffolding of science core ideas and practices. In this article, Nyberg presents two ways in which elementary schools can begin teaching science in the early elementary grades: (1) Building a powerful educational team by bridging school district and university educators to strengthen the education of elementary students and preservice teachers; and (2) By teaching science as soon as students begin their educational program–preschool if possible– and continuing to integratr science throughout their academic career. One successful budding science program that is described in this article as an example resides in a growing rural agricultural community in Sanger, California. Sanger Unified is an award winning school district that serves a student population where 82% of its students are minorities and 24% of the students are English Language Learners–and they are closing the achievement gap. Partnerships between school districts and teacher education programs like the one between Sanger Unified and California State University, Fresno, provide rich "soil" for the growth of students and teacher candidates. The article concludes by saying that planting, tending, and nurturing cultivates a bountiful harvest of strong students, strong teacher candidates, strong educators, strong teacher education professors, and strong administrators… and it all begins with planting the seed early in a child's education career. Additional resources, "Connecting to the Standards" and "Common Core State Standards Connection," are provided. [More] Descriptors: Elementary School Science, Science Instruction, Educational Practices, Educational Strategies
(2014). Beyond Comparisons of Online versus Face-to-Face PD: Commentary in Response to Fishman et al., "Comparing the Impact of Online and Face-to-Face Professional Development in the Context of Curriculum Implementation", Journal of Teacher Education. With the adoption of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in English Language Arts (ELA) and math and the release and beginning adoptions of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), teachers, schools, and districts are clamoring for professional learning opportunities to refine and re-tool teaching to bring it in line with the reform visions in these documents. This increased need for professional development (PD) raises the question of the capacity of current systems of PD as well as the effectiveness of the most commonly used approaches. The nature of the new demands of these reforms and the scale of the need means that PD will have to use innovative approaches to handle the type of complex learning called for in these reforms, and will have to do so at scale (Wilson, 2013). Many may see online learning environments as part of a solution to address the scale issues, because of the ability to use this technology to reach broad audiences across a wide range of time-frames. There is interest in online or technology-mediated environments that promise certain kinds of functionality to support teachers in the complex work they are being asked to do (U.S. Department of Education, 2010). Wilson (2013) identifies the need to "harness new technologies and social media to make high-quality science PD available to all teachers" as one of the grand challenges in science education. In this commentary, the authors respond to the previous month's article about professional development, praising its contribution but calling for more nuanced consideration of specific program designs to support adoption of a new science curriculum. Specifically, they argue that a corollary to the challenge of access is the challenge of developing research-based design principles to guide the ongoing development, implementation, and evaluation efforts in online PD to meet these new, complex demands in teacher learning. [More] Descriptors: Educational Innovation, Faculty Development, Online Courses, Educational Technology
(2014). Rounds Process: Puts Teachers in Charge of Learning, Journal of Staff Development. Most people are familiar with the practice of medical rounds, in which interns and mentoring physicians visit patients in an institutional setting, observe their various conditions, discuss what they observed, and analyze possible treatment options and outcomes. In the medical profession, making these rounds is viewed as a significant and highly important form of professional learning. While medical rounds for physicians and instructional rounds for teachers–called Teacher Rounds to distinguish it from the practice of rounds by administrators–are not precisely the same, the comparison is a shortcut way to begin thinking about what constitutes this kind of school-based professional learning. Teacher Rounds is a strategy many schools use as part of a comprehensive program for improving teaching and learning. Teacher Rounds is based on these core assumptions about what it takes to create a culture of professional growth and learning: (1) Teaching practice is best when it is public and collaborative; (2) Teaching is strongest when teachers collect data and act on it rather than rely on intuitive judgments; (3) Teachers who are self-reflective about their teaching are more effective teachers; (4) Significant improvements in teaching practice occur slowly, in small steps; and (5) Development of teacher leadership improves instruction. The practice of Teacher Rounds is professional learning that embodies all of these assumptions. This article describes the reasons why Teacher Rounds is so effective, how Teacher Rounds aligns with the Standards of Professional Learning and opens the door to the the Common Core State Standards, and provides detailed steps on how to implement the Teacher Rounds process. [More] Descriptors: Teacher Role, Faculty Development, Teacher Improvement, Teacher Collaboration
(2014). Overview: State Definitions of College and Career Readiness, College and Career Readiness and Success Center. The purpose of this overview is to highlight select common elements of state definitions of "college and career readiness." Although preparing students for postgraduation opportunities has long been a priority for states, districts, and schools, a burgeoning global economy and ongoing labor market shifts call for renewed attention to the readiness requirements for student success in this changing postsecondary landscape. The current domestic workforce demands employees who can fill middle-and high-skills jobs that require a combination of technical and academic skills (Carnevale, Smith, & Strohl, 2010). However, employers struggle to find such qualified workers (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2013). A definition of college and career readiness can help build an understanding of what these skills are, by highlighting the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of learners who are prepared for postsecondary success. In addition, these definitions can guide educators' efforts to identify which students are on track to succeed in the economy of the 21st century. Recent widespread adoption of the Common Core State Standards or other similar standards in English language arts and mathematics has furthered the conversation about what prepared students look like. The adoption of these standards and the Next Generation Science Standards are designed to set higher expectations for critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaborative skills across a range of academic subjects. As these standards create a set of academic expectations for college and career readiness, definitions of college and career readiness can reinforce these goals and set similar expectations in other areas of student performance. In addition, definitions can play an essential role in guiding states' efforts to achieve their visions for college and career readiness to ensure that students receive the multidimensional preparation necessary for success in the global economy. An appendix entitled, "College and Career Readiness: Actionable State Definitions," is included. [More] Descriptors: College Readiness, Career Readiness, Definitions, State Standards
(2014). Helping English Learners Rise to the Challenge of Complex Texts, WestEd. The idea that secondary English language learner (ELL) students can master rigorous academic content quickly and deeply goes against much accepted wisdom in the field, but Aída Walqui–the author and Director of WestEd's Teacher Professional Development Program, which houses the Quality Teaching for English Learners (QTEL) initiative–and her colleagues have spent the past 14 years developing and helping educators implement an instructional approach with exactly that goal. QTEL's approach works on the premise that students will rise to the challenge of rigorous subject matter if it sparks their interest, if they receive appropriate support, and if academic content and academic English language skills are taught simultaneously, as a single, integrated process. However, to master this instructional approach, many teachers need to make dramatic shifts in their beliefs and practices. This article discusses a pilot study that was conducted in five urban school districts nationwide through a partnership between the Understanding Language (UL) initiative at Stanford University and the Teacher Professional Development Program at WestEd. For field testing purposes, curriculum developers designed a five-week, Common Core State Standards-aligned English language arts unit on persuasive text and media messages that was aimed at raising learning expectations and experiences for ELL students and their non-ELL peers. One of the key lessons learned from implementation of the unit is that, although teachers can readily add productive activities to their instructional repertoire as a result of this training, more than just a few hours of professional development are needed to make deep and coherent changes to long-held instructional beliefs and practices. [This article was first published in WestEd's R&D Alert, Vol. 14, No.3, 2014.] [More] Descriptors: English Language Learners, Secondary School Students, Instructional Innovation, Pilot Projects
(2014). Professional Learning Academy: Supporting District Implementation of Early Childhood Policy. CEELO FastFact, Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes. Local education agencies (LEAs) are working to manage and maintain commitment and enthusiasm to numerous initiatives mandated by the state to improve student success. The rapid pace of scaling up many initiatives at once often leads to relying on local administrators and educators to interpret and unpack the complexity of implementing these mandates. Not all LEAs are well equipped to do that effectively. The Early Childhood Academy (EC Academy) professional learning community was developed collaboratively by staff from The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), The Center for Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes (CEELO) and the NJ Department of Education (NJDOE), in response to the need to support LEAs in effectively implementing new policies in early childhood. The goal of the EC Academy is to build a community of practice among New Jersey school districts to provide support in their understanding of critical topics and their application to early childhood. This is done in collaboration with the State Education Agency (SEA) to support LEAs in implementing initiatives effectively in early childhood settings. The focus is on building a common understanding and implementation of three key policy reforms: early childhood quality and program improvement, teacher evaluation, and Common Core State Standards. The Academy provides an opportunity for districts to come together to discuss these critical topics guided by literature, expert presentations, district presentations, and facilitated discussions across and within districts. This "FastFact" discusses what is known about LEAs, how the EC Academy was structured, and the impact the Academy had on relationships, knowledge and understanding, instruction, and policy. The report concludes with next steps for LEAs participating in this year of the EC Academy. [More] Descriptors: Early Childhood Education, Educational Policy, Communities of Practice, Faculty Development
(2014). On the Factorial Structure of the SAT and Implications for Next-Generation College Readiness Assessments, Educational and Psychological Measurement. The name "SAT" has become synonymous with college admissions testing; it has been dubbed "the gold standard." Numerous studies on its reliability and predictive validity show that the SAT predicts college performance beyond high school grade point average. Surprisingly, studies of the factorial structure of the current version of today's SAT, revised in 2005, have not been reported, if conducted. One purpose of this study was to examine the factorial structure of two administrations of the SAT (October 2010 and May 2011), testing competing models (e.g., one-factor–general ability; two factor–mathematics and "literacy"; three factor–mathematics, critical reading, and writing). We found support for the two-factor model with revise-in-context writing items loading on (and bridging) a reading and writing factor equally, thereby bridging these factors into a literacy factor. A second purpose was to draw tentative implications of our finding for the "next generation" SAT or other college readiness exams in light of Common Core State Standards Consortia efforts, suggesting that combining critical reading and writing (including the essay) would offer unique revision opportunities. More specifically, a reading and writing (combined) construct might pose a relevant problem or issue with multiple documents to be used to answer questions about the issue(s) (multiple-choice, short answer) and to write an argumentative/analytical essay based on the documents provided. In this way, there may not only be an opportunity to measure students' literacy but also perhaps students' critical thinking–key factors in assessing college readiness. [More] Descriptors: College Readiness, College Admission, College Entrance Examinations, Factor Analysis
(2014). Regulation and Recognition in Education Discourses, Studies in Art Education: A Journal of Issues and Research in Art Education. In December of 2010, blogger Michael Fischer created Common CoreZilla as a referent to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and as a forum to talk about teachers' fears regarding curricular change and new regulatory requirements. "Common CoreZilla" has served as both an icon of terror and a promise of manageability, yet, despite this, the Godzilla metaphor aptly signals the unease that CCSS and the network of regulations they are part of is creating. This commentary further considers CCSS and the network of related assessments within which it is embedded. Concerns about what is important for students, teachers, and society are voiced but occur at the periphery of regulated actions which are already codified through states' requirements and supported by the U. S. federal government. Left out are ways that students create meanings by bringing their histories, perspectives, experiences, and values to the art. There is no space for the student to impact the body of knowledge, only for the body of knowledge to determine and position the student as dictated by the admonition to surrender to the work. Thomas then explores the avenues of education discourse taking place that allows teachers to develop insight into the regulatory process and relieve their unease with their positions in it. Thomas concludes that the important work is to face the ways that accepting authoritative discourses in general, and the current discourse in particular, entails enacting the identity components they demand, and to ask critical questions about the degree to which those are in conflict with other, important parts of ourselves, and how our enactments make us complicit in the effects they have on students. [More] Descriptors: Academic Standards, State Standards, Educational Assessment, Art Education
(2014). Leading from the Front of the Classroom: A Roadmap to Teacher Leadership That Works. In this paper, Leading Educators and the Aspen Institute propose a roadmap to empower teachers to lead from the front of the classroom. This paper outlines key phases that system administrators will need to consider as they build teacher leadership systems that address their highest priorities. For each phase, the Aspen Institute offers a narrative description, high-impact action steps, common missteps, and discussion questions for further exploration. To clarify how system leaders can apply this paper, the opportunities for teacher leadership as well as its challenges, are examined and trends from organizations that have been working to implement effective teacher leadership are analyzed. Highlighted are current innovations, from emerging pilots to mature programs. These profiles–which include initiatives at the school, district, charter management organization, and state levels–focus on teacher leadership as a means for improving instructional capacity, school structure, and student culture. The approaches vary: an urban school district built a career ladder to facilitate professional growth and retention; a charter network uses teacher leadership to create and sustain aspirational student and staff cultures; a state education agency relies on teacher leaders to improve implementation of the Common Core State Standards. These efforts share an underlying conviction of the need to leverage the talents of our best teachers for all stake holders. Appended are: (1) Teacher Leadership Sounds Valuable But–Questions and Responses; (2) Steps for Teacher Leadership that Works; and (3) Additional Resources. [This paper was written with the writing and editing contributions of Walter Stern, Chong-Hao Fu, Maria Bourgeois, and Steph Bates.] [More] Descriptors: Teacher Leadership, Teacher Empowerment, Program Implementation, State Standards
(2014). Information Fuels Support for School Reform, Education Next. The Common Core State Standards initiative (CCSS) seeks to "provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn" at various grade levels. For some education observers, CCSS will finally clarify for students, parents, and educators what students need to know and be able to do if they are to be prepared for college or a career. For others, CCSS interferes with local control of schools, limits teacher creativity, and diverts classroom time and energy away from instruction to test preparation. But as pundits and practitioners thrust and parry over these issues, they may be overlooking the potential impact of CCSS on public perceptions of school quality and public support for school reforms. Recently, the state of New York embraced CCSS, and in the process adopted a much higher definition of proficiency. When the new test results were released, the percentage of students identified as proficient in math dropped from 65 to 31, and in English from 55 to 31. The gap between white and minority students remained wide, as only 16 percent of black students and 18 percent of Hispanic students were deemed proficient in English. The results ignited debate in New York City's mayoral campaign, where candidates searched for ways to differentiate themselves from the Bloomberg administration's education agenda. Are the developments in New York unique to that state? Or is there reason to think that rigorous national standards, with accompanying measures of student performance, have the power to generate the political attention needed to refocus public opinion? To shed light on this topic, experimental results from the 2013 "Education Next" poll, which consists of a representative sample of the American public, and which was conducted under the auspices of the Harvard Program on Education Policy and Governance, are evaluated in this article. [More] Descriptors: Access to Information, Educational Change, State Standards, Academic Standards
(2014). Expecting the Best: The Essential Lesson for Teachers, Odyssey: New Directions in Deaf Education. Carl Williams writes in this article that effective teachers possess a repertoire of critical skills associated with student achievement. As one might expect, these skills relate to planning, implementing, and evaluating instruction. However, there is one indispensable component that is not a skill in the traditional sense; nonetheless, it is an essential dimension of the learning process. Williams is referring to high expectations and ensuring that teachers are able to sustain them as they teach in the classroom. High expectations are significant because teachers' expectations influence their actions and, by extension, student learning. Williams believes then, the challenge for teacher education programs is to prepare teachers to have high expectations. He believes that in order to achieve this outcome, teacher education programs can address positive expectations as an integral part of their programs of study. Rigorous content in the deaf education classroom seems especially appropriate to him in light of the fact that 90 percent of the states have adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which seek to elevate academic achievement to ensure that students are well prepared for the demands of college and careers. Undeniably, a higher standard of learning necessitates a higher standard of teaching. Since the CCSS challenge students to pursue deeper levels of thought in the learning process, teachers will need to be able to implement instruction that promotes higher thinking skills. The article closes by reminding the reader that ethical teachers have high standards for their students, and that this is one of the most valuable lessons future teachers of deaf and hard of hearing students must learn. [More] Descriptors: Teacher Expectations of Students, Educational Practices, Deafness, Partial Hearing
(2014). GED 21st Century Learning Pathways Pilots. Final Report, MDRC. For the nearly 39 million U.S. adults who do not have a high school diploma, the General Educational Development (GED) programs and exam have served as the main avenue for improving individuals' skills and helping them earn a high school credential. However, few students who start these programs ever get this credential, and even fewer advance to the postsecondary education and higher-level training programs that could increase their earning potential. In response to this challenge, the American Council on Education (ACE) partnered with Pearson Inc. to release a new more rigorous GED test in 2014 that assessed the crucial thinking, writing, and analytical skills considered essential for success in today's labor market. In addition, ACE partnered with the New York City Department of Education's District 79 (D79), Office for Adult and Continuing Education (OACE), and MDRC to create the Learning Pathways Pilots, a project aimed at improving students' preparation for this new more rigorous exam. The pilots focused on revising a K-12 writing curriculum (based on the Writers Express [WEX]) and an adult basic education math curriculum (based on Extending Mathematical Power [EMPower]) to align with the Common Core State Standards. This report details the findings from MDRC's evaluation of the implementation of these curricula over the course of the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 academic years. Overall, the study found that the curricula were implemented broadly throughout both school districts and reached thousands of students. While the Learning Pathways Pilots were successful in implementing more rigorous curricula in adult education classrooms, the experience also points to several ways that adult education practices might be modified to further facilitate new curricular reforms. These include the development of shorter lesson sequences that align with adult students' attendance patterns; providing additional out-of-classroom support to give absent students the opportunity to work on course materials; and increasing faculty participation in decision-making about curricula, which may foster instructors' ownership of reforms. [More] Descriptors: High School Equivalency Programs, Tests, Thinking Skills, Writing Skills