Marissa Filderman and Jessica Toste, two university professors who research multisyllabic word reading interventions, joined us to discuss what we know about teaching students to read long words. Marissa is an assistant professor at the University of Alabama and researches literacy interventions for students with and at risk for learning disabilities, with an emphasis on data-based decision-making. Jessica is an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin. She focuses on effective interventions for students with and at risk for reading disabilities, as well as how to intensify interventions through data-based instruction.

Misconceptions in multisyllabic reading

As Marissa and Jessica note, there are several misconceptions about multisyllabic reading and how to approach teaching young children how to read longer, more difficult words.

The first misconception is that instruction should center primarily on syllables. Marissa recommends not getting too hung up on syllable rules because many of them “are very rigid and they don’t always apply.” For example, teaching students to divide a word with a VCV pattern (like pilot or travel) before the first consonant and pronouncing the first vowel as a long vowel only works about half the time, according to research on the usefulness of syllable division patterns by Devin Kearns. “It can be more confusing for a reader who already has a lot of difficulty with just decoding in general to also think about those rules,” Marissa adds.

“There’s also often a misconception that foundational reading instruction and knowledge of grapheme–phoneme correspondence and decoding skills translate automatically into multisyllabic word reading,” Jessica says. But a young reader having a good grasp of the alphabet and the sounds each letter makes isn’t enough.

Foundational reading skills, including phonics and word recognition, are critical but they are not enough on their own. Jessica explains that kids need to be helped in taking decoding to the next level: “Students really need to be taught, and students who struggle especially need to be taught—explicitly—how those skills scale up. They’ve been effective for them before. Now how can they use those skills to move from identifying and pronouncing individual letter sounds to identifying and pronouncing word parts to read more complex words? Students need this continued instruction as the words they are being exposed to become more complex and don’t always follow the rules they’ve been practicing in previous instruction.”

Another misconception is that foundational skills never need revisiting. That may be true for some students, but definitely not all. “There’s a careful balance we have to find with ongoing foundational skills instruction,” Jessica explains. For some students, “we need to continue to review vowel patterns and practice flexing vowel sounds while supporting students in decoding multisyllabic words. They need continued practice with those grapheme–phoneme correspondences so that they can apply them fluently and automatically every time they’re reading a word.”

Finally, there is sometimes confusion about the role of reading longer texts, as opposed to reading multisyllabic words in isolation. “It’s important to always read connected text in reading instruction, to always move from isolated word reading to connected text, even if you only have time for a few sentences to read at the end of a lesson,” Jessica advises.

6 ways to help kids with multisyllabic word reading

The following six strategies can help you approach multisyllabic word reading with your students:

1. Ensure students have prerequisite skills. The first step in approaching multisyllabic words with your students is to confirm they’re ready for the added level of complexity. “Make sure students have prerequisite skills, that they know vowel sounds and consonant sounds, and that they can recognize most grapheme correspondences,” Marissa says.
2. Focus on affixes. Marissa recommends explicitly teaching the pronunciation and meaning of affixes. “And continue to review all the affixes you’ve taught regularly,” she adds. Teaching students to quickly identify and “peel off” prefixes and suffixes within words can help students begin to recognize both pronunciation and meaning of larger chunks as they encounter more unfamiliar words.
3. Practice chunking. Because syllable rules can be inconsistent and confusing, Marissa recommends chunking, either by using the vowel in a word or the morpheme. “Students might use the short or the long form of that vowel sound to read the word,” Marissa says. Teachers can also help students chunk by using morphemes and affixes. “One of the most important things when focusing on multisyllabic words is really building morphological knowledge through breaking words into meaningful parts to make them easier to read,” Marissa explains. The “peel off” strategy is useful when chunking, too.
4. Make a game of reading multisyllabic words. It’s easy for multisyllabic reading instruction to get a little dry, so Marissa recommends getting playful. “After having structured practice with assembling and blending word parts to read multisyllabic words, I like to gamify this,” she says. “Students can play with the words in a sort of game format that’s fun, fast paced, and engaging. […] Introduce a select number of base words you think might work in your particular instructional context. Have students attach or build onto those base words with prefixes or suffixes. Have them point and say each word part and then blend the word parts and say the whole word.”
5. Move on to fluency when kids are ready. “For word reading fluency practice,” Marissa advises, “I like to use targeted word lists until students get really comfortable. I recommend you focus on certain patterns that you want to work with in those word lists, or certain affixes. Your word list can become more complex as you go.” Some of that playful approach she mentioned earlier can work well with fluency, too. “There can be a timed component of this practice as well, if that’s helpful to students. Or you can have a tracking component where they track their own performance every time they read a word list and see if their fluency is improving over time.”
6. Practice words in context. Just as Jessica noted, students need time to practice reading more than just isolated words. “Just like with any foundational skills instruction lesson, we always move from reading practice with words in isolation to words in connected text, and doing a lot of practice with connected text,” Marissa says. “This can look like sentences where the affixes you’re learning appear and multisyllabic words that you’ve been practicing move into passages as well.”

Serving students well

The crucial bridge for students from basic phonics to fluent word reading often goes overlooked. Consider reaching out to your leaders for any additional support you might need for your students. I recommend the following:

• Ensure your school has materials to help students read long words. The lessons Jessica uses in her research are available for free online, and they have been shown to be effective for older students who need more instruction in advanced word reading.
• Request professional learning opportunities around advanced word reading, and job-embedded coaching to answer ongoing questions and help you strengthen your practice. NWEA offers a professional learning workshop titled “Grades K–5: Building Fluent Readers” that’s a great place to start.
• Explore assessment options. If older students are not meeting benchmarks on your school’s reading comprehension assessment, consider using a follow-up assessment, like MAP® Reading Fluency, that can help you better understand if students are struggling with word recognition or language comprehension. If students are having difficulty with word recognition in the upper grades, make sure their intervention addresses this in a systematic way.

Reading long words fluently opens the doors to a limitless world of learning opportunities through rich and complex texts for students. To hear more from Marissa and Jessica, watch our videos.

The post 6 strategies for teaching multisyllabic word reading appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Attending school is important. So much so that in January, the Biden administration recommended increasing student attendance as one of its three evidence-based strategies that improve student learning.

What the research tells us about chronic absenteeism

In a new research paper, Jing Liu, Monica Lee, and I show that academic behaviors— including showing up to school regularly—are highly predictive of three longer-term outcomes:

• Graduating from high school
• Attending a four-year college
• Persisting in college more than one year

We used detailed longitudinal data from ninth-graders in a large urban school district in California to evaluate the degree to which observable academic behaviors and student self-reported social-emotional learning (SEL) skills predict future educational attainment.

We defined “academic behaviors” as behaviors students exhibit in school, including attendance, chronic absenteeism, and rule-breaking resulting in suspension. Our definition for “SEL” is in line with the definition published by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL): “SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.” We compared academic behaviors, including full- and part-day school absenteeism and suspensions, in ninth grade against SEL measures including self-management, self-efficacy, growth mindset, and social awareness.

Overall, the academic behaviors were much more predictive than SEL skills across the three longer-term outcomes. Specifically, we found that conditional on students’ achievement and demographic characteristics, ninth-grade academic behaviors were seven times more predictive of high school graduation, and two to three times better at predicting college attendance and persistence. Among the various academic behaviors, part-day absenteeism, or class skipping, is the most highly predictive of the longer-term outcomes.

In the sections below, I break down three important lessons for policymakers looking to understand—and ultimately improve—student outcomes.

1. Academic behaviors are easier to measure than SEL

Our research found that academic behaviors and SEL skills are related and that a student’s self-perceptions can manifest through academic behaviors such as attending school regularly and avoiding disciplinary infractions. Conversely, disengagement is commonly linked to feelings of isolation or lack of support, bullying, and a lack of sense of safety. Furthermore, schools with exclusionary discipline policies tend to have students with lower rates of academic connection and sense of belonging in their classrooms. On the positive side, programs focused on SEL development and restorative justice practices have led to reductions in absenteeism and/or suspensions.

However, academic behaviors and SEL are also not perfectly correlated, and they typically vary in terms of how the data is collected and the intended uses by districts. For example, we found that academic behaviors are far easier to collect since many states and districts already mandate the collection of most or all the necessary data.

Ninth-grade academic behaviors were more than seven times more predictive for high school graduation than the self-reported SEL scores.

Our study was only possible thanks to our district partner collecting survey responses on four SEL constructs:

• Growth mindset
• Self-efficacy
• Self-management
• Social awareness

The district administered an annual survey asking students to respond to a maximum of eight questions for each of the four SEL constructs, including how much they agreed with statements like the ones that follow:

• “I am capable of learning anything.”
• “I can do well on all my tests, even when they’re difficult.”

The district in our study was already collecting this data, but cost may be a barrier for less-resourced schools and districts. We observed a 67% response rate on the SEL survey.

In contrast, the academic behavior data we used may already be collected by many states and districts. Chronic absenteeism is easily observable and measurable for all students, making it less challenging than other measures to use as a proxy for disengagement. Attendance is marked daily, if not multiple times a day, for high school students and it is kept as administrative data. Additionally, school staff also tend to mark reasons why a student has missed school, such as for excused and unexcused reasons; this helps provide an understanding of whether the absence occurred due to legitimate reasons.

In sum, academic behaviors are easier to measure than SEL skills, but little is known about whether measures of SEL skills uniquely predict educational attainment such that their inclusion in early warning systems or accountability models would provide valuable information above and beyond typically included measures like absenteeism rates.

2.Academic behaviors were more predictive than SEL skills

The research literature consistently finds that attendance, discipline rates, and completion of certain high-stakes academic coursework are the strongest predictors of high school graduation above and beyond standardized test scores. We extended these results by comparing academic behaviors and SEL skills.

We found the predicted variance was much higher for academic behaviors, regardless of which long-run outcome we use. The chart below, figure 1 in our paper, shows the results. The predictive power of SEL skills is in black, compared to the observable academic behaviors in dark gray. In light gray we show a model that combined both sets of measures.

As the chart shows, ninth-grade academic behaviors were more than seven times more predictive for high school graduation than the self-reported SEL scores. This contrast becomes weaker for the longer-term outcomes like college attendance and college persistence, but academic behaviors still exhibit predictive power two to three times larger than SEL skills. The chart also shows that SEL skills added very little predictive value over and above the measures of attendance and other behaviors (the light gray versus the dark gray bars). Academic behaviors were better as a standalone measure, and they largely capture any unique contributions the SEL survey added.

Unfortunately, all our measures of noncognitive skills got weaker the further out we looked. When trying to predict college persistence, models that included academic behaviors, SEL skills, or both did little better than provide a baseline model that used only student demographics and ninth-grade GPA data. Importantly, we did see one notable difference when we looked across student groups: academic behaviors were once again much better predictors of high school graduation rates for low-achieving students, but we also found suggestive evidence that SEL skills played a bigger role for the postsecondary success of lower-performing students.

3. Policymakers may want to consider looking at partial attendance

As policymakers work to address the current spike in chronic absenteeism, our research suggests they should also look more closely at partial attendance. Students who miss only a class or part of the day may not show up in the chronic absenteeism numbers, but they may still be at risk of longer-term consequences.

Our data was pre-pandemic, and in our sample the average student missed about six full school days during ninth grade. (These numbers likely pale in comparison to the current absenteeism spike.) In contrast, part-day absenteeism was much more prevalent: the average student accrued about 17 part-day absences, or close to three times as many as full-day absences.

Moreover, part-day absences were a stronger predictor of longer-term outcomes than full-day absences were. The effects were especially large for our two post-secondary outcomes, which suggests that more granular measures of academic behaviors, which might already exist in existing school administrative data systems, could provide more useful information about student future academic trajectories that is currently not captured by more crude, commonly used measures such as full-day absences or suspensions.

In closing

Our study results should not be taken as evidence that SEL skills don’t matter, and we hope practitioners continue their efforts to measure and promote SEL skills. However, our findings start to unveil the untapped potential of developing more fine-grained behavioral measures, which are already being collected by school administrative data systems.

Given how strongly partial-day absenteeism predicts long-run outcomes, policymakers should consider tracking and monitoring it more closely than most currently do. Other academic behaviors, such as tardiness, office discipline referrals, and participation in extracurricular activities, are also relatively easy to measure and potentially contain rich information about students.

The post 3 considerations on chronic absenteeism for education policymakers appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Fortunately, I sought guidance from my coaching network and resources. Over time, I honed my skills in facilitating meetings with principals and central office leaders, even finding opportunities to “coach up” when appropriate. Through conversations with my fellow coaches, a recurring question also emerged: How can we build credibility, not only with teachers but also with our principals and other leaders? We settled on five strategies.

1. Demonstrate reliability

Recent years have seen higher levels of turnover and burnout among school leaders. As an instructional coach, it’s crucial to consistently demonstrate that you are not just a collaborator but also an instructional leader. Here are some simple ways to do that:

• Show up to meetings on time, or even a little early
• Meet your deadlines
• Respond promptly to messages
• Proactively address challenges

These small actions, especially when done consistently, will prove to your principal that you can be trusted in times of need.

2. Take charge

It can catch coaches off guard when they are expected to lead meetings with their principals. I encourage you to consider this an opportunity to showcase your leadership coaching skills.

Establish ongoing meetings with your principal, ideally for at least 30 minutes per week. Craft a deliberate agenda ahead of time, relieving your principal of the burden of leading yet another meeting. Doing both of these things will help establish you as a trusted collaborator.

Here’s a suggested structure for a 45-minute meeting from The EduCoach Survival Guide: Tips, Tools, Inspiration and an Occasional Escape Hatch:

• Share successes (5 min)
• Hear the principal’s most pressing concerns (10 min)
• Engage in mutual problem-solving (10 min)
• Share brief progress report (5 min)
• Discuss teaching practices (10 min)
• Review next steps (5 min)

3. Honor confidentiality

Just as with coaching teachers, it’s essential for principals to know that information discussed in coach–principal meetings will be kept confidential. This doesn’t mean engaging in conversations that judge or gossip about teachers. Many school leaders report feelings of isolation and require trusted advisors who can listen to their challenges. Ideally, coaches and principals should establish agreements on what information should remain confidential at the beginning of the year and revisit these agreements periodically.

4. Ask questions and listen

When coaching a principal, employ the same communication skills you use when working with teachers. This includes asking open and closed questions as well as providing space for the principal to respond.

Many coaches may feel compelled to go through a checklist during their time with their principal due to the abundance of information they want to share. However, building trust is best achieved by demonstrating coaching skills in the moment. When you transition to the second item on the agenda I shared earlier (“Hear the principal’s most pressing concerns”), start with the question, “Given the time we have today, what is most pressing for us to discuss?” Transition to your time for talking about next steps by asking, “What was most useful about our time together today?”

5. Care personally

Remember that principals are humans, too. Before diving into your agenda, take a moment to inquire about their weekend, their family, or their hobbies. By showing genuine care for your principal’s well-being, you can often find common ground.

Listening attentively is also key. Kim Scott, author of Radical Candor, explains that caring personally involves “listening to people more than anything else. Of course, listen to their hopes, their fears, their dreams, but also listen to their ideas for improving the team, the work, the environment… You just have to ask.”

Closing thoughts

By implementing these strategies, instructional coaches can effectively establish credibility not only with teachers but also with their principals and other leaders. Building strong relationships and trust is essential for fostering a collaborative and supportive school culture.

To learn more about instructional coaching services available through NWEA, visit our website.

The post 5 ways an instructional coach can build credibility when coaching leaders appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

But how exactly do you go about differentiating in a way that plays to students’ strengths while also challenging them to improve where they need it? It’s easy enough to say that all students deserve instruction that recognizes and meets their individual needs. But we can’t just snap our fingers and “make it so” at a time of stubbornly low rates of academic growth, increasing inequities, and the lingering effects of the pandemic. And it’s not just students who need dedicated support—our busy teachers need it, too.

That’s why NWEA—committed to making sure teachers have the resources they need to succeed—launched the High Growth for All project, featuring a suite of actionable tactics called the Transformative Ten. High Growth for All started with a deep dive into MAP® Growth assessment data from 700,000 students in 24,500 public schools. Combing through this data, NWEA researchers identified four highly effective teachers at two high-growth schools, conducted extensive interviews and additional data collection, and documented the best practices that have proven to be effective in these schools. These best practices informed what we are now calling the Transformative Ten.

You may sometimes feel alone in your classroom, but so many of your peers are grappling with the same issues.

One of these tactics, differentiating tasks within a unit, seeks to help teachers navigate the tricky task of giving each student the personalized instruction and learning opportunities they need to thrive, while continuing to provide all students with access to grade-level content.

To help you put this tactic into practice, I’d like to share four straightforward and impactful tips drawn from my experience working with superintendents, principals, and professional learning communities. I’ve gotten a firsthand look at the obstacles teachers face in meeting the instructional challenges of our time—and I’ve also seen the brilliant and inspired work teachers are doing in this area.

1. Start with the evidence of “who”

It may sound obvious, but determining exactly which students need which types of support is a crucial first step before you begin to differentiate instruction. And while there’s a lot to be said for teachers’ intuition—they do, after all, know their students better than just about anyone—doing this correctly involves more than simply making a judgment call. We all have our blind spots and biases. Like my son, there are an awful lot of students out there who don’t fit neatly into a “low” or “high” performing group, depending on the subject, and it does them a disservice to label or tag them as such. That’s why, before assigning students into differentiated learning groups, you need clarity on their preparedness for specific tasks within a larger subject area.

And how exactly do you gain this kind of clarity? My best advice is simply this: Look to the data. There’s so much valuable evidence to be gleaned from instruments like pretests, summative assessments, and interim assessments like MAP Growth, to name a few. The point isn’t to rely entirely on numbers, but rather to combine this quantitative information with your own intimate knowledge of the kids sitting at the desks in front of you. When you figure out how to bring quantitative and qualitative data together, you take a big leap in your ability to sort your students into the learning groups that are best tailored to their needs.

There’s no question that data can be a powerful and helpful asset—if we can only learn to trust it. As my colleague Lindsay Prendergast and I write in our forthcoming book, Habits of Resilient Educators: Strategies for Thriving During Times of Anxiety, Doubt, and Constant Change: “When paired with the quantity of decisions teachers find themselves facing on a daily, even hourly, basis, data can empower teachers to become masters of highly effective instruction and extraordinarily efficient users of a most precious resource: time.”

2. Create small groups

Have you noticed that students often feel more relaxed and confident working in small groups? And have you noticed that small-group work gives you an informal way to watch students more closely and see how the instruction they’re getting may or may not meet their needs? There’s so much a teacher can learn in these moments, simply by observing.

It takes time—valuable time—to form and manage small groups. But it’s worth it!

Nevertheless, there’s a persistent myth that tier-one instruction—the curriculum, instruction, and assessments given to all students at a given grade level—is somehow incompatible with small-group learning. Even though we can see the benefits of small-group learning with our own eyes, I’ve noticed a widespread assumption that when it comes to tier-one instruction, only the traditional “all eyes on teacher” model is appropriate.

I’d like to push back against this assumption. In fact, I’d argue that for all instructional groups—including tier one—the smaller, the better. I encourage you to keep this in mind at the start of each instructional unit. You can do some really great teaching in small groups. Your students can all be working on the same project within the same rubric, and you can deliver targeted support where it’s needed as they engage in this work.

When I see small groups in the classroom, I see more kids who are on task, more teachers with greater insight into how each kid is doing, and more overall growth. The challenge, of course, is that it takes time—valuable time—to form and manage small groups. But it’s worth it!

3. Know your standards

Many, if not most, of the teachers I know are multitasking geniuses. They manage busy classrooms, extensive to-do lists, and various priorities and directives handed down from the school or district level. It’s a juggling act they perform with great skill. But in my observations, there’s a common downside to multitasking: a lack of clarity and focus around the academic standards for which teachers are responsible.

Here’s how Lindsay Prendergast and I put it in our book: “It is common for teachers to know instructional groups of standards generally but not all of them masterfully. The powerful move of collectively and collaboratively unpacking and investigating standards allows all teachers to gain pedagogical tools and a deeper understanding of the appropriate level of rigor when instructing students. This practice of collectively analyzing standards allows teachers to fix their eyes on the goal of supporting growth and achievement for all students.”

Let’s bring this to life with an example. Say you have a literature standard that pertains to identifying the character and setting of a book. This is a simple enough task, but you’re excited about the material and your mind is racing ahead not only to other standards, but also to your own ideas for what you’d like your students to know. You may be tempted to launch into the lesson with a discussion of other elements—the front and back cover, the title page, the author, the illustrator—before getting to the standard. All these things can and should be covered, but you need a game plan.

To home in on standards and make them second nature, I recommend two powerful tools that you already have in your toolkit: conversation and collaboration. By getting together with your peers and sharing what you know while remaining open to their insights, you can all benefit from collective teacher efficacy, a concept that’s been studied and affirmed by numerous educators and researchers.

Maybe you have a knack for informational standards and you’ve become skilled at differentiating instruction of these standards in your classroom. Bring what you know to a professional learning community, and you will probably find that others have brought different but equally valuable perspectives, tips, and tricks to the table. You can use these collaborative environments to drill down into the substance of what you’re teaching this year. Try breaking down clusters of standards in particular units with graphical tools like T-charts (yes, T-charts can be for teachers, too), for example.

One final note on getting the upper hand on standards: Make it a daily practice. Start each day in the classroom by getting as clear as possible about your learning intentions for the day, and know when your strengths—e.g., multitasking skill, adaptability—could also inadvertently cause you to lose focus. Identify which standard, or which part of a standard, has the potential to deliver the most impact for the day, and be sure to hit that one first.

4. Get support—and get vulnerable

I know the tactics to differentiate instruction I’ve described so far aren’t just minor adjustments or quick fixes. It might sound like a lot of work. That’s why the last tactic I’d like to share is one that will make the other three possible. To put yourself and your students on the strongest footing possible, I encourage you to seek out, use, and trust the resources available to you.

Start each day in the classroom by getting as clear as possible about your learning intentions.

It’s understandable when teachers, who usually (and for good reason) feel they know their students best, strike out on their own with their own materials. But they—and their students—may miss out on readily available, evidence-based instructional resources that are getting better all the time. Our mission of partnering to help all kids learn reflects the importance of getting these resources into teachers’ hands and fostering the equal opportunities that kids deserve. However, to be frank, there is currently a gap between the availability of superb resources and teachers’ willingness to use them. I encourage you to be open in this regard. You may be pleasantly surprised.

That said, resources are best thought of as a menu, not a script you have to follow. Order from the menu as you see fit. You can find resources to help guide you through all phases of instruction, from whole-group to independent to small-group learning. If you find yourself thinking that every step you take to seek out resources or support has an associated cost in terms of your time, you’re right. There’s no denying that. But just as your second year of teaching was probably a bit easier than your first, the investment you make in reaching out for support will pay dividends over time.

Finally, remember that no teacher is an island. You may sometimes feel alone in your classroom, but so many of your peers are grappling with the same issues. Be vulnerable and give yourself permission to seek out support. Tell your principal what your goals are and what you need. Your administrative leadership may already have prioritized getting more curriculum-based resources into teachers’ hands and will do what they can to facilitate this for you or offer incentives to stretch yourself in this way. Find other teachers in your building who seem to have figured some of this out already. And, of course, as you learn from others, you can share your own expertise, too.

Putting it all together

As you ponder the ideas I’ve shared above and how you might be able to put them to work in your classroom, there are a few additional pitfalls and key principles to consider:

• Beware the implementation dip. We know from research that in the immediate aftermath of rolling out a new resource or instructional strategy, academic data may temporarily move in the wrong direction. But we’ve also learned the importance of sticking with it.
• Differentiating instruction does not mean lowering rigor. We want to accommodate all our students, but that doesn’t mean bringing the overall standard down to a point where our grade-level and advanced students no longer have what they need to feel engaged.
• Set ambitious, achievable goals. As Lindsay and I write in our book, “clear and attainable goals allow students to have a vision of where they need to go while providing checkpoints along the way to help them monitor their progress and celebrate their small milestones toward academic growth.”
• Seek out feedback from supervisors, mentors, coaches, fellow teachers, parents and guardians, and students themselves. The great thing about feedback is that you get to decide how, when, and why to receive it—and how to integrate it into your work.

I invite you to learn more about High Growth for All, the Transformative Ten, and other resources to help you on your teaching journey. If you’ve got three minutes to spare, watch our video about differentiating tasks within a unit. And keep an eye out for other blog articles on the Transformative Ten strategies—all intended to help you bring these tactics to life in your classroom.

The post 4 research-backed ways to differentiate instruction  appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

There is no shortage of formative assessment strategies, techniques, and tools available to teachers who use formative instructional practice in their classrooms. Here is an extensive list of 75 digital tools, apps, and platforms that can help you and your students use formative assessment to elicit evidence of learning. We didn’t just add any old tool to this list. Here are the criteria we used for those that made the cut:

• Supports formative instructional strategies and ways to activate learners to be resources for themselves and peers
• Is free or awful close to it (under $10 per year, where possible)
• Allows both students and teachers to take the activator role when possible (sometimes teachers need to get things started)

Before you dig into the tools, I encourage you to spend some time thinking about exactly what you want to accomplish with your students. “How to pick the right digital tool: Start with your learning goal” by Erin Beard can help you wrap your head around goals and guide you in choosing the best tool for the task. “27 easy formative assessment strategies for gathering evidence of student learning” can help you decide what strategies work best for you and your students.

Record audio and video

1. Animoto Gives students the ability to make a 30-second video of what they learned in a lesson.
2. AudioNote A combination of a voice recorder and notepad, it captures both audio and notes for student collaboration.
3. Edpuzzle Helps you use video (your own, or one from Khan Academy, YouTube, and more) to track student understanding.
4. Flip Lets students use 15-second to 5-minute videos to respond to prompts. Teachers and peers can provide feedback.
5. QuickVoice Recorder Allows you to record classes, discussions, or audio for projects. Sync your recordings to your computer easily for use in presentations.
6. Vocaroo Creates audio recordings without the need for software. Embed the recording into slideshows, presentations, or websites.
7. WeVideo Lets you use video creatively to engage students in learning. Teachers and students alike can make videos.

Create quizzes, polls, and surveys

8. Crowdsignal Lets you create online polls, quizzes, and questions. Students can use smartphones, tablets, and computers to provide their answers, and information can be culled for reports.
9. Edulastic Allows you to make standards-aligned assessments and get instant feedback.
10. FreeOnlineSurveys Helps you create surveys, quizzes, forms, and polls.
11. Gimkit Lets you write real-time quizzes. And it was designed by a high school student!
12. Google Forms Part of the Google suite, Google Forms lets you create quizzes, polls, and surveys and see answers in real time.
13. Kahoot! A game-based classroom response system that lets you create quizzes using internet content.
14. MicroPoll Helps you create polls, embed them into websites, and analyze responses.
15. Naiku Lets you write quizzes students can answer using their mobile devices.
16. Poll Everywhere Lets you create a feedback poll or ask questions and see results in real time. Allows students to respond in various ways. With open-ended questions, you can capture data and spin up tag clouds to aggregate responses.
17. Poll Maker Offers unique features, like allowing multiple answers to one question.
18. ProProfs Helps you make quizzes, polls, and surveys.
19. Quia Lets you create games, quizzes, surveys, and more. Access a database of existing quizzes from other educators.
20. Quizalize Helps you create quizzes and homework.
21. Quizizz Guides you through designing quizzes and lets you include students in the quiz-writing process.
22. Quizlet Lets you make flashcards, tests, quizzes, and study games that are mobile friendly.
23. Quizmaker Helps you write quizzes quickly and easily.
24. Survey Hero Designed to build questionnaires and surveys.
25. SurveyMonkey Helpful for online polls and surveys.
26. SurveyPlanet Also helpful for online polls and surveys.
27. Zoho Survey Allows you to make mobile-friendly surveys and see results in real time.

Brainstorm, mind map, and collaborate

28. AnswerGarden A tool for online brainstorming and collaboration.
29. Coggle A mind-mapping tool designed to help you understand student thinking.
30. Conceptboard Software that facilitates team collaboration in a visual format, similar to mind mapping but using visual and text inputs.
31. Dotstorming A whiteboard app that allows digital sticky notes to be posted and voted on. This tool is best for generating class discussion and brainstorming on different topics and questions.
32. Educreations Whiteboard A whiteboard app that lets students share what they know.
33. iBrainstorm Lets students collaborate on projects using a stylus or their finger.
34. Miro Allows whole-class collaboration in real time.
35. Padlet Provides a blank canvas for students to create and design collaborative projects.
36. ShowMe Interactive Whiteboard Another whiteboard tool to check understanding.
37. XMind Mind-mapping software for use on desktop computers and laptops.
38. Equity Maps These discussion maps can help you ensure every student has a chance to share their ideas.

Present, engage, and inspire

39. BrainPOP Lets you use prerecorded videos on countless topics to shape your lesson plan, then use quizzes to see what stuck.
40. Buncee Helps students and teachers visualize, communicate, and engage with classroom concepts.
41. Five Card Flickr Uses the tag feature from photos in Flickr to foster visual thinking.
42. PlayPosit Allows you to add formative assessment features to a video from a library or popular sites, such as YouTube and Vimeo, to survey what students know about a topic.
43. RabbleBrowser Allows a leader to facilitate a collaborative browsing experience.
44. Random Name/Word Picker Facilitates random name picking. You can also add a list of keywords and use the tool to prompt students to guess words by providing definitions.
45. Socrative Uses exercises and games to engage students with a topic.
46. Adobe Express Lets you add graphics and visuals to exit tickets.
47. Typeform Helps you add graphical elements to polls.

Generate word or tag clouds

48. EdWordle Generates word clouds from any entered text to help aggregate responses and facilitate discussion. Word clouds are pictures composed of a cloud of smaller words that form a clue to the topic.
49. Tagxedo Allows you to examine student consensus and facilitate dialogues.
50. Wordables Helps you elicit evidence of learning or determine background knowledge about a topic.
51. WordArt Includes a feature that allows the user to make each word an active link to connect to websites, including YouTube.

Get real-time feedback

52. Formative Lets you assign activities, receive results in real time, and provide immediate feedback.
53. GoSoapBox Works with the bring-your-own-device model and includes an especially intriguing feature: a confusion meter.
54. IXL Breaks down options by grade level and content area.
55. Kaizena Gives students real-time feedback on work they upload. You can use a highlighter or give verbal feedback. You can also attach resources.
56. Mentimeter Allows you to use mobile phones or tablets to vote on any question a teacher asks, increasing student engagement.
57. Pear Deck Lets you plan and build interactive presentations that students can participate in via their smart device. It also offers unique question types.
58. Plickers Allows you to collect real-time formative assessment data without the need for student devices.
59. Quick Key Helps you with accurate marking, instant grading, and immediate feedback.

Foster family communication  

60. Remind Lets you text students and stay in touch with families.
61. Seesaw Helps you improve family communication and makes formative assessment easy, while students can use the platform to document their learning.
62. Voxer Lets you send recordings so families can hear how their students are doing, students can chat about their work, and you can provide feedback.

Strengthen teacher-to-student or student-to-student communication

63. AnswerGarden Gives you access to formative assessment feedback.
64. Biblionasium Lets you view books students have read, create reading challenges, and track progress. Students can also review and recommend books to their peers.
65. Classkick Helps you post assignments for students, and both you and your students’ peers can provide feedback. Students can also monitor their progress and work.
66. TeacherEase Rubrics. This paid tool can help you ensure your rubrics are clear and accurate.
67. Lino A virtual cork board of sticky notes, it lets students ask questions or make comments on their learning.
68. Online Stopwatch Provides dozens of themed digital classroom timers to use during small- and whole-group discussions.
69. Peergrade Helps you create assignments and upload rubrics. You can also anonymously assign peer review work. Students can upload and review work using the corresponding rubric.
70. Verso Lets you set up learning using a URL. Space is provided for directions. Students can add their assignment, post comments, and respond to comments. You can group responses and check engagement levels.
71. VoiceThread Allows you to create and share conversations on documents, diagrams, videos, pictures, and more.

Keep the conversation going with live chats

72. Yo Teach A backchannel site great for keeping the conversation going with students.
73. Chatzy Supports live, online chats in a private setting.

Create and store documents or assignments

74. Google Drive Google Drive allows you to create documents students can collaborate on in real time using smartphones, tablets, and laptops.
75. Piazza Lets you upload lectures, assignments, and homework; pose and respond to student questions; and poll students about class content. This tool is better suited for older students as it mimics post-secondary class instructional formats.

Learn more

There are several resources for learning more about formative assessment and responsive instruction strategies. Consider our formative practices workshops, where school and district teams can gain a better understanding of the role formative practice plays in instruction and the four foundational practices to use in the classroom. Or for a quick start, download our eBook “Making it work: How formative assessment can supercharge your practice.”

Jump in, try new tools and methods, and have fun!

The post 75 digital tools and apps teachers can use to support formative assessment in the classroom appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Dyslexia is another name for what schools call a specific learning disability in basic reading skills. It’s another way to say a student has a significant difficulty and needs more intensive intervention to learn to read and spell words. Fortunately, early screening for reading difficulties—leading to early, intensive intervention in reading and spelling—can help to lower later dyslexia identification rates in schools.

Sharing research with classroom teachers

Unfortunately, the many misconceptions that surround dyslexia can often hinder effective instructional practices. Recently, I had the opportunity to act as a guest editor with my friend and colleague Marissa Filderman for the special issue on dyslexia from Literacy Today, a magazine for educators from the International Literacy Association. Our goal was to provide a line of communication from researchers who study reading and interventions directly to classroom teachers and leaders. This magazine issue shares information directly from research on dyslexia to dispel myths, provide scientifically backed insights, and catalyze a shift in how we approach teaching students to read in schools today.

In the issue, researchers who study reading instruction, intervention, and difficulties directly translate their findings into what these mean for teachers and students. I’ll highlight some here, but I encourage you to check out the issue’s full contents online.

Approaches for early word reading

In the article “Early word reading and dyslexia: Strategies to help students achieve early reading success,” researcher Katherine O’Donnell explains specific strategies that can help teachers more effectively teach beginning reading skills to all students. She also highlights how students with beginning reading difficulties might struggle: recognizing and differentiating letter-sound correspondences, relying on context or pictures more heavily to read, or having difficulty reading fluently, which impacts their understanding of the text.

You may be familiar with popular approaches to teaching word-solving, such as the three-cueing method or the Beanie Baby reading strategy. Instead, Katherine suggests some specific research-backed steps for when students encounter an unknown word, such as breaking it down, applying phonics, and looking for prefixes and suffixes.

How to handle advanced word reading

In the article on advanced word reading skills, Laura Steacy and colleagues at Florida State University and the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR) describe what we know about teaching students moving into more advanced word reading in late elementary school. They point out the need for instruction to transition from the letter-sound level to larger chunks, such as syllables and morphemes. They also recommend training that helps students flexibly decode words. This could look like teaching students to try a long vowel sound if the short vowel sound doesn’t make sense, for example. If students read the word “travel” as “tray-vel,” they would be asked if this sounds like a word they know and flex to the vowel to “trav-el.” Allowing students to practice these skills with a variety of texts, not just highly decodable ones, allows students to transition to more skilled reading.

See “Cracking the code: Decoding, self-teaching, and dyslexia” by David Share and “Bridging the disconnect: The role of set for variability in word reading” by Ashley Edwards and colleagues in the same issue for more information on the importance of flexible decoding skills.

Advice on multilingual learners and dyslexia

Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan moves us to consider how the science of reading gives insight into supporting early literacy development for students with biliteracy skills in “Dyslexia and English learners: Supporting early literacy development and biliteracy skills.” She compares how word recognition skills, those that students with dyslexia have difficulties acquiring, develop in both Spanish and English.

Spanish has a more transparent orthography, or spelling system, than English. If students have learned some decoding skills in Spanish, they can transfer some knowledge and skills to English reading and spelling. Elsa notes that teachers can guide students to make cross-linguistic connections, explicitly pointing out similarities and differences in the sound–symbol relationships and the patterns in both languages. Her article includes a helpful table of sounds that transfer from Spanish to English, and I encourage you to print this for reference if you teach students who speak Spanish.

What should I do next?

I encourage you to continue to explore these practices and dive deeper into topics that have intrigued you. The direct line to researchers within this special issue of Literacy Today cuts out the noise and bypasses the game of telephone that happens all too often in the science of reading movement. Armed with this information, let’s find a way to take action. I encourage you to:

• Find one topic from this post you’d like to learn more about, then visit and read the article from the researcher on that topic so you can discuss the findings and practices with other literacy leaders in your building or district.
• Consider bringing evidence-aligned, practical literacy learning to your school or district through our professional learning offerings, including workshops on two of the instructional areas featured here: early word recognition and building fluency.
• Tell others about this special issue of Literacy Today or post your takeaways from these researchers on social media to help advocate for transformative change in word recognition instruction.

The articles in Literacy Today demonstrate how research into dyslexia can help us gain insight into effective teaching practices for all students, including teaching students to read using a phonics-based decoding strategy, using morphology to break down long words, and explicitly pointing out similarities and differences in letter–sound correspondences for students learning to read in two languages. Together, we can engender more inclusive, effective, and supportive learning environments to help all kids learn.

The post From the pages of <em>Literacy Today</em>: How to boost reading achievement using dyslexia research appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Quality is critical. While the design of specific high-dosage tutoring varies, programs typically involve tutoring in one-on-one or small groups for sessions that are at least 30 minutes long and take place at least two to three times per week. Prior guidance on the best ways to implement high-dosage tutoring indicates schools should schedule sessions during the school day, keep tutoring one-to-one or in small groups, and incorporate other important features, like using high-quality, aligned curricula and fostering supportive tutor–student relationships.

In a new brief, our research team reviews the evidence base around high-dose tutoring, explains why focusing on high-dosage tutoring with at-risk students makes the most sense, and then highlights design principles to guide districts’ ongoing efforts. Here are five key takeaways from our review of the research.

1. Focus high-dosage tutoring programs on academically at-risk students

In too many parts of the country, students remain behind their pre-pandemic levels of achievement. Moreover, students who entered the pandemic with lower test scores experienced a larger drop in achievement compared to their higher-achieving peers. As a result, districts are facing an unprecedented number of students who qualify as academically at-risk, which we define as students who require intensive support outside of classroom instruction to learn grade-level skills or pass coursework necessary for later academic success and school completion.

Those academically at-risk students stand to benefit the most from intensive supports like high-dosage tutoring, which can help improve academic outcomes by personalizing instruction and fostering supportive relationships that build engagement and motivation in learning. Plus, high-dosage tutoring has consistently shown larger benefits for students’ test scores relative to other interventions targeted at low-achieving students, for example, technology-enabled programs, professional development, and curriculum reforms.

2. Use assessments and data to evaluate student skills targeted for intervention, monitor learning progress, and document other factors that affect learning

While interim and summative assessments can help identify academically at-risk students, districts can also use additional assessments—often formative and informal in nature—to evaluate the specific skills targeted for intervention and to document students’ existing strengths and areas for improvement so that tutoring can be tailored accordingly. For example, assessments that can guide progress monitoring of high-dosage tutoring programs include sub-tests for literacy or math skills (e.g., decoding, word recognition, numbers sense), teacher input, measures of student progress through the tutoring curriculum, and researcher-developed assessments designed to capture the specific skills targeted for intervention.

3. Be open to tutors with different skills and qualifications than classroom teachers, but monitor program implementation

To meet the scale of student need for academic support without breaking the bank, districts may want to consider hiring less skilled tutors to reduce program costs and overcome labor shortages. Because the small-group environment of tutoring is less complex than a regular classroom, research suggests districts can hire tutors across a range of experience and qualifications (e.g., volunteers or college students instead of certified educators) without sacrificing gains in student achievement.

Still, districts that go this route should consider implementing robust systems and procedures to ensure high-quality implementation. For example, districts could supply tutors with scripted instructional materials, intensive training, and ongoing supervision and feedback from on-site tutor supervisors. Districts can also observe and rate tutor sessions for fidelity and track data on student progress through the assigned curriculum.

4. Evaluate the effectiveness of high-dosage tutoring programs on specific skills and for specific students

Not surprisingly, high-dosage tutoring programs tend to show the biggest impact on skills targeted by the tutoring sessions. Recent literature reviews of early reading interventions show larger effect sizes for phonics- and fluency-related outcomes and smaller effect sizes for reading comprehension. We also see larger effect sizes in earlier versus later grade levels.

However, that means that interim and summative assessments may not be as responsive to high-dosage tutoring interventions if these assessments evaluate broader skillsets, such as all grade-level knowledge. Similarly, if districts are targeting high-dosage tutoring programs to certain at-risk student groups (e.g., multilingual learners, students with disabilities, chronically absent students), they may want to partner with researchers to evaluate the effects of the programs for these student groups.

5. Expect variation in the effectiveness of high-dosage tutoring programs

Although tutoring can be an effective tool for promoting academic recovery, there’s no guarantee it will work the same in every place, especially if program elements like personnel, curriculum, or scheduling vary. Evaluations of recovery programs such as summer school have found small effects on student achievement, with districts facing many challenges related to staffing, scheduling, student absences, and school-level capacity that have hindered program implementation and effectiveness.

The same types of problems could potentially affect district high-dosage tutoring programs. For example, tutoring program uptake and results can suffer when they depend on students to opt in. But, before writing it off entirely, districts should consider ways to strengthen their tutoring programs given the overwhelming evidence on high-dosage tutoring as an intervention strategy.

In closing

With the sunsetting of the federal ESSER funding, districts will need to be more strategic about how they design and sustain their high-dosage tutoring programs in the years to come. Districts that relied on the federal money to build out their tutoring programs should be thinking now about how to sustain those investments going forward, especially if their program is working but students are still behind.

As Accelerate CEO Kevin Huffman noted in The 74, high-dose tutoring programs have spread rapidly, thanks to local, state, and now national interest from the White House. Implementation details will matter immensely, but millions of young people stand to benefit if policymakers can sustain the political will. By learning from the research on high-dose tutoring programs, they can ensure high-dosage tutoring programs effectively serve the students who are most academically at risk and help them get back on track.

The post 5 ways to maximize high-dosage tutoring appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

A recent webinar, “NWEA research snapshot: Insights on recovery strategies,” pulled these insights—and some illuminating statistics—into a succinct 45-minute presentation that is now available to watch on demand. The webinar was hosted by Karyn Lewis, PhD, director of research and policy partnerships at NWEA, and co-presented by NWEA research scientists Ayesha Hashim, PhD, and Miles Davison, PhD.

Karyn and her colleagues opened their talk with a revealing look at two sets of MAP® Growth data: one from the last few years (let’s call it the pandemic era) and one showing historical trend lines. Importantly, they looked at both academic achievement and growth to better understand whether the gains students made—or failed to make—over time were consistent with what we’d expect based on pre-pandemic trends.

These two areas—achievement and growth—are what give us the whole picture of student learning. While achievement trends can help us understand how much unfinished learning remains, growth patterns give researchers critical insight into how quickly we can reasonably expect to close the gaps they identify.

On to the findings

Karyn and her colleagues shared findings from three school years, beginning with the first full academic year after the onset of the pandemic. The webinar has all the details, but here are some of the key findings:

• 2021–21: Achievement levels were already tracking below pre-pandemic trends, especially in math. Students made gains as the year progressed, but consistently lagged where they would have been if their learning hadn’t been upended by COVID-19.
• Spring 2021: Outcomes bottomed out. That’s where we see the widest gap between test scores relative to historical baselines.
• 2021–22: The second full year after the onset of the pandemic showed some promising signs. Despite the persistence of achievement gaps, growth trends were looking closer to normal and students were making gains that actually exceeded pre-pandemic trends.
• Summer 2022: Another promising sign came when the summer slide (the achievement dip that’s typical of the months away from school) was less extreme than we see in a normal year.
• 2022–23: Looking at the totality of the school year, NWEA hoped to find proof of additional progress toward recovery, but growth that year lagged behind pre-pandemic trends, and students finished the year a little worse off than where they started.

So what’s the upshot of this year-by-year analysis? Despite some signs of academic recovery, progress has been modest and efforts seem to have stalled. The amount of catch-up learning that kids need—especially older students—exceeds what can be done in a single year. Karyn called out the “compounding debt” of failing to address unfinished learning in previous years, leaving students less prepared as they move from one grade to the next.

Another key takeaway from the webinar confirms what we already know: Marginalized students—particularly Black and Hispanic students and kids from high-poverty areas—have been disproportionately impacted and have further to go with their academic recovery than their more advantageously situated peers.

These challenges won’t come as news to anyone who teaches for a living or follows the news and trends in education. But what about the solutions? How can we close these gaps? Or, as Karyn put it: “What are the practical steps we need to take to ensure that our students regain the ground that has been lost?”

Road to COVID Recovery

Ayesha opened her part of the presentation by reminding the audience that much of the recovery effort we’ve seen has been made possible by the federal government’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER). With ESSER funding in hand, districts have rolled out a wide range of initiatives, most notably summer learning and tutoring, but also after-school programs, virtual learning resources, and more.

To gain insights into the impact and success of these efforts, researchers from NWEA and several partner organizations launched the collaborative Road to COVID Recovery (R2R) project. Focusing on summer programs and tutoring specifically, here’s some of what they found in the districts they looked at:

• Summer school participation and hours of instruction fell short of what was recommended in R2R districts.
• Math test scores saw small but positive impacts for students who attended summer school. This was consistent with pre-pandemic summer school outcomes, but the magnitude of the effect was smaller.
• Reading test scores were flat for summer-school students in R2R districts.
• Districts faced major implementation challenges in rolling out their summer-school programs due to difficulty reaching targeted students, staffing challenges, and other factors.

High-dosage tutoring for at-risk students

As Miles explained in the webinar, at-risk students are defined as those who are not expected to learn grade-level skills or pass coursework without intensive support outside of classroom instruction. To meet the needs of this cohort—which has grown in size since the pandemic—R2R districts have used ESSER funding to implement high-dosage tutoring. But with ESSER funding slated to end in 2025, districts need to be increasingly strategic with their ongoing academic recovery strategies.

Students who take part in high-dosage tutoring typically meet one-on-one or in small groups for a minimum of 30 minutes, at least two or three times a week. Research has shown that high-dosage tutoring can bring about large gains in reading and math scores, help elementary students build foundational skills, and provide much-needed support for middle and high school students who need it.

However, the success of high-dosage tutoring depends on a number of factors, what Miles called the “non-negotiables”:

• Consistent frequency and scheduling
• Small group size
• Experienced or well-trained tutors
• Thorough measurement to monitor learning and tailor instruction
• High-quality curriculum materials aligned to classroom content
• Strong tutor–student relationships

Learn more about instructional recovery strategies

As school districts look for ways to sustain and bolster their academic recovery efforts in the years ahead, determining what’s worked—and what hasn’t—will be an ongoing priority as funding for these efforts ebbs and flows.

For more insights into the impact of instructional recovery strategies, including a closer look at the statistics behind these conclusions and implications for the future, check out the on-demand webinar.

The post NWEA research snapshot: Insights on academic recovery strategies appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

What is the science of reading?

The science of reading is the converging evidence of what matters and what works in literacy instruction, organized around models that describe how and why.

One research study does not make a science. In early literacy alone, tens of thousands of studies have been published, and some even show results that are at odds with one another. For educators to be able to consume research meaningfully, we need to look for a convergence of evidence. When many well-designed studies point to a similar result, we should pay attention.

How does it help us make sense of reading?

An important model in early reading research is the simple view of reading. It says that reading comprehension (RC) is the product of decoding (D) and language comprehension (LC), or RC = D x LC.

Learning to read for understanding requires sounding out and recognizing words—decoding—but it also requires making meaning of the words and sentences we hear—language comprehension. While taking a microscope to any one aspect of reading reveals more complexity, the simple view continues to be supported as a strong core model in reading development, as it has been for decades.

What guidance does the science of reading offer?

Research is clear about what matters to teach in early literacy instruction: phonological awareness, phonics and word recognition, fluency, vocabulary and oral language comprehension, and text comprehension. For each of these, a convergence of evidence tells us what works, in practice.

• Phonological awareness: Teach students to recognize and manipulate the sounds within words. Move from syllables to the individual sounds, or phonemes. Explicitly connect phonemes to letters to more effectively support word decoding.
• Phonics and word recognition: Teach letter sounds and sound-spelling patterns explicitly and systematically. Practices that include both reading and writing of words in isolation and in text are most supportive of taught phonics.
• Fluency: Include frequent chances for students to read and re-read orally from connected text—sentences, paragraphs, and passages. Focus on the development of both automatic word recognition and fluent expression, keeping understanding of the text as the central goal.
• Vocabulary and oral language comprehension: Include high-quality, language-rich interactions in instruction. With read-aloud texts, unpack academic and inferential language. Explicitly build students’ recognition of shared morphemes (e.g., root words, affixes) across words, both in oral and written language.
• Text comprehension: Even before young students can read on their own, teach from rich texts via read-alouds and scaffolded reading. Teach students to use metacognitive strategies like setting a purpose, monitoring for meaning, and building inferences while reading. Discuss texts, including focusing on their organizational structures.

What could a science-of-reading classroom be like?

To align more closely to what the science tells us, we should start seeing and hearing some change. We should stop seeing only incidental teaching of sound-spelling patterns. Instead of just happening to notice a silent E on the page we have open—aha! Teachable moment!—we should teach decoding skills systematically. We should see a dedicated portion of the literacy block where phonics is taught clearly and sequentially from an identifiable curriculum. When kids learn from our planned sequence how that silent E works, we should see engaging practice—word work, often masquerading as play—followed by both reading and writing practice that applies those silent E skills purposefully.

The science of reading is the converging evidence of what matters and what works in literacy instruction.

We should also stop seeing comprehension taught via leveled reading groups, where each group visits the teacher for round-robin reading through a new text “at the right level.” Instead, we should see use of a rich, complex text for all the students in a class. We should hear multiple reads of the same text, beginning with teacher modeling and moving to student practice. We should see partnering for repeated readings to develop fluency. We should hear the voices of students and the teacher in high-quality conversations about the text that focus on language, structure, and deepened understanding.

Where can we learn more?

Lots of good materials have been produced to get this research into practice, much of it paid for by our tax dollars.

• The renowned Florida Center for Reading Research has printable research-to-practice student center activities for pre-kindergarten to fifth grade. Many could be used at home, too.
• The Institute of Education Sciences has developed a website for families called Supporting Your Child’s Reading at Home. It is packed with information, activities, and video examples for supporting children in kindergarten through third grade. Their What Works Clearinghouse has two teacher guides for early literacy: one focuses on foundational skills and the other on reading comprehension.

These excellent research-to-practice materials can only help if we actually use them. Commit to building a learning community around one or more of these materials, beginning by downloading and reading as a group. Then discuss, try things with students, reflect, and repeat. This is how the science of reading matters, and how it works: by helping all our kids to become empowered and thoughtful readers.

For more on the science of reading from NWEA, see “The science of reading and balanced literacy: What you need to know,” Everything you need to know about the science of reading, and The science of reading for leaders: Helping your teachers shift instructional practice. 

The post The science of reading explained appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

MAP® Reading Fluency

I asked some of our partner schools and districts for their burning questions about the assessment, so I am here to unravel the mysteries, debunk the myths, and share knowledge. Let’s jump into the world of MAP Reading Fluency in Spanish together.

Myth 1: MAP Reading Fluency in Spanish is easier than the English test

When I was a high school Spanish teacher and, later, a university Spanish professor, it was common for my students to say they chose Spanish to complete their language requirement because it is easier than other languages. This idea has been around a long time, mostly because—for English speakers—the idea that Spanish pronunciation is phonetic makes learning Spanish seemingly straightforward. The consistency in the grammar and fewer irregularities relative to English in its verb system may also contribute to this perception.

Such beliefs can be misleading and oversimplify the complexity of language learning. Whether either language is easier or harder than the other one really depends on what aspect you are talking about. Both Spanish and English present unique challenges, and individual experiences alongside linguistic backgrounds are key factors in shaping proficiency.

MAP Reading Fluency in Spanish is not merely a translated version of the English test.

While it is not at all surprising that some would believe that MAP Reading Fluency in Spanish is easier than its English counterpart, the opposite may be true, simply because reading Spanish can take longer. Last year, some of our partner schools and districts proved this point when they alerted us to a pattern in their MAP Reading Fluency data: Some students taking the assessment in Spanish were not being shown connected texts as often as their peers taking the test in English. They noticed this pattern when they triangulated data from MAP Reading Fluency and formative assessments and saw that things just weren’t adding up. After investigating, we discovered the culprit: It takes people longer to read words with more syllables. Spanish words tend to have more syllables than words in English. Take, for example, the following sentence in English: We play chess. It has only three syllables. In Spanish, we need at least seven syllables to say the same thing: Jugamos al ajedrez.

While MAP Reading Fluency in Spanish is not merely a translated version of the English test, it wasn’t taking into account the fact that words and, as a result, sentences in Spanish tend to have more syllables and take longer to read. So, we made some adjustments without compromising the accuracy of the test to account for the greater syllabic load inherent in Spanish and to adjust for the time necessary to read sentences in Spanish aloud. Educators are now seeing MAP Reading Fluency data that measures their students more accurately.

Myth 2: Spanish-speaking students do not score well enough on MAP Reading Fluency in Spanish to do well on the test in English

We know that in the United States, the focus of many language arts programs is on learning English and doing well in English. This makes sense, but sometimes the objectives of a program are not necessarily English-focused. Consider, for example, schools where bilingualism and biliteracy (and in some cases multilingualism and multiliteracy!) are the goals. Assessment data can help inform instructional decisions and give educators a more holistic portrait of their students in these settings, just as it does in monolingual learning environments. Combined with all the information educators gather daily through classroom work, curriculum-based measures, and even informal interactions, a bigger picture emerges that can reveal areas of growth and opportunities for learning in more than one language.

In some cases, schools might have a goal of advancing learning in both languages, in which case testing in one language is not meant to provide a gateway to testing in the other but, instead, to offer a window into where to focus instruction for both. In those cases, a lower score on MAP Reading Fluency in Spanish is not necessarily proof that a student will get a similar score when they take the test in English.

More important, however, is the reality that a challenge in one language does not always equate to a barrier in another. There is a common assumption that a less-than-ideal performance on a test in Spanish directly correlates with a similar outcome on the corresponding test in English. But the truth is that language proficiency is multifaceted and nuanced, and skills in one language do not always perfectly mirror those in another. The same is true of reading development. Factors like linguistic features, such as orthography, which I discussed earlier, and vocabulary, syntax, and cultural context differ between Spanish and English, and these are all factors that influence performance on assessments. Students might excel in one language and encounter challenges in the other, but that does not mean they cannot read, nor does it mean they cannot access the content on an assessment and should be prohibited from taking it.

Myth 3: Testing in English is aligned with the dominant language of instruction and ensures all students are evaluated based on the same linguistic criteria

Let’s step back from MAP Reading Fluency for a moment and think about an analogous situation: If you have a US driver’s license, you had to pass both a written and a practical test to be authorized to drive a car on public roads. Would you be able to pass the written portion of the test if you needed to, to gain permission to drive abroad, if it were in a language other than your home language? You clearly have the knowledge of driving. But would a written driving test in, say, German or Finnish, be a fair and accurate measure of your knowledge? I think it is safe to assume that your results would be a more accurate reflection of what you know if the test were administered in your home language.

MAP Reading Fluency is not a test of language proficiency in either Spanish or English; it is an assessment of reading development and the foundational skills required for reading.

If the objective of MAP Reading Fluency is to measure English (or Spanish) language proficiency, then yes, it would be fair to evaluate all students using the same linguistic criteria. However, MAP Reading Fluency is not a test of language proficiency in either Spanish or English; it is an assessment of reading development and the foundational skills required for reading. It makes sense that the criteria of the test differ based on the unique features of each language. Consider, for example, that Spanish-speaking children do not spend as much time on decoding as their English-speaking peers do, simply because of the transparent orthography of the Spanish language. Once they can decode, they move on to connected text and comprehension-based development, and they likely do this earlier than their English-speaking peers.

There is also a misconception that multilingual individuals compartmentalize languages in their brains, but research reveals a more integrated and dynamic cognitive process. What this tells us is that multilingual students do not have separate mental language compartments but, rather, access all their languages simultaneously. When we assess them exclusively in one language and according to one language’s criteria, we not only oversimplify the complexity of their linguistic abilities but also fail to capture the richness of their cognitive flexibility. When we assess multilingual students using a monolingual framework, we disregard the seamless way they navigate and utilize multiple languages.

Testing multilingual students in only one language risks undermining their true academic potential and neglecting the valuable skills they bring to the table. This is why MAP Reading Fluency in Spanish is designed to reflect the reading development of Spanish speakers authentically and accurately, according to the linguistic features and criteria of the Spanish language. The same is true of MAP Reading Fluency in English for students whose home language is English.

Una invitación (An invitation)

I hope I’ve been able to address your most pressing questions about MAP Reading Fluency in Spanish.

My colleagues and I would like to continue to hear from educators who rely on MAP Reading Fluency to better understand their students. Your insights and experiences are invaluable to us and can help guide us forward in our commitment to continuous improvement. Please share your ideas and questions on our website so, together, we can come to a greater understanding of reading development for our Spanish- and English-speaking kids.

The post 3 myths about MAP Reading Fluency in Spanish appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

In this blog post, I’ll delve into five essential insights every principal should grasp about the instructional coaching role to ensure its effectiveness in their school community.

1. Clear communication is powerful—and non-negotiable

Communication forms the bedrock of successful educational endeavors, and the instructional coaching role is no exception. Prioritize clear and transparent communication to articulate the purpose and goals of instructional coaching in your school. By providing a comprehensive understanding of how coaching aligns with your school’s broader vision and mission for student success, you set the stage for a unified and purpose-driven approach to teaching and learning.

Clear communication is not just about disseminating information; it’s about fostering a shared understanding among all stakeholders. It is imperative that you clearly emphasize how your coaches contribute to a culture of continuous improvement and professional growth. When everyone is on the same page, the coaching process becomes more effective, and the entire school community can rally behind the shared goal of student achievement.

Here are a few specific things you could use to support clear communication around instructional coaching:

• Coaching handbook or guide. Provide a comprehensive coaching handbook to all stakeholders. It should include testimonials and success stories and outline coaching principles, roles and responsibilities, expectations, and benefits.
• Visual roadmaps and infographics. Enhance visibility and understanding by creating visually appealing roadmaps and infographics that represent the coaching journey, objectives, and milestones.
• Interactive workshops and training sessions. Engage teachers and staff through hands-on workshops, using real examples to illustrate how instructional coaching aligns with your school’s vision and contributes to professional growth.
• Regular feedback surveys and reflection sessions. Continuously improve coaching communication by implementing regular feedback surveys and hosting reflection sessions to gather insights and suggestions from teachers.

2. Collaborative relationships go a long way

One of the key ingredients for successful instructional coaching is collaborative and trusting relationships. Principals should actively encourage an environment where instructional coaches and teachers work together as partners in the pursuit of educational excellence. This collaborative approach fosters a positive school culture that values continuous improvement and professional growth. Conversely, coaching should not be utilized—or viewed—as a punishment, or the result of inadequate teacher performance. Doing so can create distrust or animosity toward the coach and instructional coaching in general.

To achieve a supportive and positive culture that helps teachers and their coaches build strong relationships, there’s a lot you can do. Some of the things I’ve found to be most useful are facilitating team-building activities, establishing regular communication channels, and encouraging an open dialogue between coaches and teachers.

When teachers feel supported and valued, they are more likely to engage in the coaching process with enthusiasm, leading to a more impactful and meaningful professional development experience. For more on this topic, read my previous article here on Teach. Learn. Grow., “Beyond the bowl of chocolates: How to build trust in instructional coaching relationships,” and “5 grounding tenets for successful instructional coaching relationships” by my colleague Lindsay Deacon.

3. Teacher support should be tailored, with differentiation in mind

Teachers are a diverse group with unique strengths, needs, and teaching styles. Instructional coaches must recognize and respond to this diversity by providing differentiated support. As a principal, you can work with your coaches to ensure that professional development opportunities are tailored to the varied needs of your teaching staff.

By conducting needs assessments or surveys, you can gather valuable insights into the specific areas where your teachers seek support and improvement. This information can guide the instructional coaching process, ensuring that it addresses the individual goals and challenges of each teacher. Differentiation in support not only enhances its relevance but also contributes to a more personalized and impactful professional development experience.

4. Data-informed decision-making must be emphasized

Data is a powerful tool in education, and instructional coaches are well-positioned to leverage it for informed decision-making. Instructional coaches play a vital role in analyzing student achievement data, collaborating with teachers to identify trends, and implementing data-driven instructional strategies. In your role as principal, you can stress the importance of using data to guide instructional strategies and professional development initiatives.

By incorporating data into the coaching process, you’ll ensure decisions are grounded in evidence, leading to more effective teaching practices and improved student outcomes. Additionally, try to encourage a culture where assessment data is viewed not only as a measure of student performance but also as a valuable resource for shaping instructional approaches and fostering continuous improvement.

For more on data and how it can be used to support teachers in their practice, see “4 instructional coaching principles to follow when helping teachers use data” and “7 steps to empowered data coaching.” If your school tests with MAP® Growth or MAP® Reading Fluency, I invite you to also learn about our professional learning workshops on using assessment data in the classroom.

5. Resource allocation and professional development can’t be overlooked

For instructional coaching to thrive, principals must allocate resources effectively. This includes providing coaches with sufficient time, training, and materials to carry out their roles successfully. Do your best to recognize the importance of investing in professional development opportunities for instructional coaches, keeping them abreast of the latest educational research and innovations.

Collaborative discussions between principals and coaches can also identify any barriers or challenges that may hinder the effectiveness of coaching initiatives. Adequate resource allocation demonstrates a commitment to the value of instructional coaching and underscores its significance in your broader educational mission.

Learn more

Instructional coaching is a dynamic and transformative force in education, and as a principal, you play a pivotal role in ensuring its success. By embracing clear communication, fostering collaborative relationships, supporting differentiation, emphasizing data-informed decision-making, and allocating resources effectively, you can unlock the full potential of instructional coaching in your school and champion a culture of continuous improvement, which will benefit both teachers and students alike.

To learn more about instructional coaching services offered through NWEA, visit our website. I also encourage you to read the following Teach. Learn. Grow. blog posts for additional ideas on how to support effective instructional coaching in your school:

• “3 ways quality instructional coaching impacts teacher efficacy”
• “3 key questions to measure instructional coaching effectiveness”
• “4 key conditions for making the most of instructional coaching cycles”
• “4 conditions for maintaining instructional coaching success at the end of the school year”
• “4 ways teachers can learn from one another”

The post 5 crucial instructional coaching insights for principals appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

In this post, we’ll learn about some of the classroom tools these teachers are using every day to improve instruction and build a stronger classroom culture—and we’ll get Jacob and Kailey’s in-the-moment reactions to these words of wisdom.

Best extrinsic motivators?

Calling in from Allen, Texas, Tanji shares her favorite extrinsic motivator: none other than Mr. Potato Head. “My students have always loved having him in our classroom,” she says. “And as they make good choices, show good behaviors, and kindness toward one another, we add body parts to Mr. Potato Head. And once we have him whole, they win some type of whole-class reward.”

Kailey: “That is the cutest thing I’ve ever heard in my life.”

Jacob: “All ages can come together for a common end. And if that is to make a potato man whole, all the better. I love it.”

For listener Sarah, hailing from Jefferson County, Kentucky, one of the best extrinsic motivators involves picking up the phone. Together as a class, she and her students nominate a student who did something special on a given day, and she calls their parents or guardians to share the class’s praise. Not only do her students enjoy nominating each other for a positive phone call, but sometimes this gesture of kindness comes right back to Sarah.

“I had a student who started asking, on days when she really liked a lesson, if she could call my mom,” says Sarah. “And so I had a student who would call my mom at the end of the day and tell her if I had a really good lesson or if I did something that she really liked. And it was such a cool experience because my student wanted me to have the same reward and feeling that she experienced.”

Jacob: “My friend and colleague here, Kailey, is tearing up. What a touching share.”

Kailey: “Oh my god, that is the sweetest thing. […] I think these kids are going to heal us, y’all.”

What’s in your teaching cabinet?

For Shelby, a high school English teacher in Decatur, Georgia, playing dress-up can actually be a powerful learning activity. That’s why she keeps several large Tupperware containers in her classroom fully stocked with costumes.

“No matter what the age, my students constantly ask for me to pull [the costumes] out,” she says. “We play all kinds of games with them. Even in my international baccalaureate classes, we do various charade games. […] We might do skits, and the seniors might be studying different rhetorical devices.”

Kailey: “You’re a legend! […] Costumes are truly a liberating device.”

Jacob: “This is student engagement personified.”

Over in Jefferson County, Kentucky, Sarah keeps morning choice boxes in her cabinet, which allow her students to start their school day by essentially choosing their own adventure, whether it’s coloring, working with Legos, or playing math games.

“They got to make that choice first thing in the morning about what they were going to do,” Sarah explains. “And it really helped with self-monitoring in my class. […] Some of the best learning came from those experiences because getting to see my kids come in and say, ‘You know what? I had a really hard morning. I need to take some time by myself, or I learned a new game, or that friend has Uno and I want to play with them.’ It really helped our environment.”

Kailey reacts: “That is huge. […] Kids are relaxed when they know they get to make a choice.”

Jacob reacts: “I think this is a really novel and ingenious way to keep kids engaged and start their day off right.”

Favorite use for Post-it notes?

Back to Shelby in Decatur: “My favorite use for Post-it notes goes back to my very first year of teaching. […] Whenever we have our parent open house night, I like to put Post-it notes and markers all around the room and I ask parents to leave a note for their student. […] When the students come back to my classroom the next day, they’re always just so touched by their notes. […] I think it’s a way for students to feel like their parent is in the room and a part of their experience in the classroom.

Jacob: “Shelby, that’s just beautiful. […] It’s about being cared for. It’s about being seen.”

Kailey: “And realizing that school is not a pause on your life; school is part of your life.”

For Sarah in Kentucky, Post-its are her go-to tool for an activity she calls the “30-second speech.” She explains: “You can give kiddos a Post-it upside down and when they flip it over, they reveal a word and they have to instantly give a 30-second speech about it. And this could be something really funny and silly. They have to become the expert. So, let’s say maybe they flip over the Post-it and they have the word ‘alligator’ and they have to come up with a 30-second speech on the spot [explaining] why an alligator is the worst pet or why alligators are the best animal.”

Kailey: “You’re a freaking genius. I don’t even know what to say.”

Jacob: “The thing that I love about this is—what a disarming way to help deal with one of humanity’s biggest nervous things: public speaking.”

(For more great Post-it ideas, check out this episode of The Continuing Educator: “Fuzzy feelings and wardrobe malfunctions.”)

Best compliment?

The podcast audience also had plenty to say about the best compliments they’ve received at school, whether from adults or from students. Tanji kicked off this part of the show by recalling the time a parent told her that their child’s reading growth had really taken off under her instruction.

“To know that I’ve been part of bringing the love, the joy, and the ability to read to a student… That’s always going to be one of the biggest compliments I can ever get from a parent about their student,” she says.

Jacob: “Tanji, I just have to applaud you. […] I think a lot of times teaching can seem like rowing a small boat across the ocean for a long time. You lose perspective. […] But you’re really getting somewhere.”

Kailey: “Teaching, I often say, is the highest highs and the absolute lowest lows. That moment of being told that you have impacted a child’s ability to read [is] huge. Like, that’s enormous.”

Want to hear more?

If you’ve enjoyed hearing these reflections from listeners of the Continuing Educator podcast, there’s more to discover. Listen to the podcast episode for more useful tips, meaningful stories, and interesting ideas for new classroom tools.

The post Teachers talk about their favorite classroom tools appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Today, as I support educators in one of the largest school districts in the nation as they face the consequences of staggering interruptions to student learning following COVID-19 school closures, I see the same look of uncertainty on the faces of teachers almost every day. They are working as hard as ever, tying themselves in metaphorical knots to meet the needs of each and every learner in their classroom, all while teaching grade-level standards.

To support teachers during this challenging time, our High Growth for All research project studied what instructional strategies are most effective. The Transformative Ten, as we’re calling these proven strategies, offer a fast track for addressing the perpetual question, “What works?” In this post, I’d like to zero in on strategy #4: Share students and strategies within a grade level.

What does it mean to share students and strategies?

I’ll take a guess that you have heard the term “co-teaching” plenty. My first experience with this concept was as a push-in special education teacher, but neither the math teacher I was working alongside nor I had ever been trained to co-teach. This led to me spending an awful lot of time watching great math instruction instead of teaching alongside my colleague, and I also found myself struggling to find one-on-one time with my students, both for conferences and to check their work.

Was that time impactful? It for sure helped me sharpen my skills for reducing fractions in the kitchen, but my students would have benefitted from a more collaborative approach. They needed—and deserved—more meaningful instruction from me, and they didn’t get it.

Proven to work

Our High Growth for All research shows that when sharing students and strategies within a grade level, we need a far more sophisticated set of co-teaching strategies than the ones I relied on early in my career. Research related to an initiative by Public Impact called Opportunity Culture presents similar results.

The co-teaching strategies should be characterized by strategic student grouping, with equally strategic instruction provided by different teachers of the same grade level or content area. Think “no limits” when it comes to this concept: sharing spaces, flexibly shifting student groups in the moment, collaborative planning times that surface new ideas for leveraging each teacher’s strengths, and more.

When thinking about all of this, I am also reminded of the phrase “collective teacher efficacy.” Does it ring a bell? If you haven’t explored the concept, be sure to visit John Hattie’s site on Visible Learning, where he defines “collective teacher efficacy” as “the collective belief of the school/faculty in their ability to positively affect students” and goes on to explain that it “has been found to be strongly, positively correlated with student achievement.” Hattie’s work is rooted in the research of Rachel Eells.

All of these experts studied how the shared belief of teachers that they can influence student outcomes and increase achievement can exponentially increase the likelihood that they will. Consider the operative word here: “shared.” When collaborating with colleagues on co-teaching strategies (and when implementing any of the Transformative Ten strategies), you will likely multiply your effectiveness with students because you are sharing expertise, passion, and belief in their capacity with your colleagues and throughout your school.

So, how does all this impact happen? Let’s explore three key practices that can help you bring all of this to life:

1. Set the stage for collaboration
2. Plan and deliver aligned instruction and assessment
3. Include collaborative reflection

1. Set the stage for collaboration

Collaborating with your fellow teachers is paramount to successful coteaching. Rather than jumping right to instructional planning, I encourage you to set the stage with some discussions around how you will collaborate. In Habits of Resilient Educators: Strategies for Thriving During Times of Anxiety, Doubt, and Constant Change, my colleague Piper Lee and I highlight the fundamental principle that “all educators possess strengths, and when they come together and collaborate with a common vision, they can accomplish what seems impossible.” To play to your strengths and find your shared vision, consider beginning by having an introductory meeting where you establish the following:

• When and where will you meet
• What roles you will each assume when collaborating (for ideas, check out Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey’s PLC+ resources)
• What meeting norms you will uphold (be sure to use the team norm-building process described in chapter 9 of Habits of Resilient Educators)
• How you will hold yourselves accountable for the work

After that initial meeting, you’ll likely be ready to tackle designing your learning space. Try to remember the merits of remaining flexible. Whatever you decide upon initially can (and perhaps should) change as often as you deem necessary. Build ideas as if you were detectives searching for the best solution: if students respond well to certain seating arrangements or room distributions, for example, take note and repeat. I also encourage you to examine daily and weekly schedules carefully to find opportunities for sharing students and strategies within single instructional periods or finding windows of time at other points during the day.

Remember: when you are working as a team, you’ll find you multiply the most important resource (you, the teacher) and mitigate the constraints of time we all face when working alone.

2. Plan and deliver aligned instruction and assessment

Once you’ve established the structural components for sharing students, it’s time to dive into co-planning for instruction.

Many of us often plan instruction in ways that suit our personal preferences, teaching experience, and goals, so you will likely need to lean on the norms you established in your initial meeting to ensure fruitful collaboration. I also encourage you to let data guide your conversations. If your school tests with MAP® Growth, leverage the Class Profile report as you make grouping decision and begin thinking about and aligning the instructional resources you will then use to meet your students’ needs.

Does your school take time to collectively examine, or unpack, standards together? If not, now is a good time to start. Check out the practical tips for this process in Habits of Resilient Educators. Piper and I argue that doing so can help you gain a “deeper understanding of the appropriate level of rigor when instructing students.” While it’s easy to assume that your co-teacher is deeply familiar with the standards you’ll be teaching together, remember that “this practice of collectively analyzing standards allows teachers to fix their eyes on the goal of supporting growth and achievement for all students.”

The process of aligning instructional resources and learning activities may take time to coordinate and implement. However, consistency is key for the sake of the students you are striving to support. Does your school or district use common pacing guides, for example? If so, these can be a great starting point. If not, begin with a calendar of when each standard is taught or by establishing the sequence of instructional units. After that, collaboration meetings will be rich with dialogue as you and your co-teacher explore and choose resources, assessments, student groups, and more.

My colleague Mary Resanovich’s advice on supplemental instruction may be particularly handy when you dig into this part of the work.

3. Include collaborative reflection

As your team progresses through the process of designing and delivering aligned instruction, the data you gather will no longer be the outcome of a single teacher’s efforts. Each of you will have influenced every student’s learning outcomes! As a result, your opportunity to examine data together becomes even more rich.

It’s not unusual for co-teaching teams to drift into the comfortable realm of planning logistical elements of team teaching and sharing students. Leverage your initial collaboration norms yet again to uphold a consistent schedule of opportunities to pause and reflect together. Sharing and examining data on a regular basis will inform the crucial decisions you make to maximize your effectiveness as a team. As noted in Habits of Resilient Educators, remember that “by embracing an open mind and constantly endeavoring to uncover new information that empowers our ability to make effective decisions, we move from seeking data as if we were on a witch hunt, to collecting data as if we were on a treasure hunt!”

Slow and steady wins the race

Our High Growth for All study proves that the Transformative Ten strategies can have a big impact on student growth, but it also reminds us that they aren’t meant to be used every single day, or in every single lesson. Becoming comfortable with each of the ten practices will give you an excellent toolbox of proven strategies so you can put that nagging voice asking “What works?” to rest. Allow yourself to explore each strategy, and set reasonable goals for your practice, just as you do for your students.

The post 3 ways<strong> </strong>to bring effective co-teaching strategies to life in your classroom appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

If you are on social media at all, at some point you’ve probably come across a post, or more likely a repost, of someone complaining about “new math” or, rather, the new ways of doing math. These posts range from humorous to vitriolic, but regardless of the tone, they represent a consistent pushback from parents on new approaches to math brought about by the adoption of Common Core and other college-and-career ready standards. The main complaints typically fall into one of several categories: these new ways of doing math are too laborious and make no sense, I have no idea how to help my kid, and what was wrong with the old way of doing things?

Ironically, what may underlie some of this pushback could be the best argument for why we need new approaches to teaching and learning math. I have often wondered about the intersection of those who advocate for teaching math the “old way” and the large proportion of people who are quick to proclaim that they are “not a math person.” This, coupled with studies that show 93% of US adults express some level of math anxiety, would argue that we very much need to learn math differently.

Many of us learned math as a set of rote procedures to memorize and follow without thinking, typically to solve a batch of nearly identical problems. For those of us who struggled either with the initial memorization or with recalling the procedure a month after the test, new ways of thinking about math might help us actually see ourselves as a math person, which research shows all of us are. The goal of current math standards is to help students develop a deep sense of numbers, which supports understanding why various procedures work and gives students a toolkit of multiple ways to approach a task depending upon the specifics of a problem, the numbers involved, and more.

So, what’s new?

Let’s look at some simple examples to show why knowing more than one way to approach a math problem can be more efficient. Say you needed to find how many years there are between 1999 and 1950. Using the standard procedure, you would likely line the numbers up, subtract the ones (9 – 0) and then the tens (9 – 5), moving left until you had subtracted all the place values.

In this example, the math is straightforward. There is no need to decompose a larger unit into a smaller one, that is, you don’t need to regroup or borrow. You can simply subtract each place value.

Now let’s imagine you wanted to find how many years there are between 2024 and 1786. This gets a little more complex if you use the traditional approach. Take a moment to work through the problem the way you were taught. Most likely you lined the numbers up as in the example above and the result looked something like this:

Because the digits in the ones, tens, and hundreds places in the bottom number were greater than the digits in the ones, tens, and hundreds places of the top number, you had to regroup or borrow multiple times, resulting in a lot of crossing out and rewriting of numbers above the original problem.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the approach; however, many of us were taught it as a process without really understanding the why of it all. When we regrouped the two-thousands place, changing the two into a one and writing a 10 over the hundreds place, what did that mean? Were we really understanding that one thousand is the same as 10 hundreds? A key goal of new ways of teaching math is to have students understand what they are doing when they do use this traditional approach.

More than one way

Even when you understand the approach, the traditional method isn’t the only way, and it may not always the most efficient way to solve a problem, depending upon the numbers involved. Modern standards work toward helping students become fluent with numbers and mathematics. Being fluent means more than getting the correct answer quickly. Fluency is about “thinking about mathematical procedures with efficiency, accuracy, flexibility, and appropriateness.”

So, if we go back to our problem of finding 2024 – 1786, we can see there are approaches that might be more efficient than the traditional approach. For example, you might realize that:

• 1786 is 14 away from 1800
• 1800 is 200 away from 2000
• 2000 is 24 away from 2024

So, to find the difference between 2024 and 1786, you could quickly add 200 + 14 + 24 to get 238.

Frequent use of number lines, a model commonly used in math classrooms now, may allow a student to solve this problem mentally. The three-minute video “What’s wrong with carrying the one?” gives a great explanation of several other ways to solve addition problems once an individual has a strong understanding of numbers. These ideas are not new, and regardless of how you learned, you are likely using some of them without even realizing it. If you had to find the answer to 25 + 39 + 175, for example, would you stack the numbers up and add them like in the example above? You could, but I’m guessing you are more likely to mentally add 25 and 175 to get 200 and then add 39 to that. New approaches to math help students build this type of numerical fluency to make more efficient problem solvers.

Making connections

Understanding the why behind a procedure helps develop what is called relational understanding. Many of us were taught math in a way that promotes instrumental, or disconnected, understanding. For example, we learned about place value and we learned to add and subtract, but we may have never gotten a sense of how they are connected. Relational understanding is designed to help students build a mental web of connected concepts, which supports both understanding and recall. Think of it this way: If you took all the tools from your garage and scattered them around your house, it would be harder to remember where everything was. Instead, we typically organize and store tools according to some sort of schema, for example, a drawer for fasteners, like screws and nails, and an area for painting supplies, like paint stirrers, brushes, cleaners, and primer. Doing so makes it easier to find and use these tools.

Students who can organize and connect knowledge are better at recalling and applying that knowledge. The “new math” standards were consciously designed to incorporate this connection to support relational understanding. In grade 2, for example, students work with arrays (that is, arrangements of rows and columns) as a way to introduce the equal groups concept of multiplication and connect it to repeated addition. They first learn to see three rows of five as 5 + 5 + 5, eventually learning that 5 + 5 + 5 is the same as 3 x 5. Arrays and multiplication also support understanding measurement. In grade 3, students first learn about area by counting squares in an array, ultimately connecting this to the representation of multiplication to realize that they can find the area of a rectangle by multiplying length times width. In grade 5, students connect area to volume. Through concrete exploration they discover that just as three rows of five can be shown as 3 x 5 = 15, four layers of three rows of five can be shown as 3 x 5 x 4 or 15 x 4.

Okay, I get it, but what about the homework?!

While you hopefully have a better understanding of the why behind “new math,” you may still be left with the question of how best to help your child. What do you do when they come to you for help? Where can you go to gain a better understanding of how they are learning math? Here are some ideas:

1. Talk about math regularly

A great way to start is to routinely ask your child either to explain their math homework or to talk about what they did in math class that day. Not only do you learn, but they also gain practice and confidence. Furthermore, the act of sharing with you requires them to retrieve and explain ideas from memory, which is critical to long-term learning. Engaging regularly with your child on math also builds more positive feelings about math. Only talking about math when frustrated creates negative associations with the subject.

2. Be honest

Let your child know that you learned math a different way but are really interested in learning how they do math. Not only will this allow them to be the expert, but it will also model a growth mindset, which helps banish the fallacy that only some people are math people. As they explain their approaches, making connections between their way and your way will also build knowledge for both of you.

3. Embrace the struggle

If you come across a problem that both you and your child are having a hard time with, take a deep breath and remember you are not expected to have all the answers. In fact, even if you do understand the problem, don’t jump in and solve it. What you convey to your child about math, persistence, challenge, and your belief in their ability can impact your child’s feelings about math and, potentially, their achievement. Remind them that struggle is a sign that they are learning; it represents moving from what they know to what they haven’t yet learned but will learn. Tell them that their brain actually grows when they make mistakes learning new material. Try to avoid saying things like “I had a hard time with math, too” or “Math is really tough.” While you may see this as showing empathy, such statements reinforce the idea that math is not for everyone. You can acknowledge the challenge but with a positive spin by saying something like, “Ooh, this looks like an interesting problem. Let’s dig into it!”

4. Prioritize the how

When working through a challenging problem, focus more on the process than the answer. Think of yourself as a coach. Your role isn’t to tell your child how to solve the problem but, rather, to help them move along in the process. A great way to do this is to ask your child questions like these:

• What is this problem about?
• Can you say the problem in your own words?
• What information do you know?
• What are you trying to figure out?
• Where could you start?
• What are some possible ways to solve this problem?
• Can you break the problem into parts?
• Have you worked on other problems that could help you with this one?
• Could you act out the problem with objects?
• Would drawing a picture or a diagram or making a table help you?
• What if you tried guessing the answer? How could you check that your guess was right?

You don’t have to have all the answers

Hopefully you are feeling a little better about supporting your child with “new math.” The next time you start to get frustrated, remember that your openness to learning new approaches models lifelong learning and will go a long way toward building your child’s math skills, confidence, and achievement.

To help you continue learning, here’s a set of resources for developing a deeper conceptual understanding of math and the new ways it is being taught. These are organized from quicker reads and views to deeper dives.

• “9 ‘new math’ problems and methods”org explains commonly used math models to help parents and caregivers gain familiarity and understanding.
• “Parent roadmaps to the Common Core Standards—Mathematics” The Council of the Great City Schools has created resources for each grade from kindergarten through eighth, in both English and Spanish, explaining the key math concepts for each grade.
• Illustrative Mathematics “For families” page Even if your child’s school doesn’t use the Illustrative Mathematics curriculum, you can access short parent resources for each topic in K–5 in English and Spanish on their website. Each explains the key models for each topic.
• GreatSchools math videos These short videos highlight what kind of understanding to look for when students are learning key concepts, from kindergarten through high school.
• Khan Academy This well-known resource can help you quickly learn about a wide array of math skills and concepts.
• Graham Fletchy’s videos Classroom teacher and math specialist Graham Fletchy has created a series of five short videos explaining how the concepts of numbers and counting, addition and subtraction, multiplication, division, and fractions are developed across the math standards. All the videos are less than eight minutes.
• Mathy Matt videos Mathew Felton-Koestler, an associate professor of mathematics teacher education at Ohio University, has created a series of videos explaining different ways to approach different types of problems. His videos span kindergarten through high school and most are less than 10 minutes long.
• Scott Adamson’s videos Scott Adamson is a former high school math teacher, a college professor, and part of the Arizona Mathematics partnership. His videos are longer, typically around 15 minutes, and they focus more on math concepts in grades 5 and up. His explanations of fraction multiplication and division in particular are great for helping demystify these often misunderstood concepts.
• “Learning to think mathematically” This website by The Math Learning Center includes resources about rekenreks, multiplication, the number line, and ratio tables. Although these resources are designed for teachers and are longer, parents and guardians can scan each PDF for the specific models used by their child to get a better understanding of the math behind them.
• “Mathematics resources for parents and guardians” The California Department of Education has assembled a collection of resources to help parents and guardians understand how math is taught today.
• “A family’s guide: Fostering your child’s success in school mathematics” The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics created this 33-page guide covering math from preschool through high school to help parents and guardians understand math standards, approaches to teaching, and ways to support homework and key concepts in math in elementary, middle, and high school.

The post That’s not how I learned it! 4 ways to help your child with “new math” appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

School leaders, when you attend a conference, what’s your strategy when choosing sessions? Do you have the conference schedule printed, with your preferred sessions highlighted? Do you download the app and “star” your pathway each day—with, of course, some coffee breaks in between? Conferences are a veritable buffet of choice, and we educators love picking and choosing what’s on our plate, searching for the perfect bite.

The post Illinois district shares strategies for supporting student growth in new webinar appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

It’s spring 2021 and everything feels like a mess following COVID-19 school closures. I’m leading a professional learning session at a K–8 school in Colorado where I’m an instructional coach. All staff are huddled in a circle in the library. We are discussing culture and climate data, and it is…uncomfortable. Everyone in the room has their own definition of “data” and their own thoughts on what should be done about the data we have to work with. Just saying the word sparks five different thought-provoking conversations.

I hear a teacher say, “I use data to help me understand my life. If the coffee is hot, I wait to drink it.” That comment still stands out to me all this time later because while it did not take away the discomfort, it told me what I needed to know to coach that group of educators effectively: Teachers have a vast knowledge about data and its collection. They have many data points (maybe too many) to analyze in their classroom. The role of an instructional coach is to help make data analysis streamlined, repeatable, and worth the teacher’s time. An instructional coach partners with teachers so that when they are looking at data, it’s clear what they need to do next.

Here are four principles instructional coaches should follow for effective partnerships with teachers around using data in the classroom.

1. Clarify what data is—and isn’t—able to show

The word “data” has become synonymous with numbers and is often used punitively with teachers and students. I think (and I know I’m not alone) that it’s important to move away from using data in that way. It’s simply not as effective as starting on a more positive, productive note.

I encourage you to begin by asking, “How do you currently use data in your classroom?” The process of answering this question is usually surprising to a teacher. They often realize they use data all the time and just need support with collection and analysis.

Listing all the data a teacher collects opens up the conversation and can help you begin to pinpoint the purpose behind everything that’s being gathered. This is where having a clear concept of qualitative versus quantitative data is important.  In chapter 5 of the book Action Research, J. Spencer Clark, Suzanne Porath, Julie Thiele, and Morgan Jobe break down both types of data and give great ideas on what types to collect in a classroom. Consider sharing it with your teachers.

While partnering with a team of teachers during that 2021 workshop I mentioned, we decided to start off with a quantitative question: We looked at the number of responses to a four-part question on fractions. Later, we tackled a qualitative question: What were the most common responses to that four-part question? Purposely identifying and focusing on both qualitative and quantitative data allowed us to have an in-depth understanding of where the students were, and it also gave agency to the team to take natural next steps with the data.

During instructional coaching data discussions, aim to clarify what data is and is not with teachers, and to do that in the shortest—yet most impactful—amount of time. Data should be empowering and used with the sole purpose of supporting students in their learning process.

2. Keep things simple

A scientist in a lab tries to control as many variables as they can so they can get accurate data. They know that the more complex an experiment is, the harder it is to analyze and use that data to make any conclusions. A classroom is rife with uncontrollable variables. That’s why it’s important to keep things simple and choose one thing to collect data on. You can add other variables later.

I once coached a teacher who was curious about the potential impact of Margarita Calderón’s  seven-step vocabulary method, so we did a little experiment. Students took an open answer pre-quiz on a few vocabulary words. The class then did the seven-step vocab process and took the quiz again. Students did this a few times a week and used the vocab in a culminating project. This data we gathered was simple, but it opened up many conversations about the role vocabulary plays in teaching content. It also gave us qualitative data, because we looked for patterns in the responses, and it gave us some quantitative data, because we could see the big picture of “right” and “wrong” patterns.

One of the primary benefits of instructional coaching is providing teachers with an ally who can help create repeatable structures that have easy organization and a clear purpose. Keeping data use simple will aid you in doing just that.

3. Use a data protocol

It is tempting when working with teachers to skip using data protocols. They can feel too bulky or restrictive. As a coach, I like to look at protocols as a means to keeping us focused on the work that needs to be done.

A data protocol will help you look at student data as objectively as possible, and it will also honor the teacher’s time. Provide a data protocol unless the teacher you’re working with already has one they use. I honed my data analysis skill set by using the data protocols in Driven by Data: A Practical Guide to Improve Instruction. The book includes protocols for before and after data collection as well as for action planning. I often adapt the book’s protocols depending on what stage of the data process a teacher is in.

At NWEA, we also use Nancy Love’s data driven dialogue protocol from her book Using Data/Getting Results: A Practical Guide for School Improvement in Mathematics and Science. This protocol provides a clear structure while also using open-ended questions that keep you in each phase of data processing.

The more you use a data protocol, the more it will flow for you and the teachers you support. I encourage you to choose a protocol and play with it.

4. Repeat

Data partnerships should not be one and done. There is always more data, and there are always more questions to ask. That is not to say that using data should become a heavy burden for teachers. But when it’s done right, teachers will realize that data use is ongoing. Having the right support will help them follow a consistent process and will uplift them and their work in the classroom.

In conclusion

With instructional coaching, a coach’s role in data partnerships is to guide a teacher through clear and simple processes that help the data come to life and be useful. The teacher’s role is to engage with data processes that can help create more insight into their classroom and their students. Whether you’re an instructional coach or a teacher, remember: If the coffee is hot, wait.

To learn more about instructional coaching services available through NWEA, visit our website.

The post 4 instructional coaching principles to follow when helping teachers use data appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

MAP® Growth data can be a powerful tool to help math, ELA, and science teachers identify where students are in their learning. It lets us compare student achievement to national norms, state linking studies, math-specific norms, and even biology norms. MAP Growth can also be used as a tool to track student growth, set goals with students (rather than for them), and afford educators opportunities to plan cross-curricular lessons and units.

I work as a professional learning consultant for NWEA, which means I get to work alongside educators and help them get the most out of MAP Growth every day. I was recently given the opportunity to work with a group of educators in my home state of Texas. During our time together, one gentleman pulled me aside and said, “I think MAP Growth is great. But I teach history, so this just isn’t relevant to me.” This wasn’t the first time I’d heard this sentiment during my time in various schools around the country, so I want to share some tips and tricks for how educators can utilize MAP Growth data across all units of study.

MAP Growth data is valuable for most teachers

Will a school’s music or PE teacher get a lot out of MAP Growth data? Probably not. But chances are the value the data provides is being overlooked by teachers outside of math, ELA, and science.

MAP Growth data can be analyzed and used across a wide range of subjects. Here are four important questions to ask when preparing to explore data as a department, grade, PLC, campus, or even district:

1. What are the instructional areas within MAP Growth?
2. How are we conveying student data to colleagues to create opportunities for meaningful student growth across all subjects?
3. Are we having conversations with students about their MAP Growth data?
4. How are we tracking student progress?

MAP Growth has numerous instructional areas

MAP Growth instructional areas are reporting categories that are aligned to state benchmarks or standards. The assessment contains a maximum of 15 questions related to each instructional area. MAP Growth provides scores by instructional area so teachers can better understand how students are performing in each one, making differentiation easier.

Sharing instructional area results with colleagues who teach other subjects can also provide insight as to where students may soar or need extra support. For example, a student who needs more scaffolding in vocabulary may find a geometry unit that is heavy in more advanced vocabulary difficult, even if they excel in math otherwise. That student may also benefit from a little more support in a history or science class for the same reason.

When I asked the history teacher who voiced his concerns if it would be nice for him to be able to see how his students were performing in vocabulary and informational text, he said he’d love to see that data. That opened a door for him to sit with the ELA teachers at his school, and meaningful conversations about student data ensued.

When teachers share assessment data, students benefit

I truly understand how it might seem that MAP Growth data isn’t relevant for teachers outside of math, ELA, and science. But my earlier example of the role of vocabulary in a geometry class is just one of many I could share.

It’s important for teachers to be encouraged to share assessment data with colleagues in other departments. It’s critical for all educators to ask, “How can I use MAP Growth data to support my content?” This can change the dynamic of a classroom, making differentiation in most subjects easier and providing more opportunities for student growth.

Carving out time to analyze this data may be difficult, but it’s well worth it. Whether you’re a teacher or school leader, I encourage you to first identify how MAP Growth data is currently being used. Chances are there isn’t a lot of cross-curricular collaboration happening—yet. How could teachers of all subject areas come together soon after each testing window to explore data? Looking at the scope and sequence of your curriculum as a larger team could help you find topics you could teach at the same time or in succession. Imagine what could happen if students were able to make connections to a subject across different classes!

Students must be part of the conversation

When I was in the classroom, I would have conversations with students regarding instructional areas. We would identify areas of strength and areas we could target to improve, and then set goals. As we worked through units, I would write the instructional area of focus on the board above our learning targets, and our small groups tutorial schedule was very fluid based on needs.

Last year, I had a conversation with one of my nephews regarding his MAP Growth data. He made tremendous growth, and everyone in my family was so very proud. When I asked him how he was able to grow so much, he told me that he put in the work. My follow-up question was this: “What did you do, specifically?” He replied, “I studied more.” That’s great, of course. But imagine the growth that could take place if our students knew their strengths and areas for growth.

I showed my nephew his MAP Growth Student Profile report soon after. (His teacher was gracious enough to share it via email.) We talked about the instructional areas related to ELA and how the report was showing his strength was “Multiple genres,” while he was middle of the road in “Author’s purpose and craft” and had room to grow in “Foundational language skills: Vocabulary.” After I repeated how proud I was of him, he looked me in the eye and asked, “Auntie, what does ‘Multiple genres’ mean?” I realized I was using very academic teacher-speak with him and was grateful for the opportunity to talk to him using language easier for him to understand.

My nephew and I had some great conversation about what instructional areas look like in various subjects. He was astonished that “Multiple genres” is something he encounters in social studies and science. We also discussed the fact that vocabulary is part of every subject. My nephew and I talked about how we encounter new vocabulary not only academically, but in sports, too, for example. The dots started to click.

Because our students are so much more than a RIT score, our conversations need to be meaningful, and we need to make connections for them regarding instructional areas and content. This creates a culture of learner empowerment that our students crave—and deserve.

MAP Growth is just one part of the big picture of student progress

Because MAP Growth is an interim assessment, that is, an assessment that is administered three times a year, we need to use additional data points to orchestrate continual conversations with colleagues, students, and families about student goals and growth. We cannot talk about how students are doing just those few times out of the year. We must constantly be identifying where kids are in their learning and doing everything we can to help them be successful.

There is no one size fits all for this. My personal favorites when I was a teacher were goal setting and formative assessment. Goal setting looked different from year to year and from class to class, but two things were always true: 1. Without a target, we would surely drift. 2. Without frequent check-ins, it would be hard to meet our goals on time.

Thoughts to leave you with

As you consider your role as an educator, I encourage you to answer the following questions:

• Am I aware of the instructional areas my students are tested on using MAP Growth?
• Can I align these instructional areas with my scope and sequence or curriculum map?
• Do my subject-area colleagues and I take the time to have conversations with colleagues who teach different subjects?
• Do we have departmental conversations about larger trends in data?
• Are we engaging students and families in conversations about MAP Growth data?

Assessment data can be an incredibly powerful tool. NWEA is here to support you in getting the most out of MAP Growth. Visit our professional learning site to read more about our workshops on using data to support instruction.

The post MAP Growth data supports instruction beyond math, ELA, and science  appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

When my youngest stepson chose to come live with me and my husband, he had just turned 16. He’d attended more than 12 schools in the previous six years and had lived in three different states. He had been held back and was repeating his freshman year in high school. All those things we knew. What we didn’t know was that he could barely read. My stepson clearly needed reading interventions.

His English teacher called us in to break the news. The first thought that popped into my head was, “How? How could a kid make it this far and not know how to read?”

I was fully aware that NAEP reading scores were consistently low for grades 4 and 8, but for some reason, it never clicked that those low scores weren’t just related to lack of understanding. I realized that they were very likely related to the fact that some students couldn’t even read the passages, much less answer the comprehension questions about them. According to a 2017 study, issues with fluency were present in 80% of a sample of adolescent students who had difficulty learning to read. My stepson’s frequent moves from school to school only made things worse.

The root of the problem

As a former elementary reading specialist, I knew how to teach young students to read. But I had no experience teaching older students. My stepson, who read at a third-grade level, desperately needed to catch up to his peers, and I didn’t have a clue about how to help him. When I asked his teacher for guidance, he was very honest and admitted that his professional training had never focused on how to help high schoolers needing support with reading fluency; it had been more about furthering comprehension. And since he was new to teaching, he hadn’t run across a situation like this one before. Thus began the journey to find ways to support my child and ensure he would be career and college ready by the time he graduated.

We know that reading skills improve over time, as long as students meet some essential milestones. It all starts with early literacy skills at home. Families introduce unfamiliar words and concepts via oral language while conversing with their children. Children are exposed to environmental print, like stop signs or the large golden arches of McDonald’s, and they begin to understand those stand for words and have meaning. Research also shows that reading to children increases their reading achievement, so children who get to experience being read to at an early age are at an advantage.

Begin by prioritizing fluency without neglecting comprehension.

When children start school, they should be taught the foundational skills of reading, such as phonemic awareness and phonics. These are the building blocks that help shift their trajectory from attaining literacy skills to developing reading skills. As they progress through the grades, the demands on their reading abilities should increase as they navigate more challenging texts that come in a variety of formats. According to a 2006 report from ACT, the ability to process complex texts is the largest factor in helping students become college- and career-ready. By the end of high school, students should be able to read and comprehend texts that mirror what they will see in college or their field of interest.

But what happens if one of the required steps is skipped? That’s all too common, and that’s exactly what happened to my stepson.

If you’re a middle or high school teacher, where do you even begin when you want to help students who need extra support in reading? The bad news is that there is no magic formula; one approach may work for some students and not others. The good news is that teachers are usually really good at determining the areas giving their students the most trouble, even if those weren’t part of their professional training. I encourage you to begin by prioritizing fluency without neglecting comprehension.

Begin by prioritizing fluency

Let’s focus on reading fluency first, as that is often the main problem. Here are two specific approaches I recommend for reading interventions for fluency.

1. Use repeated reading

Have students read a grade-level text multiple times. This is called repeated reading, and you can learn more about it in the Reading Rockets article by Timothy Shanahan titled “Everything you wanted to know about repeated reading.”Our “Fluency protocol” can also help you plan a whole week’s worth of lessons focused on a single text.

Repeated reading can take many forms. You may read a text for your students first. You could also use echo reading (where students repeat after you), choral reading (where you all read a passage in unison), partner reading, and independent rereading. Whatever your approach, exposing students to the same text multiple times allows them to really dig deeply into ways to navigate it, which will help them improve comprehension.

Here’s a challenging sentence freshmen may encounter from Frederick Douglass’s speech “What to the slave is the Fourth of July?”: “O! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I would, today, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.”

The first time you model a text like this, some of the words may be unfamiliar to your students, such as “ridicule,” “reproach,” “withering,” and “rebuke.” “Nation’s ear” may also cause confusion. The second reading might be an echo reading: you read one sentence aloud and your students repeat it. At this point, every student will have heard the text modeled twice by you, with expression and correct pronunciation, which will help them when they read independently.

If any students are still working on their fluency after their independent reading, make a recording of you reading the passage and allow your students to use it whenever they feel they need to. Note that if a text is very long, this approach should be used with chunks of text rather than the entire text, to maximize effectiveness.

2. Make time for word analysis and syllabication

It’s important to help students figure out the meaning of challenging words. Let’s revisit the Douglass speech. “Ridicule,” “reproach,” “withering,” “rebuke,” and “nation’s ear” may all be hard for them to understand. I encourage you to explore context clues with your students—and to also talk about roots and affixes.

When discussing context, ask your class, “Is there any context in the sentence or the surrounding paragraph that would provide clues as to a word’s meaning?” Your students are likely to understand the word “sarcasm,” for example. What might that suggest about “ridicule,” “reproach,” and “rebuke”?

Zeroing in on roots and affixes can be helpful, too. Let’s look closely at “rebuke.” Ninth-grade students have seen the prefix re- many times over the years. Talk to them about its meaning. Then talk to them about how it changes a word it is added to. Next, look at “buke.” This is not a common root word, so it’s unlikely your students will know it means “mouth” or “mouthful” in Latin. With a little more guidance from you, your students can now piece together that “rebuke” means “a strongly worded statement back to someone.”

Another way to navigate challenging words is to chop up long words into syllables. Some students see long words and just skip them. Have them divide the word into syllables instead. Make sure they understand that each syllable has a vowel sound in it. For example, earlier in the speech, Douglass uses the word “immeasurable” to describe the existing inequality between Black people and white people at the time. When “immeasurable” becomes “im-mea-sur-able,” it can be much easier to read.

Don’t forget comprehension

As your students’ fluency improves, so should their comprehension; they will no longer have to focus on the word level and can concentrate on the information or message of the text they are reading. There are many reading interventionsto help students improve comprehension. I encourage you to focus on grade-level texts and practice chunking texts.

1. Use grade-level texts

Students must be exposed to texts appropriate for their grade level. Offering them only texts below their grade level doesn’t give them enough opportunities to strengthen their reading ability. An abundance of research has shown that students make more gains in reading when they interact with complex texts appropriate to their grade level.

Texts below grade level can serve to scaffold up to grade-level texts. Those lower-level passages that are linked to the grade-level text you’re studying as a class can introduce students to background knowledge on the topic as well as new vocabulary, building a stair step of knowledge that will then help them access the grade-level text. See “Building background knowledge through reading: Rethinking text sets” by Sarah Lupo et al. for more on this.

The Douglass speech I mentioned earlier is a prime example of this. It’s often taught in high school, but exactly when varies. It’s likely ninth-grade students will need more scaffolding than seniors, for example.

Students needing extra support, either because they’re early in their high school career or simply need more support with reading, could start with a biography about Douglass with a lower reading level; it explains one of the reasons he is so passionate during his speech. You could also give your class a set of questions about Douglass and ask them to use their digital literacy skills to find the answers. In heterogenous groups, the students who did the research could share their findings while the more confident readers could do the first out-loud reading of the text. Once you observe all students have captured the important ideas that will help them understand the grade-level text, they can all focus on the speech itself.

2. Chunk texts

With my stepson, I noticed that he gave up on longer texts before he even tried them. All those pages and all those words were extremely intimidating for him. So, we chunked them. I would read aloud one paragraph and then he would summarize that paragraph in one sentence, which we wrote down. When I felt he was ready, we would chunk two paragraphs at a time and he would write down the summary for those. At the end of a study session, he would read me the summary sentences and I would ask him questions about the text.

In the beginning, I did all the reading and he followed along in his book. But by the time we got to Night by Elie Wiesel, he was able to read more of the text himself. Was it perfect? Not at all, but it was a grade-level text, and he was productively struggling. We did this for months on end with every text he interacted with.

Keep exploring

The approaches outlined here are not a comprehensive list of reading interventions; rather, they are examples of what helped my stepson. There were things his teacher and I tried that didn’t work well for him, even though they were evidence-based.

The solution to getting students who fell through the cracks back on track isn’t going to be an easy one. But not finding a solution is unacceptable. I’m happy to report that by the end of the school year, my stepson was reading at a seventh-grade level, which means he gained four years during that one school year. He also went on to pass all of his state summative exams.

Students deserve to get the support they need to be prepared for life after high school. Scaffolds must be in place to ensure that reading is, indeed, a lifelong endeavor.

The post Reading interventions after grade 4 should focus on both fluency and comprehension appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

In the realm of instructional coaching, trust is the linchpin that holds together the transformative journey a coach and teacher go on together. While having a bowl of chocolates at your desk to share with the teachers you work with may be charming (and certainly has its place), the essence of building trust has to go far beyond mere gestures.

Building trust—real trust—in an instructional coaching relationship requires embodying qualities that resonate deeply with teachers so that you can create a foundation of partnership, reliability, consistency, and confidentiality. These are the true “chocolates” that invite teachers into a space of growth and learning. As our colleague Lindsay Deacon and Angela Scotto Harkness say in their book, The EduCoach Survival Guide, “without trust, there could be no coaching.”

Equally vital are the intangible elements that serve as a metaphorical bowl, cradling and supporting your trust-building endeavor. Warmth, character, and stewardship provide the vessel in which these essential qualities are held, nurturing a climate of trust that fosters genuine collaboration and development.

Let’s look at all of those elements—partnership, reliability, consistency, confidentiality, warmth, character, and stewardship—as you consider your role as an instructional coach.

Partnership: Co-creating the journey

It is important that coaches and teachers approach their interactions as partnerships, not hierarchical relationships.

Involving the teachers you work with in decision-making, seeking their input, and valuing their expertise during joint planning sessions taps into a teacher’s agency and helps them begin to trust you: their coach.

Partnerships also encourage active participation from teachers. As Lindsay and Angela explain, “If coaches don’t really get to know the teachers in their school and learn what’s important to them, the impact of coaching will be less effective.” The more often coaches can tailor their approach to meet each teacher’s unique needs, preferences, and goals, the more impactful the relationship will be. Showing that you understand and care about a teacher’s circumstances demonstrates compassion and improves the partnership.

Reliability: A pillar of dependability

In strong partnerships, both members are responsible for reliability. Without reliability, it’s difficult to build trust, in any kind of relationship. If a car is unreliable, for example, it still runs, but perhaps not always when it’s needed most. The owner might find other methods of transportation when they absolutely must be somewhere at a certain time—methods that might be costly, inefficient, or exhausting. Similarly, teachers will look elsewhere for advice or support if their coach does not remain committed to the coaching relationship. While these other places might serve a teacher’s short-term goals by providing quick solutions, long-term change to their teaching practice is less likely to occur.

Coaching is most impactful when teachers and coaches work together throughout a coaching cycle. This cycle begins with coaches and teachers setting expectations for themselves and for the relationship. Establishing clear guidelines for what the coaching sessions will look like, where they’ll take place, and what the responsibilities of each person will be needs to occur within the first few sessions. Then, both parties need to stick to their guidelines if they want to build reliability.

Teachers want to know that the time spent in instructional coaching sessions will be valuable and won’t add to their already lengthy to-do list.

The use of protocols and checklists for meetings helps ensure teachers and coaches come to meetings prepared and ready to focus on the day’s tasks. When teachers can predict what coaching sessions will look and feel like, they know they can rely on the sessions to be productive and useful. Teachers want to know that the time spent in instructional coaching sessions will be valuable and won’t add to their already lengthy to-do list.

Consistency: The backbone of trust

Many of the behaviors that demonstrate reliability lead to consistency. Coaches and teachers must intentionally practice reliability for consistency to occur.

Choosing to use the same meeting protocols and sticking to the agenda during coaching sessions removes confusion and inefficiency. When coaches provide resources, feedback, and further assistance, and when they then follow through in the agreed-upon timeframe repeatedly, they demonstrate their commitment to the shared goal of the coaching relationship. The consistency of engaging in coaching sessions week after week, without interruptions or cancellations, shows that both coach and teacher have prioritized coaching and the benefits it provides for teachers and their students.

Confidentiality: Building safe spaces

Perhaps the greatest quality of a successful coaching relationship is confidentiality. Teachers who enter a coaching agreement must be able to share their struggles as well as their successes. (To learn from your mistakes, you must be able to admit those mistakes in the first place, right?) It’s difficult for teachers to express disappointment or frustration in their teaching practice if they’re worried the information might be shared with the administration or other teachers in the building.

Instructional coaches can communicate their dedication to confidentiality by providing a safe space for coaching sessions. This might mean holding meetings in private spaces within the building, playing background music or white noise to account for thin walls, or using a “do not disturb” sign to let others know a coaching session is taking place.

As an instructional coach, you can also let the teachers you work with know that all coaching conversations will remain private and that it is up to the teacher if they want to share the successes (or struggles) of both their teaching practice and the coaching cycle with others. The coaching relationship is similar to that of doctors and their patients, or attorneys and their clients: confidentiality must always be at the forefront.

Warmth, character, and stewardship: The crucible of trust

While partnership, reliability, consistency, and confidentiality serve as the inviting “chocolates” of instructional coaching, it is your warmth, character, and stewardship that hold it all together. “Right now, teachers need people who care about them more than ever,” Lindsay and Angela explain in their book.

Instructional coaches with warmth create a welcoming environment where teachers feel valued and respected. A coach’s character speaks to the integrity and authenticity that underpins every interaction they have with others. Stewardship embodies your dedication to a teacher’s success and acts as a guiding force throughout your journey.

Chocolate is just the start

Beyond the allure of a bowl of chocolates lies the true heart of instructional coaching: the art of building trust. Through the consistent application of partnership, reliability, consistency, confidentiality, warmth, character, and stewardship, you can pave the way for transformative growth in the teachers you work with. It’s in these intentional actions and genuine connections that trust takes root, creating a fertile ground for teachers to flourish in their professional endeavors.

Instructional coaches can—and should—commit to going beyond the surface, cultivating trust that stands the test of time.

To learn more about instructional coaching, check out Lindsay and Angela’s Educoach Survival Guide and instructional coaching services available through NWEA.

Jenna Talos and Trina Barton, instructional coaches and professional learning consultants with NWEA, contributed to this post.

The post Beyond the bowl of chocolates: How to build trust in instructional coaching relationships appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

I am a notetaker, and an analog one at that. I always have a notebook at my desk to jot down to-dos, project notes, and other things I need to remember. In an effort to be more eco-conscious, my supply of notebooks is my girls’ old school composition books, which are rarely fully used.

Recently, I grabbed a “new” notebook from the pile next to my desk. Of course, before using it, I had to flip through my daughter’s notes. I had grabbed a science notebook that I’m guessing was from middle school. The large number of graphic organizers, particularly concept maps, jumped out at me. There were concept maps of parts of an ecosystem, a food web, the states of matter, and several other topics.

Noticing that the next book in the pile was a math notebook, I flipped through that, wondering if I would see a similar array of concept maps in there. While the notebook was packed with notes, exercises, and things like place value and conversion tables, there was nothing like what I saw in the science notebook. This got me wondering about the idea of using concept maps in math.

What are concept maps?

The term “concept map” is not new and it’s likely to be, if you’ll pardon the pun, a concept with which you are familiar.

At the simplest level, a concept map is a way to organize information and show relationships visually. While some definitions of concept maps include a wide array of graphic organizers, like Venn diagrams, T charts, and tables, I’d like to focus on a more specific type: those consisting of nodes and connectors. Nodes are where you record concepts or ideas, and connectors (lines, arrows, and/or phrases) show how the nodes and concepts relate.

Concept maps can have either a hierarchical structure or be based around a central organizing theme. Concept maps organized around a central theme are sometimes referred to as mind maps or spider maps. As an example, I’ve reproduced the states of matter concept map from my daughter’s notebook below.

You can also find examples of concept and mind maps at this University of Wollongong website and in this research paper on concept mapping in math. Achieve the Core’s coherence map as well as their graph of the content standards are examples of complex concept maps that you might already be engaging with in your teaching practice.

Concept maps accelerate student learning

You may be familiar with John Hattie’s visible learning project. His original book harnessed over 800 meta-analyses to help determine what factors and strategies research has found to have positively impacted student learning. Over the years, Hattie has continued to add to this body of work, and numerous sites, including Visible Learning and Corwin’s Visible Learning Meta^x research database, have been created to make this information available to educators.

Searching the Meta^x database for concept mapping shows that based on 12 meta-analyses of over 1,200 studies involving 26,000 students, concept mapping has the “potential to considerably accelerate” student learning with an effect size of 0.62. For reference, Hattie has defined anything with an effect size of more than 0.4 as having a greater than typical positive impact on student learning.

So what exactly makes concept maps effective? One of the key components of a concept map—the element of connection—taps into a highly effective learning strategy: in “Maximum impact: 3 ways to make the most of supplemental content,” I talked about the importance of creating connections between ideas, particularly new ideas and previously learned ones. Embedding new knowledge into a web of previously learned content frees up working memory, which, in turn, supports deeper learning than rote memorization of facts.

Connecting content, specifically conceptual understanding, is particularly important in math, where conceptual connections help give meaning to processes. The authors of the National Research Council’s book Adding It Up: Helping Children Learn in Mathematics explain that students with conceptual understanding “have organized their knowledge into a coherent whole, which enables them to learn new ideas by connecting those ideas to what they already know.” Creating concept maps in math helps avoid the type of instrumental learning of isolated skills that many of us experienced in our own education, and which my colleague Ted Coe talks about in “We all need mathematical ways of thinking: An ‘out of proportion’ example.”

Connecting content, specifically conceptual understanding, is particularly important in math, where conceptual connections help give meaning to processes.

In his seminal paper on concept maps, researcher Joseph Novak references the distinction between meaningful learning and rote learning. Rote learning is associated with passive acquisition, recognition, and recall of factual content. Meaningful learning is associated with learner-constructed understanding in which new knowledge is integrated into the existing schema of knowledge, resulting in an improved ability to both retain and transfer learning to new settings. A meta-analysis of concept map research showed that the construction of concept maps was associated with increased retention and transfer when compared to reading content, attending lectures, or engaging in class discussions. This effect held true across achievement levels, subjects, and settings and may be attributed to the active engagement required to organize one’s knowledge into a concept map.

Concept maps also pair well with retrieval exercises, which can help students cement their learning. In a previous post about our High Growth for All research project, which recommends ten specific instructional strategies proven to help advance learning, I talked about the idea of retrieval practice. This highly effective practice involves literally retrieving information from memory.

While there are different ways to have students create concept maps, combining concept mapping with retrieval practice, or asking students to create maps based on recalled information rather than information in front of them, can increase the impact of concept mapping. Using concept maps and retrieval practice together is a powerful combination that improves retention of new materials when compared to more traditional ways of studying, like reviewing or rereading the material repeatedly.

Teachers as mapmakers

How can you get started with concept maps in your classroom? A great first step can be doing it yourself.

Concept mapping can help teachers develop a deeper understanding of math and their standards. In her book Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics, Liping Ma examines variations in Chinese and American teachers’ understandings of and approaches to fundamental math topics. In discussing subtraction with regrouping with teachers from both countries, she noticed that the Chinese teachers frequently referred to connections within math topics. These “knowledge packages,” as one teacher called them, represent the teachers’ understanding of math topics not as individual units of knowledge or even as a single progression, but as an interconnected web of concepts. The teacher explained that as you teach a piece of knowledge, “you should know the role of the present knowledge in that package. You have to know that the knowledge you are teaching is supported by which ideas or procedures, so your teaching is going to rely on, reinforce, and elaborate the learning of these ideas.”

There is no one right way to determine the related knowledge for a given topic. Creating even a simple concept map similar to the one shown on page 16 of the book can anchor the current learning in related content, which can help you determine appropriate scaffolds, supports, and enrichment content for your students. It can also give you an idea of what to look for in any student-created concept maps.

Before starting a new unit, consider mapping the unit content beforehand, being sure to include both previously learned content that the new topic connects to as well as where the knowledge is heading, at least at a high level. This can be a great activity for grade-level teams or even cross-grade teams to do together.

Getting started with students

When first introducing concept maps to students, you may wish to build some maps either in small groups or as a whole class so that you can model the process and guide student’s understanding of the mapping. And there is no right or wrong age to get started. Research has indicated that concept maps are a useful tool even with the youngest of students.

While there are plenty of concept map templates available online, I prefer to build a map from scratch to not constrain students. Whiteboards are a great tool for modeling mapping together, and Common Sense Media has compiled a list of concept mapping tools and apps for educators. The Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition’s concept mapping tool is free to download, and the “Learn about concept maps” section of their website contains links to documents and videos to help get you started. When working with small groups, the low-tech solution of Post-it notes and chart paper is conducive to rethinking connections and rearranging ideas.

The key to a good concept map is framing the guiding question. You can certainly just ask students to make a map of a particular topic, for example, measurement. However, it can be more effective to provide a question that encourages deeper consideration of the topic, for example, “How can we measure the length of an object?” Simply providing a topic tends to result in a more description-focused map, whereas a well-crafted question promotes more analysis.

Once you have created your question or determined your topic, prompt students to create a list of ideas and concepts related to the question. Novak refers to this as the parking lot. You may want to pre-create a list of concepts. Once students generate their parking lot list, you can either suggest any key terms that they missed or ask prompting questions to elicit them.

The next stage—connecting the ideas from the parking lot and building the maps—can be the most challenging. You want students to develop the ability to make meaningful connections and not just create a linear connection or “string map” like the one Novak shows on page 13 of “The theory underlying concept maps and how to construct and use them.” As students begin arranging concepts, you may need to prompt them to create more specific linking phrases to better articulate what truly connects the various ideas.

In introducing concept maps, aim to emphasize that they are never truly “done.” Students are always gaining new knowledge and understandings of the connections between that knowledge. As such, their concept maps will change and grow, and students should be encouraged to revisit and alter concept maps frequently.

5 times to try concept maps

When you think about using concept maps in math, there are probably a few obvious topics that come to mind, like mapping the types of real numbers and types of quadrilaterals. Those are certainly viable topics. However, concept maps can be used to develop both a deeper and wider interconnection of topics. Like I mentioned earlier, more abstract questions can result in rich maps that connect to multiple concepts.

Let’s look at five specific times to use concept mapping in your math class:

1. Unit opener. If you’ve done your own concept mapping for a unit, you know what precursor concepts underlie the upcoming unit. Having students create a concept map related to key foundational skills can help activate their prior learning and provide you with formative assessment data. So, before starting a fourth-grade unit about multiplicative comparison, for example, you might ask students to create a concept map around the question “How do addition and multiplication compare?” You can refer to students’ maps during the unit to help students distinguish between additive and multiplicative thinking.
2. Making connections during the unit. As you progress through a unit of study, have students create their own concept maps of what they are learning. At the end of each lesson or lesson series, students can revisit their maps to add new information or new connections. This is also a great way to help students connect what they learn in supplemental time to the whole-class core content. For example, you may have a group of students who are using their supplemental time to review measurement conversion in support of understanding the whole class unit on ratios. At the end of each week, ask these students to consider how they might add what they practiced with unit conversion to their concept map of ratios. Taking beginning and end-of-unit pictures of students’ concept maps can help them see how much their learning has grown.
3. Paired activity. Having students work in pairs to create concept maps together can lead to a rich dialogue. As students decide which concepts to add to the parking lot and share their understanding of how the concepts connect, they must both articulate their own thinking and seek to understand their classmates’ ideas.
4. Assessing conceptual understanding. Most math assessments focus on checking students’ procedural skill and fluency and their ability to apply these skills to real-world problems. Concept maps can give students a way to demonstrate their understanding of foundational concepts and how they interrelate. In addition to having students create maps from scratch, you can also ask them to fill in partially completed maps or have them correct maps with errors as quick formative checks. Using conceptual maps as assessments moves away from the idea of assessment that represents “closure of a topic, representing to students the closing of a door on a set of skills.” The expansive nature of concept maps gives you a sense of students’ in-the-moment conceptual understanding but reminds both you and them that their knowledge is always growing.
5. Year-long map. A wonderful way to close out a unit might be to add to a cumulative, year-long concept map. Ask students to think of the big ideas from the most recent unit. Creating a map that shows connections between big concepts learned across the year can really reinforce the idea of math as a cohesive subject. You can do this either via a map saved on the computer and shared on the white board or on a large piece of craft paper. Students can even add concepts learned in previous years to create a full picture of their math understanding.

Let’s get mapping!

Concept maps are a simple but effective tool for helping students actively organize and consolidate their knowledge. They can be particularly effective in helping them literally see the cohesiveness of math. If you need more help to get started, check out the resources below:

• “Concept mapping” This five-minute BrainPOP video gives a great overview of concept maps and how to create them. It’s perfect for elementary students.
• “Mind mapping and brainstorming apps and websites” This Common Sense Education page includes reviews of 12 mapping apps and websites with information about whether the resource is free and for what grade levels it is appropriate.
• “Learn about concept maps” The Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition’s Cmap site contains links to articles about a variety of topics, including focus questions, the importance of linking words, how young children can engage with concept maps, and how to introduce concept maps to students.
• “Mathematics concept maps: Assessing connections” This article from NCTM’s Teaching Children Mathematics journal models how small groups of fourth- and fifth-graders worked through a concept mapping activity.
• “Promoting mathematics connections with concept mapping” This article from NCTM’s Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School journal includes an example rubric for using concept maps for assessment.
• “Using concept maps to link mathematical ideas” This article from NCTM’s Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School journal discusses different ways to use concept maps in middle school.

The post Mapping math: 5 ways to use concept maps in the math classroom appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Growing up in the Midwest, the winter was always a difficult time to stay motivated in school. Tearing myself away from a warm bed to wait at a cold and dark bus stop didn’t exactly help me stay energized for learning. In the middle of a journey like a school year, keeping focus on our objectives can be one of the biggest challenges. Student goal setting can help provide that focus.

In the fall, I shared some ideas on using goals to organize the excitement and overwhelm of the beginning of the year. Here I want to focus on using goals to connect with individual students at the time when it is perhaps the most difficult.

The role of MAP Growth in the winter

A winter MAP® Growth score can bring a student excitement about what they have achieved, and it can also bring some disappointment about how far there is to go.

We shouldn’t shy away from data. It’s difficult to stay motivated for the journey if we don’t even know where we’re going or how close we are to getting there. MAP Growth can also help us step back from day-to-day instruction and understand where a student is more broadly within a content domain, reinforcing why the day-to-day activities matter. But the midpoint of the school year is also the most important time to understand how each of our students feels about that journey and uncover the tools and supports they need to make it more successful.

In Step into Student Goal Setting: A Path to Growth, Motivation, and Agency, I argue that one-on-one conversations are key to goal-setting practices that are relevant and functional for learners. Making the time and space for each student as an individual can seem a daunting task. However, the book provides some important strategies for using your conversations to build student ownership and agency, which can help students take on more of the logistical burden. Begin by discussing MAP Growth scores, but don’t stop there.

Tips on talking with students from Step into Student Goal Setting

As you review the following passage, consider all the opportunities you may have in a school day to check in with where your students are in working toward their goals. Even a five-minute conversation can provide invaluable insights and continuing motivation that can help students see the full forest of learning, even if the trees are covered by a little winter snow.

“One-on-one conversations with students are the foundation of an effective goal-setting practice. Goals must be personal in order to be truly relevant for learners. While class-level goals can help guide instruction and provide students with ways to connect with one another, personal learning goals let students convert their dedication to the learning of their class into the self-confidence and agency necessary to see themselves as ambitious learners.

“One-on-one conversations are invitations to students to engage in co-constructing their goals with their teacher. In one-on-one conversations, teacher and student work together to understand how the student is learning, what the student’s next goal should be, and what the student should do in order to get to that goal. They leave the conversation having plotted or better understood together that student’s learning journey, with each of a student’s goals serving as another mile marker on the road.

Focus on student strengths and opportunities for growth rather than the places they’ve fallen short.

“These conversations also provide the teacher with the chance to do some intelligence gathering on student needs. While some students are eager to volunteer all the details about their lives, others need support to reveal everything the teacher needs to know to best serve them as an instructor, an advocate, or a mentor. One-on-one conversations provide the appropriate environment to ask probing questions about a student’s strengths and the barriers to their learning that they can identify. I spoke with STEM teacher Matthew Marchoyok, who works with middle and secondary students on college and career readiness, and leverages goals as an important part of tying what he teaches directly to student concerns. ‘Conversation and connection,’ he says, ‘are applications of learning.’

“The types of questions you ask in a goal-setting conversation and the language used in those questions communicate to students how you understand learning and play a major role in how they come to understand learning. When crafting your language, focus on student strengths and opportunities for growth rather than the places they’ve fallen short. Where possible, create opportunities for students to make meaning of their learning rather than making that meaning for them. Use questions to elicit evidence of students’ thinking rather than opportunities to introduce your own perspectives.

“To be most effective, those conversations and connections should be frequent—for example, held monthly or even weekly with each student. There’s no doubt that such an investment of time is significant for any teacher, and the commitment may seem daunting at first glance. There are a few ways to make this challenge more manageable:

“Consider how existing structures in your classroom can support goal setting. Many classrooms use reading and writing workshops or math groups in which teacher/student conferring is already an important component. These conferences provide a natural opportunity to think about a student’s goals, and a goal-setting process can be easily folded into these existing conversations. Keeping the conversations informal may make things easier. Oftentimes, short, frequent conversations can have more impact than longer, more scripted ones. While this chapter provides a series of tools to guide goal-setting conversations, some of these check ins can focus on updating an existing plan for a student rather than making a whole new plan. Track conversations in the way that makes the most sense for you. It’s not necessary to keep an extended, formal report from each time you sit down with a student. Instead, something like an ongoing page in a notebook (or document on a computer) for each student can provide a quick way to jot down evidence of their progress toward a goal or considerations for your next conversation. Wherever possible, involve students in keeping their own logs of conversations….

“While the initial time investment in a goal-setting process can be substantial, goal setting in the long term can create greater efficiency in your planning by more equitably sharing responsibilities between teachers and students. When students can take greater control over their learning, they’re able to become more self-directed, engage in more activities without direct teacher supervision, and make more choices about what they’re ready to learn next.”

Keep exploring goal setting

Goal setting is a powerful practice for any classroom. For more on how to get the most out of it, listen to our podcast, The Continuing Educator, or watch my recorded webinar “Goals mean growth: Using student goal setting to jumpstart student motivation and success.”

The post Goal setting in winter: Prioritize conversations with students appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

In my previous post, I discussed various classroom configurations and why you might choose whole-group instruction one day and pair work, for example, the next. In this post, I’d like to expand on those ideas and explore an element of flexible grouping that many educators would agree is easier to implement successfully after a few years of teaching: changing student groups in real time.

Have you ever witnessed someone who is in their element? A comedian who nails every line. An athlete moving with instinct and ease. A chef who takes a bare cupboard and creates a masterpiece. I find myself captivated, almost mesmerized, by someone who is at such a full expression of their craft that what they’re doing doesn’t look like work at all.

If you were to ask any person at the pinnacle of their career how the journey to the top was, they would probably recall a trail of emotional bumps and maybe a few bruises to the ego. For a teacher, making in-the-moment changes to grouping requires some years of practice—and even some missed marks. The fullest expression of flexible grouping is adjusting student groups in real time, and I’m here to help you avoid as many bumps and bruises along the way as I can.

A quick reminder: What flexible grouping is

Adjusting student groups in real time is an advanced skill inside the larger teaching strategy that is flexible grouping. Let’s start by ensuring we’re working from the same definition of “flexible grouping.”

Flexible grouping is a cornerstone of differentiation, and it encourages teachers to view their classroom as a dynamic environment with purposeful seating. It refers to frequently assessing student skills and ensuring they’re in a group that will provide enough just-right challenges to keep them engaged and learning when you choose to switch from whole-class instruction to group or pair work.

For many of us, flexible grouping becomes less of a planned teacher checklist item and more of a habitual best practice after we spend some time (often years) trying out groups, using student data to evaluate group success, and going back to the drawing board as many times as we need to, to get it all right.

If you’re at the point where flexible grouping is a comfortable habit for you, I’d like to challenge you to take things to the next level with your students by beginning to think about how to adjust groups in real time, if you’re not already doing so. If flexible grouping is still somewhat new and difficult for you, the advice that follows can help you set some long-term goals for your practice.

Adjusting groups in real time is proven to help kids

Why is adjusting groups in real time worth doing in the first place, if it’s so hard? Because research says it can make a real difference in student achievement.

Following disruptions in student learning during COVID-19 school closures, my colleague Chase Nordengren, a fellow Teach. Learn. Grow. writer and an education researcher, set out to answer a question many of us have long been asking ourselves: What instructional strategies are the most effective at helping students be successful? Dubbed our High Growth for All project, his study led us to recommend ten specific approaches teachers can take. We’re calling these the Transformative Ten:

1. Provide supplemental learning time for targeted retrieval practice
2. Mix whole-group, small-group, and individual activities
3. Adjust student groups in real time
4. Share students and strategies within a grade level
5. Differentiate tasks within a unit
6. Provide targeted practice for foundational skills
7. Teach from multiple standards at once
8. Create opportunities for self-directed learning
9. Use student discourse as formative assessment
10. Explicitly teach academic vocabulary

For strategy #3 in particular, the research supports the following: “For maximum flexibility, keep groups fluid, low-stakes, and purpose agnostic—at least in the eyes of the students.” Let’s break that down and explore ways you can follow that advice as you leverage flexible grouping in your classroom.

Start with a flexible mindset

Before we can even begin to think about keeping groups fluid, low-stakes, or purpose agnostic, it’s critical that we explore the idea of flexibility more generally. Think about how you embody flexibility in your practice every day. What does it look like when you make changes midstream to something you’re doing in your classroom?

There are certain occasions when making adjustments in real time is a bad idea, of course. When riding a roller coaster or getting a tattoo come to mind. Then there are times when changing your mind at the last minute could mean a world of difference. When filling in a lottery ticket or saying “yes” to a blind date, for example.

What happens when your planned grouping starts to fall apart a little? Should you throw your hands up and call that lesson a bust? Of course not. (Though I totally get why you might be tempted to. I’ve been there plenty of times myself.) Powering through and making small, well-informed adjustments midstream can help you get things back on track and help students be successful. Flexibility in the classroom looks like responding to what is happening in the moment and making deliberate changes, adjusting as needed to get the lesson right. It means knowing your content and students so well that you can make changes with confidence.

When I think of “maximum flexibility,” I think of Gumby: that lovable, green clay character who can bend and stretch and shrink, all with a smile on his face. You aren’t Gumby and neither am I. Being flexible can be hard, and I don’t want to suggest it isn’t. But I do believe we can all strive to have a Gumby-like mindset. By that I mean that we can be prepared to adapt and have the confidence that we can make changes in the moment that will help us be more successful in meeting our teaching objectives. This requires planning, of course, but also having a backup plan (or two) that doesn’t sacrifice the integrity of a lesson or send the students into a frenzy.

Step #1: Keep groups fluid by knowing your students

The first step for adjusting students in real time is to keep groups fluid. I’m not suggesting a free-for-all here. When planning your groups, I encourage you to commit to that plan about 90%. I like to leave a little wiggle room in my planning, around 10%, to give myself room to make adjustments. That’s fluidity.

The same process that informs my initial plan for grouping (that 90% I’m committed to) typically informs my adjustments (my fluid 10%). I take all my data into consideration in both cases: my observations of student dynamics, assessment results, and our learning goals. I remind myself that I have to be able to let go of what I planned if that’s what’s required to provide the most impactful experience for my students. For example, if I initially have a group of five students working on an entry-level task and I see one student is quickly outpacing their peers, I need to be ready to move that student to a group where a productive challenge is possible for them. Conversely, if I placed a student in a higher-level group and observe them floundering, I should move them to a group where they can reinforce their skills. I can notice these types of things by making rounds during group work and by reading between the lines of what students are doing and saying, especially because they’re likely to adjust their behavior, at least a little bit, when I pull up a chair and sit down with them and their peers.

Keeping groups fluid doesn’t apply to making adjustments within a group only. If I planned a task for pairs, for example, but see there is more deliberation on the goal of the task than actual academic conversation, I may pause and bring the students back to whole group for a little bit. It’s more than okay to make a change like that when it serves the larger purpose of helping kids meet a learning goal.

Step #2: Seize low-stakes opportunities to pivot

The best time to make grouping decisions in the moment is almost all the time. I’d like to add one small asterisk to that, though: If you are at a high-stakes moment, that is, if a lesson is vital to subsequent learning, think carefully about your grouping decisions. For example, if I am starting a unit with presumed prior knowledge and would like to take a class period to do a multi-station, multi-level review, I can probably do that and be flexible with in-the-moment grouping. However, if I am starting a new unit with brand-new content and I need maximum buy-in and focus, I may want to have a more structured approach to the lesson.

Any time you select group or pair work, you are opening yourself up to the possibility of a game-time adjustment. Thus, it is best to use groups when:

• Student engagement is a priority
• You feel confident all your students have the required amount of prior knowledge
• There is time to incorporate a planned summary or regroup if necessary

Step #3: Aim to have groups be purpose agnostic

Maybe the most important step is this last step. The purpose of groups—and of changing those groups in the moment as needed—is to find the best placement based on the student, activity, content, and goal. We don’t ever want to keep kids cast in roles they may have outgrown.

Student needs should dictate the group, and that’s what we mean by “purpose agnostic”: student needs are the priority, not whatever goals you may have for groups at the outset. The groups are there to serve each student’s immediate academic need and create the optimum opportunity for a productive challenge. This is a shift in mindset from “These are our low-performing kids, our middle kids, and our high kids” to “This is where the student will work best right now. I, as the teacher, am flexible and prepared to move them to a different group if I need to.”

The challenge here is that you must be confident you know both your content and your students well so you can provide access to grade-level content while also giving every student the support they need at their level.

Go boldly, Gumby! 

Wherever you are in your teaching career, your students are going to benefit from a teacher like you who is willing to develop the skills and habits necessary to elevate their learning. Observing you making confident, deliberate changes helps them learn both what it means to be adaptable to change and what can be gained from it. It’s good for your students to see that changes can happen on the fly but that your high expectations don’t waver.

Flexible grouping, in all its fullness and actualization, includes changing groups in the moment, and that’s a skill that takes time to develop. Most experienced teachers would tell you that it becomes second nature (the key word being “second”) after years of careful consideration. By starting from the foundation of flexible grouping and being willing to dig deeper into understanding your students as scholars and individuals, you’ll become fluent at being flexible. Just remember to stretch!

The post 3 ways to use flexible grouping in real time to support student growth appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

I love this time of year, when the internet is flooded with best-of lists. The best movies. The best books. The best gadgets, even. It’s such a clever way to encapsulate a period of time, to whittle it down to the things that stood out and to celebrate excellence. But who decides what makes the cut? At Teach. Learn. Grow., you do.

Here are 10 posts that spoke to our readers this year. We hope they’ve helped you feel supported in your work and that you’ll visit us again in 2024.

On helping kids with reading and writing

I remember reading to my son when he was just a few days old. I propped him against my chest and balanced Little Blue Truck on my thighs. His eyes were still learning how to make sense of the world around him, but I like to think he enjoyed it.

He’s in second grade now, and we still don’t let a bedtime come and go without at least a little reading time together. Sometimes, we each grab a book and booklight and read side by side in the dark. Mostly, I read to him with a proper lamp on, and we haggle over the number of pages we have time for.

In 2023, we saw many Teach. Learn. Grow. readers come to us for guidance on literacy, both in the classroom and at home. Here are our two most popular posts on reading and writing in 2023:

• “The science of reading explained”
• “Parent strategies for improving their child’s reading and writing”

On supporting students well

This year saw the first teacher strike in the history of Portland Public Schools in Oregon, where I live. For 26 days, we wondered when our kids would go back to school. And for 26 days, I worried, because when district leadership prepared for a strike in late October, I received an email that my kindergartener’s MAP® Reading Fluency scores showed cause for concern. She was offered online reading coaching for the duration of the strike, and I felt grateful for the support.

School is back in session, and it’s too soon to know if my daughter will continue to need extra help in the coming months or even years. But I do know that I feel well equipped to advocate for her thanks to our popular post on individual education plans (IEPs):

• “How to write an effective IEP”

On assessment

Before I became a parent, I taught college writing. I miss it sometimes, but I never miss the grading. It wasn’t the hours it took to barely make a dent in a pile of essays that I dreaded; it was that assessment is infinitely difficult. I was always awash in nagging questions: Was there more I could have done to help this student or that student better understand the content so they could earn a higher grade? Was a big batch of As proof that the material I was teaching was too easy?

It’s no surprise that the following Teach. Learn. Grow. posts on assessments—both interim (with MAP® Growth) and ungraded formative assessments—helped many of our readers this year:

• “12 common questions parents ask about MAP Growth”
• “Six commonly used MAP Growth terms worth knowing”
• “Sharing assessment data with parents just got simpler”
• “What is formative assessment?”
• “75 digital tools and apps teachers can use to support formative assessment in the classroom”
• “27 easy formative assessment strategies for gathering evidence of student learning”
• “Three ways to put assessment data to work in the classroom”

Warm wishes for the new year

January is a milestone, a time to stop and reflect on how the school year has gone so far and where you’d like to take your students in the months you have left together. All of us at Teach. Learn. Grow. hope the rest of this school year is filled with learning, joy, and laughter. And time for catching your breath, too. You’ve definitely earned it.

The post The best of <em>Teach. Learn. Grow.</em> in 2023  appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Each back-to-school season is so different. In the fall, the time is full of possibility, nervous jitters, and new faces. After spring break, it’s more like Mad Max: desert cars limping across a finish line, held together by duct tape. But after winter break? It’s…familiar. We have follow-up questions to ask our students (“How was visiting the grandparents?”), and we have inside jokes to reignite. We also have a unique midyear position to reenergize and recommit.

The post 4 New Year’s resolutions for teachers appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Declining student scores over the past year in reading, math, and civics on the Nation’s Report Card have confirmed a sobering truth that was already widely assumed by the public at large: students, already in need of extra academic support pre-pandemic, have fallen even further behind.

You wouldn’t know it, though, if you asked parents about their own child. Despite only about a third of the country’s students reading on grade level, 92% of parents believe their own child is doing so. That math, of course, doesn’t add up.

So, what’s the source of this disconnect? In some cases, it may be that teachers aren’t telling parents and guardians how their child is doing. A recent survey of 1,000 teachers across the country found that only 38% of teachers had received the training needed to effectively leverage student assessment data, and fewer than two-thirds report using assessment data to inform families of their students’ progress. Those two things, of course, go hand-in-hand: communicating about assessment data is challenging if you haven’t been trained how to do so.

Parents and other caregivers deserve transparency in their children’s learning, and their tendency to underestimate their students’ gaps makes it critical that teachers leverage objective measures of student learning in conversation with families. As two teachers with more than a decade of experience each, we’ve learned some strategies for doing so and have identified areas for leaders to lean in to help as well.

1. Avoid assumptions

In our schools, we often hear the assumption that parents and guardians don’t and can’t understand assessments. The terms are too jargony, or the scores too complex, or the language or cultural barriers too wide, and so we avoid the conversation altogether.

We agree that we must be mindful of these challenges in communicating with families about their students’ progress, but they should never be used as an excuse to not explain student academic progress. We shouldn’t assume that adults can’t understand, and we should always dig deeper in conversations with them to identify where gaps in their understanding do exist and work with them to close them.

2. Give families the tools and context they need

In the same way we scaffold learning for our students, we can scaffold for their adults by helping them understand the different types of assessments, what each one is designed to measure and, ultimately, what they tell us about their student’s academic progress.

When families struggle to understand their child’s assessment results, we can share examples of texts a student should be able to read at their grade level and compare them to texts the student is currently reading. We must also educate parents and other caregivers on what questions they should be asking in every interaction with their child’s teacher, like “Where is my child academically compared to where they are supposed to be?”

While teachers should play a role in sharing this information with families, it is also the responsibility of the district and school leaders to provide educators the training they need to do this well. And districts must create opportunities for adults to attend workshops to learn about assessments and what they can tell us, as well as how to be savvy about how they market and communicate these opportunities to families to ensure wide reach.

3. Communicate challenges transparently up front

It is human nature to want to avoid telling a parent or other caregiver that their child is struggling. But, when we sugarcoat this information or offer “compliment sandwiches” to soften the blow, we deprive guardians of the ability to learn and execute the steps needed to help them improve. Of course, we should be compassionate when talking to families, but we should also be direct.

Most adults believe their child is reading on grade level because they have been promoted to that grade, sometimes based on report card grades that did not accurately portray their abilities. Particularly in states that require passing grades on assessments to graduate, we cannot wait and let the final exam be the way families learn their child is behind. We must talk to them early and often about their students’ progress, offering them the opportunity to be a first-hand participant in their child’s learning journey.

The post 3 ways leaders can improve assessment literacy for parents and families appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

The work of a teacher has infinite moving parts. There’s the upcoming required interim district assessment to prepare for. There’s the new school-wide social-emotional learning program to internalize and implement. There’s the rubric to design and the parent to call and the grade-team meeting to attend.

As teachers, we know it’s essential for these moving parts to coherently align with each other, and experts agree. Unfortunately, while critical, this is rarely the reality teachers experience, particularly when it comes to the way assessing student academic progress aligns with the rest of their work. A 2023 survey showed that only 29% of teachers said they received formative assessments aligned to their curricular materials, and only 38% said they received professional learning to support them in aligning assessment data to their everyday practice.

As current classroom teachers, we know that when these moving parts don’t align, it creates a disconnect between our day-to-day work of teaching and learning and the training and materials we receive to assess student progress. We believe if these moving parts were better aligned, assessments could not only produce the data districts and states need to evaluate progress but also add to the day-to-day learning experience rather than subtract from it. Here’s how.

Aligned curriculum

Every educator has had to put a pause on their daily teaching to prepare students for a midyear assessment that lived outside of the scope of their current curriculum. We believe in the power of having district-wide assessment data and understand how critical it is to be able to evaluate progress across schools. We’re not against this practice, but when you have to stop in the middle of your curriculum and switch to focus on something that feels wholly separate from your lessons, it disrupts the day-to-day flow of your classroom.

Assessments should be aligned to the curricular content we are currently delivering in our classrooms. They should be an integrated part of the learning experience that blends in authentically with what we’re already doing. It shouldn’t be a compliance exercise but rather a tool to help us gauge exactly where our students are in their learning journey and to inform how to help them excel.

Aligned data

Because our required interim assessments rarely align with the curriculum we’re teaching, finding direct connections between the data produced and the skills we’re currently teaching is challenging. Often, when we receive data back from these assessments, they simply confirm that the students we thought were in need of extra support are. We then ask ourselves, “What do I do with all of this information?” Understanding how to support students in mastering specific skills is rarely obvious from the data we receive. We need meaningful data.

Aligning assessments to school- or district-wide curricula would make the data more actionable by making explicit the connection between what we just taught, the results of the assessment, and what we’re teaching next. Ultimately, this would support us as we support our students in mastering content and skills.

Aligned training

Equally important to aligning curriculum and assessments is aligning assessments and professional learning. Often, in our experience, the training we receive around assessments is specific to how to administer the required test or share data back with the district. While these things are important, they do not help us understand how to leverage the data in our own teaching practices.

Professional learning related to assessments should be timed for when we actually receive assessment data. Research shows that effective professional learning leverages the instructional materials teachers are already using and offers an opportunity for real-life practice. In line with this, assessment-aligned training should walk us through how to leverage our assessment results in real time in order to improve student learning in our classroom. This will not only support teachers in assessing data in the moment, but also bolster their ability to do so in the future without this training.

Change is needed

By aligning the moving parts of delivering instruction and measuring its success, the education field can help teachers paint a clearer big picture to work within. If we do this, assessments will become an integral part of that picture, rather than the compliance exercise many teachers currently see them as.

The post Aligning curriculum, assessments, and professional learning to better support teacher practice and student learning appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Two things are simultaneously true and inherently contradictory: Having a standardized source of student achievement data across districts is critical for evaluating progress and identifying student subgroups in need of extra support, and yet learning is an acutely individualized and personal experience. When we step into the classroom each day, we tailor our instructional practices to the needs and backgrounds of students whom we know and for whom we care deeply. When the state asks our students to choose a, b, c, or d, it doesn’t know them—not even superficially.

This challenge helps explain why, despite 90% of teachers reporting that students should have a summative measure of their learning from the beginning to the end of the school year, the public—and particularly teacher—perception of state tests is overwhelmingly negative.

The American K–12 education system has struggled to reconcile this paradox for decades. How can we objectively measure student learning, without confining our students to a box? How can we shift focus away from the product (the test score) and to the process (the learning experience) without losing the ability to evaluate our progress objectively? How can we improve assessments to better serve students and teachers? How can assessments provide the information necessary to help teachers understand students’ progress and how to help them improve, while avoiding the punitive atmosphere that is often associated with state tests?

Can we find a way to bridge the disconnect between the classroom and the test, a way to standardize authenticity? We—four educators from four different districts and three different states who teach across grade levels, subject areas, and school types—have some suggestions.

1. Focus on skills over content knowledge and depth over breadth

The standards-based reform movement aimed to push K–12 education toward a focus on developing skills rather than regurgitating content knowledge. Sometimes, though, we feel that state assessments don’t align with this spirit. In fact, only 56% of teachers report that their state summative assessments in math and English accurately measure students’ mastery of standards.

State assessments should ask deeper questions about fewer topics, focusing on skills over content knowledge and depth over breadth. For example, instead of 30 questions that cover the span of US history, an assessment could focus squarely on federalism, asking questions in a way that allows students to demonstrate their ability to apply their transferable analytical skills to a single political concept.

2. Make state tests adaptable

In our classrooms, we provide multiple access points for each student to show proficiency. This practice is encouraged; we recognize it as a critical piece of differentiating learning for our students. This is particularly important for our English learners, who cannot possibly demonstrate their proficiency in math or science on a test written in English without being able to read it. And yet, given their standardized nature, state assessments rarely allow this.

State assessments should be adaptable. They should meet our students where they are, adjusting and adapting to their abilities as they move through the test, while still providing a numeric score that allows us to objectively determine their proficiency, assess their needs, and support them in ultimately reaching grade-level standards for college and career readiness. And every test should be available in any language that a student might speak, so that we can confidently say we are assessing subject-specific skills, not language capability.

3. Issue more frequent, shorter tests

The end-of-the-year state assessment is an anxiety-inducing drumroll moment for both teachers and students, the singular moment over the course of the year when students show what they learned when all teaching and learning is already said and done. This prevents teachers from being able to effectively leverage the data the assessments produce. Even if the data from this assessment is returned quickly, it is not useful to the students’ current teacher, who does not have enough time left in the school year to address their needs. This timing leaves little opportunity to learn from the data or to shift our instructional practice for that cohort and places too much emphasis on a single moment in time. Think of it this way: If your GPS doesn’t course correct you along the way, how can you possibly figure out that you’re lost before it’s too late?

We want tests to move in the direction where they’ll be more frequent, shorter, and connected to what students learn in their classrooms. To work toward solving this problem, state tests could be shorter and administered multiple times during the school year. These changes would allow teachers to make informed decisions about curriculum and teaching practices with their current students and could in the aggregate paint a picture of what a group of students learned over the course of the year. Essential to this, though, is ensuring that these shorter tests truly are significantly shorter, that they are quick, varied ways of measuring student learning that happens right in the classroom, and that they enhance the learning process without disrupting learning time or punishing schools.

Change is possible

Implementing the changes we have suggested will require thoughtful planning. There are big questions to answer: How will this affect instructional time? How will we ensure teachers have a voice in designing these assessments? How can these assessments support teachers’ instructional practice? What are the budget implications? We think, though, that it’s not only possible, but also absolutely essential to answer these questions to pave this path forward.

The instructional coach among us often encourages his educators to teach with the test, not to the test, allowing the assessment to work hand-in-hand with their instructional pedagogy. We believe in a world in which all teachers are given the tools—including effective state assessments—to do just that.

The post 3 teacher recommendations for teaching <em>with</em> the state test appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Across the country, teachers are beginning to plan for instruction after winter break. At some point during the second half of the school year, their calendars are marked “state assessments.” They’ve blocked off several days—maybe a week or more—for lessons to prepare students for the content on those tests. For some, it will be a race to the finish; for others, the tests will be a distraction from the curricular focus that has engaged students so far this school year.

We’ve heard from teachers that, though they believe deeply in measuring student learning, many existing state testing models can disrupt the flow of their instruction and don’t always deliver actionable information they can use to improve the learning experience for the students in their classroom. They want innovative assessment models that provide results sooner, limit the disruption in their classroom, and can still be used to ensure schools are serving all students.

An old problem

It is no secret in American education that our approach to summative assessment needs to change. Federal law requires schools to assess students from grades 3 through 8 and, once in high school, measure their achievement against state standards. Test developers try to design those summative tests so the results will help teachers and principals identify students who are falling behind and how to help them recover. But the data needs to be more precise, be more aligned to instruction, take less class time to gather, and arrive sooner to transform a teacher’s instructional approach.

Test developers have created innovative assessments that are shorter, more frequent, and able to deliver results on a quicker timetable. However, federal rules and procedures must change before states can pilot and adopt these creative solutions, and the assessments must be implemented in a way that ensures they still provide a valid end-of-year summative score that can be compared across schools and districts.

In the meantime, teachers must build their schedules around assessments they don’t consider helpful. As the summative assessments near, they may have to pause a series of lessons that engage their students deeply and switch to less exciting content on the test. When the results come back too late to have an impact, the testing feels like an exercise in frustration.

Exploring solutions

In the coming months, teachers who are members of Educators for Excellence’s (E4E) National Teacher Leader Council (NTLC) will explain to Teach. Learn. Grow. readers how assessments affect their classroom practice and how to improve them so they can use assessments to help their students. They will explain that they want a summative measure of student learning but don’t currently fully trust the data that comes back, can’t use that data to support their students, and find that the time to prepare and administer these tests is too disruptive.

The teachers’ articles will illuminate key findings in E4E’s national teacher survey, Voices from the Classroom. In the 2023 survey of 1,000 teachers in districts or public charter schools, E4E found the following:

• Teachers believe deeply in the value of measuring student learning, as evidenced by 90% of teachers believing that students should have a summative measure of their learning from the beginning to the end of the school year, and 83% believing that teachers should be responsible for their academic progress.
• Teachers say they need the tools to measure students’ progress through the school year. Only 29% of teachers said they received formative assessments aligned to their curricular materials, and only 38% said they received professional learning to support them in aligning assessment data to their everyday practice.
• Teachers need to be taught how to use or communicate about test results. Only 38% of teachers had received the necessary training to leverage student assessment data effectively, and fewer than two-thirds reported using assessment data to inform parents and guardians of a student’s progress.

These teacher authors will provide practical advice. They will suggest making assessments adaptable to provide a comprehensive report on a student’s progress. They will describe the types of tools that parents and guardians use when reading their child’s assessment scores. They will explain how training would help them understand test results and apply what they learn to improve their instruction.

Sharing these ideas provides education leaders at every level with specific tasks that respond to what teachers want. We can make that happen with the right mix of innovative assessments, policies that support those assessments, and investments in teachers’ professional development and growth. Once we respond, teachers will have more effective tools to help their classroom practices; parents and guardians will get the information they need to support their children’s educational journey; and policymakers will have better measurement tools to track the success of education policies.

Once these suggestions become standard practices, teachers will be able to plan a calendar where their instruction is aligned with the statewide assessments their students take. They will be able to set aside time to review the assessment results and adjust their teaching to address students’ needs. We are ready to collaborate with policymakers, educators, and teachers to make this vision a reality.

The post Listening to teachers to fix the state testing quagmire appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Reading fluency in middle school isn’t always a given. A startling number of students enter those grades without the reading skills they need to be successful. For some, the troubling trend can even continue into high school and college. To help address this, we at NWEA have partnered with the Advanced Education Research and Development Fund (AERDF) to better tackle the problem. Our goal? To support you in helping older students gain the reading skills they need by sharing our research on reading fluency strategies for middle school and above.

Our “Fluency protocol for upper grades” can help you plan fluency instruction for kids as young as grade 6. But first, some information on how we arrived at the protocol in the first place and why we think it can help you and your students.

The who

For the past year and a half, we have been working with AERDF to explore ways to solve the problem of students arriving in middle school unable to read fluently. Tim Rasinski defined “fluency” as “the ability to read the words on the printed page accurately, effortlessly, or automatically so that readers can preserve their limited cognitive resources for the more important task in reading—comprehension—and with appropriate prosody or expression so as to give meaning to the words that is implied through emphasis, phrasing, and intonation.”

We are one of four grant recipients from across the country who were invited to help further the vision of the AERDF Reading Reimagined program: “an American education system in which all students are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and beliefs necessary to be proficient readers, thus enabling them to advocate for themselves, their families, and their communities as they lead lives of limitless opportunity.” AERDF charged us with creating an effective instructional tool that could be used to improve word recognition, fluency, and comprehension. The tool had to meet the following conditions:

• Based on research
• Ready for teachers to use immediately (so, without time-consuming training)
• Designed to encourage student input and engagement during lessons
• Targeted to meet the specific needs of kids most impacted by inequities due to poverty or race

We were fortunate enough to find a willing partner for this work in Gwinnett County School District, in Atlanta, Georgia. They allowed us to work with three grade 6 classrooms and a total of 70 students in one of their middle schools.

The why

Given the many challenges facing education following COVID-19 school closures, why did AERDF and NWEA choose to focus on reading fluency strategies for middle school and above? Because we knew that reading fluency was a problem since before the pandemic.

National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) data from 2019 revealed that only 32% of eighth-graders were performing at or above “proficient” in reading; that is, only 32% of eighth-grade students nationwide had the reading fluency skills required for success in college or the workforce. NAEP data also revealed that students from historically marginalized populations scored even lower than their white counterparts. These trends were further confirmed when the 2022 NAEP data was released and the organization stated the following: “At eighth grade, the average reading score was lower compared to all previous assessment years going back to 1998 and was not significantly different compared to 1992.” It is clear that the situation continues to worsen and that no progress has been made in improving students’ reading fluency over the past 25 years.

I’d like to clarify that NAEP does not test students on reading fluency. However, research by Nathan Hartzler Clemens et al. has shown that there is a strong correlation between lack of fluency and low reading performance. Clemens and his team make it clear that if students are too focused on decoding words, they will find it harder to understand the meaning of the text they’re reading.

Let me show you what Clemens et al. mean by that. Read the following sentence: “The venture capitalist amalgamated his financial assets in hope of inveigling others to vote for the panacea he propounded.”

It’s quite possible that that sentence contains at least one word that made you stumble—one word that required that you focus solely on the word and sound it out. More than likely, you read the sentence more than once. Chances are you may not feel entirely confident that you understand exactly what the sentence is saying. That is what students in need of reading fluency support encounter every day. And they can’t even begin to think about meaning if they can’t navigate the words.

What happens if the topic of the sentence is something a reader has no interest in in the first place? What if you don’t care about investments or venture capitalists? It’s much harder to motivate yourself to understand the less familiar words, isn’t it? If that happens over and over (you struggle to read something only to discover you don’t care about it), you might become disenfranchised. In some cases, students who don’t get to see themselves in what they read understandably lack the passion they need to persevere with challenging reading material.

The final factor that elevates the importance of addressing reading fluency in middle and high school is that secondary teacher preparation programs often do not focus on the skills needed to improve fluency. As Graham Drake and Kate Wash explain in “2020 teacher prep review: Program performance in early reading instruction,” that is an area of focus usually limited to elementary programs. Combine that shortcoming in teacher preparation programs with the fact that secondary teachers might have almost 70% of their students reading below grade level and you can begin to see how serious the issue of addressing reading fluency in middle and high school is and why it became the heart of our study.

The study

At the start of this effort, we hypothesized that the effective intervention strategy of repeated reading could be even more powerful if combined with additional components of daily study at the word and sentence level, as well as a focus on student engagement.

Our experimental solution was to create and test a new fluency protocol modeled after one designed by Student Achievement Partners to support teachers using small groups for reading interventions. Our “Fluency protocol for upper grades” consists of the following:

• Five 20-minute sessions
• Whole-class and small-group work
• Repeated reading exercises
• Several minutes of strategy work in the first four sessions
• A reflection activity in the fifth session

Remember that we were also interested in getting students to buy in and become highly motivated to improve their reading fluency skills, so before we had kids follow the protocol, we asked their teachers to do some aspirational work with their class. Students were supported in discussing the definition of “fluency” and why being a fluent reader was important to them. They also rated their reading ability on a 0–10 scale, explained their reading strengths and challenges, and set goals, both for what they hoped to accomplish during the study and what they hoped to achieve in life.

To help students identify with and enjoy what they were reading, we provided a set of 20 grade-level texts and asked each class to vote for the six they wanted to work with over the course of the six-week study. We chose texts we deemed relevant for historically marginalized populations, kids living in poverty, and the average middle school student. We gave teachers definitions of words we predicted students would struggle with, along with a preselected “juicy sentence” to use for Session 4.

Because we didn’t want the protocol to depend on lengthy teacher training, we only explained the juicy sentence analysis from Session 4 during our teacher training prior to beginning the study. This took 20 minutes. We also gave teachers two 15-minute mini-lessons to do with their students at the start of the study. Our hope was that the rest of the protocol was self-explanatory.

The results

So, what did we find? Spoiler alert: We may be onto something good!

We gathered two types of data: quantitative (involving numbers) and qualitative (involving teacher feedback). Let’s look at the numbers first.

The quantitative data

The way we determined whether the protocol impacted student outcomes for reading fluency was to administer a pre-test prior to starting any work with them. We then administered a post-test the day after the last session of Week 6, and a lagged test eight weeks later to see if the learning stuck. The assessments measured word recognition and decoding, vocabulary, morphology, sentence processing, silent reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Because the goal of the protocol was to increase fluency, we were most interested in the silent reading fluency scores.

The data told us that for students who scored above the 50th percentile on the post-test, the protocol did not improve fluency. In fact, the scores went down when compared to the pre-test. (I’ll talk about potential reasons why in the qualitative section.) However, for students who scored below the 50th percentile, there was a statistically significant difference, with students showing improved fluency, and most of that improvement lasting for the eight weeks post instruction.

To summarize: the data showed us that the fluency protocol may be most effective when used as an intervention with students who are not fluent, rather than as a tool with a class of mixed fluency levels. It’s important to note, of course, that studies like this should be replicated to see if the results stay consistent before making firm decisions about effectiveness. But we were excited by this early data.

The qualitative data

We wanted to know, from the teachers’ observations and interactions with the students over the course of the study, how they thought things went. And, remember: we wanted to know what happened when students were bought in. Did the goal setting, weekly reflections, and voting for relevant passages seem to promote student engagement? (We did have a quantitative assessment we used to ask students directly, but upon later examination, we realized it didn’t really fit the needs of the study, so the results were not helpful.) We interviewed the teachers about the protocol and the process, and some trends emerged:

• For students who previously struggled to read fluently and lacked confidence, the teachers felt the protocol had a positive impact on both the students’ reading abilities and how they felt about reading in general. (The quantitative data described previously seems to support this observation.)
• Teachers believed that the most impactful practice used in the protocol was repeated reading, which required students to read a passage aloud several times.
• We also heard that the protocol was easy to use with minimal training. The teachers said they’d continue to use it in the future with students who need intervention.
• Teachers noted that it was difficult to get higher-achieving students engaged in the work, as those students felt like they were already fluent or had already mastered the word- and sentence-level strategies. (Again, the quantitative data seems to support this observation.)
• Teachers mentioned that it was challenging to find time to fit the protocol work in with the normal demands of the classroom.

Looking forward

Although our study on reading fluency strategies for middle school focused on a smaller sample size of approximately 70 sixth-grade students, we are encouraged by the findings about the impact of the process and the protocol on the students who are struggling readers.

But research can be a bit like the book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff: one answer can then lead to another question, which leads to another question, which leads to yet another question. We still have wonderings about what the best application of the protocol is to allow for use with the right students without impacting classroom time for all. And we’d love to have a chance to compare the outcomes of students who practiced repeated reading only to those who practiced repeated reading plus the word- and sentence-level strategies so we can see how the results of the two approaches differ. We’re also curious to explore whether students are able stay engaged if a protocol is used with texts from their normal curriculum in their ELA classes, or even in their science or social studies classes.

Maybe one day we will have the opportunity to explore our lingering questions, or maybe someone else will pick up the gauntlet and run with it. In the meantime, we are heartened by the fact that many student participants benefitted from the study and improved their reading fluency. We feel confident that the reading fluency strategies for middle school and higher included in our protocol can be a valuable tool for teachers to add to their toolbox.

If you’d like to read more about the work, you can access the full report on our website.

The post Reading fluency strategies for middle school—and beyond appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Neat rows? Always. Groups of five? In June, if ever. As far as variety in student grouping for cooperative learning goes, my experience as a student in the ’90s was pretty limited.

There was an obvious rationale when I was a kid: you sat next to those whose names came before and after yours in the roll book because alphabetical order was tidy and easy. I became lifelong friends with some Bs and Ds, but I often wonder what could have been had the Cs been able to mingle with the Rs. Now that I’m an educator myself, I realize that when left to chance or, in the case of my school years, alphabetical order, the possibilities for student collaboration and growth become limited.

My teachers, though seasoned educators, didn’t step too far outside the seating box. They were products of their times. Today we know that a dynamic classroom environment empowers learners.  Jonathan Ryan Davis, a professor at The College of New Jersey, refers to this as “a re-conceptualization of classroom management.” I suggest we go a step further and pair re-conceptualization with intentional grouping, a research-backed strategy for supporting student growth studied by my colleague Chase Nordengren as part of our High Growth for All project.

A bit about our High Growth for All project

Chase’s research on effective teaching strategies uncovered ten in particular that can help educators make the most of their instructional time. We are calling these the Transformative Ten:

1. Provide supplemental learning time for targeted retrieval practice
2. Mix whole-group, small-group, and individual activities
3. Adjust student groups in real time
4. Share students and strategies within a grade level
5. Differentiate tasks within a unit
6. Provide targeted practice for foundational skills
7. Teach from multiple standards at once
8. Create opportunities for self-directed learning
9. Use student discourse as formative assessment
10. Explicitly teach academic vocabulary

While some of these may see obvious, until Chase embarked on this research, worked closely with educators every step of the way, and eventually put pen to paper, these principles existed mainly in the edu-ether. His exploration and distillation of practices many of us already use can help educators more effectively provide grade-level instruction to all students, while differentiating as needed.

I’ll be focusing on cooperative learning in this blog post, the second Transformative Ten strategy. It calls on us to mix whole-group, small-group, and individual activities, and my aim is to help you know when to do which and how to use each approach effectively. I encourage you to also learn about the research and all the strategies on our High Growth for All website and read our Transformative Ten practices guide.

Step 1: Set clear goals

When you begin to think about cooperative learning, I recommend you establish a clear goal. What is your intention when using groups? Is it to promote more productive conversations? Is it to allow students to showcase certain skills? The answer, to both of those questions, should be yes.

Next you’ll want to think about how to make groups function at a high level. Start by looking at your scope and sequence. Where you are in the learning matters. Sending students off in a small group or in pairs might not work at the beginning of a new unit, for example, so ask yourself, what works best for where we are right now?

I think it is also important to confront any discomfort you might understandably have about dynamic classrooms. Asking questions like the ones that follow can help you prepare for the reality that some friendly group conversations may lead to unfinished learning, which you’ll need to address.

• Am I comfortable with the groups occasionally going off topic?
• How important is ensuring all groups have a certain outcome?
• What activity do I have planned to summarize the learning?

Student groupings without clear expectations and outcomes will almost certainly lead to chaos. While a dynamic classroom can appear to be chaotic, the key to its success is intentionality. Setting clear goals will help you start from a firm foundation.

Step 2: Put data and observations to work

Once upon a time, we used to think about grouping as either hetero- or homogeneous, based on ability and instructional level. I challenge you to expand that definition and think of groupings as intentional. Whatever combination you choose for a group, a topic, or a marking period, make sure it is data-driven and capable of creating the conditions for success. Information about your students is all around you. Look to it when making student grouping decisions.

When I was teaching, my classroom was open to visitors and observers daily, so I had to be ready to discuss not only lesson content but my differentiation and grouping rationale, too. I would look to everything I knew about my students when making decisions. I would consider formative assessment data, from things like entrance slips on a Monday morning. I would refer to diagnostic data, like unit exam scores, but also interim assessment performance. (My school used MAP® Growth, so I would focus on RIT scores and bands, displayed on reports like the Class Breakdown by Instructional Area.) I would also consider my observations of student friendships and dynamics, plus one-on-one conference notes. All of these things, when looked at holistically, helped guide my decisions around cooperative learning.

Step 3: Consider different configurations

Group work can take a few different shapes: whole group, small group, and pairs. Some work is best done individually.

Whole group instruction is the tried-and-true method of classroom grouping simply because it works most of the time. When you are starting a new topic, when you want to create a cohesive vision, when you want to get everyone on the same page, whole group just works. Whole group instruction does not mean that we ignore all the ability levels in the classroom, however. It just means that we have decided that a lesson, or a moment in a lesson, is appropriate for all levels.

What I love about whole-group instruction is the sense of unity it creates. We all enter a moment of new learning together, as a class family. It is great to help students feel that their learning is bespoke to them, but it is equally important for them to feel like a valuable member of the whole. Whole-group instruction is also an excellent opportunity to model academic thought, metacognition, and discourse. I love taking that time to think aloud, brainstorm, plan, and convey to students that inquiry is a necessary part of the learning process.

When to use whole-group instruction: When the benefits of having everyone involved won’t isolate students at different levels and prevent them from feeling valuable and contributing.

Small groups, typically between three and six students, are common in most classrooms today. This could be due to the frequent departure from rows to a more communal classroom environment. Small groups naturally promote discussion, which comes with its own challenges and triumphs.

If you’re an elementary teacher and juggle multiple subjects a day, I encourage you to look at dynamic small groups as a way to signal the transition from one subject to another. After all, your data will probably affirm that students rarely remain static in their achievement and level from subject to subject.

Teachers of older kids can allow for student choice in groupings if the activities are differentiated to support the students’ various levels. When I was a middle school teacher, I would occasionally permit my students to select their own groups from a choice of four. I made sure that regardless of their decision, however, the tasks at each group provided multiple entry points. While I used this more casual style of grouping less frequently, say, before a holiday, a dynamic classroom culture and high expectations maintained the integrity of my lesson. We had fun, too!

When to use small groups: When a conversation or activity would benefit from a small number of students with varied levels of expertise.

Using the same foundation as small groups, pairing opens students up to sharing in half of the ownership of a project or discussion.

I liked to pair some of my emerging math students with their classmates who possessed not only sound understanding of a concept but also the empathy needed to foster productive collaboration. Pairing students of similar levels serves when you want to reduce hesitation because similar levels even out the playing field and make routine practice more useful.

When to use pairs: When the goal is to have both students benefit from concentrated collaboration.

Sometimes, students need the space to think and learn on their own. While whole group is great for creating a theme or introducing a topic, and small groups and pairs promote discussion, sometimes the quiet of one’s mind is best. Think of individual work time as providing a meditative moment, where students can withdraw from the noise of the class and work in a space most comfortable to them.

Ten years ago or so, a “successful” classroom was a noisy one. Students had to be in groups, at the board, or in the hall to appear to be actively working and successful in their learning. The key word here is “appear.” Without systems in place to evaluate learning goals, these classrooms were often more razzle-dazzle than successful, and the chaos didn’t enhance learning or help students meet objectives. The takeaway from that movement was the (triumphant) return of individual practice time. Teachers began to see the need for and value in balance between intentional groups and time for students to practice on their own.

In many ELA classes, you’ll observe students participating in independent reading or writing time. It’s a quiet time planned into the week where students can work at their own pace on their own work. I’ve extended this practice to math, too.

To make the most of this groupless configuration, you should model metacognition and academic thought for your students first. They need to learn about that from you and be familiar with the internal dialogue needed to be a quiet critical thinker first.

When to have students work independently: When a quiet moment to reinforce skills or to work at a more comfortable pace, without the pressure of another voice, is necessary. 

Step 4: Understand your role

While the teacher is seen as being front and center during whole-group instruction, you’re also modeling conversation and teaching your students that their feedback and participation should be routine and that both are expected. When students are working in small groups, pairs, or individually, you can wear several hats, such as facilitator, coach, or thought partner.

Many teachers set up a desk for themselves with a group so they can really embed themselves in a discussion, observe the group dynamic, and elicit feedback from their students. These observations can serve as another data point you can triangulate with your formative and summative data when planning more cooperative learning opportunities in the future.

Pairing in particular lets you zoom in a bit more closely without feeling like you’re having a conference with a student. Having one other student present reduces intimidation for a lot of kids, while also helping them avoid feeling that the eyes of the crowd of a small group are on them.

When students work independently, take this moment to conference or spiral in topics specific to that student’s needs, based on the most recent data you have for them.

Before you go

Whichever method of grouping you choose during cooperative learning time, mix it up. During your weekly planning, try to incorporate as many different grouping styles as are suitable for that week’s learning. Here are a few additional things to keep in mind:

• Students can be startled by novelty. If changes to your classroom groupings happen infrequently, transitions could unintentionally create distraction that does more harm than good. So, the earlier in the year you begin using dynamic groups, the better.
• Don’t feel pressured to try all types of student groupings all at once. Some weeks will naturally lend themselves to more creativity than others.
• If something doesn’t work, learn from it. There will be times when a lesson just doesn’t go the way you’d hoped. Consider that data that can inform what you avoid next time around. Trust me when I say that you won’t break the profession or cause years of learning loss if you went with pairs when whole group may have been the better choice. Give yourself grace.

Neat rows sure look great, but there is no reason we should cling to that old model too tightly for fear of chaos. Considerate, deliberate planning will reveal the difference between intentional chaos and just chaos.

For more on our High Growth for All project and the Transformative Ten instructional strategies, watch our video on student grouping, read our guidance document on student grouping, and listen to our The Continuing Educator podcast episode on differentiation.

The post Cooperative learning: 4 steps for effective student grouping in a dynamic classroom appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

In many kindergarten and first-grade classrooms, students are tasked with memorizing a list of words commonly appearing in texts. These lists of high-frequency words tend to go by a variety of names, such as “snap words,” “sight words,” “star words,” and “red words.” Unfortunately, this practice of centering the learning on high-frequency words before students have learned to sound out words through phonics is an inefficient practice birthed out of the misconceived notion that children learn to read by memorizing whole words.

We know from decades of research that it is more effective for students to be taught individual letter-sound correspondences and use them to sound out words.

The trouble with sight words

Have you ever seen books used to teach reading to young students that have a repetitive pattern, such as “I see the police officer. I see the firefighter. I see the mail carrier,” or “In the summer, I can climb. In the summer, I can swim. In the summer, I can paint”? These books are also designed to support that same mistaken and outdated notion that students learn to read by memorizing whole words rather than sounding out words based on phonics skills learned.

These books emphasize high-frequency words, many of which use phonics patterns students have not yet been taught. This can lead students to believe that reading is a practice where they must memorize whole words rather than reading as a practice where they can use their phonics knowledge to sound the words out. This approach to reading instruction inadvertently teaches students the habits of poor readers, leading to an over-reliance on guessing at words based on the first letter, picture, or sentence context.

What researchers mean by “sight words”

Many people think students learn to read by memorizing a word’s shape or repeatedly seeing the whole word. You may have heard in schools, “Students need to learn their sight words” or “Let’s practice your sight words.” But this is different from how researchers refer to the term “sight word.” In research, a sight word isn’t merely one of several on a list of high-frequency words. It is any word that can be recognized instantly, as if by sight.

We now know students learn to read by mapping individual sounds (called phonemes) to letters that represent them (called graphemes). Scientists call this process of mapping phonemes to graphemes orthographic mapping. The more opportunities students are given to practice decoding and spelling words, the more these letter–sound correspondences “stick” in their memory. Once a word can be recognized within a fourth of a second, reading scientists call it a sight word: a word that can be read as if by sight.

Some think the value of sight words is that they help students quickly recognize words that are irregular, that is, words with spellings that “are not as clearly linked to the sounds used to pronounce the words,” such as “you,” “are,” and “what.” But as Linnea Ehri, one of the leading researchers in word recognition, said, “It is not true that only irregularly spelled words are read by sight. Rather all words, even easily decoded words, become sight words once they have been read several times…. Sight word reading refers not to a method of teaching reading but to the process of reading words by accessing them in memory.”

Learning to read irregular words

Even words we traditionally consider irregular, some of which are on high-frequency lists, have parts that can be mapped to sounds. For example, in the high-frequency word “said,” the letter “s” spells the sound /s/, and the letter “d” spells the sound /d/. The only part of the word students need to learn is the middle two letters, “ai,” which spell the sound /e/.

Research suggests that when teachers call attention to the parts of words students know and do not yet know, rather than presenting words as wholes, it can help students better learn to read and spell. Students can just memorize the part of the word that is irregular based on the phonics patterns they have learned. Some teachers call these “heart words” because students learn the irregular part of the word by heart.

As students attempt to use their phonics knowledge to decode unknown words, they will run into words with irregularly spelled parts. Teachers and administrators alike can support students in a variety of ways.

What teachers can do

There are several things teachers can do to support young readers:

• Provide opportunities for students to practice flexible decoding strategies with irregularly spelled words. Begin by teaching them to ask questions that help them tap into what they already know: “What word do I know that sounds like that word? Does it make sense in this context? Does it make sense with these letters and sounds I know?” Research suggests encouraging students to use a flexible decoding strategy aftersounding out the word using their phonics knowledge will help them become problem solvers while reading, leveraging what researchers call their “set for variability” to shift pronunciation and problem-solve words with irregular parts.
• Use decodable texts that align with your curriculum’s phonics scope and sequence. Buyer beware: Many companies market books as “decodable,” but without alignment with your curriculum’s phonics scope and sequence, it’s unlikely the text is decodable for your students.
• Examine high-frequency word lists and determine which words are phonetically regular (“can,” “his,” “me”) and which words have irregular parts (“said,” “there,” “would”). Use this information to plan for your phonics and fluency instruction.

What administrators can do

If you’re an administrator, here’s what you can do to support your literacy staff:

• Ensure your early grades classrooms have appropriate materials for phonics, including a wide range of decodable texts that align specifically with your school’s phonics scope and sequence.
• Do not create goals that include a set amount of sight words to reach by the end of the year. Instead, base student progress on curriculum-based measures, including foundational skills assessments, such as word-recognition fluency in kindergarten or oral-reading fluency in first grade.
• Ensure teachers feel supported with time for professional learning. Teachers need ample time to gather resources to plan for instruction, learn new professional practices, collaborate with colleagues, and reflect on their learning and growth.

It’s time for a change

If we want to build truly fluent readers, it’s crucial to reevaluate our initial approach to teaching reading. By teaching and practicing letter–sound correspondences in isolation and in decodable texts, pointing out parts of words that are irregular, and encouraging flexible decoding strategies, we can help students build a solid foundation in learning to read and spell and, ultimately, understand the world around them.

The post When learning to read sight words goes wrong appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

When was the last time you had to read something you couldn’t understand? Stumped? That’s probably because you’re an excellent reader. I’m an excellent reader, too, so I asked my sister if I could review an article she was writing in support of her doctoral dissertation. “Maybe I can give you some constructive feedback?” I said, confident that my ELA teaching experience would pay off. Text complexity isn’t something I often worry about.

Two paragraphs in, and I was lost. So I buckled down and reread a few key sentences: “Over the past 50 years, a picture has been developing of the brain’s unique waste removal system. […] Here, we review the relevant literature with a focus on transport processes, especially the potential role of diffusion and advective flows. […] Communication relies on molecular transport, where transport rates determine the range-of-action for neurotransmitters and transport effects cell-to-cell communication (Ray and Heys, 2019).”

Nope. Still clueless. Time to admit my own hubris. I just don’t have the background knowledge or the discipline-specific vocabulary in chemical engineering I need to understand an article titled, “Fluid flow and mass transport in brain tissue.”

The power of not understanding (from a teacher’s perspective)

Humbled as I was after attempting to read my sister’s article, it dawned on me that I have asked students to do a similar kind of reading, and I have expected better results.

The problem isn’t that students shouldn’t be reading complex, grade-level texts. In fact, they should be reading moreof them, since we know students’ ability to comprehend complex texts is a key determiner of their college and career readiness. But learning from complex texts requires what literacy expert Tim Shanahan calls “accommodative and supportive instruction.” In essence, if we want students to grapple with complex texts, we need to plan for their success.

Here’s a simple three-step process for setting students up for success with complex texts.

1. Understand what makes a text complex

It’s common for many K–12 educational publishers and curriculum providers to report quantitative   measures of text complexity, such as Lexile®. These measures can offer a good starting place for librarians, caregivers, and even students to explore and select reading materials. However, for classroom instruction, we need to dive deeper into the qualitative aspects of a text’s complexity because doing so can better reveal what supports our students might need to access a text.

There are four key qualitative dimensions to consider:

• Purpose (for informational texts) or levels of meaning (for literary texts). Purpose refers to why the author wrote an informational text, what it’s about, and its intended effect on the reader. Levels of meaning are the different ways a literary text can be interpreted, such as through themes or metaphors. A text may have a literal interpretation but also a deeper, more abstract meaning.
• Structure. Structure refers to how an author connects ideas, processes, and events in a text. This includes how the text is organized as a whole, as well as within specific paragraphs or larger sections of text. Structure also includes visual elements and text features, such as headings or sidebars.
• Language conventionality and clarity. Language conventionality refers to the vocabulary and sentence structures in a text, while language clarity refers to how dense or abstract the language is, as well as how challenging an author’s stylistic choices, such as voice, diction, and tone, are.
• Knowledge demands. Knowledge demands refer to the amount and type of knowledge (e.g., prior knowledge) a reader must bring to a text to access its full meaning. Types of knowledge can include general, common-practical, discipline-specific, culturally specific, and regionally specific knowledge.

2. Identify what makes a specific text complex

In my sister’s article, the language and knowledge demands added the greatest text complexity, so it’s no surprise my comprehension broke down in those areas.

On the other hand, her article’s purpose (to explain the brain’s unique waste removal system) and structure (a review of relevant literature) were fairly explicit. This explicit information provided a helpful scaffold when the going got tough, which was often with word- and sentence-level meanings. I didn’t know what “advective flows” were, for instance, but I did know from the article’s explicit purpose that they had a “potential role” in the brain’s “waste removal system.” And while I couldn’t fathom what the “range-of-action” for neurotransmitters might be, I could figure out from the syntax that these actions involved “cell-to-cell communication.”

In the end, I still had much to learn about “molecular transport,” since its “rates” and “effects” seemed very important to brain health. But overall, I was getting much closer to the main gist of the article, and I was living and breathing Tim Shanahan’s advice to focus on sentence-level comprehension.

3. Uncover the barriers students might face and plan accordingly

To anticipate potential barriers in text complexity for our students, we have to put ourselves in their shoes. When we compare students’ prior knowledge to what a reader is expected to bring to a text, we can better plan to address any potential gaps. A great way to start this analysis is with a list of questions developed for content-area read-alouds in K–8 classrooms.

In my case, the greatest barrier to understanding my sister’s article was my lack of exposure to technical terms like “transport processes” and scientific concepts like “diffusion.” Because I couldn’t tap into any prior knowledge, I couldn’t connect these ideas to new learning. But I did have other assets to leverage. I knew the general meaning of academic words, like “relies” and “transport,” even though I didn’t know their specific meanings in this context. Still, that vocabulary knowledge helped me. It revealed the relationship between ideas in the text—“Communication relies on molecular transport”—so I knew what questions to ask to better comprehend the text.

Students will have their own unique barriers to a text—but their own unique assets to leverage, too. To overcome barriers, try tapping into the funds of knowledge students bring with them to school, especially those from family, culture, and community. For example, medical and scientific texts like my sister’s article are often full of Latin-based vocabulary. Native Spanish speakers are often better than native English speakers at understanding Latin-based vocabulary because Latin and Spanish share so many cognates (words with similar spellings and meanings across languages).

If we can give our students clarity about why they are reading, and intentionally plan for their success, we can better prepare them for real-world complex texts they’re sure to encounter in whatever career they choose.

Keep in mind that language and knowledge demands are only half the equation for accessing complex texts. Students will also need support in determining the purpose or levels of meaning of a text and in navigating its structure. Repeated exposure to informational and literary texts in different genres gives students a strong foundation, as does repeated practice with articulating an author’s purpose and exploring the deeper meanings of a text, such as its themes and central ideas.

Explicitly teaching text structures is another method that has positive effects on reading comprehension, including among students who are learning English. Remember that informational text structures are more varied and often more complex than literary text structures. And since students typically have less exposure to informational texts in school, they can greatly benefit from more explicit instruction.

Do a little extra (planning) to address text complexity

Helping all students access the content and meaning of complex texts is the first and most critical step in planning, but there’s even more we can do to ensure all students succeed with complex texts. That’s because preparing students to tackle complex texts requires sparking their interest and motivation just as much as providing appropriate scaffolds to increase their access.

Aspire to meet the following three extra goals in future lesson plans.

Planning goal #1: Make it engaging!

For many students, the term “complex text” sounds dreadfully boring. But we can flip that dynamic on its head by incorporating movement and expression into our lessons. While engaging students in text analysis is the primary goal, we can also find ways to tap into their creative talents.

For example, students can tackle the language and structure demands of a text by working in small groups to memorize and perform an excerpt from the text, such as the prologue to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. This might begin with choral readings, so students can learn how unfamiliar words are pronounced, and then progress to adding more expression (prosody) and movement as students pick up the rhythm of the language, such as stomping or clapping to Shakespeare’s use of iambic pentameter.

Students will be more engaged when learning difficult vocabulary or navigating complex text organization if they know they’ll need the information to perform for other people. Questions like “What does the word ‘dignity’ mean in ‘Two households, both alike in dignity’?” or “What is the purpose of a prologue?” become more practical when students need the answers to create a strong performance. An added benefit of such explicit knowledge is that it provides a scaffold for students as they work through dense or difficult language in a text. My students often referred to the prologue of Romeo and Juliet, for instance, because it provides a concise summary of the play.

Planning goal #2: Make it accessible!

Letting students tell you what they know and don’t know about a topic is another authentic way to grapple with complex text, as I did when struggling with my sister’s article. Students of any age can create their own questions to investigate. Mine was, “What is molecular transport anyway?”

Students might explore a text’s levels of meaning in small groups, for example, and then present, discuss, and revise their findings with other small groups. While this process can be done with any text, poetry is an excellent choice, especially when students can make their own selection. If your class includes multilingual learners, you might offer (or help students find) poems originally written in a home language, such as Spanish or African American English. If possible, provide a side-by-side comparison of the original poem and its translation into general academic English. This will prompt students to think about the meanings of specific words and phrases, and it will encourage multilingual learners to leverage their linguistic and cultural knowledge to assess whether meanings have been altered or lost in translation.

Small group work is a great way to facilitate these discussions, and poetry also lends itself well to teaching students how to create and use text annotations.

Planning goal #3: Make it meaningful!

What do your students care about? What do their communities care about? What is important to this generation of young people? When we find ways to make complex texts more relevant to students’ lived experiences and the real world, we add that extra bit of purpose, meaning, and motivation everyone needs to persist through a difficult task, such as dealing with text complexity.

Consider that students might take a daunting issue, like climate change, and work in small groups to investigate various aspects of it. Strive for tasks that require students to sort through misinformation and disinformation as they develop their own position on a topic. This will force them to consider the purpose of the texts they read, especially when conducting research.

Research projects also help students think about the knowledge demands of the texts they write: Who is my intended audience? What do they already know about this subject? What knowledge outside the text do they need to bring to the text to understand my position? If the goal of the research project is to influence one’s peers, students may need to find or develop primers on unfamiliar concepts so their texts can convince classmates rather than confuse them. Finally, you might culminate this research task with a student-led summit fashioned after a real-world event. This requires a little extra work and planning, but it’s a powerful way to show students how their ability to navigate complex texts prepares them for global citizenship.

The power of understanding (from a reader’s perspective)

When I attended my sister’s dissertation defense over Zoom, I was thrilled to see the many features she included that made her presentation more accessible for the lay person (aka, me!). There were detailed diagrams, friendly definitions, and an impressive animation that finally revealed to me how molecular transport happens in the brain. While I still didn’t understand everything, I understood a lot more than I did from reading the article alone. Most importantly, I understood the significance of my sister’s work in her field, which (to be honest) was a more realistic purpose for reading her article in the first place.

If we can give our students clarity about why they are reading—and intentionally plan for their success—we can better prepare them for real-world text complexity they’re sure to encounter in whatever career they choose, whether it’s in education, like me, or engineering, like my sister.

The post How to address text complexity and help students understand what they read appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

When it comes to technology, some of us are gadget-loving early adopters and some of us are Luddites who think it’s all been downhill since the advent of the printing press. Most of us are probably somewhere in the middle, but the one thing we can all agree on is that we’ll continue to see the emergence of new technologies in just about every aspect of our daily lives, and that includes technology in the classroom.

Melissa Lim, a technology integration specialist for Portland Public Schools in Oregon, who also has many years of experience as a classroom teacher, counts herself among those who see technology as something not to be feared, but embraced—and maybe even enjoyed. On a recent episode of The Continuing Educator podcast titled “Push that button!” Melissa chatted about all things tech with cohosts Jacob Bruno, executive vice president of Learning & Improvement Services at NWEA, and middle school math teacher Kailey Rhodes.

Read on to get Melissa’s thoughts on how ChatGPT can be used for good, the importance of bridging the digital divide in the classroom, and the number-one thing teachers should remember when they’re experimenting with new technology in the classroom (hint: it’s in the episode title).

Resistance to tech: The first hurdle

Before we get into the technological weeds, it’s important to name that resistance to technology is—and always has been—a natural human reaction to rapid change. As Jacob recalls from his own days in school, the fear of calculator usage was once very real among educators who worried that it would stunt the skills of budding mathematicians. And today, of course, ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools have the education field worried about cheating.

In addition, it’s understandable that many of us associate technology in education with the pandemic, a time when we had no choice but to use relatively new digital tools to ensure a semblance of continuity for students. “There are a lot of teachers who don’t want to use technology at all because we were online so much during the pandemic, and that was a really rough time,” says Melissa.

So, how do we move past the feelings of stress and fatigue that often come with introductions of new technology? For Melissa, the answer is clear: use technology when it makes sense to do so, and never for its own sake.

“If you would rather do a paper-and-pencil activity or an analog activity, that’s great,” she says. “But if you want to take a risk and try [a new tool] with your students, and you have people [who] can support you, go for it.”

5 tips to keep in mind

In their half-hour conversation, Melissa, Jacob, and Kailey were able to just skim the surface of today’s classroom technology landscape. But their chat produced a number of concrete takeaways that teachers can start putting to use right away.

1. Don’t be afraid to push buttons!

With this advice, Melissa doesn’t mean getting under someone’s skin. It’s a bit more literal than that. “I think a lot of people are afraid that they’ll break something if they push a specific button, whether it’s on a screen or on a device,” she says of technology in the classroom. Instead of approaching tech from a place of fear, teachers should follow their students’ lead and be willing to take risks. “That’s how kids learn,” she points out. “Kids are constantly just pushing buttons and trying stuff out. […] They’re not afraid to try things.”

2. Ask for help

In days gone by, teachers typically had all the knowledge they needed to run their own classrooms effectively. Today, we’re living in a more complex world where expertise is more distributed. Teachers should feel just fine about having to call for help when needed. As Kailey points out, teachers don’t have to be technology specialists, but it helps to know some!

3. Find that balance between fun and challenging

“To me, learning has to be fun…[and] there also has to be struggle,” Melissa says. “I find that if there’s a struggle, that’s when I learn the most. But when I do workshops and professional learning, I always ask myself: Would I have fun doing this if I was a participant?”

With this teacher-centric view of fun in mind, Melissa recommends a handful of popular tools that teachers are using today to help keep themselves and their students challenged, organized, and inspired:

• Mmhmm A platform for increasing attention, engagement, and fun in online meetings.
• Canvas A learning management system with the stated goal of “amplifying everyone’s awesomeness.”
• Seesaw A platform for student engagement aimed at teachers, students, and families.
• BrainPOP A site for games, movies, animations, quizzes, activities, and more.
• Nearpod A Google-integrated platform offering real-time insights into student learning.

4. When it comes to AI, keep an open mind

Given what Jacob aptly calls the recent “explosion” of ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools, we have no choice but to reckon with the inevitable impacts of these tools in the classroom. And when it comes to weighing the benefits and harms of these technologies—a consideration as old as technology itself—Melissa and Kailey are optimistic. Teachers are successfully using AI to create and improve quizzes, Melissa points out, and some teachers are even demystifying ChatGPT in their classrooms by showing their kids how it works.

And when Kailey was building an activity for her students on Pi Day, she realized ChatGPT could help. “I said, ‘Can you generate for me a list of round things with different circumferences and diameters?’ And it did. And then I used those for my activity. It was so helpful.”

Melissa adds that while AI will never replace teachers, it can certainly save them some much-needed time. “You can input something and you get a skeleton of information,” she says. “And then that’s where […] you take that skeleton, flesh it out, [and] put more of your perspective into it.”

5. Bridge the digital divide

Though teachers can be technophiles, technophobes, or something in between, their students all deserve the same access to technology. Melissa reminds teachers that it’s up to them to provide these equitable learning experiences, regardless of their own preferences. “You might have one teacher [who’s] really good at using technology and is always providing some kind of experience that uses technology […] but then you have some teachers [who] are still maybe not comfortable […] and so they’re really doing a disservice to their students in not providing those kinds of experiences.”

Again, teachers don’t have to figure it all out themselves. That’s why we have technology integration specialists like Melissa who are passionate about helping teachers bridge the digital divide that, all too often, separates kids into the haves and have-nots. Technology in the classroom should be available to all kids.

Remember: Technology does not equal aptitude

Kailey, who has attended several trainings led by Melissa, notes that even Melissa can get tripped up by technology sometimes, but she takes it in stride. “Technology doesn’t always cooperate,” she says. “I notice a lot of teachers who, when their technology is misbehaving, they get a little defensive about it. Almost like it’s their child and their child is embarrassing them.” But with a bit of humility and a sense of humor, we can all get away from the idea that our skill level with technology represents our general aptitude.

Hear more

Want to learn more about technology in the classroom from Melissa and see what she’s up to? Follow her on X/Twitter at @ActionHero. And to hear the whole conversation about technology in the classroom that inspired this post, listen to the podcast episode.

The post Technology in the classroom: 5 things teachers need to know appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

One of my daughter Kat’s favorite activities as a toddler was lining up a set of plastic bears that she would “borrow” from her older sister’s toys. They came in four different colors, and at first she enjoyed just putting them in a row. Later, she would make simple patterns as she arranged them in a snaking line. We have a video of her from when she was almost two years old saying the word “da” each time she pointed at a bear, moving her finger along the row, one by one. While she didn’t have the number words just yet, she was clearly developing the beginning procedures for counting. This video has remained a family favorite, admittedly less because of its wonderful depiction of early math skills and more because of how quickly Kat abandoned her counting when her sister walked in the room with a new doll. Apparently one new doll was larger in this toddler’s mind than twenty old bears!

I started thinking about all this after writing my previous post about the importance of early math skills. Many studiesindicate that the math skills that children have when they enter school are highly predictive of their math achievement beyond elementary school. Additionally, a recent review of the research literature found that 32 out of the 37 studies reviewed showed a positive association between home numeracy activities and children’s math skills.

All this got me thinking about how I encouraged math skills in my own children and what opportunities I might have missed. It also got me wondering where in her developmental trajectory Kat was when she was “counting” those bears. Luckily, there are many resources available to help parents and caregivers support early math development.

What young children know about math

When thinking about how to support children’s math development, it can be helpful to understand what they are potentially ready to learn at each stage. Although every child is different, you might be surprised to learn what research has shown children to be capable of doing and understanding at various ages. For example, several studiessuggest that children younger than a year old (and, in one study, as young as a few days old) can tell when the number of objects pictured changes from two to three or vice versa, indicating they have an innate sense of number. Another series of experiments suggests that even when they make mistakes counting, kids from three to five years of age may understand key concepts of counting, including one-to-one correspondence, the need to say the counting numbers in the correct sequence, and that the last number said represents the total counted.

So how do you know what your child might be ready to do without having to dig through all the research? Luckily there are resources that can help. Understood.org has a general overview of what children may know or understand starting at birth. Sesame Workshop has developed a matrix that shows what skills children may be learning at different stages in what have been identified as five key areas in early math development: number concepts and relations, number operations, geometry and spatial sense, measurement and comparison, and patterns. This matrix gives you a sense of the progression of skills in each area. Knowing this can help you know what concepts to explore next as your child shows understanding of previous concepts. This is important, as home math activities have been shown to be most effective when you stretch your child’s thinking.

Math is everywhere

Incorporating math into your child’s life is simpler than you may think. You don’t need special materials; the things and places you interact with daily provide all the stimulus needed to engage in rich math conversations and help your child develop early math skills. When my girls were young, I would often highlight when they used math in real life by enthusiastically singing, “That was math!” You can imagine how much my girls loved this. Thankfully Gigliana Melzi, a professor and researcher at NYU, has identified four steps for getting your kids involved in math at home that are more effective, and potentially less annoying, than my approach:

• Step 1: Uncover the math. When we think about math as adults, we may think of algebra or a complex set of procedures. It’s easy to miss everyday opportunities to explore foundational math concepts. Putting away laundry? That involves sorting objects by attributes. Cooking dinner? There’s lots of measurement going on there. Checking out at the supermarket? Deciding which line to get in can involve both counting and magnitude estimation (is it better to get in a line with five people with only a few items each or three people who each have a larger number of items?).
• Step 2: Involve your child in the math. When we do some of the activities listed above, we may not think to include our children. Bringing them into these activities helps them develop their early math skills and see math as a useful tool in everyday life. Plus, you get help folding the laundry!
• Step 3: Talk about the math. Math talk can take several forms. You can model your own thinking as you walk through a task. For example, when shopping, you can talk through figuring out how many apples to buy if each person in the family wants two apples. You can compare distances between errands or encourage spatial reasoning by talking about where a toy is relative to other toys. You can also ask your children questions to engage their thinking. When doing so, keep in mind that the goal is to activate children’s reasoning through open-ended questions. Questions for younger children can be more concrete. For example, how many plates do we need at the table when grandma and grandpa come for dinner? For older children, you can ask more abstract questions, like how many doors or windows they think there are in their school or how many children they think visit the playground each day. The National Association for the Education of Young Children has resources for engaging in math talk. Stanford’s Development and Research in Early Mathematics Education Math Snacks are a series of quick prompts you can use to talk about math in everyday situations.
• Step 4: Ask “why?” We have all had those days where every third word out of our child’s mouth is “why?” Here’s your chance to ask “why?” back. Doing so helps your child make sense of their thinking and see and correct errors in logic. It also gives you a better view of your child’s understanding.

Reading and early math: A perfect partnership

People often treat math and reading as polar opposites. However, reading is a wonderful way to engage young children in math content.

Reading aloud to your child can expose them to a wider array of vocabulary, help them develop their oral language skills, and support their math understanding. Many picture books and books for young readers have math concepts explicitly built into them. But even books that are not specifically designed to teach early math skills can be used to do so. Illustrations offer great opportunities for counting, comparing amounts and sizes, identifying shapes and patterns, adding and subtracting, and using positional words. Count. Play. Explore. has short videos that model some ways to do this with very young children. Books may also present mathematical problems that children can wrestle with on their own or with your support. I have a distinct memory of trying to figure out how Laura and Mary Ingalls could possibly share two cookies with their baby sister Carrie in a way that each of them would get the same amount. This was likely before I had formal exposure to fractions in school, so I remember having long discussion and drawing a lot of pictures to try to figure this out.

Make math fun

Beyond supporting understanding of math, helping to foster positive associations with math is a huge benefit of engaging children in the informal activities and conversations described here. Unfortunately, we are all too familiar with the prevalence of math anxiety among both children and adults. Parents and caregivers may inadvertently project their negative feelings about math, which can, in turn, negatively impact children’s math achievement. The good news is these types of low-stakes, engaging activities may help mitigate those negative impacts.

By engaging young children in math activities daily, you are showing them not just that math is a part of our world but also that math is for everyone. There are many simple ways for you to help children build positive associations with math as they naturally explore their world.

Where to learn more

Thankfully, there are tons of great resources to help you learn more about how to incorporate early numeracy into everyday activities. Here are just a few:

• Becoming a Math Family. This University of Chicago site can also be downloaded as an app. In addition to including activities and videos, it also offers a community aspect where caregivers can share experiences with others and ask experts questions.
• Count. Play. Explore. This site is organized by age (0–3, 3–5, and 6–8) and offers a series of short, funny videos showing simple ways to highlight math in a child’s everyday world. There are book and activity recommendations for each age range. All videos and resources are available in both English and Spanish.
• DREME Family Math. Stanford’s Development and Research in Early Mathematics Education website has examples of how you can incorporate math activities into daily routines, cooking, games, and reading. The “Reading Together” section has a list of over 60 math-related picture books that is filterable by age level and mathematical topic. Many materials are available in both English and Spanish.
• Mathical Books. This site hosts a list of math-related books chosen by a national panel of educators, librarians, and mathematicians. The books are filterable by age group.
• NAEYC “Articles for Families on Math.” The “Articles for Families on Math” section of the website of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has short articles about how young children engage with and learn math as well as tips for how you can help them see and talk about math.
• Talking Is Teaching. This site was developed by Highlights magazine to help parents and other caregivers talk about math with their children. It contains a brief video and activity ideas for incorporating a math topic (counting, comparing numbers, sorting shapes, finding patterns, and adding) into your daily routine. Each topic also has a Highlights-style illustration with prompts that you can explore with your child.
• Young Mathematicians. This site contains games, articles, printable mini-books, videos, and other resources with content in Arabic, English, Portuguese, and Spanish. You can filter by type of resource, math topic, level, and language.

The post Building strong foundations for early math skills at home appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

There is a buzz in education right now about literacy and the science of reading. Within these conversations there is a particular focus on early literacy and what research indicates are the best ways to teach children to read. According to the Education Commission of the States, nearly 40 states require interventions for students in grades K–3 who are reading below grade level, and just over 25 states have a policy either allowing or requiring retention at grade 3 for students not reading at grade level. Additionally, 45 states have policies about pre- or in-service literacy training for K–3 educators. Interestingly, there do not seem to be widespread similar policies or requirements for early numeracy.

A good deal of the discussion around math education is focused more on the other end of the system: pathways for success in college mathematics. The disparity in interest in early literacy and early numeracy can be illustrated via the simple and highly unscientific process of searching both terms online. On a recent day, the search term “early numeracy” produced 22,000,000 results, or about 1/20 of the 469,000,000 results produced by the search term “early literacy.” The term “math pathways” produced 540,000,000 results, far closer in magnitude to the “early literacy” results.

Make no mistake. My goal here is not to discourage interest in either early literacy or high school math pathways. Rather, I want to make a case for why early numeracy should generate the same level of interest as these other topics.

What’s the big deal?

There are many reasons to focus on early numeracy. A key one, and a possibly less well-known one, is the power of early math understanding to predict long-term student outcomes, and not just in math.

Children come to us with experience using math in their everyday lives. Our job as teachers is to build upon this.

Several studies have found that early math skills are good predictors of later reading achievement. One meta-analysis of six longitudinal data sets found that skills like number knowledge and ordinality have twice the effect size—0.34 vs 0.17—in predicting later reading achievement than do measures of early reading skills. Another study found that kindergarten math skills may be predictors not only of later reading achievement but potentially of later social-emotional behaviors, including physical aggression and improved attention.

In terms of predicting future math achievement, a study conducted by researchers at the University of California, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Michigan found that pre-school math knowledge may predict math achievement through age 15. They also found that the growth made in math in kindergarten and first grade is even more predictive of later achievement. This finding and those from other studies suggest that early intervention in mathematics may be critical for improving students’ long-term achievement in math. Without targeted, purposeful intervention, the research seems to suggest that where a student starts in math sets the trajectory for where they wind up.

Ensuring the right focus

So, now that the importance of early math is clear, what concepts and skills should teachers focus on in the early grades? Thankfully, research can provide some direction here as well. Several studies point to the importance of supporting students’ number sense. A 2009 publication by the National Academies  and a 2021 study both highlight three critical subdomains of early numeracy: number, number relations, and number operations.

• Number refers to students’ understanding of whole numbers, including counting, cardinality (understanding that the last number word said is the number of objects counted), subitizing (quickly determining the number of items in a set without counting), number recognition, and counting on and, eventually, counting by numbers other than one.
• Number relations, which includes understanding number magnitude, comparing and ordering numbers, and representing numbers on a number line.
• Number operations, which refers to composing and decomposing numbers. This lays the foundation for addition and subtraction.

In the book Mathematics Learning in Early Childhood: Paths Towards Excellence and Equity, the National Academies concludes that in addition to these early numeracy topics, the topics of geometry, spatial reasoning, and measurement are also important to focus on in early mathematics. These topics are highly connected to spatial reasoning, which research has shown supports performance in other mathematical domains. One study highlighted how development of spatial reasoning can support early numeracy by improving students’ understanding of number lines and number magnitude. Both Mathematics Learning in Early Childhood and What Works Clearinghouse’s Teaching Math to Young Children provide insight into the progressions of skills in early numeracy, geometry, spatial reasoning, and measurement as well as suggested activities and teaching approaches.

Building on what students know

Finding a curriculum that adequately supports the development of early numeracy is a key first step. It is also important to determine what knowledge students enter school with. Children have an innate number sense that develops before they ever enter a classroom. Given the wide variety of experiences students have before starting school, they will naturally enter with different levels of mathematical understanding. Assessing what students know upon school entry and exposing them to appropriately advanced content is critical.

The 2021 study discussed earlier suggests that for students who enter school with lower achievement in math, supporting development of number and number relations may be more impactful for future math achievement. For those who enter with more understanding of number, counting, and cardinality, focusing on number operations seems to support later high achievement. A 2013 study that found similar results also highlighted the mismatch between students’ ability and what is often taught in early math classes. The study found that kindergarten teachers spent the majority of their time in math on basic counting and shapes despite more than 95% of students showing mastery of these skills upon entry.

Without targeted, purposeful intervention, the research seems to suggest that where a student starts in math sets the trajectory for where they wind up.

When assessing where students are in their understanding of math, it is important to consider biases that have resulted in historically marginalized children being denied rich, engaging, and challenging mathematics lessons and activities. In their book High Stakes: Testing for Tracking, Promotion, and Graduation, editors Jay Heubert and Robert Hauser argue that “minority students and low-SES [socioeconomic status] students are proportionately overrepresented in classes typically characterized by an exclusive focus on basic skills, low expectations, and less qualified teachers.” While students who enter with lower achievement may benefit from a stronger initial focus on number and number relations, these concepts should be taught rigorously and with high-quality materials and activities and with the goal of getting all students access to more challenging content. The knowledge students have upon entering school should be viewed as an asset upon which to build, not a deficit used to lower expectations and remove opportunities.

Developing a lifelong love of math

In a previous Teach. Learn. Grow. post, I spoke with Monica Rodríguez about math anxiety. Although there has been much talk about the prevalence of math anxiety, most of this has focused on students in later elementary school and beyond. Unfortunately, there is evidence that math anxiety can start early and that it can have a long-term impact on achievement.

In the short term, math anxiety can overload working memory and affect learning. Long-term, math anxiety may cause students to self-limit in terms of the types of math classes they take. NCTM’s position statement on mathematics in early childhood learning captures both the impact and opportunity that early math experiences hold for children: “Early childhood is an important and vulnerable time; these years lay the foundation for a child’s mathematical journey. High-quality early mathematics experiences have a long-lasting impact, serving as a catalyst for children’s later success in life. These beginning exposures to mathematics send powerful messages about who and what is valued.”

NCTM’s position statement and their joint position paper with NAEYC, “Early Childhood Mathematics: Promoting Good Beginnings,” both describe ways to support early numeracy and a love of mathematics right from the start. At the center is the need to provide equitable access to content, experiences, and settings that leverage children’s natural curiosity and innate number sense and that also celebrate and build upon their diverse backgrounds, languages, and experiences. Children come to us with experience using math in their everyday lives. Our job as teachers is to build upon this by providing children with interesting and appropriately challenging activities that further the connection between math and the world around them.

Looking for more?

Here are some great resources for more information on supporting young students as they develop early numeracy:

• Early childhood math videos: The Institute of Education Sciences/Regional Educational Laboratory Program has created videos focusing on developing both key early math skills and effective questioning strategies.
• Early literacy and early numeracy: Experts Cindy Jiban and Tammy Baumann discuss early literacy and early numeracy on NWEA’s The Continuing Educator podcast.
• Early Math Counts: This site created by the University of Illinois Chicago College of Education contains a wealth of resources including pre-school math lessons, access to free, online professional learning, and videos about teaching different math topics and creating a math-rich environment in your classroom.
• Early math resources: This site, developed by Stanford University’s Development and Research in Early Mathematics Education project, houses early math resources for families, teachers, and teacher educators.
• Education Week early math: This is a repository of all of Education Week’s current and past articles related to early mathematics.
• Todos: Mathematics for ALL: This site contains English and Spanish publications and resources for both families and educators designed to support equity and high-quality math education for all students.

The post Everything you ever wanted to know about early numeracy but didn’t know to ask appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

In my book The Equity Expression: Six Entry Points for Nonnegotiable Academic Success, I address topics that are often missing from the equity conversation, such as teacher efficacy and academic identities. The text is built around the framework of six entry points—systems, mindsets, relationships, products, spaces, and processes. The entry point of processes offers an opportunity to challenge what you’ve been taught about K–12 assessment and reframe how you think about assessment processes in teaching and learning.

As you read the excerpt from my book below, consider the ways you can begin to view assessment as learning.

From the pages of The Equity Expression 

All of our teaching and learning processes hinge on assessment, where we gather information and data about what students know. This includes assessment processes, such as formative assessment (gathering evidence of what learners know and can do), responding to that evidence together, and certifying that learning has taken place (summative assessment). Students and educators thrive when these processes stay focused on learner context, academic goals, and partnership.

We can use assessment processes to help learners grow. We gather data that inform teaching and learning, to ascertain a student’s level of readiness, and to provide feedback that moves the learner forward. In order to best help a learner grow, it’s important to partner with them to know and understand their context, examine their learning goals, and use that context and goal information to engage in teaching and learning processes together.

Too often, assessment for learning (formative assessment) and assessment of learning (summative assessment) are done to or for students. When we “do” teaching, learning, or assessment processes to or for students, we can miss opportunities to include student voices and identities. We can miss opportunities to amplify their agency as learners. We can make decisions based on assumptions or biases, which can create learning barriers and disempower learners.

We can use assessment processes to help learners grow.

Components that are critical for equity include (1) broadening our definition of success to include more than academic achievement, (2) embedding assessment processes into teaching and learning processes as one fluid journey, and (3) co-owning processes with students throughout this journey. These equitable moves are what we call assessment as learning.

To better understand how assessment as learning can be applied with learners to enact equity in our classrooms, I sat down with a responsive teaching and learning and quality classroom assessment expert, Erin Beard, M.Ed, D.Ed. Erin Beard’s dissertation explored the intersection of assessment, equity, and trauma-informed practices. Her answers have been edited for clarity.

Hubbard: Why is assessment an equity issue? 

Beard: Our nation has an outdated narrative of the teaching and learning process, including assessment. It’s what I experienced as a student and how I was trained as a teacher. In this model, there’s a pattern of teach, then test, then grade. In this model, academic success can be overemphasized at the expense of other kinds of important learning and success, such as well-being and self-efficacy.

Assessments and data can be used as “gotchas” or even weapons against students and educators rather than opportunities to show knowledge and skills. This approach can be detrimental to our students and educators, especially those who have experienced toxic stress or trauma, which can include historical, racial, and adverse childhood experiences. In other words, the outdated model can create barriers to learning and even retraumatize people. We want to prevent and mend that. There can be a conscious or unconscious mindset that students are empty vessels that need to be filled or fixed, which is a deficit-based perspective. Not everyone succeeds in this model, but that was acceptable for a long time; in fact, ranking, sorting, and not everyone making it was considered a sign that the class, course, unit, lesson, quiz, or test was tough enough. For a very long time, this model was widely expected and accepted. But it’s one reason why we have educational disparities, and why we should really consider assessment as learning.

There can be a conscious or unconscious mindset that students are empty vessels that need to be filled or fixed, which is a deficit-based perspective.

Hubbard: How can assessment as learning promote student agency and success?

Beard: Assessment serves as a process that promotes student agency and success when there’s a learner empowerer mindset. This means that we see that the purpose of the educator and learner having time together is to propel academic success, well-being, and agency, not to manage, fix, or fill students with knowledge, march them through content, or make them comply. The assessment-as-learning process revealed important information about whole-human success, not just academics.

Hubbard: How would you explain assessment as learning to educators?

Beard: In my professional journey, I learned about formative assessment, what we’re calling assessment for learning, and summative assessment, which is what we’re calling assessment of learning. These are the types of assessment processes I was trained in as a teacher. Eventually, I began to notice a disconnect between how we taught and what we assessed, as well as a greater disconnect from the other parts of teaching and learning. Assessment as learning connects all of the processes—and not just for academic success. It’s also connected to student well-being and self-efficacy. Assessment as learning gives us a more fluid and human-centered view of and approach to teaching and learning processes, including assessment and data use. We can include our students in this fluidity so that assessment and data use don’t feel like it is something that interrupted learning or was being done to learners, but rather it is an integral part of the teaching and learning process that is accomplished with learners.

Hubbard: Why do we need to rethink assessments?

Beard: We need to make sure we’re partnering with colleagues, students, and families to regularly pause and ask, (1) What is the purpose of the selected assessment process and tools that we use? (2) What are we planning to do with the results? (3) Does the assessment and its purpose fit the context, the chosen outcome, and its placement in the learning progression? and (4) Do our uses of the assessment process, tool, and results match the purpose they were designed to serve?

Read more

For more information on the entry points for building equity, check out The Equity Expression: Six Entry Points for Nonnegotiable Academic Success and our professional learning workshop series on creating supportive environments. For more on K–12 assessment, I encourage you to read “What is formative assessment?,” “Formative assessment is not for grading,” and “27 easy formative assessment strategies for gathering evidence of student learning.”

The post How K–12 assessment is a part of learning appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

The latest research into how kids are doing following COVID-19 school closures shows that achievement is still lagging, when compared to pre-pandemic data. Having so many students in need of extra support can be challenging when planning instruction. Identifying where kids are starting, by approximating their zone of proximal development, can help.

Ready, set, challenge!

Knowing where students are in their learning trajectory is the first step in discovering how to challenge and support them so they can grow and reach grade-level standards, that bar that’s set for all your learners. What do I mean by “challenge”? I’m glad you asked. Challenging students means giving them just-right-for-me learning opportunities.

Think of the story of Goldilocks and the three bears. There were porridges of different temperatures, chairs of multiple sizes, and beds of varying degrees of softness. The three bears harnessed the power of knowing what was just right for them to meet their needs for nourishment, comfort, and sleep. Through experimentation in the bears’ home, Goldilocks, too, learned how to become well-fed and well-rested. Whether they wanted to or not (Goldilocks did break in, after all), Mama Bear, Papa Bear, and Baby Bear taught her how to try different things and find her own just-right experience.

Challenging students means giving them just-right-for-me learning opportunities.

While I don’t recommend home invasion as a learning strategy, I do enthusiastically suggest experimentation with a variety of methods and resources. Working from a zone of proximal development in particular can facilitate scaffolding and differentiating instruction in ways that provide just-right and just-in-time supports to increase student access to rich, complex grade-level content. This approach makes the challenging job of supporting all kids toward proficiency in grade-level standards a little easier. It also promotes instructional equity because teacher practice grounded in building a bridge between where a student is (ZPD) and where a student needs to go (mastery of grade-level standards) is all about promoting—rather than denying—access to grade-level content and learning opportunities. This kind of work demands that we both hold high expectations for all students and respond in ways that maximize growth toward mastery.

“Zone of proximal development” defined

By letting you know where they are in their learning, a student’s zone of proximal development can help you move away from an instructional one-size-fits-all approach and toward a time-effective, tailor-made one, with the goal of keeping high expectations and seeing maximized growth for every student relative to grade-level outcomes. You may remember zone of proximal development from your pedagogy or psychology studies. It is a learning theory of Lev Vygotsky, a Russian psychologist and one of the founding fathers of research in education. He defined ZPD as “the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers.”

Zone of proximal development represents the metaphorical gap between what a learner can do and what they can’t do…yet. With the support of what Vygotsky refers to as a more knowledgeable other—a teacher, coach, parent, sibling, peer—learners can engage in increasingly more challenging activities and complex development than they could achieve on their own, without assistance or guidance. This focus on partnership in learning helps students grow academically, and also socially and emotionally, because it fosters building a community of learning.

How do we determine zone of proximal development?

Because students are always learning and growing, their zone of proximal development changes over time, so it’s important to approximate it often. There are two primary ways to do this: interim assessment and formative assessment. The first supports the second, and chances are you’re already doing both of these in your classroom already.

1. Interim assessment

When I served as an executive director of curriculum and instruction in a school district in North Carolina, I was looking for an innovative and efficient way to provide teachers insights to help them plan formative assessment and instruction in a way that was more supportive of individual student learning needs. MAP® Growth fit the bill.

Using students’ instructional goal area RIT scores and the MAP Growth Learning Continuum, you can see if a grade-level standard of instruction is likely in a student’s zone of proximal development. That, in turn, can make your formative assessment plan more efficient, which will get you even closer to understanding exactly where your students are in their learning.

2. Formative assessment

I bet you’re constantly collecting data on student learning and their response to instruction through formative assessment. One specific way to use it to determine zone of proximal development is to set percentage thresholds as triggers that prompt your action, in this case, explicitly evaluating if the challenge is just right, the content is appropriate, and additional supports are needed or should be removed.

While I never used formative assessment for grading (and neither should you!) when I taught high school English, I did use the following formative assessment triggers during instruction to evaluate my students’ challenges and needs:

< 35% correct = content is above the zone of proximal development

36­–69% correct = content is in the zone of proximal development

> 70% correct = content is below the zone of proximal development

When students scored with less than 35% accuracy, I used that as a trigger to evaluate whether my instruction was too challenging or targeted on inappropriate content, and I asked myself whether my scaffolds were supportive enough. When students scored with 36–69% accuracy, I continued with my instructional plan. When students scored with greater than 70% accuracy, I explored removing the supportive scaffolds to see if students continued to progress with greater independence and whether I could adjust the level of challenge, adding additional complexity. When I determined the instruction was above or below the zone of proximal development, I made explicit, proactive adjustments to my plans prior to continuing with instruction. When instruction was in the zone, I made real-time adjustments during my instruction.

There is no hard and fast rule for setting assessment triggers. This is just an example of what worked for me. Trust your gut and experience when setting your own, or look to your colleagues for support.

Using zone of proximal development to scaffold instruction

You now know what zone of proximal development is and how to figure it out for each of your students. What’s next? Looking to it to scaffold your instruction. You can read more about that in “7 ways to use ZPD and scaffolding to challenge and support students.” 

The post The zone of proximal development (ZPD): The power of just right appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

We all know the challenges of the last three years. We’ve read the headlines and heard the research about the impact of COVID-19 on education. Given the stress that the pandemic put on educators, reading about the continued low rates of growth and the increasing inequity among students can be quite overwhelming. Teachers and administrators are well aware of the issues; they see them play out in their classrooms every day, where it is estimated that more than half of students enter below grade level. The question of how to best address these issues has led to a debate over teaching grade-level content versus differentiating based on each student’s level. To help teachers navigate this question, our High Growth for All project has identified 10 effective strategies—the Transformative Ten—to help teachers differentiate while still providing access to on-grade content. The first strategy centers on providing supplemental instruction time so that kids can practice skills they’re still developing.

About High Growth for All

High Growth for All started with NWEA researcher Andrew Hegedus and his review of longitudinal achievement and growth data. Using data from 700,000 students in 24,500 public schools that test with MAP® Growth, our interim assessment, he set out to identify high-growth schools. Enter Chase Nordengren, another NWEA researcher, who built upon this research by conducting in-depth observations of the classrooms of four highly effective teachers at two high-growth schools in Schiller Park, Illinois’s School District 81.

Over the course of the 2022–2023 school year, Chase recorded over 75 hours of instruction and 12 hours of interviews with these teachers. From this research, he developed the Transformative Ten, ten instructional strategies that can be applied to any grade or subject to both support differentiation and provide access to on-grade content. Here in Teach. Learn. Grow., we will examine each of the Transformative Ten in depth over the course of this school year, starting with Strategy 1: Provide supplemental learning time for targeted retrieval practice.

Supplemental instruction for all

Supplemental instruction is a common component of most classrooms. In a previous post, I referenced a WestEd survey that named the need to differentiate and personalize learning as one of the top three reasons teachers turn to supplemental resources.

When we think about supplemental resources and differentiation, we tend to think about students at the extremes: those who may need support to access on-grade content and those who are whizzing through on-grade content at high speed. But targeted differentiation and supplemental instruction time are valuable for all students.

Schiller Park has implemented an approach to supplemental instruction that leverages multiple researched-backed strategies. Instead of implementing a pull-out model for below-grade support and above-grade enrichment, they have created a supplemental learning block in which all students are divided into small groups to receive targeted activities and instruction designed to support their understanding of current on-grade content. Let’s unpack the learning science behind Schiller Park’s approach to identify practices you can incorporate into your own classroom.

1. Practice good grouping

A key structural component of supplemental instruction for all is the formation of small groups. While long-term tracking by ability has been shown to have negative effects on both achievement and confidence, short-term, flexible groups designed for a specific purpose have been shown to support learning.

Targeted differentiation and supplemental instruction time are valuable for all students.

If your school tests with MAP Growth, your Class Profile Report is a good place to start when thinking about groupings, as it provides a high-level picture of the academic diversity of your class. Next, formative assessment that zeroes in on the skills and concepts related to your current whole-group lessons should form the foundation for your groupings. You’ll want to have recent, relevant evidence of students’ knowledge of the current topic. Thankfully there are a lot of quick ways to gather this evidence, including classroom conversations, student work, and short, frequent, ungraded assessments.

Once you have created your initial groups, formative assessment data can inform the learning goal for each group, and the learning approaches, activities, and type of grouping that support this goal. As you progress through the whole-class core content, use ongoing formative assessment to alter both your group composition and learning goals as appropriate. Because each group’s learning goals are targeted to the current core learning, these groups should not be fixed over the course of the year or even the current unit but should be adjusted in real time.

Check out NWEA’s guidance for student grouping for more information on forming effective, short-term learning groups.

2. Get in the zone

As you gather your formative data and begin grouping your students and establishing learning objectives, keep students’ zone of proximal development, or ZPD, in mind. As a reminder, the ZPD is the sweet spot between what a student can do independently and what they can’t do independently just yet. The skills and content that lie within a student’s ZPD are ones they can access with teacher guidance and scaffolding.

I bring up ZPD here because regardless of what group they are in, all students need access to rich, engaging content designed with the end goal—accessing on-grade content—in mind. So, while some students may need to review or practice precursor skills, this is the starting point, not the end goal.

Unfortunately, grouping students has sometimes led to those in what are deemed lower groups being consistently subjected to less challenging, more skills-based content that is never connected to on-grade expectations. This can have a cumulative effect where students get further and further behind.

When designing your groups, learning objectives, and pathways, always keep the whole-group, on-grade content at the center of your planning:

• For students who need support to access on-grade content, what is the roadmap of scaffolds you will provide, gradually taper back on, and ultimately remove as students grow their knowledge? How will you know when students are ready to drop a piece of scaffolding?
• For students who can frequently, but not consistently, access on-grade content independently, what new models, contexts, problem types, or modes of instruction can you provide to help them move to full independence?
• For students who can consistently access on-grade content independently, what can you do to deepen and challenge their knowledge of this content? Remember that challenging content doesn’t always mean jumping to the next topic or grade.

Like the Transformative Ten, there are many scaffolding strategies that can be applied to multiple subjects and topics. Need more support on scaffolding? Check out our post on strategies for using scaffolding while still challenging students or this short module from the IRIS Center, which gives examples of different types of scaffolding.

3. Give kids some space

In “Maximum impact: 3 ways to make the most of supplemental content,” I highlighted some best practices for supplemental instruction. One of these practices is connecting supplemental learning to core content. I talked about the benefits of developing a web of connected concepts and skills, versus amassing a collection of isolated and unrelated facts. There is another research-backed benefit to connecting supplemental and core learning: doing so leverages the highly effective learning strategy of spaced retrieval practice.

To understand spaced retrieval practice, think back to your own experience as a student. If you are like me, your typical learning experience looked something like the following: Sit through a lesson on a topic. Practice that topic with a batch of similar exercises. Sit through a lesson on a new topic. Practice that with a batch of similar exercises. Rinse and repeat with a quiz every couple of lessons and a test at the end of the unit. (And how did you study for that test? Did you cram by reviewing all the information the night before? If you did, you are not alone.)

The problem is, research shows that although procedures like cramming may get you through your test, you likely won’t retain much of the information. To embed concepts into long-term memory, students need to practice retrieving it multiple times, ideally over a period of days or weeks.

When you connect supplemental content to your core work, you provide students with the opportunity to retrieve and apply what they have learned during whole-class work. There are a variety of ways in which students can practice retrieving knowledge during supplemental work:

• Before starting a small group lesson or whole-group supplemental instruction, have students do a “brain dump” of what they know about a current or recent topic. Students can do this individually and then compare their responses with one another. As students move through their supplemental learning, have them review their brain dump to look for connections and add new learning.
• After working on a supplemental activity, including independent work in an online program, have students pair up to share what they learned. Provide pairs with questions like those in “Putting it all together: Real examples of how to integrate supplemental content into your core work,” which prompt students to connect current work with past learning to build that interconnected web of ideas while simultaneously giving them practice retrieving previously learned content. Research suggests that retrieving information soon after engaging with it is more effective than repeated rereading, so build this or a similar activity into the last few minutes of your intervention block.
• As students progress through content, give short, ungraded quizzes. They are a fantastic way of helping kids practice recall. To make this even more effective, be sure to provide feedback that includes concepts students either forgot or didn’t remember correctly, as studies indicate quick feedback may increase learning. To get students used to this idea, compare quizzing with feedback to doing drills and being coached in sports. Although these quizzes can inform updates to groupings, goals, and assignments, don’t make changes too quickly. Students should be able to accurately retrieve information multiple times over a period of several days or weeks to demonstrate more than a short-term retention.
• Take advantage of mixed practice options offered by many online supplemental programs, like MAP® Accelerator. This combines both retrieval practice and something called interleaving. Interleaving is where the types of questions or problems are mixed up. So instead of practicing 20 addition word problems, interleaved practice could be composed of word problems that require different operations, formulas, or procedures to solve. This type of practice forces students to actively select the appropriate strategy based on the context. When selecting products, make sure they provide immediate, high-quality feedback to maximize effectiveness.

4. Leverage technology wisely

The wealth of educational technology available today represents a large toolbox teachers can choose from for differentiation and targeted supplemental instruction. Among other things, technology can support formative assessment, boost engagement, provide opportunities for targeted and mixed practice, give in-the-moment feedback, adapt to students in real time, offer new ways for students to demonstrate their understanding, and connect learning to the real world. Our Instructional Connections program connects MAP Growth data to over 40 popular supplemental instructional resources. These predetermined learning pathways can be an effective and time-saving way to differentiate while retaining the flexibility to adapt supplemental instruction based on ongoing formative assessment.

Grounding in the learning objective is critical to selecting the right tool or product for each student or group of students. Learning goals should drive the product choice, not the other way around. While educational technology offers great options for teachers and students, as pointed out in our Transformative Ten white paper, “Teachers must still ensure that students receive the right content given their learning needs, that the content is engaging, and that students stay on task.”

When integrating technology into supplemental learning, you should still ask the same questions as when choosing nontechnology resources:

• Does my formative data indicate that this is the right content and level for this student?
• Will this product, pathway, or activity provide the right level of scaffolding and challenge?
• How will this product, pathway, or activity support access to, provide varied practice for, or deepen understanding of on-grade content?

One strategy at a time

Being a teacher has always been challenging, and the pandemic truly put every educator’s mettle to the test. Despite all the challenges you face, we know you are a dedicated and resilient group who will do whatever you can to help your students grow and learn. We hope the Transformative Ten will go a long way in helping your students thrive and achieve.

Here are some additional links to help you learn more about our work and strategy 1.

• High Growth for All: This site provides an overview of the research behind the High Growth for All project and of each of the Transformative Ten strategies.
• “Jump-Start High Growth Instructional Strategies with MAP Growth”: This guide gives insight into how MAP Growth data can be used to inform and support the Transformative Ten instructional strategies.
• “The Transformative Ten: Instructional Strategies Learned from High-Growth Schools”: This white paper gives an in-depth look at the research behind the High Growth for All project. It also provides more information and specific examples of how the Transformative Ten strategies were implemented in SD81.
• “Transformative: An NWEA story of extraordinary growth”: This video gives an overview of the work Chase did with Schiller Park teachers, which led to the development of the Transformative Ten.
• “Provide supplemental learning time for targeted retrieval practice | Transformative Ten #1”: This short video shows how Schiller Park approaches supplemental learning time for all students.
• “So many to choose from! 3 tips for selecting high-quality, supplemental digital resources”: This first Learn. Grow. blog post in our supplemental approaches series gives tips for selecting high-quality resources based on your reason for using supplemental content. It also provides links to five resources that can help you evaluate supplemental offerings.
• “Maximum impact: 3 ways to make the most of supplemental content”: This second post in our supplemental approaches series discusses three strategies—connecting to core content, leveraging metacognition, and student pairings—to maximize supplemental instruction.
• “Putting it all together: Real examples of how to integrate supplemental content into your core work”: This final post in the supplemental approaches series gives concrete examples of best practices for incorporating supplemental content into math and reading classrooms.
• “7 ways to use ZPD and scaffolding to challenge and support students”: This post lists seven strategies that can be used to scaffold content in multiple subjects. It also provides specific examples of scaffolding in reading and math.
• Retrieval Practice: This comprehensive website includes background information, links to research, and strategies related to retrieval practice. It features two guides that provide overviews, describe the benefits to students, and give suggestions for how to implement retrieval practice and spaced retrieval practice in your classroom.

The post High growth for all kids: 4 guidelines for supplemental instruction appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Now that the 2023–24 school year is fully underway, our NWEA instructional coaching team recently gathered to reflect on the common barriers teachers are currently facing in their daily work with students. As lifelong educators, our personal and professional lives constantly involve talking with classroom teachers, whether it be in a formal coaching conversation or over a friendly weekend brunch. We inevitably hear a lot of stories of struggles and successes. Unfortunately, we are hearing many more struggle stories than ever before from teachers across the country.

In a recent survey conducted by Merrimack College, a vast majority of K–12 teachers reported extreme rates of dissatisfaction, exhaustion, and disillusionment with their jobs. These results highlighted that teacher satisfaction has taken a dramatic downturn in the last 15 years, with only 12% reporting feeling “very satisfied” with their job.

While there is no one right answer to transforming burnout and dissatisfaction into a resilient and efficacious teaching force, research shows that high-quality instructional coaching is a big piece of the puzzle. It can lead to higher retention, improved resilience and job satisfaction, and enhanced instructional knowledge.

1. Higher retention

Not only do districts report a high fiscal cost of replacing a teacher, but school communities also experience a sense of loss in instructional knowledge, routines, traditions, and student relationships when teachers resign. Schools have managed the transitions of naturally occurring teacher attrition, such as retirement and relocation, for decades, but now schools across the nation are scrambling to fill teaching roles, often with inexperienced teachers who need a higher level of support. A recent report by the Learning Policy Institute shows that 47 states had an estimated 286,290 teachers who were not fully certified for their teaching assignments.

Retaining teachers requires providing the opportunity for educators at all levels to work with an experienced instructional coach to get immediate feedback within their own classrooms about how they teach their students. Some of the biggest factors teachers report as barriers in their day-to-day work include professional isolation, lack of autonomy, lack of support from administration, and stress among students. Working with a coach can address all these problem areas and enhance a sense of control and competency.

For instance, when a teacher is overwhelmed with new curriculum and initiatives and is struggling to decide what their students need most, a coach can help select a focus. The coach acts as a collaborative partner. Our instructional coaching team believes that teachers often just need someone to really listen and ask good questions. Together, teacher and coach can come up with a plan of action that will work.

2. Improved resilience and job satisfaction

For experienced teachers who have no doubt exerted an extensive effort in the last several years, instructional coaches serve as silent observers, thinkers, and reflective thought partners that support teachers in rediscovering the “master teacher” Thomas Guskey speaks of in themselves.  Simultaneously, teachers who are newer to the field need an instructional and professional guide amidst the frenzy of adapting to new initiatives, assessments, and more so they can find clarity and their personal identity in their classrooms.

When it comes to efficacy, a teacher’s belief that they will be able to positively affect their students is a critical indicator of teacher success, but it can be extremely challenging to reflect on and identify successes when the pace and demands of teaching can feel so overwhelming. An instructional coach can provide critical space and time for teachers to collect evidence of affirmations and recognition from their students, as well as to connect the high-leverage practices that lead to those successes. In our experience as coaches, teacher testimonials reflect reduced anxiety and frustration, as well as an increased sense of motivation and clarity, all leading to a greater sense of resilience and satisfaction in their day-to-day work with students.

3. Enhanced instructional knowledge

As coaches, how do we ensure that teachers are, in fact, having enough mastery experiences to shift their efficacy? First off, experienced instructional coaches can provide professional learning experiences grounded in solid research that is not swayed by trends. Instructional coaching also provides the space for cultivating and enhancing teachers’ sense of efficacy, growth mindset, and agency through exercises in self-reflection and honest feedback.

Coaches can also help provide teachers with vicarious experiences to see an instructional strategy in action, such as modeling with students or facilitating peer observations between colleagues and peers. Teacher self-efficacy has the potential to considerably accelerate learning, and working alongside a skilled coach can provide teachers with a newfound sense of confidence and self-perception that can positively influence their future beliefs and actions.

In conclusion

Quality instructional coaching plays a vital role in positively impacting teacher efficacy. The challenges faced by teachers today, as evidenced by widespread dissatisfaction and burnout, require effective solutions that go beyond traditional approaches.

With high-quality instructional coaching, teacher retention improves as they receive immediate feedback and support tailored to their needs. Coaches also enhance teachers’ resilience and job satisfaction by serving as reflective thought partners and guides. Moreover, coaches help teachers expand their instructional knowledge by offering professional learning grounded in research and facilitating experiences that bolster confidence and self-perception.

By investing in quality instructional coaching, schools and districts can foster a resilient and empowered teaching force, leading to improved student outcomes and a more fulfilling educational experience for all.

NWEA instructional coaches Sephali Thakker, Kelly Cardenas, Jenna Talos, and Trina Barton contributed to this post.

The post 3 ways quality instructional coaching impacts teacher efficacy  appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Have you ever read a book and felt like the author wrote it just for you? A book that was so profound that you felt changed by the experience? Now imagine you’d never read that book. Or couldn’t. Or that you read the book but didn’t understand it. How would you feel? That is the power of reading. It can change you for the better. It can immerse you in a different world. It can make you feel seen. But it can also completely strip away your confidence and make you feel powerless. There is more we can do to help young readers experience the best of what books have to offer them.

Being able to read is a skill everyone deserves to learn. But according to a report by the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, about 54% of adults in the United States read below a sixth-grade level. That same report explains that adults with lower literacy rates tend to earn less, which can affect the quality of life for them and their families.

We need to do better at teaching kids to read, so we can raise literacy rates and increase the variety of professional opportunities available to our students when they graduate. Two ways we can help students are empowerment and building knowledge.

3 ways to empower young readers

Empowerment is motivating. Kids who are empowered are more likely to enjoy reading and to become lifelong readers. Here are three ideas for you to consider:

1. Follow reading science

The science of reading has outlined what matters in teaching students to read and comprehend. High-quality instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics and word recognition, fluency, vocabulary and oral language comprehension, and text comprehension is crucial for helping all students learn to read.

It is also important to remember that reading isn’t a bunch of disparate skills that kids learn in isolation. Yes, students need to learn how to decode, but equally important is their volume of reading, the access they have to complex texts, and the opportunities they are given to build knowledge (more on all of that later).

2. Offer windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors

Rudine Sims Bishop is widely credited with introducing the concept of windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors.

Books that are windows show a reader a world that is different from their own. Sometimes those books can also be sliding glass doors, where the reader can imagine themselves as a part of the world they are reading about. Books that are mirrors show readers a world that reflects their own lived experiences back at them.

Why is all of this important? Seeing a world larger than our own can help us develop both emotional intelligence and empathy. Students who see themselves in what they read feel valued and that their experiences matter. This, in turn, can lead to them feeling empowered and, hopefully, motivated to read more.

Think about your class and the materials you select for them. How do you expose them to worlds different from their own? What are the things you look for that acknowledge your students’ lived experiences?

3. Elevate multilingual learners

As my colleague Teresa Krastel wrote, teachers must capitalize on multilingual learners’ superpowers, including funds of knowledge from their homes and home cultures. Even if a student is developing literacy in English, we must remember to honor and use the language knowledge these students already have. This can help them learn to read in English. It can also help them make sense of what they read because they have more of the context they need to understand.

Just as with mirrors, students who feel as though their home language and funds of knowledge are valued will almost certainly feel more empowered and motivated as young readers. Are there ways you could learn more about the multilingual learners in your classroom?

How to build knowledge

We all bring background knowledge to what we read. It serves as context that helps us understand texts. Read these two sentences, and I’ll show you how:

• Superconductivity is the flow of an electrical current through a material without transferring thermal energy out of the material, and it typically requires extremely low temperatures.
• The Harlem Renaissance was an important period of cultural and intellectual expression in Black history between World War I and the mid-1930s.

Was one of the sentences easier for you to understand? If you have knowledge of engineering or science, then the first sentence was probably easier. If you have knowledge of Black history, then the second sentence probably was. Or, if you are super lucky, you know a lot about superconductivity and you know a lot about Black history, so you had an easy time understanding both sentences.

If one or both of the sentences felt overwhelming to you, it was likely because you don’t have enough background knowledge to help you as you read about those topics. The sentences don’t provide enough context to help you understand. This is just an example of how the more we know about a topic, the easier it is to understand what we read. And the more we read on a topic that’s already familiar to us, the more new knowledge we can gain. Knowledge begets more knowledge for adults and young readers alike.

As a teacher, you can leverage the knowledge your students already have and build upon it. This can help your young readers make connections and comprehend what they read. But it’s also important to understand that not all your students will have the same amount of knowledge on any one topic. That’s where building knowledge comes in. Here are four things to try:

1. Give students plenty of time for independent reading

Independent reading directly contributes to the volume of reading students do. This is so important for building stamina, which helps improve reading skills overall, and it also builds knowledge.

Scaffolded silent reading, or ScSR, is independent reading with support from you, the teacher. It might sound counterintuitive at first. How can you help your young readers build knowledge if they are reading independently? By helping them choose appropriate texts!

When you help students choose appropriate texts and provide scaffolding, you help them read grade-level texts at a variety of complexity levels. (Remember: It’s always important to provide students access to grade-level texts.) I encourage you to also have regular check-ins with students to monitor comprehension and hold them accountable for their reading time. One way you can do this is to use reading response journal prompts for younger students and dialectical journals for older students.

Another way to make good use of independent reading time is literature circles, where groups of students read and discuss the same book. Help your young readers choose the books and groups. Ensure students are assigned roles (a circle role sheet can help) and that discussions are guided and focused.

2. Read aloud

Building knowledge begins even before students can read independently. Teachers of younger students build knowledge all the time by reading aloud.

The same kinds of scaffolding you would provide to independent readers can be used with read-alouds, such as asking questions and having students respond in writing (or drawing, for younger kids).

3. Support reading in the disciplines and digital literacy

Reading complex texts with rich vocabulary builds knowledge. Complex texts are especially important for building knowledge in different disciplines, like science and social studies. They also help older readers develop the skills necessary to approach and gain knowledge from texts in different disciplines. This is referred to as disciplinary literacy.

Digital literacy is also essential for accessing and building knowledge in the disciplines. Reading should not just happen in print, and students need guidance for navigating the digital world that is literally at their fingertips. My colleague Laura Hansen shares some tips in “3 ways to improve students’ digital literacy skills.” 

While both disciplinary and digital literacy are more relevant for older students, it’s never too early to begin introducing the concepts to younger readers.

4. Help students connect the dots

Activating background knowledge is an important start to building new knowledge. But it is not necessarily an intuitive skill. Students need to be taught how to connect what they already know to the new knowledge in the texts they read. Students need lots of practice doing this with all kinds of texts.

Build activities that facilitate asking your young readers what they already know about a topic an assigned text covers. Point out the ways the text helps them learn something new.

Don’t forget about multilingual learners, who benefit from knowledge-building just as much as native English speakers do. Comprehension is stronger when students can activate the knowledge they already have about a text, regardless of language. Encourage and facilitate translanguaging to help multilingual students make meaning.

A love of reading

Empowerment and building knowledge are essential for improving reading. But they are also crucial for building young readers’ confidence. Our job as educators is to give students the tools they need to become strong readers. This can lead to better outcomes once they reach adulthood.

The post How to build confidence in young readers appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

When I was a school administrator, I thought a lot about family engagement. How could I get more parents and guardians to feel connected to our school and interested in getting involved? How could I get my staff to connect to families?

Before you make any changes to how you approach and foster family engagement as principal, I encourage you to think about what your school is already doing. Knowing where you’re starting from will give you a better idea of where to go next.

Know what kind of school you lead

Think about your school and how it partners with families. How welcoming is it? Are there areas for improvement? Are there things that are working well? I find it can be helpful to read the following statements and decide which describe your school best:

• Family engagement is not the responsibility of teachers.
• We rely on a small group of parents to serve on committees.
• Families can visit only on designated days or times.
• Family activities are planned without family input.
• We have an open-door policy, and families are welcome to visit at any time.
• We hold different events for families throughout the school year.
• Families are involved in making school improvement decisions.
• Staff intentionally work to develop relationships with families.

If you chose A or B, you may be a Fortress School and family engagement is likely a low priority. If you chose C or D, you may be a Come-If-We-Call School: you set expectations for how your school and families can engage. If you chose E or F, you may be an Open-Door School that makes targeted efforts to engage families, and you also support families in advancing student learning. If you chose G or H, you may be a Partnership School and see family engagement as a top priority. You believe families are true partners in student learning and that they are valued contributors.

A framework that makes family engagement easier

Over the last two years, in my role supporting our professional learning teams, I have been part of an internal team dedicated to providing technical assistance to a district as part of a grant through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant is helping us support the district as they mitigate learning loss for students brought on by the challenges of learning during COVID-19 school closures. Our collaboration has focused on creating resources to support and increase family engagement and is based on the work of Karen Mapp and the Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family–School Partnerships.

In Partners in Education: A Dual Capacity-Building Frameworks for Family–School Partnerships, Mapp and Paul Kuttner explain that there are six process conditions “that are important to the success of capacity-building interventions.” They go on to say that “Process conditions are key to the design of effective initiatives for building the capacity of families and school staff to partner in ways that support student achievement and school improvement.”

The six process conditions listed on the Dual Capacity website call for all family engagement initiatives to be:

1. Relational: Built on mutual trust
2. Linked to learning and development
3. Asset-based
4. Culturally responsive and respectful
5. Collaborative
6. Interactive

Let’s take a closer look at each one.

What it means to be relational

Supporting a relational approach built on mutual trust is the first process condition listed in the Dual-Capacity Framework, and this isn’t by accident. Mapp is well-known for saying that relational trust is the factor that enables all the other conditions to be possible.

How can you work toward being more relational and building trust? Too often, the first contact between families and a schoool are not positive. Many times, these initial interactions are about tasks that need to be completed to register a child for school, requests for school supplies, and the like. This can be off-putting for families, especially those with children just starting school.

I encourage you to aim for proactive communication that seeks to build trust and supports ongoing communication. One way to do this is to organize informal visits with families before the school year even begins or to commit to early positive phone calls focused on learning about them and their student.

Linking family engagement to learning and development

The second process condition in the framework calls on us to connect family engagement and learning and development. This supports student achievement, especially when we help families and students develop knowledge and skills.

One way to empower families is by sharing learning strategies. Support your teachers in creating online resources that help parents and guardians teach their kids strategies for solving math problems or improving reading at home. Let families know about our e-books made just for them: How to support writing at home: A guide for families and How to support reading at home: A guide for families.

Here’s another idea: share conversation prompts in your weekly email to families to support them in talking to their students about homework and home learning activities.

Family engagement that is asset-based

The third process condition is asset-based. This condition recognizes that families have strengths, skills, and resources that support students’ learning and school improvement. It encourages parents and guardians to both recognize and also leverage those.

Consider inviting family members to visit their child’s classroom and share a story about their lived experience. A family member can speak to a class about how they use math in their work at a hospital, for example. Or a family member from another country can describe their journey to the United States for a history class, or they can talk about their customs from their country of origin during a unit related to traditions.

Being culturally responsive and respectful

The Dual Capacity-Building Framework also calls on us to be culturally responsive and respectful. That is the fourth process condition, and it focuses on the family and cultural knowledge of all families in the learning process. It includes all of a family’s values, cultures, languages, and heritages. This process condition doesn’t ask us to invite families to share their backgrounds with us, as the previous condition does. Instead, it asks us to recognize that not all families are alike and to respond positively to these differences.

Families engage with schools in different ways, for example, and this can be partly due to their culture. Just because a family does not visit your building or participate in school-sponsored activities doesn’t mean they are not interested in their child’s education or that they dismiss the importance of education. For some, mispronouncing names can also lead to disengagement or discomfort because they see a teacher or school leader as an authority figure and are less willing to correct them.

Schools should identify and recognize different types of engagement to appeal to all families. Here are just a few ideas for how you could go about this:

• Provide families with a range of communication channels, from email and social media to phone calls and more
• Give families opportunities to talk to you and teachers in their preferred language
• Show interest in learning how to pronounce and spell names, and support your teachers in doing the same

Fostering collaboration

In many schools, collaboration between schools and families can be limited. The fifth process condition in the framework asks us to be collaborative. The collaborative process condition is strengthened when educators, families, and communities have positive community-building experiences together.

When planning for these events, bring educators, families, and community members together so everyone can take part in making them a reality. Consider reaching out to families in different ways when asking them to participate: your weekly email to families and a social media post and a text message and a flyer sent home with students.

Include kids in the preparation of school events, too. Consider having a competition to create that event flyer. Encourage current students to invite their families to attend, and reach out to former students as well. It may be fun for middle schoolers to attend the end-of-the-year carnival at their old elementary school, for example.

If any of your staff members have cultural ties to different communities, ask them to spread the word about an event.

Making initiatives interactive

The sixth process condition in the framework calls on us to find ways to make family engagement efforts interactive. Interactive family–school partnerships engage educators, families, and community members in opportunities to learn together. While traditional family engagement initiatives usually consist of schools disseminating information to families, interactive methods provide for two-way communication and collaboration.

Think about a traditional open house, where families come to your building, meet their child’s teacher, and are told about things like rules and curriculum. The communication is very one-way, and kids usually stay home with a sitter. Are there opportunities to invite children to join their adults? Just seeing their child excited to lead them to their desk or point out the gym and library can help parents and guardians feel more engaged. If kid-free is better, try this: Ask your teachers to invite parents and guardians to leave a note on their child’s desk or in their locker.

Consider getting creative about sharing curriculum information as well. What about hosting a family math night with games and activity stations later in the fall? Families and students can solve math problems together. The teacher can then explain how the math stations are aligned to the curriculum and standards.

A little goes a long way

Family engagement can feel like a lot to add to your already full plate. I encourage you to keep your goals realistic. Ask yourself, what is one thing I can do differently this week that can help my students’ families feel like a bigger part of our school community? Simply deciding that you’d like to try a family math night counts. Next week, you can take a second action that will help make it happen.

If you’d like to learn more, I encourage you to spend some time on dualcapacity.org and the family engagement pageon Edutopia. If you test with MAP® Growth, the following can help you improve family engagement around assessment:

• “Sharing assessment data with parents just got simpler”
• “10 ways for teachers and parents to communicate better about assessments”
• “Leading up to MAP Growth: 20 tips for families”
• “12 common questions parents ask about MAP Growth”
• Family toolkit: Resources for parents

The post 6 things principals can focus on to improve family engagement  appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

As a math teacher, I had some lightbulb moments when I watched the recent NWEA webinar “Supercharge math confidence (for teachers and students) with MAP Accelerator.” And I’ll admit it, as a MAP Accelerator fan, I didn’t expect to learn anything new.

Is that too honest? Well, blame Nick Joe’s webinar invitation: “I want to challenge you to answer honestly instead of answering correctly.” He spoke the truth when he said that educators often know the right answer, but we are seldom invited to share the honest one. The honest one, it turns out, is that our math learners need support and we, as educators, desperately want to give it to them.

As a professional learning consultant, Nick makes sure NWEA professional learning emulates good teaching: it listens more than it talks, it adjusts the curriculum based on learner feedback, and it offers differentiated approaches. He’s also a veteran math teacher whose fandom over MAP Accelerator rivals only my own. So while I watched the webinar, I remained impressed with MAP Accelerator, but I didn’t expect to have quite as many professional learning aha moments as I did. Before I share them, let me recap why I love MAP Accelerator.

What makes MAP Accelerator great

Math teachers deserve a tool that offers focused math support to their students. And that’s exactly what MAP Accelerator does. Here’s what else I love about it:

• It’s personalized and efficient. MAP Accelerator takes a student’s MAP Growth scores and sets kids on a personalized learning pathway, powered by Khan Academy math activities, to level up their skillsets. Our research shows that just 30 minutes of active learning time a week leads to big gains in math for students.
• It’s engaging and easy to use. With MAP Accelerator, teachers are no longer alone in engaging 35+ students with different needs. Instead, kids in grades 3–8 are automatically more engaged because the learning activities they see are exactly what they need. At the same time, we teachers get back time to plan grade-level instruction.
• Algebra and geometry are included. Algebra I and geometry content is supported by MAP Accelerator.
• It puts MAP Growth data to work. The truth is, learning to use MAP Growth data is a skill many teachers know they need, yet a lot of us feel daunted by just the thought of it. MAP Accelerator easily pulls MAP Growth scores for you and uses them to adjust students’ individualized pathways. Boom. Your MAP Growth data is now working for you.

Knowing how to use assessment data can be challenging

Let’s hang out with the truth from that last bullet a minute: learning to use MAP Growth data is daunting. We all know assessment is essential, yet teachers also know that time spent assessing is time away from learning. Why sacrifice that time if we can’t use that data?

Nick invited participants to share honestly about this challenge during the webinar, and participants did just that. “I certainly think this is where my school struggles,” one said. “Most teachers keep chugging along,” another added. “Our teachers struggle with how to do this,” someone confessed.

Then someone said we are “working toward it.” I wanted to shout, “Yes, you are!” Nick spoke to my teacher soul when he explained the ways NWEA is supporting educators in their journey toward becoming not only better at data—but better all around.

Professional learning can help

It was at this point in the webinar that I started having my lightbulb moments about what professional learning should be (and, spoiler alert: can be).

• Professional learning should be tailor-made. Teachers and administrators. Veterans and first-years. MAP newbies and MAP wizards. We all have different needs. I love how our MAP Accelerator professional learning offerings have different pathways for teachers and leaders. If our students deserve differentiated instruction, we do, too!

• Professional learning should be holistic. We math teachers absolutely want to learn how to understand and implement our data. We also want to learn how to be better math teachers. I felt like Nick was reading my teacher diary when he said that sometimes, we just need to be students and truly demystify division with fractions. Not only can NWEA support your MAP Growth and MAP Accelerator journey, but our math-focused professional learning is designed to support educators at the content level.
• Professional learning should be honest. It should be led by folks who are there not to provide the right answers, but the honest ones. As our partners in education, you show up with honesty. I’m proud to say that we do, too.

Learn more

For more from Nick about being the best math teacher you can be, check out our podcast. I interviewed Nick for a summer episode of The Continuing Educator, and we had an incredible conversation about improvisation, divesting your teacher ego, and the ways we can use comedy in the classroom to help kids learn.

To watch “Supercharge math confidence (for teachers and students) with MAP Accelerator” in its entirety, head to our website. Eager to ask your administrator to bring an NWEA professional learning workshop to your school? Send them a link to our professional learning info page.

The post MAP Accelerator and professional learning workshops are here to support math teachers appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

If you’re a teacher who’s looking for new ways to keep your students focused and on task, there’s one technique (a bit unorthodox, perhaps, but guaranteed to get their attention) you might want to try: inviting them to a friendly game of soccer! At least, that’s what’s worked for former sixth-grade teacher, current NWEA instructional coaching coordinator, and recent guest on The Continuing Educator podcast, Lindsay Deacon.

As an experienced soccer player and coach, Lindsay relished the opportunity to join her students on the pitch, where they could take part in some healthy competition together and blow off a little steam. Lindsay found that after some great exercise, friendly rivalry, and the chance to see their teacher in a different light, her students would return to the classroom refreshed and ready to re-engage with their work.

Along with first-grade teacher Amanda Kamm, Lindsay shared her experience on “Fuzzy feelings and wardrobe malfunctions,” a recent episode of our podcast. Co-hosts Jacob Bruno, executive vice president of Learning & Improvement Services at NWEA, and middle school math teacher Kailey Rhodes chimed in with their own ideas about inclusion and focus as integral parts of the learning process. The four educators had a lively discussion about ways to make learning fun, help kids engage, and generate the “fuzzy feelings” that teachers love.

Inclusion: It’s the little things

Kailey observed that as kids grow up, they develop a keener sense of justice about how they want themselves and their peers to be treated—but at the same time, they’re still kids, they’re still sensitive, and they still crave approval. Kailey sees this stage (middle school specifically) as an opportunity to foster a more nuanced understanding of what inclusion means and how it looks in action. And that includes taking a more nuanced look at bullying.

Bullying is more subtle than how it’s depicted in public service announcements, Kailey says. “It can be something as low-key as not making eye contact with one student when you’re talking in a group. That’s why talking about inclusion is so important. Bullying can be a lowercase ‘b.’”

For Amanda, inclusion in the classroom often means simply knowing each other. “We talk about how a lot of our problems start with miscommunications and misunderstandings because we don’t know each other and our different ways of being,” she says. “One student might like to play fast and hard, while another plays quietly and carefully. When we don’t understand those differences, we tend to feel conflict.”

Jacob recalled his time teaching at a large, inner-city high school where many of the kids didn’t know each other’s names. “I had one rule: respect,” he says. “Know each other’s names and build community. We did ‘Onions and Roses,’ where kids could share what made them sad or happy. They didn’t have to share, but we made time for it so they could hear about each other’s lives, and I modeled that. It [wasn’t] a panacea or perfect solution, but it really made a difference in terms of kids looking out for each other.”

Tips for boosting focus and engagement

When the conversation turned to how to help students focus and engage with their work, Jacob joked that The Continuing Educator was starting to sound like an ad for 3M. That’s because all four educators reported leaning heavily on Post-Its as an essential classroom tool in a variety of ways.

For Kailey, Post-Its are invaluable for facilitating dialogue with students about their performance on tests or assignments. “I’ll give kids a pink, a blue, and a lime green and use them on completed tests to ask them: What are you really proud of? What do you wish you’d studied more? What do you have more questions about?”

Lindsay, too, used Post-Its to communicate with students—and even to task them with special responsibilities when she knew a substitute teacher would be filling in for her. “The night before, I would think about all the kids who could help manage things. I would write on the notes, ‘Hey, Darcy, thanks for being a great student. Can you be in charge of the mailboxes tomorrow?’ The sub’s notes would show that this worked. Delegating is good.”

Other ideas the group shared for promoting greater focus include:

• Healthy ways to fidget and meet sensory needs. Bring Play-Doh, Velcro, and other tactile objects into the learning environment to give busy hands something to do while busy minds are learning.
• Mixing up the routine. Instead of having kids do the same thing every day, assemble teams with different roles and purposes to do something engaging. “Kids need to be engaged in novel experiences that they understand are pushing them forward,” Jacob explains.
• Manipulatives. Whether it’s place value tents or play money, try using various fun, physical tools to keep students engaged and actively learning.

Fuzzy (and funny) feelings

In addition to sharing some philosophies and strategies for bringing more engagement, inclusion, and focus to the classroom, the group also reflected on a handful of feel-good moments—the kind that tend to stick with you. For example:

• A student once told Lindsay she was “the most organized teacher” they ever knew, while another student praised her for being a “great storyteller.”
• Amanda fondly remembers the student who gave her a note that said, “I love you. You make everyone feel included,” complete with a drawing of stick figures hugging each other.
• Kailey has enjoyed casually blowing her students’ minds by sharing some well-chosen personal details about her life. “I’ll tell my kids I went to a movie,” she says, “and they’ll be shocked. ‘You go to movies?!’”

And that wardrobe malfunction mentioned in the title of the podcast episode? That’s from an unforgettable anecdote shared by Lindsay, who showed up to her eighth-grade classroom during her first year of teaching in a nice new pair of jeans, only to have them split along the seam when she kneeled down. Luckily, she had a backup pair of pants in her gym bag, and she performed a quick wardrobe change when the students were busy with a task.

Embarrassing, perhaps, but also funny—and humanizing. “When you’re a new teacher,” Lindsay says, “everything matters so much more.”

Hear more on The Continuing Educator

Want to hear the whole conversation? Listen to the podcast episode, and see what kinds of ideas it sparks about how to bring more inclusion, focus—and, yes, fuzzy feelings—to your classroom.

The post From <em>The Continuing Educator</em>: How to bring inclusion, focus, and fuzzy feelings to your classroom appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Teachers rely on a myriad of classroom products to support teaching and learning. The goal of using them is to improve student achievement. In my book, The Equity Expression: Six Entry Points for Nonnegotiable Academic Success, I explore the ways educators can keep equity at the forefront of their work. This includes when selecting and using products in the classroom.

I believe classroom products should do three things:

1. Help students learn
2. Show you how students learn
3. Give you information about what students know that helps you with lesson planning

Are your products serving you—and your students—well?

Take a few moments to list all the products you’re using this school year. Your list can include curricula, textbooks, novels, manipulative tools, software, assessments, electronic devices, and more. How many items are on your list?

The average teacher relies on six products to support students’ learning. The more products you have, the more overwhelming it can feel to incorporate them equitably, especially when you want to make the products relevant for every student. Sometimes a lack of purpose and intent with products will leave you data-rich and information-poor.

Have any of these statements ever resonated with you?

• I have too many products and supplemental tools.
• I have a lot of products, but I don’t know how to prioritize using them.
• Even though I strive to use products in a way that best supports students, I don’t know if I’m missing something.

How to evaluate a classroom product

The key to success with the products you use is to have a strong purpose and clear intention. Use the questions below to help you establish your purpose and intent for each product you’ll use with learners this year:

• What does this product reveal about student learning?
• How do I set learning goals with students as they use this product?
• What kind of information does this product give me about my students?
• How intellectually engaging is this product?

The last question is critical, especially because one way we enact equity is by ensuring that all students have access to high-quality, intellectually challenging, appropriate products to support their learning. Low-quality and intellectually mismatched products convey the message that learners aren’t capable of more.

Our young people are adept at knowing if products are student-centered and appropriately challenging to them. We should aim for products that empower every learner, meet students where they are, and guide them toward higher academic standards.

You can further assess your classroom products through a lens of CARING:

• Connection: In what ways does the product support me in connecting students’ home and school experiences?
• Accessibility: Is the product accessible to all learners? Is it age and grade-level appropriate?
• Representation: Do my learners see themselves in the product?
• Instruction: How might I adjust my teaching and learning to complement any references in the product, particularly cultural connections?
• Narrative: What is the dominant narrative or norm implied in this product? Is this product designed from a dominant cultural perspective that assesses for privilege or language, rather than content?
• Growth: What are my students being asked to learn? How do they show what they know? How does a learner know if they’re successful with the product? How does the product help learners grow?

Learn more

In my book, The Equity Expression: Six Entry Points for Nonnegotiable Academic Success, I explore the ways educators can keep equity at the forefront of their work. The chapter focused on products can help you further understand why products need to reflect the ideas and experiences that learners will recognize.

The post How to evaluate classroom products appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

I first became interested in assessment because I believed in what it could do. I believed it could help educators, administrators, and policymakers better design and target instruction, which can result in better learning experiences for students. But I also know that any assessment requires time and energy that could be devoted to something else.

When I was a teacher, I was always aware of the fact that the time I spent grading could have been devoted to lesson planning. The time my students spent taking a quiz could have been devoted to one of my endlessly engaging activities.

The perpetual balancing act of teaching and assessing led me to a golden rule: all assessment needs to pay for itself by increasing student learning. If I gave a one-hour quiz, I decided, I needed to then use that data to make students’ learning time at least one hour better. Most often this took the form of using the assessment results to identify content that needed more attention and moving past skills over which they had demonstrated mastery. In either case, I wanted to be sure my students were learning more or were being more appropriately challenged because of an assessment. As educators, we owe it to our students to squeeze 100% of the possible benefit out of the assessment data we get.

Guidance for using MAP Growth data

For the last 15 years, I’ve worked to help schools get the maximum benefit out of their assessments. A classroom vocabulary quiz and a college readiness exam, to name just two examples, have no value unless they can inform an educator’s lesson planning and help make students’ learning experience better.

When I came to NWEA, one of the first things I wanted to do was develop guidelines for how, when, and where MAP® Growth data could contribute to advanced learning placement decisions. Who should be placed in a gifted and talented service? Who is ready for Algebra 1 in seventh grade? Which students would benefit from starting kindergarten early? These are all questions that MAP Growth data can help answer and for which we at NWEA have developed some guidelines to help support partner schools and districts.

Placement decisions for any kind of selective program are always challenging and controversial. Inevitably, some students will be missed, the process often requires a lot of time and energy, and increasingly, there are concerns about equity and fairness. We developed our new guidance document with four criteria in mind: cost, alignment, sensitivity, and access.

• Cost: Use no more resources (i.e., time and/or money) than necessary
• Alignment: Be aligned in content, domain, and level with the services into which students will be placed
• Sensitivity: Correctly catch students who would benefit from the service
• Access: Remove any implicit or explicit barriers that are unrelated to need for or success in the service

In sum, effective placement criteria should catch all the students who would benefit from a particular opportunity, avoid considering factors that are irrelevant to readiness or success, and do so all while balancing cost with sensitivity.

MAP Growth can be used for both phases of program placement identification

Program placement decisions, like gifted and talented student identification, often proceed in two phases. In the first phase, all students are screened, and those who meet some predetermined criteria are given further consideration at phase two. In phase two, multiple data points are collected to make decisions about program placement. MAP Growth can play a role in both phases.

MAP Growth as a universal screener

MAP Growth can work great as a phase one universal screener because it’s most often already administered to all students. Performance on MAP Growth is also often strongly correlated with performance on the actual identification criteria, which are part of phase two.

Consider a case where a school wants to use three data points at phase two to make gifted and talented identification decisions: ability test scores, MAP Growth scores, and some form of teacher rating or recommendation.

The district could collect all three data points from all students in a grade and then use that data to make placement decisions. That would provide the greatest access and sensitivity, but it would also come at an extremely high cost of time and money. Instead, schools could collect the ability and teacher rating scale data only for students who perform at a certain level on MAP Growth. (How to determine the specific level and on which MAP Growth test is a topic I address in the full guidance document.) A well-designed system like this can provide students with universal access and achieve the same system sensitivity and alignment at far less cost than collecting all data from all students.

What’s more is that most schools don’t start from a place of collecting the three data points from all students. More often, some or all data is only collected from students who are referred or nominated by a teacher or parent. This is problematic for access, sensitivity, and alignment. The students who are referred will not necessarily be the same ones who will do well at phase two and go on to do well in the program. They will also likely not represent the diversity of the overall student population, as shown by various studies (see the 2016 article by Jason Grissom and Christopher Redding, the 2010 article by Del Siegle et al., and the 2006 article by Matthew McBee). By using MAP Growth as a universal screener in place of a subjective referral at phase one, schools can provide greater access, achieve higher sensitivity and alignment, and even reduce costs, since there is no need to solicit or collect time-consuming referrals. As outlined in greater detail in the full document, phase one is really where MAP Growth can shine, especially when it comes to decreasing costs and removing the influence of implicit bias (documented by the researchers I mentioned above) that can be a barrier for access.

MAP Growth as one of multiple data points

The other place where MAP Growth can play a role is as one of multiple data points at phase two of making placement decisions. At this phase of the process, the goal is to measure the skills, abilities, and dispositions that are necessary for success in a program. Put another way, we want phase two to tell us which students are ready for and would benefit from something different, such as seventh-grade Algebra 1.

In some cases, MAP Growth measures the essential skills needed for success. For example, the MAP Growth 6+ math test includes a wide range of questions aligned to expressions and algebraic thinking and functions to model relationships (e.g., Common Core standard HSA.CD.A.1: “Create equations and inequalities in one variable and use them to solve problems”). If a school decides that these skills and other similar content measured by MAP Growth’s 6+ math test are a relevant predictor of which students might benefit from early algebra, then including MAP Growth scores at phase two makes sense.

Could a school develop its own assessment to measure these same skills and for the same purpose? Absolutely, and I have seen schools do this successfully. But it will take more student time to take these assessments and more teacher time to score them, plus such an approach inserts more opportunities for assessment error and bias, which harms sensitivity. If MAP Growth scores can provide similar information, the result is a less-costly process for everyone involved.

It’s not always easy to know which data points to use when making placement decisions or how high on those data points students need to score. Should students be able to read at an advanced level to take ninth-grade biology in eighth grade? Do students need to outscore an end-of-year first-grader in math and reading before they can be considered for early entrance to kindergarten? The answer to these types of questions should always come down to the concept of alignment. What does a student need to have scored, demonstrated, or mastered to be successful? If a student must be able to read “on grade level” for a ninth-grader to benefit from high school biology, then that should be a criterion for placement and included at phase two. (Note that the essential question should be, do we prevent ninth-graders from taking biology if they’re not reading at grade level? If not, why would we restrict an eighth-grader on that basis?) MAP Growth and NWEA linking studies can be especially useful here if the goal is knowing how a student’s current level of achievement compares to other students’ in higher grades.

Get the most from MAP Growth

We at NWEA want you to get as much benefit out of MAP Growth as possible. Finding ways to use MAP Growth to make advanced learning placement decisions is a perfect example. Check out the full guidance document and watch our webinar to learn more.

The post MAP Growth can lower the cost and increase the accuracy of gifted and talented placements appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

According to the latest NWEA data, students last spring were, on average, 4.1 months behind pre-pandemic achievement levels in reading and 4.5 months behind in math. Students in middle school grades, students attending high-poverty schools, and students of color were the furthest behind, especially in math. These are big gaps, and they represent a daunting challenge: How, exactly, are schools supposed to help students get back on track? Which academic interventions will work best?

Recent research out of NWEA explores what teachers can do to support students. Our collaboration with researchers outside of our organization has also helped us develop recommendations for policymakers. They are presented in our new brief with EdResearch for Action, a project of the Annenberg Institute at Brown University and Results for America.

The brief highlights research-based academic interventions and digs into research to highlight the most promising interventions policymakers can support for accelerating student learning in math and reading. We focus on three interventions with the strongest research base—tutoring, summer school, and double-doses of math instruction—before discussing ways schools can create the conditions for academic acceleration practices to succeed. What follows is a short summary of our findings.

1. Tutoring

High-impact tutoring is widely considered to be one of the most effective ways to help students quickly make up lost academic ground. A review of almost 200 rigorous studies found that high-impact tutoring—defined as tutoring delivered two to three times per week for at least 30 minutes per session with four or fewer students in a group—is one of the few school-based interventions with large positive effects on both math and reading achievement.

The research on tutoring suggests that effective programs tend to include the following design principles: tutoring is conducted during the school day as opposed to outside of school, students have three or more sessions per week, and tutoring is led by skilled tutors, conducted in small groups of up to four students, and is aligned to the classroom curriculum.

However, not all high-impact tutoring programs are effective. Challenges with staffing, scheduling, and student engagement can prevent school systems from implementing a tutoring program as designed, which can result in diminished effects. Optional on-demand tutoring programs may be popular because they require fewer district resources to implement, but they are unlikely to be used by the students who need them the most. Recent evidence on a California charter district found that, without nudges to participate, only 19% of middle and high school students ever accessed the district’s tutoring platform. Students most in need of support were even less likely to log on, raising concerns that opt-in resources may exacerbate gaps rather than reduce them.

2. Summer school

Schools and districts have also had success offering intensive, short-term interventions during summer vacations and other school breaks. Reviews of the effects of summer learning programs across multiple studies find positive impacts on student test scores in math. The impacts on reading are more mixed, with some studies showing no impact and others finding positive gains consistent with those in math.

Summer learning programs with the strongest gains tend to feature high levels of student attendance (i.e., at least 20 days) and highly effective teachers. Devoting more time to instruction was also associated with more noticeable gains in both math and reading.

Learning programs during school year breaks that are typically shorter in duration than summer school, often called “vacation” or “acceleration” academies, can also be effective strategies for boosting student achievement. For example, week-long acceleration academies targeted at students as part of turnaround efforts in Lawrence, Massachusetts, led to gains in math and reading. The programs provided small-group instruction (10–12 students per group) in either subject and were taught by a carefully selected group of talented teachers. In total, students received about 25 hours of extra instruction per week at a cost of $800 per student, which included incentives for students for perfect attendance.

3. Double-dose math

Double-dose math classes have been shown to be effective in helping students increase their math proficiency. Double-dose courses can be offered as an additional, separate class period in the school day or as an extended period. In either case, they typically replace an elective and serve all students or target a subset of students needing extra support.

The best evidence on the effects of double-dose math classes comes from a study out of Chicago. All ninth-grade students with low math test scores were enrolled in a double-dose algebra support class in addition to their regular algebra class, which was typically taught by the same teacher. Students participating in the double-dose period increased their spring algebra test scores significantly. In contrast, double-dose courses and interventions in English, reading, and vocabulary have not yielded test score gains beyond those of business as usual.

Other options

The brief also includes a discussion of the pros and cons of other potential academic interventions, including after-school programs, computer-assisted learning programs, and extending the school day or year. Each of these initiatives have promise, but the evidence is mixed and includes important cautions and caveats.

In general, academic interventions that address specific opportunity gaps and provide scaffolding for grade-level content lead to larger gains in student achievement compared to merely reteaching content from previous years. Interventions also tend to have larger positive effects when they attend to students’ social and emotional needs alongside academic learning. For example, tutoring programs with the largest impacts have consistent tutor–student matches over time, with one plausible factor being sustained tutor–student relationships focused on clear academic and social-emotional goals. Research also suggests that greater alignment between academic interventions and classroom instruction will amplify the efficacy of interventions.

Ultimately, many students still require sustained, targeted interventions to help them get back on track academically. Districts may have particular reasons for choosing one specific program over another, but our brief can help them identify which to pursue and what to consider to maximize the impact of their efforts.

Ayesha Hashim contributed to this post.

The post 3 academic interventions policymakers can support to help get students back on track  appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

With the last vestiges of summer now shaken off, you’re probably starting to form the first real idea of who the students in your classroom are as people: what frustrates them, what makes them laugh, who they want to be, and what they want to do. This time of year can be exciting, as a class personality starts to truly take shape. It can also be overwhelming, with so many different inputs and so many decisions to make along the way. Goal setting is a tool that can help you and your students come together to organize all of those inputs and use them to craft an educational strategy that truly belongs to them.

If you’re at a MAP® Growth school, one of those inputs is each student’s fall MAP Growth score.

MAP Growth and goal setting

Using tools like the Student Profile report, you and your students can get a good idea of their overall academic strengths and weaknesses coming into this year. But setting a good goal for a student requires deeper insights into that student’s specific motivators, desires, and academic needs. MAP Growth can be a great tool for starting a conversation around a student’s goals, but it can’t be the only tool.

In my book Step into Student Goal Setting: A Path to Growth, Motivation, and Agency, I describe the key features of effective student goals and the information teachers and students need to set those goals. I also emphasize that truly motivating goals for students are individualized to the things they want to do and the people they want to be. A student is more than just a growth target: they are a learner who can be captivated by academic content if they understand the connection between that content and the lives they want to lead.

MAP Growth can be a great tool for starting a conversation around a student’s goals, but it can’t be the only tool.

From the pages of Step into Student Goal Setting

As you read the excerpt from my book below, consider the ways—big and small—you can incorporate student goal setting into your academic practice this year. Think about the times and places you can check in on students’ progress toward their goals.

“When it comes to learning targets and objectives, no two students start from the same place. Further, the best path for a student from their starting place to the ultimate goal may look very different. That’s why student learning is most directly impacted where teachers and students collaborate on goals that start from what they know today and focus on a target that is both reasonable and ambitious for them.

“There’s no doubt that setting individual goals for students is a big undertaking. There are, however, a few general principles guiding the process:

“Start with assessment data: When we sit down to plan a journey, whether a hike through the woods or a drive across the country, we start with two pieces of information: where we are and where we want to go. We figure out where students are by using assessments: formative and summative experiences that help us understand what students have learned and what they are ready to learn next. When identifying a student’s individual goal, assessment data can be a big help. Data from standardized assessments, for instance, can show a student’s achievement level relative to peers and how their future achievement level might compare at the end of the year. By using formative assessment, teachers can dive deep into student knowledge in a particular area of mastery, identify key misconceptions, and make targeting those misconceptions central to the journey (Heritage, 2010).

“Look toward mastery but understand how the path may shift: The end of the journey is a point we plot for all students: mastery, whether learning key content, grasping an academic construct, or meeting grade-level standards. Focusing our educational system on cultivating learners requires us to be clear about what students need to know to be successful in postsecondary education, a career, and their civic life. Setting our aspirations high is a key component of equity, ensuring that all students are given the opportunity to achieve at the highest potential. But focusing all attention on that goal for all students may be less helpful for those students who grow differently from the average learner. Setting the same educational goal for every student doesn’t make sense, because they’re all starting from different places. Further, effective goals address not only a student’s past and future performance but also their abilities, motivations, and available resources. Effective goals require keeping the ambitions of mastery in check with what’s realistic and reasonable for individual students.

“Keep goals short term: The key to balancing our ultimate goal of mastery with realism is setting frequently updated short-term goals, providing ample opportunity for students to celebrate as their learning improves. Short-term goals allow teachers to take advantage of what they know about students—their areas of strength, their interests, and their motivations—to organize learning in the way that best maintains the students’ energy toward a learning objective. Short-term goals should also support adapting instruction for students who are above grade level. These students can further their learning both by engaging in more complex tasks on grade-level content and by working with content above their grade level; the right mix of these practices is different for every student. Goal setting provides an opportunity to set a path through accelerated content that maintains high expectations while keeping students’ learning grounded in meaning.

“Balance choice with support: Goals are only individualized when students make real choices about their goals. Motivated and supported learners choose their own goals, understand what their goals mean, and play a central role in building the plan to achieve those goals. Research…shows clear benefits associated with helping students take ownership of the direction and focus of their learning. But just as students are poorly served by having their goals dictated from on high, they are also left ill prepared if they have to make every choice on their own without fully understanding what they have learned, what they need to learn next, and what resources are available to them to support that learning. Different students need different levels of support, depending on their age, maturity level, personality, and other factors. What matters most is making sure the final choice of a goal is the student’s, even if that choice is made from options the teacher has designed.

“These four ideas—all focused on how goals can be made relevant, meaningful, and appropriate to individual learners—are the animating force behind a goal-setting process that students are genuinely invested and interested in. Like any other good instructional practice, goal setting can easily become a form of compliance, another form in a sea of busy work that teachers ask students to complete. By demonstrating your interest in a student’s individual success, you extend to them an invitation to think about their learning and craft a plan that will help them be successful.”

Learn more about goal setting

To learn more about how you can get the most out of goal setting this fall and beyond, listen to my discussion with Amanda Thornton on our podcast, The Continuing Educator, or watch my webinar “Goals mean growth: Using student goal setting to jumpstart student motivation and success” on demand.

The post Goal setting in the fall: Start with MAP Growth scores appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

When I taught eighth-grade English, I sometimes came across a reluctant reader. One of the things I prided myself on was finding a book even the most resistant reader would enjoy. One year, I had a student who told me—quite happily—that he hated to read and that he didn’t do it. He was also what test scores would call a “weak” reader (quotes intentional). In that moment, it was like someone had shone the Bat Teacher light in the sky, prompting me to pull my reading superhero suit on. That’s when I first started thinking more about the role of reading motivation and engagement.

The story of a reluctant reader

When I met that happily honest student, I was using Kelly Gallagher’s strategy, The Reading Minute, every week to introduce students to new material. I had a wide array of topics, authors, and texts of varying readability in my classroom library, and I read a mix of genres aloud.

One week, I read a short passage from Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything, a 500+ page tome on the history of, well, nearly everything scientific and in the natural world with a Lexile score that places it in grades 9–10. (It’s also an interesting book with a cheeky tone, but it took me a long time to read the entire thing on my own because it tested a lot of my prior knowledge on geology, biology, and chemistry.) That reluctant reader came up to me at the end of class and asked to see the book. I gave it to him. Later that week he told me, quite nonchalantly, that he was going to “see what it was about.”

Daily, for two weeks, my reluctant reader came in, excited to tell me a new science fact or to quiz my knowledge on obscure science. What had taken me, a lover of books and reading, over a month to plod through took this reader with low test scores two weeks to read. And not only that: he could also discuss the long and winding complex text incredibly well. Why? Because he was motivated and engaged. Why? Because the text tapped into his interests.

The role of reading motivation and engagement

The research community has known for a long time that reading requires decoding and much, much more, including motivation and engagement. Reading motivation and engagement go together like warm cookies and cold milk. Motivated readers keep reading, even when it is a challenge, and engaged readers are interested in reading in the first place.

Motivation is the driving force that causes us to keep going, even when the task (like reading a long book) seems difficult or insurmountable. Motivation to read can spring from external forces, like a grade, or internal forces, like a personal desire. We know self-efficacy in particular plays a role in reading development: Research has demonstrated that when students believe they are competent at a given task, they perform better, regardless of their previous performance. Perhaps most importantly, students with high self-efficacy regard reading as a challenge to master, arguably driving themselves toward mastery, even for difficult texts. Conversely, when students believe they are bad at something, including reading, they can become less motivated to engage in and work through it.

Unfortunately, 2016 research conducted by Allan Wigfield, Jessica Gladstone, and Lara Turci indicates that students’ positive attitudes toward reading decrease each year they are in school; by middle school, some “become actively resistant to engaging in reading.” This tracks with my experience as a teacher with students who found reading a chore to avoid rather than an engaging problem to solve or an unexplored place to navigate.

While I was able to find the text that unlocked reading motivation and engagement for that one reluctant reader of mine, that alone was not enough to propel us through the school year. To keep students of all grades engaged in reading requires more than a robust classroom library, though that certainly helps.

How to motivate and engage your students

If any of your students just aren’t feeling it, try these tips to improve their reading motivation and engagement:

1. Expose kids to a rich body of texts that are racially, ethnically and linguistically diverse, reflect a range of genres and structures, and have a range of readability. Students can’t read what they don’t know exists. By exposing them to a wide range of texts, including fiction, nonfiction, prose, poetry, plays, essays, graphic novels, and even epistolary novels, like The Color Purple by Alice Walker, Dear Martinby Nic Stone, or Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, you can help them see just how much is out there—and they’ll be more likely to find something that speaks to them.
2. Scaffold challenging grade-level texts appropriately. Scaffolding challenging texts can build students’ confidence and self-efficacy. Small-group conversations, structured debates, and pairing complex texts with easier reads on the same topic to build vocabulary and prior knowledge can provide students with small wins on the way to the complex text—and encourage its completion. (For more on this, see “Let’s talk equity: Reading levels, scaffolds, and grade-level text.”)
3. Discuss with students the value of reading in their own lives, now and in the future. Sometimes students don’t know why they’re reading a text. In addition to setting a purpose for reading that is meaningful for them, consider engaging students in discussions about the value reading has for them. Or, alongside the text-dependent questions, encourage students to make personal connections to a text and to also discuss how reading about a topic that is meaningful to them matters.
4. Provide some autonomy. Your students aren’t going to have the exact same taste in books as you (or each other), and that’s okay. Autonomy helps foster reading motivation and engagement. Consider giving students the chance to choose between a few pieces to read for in-class assignments (I recommend two to four). Try expanding beyond traditional books and offering optional pieces, like comic books, artwork, music, or podcasts that are good pairings for your core text. Work with the school librarian to curate a book list for your students and let them choose which books they want to read for pleasure.
5. Provide adequate time to read. Rushing through a text during instructional time, or assigning too many pages to read as homework, may discourage students from reading deeply, closely, or at all. When you can, consider slowing down and allowing students time to read and reflect in ways that foster unique ideas and deeper understanding. Processes like a Socratic Seminar, book clubs, or philosophical chairs can provide time to relax into a text so each reader can consider its ideas with more depth.
6. Encourage students to read for pleasure. Reading doesn’t have to be something students do only when it’s required. Encourage them to explore books and reading outside of school. Share stories about how books helped shape you when you were their age to inspire them to consider that they might find comfort in them, too.

If none of these work for you, check out my tweet, where I ask a community of educators how they engage reluctant readers. See if something grabs you there, and add your ideas to the list!

How the story ends

How did my reluctant reader fare? Well, we ended the year with him asking me to tell him more about Bill Bryson’s books and no longer telling me that he didn’t read. I gave him my copy of A Short History of Nearly Everything.

The post 6 ways to increase reading motivation and engagement  appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

The new school year is well underway nationwide, and it’s worth pausing a moment to reflect on the investments school districts made in summer learning. To help students recover from large opportunity gaps, many districts bet on new or expanded summer programs. In a national survey from 2022, 70% of them reported providing new or expanded summer programming because of the pandemic. How well are those programs working? Are they enough to get students back on track?

A new study found that summer school programs in the study’s sample districts helped students make gains in math but not in reading. Moreover, because participation was far from universal, the gains made up just two to three percent  of a district’s total learning loss in math, and none in reading.

This research is part of a unique and ongoing partnership between CALDER at the American Institutes for Research (AIR), the Center for Education Policy and Research (CEPR) at Harvard, and my organization, NWEA. Out of our 11 partner school districts, eight provided data on their summer 2022 programs. These eight districts collectively enroll approximately 400,000 students who are disproportionately Black, Hispanic, and/or low-income.

Our findings on the impacts of these summer programs largely come down to what readers can think of as the “dosage” of the summer school treatment. Student gains were broadly in line with what might have been expected given prior research and the amount of added instructional time students actually received. But this points to a clear lesson for policymakers: students who fell behind during the pandemic will need much more support to catch up.

About the study

To measure the “dosage” of summer programs, we looked at participation, attendance, and the numbers of instructional hours students actually received in the program. For the purposes of this study, we focused on programs that offered at least some formal academic support in math and/or ELA, either alone or in conjunction with other enrichment activities. That means we excluded programs that focused exclusively on enrichment activities. While our study was focused on academic outcomes, it would be useful for future research to study the effects these programs had on other non-academic outcomes.

The districts in our sample offered summer programs that were between 15 and 20 days long. They offered anywhere from 45 minutes up to two hours of daily academic instructional time in math and reading. All told, the number of academic instructional time ranged from 23 to 67 hours across the programs.

In the districts where we could observe attendance, the overall participation rates varied substantially, ranging from 5 to 23 percent. Across our full sample, about one out of eight eligible students (13 percent) enrolled in an academic summer program.

Students who participated in summer programs tended to score substantially lower on the MAP® Growth interim assessment. Participation rates were also higher for historically underserved student subgroups, including students receiving special education services, English language learners, economically disadvantaged students, and Black and Hispanic students.

The proportion of days students actually attended also varied across the districts, from 58 to 80 percent, with an average of 69 percent. Across the districts, this translates to students attending about 10 to 14 days of summer school. Accounting for attendance and 60 to 120 minutes of instruction per subject, students received approximately 14 to 27 hours of additional instructional time per subject.

Summer programs were effective in math, but not reading

Students who attended summer programs tended to make small but statistically significant improvements in math achievement, but they had no statistically significant gains on reading tests relative to similar peers who did not attend. Our results are important not only for adding additional evidence to the use of summer programs to improve student learning but also to explain whether these programs can make noticeable headway addressing COVID-19 learning loss.

The positive effects we observe in math are not far off from what would have been expected from research on pre-pandemic estimates of the impact of summer school attendance. These estimates also account for the number of hours of instruction students actually received.

Our district results came out remarkably close to what might have been expected. The chart below (Figure 1 in our paper) compares the gains on math test scores that might have been expected given prior research (the red diamonds) versus the actual gains (in gray). While the estimates across districts vary, outside of Districts 7 and 8, all are positive for math test scores and quite close to the estimated effects.

In other words, students tended to benefit from the added instructional time in math. But the gains were relatively small, and that’s almost entirely a function of the “dosage” of the summer programs. Without giving students more added instructional time, we shouldn’t expect them to make much larger gains absent some dramatic improvements in the quality of instruction they receive.

The results were less positive in reading, where the overall effects were indistinguishable from zero. We speculate that one reason it may be more difficult to achieve reading gains than math gains for summer school participants relative to non-participants is because non-participants may also practice reading over the summer but may be less likely to practice math. This explanation would align with evidence that shows larger effects of school inputs on math achievement than reading.

The road to recovery remains large

Based on the latest NWEA research, students nationally remain far behind where their peers were before the pandemic. The average eighth-grade student, for example, was the equivalent of nine months behind in math and seven months behind in reading at the end of the 2022–23 school year.

There are some potential kernels of good news in this new report. We found that adding additional days of programming (with the same or more instructional time) resulted in additional, proportional gains for students, at least in math. The gains were also consistent across different student subgroups, suggesting that, when summer program space is limited, increasing the targeted recruitment and attendance of students who would most benefit may be an effective strategy for boosting achievement among students with the greatest academic needs. This is a particularly important finding given prior research showing that students with disabilities and English learners tend to suffer larger academic losses during the summer than their peers. Expanding summer school offerings may help address these gaps.

Notably, one of our sample districts highlights a potential path forward to boost participation rates in summer programs. It offered extended operating hours, provided childcare for working parents, and framed its summer programs as “summer camp”—an exciting learning and enrichment program—as opposed “summer school.” Although not definitive, the district that structured its summer programs this way had the highest participation rate in our sample.

That said, as we conclude in the paper, our findings underscore the need for a continued commitment from policymakers at all levels to deliver recovery interventions at the scale and intensity needed to address the pandemic’s academic impact. Failing to do so will have dire consequences for students and for our wider society.

The post Summer<strong> </strong>programs can be an effective treatment, but districts need to get the “dosage” right appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Getting comfortable with the Common Core standards for mathematical practice can make a big difference in your classroom.

Imagine your curriculum as a cross-country road trip: sights to see, viewpoints to photograph, restaurants to try. These are the content standards, the “what” for students to learn. You (and your curriculum) have planned everything out as little dots across a map.

Now, picture the “how” of all the little details: What vehicle you’re taking. The tunes playing. The car snacks. Route A or B.

The “how” matters. I am not going to care about a beautiful overlook if I’m hangry and I need a rest stop! Our students are exactly the same. It matters how we invite them to interact with the what. Are there times we have lost the joy in our mathematical road trips because we forgot that the journey is as important as the destination?Probably. I invite you to focus on that joy a bit more this year. Our newly released quick reference guide and lesson planning tool can help you on your journey.

The CCSS standards for mathematical practice: A reminder

We teachers are familiar with our content standards. We know if our students need to be able to calculate the area of a circle or demonstrate the mean. However, that “need to be able to” holds hands with a “how they are able to.” Can their skill be repeated beyond tomorrow’s test? How deep does that knowledge go?

This emphasis for thinking deeply rather than just answering correctly is what my colleague Ted Coe refers to as “habits of mind” that lead to “ways of thinking rather than ways of doing.” Luckily, we have the standards for mathematical practice to help students access all the wonders of mathematics by helping them sense-make, represent, explain, and talk about mathematics. Here they are, in case it’s been a while since you looked at them all together:

1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
4. Model with mathematics.
5. Use appropriate tools strategically.
6. Attend to precision.
7. Look for and make use of structure.
8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

I’ll be honest. The eight standards sometimes sound like math salad. How can you find an answer without “attending to precision?” When are students ever not “making sense of and persevering with problems?” At times, the standards can feel like a cross between “Huh?” and “Duh.”

The standards, simplified

Karen Fuson, math educator, CCSS author, and all-around math advocate, recently suggested a recategorization of the standards to help teachers group them so they can better focus on four different skills:

• Sense-making. With sense-making, students encounter a problem, wrestle with it, and care about solving it correctly. They demystify problems.
• Structure. Structure in math helps students notice patterns, see and use math as a “language” (with correct syntax and grammar), and remember “if it worked for that, could it work for this?” It helps them continuously remember and apply what they’ve learned.
• Drawings. Visual representations help students communicate math visually, selecting the correct tools. Drawings help them externally demonstrate the math.
• Explaining. When students can explain math, both in general and specific terms, they are better equipped tolisten and respond to others, and they can compare and expand on arguments, too. They can talk about the math.

Here’s how these align with the eight CCSS standards for mathematical practice:

• Sense-making = #1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. #6. Attend to precision.
• Structure = #7. Look for and make use of structure. #8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
• Drawings = #4. Model with mathematics. #5. Use appropriate tools strategically.
• Explaining = #2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively. #3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.

How to apply the standards

Our quick reference guide and lesson planning tool build on Fuson’s work with the goal of making it easier for you to apply the standards in your classroom. They can help you expand on the necessary skills and behaviors we already find in the most engaging math classroom. Designed to be digestible for novice and experienced teachers, they include objectives that can be seamlessly incorporated into already-planned lessons.

Teachers, we want the road trip to go well. Every year, we fill up the gas, check that the A/C is working, and get the mango slices at Trader Joe’s. Yet sometimes, we get so focused on the destination, we forget we are probably spending more time in the car than out of it. Of course it matters how much attention we give to the content standards for our specific grade level. But there’s also a reason the first standards in the CCSS are the eight standards for mathematical practice.

This year, I encourage you to focus a bit more on the how, trusting that the what will come.

The post Free resources for bringing the Common Core standards for mathematical practice to life appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, recent research on the effects of COVID-19 school closures has revealed that progress toward academic recovery for older kids has been slower than projected.

My job involves providing professional learning for teachers like you. When I bring up COVID-19 and learning loss, teachers are often frustrated. Because you already know that there is cause for concern! Since you know that your students have been affected (and will continue to be), I’ll leave you with a link to the research and jump into what you can do about it.

In our post “COVID-19 impacts: New data shows older students’ recovery needs attention,” our policy and advocacy team offers the following recommendations to state and district leaders:

• Use local data to guide recovery and invest in what works
• Expand instructional time by deploying evidence-based interventions and programs to the students who still need additional support
• Communicate the importance of academic recovery, sharing timely and relevant information with families

I think these recommendations can help you wrap your head around how to support students in your classroom, too.

How to make decisions based on data

To know where to even start, it helps to identify exactly where your students are in their learning. To uncover that, I recommend four specific actions:

• Use interim and formative assessments to determine areas of focus and adjust scope and sequence
• Teach grade-level content to all students
• Progress monitor using data
• Use the resources you have

Use interim and formative assessment

Assessment can help you determine areas of focus and adjust your scope and sequence.

When I was a high school English teacher, I thought I knew what my students needed when learning to write a great five-paragraph essay. I spent time going over the structure, discussing how to choose specific details, and working on carefully constructing inferences. One day, I was sharing the success we’d had so far at our vertical team meeting when I noticed the elementary teachers smiling. They then pulled out their anchor papers for fifth-grade writing; they were better developed than the essays I shared. I realized I’d forgotten to assess my students and that I had relied on my assumptions, rather than actual data, when I planned my instruction. The five-paragraph essay was in the high school curriculum, but we hadn’t vertically aligned, so our high school wasn’t aware that younger students were writing sophisticated essays in earlier grades, and we didn’t have interim or formative assessments either.

Data from interim assessments, like MAP® Growth, provides details about where students are compared to their peers nationally. The data also provides each student’s zone of proximal development, or ZPD, relative to state standards. Knowing every kid’s ZPD helped me identify the instructional level for my students so that I could begin to differentiate and scaffold.

Formative assessment data provides touchpoints, too, so you can know you’re on the right path when you’re between interim assessment test events. Sometimes, I became overwhelmed thinking about how to formatively assess all my students, but I think that was mostly because I sometimes make formative assessment too difficult. There are digital formative assessment tools, exit slips, observations, and more. As long as we always remember that formative assessment is not for grading, it’s an invaluable tool, especially for showing us how COVID-19 school closures exacerbated existing gaps.

Teach grade-level content to all students

As you’re planning instruction, remember that we must (I’m going to say that again: we must) plan instruction on grade level. Our students will never be able to do grade-level work if they do not get grade-level instruction.

Ensure that instruction is not only at grade level but also at the appropriate level of rigor. If you are using MAP Growth, look to the RIT score to gauge the rigor of the progression of your standards. Depth of knowledge (DOK) is another indicator of rigor that can guide your decisions about grade-level instruction.

After you have planned-level instruction, use interim and formative assessment data to determine the students who need scaffolding. Learning loss is personalized, so we need scaffolding to be as well. Don’t assume students don’t have prerequisite skills unless the data indicates such. Consider a math lesson on y = mx + b as an example. In a class of 25, data shows five students will struggle with this concept. A close review of assessment data reveals those kids struggle with fractions, so their teacher now knows to preteach this small group about fractions, since fractions are a key component of the equation. When the teacher begins grade-level, whole-class instruction, everyone is able to understand it.

Progress monitor using data

Progress monitoring is critical—and even more so following COVID-19 school closures. However, you cannot monitor everything. Focus on key indicators or power standards.

Whenever we look at standards in particular, we’ll likely notice that there are some that spiral and some that must be secured in each grade level. Focus on the most critical standards and use data to monitor your students’ progress, adjusting instruction as needed. Don’t wait to adjust instruction after each semester. Instead, adjust right away if data indicates that interventions are needed or have been unsuccessful so far.

Do your best to also learn from progress monitoring. If something works, offer it to other students and classrooms. If something is not working, stop doing it and share your findings with others. Teaching can feel isolated, and I know I was often frustrated when I was failing to impact student learning. Eventually, I realized that I had the opportunity to learn from other teachers on professional development days, but I also realized that we shouldn’t have to wait that long. I wish that if my colleagues had found a strategy that worked for their students, they would have immediately shared their success so my students could also benefit.

Use the resources you have

We often fail to use some of the resources at hand. Curriculum materials usually have materials for enrichment and intervention aligned to standards. Yet when we would change curriculum materials at my school, I would often find these resources in the box, still shrink-wrapped. Check your closet, ask your curriculum department, and see what resources are available for interventions and enrichment. There might be so much more than you know is already available to you.

I encourage you to use your collaboration time well, too. Your colleagues can be some of your greatest resources.Some PLCs are highly structured to focus on data, interventions, and student needs. Others focus on field trips, supplies, and complaints. Could you lobby to do that second set of things via email or over happy hour? PLCs should be structured, follow an agenda, and focus on key learning, instructional strategies, and data. Each agenda item should have a set amount of time, and a timekeeper can help maintain focus. Help ensure that PLC time is used to discuss data, interventions, and student needs, instead of basic lesson planning (an easy enough trap to fall into, I know).

Finally, use technology resources to target student learning as best you can. Technology-based learning pathways can support student learning. Technology cannot be the only support for struggling students, however. Strong instruction by you—the teacher—is necessary to accelerate learning.

How to expand instructional time

We need to think about time differently. I mentioned this in my previous post, directed at administrators.

Teachers, here’s how to make every moment count: Use structures and procedures to ensure that students are engaged in learning from the beginning of class, like bell ringers to get students going with immediate learning. Consider having a peer observe your class to help you “find” time (it’s hard to know what we don’t know and see what we don’t see). Using efficient procedures for common tasks such as providing make-up work and returning assignments can buy back bits of time. For example, I knew a teacher who used folders with dates for make-up work assignments, and another organized assignments to be returned into student folders that students were responsible for gathering. I taught my students 174 days per year. Saving five minutes with a procedure would have resulted in 14.5 hours of additional instruction.

Getting ahead of something before it becomes a big problem helps with instructional time, too. If a student is struggling, intervene quickly. Don’t wait until the grading period ends to suggest tutoring or contacting caregivers. Similarly, if a student fails to turn in assignments or engage in learning, ask them why right away. I failed my junior year English class. I had not engaged in class for the entire semester because I did not understand a rigorous writing assignment I was given. I was in an honors-level course, and the teacher decided that I should be responsible for my own success. When I earned the failing grade, my mom found out at conferences, when it was too late for her to do much other than worry and be upset. Imagine if the teacher had contacted my mom earlier. Imagine how much more my teacher could have done to make the most of her instructional time with me if she’d stepped in sooner.

How to communicate with families

As teachers, we have been bombarded with information about learning loss. Some media sources have even used research on learning loss following COVID-19 school closures to attack teachers and schools. But we know parents and other caregivers tend to trust their student’s teacher. Therefore, we need to put pandemic-related learning loss in the context of each student.

During conferences, frame student learning within the broader context of learning loss. If I were sharing interim or state assessment data, for example, I would not only share where a student was, using the national norms, but I would also share the data related to learning loss.

Create a partnership with parents and guardians to support accelerating learning. Give them something specific they can do at home to support learning and explain why it will be helpful. I remember my daughter was assigned to read 20 minutes a night when she was in elementary school. I complied, but I never really understood why I should. The teacher forgot to explain that 20 minutes of reading a day builds vocabulary and background knowledge.

Finally, assume that caregivers want what is best for their child. We’re on the same team. Be a good teammate by improving communication. Talk transparently about the importance of academic recovery. Listen, too. What is not said is often just as important as what is said, so hear what’s between the lines and know that parents believe they are doing what is best for their child.

Closing thoughts

I know teachers are frustrated with learning loss following COVID-19 school closures. The pandemic has had undeniable academic and social impacts in schools. We must think differently about data, time, and communication to support academic growth.

The post COVID-19 school closures and student achievement: What teachers can do appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Did you know that kids can smell inauthenticity? Middle school math teacher Kailey Rhodes recently shared this friendly word of caution on The Continuing Educator podcast. Kailey and her co-host, Jacob Bruno, executive vice president of Learning & Improvement Services at NWEA, chatted about how to establish an easy and natural rapport with students, and why an authentic classroom culture matters so much.

In “Ask your kids what they want! And other secrets of building a better classroom culture,” Kailey and Jacob reflected on what they’ve learned about how to establish an authentic classroom culture that fosters trust and helps students thrive. If you’re a teacher looking for new ways to improve your own classroom culture, here are five tips and best practices to keep in your back pocket.

1. Ask your kids about their experience

“At the start of the year, I always [ask my students to share] things they have not enjoyed about previous classrooms,” says Kailey. “It’s a little controversial, because it does kick off the year with them reliving some negativity. However, [when they share] these anecdotes with me, I learn so much about them.”

By starting the year this way, teachers can learn things about their students that otherwise might not surface until much later, if at all. Kailey recalls students telling her about moments when they felt rushed by their teachers or disrespected by their peers. She has also heard stories from kids who felt that their learning styles weren’t valued or that teachers liked other kids better. Teachers should tread carefully in asking kids to share some of their less happy memories in the classroom, but it’s undeniable that a great deal can be learned this way.

“Just giving a voice to [these experiences] in a classroom is such a gift to me, and I love hearing about it and spending a few days actively listening,” says Kailey. “We put these things on giant Post-Its and talk about what a healthy classroom looks and feels like.”

To this day, Kailey has some words of wisdom posted on her classroom wall that originated in these kinds of conversations. For example:

• “A good classroom knows the difference between laughing at and laughing with.”
• “I don’t want the work to be too hard, but I don’t want it to be too easy.” (Kids know all about the zone of proximal development, as it turns out.)
• “We want the work to feel spicy. We can still chew and swallow it, but it’s got a little heat.”

2. Humanize yourself (a.k.a. don’t be afraid to mess up)

Even though teachers need to be in command of the classroom and earn students’ trust, kids will respond positively to teachers who reveal that they, too, are just people, says Kailey. Whether you have a scratchy voice because you didn’t sleep well or you came to class without the handouts you meant to bring, it’s okay to be honest with students when you’re not at your best. “It’s an intentional lack of polish that helps them show up with their own lack of polish,” says Kailey.

Kailey’s co-host, Jacob Bruno, agrees that vulnerability and strength in the classroom go hand in hand. “I actually think it’s powerful … this notion of struggling with an idea, struggling with a problem, but sticking with it,” he says. “It’s okay not to know, and it’s okay to get help. When kids see a teacher do that, it gives them permission to do it, too.”

3. Get them sharing with each other

Ideally, students are more than just classmates—they’re allies, too. According to Kailey, a major benefit of asking kids to share their experience with you, as described above, is that they learn about each other in the process. “When one shares, another can relate,” she says, “and they can connect over these shared experiences and desires.”

Jacob points out that among older kids, there may be fewer built-in opportunities for sharing in the classroom. “Younger kids are more of a cohort,” he explains, “and older kids are more independent and in the college prep mindset. Do [the older kids] have an opportunity to learn about each other in a safe and structured environment, so community can be built and we can do group work together?” Jacob emphasizes that simply noticing and being aware of each other can help kids thrive in all kinds of ways, including academically, which leads to a stronger classroom culture.

4. Recognize moments of kindness

Kailey stays alert for small gestures of kindness between students that might otherwise go unnoticed, so that she can celebrate and reinforce the importance of these fleeting moments. For example, when one of her students compliments a peer—even in a small way—Kailey tries, in an understated way, to praise the student for showing kindness and a generosity of spirit.

Of course, students are not always gentle with each other, and Kailey keeps her ears open for unkind words, too. If she feels the need to intervene in an edgy exchange between students, she does so “with love and compassion, not punitively,” she says. She might say, “Hey, I think you’re trying to joke, but it came out unkind. Can we have a redo?” In this way, tension can be eased and students can get valuable firsthand examples of healthy communication.

5. Build rapport

All of the tips we’ve described so far—asking students about their past experiences, showing your human vulnerability as a teacher, getting kids to share with each other, and calling out moments of kindness—work together toward the overarching goal of building strong rapport in the classroom. This means rapport between not only teacher and student, but also student to student as well. Teachers who remind themselves regularly of the importance of good rapport will naturally find ways to maintain it, whether by using tried-and-true practices or trying some novel approaches.

For Kailey, inviting students to complete informal surveys is a golden opportunity to learn about them and begin earning their trust—the foundation of rapport and a requirement of a strong classroom culture. To get their attention, she asks them personal (and sometimes silly) questions like, “What song is part of your life?” “Are you a mermaid or a falcon?” The questions may seem a bit random, but the intention is anything but, as Kailey explains: “First, does every student in this room know that I, the teacher and the adult, care about them? And two, have I created a space where each student has the opportunity to make a connection with at least one other like-minded kiddo? They don’t all need to be best friends, but I want to know that I’ve done enough … that they can make at least one connection.”

Hear more

Want to hear the whole conversation between Kailey and Jacob? Listen to their podcast episode, and then start brainstorming your own ways to create an authentic classroom culture.

The post 5 ways to create an authentic classroom culture appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

I want to tell you a story about a shy girl who always had her head in a book. Because she always had her head in a book, no one knew she struggled to read. No one knew how much longer it took her to read a story than the other students. No one knew she didn’t finish standardized tests because she had to re-read the entire passage to answer every single question. Guess what? That shy girl was me, and I have ADHD.

What are executive functions?

What I know now, but didn’t know then, is that reading (and writing!) require a lot of executive functions. Executive functions are the mental skills we use to manage our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in order to achieve goals.

Since achieving learning goals is the primary purpose of K–12 education, our students must put their growing executive function skills to work every single day, in myriad ways. And since people with ADHD often struggle with executive functions, they can benefit from extra support to develop the skills needed for reading.

Turns out that the same instructional strategies that work with kids who have ADHD can help all students free up mental energy to use on tasks like reading for pleasure, reflecting on a book’s theme, and analyzing an author’s argument. This is the kind of flexible reader we want all students to be, and knowing how to support their reading-specific executive function skills is one way to help them get there.

Why are executive functions important for reading?

Students have to decode words to be able to read. That’s a given. And they have to know what words mean to make meaning from texts. Another absolute. That’s why word recognition and language comprehension are the two primary factors in the simple view of reading.

You are likely already familiar with Philip Gough and William Tunmer’s simple view of reading. You may also know they didn’t claim this model covers every single mental process involved in reading. We know that motivation, engagement, background knowledge, and (yes!) executive functions all play an important role, too.

Looking back at the simple view, we might consider executive functions to be the brain’s way of coordinating word recognition and language comprehension—the two factors that must happen simultaneously for reading comprehension to occur. An alternative model, the active view of reading, proposes exactly that.

For the purposes of this article, it’s not important that we agree on which model of reading is right or best. My goal is to help you better understand what executive functions are, how we use executive function skills when reading, and how we might best support students in developing them.

So, here are five ways to help students better understand and build reading-specific executive functions.

1. Support planning and organization

Planning helps us all set goals, and organization helps us achieve those goals. In reading, students need to know why they are reading. And they need to know how they should read to achieve those reading-specific goals. Should they skim a text for the main gist? Use headings to locate a piece of information? Re-read a text multiple times for a deeper analysis? Or should they simply enjoy the excitement, humor, or knowledge gained from reading for pleasure?

Knowing about different purposes for reading and different ways to read helps us become more effective planners. Planning becomes especially important as students begin to read more widely and are expected to read longer and more difficult texts. Meanwhile, knowing how texts are organized helps us remember what we read because it gives us a mental structure to hang our hats on—or, in this case, our summaries.

Tips for educators

Here are two specific things you can do to help your class with planning and organization:

Teach students to think more explicitly about why they are reading. What is their goal? What steps can they take to achieve that goal? After reading, have students reflect on how well they did and what they might try differently next time.

Teach students about the structure of language—at the word, sentence, and text level.

Words have inherent structures. Think spelling patterns and syllables, which are often based on roots and affixes. Ask students to find these patterns and word parts in the texts they read, and then work with a partner to list other words with similar patterns, parts, and meanings.

Sentences are made up of words. Learning how words are ordered to make sentences builds syntactic awareness, which we need to become strong readers. Give students a stack of 5–10 word cards and see how many ways they can arrange them into complete sentences.

Texts are made up of sentences. Narrative texts typically have the same structure: a problem, goal, events, and an outcome. Have students work on story maps, first with support and then on their own. As they internalize this structure, they’ll get better at retelling and summarizing stories, too. You can also use story maps to analyze multiple perspectives. Have students note how each character responds to the same events in a narrative. Then have them reinterpret the story from these different points of view.

2. Support developing working memory

Working memory refers to how we temporarily hold onto bits of information until we no longer need them, like where we put our car keys or phone. When reading, we hold onto bits of text until we’ve made the connections needed to understand the text.

One way we use “bits of text” is to resolve writing shortcuts, such as pronoun and acronym use. Each time I connect an acronym back to what it stands for, I use up some of my working memory, which has a fixed capacity.

Our working memory helps us make deeper connections when reading, too. It’s how we integrate each new part of a text into what we already understand of its structure, or how we re-evaluate an author’s argument every time we encounter a new claim or counterclaim.

Tips for educators

To assist kids with developing working memory, try the following:

Show students how to use graphic organizers for reading. Graphic organizers are a great tool for teaching students the structures of informational texts (e.g., compare-contrast, definition-example, problem-solution), which are more varied and sometimes more challenging than literary texts. Graphic organizers can also support inference-making. Record two pieces of information directly stated in a text, then give students a space to speculate about what’s missing. The missing information is the inference, or the meaning that readers must bring to the text.

Show students how connecting words signal the relationship between ideas in a text. Try removing a connecting word (e.g., “because,” “instead”) from a text your students are reading. Next, ask students to visualize what is happening and (literally) draw connections between the individuals, events, or ideas in the text until they know what the missing word should be and why.

3. Support cognitive flexibility

Cognitive flexibility is what allows our minds to shift between one task and another, say when we read an email and listen to a podcast at the same time. When learning to read, students must constantly shift between the tasks of decoding and meaning-making, as explained in this short video. When reading to learn, students spend more time shifting between basic comprehension and deeper critical thinking, such as analyzing an author’s purpose or resolving conflicting evidence across two or more texts.

Tip for educators

When you focus on cognitive flexibility, engage students in activities that require constant shifting between two mental tasks.

For younger students, have them sort a stack of word cards, first by meaning and then by sound. This is a well-researched method that has led to some impressive reading outcomes. One reason is because this activity mimics the constant shifting between language comprehension (meaning) and word recognition (sound) required for reading comprehension. (Remember our earlier discussion of the simple view of reading?)

For older students, switching between reading a text and annotating a text, or conducting online research and taking relevant notes, are ways to mimic the shift between basic comprehension of a text and deeper critical thinking about the text.

4. Support inhibitory control

Whether we know it or not, we use inhibitory control to manage many aspects of our lives. Every time we think before we act, we are using this skill. In reading, inhibitory control is what helps us suppress the common, everyday meanings of words in favor of their text-specific meanings. When we use context clues to determine that “duck” is a verb instead of a noun, for example, or that “canon” means a group of works in a specific discipline, not a weapon of war (spelled “cannon” by the way), we exert mental inhibition.

Tips for educators

Here are some ideas for addressing inhibitory control:

Show students how to approach multiple-meaning words in a text. Have them work with a partner or in small groups to create word maps that distinguish between the everyday meanings of words and the less common ones, including figurative and domain-specific meanings.

Show students how to resolve ambiguous meanings in texts. Use books of homonym riddles, idioms, or even dad jokes to turn this into a hilariously fun activity. Identify the misconception (ambiguous meaning) and then work together to resolve it. Embrace laughter and silliness along the way.

5. Support social understanding

Social understanding is what we use to make inferences in our daily interactions with other people. These inferences are based on our in-the-moment social, emotional, and cultural understanding of the world. In reading, we apply these skills to comprehend literary, historical, and social studies texts—all of which require social inference-making. We are flexing our social understanding every time we recognize humor (That’s so funny!) or irony (How ironic!) in a text, or when we grasp more sophisticated literary techniques, like foreshadowing or allegory (Oh, I see what the author is doing here. That’s a clever way of adding suspense).

Tips for educators

To help your class leverage social understanding when reading, try this:

Encourage students to “read the minds” of literary characters and authors. Try turning your classroom into a courtroom and putting a cast of characters on trial. Or mock interview an author in a class podcast: Why did you use this style? Why did you include certain facts and exclude others?

Encourage students to read widely and diversely. The more knowledge they have of the world—and the varied people, cultures, and ideas within it—the greater their potential for social understanding.

We can help set students on the path to becoming lifelong readers

Since I wasn’t a hyperactive kid, I wasn’t diagnosed with ADHD until I was an adult. Many girls and women aren’t. If I could teach that shy girl who was me all over again, I’d use the tips I’ve suggested here. While they’re good for all kids, they’re especially good for kids who have weak executive function skills. Kids like me.

I was lucky because I really wanted to be a reader, so I kept trying (and trying!) until I found my way. But perhaps I didn’t need to try so hard. I just needed to try something different.

Our challenge as educators is to find that “something different” for all our students—the thing that sets them on the path to becoming lifelong readers. They say it takes a village to raise a child. It takes a village to raise good readers and writers, too. We need to tap into that village if we want our students to become the flexible readers, writers, and thinkers we know they all can be—if given the right support!

Special thanks to Kelly B. Cartwright for her research on the five executive function skills most critical for literacy and many of the practical teaching tips recommended in this article.

The post 5 ways you can help kids develop executive functions skills for reading appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

I often facilitate MAP® Growth professional learning workshops for high school teachers and administrators, and one of the most frequent complaints I hear is the lack of effort students put forth in taking the assessment. As we drill down to the why, something becomes quickly apparent: students, and sometimes teachers, do not always know why they are taking MAP Growth in the first place.

MAP Growth is designed to help students plan for the future

When I was an assistant high school principal, we had a student in our district we knew would play football at a Division 1 college. His athletic talent was recognized early. However, when he was a junior and took the ACT, he scored a 13. He needed an 18 to get into the Division 1 school.

This student had an ACT tutor and his teachers provided additional support, but he never scored the 18 that was needed. Instead of going to the Division 1 college, he attended a junior college on a football scholarship and then transferred to play at a four-year university. Although he ultimately met his goal, we would have had more time to prepare him for the ACT had we known he was not on track earlier.

Schools that use MAP Growth know it helps teachers get a sense for how their students are doing and that it can inform lesson planning, but they may not know it also supports kids in making plans for after graduation. Most MAP Growth partners are familiar with our linking studies, which use the assessment’s RIT score to predict performance on state assessments. We also have a linking study to multiple college and career readiness benchmarks including ACT, SAT, and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, often referred to as CCR. ACT metrics are available for grades 5–10, and SAT metrics are available for grade 5–9.  The availability of these metrics early provides educators the runway to create goals with students and support them in their ability to be college and career ready.

Helping high schoolers begins in elementary school

MAP Growth data has shown us that students’ academic growth decreases over time and that knowing a student is not on track early is critical to ensuring they are college and career ready by the time they graduate from high school. Take a look at the chart below, which shows the 2020 student growth norms for MAP Growth. Highlighted in yellow are the kindergarten and fifth grade norms.

In kindergarten, students typically grow 16.45 points in reading and 17.54 points in math, from fall to spring. By fifth grade, students grow less: 6.5 points in reading and 9.61 points in math.  Notice the red highlighted row, which is tenth grade. During their sophomore year, students typically grow only two points in reading and 3.35 points in math.

Proactively plan with students and families

The following tips can help you collaborate with students and families as early as fifth grade to help ensure that kids are ready for the college or career of their choosing after graduation.

1. Help students understand their data

During career planning, help students see the connection between their MAP Growth data and college and career readiness indicators. Use the comparative data to show them that their RIT score is an indication of their readiness. For example, when working with that student destined to play college football, I would have pointed out that projections didn’t indicate he’d get the ACT score he needed to be accepted at a Division 1 school. I would have talked to him about other options, like applying to a community college, but also what he could do to improve his projected ACT score.

2. Help students understand that there are high expectations for career readiness

Not all students want to go to college. There are high-paying jobs available for those without a degree but who have the necessary skills and training, and we must discuss these possibilities with students as well.

The comparative data document shows that CCR readiness is set at the 56th–61st percentile in reading and the 58th–73rd percentile in math. Therefore, students need to understand that they need core skills in whatever their work life demands. When students ask why, give them concrete answers. For example, wood working and home construction require a strong understanding of fractions and geometry. Culinary arts require an understanding of fractions and food science. Farming requires chemistry and a knowledge of proportions.

3. Use the Lexile measures to provide context for reading emphasis

Lexile is a metric that applies to reading materials. The chart below, published by MetaMetrics, shows that the reading materials for technical schools, workplace, and military go beyond the expectations of high school.

I used a similar chart in my high school classroom. When my students would tell me they didn’t need strong reading skills after graduation, I would show them the chart to prove otherwise.

4. Use College Explorer to understand higher education options

The NWEA College Explorer can help students understand the requirements and costs of a post-secondary education. Consider adding a link to the site on your school’s college and career guidance website.

The College Explorer has three tabs. The first two enable students and families to search for colleges by MAP Growth RIT score or name. Filters let them narrow down the search by region, state, population focus (for example, historically Black schools or those that are religiously affiliated), or predominant degree type awarded. Each college profile includes data from the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard, which includes the cost of attendance and average annual cost to families by income level. It also lists the percent of applicants admitted, the percent of first-year students who return for their second year, and the percent of students who graduate with a degree in six years. The College Explorer includes technical schools, beauty schools and barber shops, and community colleges, although they may not have the alignment to a RIT score.

The third tab of the College Explorer shows the average RIT score by college major and can show students a visual of the trajectory they need to be ready to pursue a specific field of study after high school graduation.

The possibilities are endless

MAP Growth is an excellent tool to support schools and families as they engage students in discussing college and career readiness. Because kids experience more academic growth in elementary and middle school than high school, it’s wise to begin setting goals for college and career readiness as early as fifth grade. Starting early can help more students reach their potential.

The post College and career readiness should begin in fifth grade  appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

When we at NWEA released a document sharing our views on writing instruction last September, we were excited about the innovations happening with digital literacy. We even discussed a body of supporting research devoted to digital writing: “Reading is a rapidly evolving experience in the digital world,” we acknowledged. “Readers must be savvy consumers of digital and multimodal texts.”

Then, two months later, OpenAI released ChatGPT, and teachers’ worlds turned upside down.

Initially, there seemed to be a sense of panic. Teacher forums were flooded with valid concerns about how students could use ChatGPT to cheat on written assignments. Some school districts even took steps to ban it. However, as the use cases for AI became more apparent, that sense of panic has started to shift to, “Okay, ChatGPT is here to stay. How can I leverage it to improve my students’ learning?”

My experiments with ChatGPT

When I first started brainstorming for this blog post with a colleague, I honestly didn’t know where I stood on AI, or what exactly I was going to write about. Each time I thought of an example of AI’s potential instructional utility, I immediately followed up with an example of its potential dangers. My colleague remarked, “Lauren, you keep contradicting yourself. I’m not sure you actually know what you believe about this tool.” Ouch. But she was right.

On one hand, I know that AI applications like ChatGPT have become common in the workplace, and the internet is inundated with various AI tools. I want students to be prepared to use the technology effectively and responsibly. On the other hand, I know that the process of writing facilitates critical thinking. We don’t always know what we think about a topic until we start writing about it. New thoughts and connections come to us as we write. This blog post itself is an example! If students rely too much on a chatbot to write for them, they could miss out on vital critical-thinking experiences.

Faced with this dilemma, I decided to go directly to the source: I asked ChatGPT to help me write this post. A few curious things happened.

My first prompt was “Write a 1,000 word blog post on the benefits of using ChatGPT in the classroom.” ChatGTP suggested teachers could use the AI to “develop critical-thinking skills,” “offer personalized feedback,” and “enhance creativity by examining different perspectives.” Great. These all sounded very plausible. However, when I asked it to write a blog post on the dangers of using ChatGPT in the classroom, I got eerily mirrored results. Dangers included “loss of critical-thinking skills,” “diminished interpersonal skills,” and “exposure to biased content.”

So I dug a little deeper. When I asked ChatGPT to provide me specific suggestions, I was able to cull the following promising ideas for instructional benefits:

• Provide differing perspectives on a topic to help students evaluate claims
• Build students’ language skills via sentence expansion and vocabulary activities
• Offer various writing prompts to spark students’ imagination
• Present step-by-step guides
• Offer suggestions for revisions

With these ideas in my toolbox, I went back to ChatGPT to help me make them a reality, with various levels of success.

I asked ChatGPT to write an argumentative essay and told it to include research to support the position. With my first attempt, I only got phrases like “Research shows…,” so I refined my prompt to include parenthetical citations, which ChatGPT then did. However, when I refined it further to include a works cited page, ChatGPT provided some bogus references.

Next I tasked the tool with creating an instructional activity on vocabulary. I got a few really interesting lesson plans, but none of them asked students to use their new vocabulary knowledge in new contexts, a key principle in effective vocabulary instruction.

I directed ChatGPT to draft several ideas for writing prompts for Romeo and Juliet. While all the prompts were on topic, they were also very generic and didn’t necessarily promote synthesis of ideas. I also prompted it to create a step-by-step guide for students on how to create a podcast, but it vastly oversimplified the process for a first-time user.

When I asked it to provide feedback on a piece of writing (which had already gone through copy edit), it rewrote the paragraph but didn’t explain why it was making the changes. I had to try several prompts for it to provide me constructive feedback to consider, instead of automatically rewriting the paragraph.

I’m sure if I continued to tinker with my prompts to the chatbot, I could have gotten better and more precise results, which brings me back to the NWEA document on reading instruction: “readers must be savvy consumers of digital and multimodal texts.” The more I experimented with the technology, the savvier I became at using it.

ChatGPT is just one piece of the digital literacy landscape. As my colleague Laura wrote about in “3 ways to improve students’ digital literacy skills,” students need intentional support with developing digital literacy skills. Thus, I firmly believe that students need access to and support with using chatbot technology, including appropriate guardrails, so they can develop the digital savviness needed to use it effectively, efficiently, and responsibly.

How to responsibly integrate ChatGPT into your classroom

Based on my interactions with ChatGPT and my research of the broader conversation around its use, I recommend the following strategies for using it with your students.

1. Set classroom norms on the use of ChatGPT

Spend time discussing the different use cases for ChatGPT with your students, as well as the pros and cons of each. Invite students to coconstruct the norms with you. Perhaps your norms will involve using the technology only to generate ideas or produce outlines, not drafts, or require the inclusion of ChatGPT as a coauthor when appropriate.

For more on norming, read “The science behind classroom norming.”

2. Establish a baseline of students’ writing skills

Before online plagiarism programs were invented, many attuned teachers could catch cases of plagiarism because they knew when a piece of writing didn’t sound like a student.

Make sure to provide students the opportunity to write without the assistance of ChatGPT. This might look like assigning personal narratives or writing with pen and paper. Read those pieces of writing, provide students feedback, and keep a record of them in each student’s writing portfolio.

At the end of the year, you might even ask students to reflect on how using ChatGPT helped or hindered their writing development, using examples from their portfolio.

3. Help students evaluate the credibility of arguments and the effectiveness of language choices

When given good prompts, ChatGPT can quickly produce models of writing for students to critique.

You might use the AI to provide students with the opportunity to examine alternate perspectives on a topic or to illustrate how word choice and syntax can affect tone. You can also use it to help students understand the criteria of your writing rubrics by having students assess how well ChatGPT meets the expectations of a rubric category. This can be especially useful when trying to showcase the formulaic features of AI writing versus the authentic voice of human writing. You can even ask students to manually revise ChatGPT’s writing to reflect a more unique style and voice.

4. Augment your lesson plans

If your students need help with writing more complex sentences, ChatGPT can quickly produce a list of sentences for students to expand. If your students need background knowledge on a topic to access a more challenging (and authentic) complex text on it, ChatGPT can produce a primer on the topic. It can also translate texts into different languages for your multilingual students, and it can create a variety of tailored graphic organizers to assist students with organizing their ideas.

But remember: ChatGPT is not an expert on pedagogy or content. It is a generative language model that is trained on vast quantities of openly available online writing, which include both research-based information as well as blatant misinformation. Teachers should evaluate its suggestions carefully for accuracy.

5. Model its use with students

Just as teachers should model the writing process in front of students, they should also model how they use ChatGPT. This might look like setting specific goals for using the tool (e.g., idea generation, feedback), trying different prompts to obtain more precise responses, fact-checking content, or choosing which feedback to apply and which to disregard.

Hearing you “think aloud” as you use the tool is an invaluable experience for students.

Keep learning

The suggestions above just barely scratch the surface. The AI landscape is rapidly evolving, and as more advanced versions of ChatGPT (we are on version four as of this publication) and other AI tools are released, we will need to continuously reexamine how we use them.

Even ChatGPT makes this statement about itself: “It’s important to note that while ChatGPT can be a valuable tool, it should not replace human interaction entirely. It’s crucial to establish clear boundaries and ensure that critical or sensitive tasks are handled by human professionals when necessary.” I can personally attest to this experience. ChatGPT gave me a launching pad for ideas for this blog post that I could then explore further based on my knowledge and experience as an educator.

For more information on the ongoing debate, check out these resources:

• “Suspicion, cheating, and bans: AI hits America’s schools”: In this episode of the podcast The Daily, journalists interview students and teachers on how ChatGPT is changing education.
• “Pivoting the conversation on AI in writing”: In this article, Central Michigan University professor Troy Hicks explores how we can rethink our current writing assignments in light of ChatGPT.
• “6 ways to use ChatGPT to save time”: This Edutopia article offers teachers tips for using AI efficiently.
• “19 ways to use ChatGPT in your classroom”: This EdWeek post offers additional ways to use ChatGPT in your classroom.
• “Lessons and tools for teaching about artificial intelligence”: This curated list from Common Sense Education includes free instructional resources.

The post 5 ways English teachers can use ChatGPT in their classroom appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

The latest NWEA research on the effects of COVID-19 school closures is in: progress toward academic recovery for older kids in particular has been slower than we’d like.

Our researchers are predicting “the average student will require the equialent of 4.1 months of additional schooling to catch up to pre-COVID levels in reading and 4.5 months in math.” Older students will need more time, they explain, because “more months of schooling will be required to catch up middle school students given that older students tend to make smaller gains.” Gaps for Black and Hispanic students have grown wider since the pandemic started as well.

In our post titled “COVID-19 impacts: New data shows older students’ recovery needs attention,” we offer the following recommendations to state and district leaders:

• Use local data to guide recovery and invest in what works
• Expand instructional time by deploying evidence-based interventions and programs to the students who still need additional support
• Communicate the importance of academic recovery, sharing timely and relevant information with families

I think these tips apply to you, too, if you’re a school leader. Read on to learn more about how you can support middle and high school students beginning this fall.

How to use local data

There are a few ways you can use your school’s data to support learning:

• Use interim and formative assessments to determine areas of focus, then adjust scope and sequence based on findings
• Progress monitor key indicators
• Add and/or review classroom walk-through data

Use interim and formative assessments

Data from interim assessments, like MAP® Growth, when viewed alongside data from formative assessments can offer clear insight into where students are in their learning. This kind of data analysis can help you determine areas of focus. Together with your teachers, you can then identify ways to adjust the scope and sequence of your curricula.

I’m sure you’ll notice that gaps in learning are inconsistent across grades, instructional strands, and students. I encourage you to use the most current data, and devote more time to the instructional areas where the loss has been greatest.

When I work with districts, we often pull the MAP Growth premium instructional report and frequently find that there are topics students know very well and topics they’re less confident in. This specific data source can support your work around scope and sequence and ensuring the level of rigor is appropriate. If you look at state standards, you will see that a standard is often taught across multiple grade levels and that the standards progress in level of difficulty from the beginning to the end of the year. Support your teachers in offering the level of rigor expected in the standard. Also review curriculum and pacing charts, and make adjustments as needed.

Data will also help you identify students who may need scaffolding to access grade-level content. I often hear teachers express concerns that some of their students cannot do grade-level work. Assessment data will almost for sure reveal that any student who is in need of extra support has a learning gap. Instead of encouraging your teachers to reteach content that is below grade level to all students, support them in preteaching to only those kids who have demonstrated learning gaps. The preteaching should focus on whatever will allow them to access grade-level content. (For more on why both preteaching and providing access to grade-level content work, see The 74.) Remember: Every kid in your school should be getting consistent access to grade-level content.

Last­—but definitely not least—be sure to go beyond looking solely at aggregated data. Review assessment results by student groups, such as ethnicity and program. Disparity is easily hidden when we look only at overall performance. I recommend Fenesha Hubbard’s book The Equity Equation: Six Entry Points for Nonnegotiable Academic Success for more ideas on how to address opportunity gaps.

Progress monitor key indicators

State assessment data comes too late to allow adjustments to instruction, so don’t spend too much time using last spring’s data to shape your strategies for the current school year. Even interim assessments will only give you three data sets to look at: one for each testing event during the course of the school year. Help your teachers get in the habit of using formative assessment data to monitor progress, if they’re not already doing this.

Formative assessment data should be gathered often—at least weekly—and used to adjust instruction. While it should never be used for grading, it is an invaluable resource for helping teachers get a pulse on where kids are in their learning early enough that they can still make valuable changes to their lesson plans. Your teachers probably have plenty of great strategies they rely on already, but if you want to encourage them to try something new this year, or to simply learn about other approaches, invite them to read “27 easy formative assessment strategies for gathering evidence of student learning.”

Support your teachers by giving them time to evaluate formative assessment data and make instructional adjustments. Encourage them to share successes across classrooms and grade levels, perhaps in PLC meetings.

Add and/or review classroom walk-through data

As an administrator, I’m sure you have faith in your teachers. Still, it’s important to inspect what we expect. Classroom walk-through data is critical to knowing that instruction is on grade level and at appropriate levels of rigor.

Before my school had a formalized walk-through tool, I used a summary page of power standards to conduct my classroom walk-throughs. I highlighted the power standard I wanted to focus on and if I didn’t see the standard being taught in the grade-level curriculum, the teacher and I would discuss why in our debrief. I also valued giving teachers detailed feedback plus exemplars and best practices they could try. Your input can be as simple as sharing the relevant power standards, having a short conversation about your observations as a whole, or providing teachers with a few self-reflection questions (I encourage you to stick around for the answers, or to invite your teachers to email you after they’ve had some time to think).

One thing I really loved about classroom walk-throughs is that they let me know who had outstanding practices that should be shared. I prioritized making room for that in team meetings, including on professional learning days, and in emails to all faculty.

How to expand instructional time

There’s no way to add time to our days. Sorry! But thinking about time differently, leaning on all faculty to provide interventions, and not waiting to intervene, when you know there’s a problem, can greatly increase the value of the instructional time your students get.

Think about time differently

There’s a lot of value in challenging yourself to think about time differently.

Review your school schedule to identify time for an intervention block. If the master schedule doesn’t have enough wiggle room, consider dedicating a portion of classroom time to preteaching for students who lack prerequisite skills. Use processes for daily activities, such as make-up work, lunch requests, and assignments, to make this happen. Also consider having peer observations to identify other ways to find time in the classroom.

Ask all teachers to provide interventions support

Our students spend up to half of their time in specials or electives. Make sure all your teachers know curricular gap areas. Gaps can then be addressed in some of these classes while teachers are still teaching their curriculum.

The PE teachers at my school taught our students about means. They asked students to calculate the mean of their performance in a specific sport or activity weekly, and they intentionally changed their language, from “average” to “mean,” for both accuracy and to reflect what was being taught in our math classes. This did not take away the importance of the PE curriculum, but it did provide a different way to embed core content into specials and electives.

How can your PE, music, or even library faculty join the larger effort to provide meaningful interventions in your school?

Don’t wait to intervene

As soon as an alarming pattern emerges in your data, intervene immediately. We often wait until a student has failed a class before we have them retake the course. That’s not the only way (and, I would argue, that’s not the best way).

If a student fails first-semester Algebra 1, provide an opportunity for them to retake it second semester, beginning in January. They will only struggle with second-semester Algebra 1 if they’re asked to continue before retaking the first-semester class. And if they have to wait until the following fall to try Algebra 1 again, they’ll just be wasting all those months between winter break and the end of the school year. (And they’ll likely be frustrated and losing confidence to boot.) An option like this requires creating a master schedule to meet the needs of students.

Similarly, do not wait until students are unsuccessful to suggest tutoring, after-school support, or other tier 2 support. Use flexible identification for programs and move students in and out of support using data. Ideally, you’ll be evaluating whether students are getting the right kind of additional help after each interim assessment.

How to communicate with families

It’s important for parents and other guardians to understand what the research is telling us about COVID-19 school closures and their effects all these months later. Communicate regularly on the importance of academic recovery by providing the context relevant for your school and letting families know that you and your faculty are considering multiple data points when supporting students.

Put academic recovery information in context

Sometimes a school or district suffers the consequences of negative press about recent state or national assessment data. While there’s nothing we can do about the larger narrative, or even local media, we can make the concept of an academic recovery concrete to families. This is best done in person.

During conferences, encourage teachers to gently show parents and guardians where a student is in relation to pre-pandemic norms. This may require restructuring conferences to allow for enough time for everything. When I was working in a school, a neighboring district restructured conferences so each student had a single point of contact for three or more years. (The exact amount of time depended on the grade span of the school.) This point of contact was a teacher, and they were able to get to know their student deeply. They also grew to know the student’s caregivers as well.

As always, be sure to ensure translators and multilingual teachers are scheduled to support families who need them. Also consider including general information on academic recovery and what it means for your school in particular to any regular communications you send out.

Consider all data points

You and your faculty should work with parents and caregivers to think beyond just academics. For example, poor attendance can have a significant impact on students, especially older kids who might feel tempted to drop out. In addition, behavioral issues resulting from difficulties at home or even undiagnosed conditions, like ADHD, can negatively impact academics.

Ensure that families are aware of all the supports available to students in your school and community. During the multilingual family night at my school, for example, we invited community groups to set up tables and share resources. We did this at other events as well, but on our multilingual night in particular, we found that many people took comfort in seeing others in a similar position, even if they spoke different languages or came from different countries. We were able to provide invaluable information about summer camps, library services, and health and job services in the community. While we worked to provide interpreters on these nights, we would also see families translate for each other, and get to know each other in the process.

Lead confidently

As a school leader, you were called on to think differently about your students and their families during COVID-19 school closures. Your creative, innovative thinking is still needed.

How can some of the ideas here help you support learning this school year? What ideas of your own do you have? It’s been a rough few years for educators, to say the least, but I’m confident you have what it takes to keep the bar high and meet the needs of each student.

The post COVID-19 school closures effects linger: How school leaders can help appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

I’ve performed comedy since 2018, starting with stand-up before I shifted to improv and sketch comedy. I’ve turned often to Tina Fey’s book Bossypants, in which she says, “In improv there are no mistakes, only beautiful happy accidents. And many of the world’s greatest discoveries have been by accident.”

I’d like to pass along four rules of improv from her book that can also be applied in the classroom to get kids energized about learning.

Rule #1: Say “yes”

Yes is a mindset of openness and readiness to a moment’s offering. Only when we are in a state of perpetual “yes” are we truly open to another person. However, “yes” indicates acceptance, not necessarily agreement. In improv, a scene might start like this:

Wife: You never take me out on dates anymore.

Husband: I took you to Chuck E. Cheese last week!

You can see in this example that the actor playing the husband accepts the establishment of a relationship gone stale by disagreeing with the wife’s claim.

In her LinkedIn Learning course “Harnessing change to unleash your potential,” Anastasia Montejano talks about acceptance, too. She explains that it’s on a continuum: deny, resist, explore, accept.

Consider where you might be on this continuum when it comes to your classroom. You can apply this first rule of “yes” to accept reality and the hand that’s been dealt to you. “Yes” might mean:

• I’ve got 18 out of 25 students who are below grade level for math
• I’ve got a first-year co-teacher
• I’ve got a veteran co-teacher
• Administrators are implementing three new initiatives this year

The quicker you can accept your reality with openness and curiosity, the easier it will be to succeed because everything will be an opportunity.

Rule #2: Actively listen through “Yes, and…”

Once I’ve accepted what my scene partner has established, I can build on it. There’s a saying in improv: “Bring a brick, not a cathedral.” My scene partner can’t read my mind so I can’t create a whole scene in my head (a cathedral) and try to play that out. My partner can only react to the one line I say or one action I do (the brick). And—together—we get to build our own cathedral. This implies that, as an actor, I have to actively listen to what my partner is saying before I respond and react to the last thing that was said.

Consider what trying improv in the classroom and embracing both positivity and active listening might look like. Do you find yourself waiting for students to be done sharing, or are you reacting in real time to what they are saying? The challenge for teachers is that we often know the cathedral (the scope and sequence) that is being built. How can we lay bricks alongside students and build a cathedral together?

One practical suggestion is to facilitate listening-centric experiences with students. I encourage you to use our formative conversation starters to try this in your classroom.

Rule #3: Make statements

Generally, great improvisers can establish the location, characters, and relationship within the first three lines of dialogue so that they can take the rest of the time to play. Actors do this by giving a gift, which is setting something up in the scene for other actors to react to.

Gifts are often given through clear statements and specific details, rather than questions. For example, instead of a character saying, “Where are we going?” a character might say, “Ugh, I hate going to the mall this late.” Can you see the difference in how these two scenes might play out? The first scenario presents a situation where the second actor isn’t given a lot to work with. The second scenario establishes the actors are going to the mall at a late hour.

Additionally, providing specific details is often funnier than supplying generic information. For example, instead of saying, “Wow, I can’t believe you bought my dream car,” a character might say, “Wow, I’ve always wanted a Hyundai Sonata.” Something about the specificity of the car makes this scene funnier. No one’s dream car is a Hyundai Sonata (I think?). The character has offered a gift to their scene partner with this detail.

When using improv in the classroom, you can provide gifts for students with clear expectations through learning statements and success criteria. Learning statements share the expectation of cognitive understanding. Success criteria share the expectation of actions students need to take to show their cognitive understanding, since we can’t read their minds.

As teachers, we should be mindful of the assessments we provide. We want to be sure they are intentional, rather than just for a grade. Then, will we use formative or summative assessment? How will the assessment inform teachers of what students know and don’t know? What will we do with the information students provide on assessments?

Less ambiguity will decrease anxiety for learning, on both sides. For teachers, getting transparent means getting honest about our own goals, and it helps us locate exactly where our students can join us in collaboration. If we can show our learners the game plan, then they might be more inclined to take ownership of their academic growth—and then make their own suggestions.

Rule #4: Remember: There are no mistakes

As Tina Fey noted in her book, there are no mistakes, only opportunities. She was talking about improv, but I think her wisdom applies to teaching, too.

In improv, I must often let go of what makes sense. After all, that’s just what “makes sense” to me. A scene might play out that I’m a talking pencil trying to get out of a pencil case with my best friend, the highlighter. If I can surrender the rules of life, then I can play more freely and creatively.

Usually when I perform, I evaluate my soft skills and not the content. In other words, I don’t reflect on what I should have said or done; rather, I focus on how well I supported my scene partner and embodied my presence. Maybe there’s a character I want to try out or I need to work on eye contact. These are the skills that will help me become a better improviser.

Similarly, as a teacher, I aim to listen to my students and understand their point of view. I help them explore ideas in different ways. And I try to remind myself—and them—that we should “Embrace mistake-making in math.”

The funny will come

Another frequent saying in improv is, “Don’t force the funny. The funnies will come.”

Teachers, don’t force the learning. The learning will come. It might come today, tomorrow, next week, or next semester. Keep trying and exploring and moving on when something doesn’t go according to plan. Think about ways you might use improv in the classroom. “Bad” lessons don’t define your value as a teacher. In Tina Fey’s words, bad lessons can be “beautiful happy accidents.”

To hear more about this topic, listen to our The Continuing Educator podcast episode “Comedy and the classroom, with Nicholas Joe.”

The post 4 ways to use improv in your math classroom to engage kids appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

My son had a teacher in third grade who changed everything for him. Up to that point, recess was his favorite subject. Then he was introduced to inquiry-based learning that extended beyond the classroom. And, suddenly, really important things (other than recess) were happening at school.

We live in Portland, Oregon, and you may already know about our city’s struggle with a growing homeless population. What you probably don’t know is that my son’s = class set out to answer this essential question: What can we do to help the homeless people in our community? And they did so with some impressive results. They researched homelessness and wrote about it, made bread and delivered it to a local homeless shelter, and then interviewed some of the people they met there. They used this data to design and build a mobile shelter, which they donated to one of the interviewees. (To learn more about this experience in the students’ own words, read “Kids point the way: Beaverton third graders offer a new perspective, practical answers on homelessness.” It’s the second article on the website I link to.)

The key takeaway from this example is that inquiry-based learning can ignite the learner in all of us. And when teachers, caregivers, and communities get involved—as they did with this third-grade classroom—that’s when the real learning happens. So, how did it all start? By crafting the right essential question.

What is an “essential” question?

An essential question sounds important, and it is. An essential question does three important things:

1. An essential question addresses a topic relevant to real people in the real world

Kids are great at knowing when a problem is real or contrived, and academic tasks in some curricula are often the latter. Authenticity can’t be faked.

Talk to your students about issues that matter to them, in their community or beyond. That can help you explore questions more likely to pique their curiosity.

2. An essential question has many possible answers

The goal of an essential question is for students to explore universal concepts that help them arrive at new understandings of the world they live in.

Here is what my son’s third-grade classmates had to say about homelessness in the article published in our local paper: “There are lots of reasons people end up homeless.” “To afford a house here, you have to make $31 an hour.” “When you have a minimum-wage job and the price of things goes up, there is a chance you will end up homeless.”

I am struck by the students’ understanding of complex concepts like interdependence, economy, and stability. There was no “right answer” to this essential question, only endless possibilities.

3. An essential question is worthy of study and discussion

A good essential question is one that encourages ongoing inquiry. Since there is no definitive right answer, students can’t just ask ChatGPT.

The way students might answer the question today is likely different from how they would answer it in the future. This could be because of a changed perspective, new technology, or many other reasons.

Finally, a good essential question allows students to research a topic through different lenses and apply what they learn to different disciplines. The students in my son’s third-grade class engaged in real-world math (housing costs, wage earnings), writing (a research paper, a product ad), and STEM (design, engineering). This interdisciplinary study gave them multiple entry points into the topic and multiple ways to demonstrate their learning. They worked in small groups of about five, and each group discussed, imagined, and created a prototype of the mobile shelter. Then the class voted on the best design and built it (with some help), just as adults would in the real world.

Why are essential questions better than other types of questions?

An essential question hooked my son on learning because it addressed work that mattered, and he knew it and wanted to be a part of it. Engaging students in work that matters is difficult but important.

In Authentic Instruction and Assessment, this kind of learning is called authentic intellectual work, and it has three primary components.

1. Construction of knowledge. Students have an opportunity to organize, interpret, evaluate, or synthesize prior knowledge to solve new problems that are both rigorous and personally meaningful. The work must be an original application of knowledge and skills, not a routine use of facts and procedures.
2. Disciplined inquiry. Students are able to strive for in-depth understanding of a topic and they develop and express their ideas through extended written, oral, and/or digital communication. The work must involve students in a careful, detailed study of a particular problem.
3. Value beyond school. Students find intellectual challenges that come from the real world to be more meaningful than those contrived for the sole purpose of teaching or assessment. Authentic intellectual work must mimic work done by adults in the real world with students taking on the role of apprentice to a profession or discipline.

In Authentic Instruction and Assessment, the most compelling finding from the authors’ 13 years of research is that authentic intellectual work benefits all students. In fact, it benefits higher-performing students only slightly more than other students. The authors also found that authentic intellectual work can reduce the link between students’ academic achievement and socioeconomic status. It did not eliminate this gap completely, but it did decrease it.

The authors also discovered that students with disabilities benefit substantially from authentic intellectual work, in part because this work creates learning environments that are better suited for students with learning differences. Authentic intellectual work often lets students play to their strengths and use different modes to show what they know and can do. This has certainly been true for my son, who has ADHD. While he struggled with writing the research paper on homelessness, doing the hands-on work of designing and building the prototype for a mobile shelter gave him a place to shine.

How do I write a good essential question?

Here are five tips for using effective essential questions with your students:

1. Make it conceptual

Essential questions are not content-specific questions. They are broad concepts that can apply to many content areas.

Identify one or more concepts for your students to explore, such as behavior, environment, or choice. The book Differentiation in Middle and High School: Strategies to Engage All Learners provides a good list (on page 36). Many of these concepts are appropriate for elementary school, too, such as the concept of community explored in my son’s third-grade project, and more advanced concepts can be adapted for younger students.

Using a concept to frame an essential question promotes connected learning rather than isolated skills or facts. For example, students might explore history as a cycle, meaning it is both tethered to the past and connected to the future. The concept of a cycle helps students think more critically about history and make connections beyond those provided in a textbook. Such relational understanding has many benefits. According to neurologist and educator Judy Willis, “Whenever new material is presented in such a way that students see relationships, they generate greater brain cell activity and achieve more successful long-term memory storage and retrieval.”

2. Make it debatable

Students should be able to approach and answer an essential question from many different angles. Avoid one-sided issues, like recycling, and polarizing issues, like politics. Instead, focus on multi-sided issues that prompt healthy debate.

The sweet spot is a topic that allows students to share their opinions and experiences and also do research to deepen their understanding and uncover new perspectives. Students might explore the impacts of water pollution on their local water sources, for instance, and then use this knowledge to consider the intersection between science and policy.

3. Make it student friendly

Consider what topics are interesting, relevant, and worthy of study for your students. Then write the essential question in student-friendly language.

For younger students, the questions might look something like this:

• What can humans learn from animals? (Concept: behavior)
• How does where I live affect how I live? (Concept: environment)
• How do we know how to make good decisions? (Concept: choice)

For older students, the broad concept can be embedded in the question:

• How does human imagination help improve people’s lives?
• How can society balance the needs of people with the needs of nature?
• How does language affect the way people think about the world?

For more examples of good essential questions, explore the free design tool developed by the authors of Understanding by Design.

4. Make it meaningful

Provide students with a meaningful context for the essential question. Imagine a scenario that will spark your students’ interest and use it in a launch lesson. During the project, show students how they can apply academic skills to help them answer the bigger question.

For example, my son’s third-grade class had to use math skills to arrive at a deeper understanding of homelessness:

• How much money must a person make to pay rent or buy a house in this area?
• How can I convert this total dollar amount into an hourly wage?
• What is the difference between this hourly wage and the minimum wage in my area?

While my son was not very interested in doing complex word problems like this from his math textbook, he was interested in learning more about homelessness and what he could do about it.

5. Make it student driven

Give students meaningful opportunities for choice and voice. This kind of differentiated instruction encourages learners to direct their own learning and teachers to facilitate the learning process as a “guide on the side.”

Giving students some autonomy over an academic task increases their engagement and persistence, and it leads to better achievement outcomes, too.

Fast forward to today

My son is now in his senior year of high school and wants to be an engineer. Knowing that he has already helped create a practical solution for a seemingly intractable problem like homelessness gives me hope for him and his entire generation.

If my son’s third-grade class could gather input from people who are homeless and use that information to design and build a mobile shelter, it seems there’s no problem too big or too complex for them to tackle in the future. We can help prepare all students for this real-world work by infusing more inquiry-based learning into their K–12 education. Let’s start now. We’re going to need every one of their bright minds and creative solutions for the work ahead.

The post How inquiry-based learning can ignite the learner in all of us appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

We need to put more relating back into relationships. More specifically, we need to invest in helping educators build meaningful professional relationships with each other and with themselves. As I explain in my new book, The Equity Expression: Six Entry Points for Nonnegotiable Academic Success, relationships are an entry point for building equity in schools that can support students’ growth and advancement.

I’m a relationship person. I go out of my way to relate with my colleagues on a personal level, to ask them how they are, to get to know them. This has helped me find meaning in my work and be more effective at my job. I know this comes easily to me but that it may be very challenging for others.

I thought about the importance of professional relationships a lot when I was writing my book and again recently, when I attended an educator event.

A group of teachers walk into a conference…

At a recent conference, I got the chance to network with a group of teachers. One of them dominated the conversation, using the word “I” repeatedly. When the group finished talking, I asked her how she might collaborate with us in the future. She didn’t have an answer. I suspect part of why is because she didn’t give herself a chance to get to know the people she’d been talking to. She had spent thirty minutes with a group of strangers, which takes courage, but she had also spent most of the time talking about herself. It seemed to me she had made little effort to build a relationship with her fellow educators.

There are many reasons this may have happened. This teacher may experience social anxiety, which manifests in nervous monologuing. She may be neurodivergent. She may have never been encouraged to use conversations as an opportunity to connect to others. Whatever the cause, this teacher is obviously not a bad or even a flawed person. Like many of us, she’s just someone who missed an opportunity to focus on relationship building.

Meaningful relationships with colleagues and ourselves are critical  

Fostering professional relationships is an essential part of equity work.

Equity work is challenging, and we often take several steps back for every one or two we take forward. We can’t do this work alone; we need one another. When we build strong relationships with each other, we make it easier to work toward equity, which, in turn, supports our students.

Equity and relationships in K–12 education is a multilayered topic. Most discussions around equitable relationships center on race and cultural relevance, also called culturally responsive teaching, and have race and culture as a focal point for dissecting how teachers relate to their students. There’s plenty of research and support (Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives is just one example) for how to address these issues, but I want to highlight an overlooked area of importance: relationships with other educators and with yourself.

Building strong professional relationships with other educators and yourself is important because it helps us feel more psychologically safe with one another and builds a collegial trust and assurance that we can rely on one another. Everyone needs to feel safe when discussing highly charged topics around equity.

Three ways to build professional relationships

I know you might not be feeling all the way okay right now. You might feel burned out, overworked, and overwhelmed. The pandemic created an urgency to shift how we do schooling, and being an educator was challenging long before that. Where are you supposed to even find the time to build relationships?

I believe relationship building is about taking small actions consistently, not about making a huge, time-consuming shift. I believe any type of big goal should be given ample time so that you can be successful. If you’re commited to focusing on your professional relationships, I encourage you to think of this as a year-long project, one you can start thinking about now and begin implementing when the new school year starts. Here are three things to focus on.

1. Create your community

I encourage you to elect two trusted partners with whom you can process, reflect, and make sense of your thoughts, actions, behaviors, teaching materials, and instructional practices. This will ensure you have support along your teaching journey. Select two different types of trusted partners: a 180^o partner and a 360^o partner, both of whom know what it’s like to be a teacher and neither of whom evaluate or assess your performance.

Your 180^o partner should be a person you imagine to be 180^o degrees different from you. Perhaps they’re different in upbringing, cultural experiences, or even the subject they teach. If you’ve been an elementary school math teacher for two years, for example, your 180^o partner may be a veteran high school English teacher. The purpose of this partner is to allow you to engage in conversation where you can learn from the insights and experiences of someone different from you.

Your 360^o partner should be a person you imagine to be very similar to you. They are aligned in what you teach, your cultural experiences or background, and interests. If you teach sixth-grade science, your 360^o partner might be the eighth-grade science teacher at your school. The purpose of your 360^o partner is to allow you to engage in conversations that are easier because you have a lot of common ground.

Both of your partners will be people you will learn from (and they will learn from you). Through honest, authentic conversations, you can embrace diversity as you learn more about one another and deepen your self-awareness and empathy.

2. Cultivate collaborative learning spaces

Consider all the professional development spaces in which you gather with educator colleagues: trainings, workshops, professional learning communities, webinars, staff and grade-level team meetings, continuing education courses, and more. These provide a continuous growth opportunity to develop skills and knowledge that will help make you a better teacher.

One way to cultivate a collaborative learning space is to identify potential 180^o and 360^o partners when you engage in professional learning. These individuals can help you think and talk about a session specifically, not necessarily your practice as a whole, like the partners I mentioned earlier should do. Ask potential partners if they’d be willing to continue learning with you by debriefing after the workshop or other professional learning experience.

Imagine what is possible when you think of relationships with fellow educators as more than just being colleagues. Imagine that your relationships make up collaborative learning spaces where you work alongside your peers not only to learn more about the subject you teach, how to best teach it, and how to know what learners need, but also to foster safe and brave spaces for equity conversations where critical thinking occurs and new thoughts are explored.

3. Commit to self-reflection

It’s also critical to consider the most important relationship you will ever have: the one you have with yourself. It’s easy to define a professional relationship between you and others because it’s usually driven by roles (I teach my students), agreements (the building service worker cleans my classroom at the end of each day), or commonalities (we’re the science team). The relationship with yourself is defined by the extent to which you are true to who you are and your willingness to grow and change.

It’s important that you’re clear about who you are, what you believe, and your impact on the relationships you have with others. The relationship you have with yourself affects others as much as it affects you.

If you’re looking for a way to learn how to become a more self-reflective educator, my book is packed with exercises that will help you get started.

You are amazing

Teaching is hard work. I don’t need to tell you that. But you might be underestimating how important relationships can be.

I doubt I would have thrived during my teaching career without the community I created and cultivated. I formed connections with my grade-level team members. I engaged with my mentor and instructional coach at least once a week. And I found community within myself by making self-reflection a regular practice.

Each of my professional relationships gave me the space to consciously complain and try to make sense of all that I had to manage as a teacher, particularly things that pained me or that I found challenging. Talking my thoughts out helped me to identify my feelings so that I could teach from a space of clarity and confidence, rather than confusion.

You, too, need the time and space to bring awareness to how you feel about your work so you can make choices that empower students and prioritize equity in your day-to-day teaching. Building better relationships with other educators and yourself will help you become more conscious of the actions, behaviors, and choices you make—and that can foster the most positive outcomes for students.

For more information on relationships and the other entry points for building equity, check out The Equity Expression: Six Entry Points for Nonnegotiable Academic Success and our professional learning workshop series on creating supportive environments.

The post How teachers can build professional relationships with each other—and themselves appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Digital literacy is something we didn’t have to think much about a few decades ago. But as the amount of information available to us—from online newspapers and other websites to social media videos and more—seems to multiply daily, it’s increasingly important for educators to help students gain digital literacy.

The American Library Association defines digital literacy as “the ability to use information and communication technologies to find, evaluate, create, and communicate information, requiring both cognitive and technical skills.” That’s a long definition, and it describes something that can feel easier said than done.

We can all be fooled

I’ve run across the following quotation countless times: “Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes but when you look back, everything is different?” It can be found all over the Internet, with multiple sources attributing it to C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia series. With so many different sources saying Lewis wrote the words, how would we know that, in fact, he didn’t?

The sentiment expressed in this quotation exemplifies what has happened to digital literacy. We can look back just 30 years and observe that the digital landscape was very different then from what we see now. Over time, relatively unnoticeable changes have added up to huge differences in how we gather information and interact with others.

The confusion around the quotation’s origins drives home the point that we must be savvy consumers of information we consume in the new digital world. Students and teachers are having to learn to access more information presented in new ways, for example, multimodal texts that incorporate not only print but also images or sounds. They are also needing to sort through that information to separate the truth from misinformation by reading critically and corroborating sources. Then they must share their learnings responsibly.

Times have changed

Let’s think for a moment about how information is presented now versus in the past.

Traditionally, back in the “old days,” as my kids say, if we wanted to learn something about a specific topic, we needed to read an article about it or (gasp!) use the card catalog at the library to find a book on the topic, which we then pored over for hours. We also learned from newspapers printed on paper, magazines printed on paper, or newscasts in the evening, which were available only a few times a day. Some reading this may remember how Walter Cronkite, whom we trusted to keep us informed about events of the world, would sign off: “And that’s the way it is.” Well, that’s the way it was.

Compare all those activities to now. If we want to learn about a specific topic, we can access online articles by searching for keywords, looking over the list of titles that pops up, and then skimming a selected article to quickly see if it fulfills our quest for information. That digital article will likely look different from articles we used to see in print. It may have audio or visual elements embedded or hyperlinks to other digital texts that can take us further down the rabbit hole as we search for the answers we seek. Or we can watch a video on YouTube or TikTok, or maybe even listen to a podcast. What’s likely is we will do all those things. After all, there are now about 200 million active websites vying for our attention.

Misinformation abounds

As we spend time poking around some of those millions of websites, what do we do if we run across information that conflicts? What if the person producing the text, audio, or video is only a self-proclaimed expert? How can we tell? Those questions also apply to the information we are getting on newscasts. How do we determine if the news media is reporting in an unbiased manner? How can we learn to fact-check on our own rather than relying on fact-check sites that may have their own biases or perspectives? These are problems confronting society, and schools are now having to help students navigate this space to be fully informed digital citizens of the world.

Unfortunately, the digital world has changed so fast that the K–12 educational system hasn’t had much time to think and plan for how to help students best avail themselves of digital information and how to then use it responsibly to inform others. In fact, the term “digital literacy” is still being defined by some. In 2020, a group of researchers spent some time analyzing how people were thinking of digital literacy, and after reading over 20,000 articles on the subject, their conclusion was that there are two ways to think about it: “skills-competencies for the use of technology” and “teaching-learning and its strategies.” Both are important.

How to support today’s kids

Students should be taught how to use technology, from how to use a keyboard to how to write an email. They should also be taught how to maximize technology to increase their knowledge. That is, they should be taught how to know if a source is reliable and how to check for accuracy of information.

What, then, can educators do to facilitate student learning in this space? I have three recommendations.

1. Start small

When teaching your students digital literacy, begin by helping them identify key words. Having the right key words can enable them to find information closest to what they are looking for. It’s also important to help students learn to interact with different formats. Practicing with different sources of information can help them get in the habit of questioning everything they encounter.

Something to try: To practice with key words, find an informational public domain article on a topic of interest to your students. Print it out and black out the title and any subtitles, as those often include key words students will end up selecting. Make enough copies for all your students. Then, create a list of questions related to the topic of the article.

Put your students in small groups and have them work to brainstorm the key words they think they would need to use to find answers to your questions quickly. Once students have a list of keywords they want to try, set a timer and let them loose to see who can identify the best key words the fastest. Discuss as a class both the successful searches and those less successful, and why particular words worked and others didn’t.

To give kids practice working with information in different formats, find a text that presents information differently from a textbook. It might be a digital article with hyperlinks, like this blog post. Or it might be an interactive map that allows students to click the graphics to learn more. It could even be a video or podcast. Work with students to explore the information and its various features, discussing how the format differs from the forms they encounter most often at school. How do they need to adjust to effectively glean the important information?

You can also serve as a model for effective use of digital formats, consistently presenting information during lessons and using multimodal or nonstandard texts, surveys to increase class participation, digital white boards, and more.

2. Make meaningful connections

To help students make meaningful connections, I encourage you to focus on building background and helping them analyze sources.

Some things to try for building background: For younger students, have them read an informational text that is part of your current unit of study. Tell them they will be digital investigators and need to learn at least three more details about the topic. Provide them with at least three student-friendly, topic-related websites they can use to build their knowledge while becoming more digitally literate. Teach them about the search bar and the other features on the sites that can help guide them to helpful information.

Sites you might consider, depending on the topic of study, include the National Park Service website for students, NASA website for students, and National Geographic Kids website.

This same concept can be used with older students as well, even with literary texts. For example, students who understand the historical context surrounding Passing by Nella Larsen have a much better chance of understanding the various themes. Have them explore what was happening in America during the 1920s, including racial tensions, The Great Migration, and classism. Discuss how those events are revealed throughout the book.

Some things to try for analyzing sources: Many older students are well acquainted with social media platforms, and just as many may not realize how much misinformation is posted there. If you have a bit of extra time right before the end of class, show students something that has gone viral and have them discuss it. Ask questions, such as, how could we determine if this information is true or if this event really happened? Could there be another side to this story? What words does the social media post use that may give us a hint about how the creator feels about the topic? Could their perspective be masking the truth?

The News Literacy Project is a wonderful organization you can use to learn more about ways to teach students to discern fact from fiction on the web. Learn more about these free materials and resources in my article “Helping students get to the truth with the News Literacy Project.”

3. Integrate practices into other content areas

Often, when people hear the word “literacy,” they immediately think of language arts. But as my colleague Miah Daughtery explains in “How not to teach literacy across disciplines,” literacy—including digital literacy—is an important part of all content areas.

Something to try: If you’re an ELA teacher and feel tasked with teaching digital literacy all by yourself, reach out to colleagues. Maybe even consider starting a PLC dedicated to brainstorming ways for incorporating digital literacy into all content areas.

Math teachers could show kids how the Pythagorean theorem is used in the real world. In social studies, your colleagues could bring history to life with videos of people recreating historical events, timelines, and primary source materials housed in libraries and available digitally worldwide. Science teachers can explain the role of blood in our bodies by showing moving diagrams of blood flow, or they can assign a podcast where scientists explain chemical reactions and the results of various experiments.

Change is constant

“Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes but when you look back, everything is different?” Everything isdifferent now because of changes in technology.

Many of us are still working to improve our own digital literacy. Seize that as a great opportunity to remember how it feels to be a learner, immersed in knowledge acquisition. Get in the trenches with your students. It’s okay that we, too, are wading through vast amounts of digital information, presented in interesting formats, with each needing to be vetted for accuracy and potential bias. It’s a challenge for both educators and students, but one day we will look back and realize this was an exciting time of exploration in education that helped create more savvy world citizens.

The post 3 ways to improve students’ digital literacy skills appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

There are many misconceptions blocking innovation in state summative assessments. One is security. Existing policies related to assessment security may be doing more harm than good.

An antiquated system

Testing programs use a variety of security protocols and procedures primarily to reduce cheating and protect test content. While the purpose of security practices is to ensure the results are reliable, valid, and trustworthy, many common testing protocols were designed under twentieth-century testing conditions—that is, for paper-and-pencil testing, and in the context of the No Child Left Behind era. We have been applying those protocols to computer-based assessments.

Old security protocols often required intensive management in the classroom and throughout school and district offices. For example, it was common for test proctors to take posters and other items off classroom walls during state testing. They also enacted strict rules around what kids could and couldn’t do; those who finished early or weren’t testing often had to sit quietly and do very little while their peers completed their test. Test materials had to be painstakingly accounted for at all times and kept under lock-and-key when not actively being used for testing, while teachers and administrators were required to sign affidavits affirming secure materials handling and appropriate test administration practices.

Security protocols were upheld by the belief that as long as the protocols were followed, the integrity of the test and results would remain intact.

Assessment security gone too far

The transition to online testing has offered some inherent security improvements. There are no physical test booklets to photocopy now, access to test content and student answers is restricted through online assignment and permissions, and it can be more difficult for students to see each other’s work as they are focused on their own screens. Also, with adaptive testing, individual students see completely different items.

Technology now also offers the possibility of rapid and expansive cheating detection capabilities, but this has progressed to ever more invasive methods of ensuring security at the expense of student privacy. Yet content still leaks, and preventing those intent on cheating carries an increasing cost.

It’s time to revisit assessment security

Accountability testing options have become more flexible under the Every Student Succeeds Act, and educators are demanding assessments that work for them, creating evolution in the industry. As states rethink their assessment programs, it’s clear security protocols also need reevaluating.

We’ve seen evidence that change is possible. At the height of the pandemic, for example, the College Board allowed AP testing to take place at home, unproctored and using an open-book approach. While we would not recommend states follow that exact approach with their summative assessments, it shows we can think creatively about how to balance assessment security protocols with student and teacher needs.

One place states can start is by taking stock of their assessment model. A through-year model, for example, can create multiple data points, reducing end-of-year pressure on a single measure of student achievement. Computer adaptive tests are also less likely to lead to cheating since students see different test items.

It’s also important for states and assessment developers to ensure tests provide valuable information for students and teachers. Providing helpful information that supports teaching and learning in robust ways is perhaps the best way to prevent cheating and promote more authentic, engaging, and meaningful assessment practice.

As states look for ways to create more rigorous and meaningful state summative assessments, it’s well past time to reevaluate assessment security. Those in place currently tend to burden students and teachers and do very little to make tests better or even more secure.

What are your ideas on how we can shift state assessment security protocols to align with new technology and assessment models? Let us know. We’re @NWEAPolicy on X.

The post Assessment security: Who—or what—are we really protecting? appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Teachers, in the spirit of Greta Gerwig’s pink summer blockbuster, what kind of back to school Barbie are you?

• Summer School Barbie: This Barbie never really turns their school-brain off. Summer is the perfect time to level up. “Oh, this old classroom door? I bought 50%-off pool toys and now my students join me ‘Under the Sea!’”
• Boot Camp Barbie: This Barbie is different from last year. Whether they’re teaching something new or they changed classrooms, they’re gonna rock it this year. “Watch out, 23–24. You’re not ready for me.” Tip: Give this lanyard-swinging Barbie a wide berth in the hallway.
• Reluctant Back to School Barbie: This Barbie lives for summer and would prefer to deny any back to school happenings. They might be on time to day one of in-service, if they feel like it. “Shh. We still have three more days.”
• School Supply Barbie: This Barbie is still a student at heart and loves new pencils, gel pens, and Post-its. They have the neatest handwriting (on paper and on the board), and somehow their classroom smells the best. “My hole-punches are heart-shaped.”

Whatever Barbie you are, the back to school rush is full of new initiatives, duties, and colleagues. And that’s all before the students even arrive!

Whether you’re a first-year teacher or a veteran, one of the perks of teaching is the reset that the new school year brings. That freshness—the chance for improvement, change, reflection—is unique to the education profession. So how can busy teachers take advantage?

To uncover worthwhile back to school tips sure to help you make the most of your new start, I spoke with Shelby Coffin, ELA teacher at Decatur High School in Decatur, Georgia; Cool Mom Barbie (this Barbie’s classroom is never empty, and she knows all their secrets); and Olivia Rocamora, high school Spanish teacher at the Weber School in Atlanta and Overachieving Barbie (this Barbie says yes to everything until halfway through the year, when she screams “No!” and schedules a haircut).

Let’s dive in!

1. Consider planning a day one with absolutely zero content coverage

Sure, we all have day one to-dos, of our own making or mandated by our schools. But once those are done, could you take your class on a school tour? Could you play Pictionary? Could you transfer seedlings into a class planter? Could you immediately start them on a science experiment, even if (especially if?) you’re not the science teacher?

Remember: each year represents a new start. The absolute worst-case scenario is that whatever you do on day one doesn’t work, and you won’t repeat it next year. The stakes just aren’t that high!

Let’s use day one to establish classroom culture, tone, and connection. This doesn’t have to be a rowdy round of improv games. To help everyone get to know each other, Shelby reads a letter about herself aloud and gives students time to write their own. Even if you’re not playing get-to-know-you games, consider allowing your new students time to complete my Google Form or Shelby’s’ First Day Questionnaire. This simple action will communicate to your students that you prioritize them.

Olivia says, “Go through your syllabus on the third day, after other teachers have already hit the school-wide stuff. Then, you can prioritize the specifics of your class with the students’ full attention.”

2. Show yourself some love by packing your desk with feel-good items

Teachers, you definitely need some chocolate in your desk. Gum, sparkling water, ibuprofen, lip balm, granola bars? And don’t act like this is a fallout shelter. Get the good stuff.

When it comes to buying things for your classroom, check out this how-to on making an Amazon Teacher Wish List.

3. Make your morning frictionless

Olivia advises that you pick out your clothes for the first week of school to “reduce your decision-making fatigue. It’s what Obama does.” Shelby meal-preps that week, knowing the exhaustion it brings.

Are you a morning coffee or tea drinker? Secure a grippy mug that fits in your car’s cup holder. Find a playlist or a podcast that puts you in the right mood for the day.

4. Speaking of music: your classroom needs music

Y’all, if you aren’t playing music in your room, you are leaving value on the table. Here’s why:

• You can welcome students into your classroom with the mood you desire. Upbeat? Bruno Mars. Chill? Bossa nova.
• You can signal different tasks: jazz during the warm-up, classical during group work, ’80s during the last three minutes.
• You will absolutely put yourself in a better mood.
• You will absolutely put your students in a better mood.

Spotify and Apple Music have ready-made playlists, including ones with no explicit lyrics. My hack is YouTube. Search “ambient cafe,” “lofi study music,” and even “Hogwarts Great Hall.”

5. A classroom refresh can be tiny, with big results

Try out a new desk formation. Actually (no, really) throw out last year’s projects. Get a small welcome mat for the door.

Look, it’s a new year. New you. New students. Even simply moving a poster from one wall to another will help tell your brain that new possibilities are afoot.

6. Make a parent/student email template for the first month of school

Every Teacher Barbie wishes they had more time to communicate with parents and other caregivers. Go ahead and type an email template that you send home during the first month of school. Something like this: “Hi, (student). I am enjoying getting to know you! I’ve noticed that you bring (positive quality) to our classroom, and we’ve already connected about (area for improvement, inside joke, or other). As we round out the first month of school, please let me know how I can continue to support you this year. I’m looking forward to (upcoming unit or project), and I’m glad to be your teacher this year.”

Making a Gmail template is incredibly simple and something I wish I’d known about earlier.

Go get ’em, tiger

Teachers, welcome back to school! We wish you your best year yet, full of minimal messes, only a few lost passwords, and seamless commutes. You know, a year as perfect as Barbie.

Love,

New School Year Resolution Barbie
(This Barbie has big back to school ideas that will die out by October, but it’s cool. There’s always next year.)

The post 6 back to school tasks for busy teachers appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

As my colleagues have discussed in earlier Teach. Learn. Grow. posts, there are common misconceptions holding state summative assessments back from innovating at scale. I’d like to look at the use of computer adaptive assessment and obstacles to using it for state summative tests. These kinds of tests are widely respected, yet many states still don’t have a computer adaptive summative assessment.

About computer adaptive assessment

Computer adaptive tests aren’t new and have been around since the 1980s, when the first adaptive assessment, the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), came into use.

Computer adaptive tests tailor the difficulty of test items to student performance as they take the assessment. Questions generally get easier if a student is struggling and harder if a student is excelling.

There are different types of computer adaptive assessment, too. Computer adaptive assessment used for federal accountability can be configured to adapt on and off grade level, providing grade-level performance information by constraining the amount of off-grade level adapting. Federal policy only allows state tests to adapt one grade above the tested level and one grade below, but I don’t see that as a constraint because computer adaptive assessments can adapt their difficulty levels within a grade level, asking deeper and more complex questions as is appropriate.

Due to a large item bank with items covering the whole ability continuum, adaptive tests more accurately measure student ability than fixed-form assessments, in which all students see the same test items. They also tend to be quicker to administer, requiring fewer questions to measure student achievement. Since the questions are tailored toward student levels, they are generally considered more engaging for students.

The resistance to computer adaptive state tests

Obstacles holding states back from shifting to computer adaptive assessment generally include misguided fears about the degree to which they provide comparable results between students, since kids aren’t seeing the same questions. The test blueprint ensures the items selected by the adaptive engine sufficiently cover the reporting categories for all students; however, fixed-form assessments normally also have multiple test forms with different questions, to address concerns of cheating.

Computer adaptive assessment does require a large item bank to provide students with the right item based on their previous responses. It is costly for states to build up an item bank for computer adaptive summative tests due to the amount of time and number of reviews it takes to develop a high-quality item, but there are ways to economize. States can pool resources or have educators in a state review and approve test items from another state’s test, rather than creating entirely new ones. There is also potential, with more research, for automated item generation to help create items, with teachers in the state reviewing all items.

A worthwhile change

If a state is looking to improve their state assessment system, they should consider taking a close look at computer adaptive assessment, which has advantages over traditional, fixed-form assessments, such as fewer items, which leads to shorter tests, and more precise information on student knowledge. Many of the perceived barriers to using computer adaptive assessments can easily be addressed if those barriers are stopping states from moving to computer adaptive assessments.

What are your ideas on how we can use computer adaptive assessments to improve statewide assessments? Let us know. We’re @NWEAPolicy on Twitter.

The post Computer adaptive assessment: A proven approach with limited uptake appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

How do we know if instructional coaching is effective?

This is a question that regularly comes up for educators when discussing the role and practice of instructional coaches. Ongoing research shows that instructional coaching is effective for improving teacher practices and student learning, but this is not usually the context in which the question is asked. Usually, when district leaders, school administration, teachers, and instructional coaches ask themselves this question, what they really want to know is if their instructional coaching is effective.

How to measure the effectiveness of instructional coaching is a quandary for many schools and districts. There are many logistical concerns, including how much time it can take to collect evidence of impact, who is responsible for providing the evidence, who is responsible for collecting the evidence, and which evidence should be valued. And, while there are many options available, decisions around these concerns should be considered at a program level, where factors such as capacity, school goals, and technology can influence these decisions. These are not always easy decisions to make.

However, what can be simple is the type of information we seek. I offer three simple questions to help you evaluate the effectiveness of instructional coaching in your school or district. I also provide ideas for how you can collect evidence of effectiveness related to each question. Thinking through these three questions and supporting evidence can bring clarity to the decisions we all make about measuring instructional coaching’s effectiveness.

Let’s dive in!

Question #1: How do the coach’s role and work look?

The quality of instructional coaching matters. Part of this includes how educators perceive the work of instructional coaching. How do their relationships with the coach look and feel? Are coaches spending most of their time in collaboration with teachers via instructional coaching cycles? Here are some ways to learn more.

Instructional coaching feedback surveys

A few different questions can reveal how teachers perceive the coach’s work and their role. These surveys should only be sent to teachers who have worked with the coach, not all teachers. (Teachers with no experience with a coach can skew the results significantly.) Here are some questions that help show how teachers perceive a coach’s work.

• What types of activities have you engaged in with the coach?
• Do you perceive the coach as a collaborator? Why or why not?
• How well does the coach help you reflect on your work?
• How much agency do you have in the coaching process?

Time audit

A time audit is a useful self-reflection of how coaches are spending their time.

• How well do your activities align with your role and goals as a coach?
• How much time are you using for coaching teachers, and how much time are you spending on other duties?

Coaching logs

A descriptive account of a coach’s actions can be used to determine how closely their work aligns with their purpose. However, coaching logs can become quite cumbersome for coaches to keep, so finding a way to streamline them through efficient formats (such as digital forms with drop-down options for various categories of work) can help immensely.

Question #2: What evidence shows that teachers are meeting their professional goals?

One of the most defining elements of the instructional coaching partnership is that it is goal-oriented.

Coaches and teachers work collaboratively to set goals and implement plans toward meeting them. Unlike shorter professional learning activities, instructional coaching is a long-term process that functions as scaffolding toward the realization of professional learning goals. So, how do we know whether teachers are meeting these goals?

Instructional coaching feedback surveys (again)

Surveying teachers can also help measure their progress toward meeting goals. Questions can relate to what degree teachers feel that instructional coaching is improving their knowledge, skills, and processes. Sample questions might include:

• Has working with your coach helped you reach professional goals? Why or why not?
• To what degree have your instructional practices improved after working with your coach?
• How well have you sustained new instructional practices you learned with your coach?
• How much improvement have you seen in your students’ learning after working with your coach?

Artifacts

If a teacher’s professional goal is focused on instructional practices, teacher actions, or specific skills, teacher-made artifacts can be useful sources of evidence. Success criteria for these artifacts can be established at the beginning of the coaching cycle to assess when they have met their goals. Examples could be unit plans, lesson plans, or teacher-created materials for students, such as written directions, learning modules, or student-facing handouts.

Goal tracking

Coaches can keep track of coaching cycles and record when teachers’ professional goals have been met. Here are a few questions to consider when developing a chart or digital form to keep track of successes:

• What goal(s) did the teacher have?
• Were the goals met?
• What criteria were used to assess progress on meeting goals?
• What learner evidence was used to determine success?
• What progress was made toward the goal (even if it was not met)?

Question #3: What evidence shows that students are meeting their learning goals?

The most important measures of success are those that show the impact on students’ learning. Of course, since most coaches often do not work directly with students, this can seem like the most difficult type of evidence to collect. Here are a few possibilities:

Pre- and post-assessments

Having students complete a pre-assessment before units or lessons related to specific learning targets can provide a good sense of their current level of knowledge or skill. A post-assessment can demonstrate the changes in learning. This is a straightforward approach that can indicate some impact from teacher and coach actions.

Student growth information

Examining student progress on interim assessments like MAP® Growth, MAP® Reading Fluency, and others can reveal how students are growing over time. Using prior data to influence instructional coaching goals and plans can provide some evidence of how well those goals and plans worked.

Classroom observation

If the focus of instructional coaching is related to student engagement or student actions, observation can be a wonderful way to measure impact. Examples for collecting evidence of learning through observation might include scoring or describing student performance tasks, such as using proper form in weight training, reading music, or student discussion skills, such as turn-taking or using academic language.

Student surveys

Students can provide their own impressions of learning through surveys. These surveys are tools to measure more subjective elements of student learning, such as their understanding of their developing social and emotional skills, their confidence as learners, or how they reflect on their own progress toward goals.

Student work

Evaluating work samples with criteria for success can be helpful for certain types of student products. These include student writing or digital products like websites, presentation slides, or animations.

Evaluating work samples can also be helpful for physical products such as models, artistic work, or inventions. Teachers can share a few representative samples of students’ work, rather than evaluating every student’s work as a time-efficient way to help assess the impact of instructional coaching partnerships.

Next steps

As you continue to think about the effectiveness of instructional coaching in your school or district, I encourage you to consider how your coaching program collects evidence of success. Here are some closing questions to guide you:

• Are any of the three questions in this article not being asked to help us measure effectiveness?
• What ideas do instructional coaches have for the types of evidence that would help them measure their impact?
• How could evidence be triangulated to impact instructional coaching programs and professional learning decisions?
• How could evidence be summarized and shared with stakeholders?

To learn more about how NWEA can support you in instructional coaching work, head to our website.

The post 3 key questions to measure instructional coaching effectiveness appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

A multilingual education has countless benefits. According to the Office of English Language Acquisition, it may help improve cognitive flexibility, lead to more academic and professional opportunities, and even help us develop empathy. But how can educators accurately evaluate the skills of students who speak more than one language? MAP assessments can help.

My colleague Lynne Kulich and I sat down with Matt Hajdun, who recently worked at The Columbus School, near Medellín, Colombia, to learn more about the role of assessment there. The Columbus School is a US-accredited pre-K to grade 12 school where students learn in English and Spanish and receive both a US and a Colombian diploma.

What follows is a bit of our conversation with Matt. He spoke about dual-language programs, language development, choosing balanced assessment systems, and leveraging MAP assessment data in a predominantly Spanish-speaking school. Matt’s answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Can you say a bit about yourself and your role at The Columbus School?

My name is Matt Hajdun and I just finished my fourth and final year at the Columbus School. I served as the assistant director of learning for language development and arrived at the school prepandemic, which dramatically shifted the landscape of our school and long-term planning.

When I first arrived, the biggest part of my role was completing an audit through a process called Appreciative Inquiry. While the school has two language programs (English and Spanish), there was a perception that English learning was privileged over Spanish, despite Spanish being the heritage language of 99% of the students and 60% of the staff.

During our audit, we looked at everything from staffing and curriculum to learning environment and family partnerships to better understand how language was taught and assessed. The goal was to put our two language programs side by side to better understand what we were doing and ensure consistency. Following the audit, we began using MAP® Growth from grade 2 through grade 10, and MAP® Reading Fluency from kindergarten through grade 1 with all learners, and in grades 2 and 3 for selected learners, based on MAP Growth performance.

How do you decide what language to use for assessment?

Nearly all of our 1,850 students are heritage speakers of Spanish. Our kindergarteners are just beginning to learn English, and while 80% of their instruction is in English, we assess them in Spanish using MAP Reading Fluency: Foundational Skills at the start of the year. By the end of the year, we also add in MAP Reading Fluency in English to assess their foundational skills in both our program languages.

Starting in second grade, we assess in both English and Spanish using MAP Growth. If we believe a student won’t be successful, the teacher can make a decision to administer the assessment only in Spanish. Or if a teacher believes a student’s assessment scores aren’t accurate or are lacking essential information, we reassess learners using MAP Reading Fluency, again in both languages. Additionally, we have a policy to automatically assess students scoring below the 20th percentile on MAP Growth using MAP Reading Fluency. Our goal is to have valid and reliable reading data in both English and Spanish.

Can you talk about what instruction looks like?

We’ve been working hard on trying to follow some translanguaging pedagogies. At times, a limiting factor is the bilingual level of a student’s teacher. We have six homeroom classes per grade with two Spanish teachers who offer a 60-minute daily Spanish literacy class, and not all of our teachers are bilingual. While they might be able to provide outstanding language scaffolds, they are not all yet able to provide explicit instruction in contrastive analysis, that is, placing both languages side by side for direct comparison.

We are working toward prioritizing time exploring differences and similarities between English and Spanish using our biliteracy model. For example, our fourth-graders read biographies in English with their homeroom teacher, whose heritage language is English, and then they have an hour of Spanish class with a local Colombian teacher, who teaches a biography writing unit. The students get a chance to explore cognates and words that have high leverage between the languages. Students may notice that, in English, we say, “I am ___ years old” but in Spanish, we say, “I have ___ years.” We have what we call a biliteracy assessment, so at the start and end of the unit, students answer a few questions about biographies in English and then they do some further analysis in Spanish.

What are some of your biggest data wins with MAP Growth and MAP Reading Fluency?

During our audit, we realized that our assessments didn’t talk to each other. We relied on standardized, norm-referenced assessments in English, but leaned mostly on in-house assessments for Spanish. MAP assessments, plus our additional reading and writing assessments, now allow us to measure students’ abilities in English and Spanish, so we have more confidence that we’re meeting our students’ needs in both languages. We can more easily determine if a child is proficient, that is, meeting grade-level standards in both languages, just one, or neither.

We weren’t able to do that before, so planning intentional small groups, like our learning center support, was happening almost exclusively in English. Now we have a really intentional protocol for determining what language is best for an intervention. If a student isn’t proficient in reading in both languages, we know we should intervene in Spanish first.

Can you give us an example of how MAP assessment data has informed instruction?

Our teachers were really skilled at guided reading groups, but they weren’t really comfortable with what we call language development groups, which help kids strengthen specific language skills. We realized that what we really needed teachers to be able to do was support English language development. Assessment data proved to us that just teaching reading skills over and over again in Spanish wasn’t actually raising their literacy level.

Before, only about 25 to 45% of students were meeting grade-level standards in English, so it was very easy for us to slip into a deficit mindset. Suddenly, MAP data was showing us that more than 80% of students were meeting grade-level standards in Spanish. That really changed the conversation to, “Wow, look at all the strengths our students have. How can we leverage them? How can we bring their language acquisition up so we can see these same strengths in their literacy in English?”

What role do funds of knowledge play in your literacy practices?

In my earlier example of that biography unit, we deliberately chose two Colombian activists as the subjects in the assessment texts. There are some amazing US scientists and researchers in the world, but they’re not all relevant to our students. We wanted our students to feel that who they were learning about is relevant to them.

It makes sense that the more local and contextualized your curriculum is, the more background knowledge each young brain already has, and that leads to more enthusiasm and more motivation. It’s incredibly helpful to not just acknowledge the linguistic context of your learners but the sociocultural context as well, when you can.

Your focus shifted to building oral language skills. Why?

We look a lot at Scarborough’s Rope and the Simple View of Reading.

When we look at what language comprehension means and how much of a factor background knowledge and vocabulary play in a student’s ability to decode and understand, then we know that the ceiling of what a student can comprehend in writing is dependent on what they can comprehend orally. We realized that we need to support our students in developing their oral language and expanding their vocabulary before we ask them to read and write in a second language.

Before we critically reviewed our program and started using MAP assessments in both languages, we began traditional reading and writing in English in kindergarten, and the kids were frustrated. All of our kindergarten teachers are local, bilingual teachers who have 10+ year histories at the school. Focusing on oral language skills was a huge mind shift for them because, for good reason, they believed they had been doing the most equitable and right thing up until then.

We have added a Spanish phonics program to try and leverage the students’ heritage language skills. The more traditional reading work is done in Spanish, and we also work on building oral language and vocabulary in both languages throughout the year. Now only the last unit in kindergarten involves more traditional reading and writing in English to help kids transition to first grade.

Teachers have come to me with feedback like, “I didn’t know our students could do so much in the last unit.” One even told me we can’t ever go back to how it was before because our students are writing without asking for help. They’re actually sitting down and writing in English for 10 minutes because they have the vocabulary they need to avoid getting stuck. We used to ask students to read and write in English when they had maybe 100 to 500 words in their English vocabulary. By waiting until the end of the year, they have closer to 1,000 words and can be that much more successful when they write. That’s been exciting.

What advice would you give to schools who are just starting their journey with MAP assessments in Spanish?

Step back and consider the mindsets in your school. And as Simon Sinek says, start with the why. When are you assessing and why? In what languages are you assessing and why? What do all stakeholders believe about asset-based language learning and why? I think that can help educators understand why assessing in more than one language is an equitable practice.

I also think it’s important to start slowly. Encourage teachers to take the assessments themselves first so they really understand the assessment design and how they are assessing the same thing, just in different languages. It can help teachers to see that when students are able to use their heritage language in an assessment, the assessment doesn’t magically ask them easier questions; it supports them in demonstrating their understanding so you can acknowledge all that they can do.

The post How MAP assessments can support multilingual instruction appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Every July, I’m reminded of the Tour de France because my husband is somewhat obsessed. He wakes up early to tune in. He finds coffee shops and bars that also invest in the nearly month-long adventure of watching, listening, and waiting to see which team—which person—will tackle one of the most challenging and controversial bike races in the world. The tour often overlaps with, or comes close to overlapping with, the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Equity for Americans with disabilities is a topic I get somewhat obsessed about.

July 26, 2023, marks the 33rd anniversary of the ADA. This civil rights act is essential in protecting people with disabilities from discrimination in the workplace. According to the World Health Organization,  there were more than one billion people in the world with a disability in 2011. For educators, that means there are children with disabilities in their classroom every school year, whether they realize it or not.

My husband’s affinity for the tour got me thinking about the ADA differently. As we start to prepare for the coming school year, here are three things the Tour de France can teach us about including students with disabilities.

1. “Une équipe,” or “one team”

Upholding the Americans with Disabilities Act and having equitable practices in our schools takes teamwork.

In the Tour de France, teams of eight riders compete against each other. One member of each team serves as a leader, and the others do everything they can to help him win. These team members, called “les équipiers,” support each other by removing barriers and allowing for the leader to save energy in a long event.

The more we understand the needs of our students, their families, and our colleagues, the more we can empower anyone with a disability to lead. Learn more about how you can do that. Attend technology conferences, such as the CSUN Assistive Technology Conference, or free events, such as Microsoft’s Ability Summit (videos of their 2022 gathering are available online). Check out CAST and learn how to implement Universal Design for Learning (UDL)in your classroom.

What makes “les équipiers” in the Tour de France great is their ability to remove barriers, share a common goal, and see the potential of their teammate. We can do the same in our schools.

2. “Les étapes” or “the stages”

Remember how the Tour de France runs through most of July? The cyclists are able to compete for that long because the race is done in stages, one stage per day.

Changing a school culture takes time, and some of the work will need to be done in stages. One example of a stage needed for including people with disabilities more is breaking down barriers with technology.

Once we know what stage we’re on, it’s important to remember that we must be thinking about accessibility from the moment we first have an idea about any change we want to make. This can help us remove barriers for people with disabilities but also allow us to be more innovative.

When thinking about technology in your school, for example, it helps to actively inquire about its accessibility. Did you know that Microsoft has included an option in Word documents that reads text aloud? Does the word processing software your school uses have a similar feature, or are children with disabilities being left out?

Like with the Tour de France, improving accessibility in your school will come in stages. Some will be as challenging as the six mountain stages the riders face, and others will be as easy as two days of rest. Don’t give up.

3.“Le parcours” or “the route”

The Tour de France has cyclists follow a different route every year, but the athletes always finish in the same place: Paris.

How can you improve accessibility in your classroom, school, or district? There are several routes you can take, depending on your role, but the destination is always the same: equity.

One route you can choose if you’re a teacher is to focus on improving accessibility. Incorporate those UDL Guidelines I mentioned earlier into classroom and lesson plans. Removing simple barriers, such as unnecessary color use, and providing alternative formats and ensuring access to materials with assistive technology can make a huge difference.

If you’re a leader, know that training and awareness are hugely important. Educating your staff is another route to take in your journey toward increasing inclusion and belonging. Another route you can take is to launch disability networks for students and staff. Creating safe and compassionate spaces where people can share common interests, express their feelings, and offer each other support can help individuals with disabilities feel included and also raise awareness throughout a school.

No easy feat

While our ride to inclusivity does not include cobble roads, time trials, and the Alps, improving equity and ensuring accessibility at times can feel as hard as competing in the Tour de France. I encourage you to think about how your metaphorical challenge and the actual race are similar. There’s wisdom to be gained from that annual bicycle challenge.

Yes, there will be some steep mountains for you to climb. But being able to celebrate more than three decades of the Americans with Disabilities Act makes the work worth it. Join me in celebrating the ADA and its importance to our students.

The post Celebrating the Americans with Disabilities Act appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

As I mentioned in “Misconceptions preventing innovation and improvement in state assessments,” there’s more we can do to better meet the needs of students, educators, teachers, and policymakers. I’d like to look at key questions surrounding emerging through-year assessments, how and when to come up with a summative score, and how we evaluate student proficiency.

About a dozen states have developed or are developing through-year assessment models in which tests are administered at multiple times during the school year, instead of just once in the spring. This can lead to richer and more actionable data related to student progress, shorter assessments, and even fewer assessments administered overall.

But there is debate over how to handle the summative results and whether students still need to be tested at the end of the year if, along the way, they meet the expectations for proficiency on an early administration of the assessment. Should states consider when a student shows what they know and can do by the end of the year or only at the end of the year? This distinction affects the options available—and the decisions made—for state testing systems.

The advantages of looking at data by year’s end

There are several advantages if states look to ensure students are proficient by the end of the year. Students who show proficiency early could:

• Advance to other topics deeply within and even off grade level, potentially leading to more growth for advanced students
• Sit out later test administrations
• Take other types of assessments that can provide additional information about student learning
• Complete a “check-in” at the end of the school year to ensure continued progress

If states are locked into a model of measuring on-grade proficiency at the end of the year, all kids need to take spring assessments, regardless of their earlier performance. This is the status quo because we assume students may forget and not maintain an earlier level of performance. Yet we also assume that a student’s performance in spring is sufficient to consider the following fall, when there’s more than ample research that students experience summer learning loss. We don’t require students to retest in the fall, just in case.

Where we can see by the end of year in action

Because of the current rhetoric around accepting only springtime performance, most states leveraging through-year models count only the spring administration for accountability purposes, with two exceptions: In Louisiana, all three test administrations are used to inform a student’s final summative scores. Six other states leverage one of the earliest through-year assessment designs, the Dynamic Learning Maps (DLM). DLM instructionally embedded (IE) assessments combine results from assessments administered in fall and spring to produce a summative student score. This system has passed the assessment portion for peer review for ELA and math assessments.

Outside the traditional accountability assessments, competency-based education has long valued student proficiency by the end of the year. In a competency-based education system, students demonstrate proficiency based on when they are ready to show mastery, and assessments are meant to provide timely information to inform a student’s learning along the way. Nearly every state has policy supporting competency-based education, and more districts and schools are implementing competency-based education practices. An assessment model that prioritizes by the end of year proficiency would also help support states, districts, and schools implementing competency-based education practices.

Policy must lead

Changing assessment systems that currently prioritize student proficiency at the end of the school year is, ultimately, a policy decision. There are many defensible measurement models to leverage earlier performance. State leaders should work in partnership with their educators, school leaders, and community members to consider how policy decisions might impact their current accountability models, including how growth might be considered, testing logistics, and more.

We believe states should choose what works best for them, while keeping at the forefront an assessment that is reliable, is valid, and holds students to a high standard. We’re concerned, however, that debate over the two approaches and whether they are equally worthwhile is slowing the adoption of innovative through-year models and encouraging states to only produce assessments with traditional, end-of-year summative scores.

What are your thoughts? Do you have ideas on how we can better design assessments to allow students to show proficiency throughout the school year? Let us know. We’re @NWEAPolicy on Twitter.

The post Student proficiency: The “by” vs. “at” year’s end debate appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Every week, maybe even daily, my 14-year-old shows me changes in technology, such as the new cherry blossom grotto mod in Minecraft, new moves an NCP (non-player character, in case you’re wondering) can perform in his other games, or how he can add new sound effects to his stop-motion videos. He also shares how he uses AI to help him study for his science and math tests. That’s right. You read that correctly: “help him study,” not “help him cheat.”

Just like with many things in technology that get a bad rap, AI has certainly had its time being scrutinized. However, not all AI is bad. Like my son, the accessibility committee at NWEA is using AI for good with the support of Microsoft’s AI for Accessibility grant. The grant is funding our research into AI and how it can empower people with disabilities at home, in the community, and at school.

Exploring the potential for AI in education

At NWEA, we were lucky to be awarded a Microsoft grant and are using it to study how to improve access to mathematics materials for students with disabilities, specifically those who are blind or have low vision. My colleagues and I are focused on making complex middle school math materials more accessible for screen readers, refreshable braille displays, and voice activation.

COVID-19 school closures highlighted just how many barriers there are for students with disabilities attempting to access online math materials. While kids who are sighted had multiple way to access online materials during remote learning, students using assistive technology, such as refreshable braille and screen readers, had very limited options.

Research conducted by the US Department of Education found that 75% of visually impaired students are behind sighted peers in math by at least a full grade level. We want to ensure blind and low-vision students have equal opportunities to access math materials provided by their teachers.

Process-Driven Math as part of the solution

Process-Driven Math (PDM) has helped us use our grant funding to find viable solutions for using AI to improve access to online math materials for screen reader users.

PDM is a strategy that uses chunking to simplify complex mathematics. In “Process-Driven Math: An auditory method of mathematics instruction and assessment for students who are blind or have low vision,” professor Ann Gulley and her team explain that PDM was developed at Auburn University-Montgomery to support a student who is blind and unable to learn braille due to the lack of feeling in his fingers.

Gulley et al. explain that PDM is “a fully audio method of mathematics instruction and assessment.” PDM reduces the cognitive load students need to rely on to solve a math problem because it reads a math problem to a student one piece at a time, while also giving the student control over how quickly the information is read. In Gulley et al.’s words, PDM “delivers the overall landscape of the expression without overwhelming the student’s working memory.”

Our sample video on YouTube demonstrates how a screen reader might break down an equation for a student.

A summary of our research

In the first year of our research, we learned from existing studies that blindness or low vision does not affect a student’s ability to build strong math skills. It is lack of access to math materials that leads to this. The primary goal of our research, then, is to provide multiple means of output for math questions, that is, to make the questions easier for students to access using assistive devices such as a screen reader, refreshable braille, and voice-command chatbot.

In our work toward our goal, the first year of our study focused on understanding which MAP® Growth math questions posed barriers to students who use assistive technology. As we explain in our technical brief, we looked at data from nearly 30 million middle school students taking standard versions of MAP Growth and data from nearly 50,000 middle school students taking accessible versions. This helped us identify questions that succeed in measuring math achievement for students with visual impairments and questions that fall short. This, in turn, is helping us develop prototypes that rely on AI and PDM to improve the accessibility of all kinds of online math materials.

We are now in the second year of our work and have expanded our study to also explore the effective use of both UEB and Nemeth refreshable braille as well as voice command.

We are relying heavily on artificial intelligence to do this work by:

• Training GPT-4 to build algebraic expressions and equations that are accessible to screen readers and in line with PDM
• Training GPT-4 to build algebraic expressions and equations accessible for refreshable braille in both UEB and Nemeth
• Exploring the possibility of embedding an AI chatbot or virtual assistant into the math portion of MAP Growth to make it easier for students to access and respond to math questions using voice commands

In the disability community, there is a saying: “Nothing for us without us.” To truly use AI for good, we know we need to include the students we’re working to serve in our research. While some AI algorithms forget to take accessibility into account, our project does just the opposite. To ensure that whatever we create works well for all students, including those using assistive technology, we are user testing with middle and high schoolers who rely on using screen readers, refreshable braille, and magnification. So far, we have had more than 20 expressions and equations reviewed by students, and they have given us valuable feedback on our mistakes and what they think is accessible. Suggestions have ranged from “This is a really good one!” to “This is confusing. There are too many answer choices.”

It takes a village

To make lasting and positive changes in accessibility, we have worked with students and also other experts in the field. We have been in partnership with Geoff Freed, director of digital accessibility consulting at Perkins Access; Sarah McManus, digital learning director at Governor Morehead School, a school for the blind in North Carolina; Sonja Steinbach, a teacher for the visually impaired with Columbia Regional Inclusive Services in Oregon; and Neil Soiffer at Talking Cat Software, also in Oregon.

I look forward to sharing more on this work and our goals to make digital mathematics materials more accessible to all.

The post How AI can improve digital accessibility in math appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Teaching literacy across disciplines is difficult.

When I was an eighth-grade ELA teacher, my school required that all content-area teachers participate in a cross-disciplinary unit each year. Teachers in ELA, math, science, and social studies were directed to co-plan and teach a topically themed unit students would explore from different perspectives. The ELA teacher was supposed to teach the agreed-upon text while the others were supposed to teach the content. It was a mess, until we figured it all out.

One of the ways things go wrong

I clearly remember a planning session for one of these required cross-disciplinary units.

I was working with a science colleague, and I could feel my frustration growing in minute increments. He wanted the unit to be about frogs because the science curriculum required a focus on something about animal kingdoms and classes. The trouble was, I didn’t have a good reading selection about frogs. I didn’t have any frog poems. I didn’t have any meaningful non-fiction about frogs. I had no plays about frogs, no speeches about frogs. I didn’t even have a quotation about frogs. (Of course I thought of Frog and Toad, a staple in elementary school, but it didn’t make sense to use it with middle schoolers.) In fact, what we were about to read couldn’t have had less to do with frogs if I’d tried. We were about to start a unit on freedom by reading What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? by Frederick Douglass.

The science teacher, however, did have a text about frogs. His double-sided article was all about what they eat and where they live. It included models of frog anatomy and a graph of their lifespans.

After skimming the article, I asked, “What do you want me to do with this?” I was genuinely curious. What was I, as an ELA teacher, supposed to do with a scientific article on frogs that had nothing to with any of the topics or themes in my ELA classroom, or anything to do with ELA as a discipline? “Miah,” my colleague began, “they can’t read. Teach them how to read this so I can teach them about frogs.”

Something important clicked at that moment in the conversation. I replied, “Do you think eighth-grade reading teachers teach kids how to read scientific articles?”

“Yes,” he replied, quite definite.

“I can assure you that there is a zero percent chance a student will leave my ELA class understanding how to read a piece like this.”

“Really?” he asked, “Don’t you teach reading?” Clearly he was as confused as I was.

“Not this type of reading,” I said.

Reading literature vs. reading scientific texts

I didn’t have the language then to explain my confusion to my colleague, to tell him that ELA teachers didn’t teach kids how to read like a scientist. It wasn’t our job to show them how to deconstruct a model, to connect phenomena to theory to observation, to navigate the complex content that undergirds the language of a scientific text, or to understand how language is used flexibly in science texts. Sure, I could teach my students the word “croak,” but it would most assuredly be in the context of a character who had shuffled off this mortal coil, not the sound a frog makes.

If I had done what my science colleague had expected of me, I would have spent precious time with my students reading a text on frogs, finding the central idea and supporting details, tracing the structure, and even identifying the organizational pattern. But that would have been a shallow and cursory attempt at understanding the importance of the science content. My instruction would have resulted in little more than my students gathering decontextualized information.

Yet, at the same time, I understood my colleague’s confusion. Many literacy skills and practices transfer from place to place, discipline to discipline. These skills include decoding, fluency, and vocabulary. They include writing with purpose, attuning to task and audience. However, text is highly contextual and situational. Scientific texts frequently have structures unfamiliar to students, including visual elements likes charts, graphs, and diagrams. They often include technical vocabulary with Latin and Greek roots, and everyday words like “stage,” “family,” and “order” can have very different meanings than they do in other content areas. Science texts are also full of complex sentences that often use the passive voice. Students need disciplinary literacy support to make meaning of these types of texts.

We must teach literacy across disciplines as disciplinary literacy

Back when I was teaching, the language we used in schools to refer to what my science colleague and I were trying to accomplish was “content-area literacy,” not “disciplinary literacy.” Content-area literacy focused on applying general reading strategies across different content areas. Disciplinary literacy, in contrast, does not prioritize all-purpose reading strategies. Instead, it emphasizes learning how to read and write in ways that reflect the expertise of a discipline.

Many of us erred in the belief that all reading skills are learned in reading or ELA classes. We believed students could just apply the generic reading skills they’d learned in their ELA class in their science, social studies, and mathematics classes. But that exchange with my science colleague began to show me that something was not quite right. For years, the science department had been exasperated with us, the ELA teachers, for not teaching students how to read the texts, graphics, and models used in science texts, or how to write to demonstrate scientific understanding.

What I now know we really wanted to achieve with those mandatory collaborative units was disciplinary literacy. What we wanted was to show students how to ask questions like a scientist, a historian, a mathematician, and a student of the letters to derive rich and useful meaning from a text. We wanted to turn our students into readers equipped to attend to the unique and nuanced reading demands within each discipline. We wanted our students to become apprentices to the disciplines.

As they progressed through the grades, we also wanted our students to be able to meet the reading demands of each discipline as texts became even more specialized. As writers, we wanted them to understand that attention to task, purpose, and audience are key components of writing in all disciplines but that the specificity of audience, task, and purpose within each discipline is unique.

A happy ending

That fateful school year ended with a lot of frustration and ongoing confusion between me and my science colleague. However, this story does have a happy ending.

That experience began to open my eyes to the importance of teaching literacy across disciplines effectively. It began to disabuse notions some of my colleagues—even my ELA colleagues—held about literacy instruction. That year ended with me teaching “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe and thinking, halfway through the unit, “This would be a perfect collaboration opportunity for social studies!”

The next year, I helped plan a cross-disciplinary unit on plagues. The ELA teachers taught Poe while the social studies teachers taught about the Black Death in Europe and the science teachers taught about the science of infectious disease. Each of us had our own texts that were relevant to the topic and our disciplines.

It was so much fun to listen to students talk throughout the school day, making connections on their own about plagues, Poe, and the past. Our students built multifaceted, connected knowledge, understood the topic with more flexibility, discussed the content across disciplines, and—best of all—asked us to do it again.

The post How not to teach literacy across disciplines appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

We don’t talk enough about educator mindsets.

Early in my teaching career, I taught an English class where all the students were three or more years below grade level. I thought this meant that I should teach the skills they were missing with lower-level texts. During a professional development session, I got feedback from a fellow teacher who argued the opposite. “I know your students have some challenges with grade-level work,” she began. “But if you don’t think they’re capable and you never give them access to rigorous work, you’re limiting their growth potential.”

This colleague’s feedback sparked me to reflect on my practices. I realized I was operating with the mindset that my students were incapable of completing assignments at their grade level. My mindset fueled the instructional decisions—decisions I made—that were hindering my students’ success. I thought that I was meeting them where they were when, really, I was just holding them down.

Educator mindsets as a part of educational equity

At NWEA, we define mindsets as “a set of mental attitudes that determine how one will interpret and respond to situations.” These mental attitudes can also be described as beliefs or assumptions, and they impact educators’ approach to content, pedagogy, instructional decisions, and much more.

The power of mindsets is precisely why they are a critical part of our Six Entry Points for Equity framework, as detailed in our “Equity statement.” The entry points for equity—mindsets, relationships, products, spaces, processes, and systems—are starting points for ensuring that academic success is a nonnegotiable for all students. Educator mindsets have a profound impact on teaching and learning.

What inequitable mindsets look like

Equitable mindsets are critical to ensuring an excellent education. Unfortunately, as Kristyn Klei Borrero says in Every Student, Every Day, many educators knowingly or unknowingly hold mindsets that can be harmful to their students. This harm to students, she explains, is “immeasurable, as it reflects the larger deficit narrative that much of the education system harbors.”

Examples of inequitable mindsets are reflected in the following statements:

• “These students aren’t interested in learning.”
• “My first period class is so bad.”
• “Intelligence is fixed.”
• “James isn’t a math person, so a C is as high as he can go in my algebra class.”

Inequitable mindsets are displayed in subtle—yet harmful—actions, too, such as calling on certain students less, asking fewer challenging questions, and rewarding students for less rigorous answers.

A teacher’s inequitable mindset can negatively shape students’ own mindsets about their academic performance. Students hear the messages that convey our thoughts about their abilities. The worst part is, they may not realize they’re internalizing our negativity, and our opinions of them may follow them for the remainder of their academic careers.

Know your mindset

Research has long proven that educator mindsets matter and can impact student performance. As Seth Gershenson et al. explain in “Who believes in me? The effect of student-teacher demographic match on teacher expectations,” “In a famous experiment, Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) manipulated teachers’ beliefs of student ability by providing false information regarding students’ performance on a nonexistent test and found significantly greater school-year gains among the students who were falsely identified to teachers as ‘growth spurters.’”

No one has a perfect mindset, of course, and as educators, we all enter the field of teaching with years of cultural beliefs, values, and biases that impact our decision-making. But as Klei Borrero also says, these deficit mindsets become more pronounced when educators don’t reflect on how their beliefs influence their actions.

Here are some questions you can use to reflect on and better understand your mindset:

• What do I believe about my students?
• Is my mindset inherited from someone or somewhere?
• Is my mindset rooted in assumptions or facts?
• What outside factors or identities influence my mindset?
• Do the outside factors or identities influencing me contain clues to any unconscious or conscious biases?
• Does my mindset create or remove barriers for students?

Reflecting on your mindset can feel like hard work. That’s because it is. It requires you to hold up a mirror to yourself, your upbringing, and your belief system. However, this step is essential for unlearning what you may have grown to believe are universal truths.

Reflecting is also a journey that never really ends, but the more you do it, the more you’re able to identify patterns and make connections, which can help you serve all your students.

Take action

Identifying inequitable mindsets is the first step. Working to reframe them comes next.

My colleague Fenesha Hubbard, design coordinator for equity professional learning at NWEA, offers a guide to reframing mindsets in her upcoming book, The Equity Expression: Six Entry Points for Nonnegotiable Academic Success. She believes there are four steps for reframing educator mindsets:

1. Name the issue.
2. Assume good intent.
3. Identify the needs.
4. Reframe the issue.

With reflection and reframing, a mindset like “these students are incapable of completing grade-level work” can transform into “with the right scaffolds and support, these students can access grade-level work.” I know that when Ioperated with that reframed mindset, my students achieved more and the confidence I had in them rubbed off on them.

An equitable education cannot happen without deep reflection—and interrogation—of mindsets. Students deserve educators who are constantly reflecting on their mindsets and seeking ways to improve their practice.

For more information on educator mindsets and other entry points to equity, check out The Equity Expression: Six Entry Points for Nonnegotiable Academic Success and our professional learning workshop series on creating supportive environments. To learn more about equitable practices in reading instruction in particular, consider “Let’s talk equity: Reading levels, scaffolds, and grade-level text.”

The post Educator mindsets affect student performance appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

As our nation’s educators remain hard at work trying to move the needle for students who have not yet rebounded from COVID-19 impacts on schooling, we’re hit with difficult news: older students’ pandemic recovery has stalled.

Last year, NWEA researchers reported encouraging signs that the nation’s education system was bouncing back; students showed gains on MAP® Growth in reading and math at a rate that was comparable to pre-pandemic times. This year, though, new research shows that while students are still learning and growing, their rate of academic growth has not been as fast as before the start of COVID-19.

Schools have been working hard to address students’ needs with high-dose tutoring, enrichment classes, and after-school learning opportunities. Given the devastating impact of the pandemic on students and families, we knew recovery was going to take time, though we had hoped for continued progress.

Schools, with the support of federal and state policy leaders, will continue the hard work and their commitment to help students catch up after a difficult three years.

Students are learning, but at a slower pace

The federal pandemic emergency declaration is over, but COVID-19 impacts on students’ reading and mathematics achievement persist.

NWEA researchers Karyn Lewis and Megan Kuhfeld recently analyzed the MAP Growth scores of 6.7 million US students in grades 3–8 in about 22,000 public schools. They compared the achievement and growth of students from the beginning of the 2020–21 school year to the end of the 2022–23 school year to the achievement and growth of a similar group of 11 million students who tested in the 2016–17, 2017–18, and 2018–19 school years. The big-picture finding is that in nearly all grades, the achievement gains during 2022–23 were less than in the pre-pandemic period.

The good news is that the growth rate trends in 2022–23 for the youngest students exceeded or mirrored the trends of the pre-pandemic cohorts. In reading, third graders’ learning gains exceeded typical growth by 4%, and fourth-grade growth rates slipped slightly by 1%. In mathematics, third graders’ growth rates exceeded typical rates by 2%, while fourth graders’ gains lagged pre-pandemic growth trends by 7%. Unfortunately, middle school achievement gains lagged furthest behind, falling short of pre-pandemic averages by 16% to 19% in reading and by 6% to 10% in mathematics.

Lewis and Kuhfeld estimate that the kids who were eighth-graders in the 2022–23 school year will need an extra 9.1 months of learning in mathematics and 7.4 months of learning in reading to catch up to pre-pandemic achievement levels. These students are entering their freshman year of high school needing to accomplish almost five years of learning before they graduate from high school four years later.

Seventh-graders will need an estimated 5.9 months of school to recover learning losses in both subjects, and sixth-graders will require four additional months in reading and 3.5 months in mathematics. Even with growth rates in 2022–23 that were more consistent with pre-pandemic trends, third- and fourth-graders will still need between 1.6 and 2.6 months of extra instruction.

The research also found that marginalized students’ pandemic recovery has been slow, especially in middle school. In mathematics, Black and Hispanic middle schoolers of all grades will need more months in mathematics (6.2 and 6.4, respectively) than Asian and white students (4.3 months and 5.3 months, respectively). In reading, white, Black, and Hispanic students need additional time (4.9 months, 4.9 months, and 6.7 months) than Asian students (1.4 months). The disparities are not as stark at the elementary school level.

Where do we go from here?

This new research on COVID-19 impacts is surprising and disheartening. Since the beginning of COVID-19, districts and schools have confronted staffing challenges, intervention implementation delays, and political debates. Given this context, recovery efforts have been understandably slow to start and scale. Schools are working hard to aid students’ academic recovery, but addressing the gaps from the findings detailed above will take sizable and sustained resources and efforts in the coming years, from all levels of the education ecosystem.

The federal government has invested billions of dollars that have been essential in addressing recovery efforts. When those vital funds expire, schools will need continued investments to intensify and sustain consistent momentum toward academic recovery. Federal policymakers must do more to ensure those funds continue and districts have the resources to continue to scale interventions and programs that support student recovery. At the state and district levels, here are three considerations for policymakers and education leaders as they refine or jump-start new recovery efforts.

1. Use local data to guide recovery and invest in what works

Data exists in many forms. It comes from assessment results at the school and district levels. Data is also available on key factors, such as enrollment, attendance, and mental health. It’s essential that all data is timely and provides insight into how to improve classroom practice and address students’ specific in-school and out-of-school needs.

States and districts can set up processes and tools that provide capacity to schools when gathering data and tracking the implementation of interventions. This information can help them understand how the interventions are improving student outcomes and how they can shift intervention implementation to better support student recovery. Gathering data on student learning and recovery will allow states, districts, and schools to maintain the most effective interventions and provide the necessary resources to do so until students are fully back on track.

2. Expand instructional time by deploying evidence-based interventions and programs to the students who still need additional support

Interventions and programs must be scaled to the size of the challenge, and students in need of additional support may require multiple interventions to fully recover from COVID-19 impacts. Gaps for older students as documented in our research—and replicated elsewhere by other researchers using different assessments—will require a significant suite of interventions that match the magnitude of the crisis.

State networks have identified how to improve student learning in after-school programs. The RAND Corporation has identified the characteristics of successful summer learning programs. These programs can create engaging and enriching learning opportunities in out-of-school time to put students on the path to recovery.

Last school year, we saw that many districts faced challenges when implementing interventions. Some of the challenges districts faced included:

• A disconnect between district identification of students in need of interventions and which students actually received interventions
• Hiring enough staff to provide the interventions
• Finding the time or space to deliver interventions

State and district leaders can work with schools to develop policies and practices that ensure schools are able to implement interventions efficiently and effectively, such as by providing data coaching to schools, developing a menu of interventions, and building intervention programs for long-term sustainability.

3. Communicate the importance of academic recovery, sharing timely and relevant information with families

Educators see COVID-19 impacts in their classrooms every day, but families often don’t understand the magnitude of the pandemic’s influence on students’ academic progress. A recent Pew poll found that over half of families believed the pandemic had only a temporary effect on a child’s education. Closing that “perception gap” between schools and families would aid district recovery efforts that in too many places are falling short of their goals in terms of reach, intensity, and impact.

Additionally, states, districts, and schools can provide families with timely information about their child’s progress and achievement compared to grade-level standards. They should also share resources and tools families can use to support learning recovery at home.

Continue to focus on academic recovery

Data from the 2022–23 school year is concerning and shows that COVID-19 impacts may be longer lasting than expected. We must work quickly to address the gaps that exist for students. Today’s students are our future workforce, and if current recovery trends continue, some kids may not recover before they end their public school education.

The task ahead appears to be daunting, but we’re confident that our nation’s schools have the tools, know-how, and commitment to overcome the pandemic’s impact on student achievement. But they need significant and sustained support from state and federal policymakers to ensure our nation’s students can make a full academic recovery.

The post COVID-19 impacts: New data shows older students’ recovery needs attention appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Many common misconceptions and barriers are holding states back from innovating and improving summative assessments, including the value of subscores. Assessment subscores, as they’re used right now, prevent states from adopting smarter, faster testing systems, but there are alternative visions for helping families and educators diagnose student learning needs.

Why we rely on subscores in the first place

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires states to have diagnostic information for individual students. The purpose of and intention for providing such information makes sense; it’s important to understand how students are doing in nuanced ways and evaluate how well instructional practices and programs in schools are working. Diagnostic information should, by definition, reveal the cause or nature of a problem.

Assessment subscores are currently the primary approach states use to provide diagnostic information intended to inform how well students are doing in specific areas of learning, like algebraic thinking in math and informational reading in English language arts. There are serious drawbacks to how the ESSA policy is currently implemented, and there are challenges to ensuring the policy has a stronger impact.

The trouble with looking only at subscores

The problem with limiting diagnostic information to assessment subscores is that the number of items needed to provide reliable information about student subdomain knowledge is far greater than what is typically or reasonably included on one test, at least when using traditional psychometric methods.

Assessments that are used for accountability are currently developed so that a score from one student or time can be compared to another student or time. One way assessments have historically ensured those comparisons are accurate is by building assessments that follow a similar structure. Like with a house, this structure is sketched out as a blueprint.

A test blueprint ensures each test has a similar structure by defining approximately how many items will be on the test in total (think of this as the size of the house) and about how many of those items will measure certain areas (these are the rooms in the house). In this metaphor, subscores represent the rooms in the house.

Summative tests simply aren’t always long enough to really provide useful diagnostic information from subscores.

Say we are building a mathematics test that measures the overall domain of mathematics. The blueprint will tell us what will be included in that test, such as questions on numbers and operations, fractions and decimals, algebraic operations, geometry, and data. The number of subdomains and how many questions address each results in the overall size of the test. What’s missing, however, is a more detailed view. We know how big our house is and how many rooms are in it, but not how many doors and windows there are, for example.

Building assessments like these that have comparability—at least in terms of face validity through common blueprints—has been the tradition. Naturally, there is a desire to interpret student performance in the subdomains for more diagnostic information. The challenge, then, is getting sufficient information from each domain without making tests longer. Yes, the more we observe how a student is doing, the better we know what they do or don’t know; yet most assessments using traditional methods require only five or six items per subdomain. While such a small number is appropriate to ensure a balanced representation of targeted subdomains for comparability, no one would argue that a five-item test would be reliable or valid enough to provide a score or inform important decisions. Summative tests simply aren’t always long enough to really provide useful diagnostic information from subscores.

How to get a more complete picture

ESSA doesn’t require diagnostic information to come solely from assessment subscores. In fact, many in the field have rightly warned against using subscores to eke out instructionally informative information.

Without just adding more questions, and making tests overly lengthy, there are other options for states:

• Include other kinds of data sources, including performance-based assessments, portfolios, and teacher-provided student evaluations. Those, of course, would require supportive and extensive professional development and process standardizations, at minimum.
• Try adaptive assessment, like the state summative assessments in Nebraska and Alaska. Their first priority in adapting is to ensure each student receives a test aligned to an overall blueprint for comparability and to provide a defensible overall score. The assessments then also find out more about student knowledge in subdomains and produce a more reliable subscore. By using a constraint-based assessment engine, the tests have the potential to fully personalize a student’s assessment experience by adapting even more diagnostically.
• Extract more information from assessment items. Items are developed to determine what a student knows, but they also include valuable information we can use to infer what a student doesn’t Multiple-choice-item distractors are developed to model common mistakes, misunderstandings, and misconceptions, for example. Extended response rubrics also highlight what a student doesn’t know in the lower scores of a rubric.
• Review and calibrate items to each state’s detailed achievement level descriptors, or ALDs. Teachers can see how a student’s overall score relates to detailed ALDs and explore what’s expected for getting to the next level or what concepts they need to review in prior levels, even across grades. Teachers can also see the standard and achievement level for each item each student received. This level of diagnostic information allows teachers to look at the data through the lens of what students know based on standards, achievement expectations, and what teachers have taught.

Change is possible

Providing meaningful information about how students are doing on state assessments is an important goal. If we truly want to make progress in this area, it’s vital we look at current policies and practices related to assessment subscores, consider advances in item development and assessment design, and even leverage information outside a singular test event. We believe we can do better.

What are your ideas on how we can improve diagnostic information from assessments? Let us know. We’re @NWEAPolicy on Twitter.

Thomas Christie contributed to this post. He is the senior director of learning and assessment engineering at NWEA, and his work focuses on maximizing the usefulness of educational data for students and teachers in the classroom.

The post Assessment subscores: Why we have them and what they can—and can’t—do appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

I admit it: in meetings, I’m that person. I often fidget, stand in the back, and check my watch more than necessary. It’s not that I’m not interested in the content or what my colleagues have to share. Quite the opposite. It’s that I have so much else to do.

Since time is the most precious non-renewable resource I have as an educator, I need meetings and learning experiences that are deeply engaging and well-structured so that I can feel like my time is being used as effectively and efficiently as possible. Protocols can help with that.

Why protocols help

As Lois Brown Easton explains in “Protocols: A facilitator’s best friend,” “In the field of education, protocols are simply an agreed upon set of guidelines for conversation. They are a code of behavior, a modus operandi, for groups to use when exploring ideas.”

I still remember my first experience using a protocol more than a decade ago. While sitting with a group of instructional coaches in a book study on Jim Knight’s High Impact Instruction: A Framework for Great Teaching, the facilitator introduced the Four “A”s Text Protocol from School Reform Initiative. I was the most novice member of the group (and am an introvert at heart), so leaping into conversation about the text would not have been my natural approach. The protocol provided each of us the opportunity to share, reflect, and build off each other’s ideas, however, so I was nudged to jump in.

By using this protocol, we all made personal connections to the text (which I still remember to this day!) while sharing our thoughts equally and without interruption. I thought to myself, “Wow! I learned a lot!” as I left our meeting with a newfound confidence in my own voice as a budding coach.

In many meetings, things don’t go quite as smoothly. A conversation can go around in circles without any tangible results. Or, when a conversation is dominated by one or two speakers, the rest of the group may feel that their opinions are not considered and, therefore, they do not contribute actively. A protocol can safeguard against conversations going awry or getting off track. Protocols set the stage for the form and function of learning new content, exploring ideas, and solving shared problems in a healthy, collaborative environment.

How to use protocols

At NWEA, we often use protocols in our own professional learning experiences, not only to explore data or dig deeper into content, but to also build our own community of learners. Here are five staples for us that may help you in your work as an instructional coach.

1. Structure talking time

Protocols offer structures for equitable talk time by utilizing a clear and transparent process for discussion, planning, consulting, and other types of collaborative work. They serve as a set of guidelines—a roadmap, if you will—to ensure the conversation remains focused and productive, which can make the collaboration more satisfying and meaningful for all participants.

When a group begins to veer off topic or disregard the steps of your protocol, it can be a little scary for a coach to help guide the group back to the topic or content. Keep the participants reflecting and learning by saying something like, “I can capture these other thoughts in the notes for later. Let’s get back to what you were saying about…”

Since the purpose of using a protocol is to facilitate authentic and engaging conversations, be sure to help the group stay on track without cutting off or interrupting a speaker, which will ultimately erode trust.

2. Be prepared

It is important to set aside time to prepare for facilitating, especially when you want to have enough time to discuss protocols. Will you need to print hard copies of protocols your group will follow, readings, or student data? Will you need to gather additional supplies, such as sticky notes or highlighters? Will you need to prepare a clean working space for the group?

3. Practice, practice, practice

Facilitators must be well-trained in using protocols or the use of a protocol can become watered down or even weaponized. Simply handing out a sheet with a protocol typed on it and expecting others to understand the purpose or follow the directions will not lead to a positive learning experience for the group.

To truly use protocols to enhance learning experiences, ensure participants have multiple opportunities to practice using them together and to reflect on the usefulness of the experience. A seasoned facilitator will also need to help guide groups into productive conversations when participants are tempted to veer off a protocol and move into free-flowing conversation.

4. Offer choices

In addition to ensuring that all participants understand and follow a protocol, it is important for an instructional coach to offer some choice and flexibility to allow participants to engage in authentic collaboration, rather than compliant cooperation. Choice can be provided by allowing a team of teachers to select a protocol, choose a reading, select roles, or modify timing. A protocol is a guideline designed to make collaborative discussions sage, rich, and purposeful, so when that’s not happening, consider that your participants may simply be feeling too constrained.

Another important way to offer choice and voice is to change up facilitators. If the instructional coach is always at the helm, participants may feel disempowered or even bored. When teachers are given the option to lead a protocol, say, by acting as a timekeeper, they not only get to flex their leadership muscles, but they may also become inspired to translate the experience into their work with students.

5. Always ask for feedback

A common mistake when using protocols is simply ending a meeting or moving on to the next activity without prompting reflection and asking for feedback. Avoiding that can be as simple as setting aside three minutes and posing a question, like “What was useful about this experience?” or “How did this work for us?”

In conclusion

Protocols are an extremely useful tool to engage educators at all levels in more productive and authentic learning experiences, and they can also help you model the practice of collaboration and academic conversations we strive to see in the classroom. Since instructional coaches are often facilitators of team meetings or professional learning communities, gaining experience using protocols in meetings will not only lead to better conversations among the teachers and staff in a school, but also build capacity in those who experience the transformative power of learning through a protocol, just like I did all those years ago.

Learn more about instructional coaching through NWEA on our website.

The post 5 ways instructional coaches can use protocols for more engaging group learning appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

When I was in the classroom, I felt skilled using data. My students set daily personal goals, we had learning targets based on our data, and students had assessment goals. I often taught whole-group lessons, though, and thinking back, I wonder why. How did I know all the students I was delivering whole-group learning to needed that particular lesson? I didn’t. Formative assessment could have helped me.

After I left teaching, I spent time learning more about formative assessment. I realize now that I struggled with my understanding of delivering and analyzing formative assessments. I let my curriculum map determine what I taught instead of my students’ data. While there’s nothing I can do about the past, I hope that by sharing what I’ve learned, I can help you in your classroom today. Knowing how to use formative assessment effectively can inform your whole-group, small-group, and in-the-moment instruction and help you meet students where they are.

Reminder: What formative assessment is (and isn’t)

NWEA uses the following definition of “formative assessment,” adapted with permission from the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO): “Formative assessment is a planned, ongoing process used by all students and teachers during learning and teaching to elicit and use evidence of student learning to improve student understanding of intended disciplinary learning outcomes and support students to become self-directed learners.”

Knowing how to use formative assessment effectively can inform your whole-group, small-group, and in-the-moment instruction and help you meet students where they are.

The words “planned, ongoing process” really stand out to me. There are moments where formative assessment is very intentional, or planned. You decide ahead of time to have an exit ticket at the end of every unit, for example. There are other opportunities where formative assessment is more spontaneous, where you realize there’s a disconnect with your students and you pause to explore why. After multiple quizzical looks from your kids, for example, you stop, ask a specific question related to your lesson, and have them answer using a thumbs-up for “yes” or thumbs-down for “no.”

While the definition doesn’t spell this out explicitly, it’s important to remember that formative assessment should not be graded. Its sole purpose is to increase your understanding so you can adjust your teaching. It’s never about penalizing kids for what they don’t know yet.

Tip #1: Use formative assessment to prepare for whole-group instruction

There is a time and a place for whole-group learning. Whole-group instruction is good for introducing new concepts and encouraging whole-class engagement. (For ideas on how to get kids excited to learn together, read “The best whole-group engagement strategies.”) Typically, whole-group instruction is targeted toward the average student in your class.

Data can provide insight into what you can teach in a whole-group setting. Using formative assessment at the end of a previous day’s lesson or at the start of a new lesson will allow you to see what your students already know about the standard you have targeted to teach. Consider using an exit or entrance ticket, for example.

The Teacher Toolkit walks you through how to use entrance tickets in your classroom. Start by having a question on the board related to the day’s learning. Allow yourself time to review the data you gather before proceeding to the whole-group lesson. You may find you have misconceptions about what your students know or that there are things they’ve misunderstood that you can address before beginning. When reviewing your formative assessment data, you may also find that what you thought should have been a whole-group lesson may need to be taught in small groups instead. What would tip you off to this? A wide array of answers proving a big range of differing abilities.

Tip #2: Let formative assessment data guide small-group work

Like my colleague Tami Hunter mentioned in her post “How to use flexible grouping remotely,” “Using flexible grouping strategies can be a great way to keep kids engaged in learning, empower students to own their learning, increase understanding through collaboration, and allow for social connections.” To be flexible, your small groups should be fluid and change frequently based on the standard you are working on and on your formative assessment data.

Formative assessment […] gives you the information you need to make instructional decisions based on exactly where students are, and it helps students have buy-in and ownership of their learning.

Small groups allow you to provide scaffolding based on where your students are. You can specifically target your lesson based on the needs of the students in that group. Your instruction will vary depending on which group you are working with and what level they are on. With some groups, you will need to help the students reach the grade-level expectation of a standard by filling gaps in previous skills. Other groups may be right on target and able to learn the new standard with ease. Some groups may have already mastered the standard you’re on and are ready to explore it more deeply or even move on to the next standard.

By providing this targeted attention to student learning needs you can help students grow and be empowered in their learning paths. While working with small groups you can also differentiate seat work or centers that are not teacher directed. Work groups could have a designated tub or folder with assignments that are targeted to meet students’ learning needs, for example. This does take more planning up front, but if you have planning or data conversations with your grade-level teams, you can plan these varied tasks together and share the load.

Tip #3: Wield formative assessment feedback to make in-the-moment adjustments

Whether you’re teaching the whole class or have broken into groups, you’ll have a multitude of opportunities to adjust your instruction—right before, during, or immediately after a lesson—based on the needs of your students. There are several simple strategies you can try right away to target your instruction and help students grow academically. Here are some examples of formative assessment techniques and when to use them.

Right before a lesson

• Standards check-in. I have used a standards check-in in kindergarten through middle school and wrote more about it in a previous post. Start by posting the lesson’s standard on a chart. Give each student a colored sticky note and tell them to write their name. Ask students to rate how they feel about the standard before they get started. This will help you create the learning target based on the standard as well as develop success criteria. It is also good to conduct another check at the end of the lesson to see if students have progressed in their understanding of the standard.
• Pre-assessment. This type of assessment is given at the start of a unit or lesson to see what students know, so you can decide how to address learning needs before beginning the lesson. I encourage you to read this blog post to learn more.

During a lesson

• Questioning. How you ask questions in your classroom can be a way of formatively assessing. Be intentional about planning your questions before lessons and make sure the questions you ask are higher order and train the brain to think deeply. Achieve the Core explains the purpose of developing questions to make meaning in their article “Creating and sequencing text-dependent questions to support English language learners” (note that their tips are useful for all students). Math teacher and trainer Craig Barton digs into this, too, in his article “What is a diagnostic question?”
• All-student response systems. Having all students give you feedback at once can give you insight into how students are processing material as they’re receiving it. I really like Emerging Ed Tech’s article “Top 5 student response systems that work on multiple platforms.” Want to try a response system that’s lower tech? Ask students to use whiteboards and hold them up to answer questions during a lesson, or have them use hand signals.

Immediately after a lesson

• Metacognition. When students are aware of their thinking throughout a lesson, they’re practicing metacognition, something that helps them process the material and better understand how they think. End a lesson by having students reflect on what—and how—they learned. This practice can help them retain more of the material.
• Exit ticket. While entrance tickets are given at the start of a lesson, exit tickets are given at the end. There are several ways to use exit tickets both virtually and on paper, as demonstrated by We Are Teachers.

Never stop learning

Formative assessment empowers both teachers and students. It gives you the information you need to make instructional decisions based on exactly where students are, and it helps students have buy-in and ownership of their learning. To learn more about how to make formative assessment a bigger part of your practice, download Making it work: How formative assessment can supercharge your practice.

The post 3 tips for understanding when—and how—to use formative assessment appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

The purpose of state assessment systems has been hotly debated over the past 20 years. State assessments are designed to ensure every child has access to an equitable and excellent education, but are they meant solely for transparency and accountability purposes? Or can they be more than that, by providing timely, actionable information to families and educators?

We think the answer is all of the above. But let’s be honest: state assessment systems are not fully serving the needs of families and educators today. To do that, state assessments systems will need to be reimagined and redesigned with students, families, educators, and policymakers in mind. Bold progress is possible, but first we’ll need to address some misconceptions getting in the way of assessment innovation and improvement.

The misconceptions about state assessments

States administer summative assessments annually in reading and math in grades 3–8, once in high school and once in each grade span (grades 3–5, 6–9, and 10–12) in science. Most are deeply anchored in traditions of assessment design and implementation, but it is worth looking at those traditions and examining how well they’re working today.

Over the years, educators, school leaders, and parents have raised concerns and challenges related to statewide summative assessments, including how long the tests take, the way they can disrupt instruction, the usefulness of the information they yield, and delays in getting results, among other things. States are showing interest in changes aimed at addressing such challenges (e.g., through-year assessments, performance assessments, competency-based assessments, etc.) but creating new statewide assessments isn’t an easy task. Barriers to change have included financial constraints, the perception of rigid federal policies or interpretations of those policies, and a general resistance within education to change.

More specifically, the following key policy and technical issues stand in the way:

• Subscores. These are meant to provide diagnostic information to students and teachers, but they are not providing sufficient information as is. Alternatives could provide more helpful diagnostic tools with less testing time required.
• Proficiency determinations “by” vs. “at” the end of the year. Policymakers and assessment experts are debating when students should be deemed proficient in a course or grade. This decision has important implications for testing design and innovation.
• Computer adaptivity. The technology to adapt assessments based on the test taker’s responses has been around for decades. Adaptivity can provide highly precise, personalized tests, but misconceptions around the barriers to developing adaptive tests has prevented states from shifting away from fixed-form assessment designs.
• Security. Current test security protocols are based on a model in which all students take the same test at the same time on paper. Updating security protocols based on modern testing systems would give policymakers more space to create new assessments that are secure, equitable, and more meaningful.

These are just some of the issues that warrant attention if we are to ensure state assessments fulfill their purpose: to measure student achievement and evaluate whether schools are serving all children well.

One size does not fit all

State assessments play a vital role in American public education, and we must modernize and improve them. States are making substantial investments in their assessment systems, both financially and in the amount of time it takes to administer them. As such, we believe assessment developers can and should partner with states to develop better assessments. We are actively partnering with several state education leaders as they consider ways to reimagine and improve their assessments.

As with all education policies, there is no single approach to improvement. What’s right for one state may not be what’s needed in another state. States need a range of options to best meet the needs of the communities they serve.

Do you have ideas on how to improve state assessments? Let us know. We’re @NWEAPolicy on Twitter.

The post Misconceptions preventing innovation and improvement in state assessments  appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Human-centered formative assessment drives long-term, holistic success for students. Because there is still confusion around this type of assessment, let’s explore what it is and why it should be a part of our responsive teaching and learning cycles.

“Formative assessment” defined

As an organization, NWEA subscribes to the revised definition from CCSSO: “Formative assessment is a planned, ongoing process used by all students and teachers during learning and teaching to elicit and use evidence of student learning to improve student understanding of intended disciplinary learning outcomes and support students to become self-directed learners.”

Let’s take a closer look at the key phrases in that definition:

• “Planned, ongoing process.” Formative assessment is a continuous, low- or no-stakes, responsive process comprised of practices, methods, and tools that are selected to support all students in reaching challenging learning goals. Teachers and students collaborate to use this kind of assessment in responsive ways that positively impact learners and learning. They partner to know and respond to strengths, interests, and needs.
• “All students and teachers during learning and teaching.” Formative assessment is a collaborative learning process happening “with” students, not “to” students.
• “Elicit and use evidence of student learning.” Formative assessment processes capture levels of knowledge and skill along the learning journey so teachers and students can make small, immediate, impactful decisions to support well-being, learning-goal achievement, and self-efficacy. Using formative assessment evidence is appropriate for making decisions during the practice phases of learning; formative assessment scores are not appropriate for calculating grades or for making placement decisions.
• “Support students to become self-directed learners.” This type of assessment includes students as active agents in the learning journey, which fuels learning and agency in learning environments and beyond. Engaging students in goal setting is a great way to do this.

What does formative assessment look like?

Little is required to start formative assessment processes because they can begin with a variety of methods and tools. Instead of specific programs, supplies, or resources, effective processes involve partnering with students to incorporate the following five practices into cycles of responsive teaching and learning.

• Clarifying learning goals and success criteria within a broader progression of learning. Students should have context for what they’re learning: why they’re learning it, how it connects to previous lessons and their own interests, and what success looks like. Having goal clarity, purpose, and a path promotes student motivation and agency.
• Eliciting and analyzing evidence of student thinking. Whether it’s capturing ideas on a whiteboard, responding to an online survey, or giving a thumbs-up or down in response to a check for understanding, an effective process centers on knowing learning goals, then gathering, interpreting, and responding to learning-goal evidence.
• Engaging in self-assessment and peer feedback. This type of assessment is more than providing feedback from teacher to student. As I explained in “The importance of student self-assessment,” having students reflect on their progress helps them become active participants in their learning. The process should also involve students collaborating with each other, asking questions, making observations, celebrating successes, and suggesting improvements in ways that support them in attaining challenging learning goals.
• Using actionable feedback. Once learning evidence is collected, teachers work with students to ensure that they have both the time and processes to apply feedback in ways that move learning forward.
• Responding by adjusting learning strategies or next instructional steps. This practice is the “why” of formative assessment. To make the process effective, we must collaborate with students to use evidence and insights to propel learners toward shared and personal short- and long-term goals.

Why formative assessment is so important

As my colleague Chase Nordengren noted, “[f]ormative assessment is [critical] for educators looking to unlock in-depth information on student learning. […] Using strategies that expose misconceptions, support higher-level thinking within a subject, and engage students in academic discourse, formative assessment provides the real-time feedback necessary to dynamically adjust instruction to meet learner needs as they emerge and change.”

In short, formative assessment helps us evaluate whether our plans and responsive “moves” are working, while there’s still time to do something about it. It celebrates that learning is an ongoing process, complete with stretches of success and periods of struggle, and it helps us remember that learning is not linear but, instead, an endeavor that rewards effort, persistence, and dedication. Best of all, it helps us collaborate with students as co-partners in the entire learning experience. Together we are a learning team, one that makes anything possible.

Ready for more?

There is no shortage of information and resources available on formative assessment. For easy-to -implement, research-based strategies, check out our eBook, Making it work: How formative assessment can supercharge your practice, and our article “27 easy formative assessment strategies for gathering evidence of student learning.” Our professional learning team also offers five workshops that can engage you and your colleagues in deep dives designed and delivered by expert educators.

The post What is formative assessment? appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Walk into any classroom today and you’ll find great variation in student growth and kids with a variety of strengths, academic experiences, and needs. Superintendents now report an average of half of all their students are behind grade level, and other research suggests as many as 10% of students may be two or more grade levels behind.

The sheer variety of what students bring to school can be a major challenge for educators. Because these students’ needs are different, they’ll likely need different supports to be successful. At the same time, teachers are also tasked with ensuring every student has equal access to grade-level standards.

With only so many hours in the day, how can educators both differentiate to meet student needs and give all students access to the grade-level content they need to keep up and continue to succeed?

What the research tells us about helping kids succeed

It’s been my privilege to conduct research focused on meeting this intense challenge. And what my colleagues and I have found is heartening: there are many strategies teachers already use that have proven to be especially effective in helping children make the academic gains we know they can make. We’re calling these the Transformative Ten.

1. Provide supplemental learning time for targeted retrieval practice
2. Mix whole-group, small-group, and individual activities
3. Adjust student groups in real time
4. Share students and strategies within a grade level
5. Differentiate tasks within a unit
6. Provide targeted practice for foundational skills
7. Teach from multiple standards at once
8. Create opportunities for self-directed learning
9. Use student discourse as formative assessment
10. Explicitly teach academic vocabulary

Each of these strategies optimizes learning time, maximizes the amount of content students receive, and promotes student autonomy and empowerment. In our guide titled “The Transformative Ten,” you can read a detailed description of each approach along with relevant research and specific examples. Think of the paper as your toolkit for getting started addressing the tricky balancing act of differentiation vs. providing access to grade-level content.

About our studies

My research began with a commitment to understanding how schools generate high levels of student growth and to continuing the work of my late colleague, Andrew Hegedus. In 2019, Andy released provocative work demonstrating that schools that produce above-average student growth come from all corners of the country; in fact, 60% of the lowest-income schools showed growth above average.

My colleagues and I picked up where Andy left off and identified 789 schools that produced above-average growth for students in all achievement levels for multiple years. We then partnered with two of those schools, located in Schiller Park, Illinois. The Illinois schools are similar to others across the country: 62% of their students receive free or reduced-price lunch, 55% of students are non-white, and per-pupil spending in the district is below the state average. Yet these schools produced higher-than-typical growth across all student achievement levels six years running.

Getting to the heart of what effective instruction looks like requires close partnership. I visited the schools—Kennedy Elementary School and Lincoln Middle School—four times over the last 15 months. Each time, we conducted observations of classroom instruction and interviews with our four focus teachers, adding up to around 87 total hours of data. None of that could have happened without the willingness of teachers, principals, and a district willing to open up their practice for the benefit of other educators, and Schiller Park’s teachers and administrators deserve the bulk of the credit for making this work possible.

The purpose and intent of an effort like this departs in some important ways from other kinds of educational research. Unlike qualitative research, our intent was not to show conclusively that the strategies documented here can or will lead to high growth; other scholarship, particularly the pioneering work of John Hattie, meets that need. Instead, our intent was to pair existing research with concrete, in-the-moment details of professional practice that allow teachers and administrators to extract the best practices from high-growth schools and apply them in their own contexts and to their own students. Taking this approach allowed us to get much more specific about what high-quality instruction looks like while still drawing on past effectiveness research and the previously certified successes experienced in Schiller Park.

For the kids

Schiller Park teachers describe their commitment to student growth in five words: “All kids are our kids.”

While the challenges associated with meeting the needs of diverse learners grew during the pandemic, they were present long before the pandemic and aren’t likely to disappear anytime soon. By focusing on student growth and learning from the schools that achieve that growth, we stand to gain the specific research-based strategies teachers need to help all students succeed, not just those on the margins of grade-level proficiency.

We believe learning can be both individualized and equitable, and the Transformative Ten are first steps for getting there.

The post 10 ways to meet the learning needs of all students appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

We’ve got a big problem in math education and people are struggling to solve it. Student performance is declining, teachers are overwhelmed, professional development is lacking, and researchers and policymakers are at odds. This math problem looks different to everyone, and it can come down to academic identity.

To educators, low student performance and post-pandemic declines in grade-level readiness are major challenges in the math classroom. To students, not having teachers who can help them understand why they are learning math or help them draw connections between math and other subjects in school is problematic. To families, the “new math” and doing math problems differently than we did back in the day makes it almost impossible to help students with homework. To researchers, math problems are so complex that they think we need to oversimply math to a procedural subject devoid of conceptual understanding or real-world application. To policymakers, racial, ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic inequities are key factors that inhibit students’ potential to advance in mathematics.

There are too many factors in this math problem! The overwhelming amount of challenges we perceive about math education is making a very simple problem in math feel like high-level differential calculus. It’s no wonder people want to throw in the towel and just go back to the way we used to teach math. But how will we help students move forward if we move backward?

Solving this complex problem becomes easier when you break it down to the one thing that all students are not receiving and not all teachers are equipped to give: high-quality teaching. Academic success hinges on that. The cause can often be as simple as a teacher’s academic identity.

Too many of us aren’t math people

If we are all working toward improved student performance, then academic success should be a nonnegotiable goal for students, teachers, and others. But it’s not. And that’s because most of us are ok with not being a math person.

Understanding your math academic identity can help you get closer to determining whether you truly believe that math academic success can be a nonnegotiable goal for all students.

Stop for a moment and ask yourself: are you a math person? Now think of five other people you know. How many of them would say they are a math person? These “not math people” are getting in the way of our students making progress. A mindset of “not being a math person” is part of your academic identity, and it’s limiting because it can make you more diffident about your intellectual capabilities, fall victim to thinking of math as a linear and procedural science, and blind you to seeing the beauty in conceptual reasoning and explorative thinking.

Some of these non-math-people are teaching our students right now, and that is creating a different problem: unhealthy math academic identities. We all have academic identities, which are our attitudes, beliefs, and dispositions toward a subject. Unhealthy academic identities can manifest as disengaged students in class, more behavior problems, a teacher’s inability to move students’ math scores, and a lot more non-math people.

Imagine a fifth-grade teacher confidently affirming that they are not a math person. What might teaching and learning look like in their classroom? Will all students have access to mathematical thinking and opportunities to be intellectually curious students of mathematics? Will that teacher only teach the curriculum?

When we limit a student’s ability to develop sound mathematical thinking and reasoning, we are putting them at a disadvantage. Bill Gates was right in saying that we need to increase funding for teacher professional development, but all of our efforts will be in vain if we do not change how we think about math teaching and learning as well.

Answering this one question is the solution

A lot of us are not math people because we didn’t have the best experiences with math as young learners. Society has made “illiteracy in math acceptable the way illiteracy in reading is unacceptable,” as the late Bob Moses, founder of The Algebra Project and co-author of Radical Equations, said.

But what is possible if we all believe that math academic success is a nonnegotiable goal for all students? We can’t truthfully answer that question without uncovering our own beliefs about math by answering questions such as, how did I feel about math class as a student? Did I like or dislike it? Why did I feel that way? What did it mean to be a successful math student when I was in elementary school? Who were the successful math students? How did I know I was successful? What types of grades did I get in math? Why? What do I remember teachers or other adults saying about my capabilities as a math student?

Teachers’ academic identities are continuously developed through professional development workshops and other collaborative learning spaces.

The answers to all of these questions comprise the ideas and beliefs you hold about math teaching and learning: your math academic identity. Understanding your math academic identity can help you get closer to determining whether you truly believe that math academic success can be a nonnegotiable goal for all students.

Math is for everyone

Math shouldn’t be the gatekeeper subject that excludes students because some of us deem math success capable by only a select few. Math is for everyone. A fellow friend and math educator, Anita Brown, shared an insightful analogy: “Consider a situation where you offer two people a gift of anything they want. The first person asks for something that costs $50 and the other person asks for something that costs $2,000. The first person limited their cost option because they couldn’t imagine that there was more money available. People who are accustomed to having very little are used to making do with very little. Therefore they have limited their expectations.”

Just as our mindsets can shift from a fixed to a growth mindset, or from deficit- to asset-based, so, too, can our academic identities grow. Academic identities are not fixed; they are constantly being shaped and developed. Sometimes that happens when students open our eyes to new ways of thinking about a math problem. More often than not, teachers’ academic identities are continuously developed through professional development workshops and other collaborative learning spaces. It is imperative that educators continue to expand their academic identities and develop more empowering beliefs about math teaching and learning.

The equity expression

In closing, I’d like to offer you a bit of hope. For the first half of my life I wasn’t a math person, but now I am.

As a young student, I was consistently an average performer in math classes and never felt that my teachers understood my ways of thinking about and doing math. Nonetheless, I received my BS in math and an MEd in instructional leadership, and today I celebrate a successful 20-year career as a middle grades math teacher, math specialist, instructional coach, math workshop designer, and facilitator.

The challenges we face in math education are issues of equity, which I address in my book The Equity Expression: Six Entry Points for Nonnegotiable Academic Success. For those committed to helping students succeed, the steps outlined in this book provide meaningful solutions to embed equity into every learning culture. Check it out, and you’ll be better equipped to answer the question, what’s possible when math academic success is a nonnegotiable goal for all students? The possibilities are endless.

The post Your math academic identity makes a difference for your students appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

I was an unremarkable math student for most of my K–12 years. That said, I have a few very distinct memories of my math journey.

In second grade, I remember being sent to the third-grade class for reading but being in the low group for math. Being in the low group meant a lot of worksheets. You know the ones, with rows and rows of the same type of problem. My third-grade memories are pretty much exclusively of multiplication flashcards. So. Many. Flashcards. Nothing else stands out from elementary school, and although I generally remember middle school as harder, I could do the math.

Then came high school. And with it, algebra. I have an almost visceral memory of that class. When the letters and numbers started hanging out together, nothing made sense. Previously I had been able to get through by following the procedures my teachers taught. But in algebra, my teacher’s words turned into the “Wah, wah, wah” of Charlie Brown’s teacher, and the string of letters and numbers on the board were just that: a jumble of symbols with no meaning. With enough repetition and a lot of anxiety, I was able to follow the steps to get the right answer enough times to pass. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing or why I was doing it and, honestly, both of those questions seemed irrelevant.

I know my story is familiar enough to the point of being trite, but it speaks to the way many of us were taught math. We were taught to “do” math, not understand it, and to practice a set of predetermined steps to get the right answer. I was lucky to eventually encounter a math methods teacher in college who helped me rewind my math experience by giving me the opportunity to explore, enjoy, and—who’d have thought?—understand math.

Why rigor?

I bring up my experience not only because it is so common but also because it provides context for modern math standards. In creating the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and other college-and-career-ready standards, education leaders recognized the need for students to move beyond just “doing” math, as my colleague Ted Coe explains. To become critical thinkers who can apply math to solve real and unique problems, students must be given the opportunity to actively engage with and understand the key concepts of mathematics.

To support students in engaging deeply in mathematics, the creators of college-and-career-ready standards identified three key shifts: focus, coherence, and rigor. Focus refers to the deliberate narrowing in on the most important mathematical topics to support deep understanding of these critical ideas, rather than providing a shallow experience with a wide array of topics. Coherence speaks to the deliberate structure built into the standards through a conscious progression of understanding that builds across grades and a conscious connection between topics within grades. The third shift, rigor, is arguably the shift that best addresses the issues with how I and so many other others were taught math. Rigor in math speaks to the need for standards and curricula to support students in not just being able to do math, but also being able to engage with and understand it.

To support students in engaging deeply in mathematics, the creators of college-and-career-ready standards identified three key shifts: focus, coherence, and rigor.

The developers of the CCSS were clear on what they meant by rigor. It does not mean making the content harder or introducing concepts and skills at an earlier age. Rather, it is about supporting a deep, rich understanding of key mathematical topics and concepts. They identify rigor in math as being composed of three aspects: conceptual understanding, procedural skills and fluency, and application.

To support deep understanding of mathematics, college-and-career-ready standards are designed to appropriately balance the development of all three aspects of rigor in math within and across grades. The intent is to transition away from the overemphasis on simply memorizing and repeating procedures and toward developing conceptual understanding as a critical foundation for understanding procedural skills and fluently applying them to solve meaningful problems.

Rigor is a way of describing the cognitive complexity, or the cognitive demand, required to complete a task. Rigor in math is often associated with difficulty, but difficulty is not the same as cognitive complexity. Consider the following two tasks: inflating 100 balloons and putting together a 100-piece puzzle. Inflating 100 balloons may be tedious, and it would likely take some time. Whether you are using a pump or blowing them up by mouth, it might get difficult after a while, but the task is not cognitively demanding. Completing a 100-piece jigsaw puzzle may not take long to complete, but the task requires a strategy and decision-making. Even though completing the puzzle may be easier for an adult than a six-year-old child, the kind of thinking required is the same for both adults and children.

If you have been teaching for a while, you are likely familiar with other measures of cognitive complexity. Bloom’s Taxonomy was developed in the 1950s and revised in the early 2000s, and it was the dominant framework for years. With the onset of college-and-career-ready standards, the need for a framework specifically for assessments surfaced. Standardized tests at the time were measuring how students think about mathematical content and procedures but did not measure the depth of understanding relative to explaining one’s thinking, justification of processes, and transfer to other contexts.

In 2002, Norman Webb developed the Depth of Knowledge (DOK) framework to categorize assessment tasks according to the level of cognitive complexity required by the content of the task. While the DOK framework is useful to ensure assessments have a range of cognitive demand, it does not provide a way to examine the balance of conceptual understanding, procedural skill, and application.

How rigor in math supports deep understanding

If you are like me, you were taught to divide fractions using some version of the “keep, change, flip” rule whereby to divide two fractions you keep the first one the same, change the division symbol to a multiplication sign, and flip the final fraction to its reciprocal. Does this approach work? Yes. Do you know why? Probably not. This is a common example of a procedure-focused, instrumental understanding of a concept.

In 1976, Richard Skemp introduced the terms “instrumental understanding” and “relational understanding” to mathematics education. He explained “instrumental understanding” as “rules without reasons” and relational understanding as “knowing both what to do and why.” Various research studies have since shown the positive impact of relational understanding.

Students who develop a mental web of interrelated concepts are better able to understand and recall concepts, are more successful at problem-solving, and demonstrate the ability to generate original ideas. Developing students’ relational understanding helps them tackle unique problems and build their confidence. When taught using a traditional approach—the teacher teaches a procedure or skill, and students practice the skill with a series of similar problems—students don’t learn to reason; they learn to apply a discrete skill to a narrow set of cookie-cutter problems. This type of instrumental understanding promotes what CCSS coauthor Phil Daro terms “answer-getting.”“Keep, change, flip” is a prime example of answer-getting.

To become critical thinkers who can apply math to solve real and unique problems, students must be given the opportunity to actively engage with and understand the key concepts of mathematics.

When fraction division is taught as a stand-alone procedure, most students can get the answer, but they may not be able to apply this meaningless procedure to more complex tasks. This is problematic given that understanding of fractions and division are a key predictor of success in algebra. This is where the thoughtful balance of conceptual understanding, procedural skill and fluency, and application come into play.

The college-and-career-ready math standards approach to fractions utilizes rigor to promote relational understanding. When students are introduced to fractions, they are not taught just to identify the numerator and the denominator, or to abstractly think of two-thirds as “two out of three.” Instead, they are taught to understand fractions as units created by partitioning and iterating shapes or number lines.

Students apply the strong sense of the unit fraction developed in third and fourth grade to division, working initially with whole numbers and unit fractions only. This purposeful limitation builds understanding that 6 ÷ 1/3 translates to “How many one-thirds are there in 6?”—a simple concept to model. This understanding is then applied to problems like 6 ÷ 2/3 and, ultimately, to dividing fractions by fractions.

Scott Adamson demonstrates how the purposeful progression of conceptual understanding ultimately reveals the “keep, change, flip” procedure to students in a way that allows them to internalize it and apply it more successfully in novel situations in a video on YouTube.

Where to start?

Knowing how rigor in math supports student understanding is only the first step. To effectively incorporate rigor into your classroom, you need to understand how it relates to the other shifts, how to determine the rigor expectations in your standards, and how to incorporate aspects of rigor purposefully and appropriately into your practice.

Next month, we will be releasing a 60-minute, self-paced aspects of rigor eLearning designed to provide K–8 classroom teachers, intervention specialists, coaches, learning specialists, and instructional leaders guidance on incorporating aspects of rigor into instruction. It will help you continue your journey and your students’ journey into a deeper understanding and enjoyment of mathematics.

The post It’s time to prioritize rigor in math instruction appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

How can we support all learners in an academically diverse classroom? Will providing supports to some give them an unfair advantage? We can begin to address these common concerns by thinking about signs.

Supports are all around us

Frequently, in our day-to-day activities in the community, we encounter signs posted in various places: placards indicating self-serve checkouts in the grocery store, information about how to appropriately sort materials at the recycling center, posters explaining equipment use at the gym. A frequent patron might not need such reminders, or might only occasionally refer to them, but new visitors certainly do rely on such posted information for a successful experience. The signage presents no harm or inconvenience, and even occasional benefit, for many visitors, while being critical to others.

Thinking about signs in the community can remind us that what’s needed by some individuals poses no barrier—and can even sometimes be beneficial—for others.

One doesn’t have to look too hard to find other environmental features that support accessibility, inclusivity, and fairness for some individuals without posing a barrier to others: a sign language interpreter at a public event, an entry ramp on a building, a handrail on stairs. Again, some people rely on these for full participation in spaces and events, and there’s no harm done or extra advantage for those not needing them.

Supports in schools

The school environment parallels the greater community in many ways, including the heterogeneity of the people found within. The impetus to support accessibility, inclusivity, and fairness is surely at least as strong for children in school as for the general population in the community. This aim often manifests as features that are tailored to specific students and unlikely to be used by many others, such as Braille materials, instruction in a student’s home language (when not English), or a weighted pencil for students with fine-motor issues. Accommodations like these are typically mandatory per a student’s IEP or other support plan and are therefore likely to be implemented consistently.

Other student needs, formally identified or not, might not call for such explicit or obvious supports. Teachers must utilize a wide range of accommodations and modifications to ensure accessibility, inclusivity, and fairness for all students, including those with linguistic differences, those in need of scaffolding, and those who could benefit from extension.

How to support students with writing

Previous Teach. Learn. Grow. posts have focused on integrating supports for success in math and reading. Fair, accessible, and inclusive writing instruction calls for many of the same approaches while also presenting some unique opportunities to expand one’s toolbox of strategies.

Supports for success in writing instruction must be dynamic and responsive to changing student needs and learning goals. To that end, teachers may utilize general or targeted strategies, employed flexibly as appropriate, including differentiation of the content, process, and/or environment. These may include:

• Establishing student ownership and an authentic purpose for writing. Students are more engaged with a writing task that they find personally meaningful and that they believe will be impactful for others, and engagement is a key component of inclusivity. The more constrained and contrived the task, the less students feel ownership and meaningful purpose. As much as possible, allow students to write for self-directed, authentic purposes.
• Teaching mnemonic devices. Mnemonic devices are memory tools with broad utility across the curriculum. Mnemonics, such as acronyms and acrostics, can serve as critical scaffolds for helping students access the complex writing tasks of planning, organizing, developing, and even revising and editing. A quick online search will reveal many tried-and-true acronyms, such as POW, TREE, TIDE, and COPS, but you and your students might create some of your own.
• Modeling. We frequently think of modeling as useful in math and reading instruction, but it can also be a powerful addition to the writing instruction toolbox. Help make writing tasks accessible by modeling processes, techniques, and products. Seeing their teacher expand a paragraph with facts from a source, for example, can give students the needed framework for implementing a parallel task in their own writing.
• Providing specific, targeted feedback. Vague feedback (like “needs work” or “getting better”) is just as unhelpful in writing as in other scenarios. At the other extreme, too much feedback at once on a draft can be overwhelming and leave students feeling frustrated and unable to take action. Aim for feedback that is actionable and focused. Feedback is an especially useful tool for differentiation; it can be tailored to each student’s needs, including reteaching, linguistic support, and extension challenges.
• Using flexible peer learning groups. Flexible grouping is a powerful tool for bolstering accessibility, inclusivity, and fairness by facilitating targeted instruction and support. In the writing classroom, students may participate in flexible groups for various purposes: planning and brainstorming, peer review, and targeted grammar/mechanics skill groups, among others. While there may be occasion for using random or student-selected groups, aim for deliberate grouping informed by students’ situational needs for the greatest impact. See “NWEA guidance for student grouping” for more information on best practices for using flexible peer groups.

Many instructional strategies that support accessibility, inclusivity, and fairness can be delivered via self-regulated strategy development, or SRSD. SRSD is especially powerful for students with learning disabilities but can be useful for all students. Components of accessible, inclusive, and fair instruction also follow Universal Design for Learning (UDL) guidelines, a widely applicable framework for reducing barriers to learning. SRSD and UDL are not mutually exclusive but can be merged for maximal impact in planning and delivering writing instruction.

Closing thoughts

Supports for success are all around us. Buildings often feature door levers instead of knobs; you may even have some in your home. These can be essential for individuals with limited hand mobility but also helpful to others, as when hands are full or dirty. Skilled teachers employ instructional techniques that function similarly—providing varying levels of support, from minimal to intensive—to maximize accessibility, inclusivity, fairness, and, ultimately, student learning.

The post Integrating supports for student success in writing appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Whenever Bill Gates discusses anything, it sets internet hearts aflutter. After all, the Microsoft founder and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation standard-bearer has a lot of experience and influence, especially in K–12.

Gates’s recent interview in The 74 touched on the future of math learning, a topic America must feel never leaves the headlines. With COVID-19 continuing to undermine our learners’ math foundations  (especially our youngest and those experiencing socioeconomic inequalities), how can we attain success—and cultivate love—in math?

I asked several of my colleagues—educators, professional learning leaders, math experts—to weigh in on some questions that arose from the interview.

Do you agree that Americans “hate math”? Be honest, we’re going for real opinions here: did you hate math when you were in school?

Fenesha Hubbard: Although I have a degree in mathematics and taught middle school math, it took nearly a quarter of a century before I identified as a “math person.” I’m certain you can name a least five people who consider themselves to be “not a math person.” My certainty lies in the fact that our society has made “illiteracy in math acceptable the way illiteracy in reading is unacceptable,” as the late Bob Moses, founder of The Algebra Project and coauthor of Radical Equations, said.

Ted Coe:  Somewhere along the way in my mathematics education career I learned to expect some sort of negative response when I told someone what I did. That person in the seat next to me on the plane? It might be easier and more comfortable just to tell them I’m a spy or something. At least things would be less awkward. “Hate” may be too strong a word, but there certainly seem to be ample amounts of angst and frustration. It’s unfortunate, really.

Tammy Baumann: I disagree. There is evidence to support that Americans “hate” that they do not understandmath, but not so much that they dislike the subject itself. Further, it’s socially acceptable to say “I hate math,” which precludes the need to confront what this is really about: math instruction focused primarily on memorization, little sense-making, and contrived context. If you spend some time reteaching a self-proclaimed hater-of-math using techniques that reveal why things work, how they are interconnected, and applications that are relevant, the story will change.

Anita Brown: It wasn’t until my freshman year algebra class that I had any struggles with math. My teacher was completely procedural in her thinking. That approach worked for some students, but it definitely did not work for me! My geometry experience was even worse. I didn’t know how to advocate for myself at the time, but it was clear that their approach wasn’t working for me.

In the interview, Gates touches on how low math scores point to the equity disparities in our schools. What would you add regarding the relationship between math and equity?

Fenesha: Understanding your academic identity is essential to operationalizing equity. A teacher’s academic identity is akin to their pedagogical beliefs, which can influence how and what they teach, their beliefs about students, and what they deem appropriate and necessary in the math classroom.

Empowering beliefs about math teaching and learning lead to actions that have a positive impact on our students. I believe that decisions rooted in right thinking will lead to right actions. Teachers can learn how to put equity into action in my upcoming book, The Equity Expression: Six Entry Points for Nonnegotiable Academic Success, which is a joint partnership between Corwin and NWEA.

Tammy: Gates focuses on geographical inequities. For example, inner-city schools do not have the resources and the degree of parental support afforded to their suburban counterparts. However, Gates does not touch upon the instructional inequities.

All students do not learn at the same pace and in the same manner. Typically, math is taught in a formal manner with the primary technique being direct instruction. This becomes more prevalent as students move from elementary to secondary schooling, with less focus on understanding and more emphasis placed on memorization. To meet the needs of all students, it’s necessary to expand instructional repertoire to include techniques that intentionally develop understanding and sense-making. It’s essential for teachers to have a deep understanding of mathematics themselves, and teachers who have this depth are more the exception than the rule.

There is a marked decline in the number of teachers with an interest in teaching math, and for current teachers, in deepening their own understanding of the subject. Therefore, many students do not receive the instruction they need, and thus instructional inequity surfaces.

Anita: If math is taught in a conceptual way that builds critical-thinking skills, then math and equity are absolutely inextricably connected. To offer students opportunities to think about authentic, real-world problems at every stage of their life is absolutely a social-justice issue. Our students are not “college and career ready” if they do not know how to manage time and finances, which leads to providing for themselves and their families. So absolutely I believe the relationship between math and equity is critical.

What are your recommendations for making math “more relevant and engaging,” as Gates says is necessary?

Kailey Rhodes: Slowing down and revisiting the foundations. If we believe all math is interconnected and spirals off itself, we must avoid assumptions that students are solid in their footing before we proceed. If students don’t truly believe the commutative property (3×4 is the same as 4×3), much of algebra will feel like voodoo! If students don’t understand place value, exponents will feel like magic! Often when adults are “retaught” math that they’ve either forgotten from disuse or never understood in the first place, not only will the concept gel, but they will also immediately see its tangents into other math. That’s true with our students, too.

Ted: Oh! There are so many possibilities! For example, we might start with evaluating our overall goals in the teaching and learning of mathematics. Are we striving to see who can collect the biggest collection of memorized things, like collecting puzzle pieces in a box? Or are we aiming for students to see how those pieces fit together and serve to craft a much bigger picture? Are we focused on (and rewarding) ways of doing things (procedural fluency, which is easily forgotten), or do we also emphasize (and reward) the importance of ways of thinking about things (critical thinking, which is with us forever)? Are we connecting to real life, when we can? For those parts that might not immediately connect to real-world examples, are we able to explain how they are important for a bigger picture? Everything in mathematics connects to something else. We must make those connections explicit for our students.

While Gates lauds the new ChatGPT, he doesn’t explicitly map out its math-education intersection. How do you imagine math class should change in response to the increasingly AI-laden landscape?

Ted: This leads me to think back to the excitement of IBM’s Watson years ago. It won Jeopardy. It could chew up massive amounts of medical data and spin it around in helpful ways. However, I never saw it applied in an educational sense where it would serve as a game-changer. Teaching, after all, is different from Jeopardy or providing medical recommendations. Classrooms have seemingly infinite variables in play. They are messy places that involve lots of people doing different things. I played around with ChatGPT a few months ago and saw some promise. It could do some wonderful things, but it simply didn’t do well with mathematics entrenched in language. This latest version, though, is remarkable. I believe it is a game changer. I can’t yet say how a math class might/should change, as I haven’t had the chance to dig deep and push it to its limits, but the Khanmigo work from the folks at Khan Academy is a noteworthy first attempt.

Anita: I don’t think math classrooms need to change in response to the AI-laden landscape. If anything, it further drives home the need for math educators to enable students to do bigger things with mathematics. Computers and calculators cannot do critical-thinking for students. The introduction of AI hopefully illuminates for curriculum writers, college professors, researchers, and other educators the urgency for us to respond with high-quality math teaching and learning that is worthy of our students’ time and attention. At this moment that means investing time in supporting teachers to raise the bar for all students. We do not have the luxury of “more time.” We must move with a sense of urgency to provide our students with a high-quality education at any cost.

Gates also mentions mental health and SEL post-pandemic as obstacles in education. Does this resonate with you or your work?

Anita: Mental health and SEL post-pandemic definitely changed the landscape for many. However, K–12 educators have seen that, especially in Title I schools, many students operate in the space of “I feel isolated. I feel alone. I don’t feel understood.” Their mathematics socialization has always been an “othered” experience. It is important that the Gates Foundation and others turn their attention to how we support full participation by all students, because now those historically marginalized students will, by proxy, benefit from the influx of resources and action in the face of our post-pandemic society.

Kailey: How can students care about anything—especially a subject that can feel sterile and disconnected, like math—when they don’t feel cared for? The ingredients of a successful math class are similar to the ingredients of any successful classroom. Do students feel liked? Valued? Honored as individuals? And the beauty of math is that it can get personal! We individuals have a lot of data about us: our birthdate, how many bottles are in our showers, the calories in our favorite cereal, how much we spent on our backpack. The more we individualize our students—using math class as yet another way to do that—the more our students are whole people. And what are we doing, if we aren’t teaching the whole child?

Complete the sentence: “When I got to the end of the article, I couldn’t believe they didn’t talk about______.”

Fenesha: When I got to the end of the article, I couldn’t believe they didn’t talk about teacher readiness to deliver high-quality math instruction. Academic identities, or teachers’ dispositions and beliefs that make up their relationship with math, are not fixed. Teachers and students have academic identities, whether they are aware of them or not, and our identities shape teaching and learning experiences. It is imperative that teachers continue to develop their math academic identities through professional learning and reflection. They can do this through the act of teaching, staying abreast on industry trends and best practices, and being self-reflective in their practice. It’s also important for educators to continue to be a math learner as well as a teacher. If we want to disrupt a system, we must be willing to disrupt ourselves.

Kailey: Teachers’ rights not to know and to relearn math. Teachers are learners, too, yet we often feel such pressure to know everything about math. I went to a cribbage tournament recently and was endlessly mocked for not being able to instantly compute the complicated points scoring. “Aren’t you a math teacher?” Even our math educators feel lonely as learners! How can we build a system of support, where teachers feel they can say, “I need some help understanding this concept, for myself as a learner, so I can teach it better”? How can we remind the rest of the world that the study of mathematics is not an ancient and complete field, but one still abuzz with discovery. We’re still mathing, folks! Let’s be gentle with each other.

The post In response to Bill Gates in The 74: NWEA experts weigh in on math instruction  appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

My stepdaughter is attending nursing school. During her initial hospital rotations, she wondered if she had made a mistake. She thought nursing would be more than distributing medications and giving injections. Then she was assigned to a pediatric ward. Yes, she was still distributing medications and giving injections, but her lens changed. Looking at nursing through the lens of pediatric care changed the story for her. Today, she aspires to work in a children’s hospital.

The lenses we use are important. We may not see the full story if we limit ourselves to one lens. In the science classroom, the crosscutting concepts are the lenses, or pathways, that students can take to make sense of something new, even when their understanding of disciplinary core ideas is not yet advanced enough to do so.

What are crosscutting concepts?

Crosscutting concepts are an “organizational framework for connecting knowledge from the various disciplines into a coherent and scientifically based view of the world.” They connect the practices of science and engineering with disciplinary core ideas when exploring and explaining novel phenomena.

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) describe seven crosscutting concepts:

1. Patterns
2. Cause and effect
3. Scale, proportion, and quantity
4. Systems and system models
5. Energy and matter
6. Structure and function
7. Stability and change

Using patterns

Although a fundamental part of sensemaking, educators agree that students need explicit instruction and opportunities to practice using crosscutting concepts. One way to easily bring the concepts into science lessons is to have students begin to explore phenomena using the lens of patterns. Ask students the simple question “What patterns do you observe?” and the follow-up question “What questions do you have?”

Here are three abbreviated scenarios that show possible outcomes of this approach.

Scenario 1: An introduction to an elementary Earth and space science lesson

Teacher: “Look up at the stars in the night sky. What patterns do you observe?”

Student A: “The stars are bright.”

Student B: “But some stars are not bright.”

Student C: “I don’t see the sun anymore. Isn’t the sun a star?”

Student B: “I see the pattern that some stars are bright, and some stars are dim.”

Teacher: “What questions do you have?”

Student B: “Why are some stars brighter than others?”

Student C: “Why can’t we see the sun at night with the other stars?”

Student A: “Are bright stars bigger than dim stars? The sun is a star. It is very big and very bright.”

Student B: “Or maybe bright stars, like the sun, are closer to us than dim stars.”

Scenario 2: An introduction to a high school life science lesson

Teacher: “Look at the model of a DNA molecule. What patterns do you observe?”

Student A: “Some atoms are always grouped together.”

Student B: “Yes, the groups repeat. They repeat through the center of the molecule.”

Student C: “I think there are four groups of atoms in the center of the molecule.”

Teacher: “Here is a model of a DNA molecule from a different organism. What patterns do you observe?”

Student C: “I see the same four groups of atoms.”

Student D: “I do, too, but they are in a different order.”

Teacher: “What questions do you have?”

Student E: “Do all DNA molecules have the same four groups of atoms?”

Student F: “Why are the sequences of the groups of atoms different in different organisms?”

Scenario 3: An introduction to an elementary life science and engineering lesson

Student A: “Deer ate all the vegetable plants in the school garden!”

Teacher: “Let’s go look at the garden.”

Teacher: “What patterns do you observe?”

Student B: “The deer are not eating all the plants, just some of them.”

Student C: “I think they like some plants more than others.”

Student D: “Me, too. They don’t eat the plants with the fuzzy leaves.”

Student E: “They don’t eat the onion plants.”

Teacher: “What questions do you have?”

Student A: “How can we design our school garden so the deer don’t eat the plants?”

Patterns don’t have to rely on visual experiences. Students may use other senses, accessible computer simulations, and other means to find patterns.

In the examples above, when uncovering patterns, students recognize relevant information and eliminate irrelevant information. They notice relationships and turn them into productive questions. Students’ questions and resulting investigative approaches can almost always be reframed using the language of the crosscutting concepts to highlight the lenses they will use. Here are examples for the three scenarios:

• Scenario 1: Students examine the relative scale of the sizes of the sun and stars and their distances from Earth.
• Scenario 2: Students examine the structure of DNA to determine how it functions to pass information from one generation to the next.
• Scenario 3: Students examine the causes behind what deer eat and don’t eat to reach the desired effect of a thriving school garden.

At the end of the exploration, students may construct evidence-based explanations. Again, the crosscutting concepts can be helpful. Teachers can direct students to look at their initial patterns for supporting evidence and to apply the crosscutting concept used to frame their question to guide their reasoning.

Always close with time for reflection

Reflection is another key component of using crosscutting concepts effectively in the classroom. Encourage students to reflect on the usefulness of the concepts:

• How did looking for patterns help you?
• How did you use those patterns?
• How might you use patterns when you encounter something new in the future?

Crosscutting concepts can become tools that students use repeatedly both inside and outside of the classroom. With the crosscutting concepts, all students can participate and learn to think constructively—like scientists, engineers, and everyday citizens.

The post A simple idea for adding crosscutting concepts to science lessons appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

When we assess a student’s achievement using MAP® Growth, we assume they remain fully engaged throughout the test. This assumption allows us to view their RIT score as an accurate indicator of what they know and can do, which can help their teacher plan instruction.

As teachers are aware, however, sometimes a student becomes disengaged during testing, which usually results in a score that underestimates a student’s achievement level and can mislead the teacher’s interpretation of the instructional needs. Thus, the presence of disengagement threatens the validity of interpretations teachers make about their students’ RIT scores.

What causes disengagement?

Disengagement can be due to a variety of factors. Some students become bored. Others aren’t feeling well, experience fatigue, or become highly anxious during testing. Disengagement can therefore be viewed as the presence of any student-related factors that prevent a student from being fully engaged when they take MAP Growth.

At NWEA, two indicators have been used to detect disengagement. The first is rapid-guessing behavior, in which a student answers a question much faster than the time required to read it, understand and solve its challenge, and submit an answer. Rapid guessing indicates that the student answered without really engaging with the question. The second indicator is performance decline, in which the student’s test performance shows a large drop during testing. Performance decline implies that the student did not maintain full engagement throughout their test event.

What the research tells us about avoiding disengagement

One way of managing the problem posed by test-taking disengagement is to identify and avoid testing conditions under which disengagement is especially prevalent. My colleagues and I recently completed a study, which will be published soon, in which we investigated the relationship between test-taking disengagement and the time of day that testing occurred. The results of this study show that time of day clearly matters.

More than half a million MAP Growth test events in both math and reading were grouped by the hour of the school day that testing began. Two indicators of disengagement were studied. A student’s MAP Growth test event was deemed disengaged if at least 10% of their responses were classified as rapid guesses or their performance during the second half of the test showed a statistically significant decline from first-half performance.

Our results showed that schools tend to test early, with most test events (over two-thirds) beginning during the first two hours of the day. However, there were many instances of test events occurring throughout the school day.

The line graph below shows the relationships for math testing between hour of testing and the prevalence of disengagement. The rate of substantial rapid guessing tripled—from 2.7% to 8.5%—from 7 a.m. and 1 p.m., and the rate of increase rose after noon.

Similarly, in reading, the prevalence of rapid guessing doubled—from 8.5% to 15.5%—with the rate of increase accelerating during the last two hours. In contrast, the rates of performance decline were relatively unchanged during the day and remained about 3% in math and 4% in reading.

There was no evidence of an hour-of-testing effect for performance decline. This was somewhat surprising, as performance decline suggests that a student did not show persistent high engagement throughout their test event. We expected that such persistence would be more difficult for students to maintain later in the day. Our research has shown, however, that performance decliners tend not to be those who rapid guess. Apparently, testing later in the day encourages more students to rush through MAP Growth without engaging with the questions, but without their performance changing during the test event.

Test in the morning

What does this research mean for MAP Growth schools? One conclusion is clear: the later in the day you administer MAP Growth, the more likely that substantial rapid guessing will occur.

While we understand that sometimes circumstances require tests to be administered later in the day, be aware of the potential costs of less trustworthy RIT scores. Test earlier in the school day, when you can.

The post Don’t test after lunch: Time of day affects test-taking engagement appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: science is not neutral. Given this reality, it makes sense that students need opportunities to see science through an equity lens and build the skills to evaluate, interpret, and create scientific knowledge.

Social justice–oriented science is about addressing past wrongs committed in the name of science, but it is also about cultivating the next generation of scientific thinkers, doers, creators, and innovators. Leading researchers in science education agree, saying that “beyond addressing the moral and ethical demands of righting current and historic wrongs, a socially just approach to science education fosters the production of stronger science learning and ultimately stronger science through the integration of truly diverse questions, approaches, and resources.”

So now what? What can you do to incorporate social justice into your next science class? Our “It’s hot out here: Exploring heat in our world” lesson plans—which include a teacher guide and a student guide—can help. This lesson series is ready to use in classrooms and can also serve as a guide to the kinds of activities and practices that high-quality, justice-oriented science materials should include.

What are these lesson plans about?

The “It’s hot out here” lessons explore the deep connection between redlining and the people most affected by the urban heat effect, a clear and well-documented example of how science processes and human policies can interact to create inequitable outcomes.

Redlining was a practice through which banks and other financial institutions used an A–D rating system to categorize the riskiness of loans in a specific area. The ratings aligned highly with race and ethnicity: neighborhoods with a higher proportion of white residents received A and B ratings, while neighborhoods with more people of color received lower ratings, limiting economic investment in these areas. This directly impacted the physical landscape of these neighborhoods.

Despite redlining becoming illegal in 1968, neighborhoods with lower historical ratings have less tree cover, fewer parks, and more paved surfaces today. As a result, areas that were previously assigned C and D ratings continue to be hotter on average than their A and B counterparts in the same area. This difference can sometimes be as much as 12 degrees in neighborhoods only a few miles apart. Because this was such a widespread practice, this issue is relevant in nearly every community across the United States. Exploring these types of examples enables our students—and all of us— to better understand the science behind the problem and design more effective solutions.

What content is in the lesson plans?

The “It’s Hot Out Here” lesson plans include five lesson plans aimed at grades 6–8, which are appropriate for grades 9–12 as well. The lessons integrate Next Generation Science Standards across Earth science, life science, physical science, and engineering domains with the crosscutting concepts and science and engineering practices. The lessons also align to the social justice standards from Learning for Justice.

The lessons grow outward from personal experiences of heat-to-heat impacts at the community level. Through the lessons, students engage in deep analysis of robust data sets that include both environmental and social factors, create and revise models of the movement of heat energy through a system, and explore potential solutions within the context of their local community. The lessons culminate in an engineering and design thinking process that could be used throughout the year to problem-solve around a variety of justice-oriented science phenomena.

What features are in the lesson plans?

The lesson plans include a teacher guide and a student guide.

The teacher guide is meant to make implementation of the lessons as easy as possible. It includes an overview of the entire series of lessons, a materials and preparation schedule, details on alignment to NGSS and social justice standards, and a guide to each lesson. The individual lesson guides include essential questions, key terms, tips for implementation, suggestions for modifications, and optional scaffolds to differentiate instruction. They also include a step-by-step guide for every student activity, like the one below.

The teacher guide also includes a wealth of additional resources to walk teachers through the sometimes daunting process of integrating social justice into science classrooms. These include a set of inclusive discussion strategies used throughout the lessons and recommendations for practical strategies for facilitating conversations related to race, injustice, and other difficult topics.

The student guide lets students record, process, and expand their developing ideas. Each lesson includes essential questions, key terms, and guiding activities. These activities include solo journaling, class investigations, small group data explorations, and paired modeling. The activities are designed to include a variety of ways to engage with the content and share ideas. The activities include scaffolds, like sentence frames, graphic organizers, a visual glossary, and starter graphs and models that can be added, removed, or modified to fit the needs of individual students. The student guide also includes a midunit check-in and an end-of unit assessment to gauge growth throughout the unit.

The teacher guide and the student guide work together to facilitate an experience in which students explore an authentic issue, discover patterns and relationships that feel interesting to them, and design solutions that resonate with their lives. The guides aim to provide enough structure to generate productive learning experiences for all students while maintaining the flexibility to empower students in their own growth. This balance of support and freedom, along with the focus on a locally relevant issue, like the interplay between urban heat and redlining, are critical components of any justice-oriented science curriculum.

How do I explain to others why we need to talk about social justice in science class?

I’ll give you three reasons why social justice is important in your science classroom.

First and foremost, real-world science creates inequities and requires change to rectify those impacts. I‘ll repeat that science is not neutral. To treat science as neutral is particularly harmful because it perpetuates a culture that does not adequately evaluate the processes, impacts, or outcomes of science and does not recognize existing harms.

Beyond the moral and ethical call, justice-oriented science better prepares students to be creators and consumers of science. Real-world data builds real-life skills, and real-world phenomena and problems inspire real engagement. Students analyze robust data, craft their own explanations, and engage in debate about the validity and strength of evidence. They explore authentic questions of what data can and cannot tell us and develop the skills to interpret the myriad of scientific claims that infiltrate our everyday lives.

Lastly, all (yes, I said all) of the current state science standards acknowledge the idea that science is a human activity with ethical implications. While the NGSS may have the most robust call for the integration of science concepts and their social, cultural, and political contexts, even state standards that do not resemble the NGSS address the need to evaluate the ethical implications of scientific pursuits. Justice-oriented science is standards-aligned science.

Just start now

Our hope is that these lesson plans empower teachers to explore justice-oriented science practices. Use them however best serves you and your students as is, or pick and choose pieces. The possibilities for helping students see the wide-ranging impact of science on the world around them are endless.

The post Free lesson plans for your science classroom are here appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

MAP® Growth

What adds complexity to measuring growth on MAP Growth, however, is that the assessment score, called a RIT score, is reported along with a standard error of measurement (SEM), which conveys the margin of error for the measured score. For example, if I produced a RIT score of 214 in the fall, and my SEM was 3.2, my “true score” might have been a bit lower than 214 (as low as 210.8) or a little bit higher (as high as 217.2). The odds are that it fell somewhere in the range of 214±3.2, but I can’t know exactly where. Imagine, further, that I produced a winter RIT score of 212 with an SEM of 3.1. Again, the “true score” can’t be exactly known, but it probably falls within the range of 212±3.1.

So, then, did I grow? The easy answer is that I lost two RIT points because the difference between my measured scores in winter and fall was -2 points. But since there are margins of error on the observed scores, there must be a margin of error for my observed loss, too. NWEA refers to these as growth standard errors.

Understanding growth standard errors

Growth standard errors are related to the individual score SEMs, with smaller SEMs leading to smaller growth standard errors. In the example above, my growth standard error would be 4.46. This means that my “true growth” most likely falls within -2±4.46, or between the range of -6.46 and 2.46 RIT points.

This can be represented visually with a bell curve, as in the figure below, in which the red shaded area represents the range of ±1 standard error around the observed change (the vertical line at -2):

The bell curve displays the possible range of outcomes for my “true growth.” The red shaded area constitutes 68% of the total area under the bell curve, which is another way of saying that we can be 68% certain that my “true growth” falls within that range (between -6.46 and 2.46). But what are the chances that even though my observed score decreased by two points that my “true growth” was positive? Visually, that might look like this:

This red shaded area (about 32% of the total area under the curve) represents the possibility that my “true growth” was greater than zero, or positive. In other words, there is about a 32% chance that my “true score” actually increased, despite the fact that my observed scores dropped by two points. There is also about a 68% chance that my “true growth” was negative.

The value of precision

This information is useful in multiple ways. First, it highlights the fact that MAP Growth contains an element of measurement error, which can be expressed in terms of probabilities. In the example above, we saw that my “true” growth score had about a 32% chance of being positive (or that I gained ground) and about a 68% chance of being negative (i.e., that my true score dropped). These kinds of statements are possible for all assessments, of course, but with MAP Growth, the magnitude of error for most students is relatively small compared to fixed form or shorter length adaptive tests. And the smaller the error, the more precisely we can measure small amounts of real student growth.

Another reason this is helpful is because it helps us to correctly understand and interpret negative growth. In my example, the observed change (-2 points) was small, relative to the growth standard error. This means that there was considerable uncertainty (about a 32% chance) that the observed loss was not real. In general, when observed changes are very large relative to their standard errors, we can be much more confident that they are real and not simply artifacts of measurement error. When changes are small relative to their standard errors, we are much less confident that they are real.

Testing conditions matter

All of the examples given so far rely upon a basic assumption, which is that the testing conditions and environmental factors remain consistent across time. If we wanted to measure how much a student’s height increased during a school year, we wouldn’t measure them while barefoot in the fall and then again wearing three-inch platforms in the spring. If we did, we could not be confident that the observed changes in student height were due solely to physical growth. The same principle applies when measuring growth in achievement.

This is a particularly important factor to consider when understanding and interpreting unusually large increases or decreases in student MAP Growth scores over time. In many cases, when a student shows an unexpected drop in score between two test events, the change can be attributed to other factors. Did the student spend too little time on the test? Was the student actively engaged, or were they responding randomly to the items? MAP Growth is designed to invalidate any test where the test duration is six minutes or less, but test durations of 10–15 minutes may be suspect as well. For a student to finish a 40-item MAP Growth test in that time, they would almost certainly need to rush through the test. This could lead to a higher SEM and a lower RIT score.

How to get accurate assessment results

To ensure MAP Growth reliably measures a student’s progress, there are several things you can do:

• Make sure your test proctors are logging start and end times, when possible.
• Have proctors circulate around the room, making notes on student progress. Remember that proctors have the ability to pause and restart a student’s test if they feel the student is not engaged.
• Consider retesting. If a student’s score has dropped significantly (>10 RIT points, for instance), particularly if the test duration also dropped considerably, a retest might be warranted.
• Make use of NWEA reports that show test duration times. A comprehensive data file export shows the test duration times for all MAP Growth tests. Any time you see a test duration under 15 minutes, you should wonder if the student was fully engaged.
• Thoughtfully schedule your MAP Growth testing window. If testing takes place too close to state testing, or too close to winter or spring break or another holiday, it is possible that student engagement will suffer.
• Be careful about promising fun or free time after everyone has finished the test. MAP Growth is an untimed test, but students may tend to rush through it if they know that there is a treat waiting for them once they are all finished.
• Maintain consistency across testing seasons. Ensure the same policies and conditions are applied in all seasons.

The post Measuring growth and understanding negative growth appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

How much do we want all our students to be successful in reading? I’ll borrow a phrase from my son when he was little and say, “Infinity much.” We can all get behind that statement. So how do we design supports into our teaching to facilitate that student success?

One useful framework is the notion of teaching responsively. This is about responding to students and their needs, both planfully and in the moment.

The three principles of responsive teaching

A responsive teaching framework points to three fundamental attributes we should target in designing supports: accessibility, fairness, and inclusivity. If we take a moment with each and get our heads around a handy metaphor, then we can apply those to the particular case of responsive reading instruction.

1. Make learning accessible. Designing for accessibility means thinking about shelves. First is scaffolding: If the learning is about content that’s on a high shelf, then we need to give access, like stepping stools. Second is modification: In some cases, we need to move from “off the shelf” thinking to “made to order.” We want kids spending time learning the content we care about, not expending most of their energy just trying to access it.
2. Ensure fairness. We all know that sometimes fair is not equal. If a child needs prescription glasses, that doesn’t mean we should give all kids glasses just to be equal. But sometimes the only way to fairness is to build universally. Not every child needs a curb cut to get their wheelchair onto the sidewalk, but we’re only building each intersection once, so let’s build it fairly. (Bonus: Curb cuts are good for strollers and skateboards, too!)
3. Build inclusivity. A classroom should be a unified community even while each student is uniquely different. Our classroom is one garden, and each student is a particular plant. We want a plan that helps all students belong and grow together in our garden, with each different plant getting and giving nutrients to the soil.

Shelves and stepping stools in reading instruction

Consider that the shelf is sometimes a high reach for students. Should we just lower it? In reading instruction, sometimes the grade-level texts that we discuss for comprehension can feel like they are up really high. But it’s critical to keep that height. All students deserve access to rich, grade-level text so they can develop their comprehension and knowledge. If you’re limiting kids to text at their “reading level,” consider how this affects equity in reading instruction.

So let’s design those stepping stools: scaffolding. Before we discuss structure and meaning in a text, we can preview vocabulary and build engagement. How does this connect to our lives and our current knowledge? To support each student’s decoding of the text, we can do repeated readings of passages, moving from high support to less. Model an oral reading yourself, then read chorally with the whole class, then do a partnered read. When all students are supported in building fluency on a text, they can free up effort and energy for thinking about meaning, text structure, and unpacking the author’s craft. When a grade-level text is a pretty high reach, if read independently, it is our job to build the right stepping stools so that everyone can gain access to the rich learning opportunities it presents.

Made-to-order modifications

Sometimes we need to shift from off-the-shelf to made-to-order. This is where modifications come in. Some students with disabilities, for example, will have more significant modifications called for in their IEP.

If I expect my high school students to read Romeo and Juliet, that’s a high shelf. But suppose the discussion today will center on a scene in the middle of the play, in which our happy hero kills—oops—and gets banished. To approach that scene with understanding of the 11 that come before it, one or more students might need an alternative to the text as written. A made-to-order solution might make use of a graphic novel version or a highly decodable summary.

Not all students will be offered this modification. Fair is not equal: we don’t give all students eyeglasses because one student needs them to see well.

Eyeglasses or curb cuts?

But when is access and equity more like eyeglasses and when is it more like curb cuts? Ideally, this is not about hard and fast boundaries but, instead, about cyclical, responsive thinking. Sometimes thinking about individual accommodations and modifications can improve our design of broader scaffolding.

Suppose I decide to send the qualifying student a video of the scene to watch twice before the day of the close reading in class. She’s the one who needs this, as protected in her IEP, so it’s certainly fair that she has a unique support. But here’s another thought: what if my target for this lesson isn’t about decoding the words but, instead, about how Shakespeare uses humor to deepen tragedy? Then, heck, why isn’t that video preview a good idea for the whole class?

Sometimes when we build solutions we thought were eyeglasses, they turn out to be good curb cuts instead. That’s building our capacity to do universal design for learning (UDL).  

A garden of readers

Designing for student reading success needs to focus not only on access and equity but also on building inclusivity. Our choice of texts plays an important role.

If every text we use in high school is written by an old, dead, English-speaking white guy, then we signal to many students that their lived experiences are far outside what we consider worthy of study. Instead, we want students to read material that is both foreign to and familiar to their own lives, and that means seeking out diverse authorship.

Rudine Sims Bishop uses the analogy of windows and mirrors: when our readers look into a book, can they see themselves? Can they see something outside their lives? Both can be true at once. In The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, the mix of torment and compassion in sibling relationships is a mirror for me. But the Black family’s careful navigation of different levels of racism is a window.

Remember: Every student is a unique plant, and we can offer nutrients that feed all of them, sometimes in different ways. The plants then return nutrients to the soil themselves, if we let them. For this, we need to build a classroom where student voices are on, both orally and in writing, and where they are encouraged to speak as themselves and from their own experiences.

Imagine a kindergarten teacher, the book Abuela open to the kids on the carpet. The teacher is pointing to the page and asking “What sound does this letter make?” When she calls on Raul, his answer might be, “My abuela died.” Grief is clearly bigger than letter sounds; responsiveness matters more than the plan for this minute. When we can have conversations about real feelings and events, students learn that they matter here.

High quality teacher–student interactions and student–student interactions are absolutely key to a good garden: they develop language, belonging, deeper thinking, and engagement.

Humans, teaching responsively

We all want student success in reading—infinity much. Translating that want into action means designing instruction in ways that make learning accessible, ensure fairness, and build inclusivity. We can all get better at designing ahead with this kind of universality of support for success. And even when we are really good at it, it will always be the case—for infinity time—that we will discover during instruction how we can improve further still.

That’s a lot. Kind of like life. So, then, all this individual and universal support we’ve been talking about? Let’s build that for ourselves and for each other, too. Let’s remember to give ourselves the kind of patience, flexibility, and compassion we offer our kids when we teach responsively.

The post How responsive teaching can transform reading instruction appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

The research team at NWEA serves our educational partners by offering technical support on a range of assessment issues, including how to understand and use MAP® Growth norms.

One common question we receive is, “What percentage of students usually make a year’s worth of growth on MAP Growth?” This question is difficult to answer because it’s precisely like asking what percentage of students got taller by one year’s worth. Both questions assume the same false premise: that academic achievement and height are measured in units of time.

This matter can be inadvertently complicated by those who are primarily familiar with assessments that measure whether students meet grade-level “mastery” or “proficiency” with academic content as articulated in a set of standards. Experience with such assessments has led some to rely on metrics that summarize student performance as above or below grade level.

More recently, however, policies have been implemented to recognize the fact that student mastery is only part of the puzzle. Growth is just as important, and for the purposes of measuring school effectiveness, it is even more important, since growth over time is more highly correlated to school factors, whereas mastery measures are more strongly correlated to socioeconomic status and family factors. Consequently, we’re now seeing policies emphasizing the measurement of student academic growth. This has led to the use of the term “years of growth,” as if a predetermined amount of change should occur between years.

Assessing mastery vs. assessing growth

Estimating growth over time is not the same thing as estimating grade-level “mastery.” Tests designed to estimate grade-level “mastery” assess the extent to which students are learning what has been established for them to learn. Tests designed to measure growth aren’t necessarily focused on grade-level mastery but, instead, on whether improvement has occurred between test events. These are different kinds of assessments, and they utilize different metrics.

Whether measuring height or student achievement, one defines growth as the change in an attribute between two time points. If my daughter was 54 inches on her eighth birthday and 56 inches on her ninth birthday, then she grew two inches during that year. So, for her, one year’s worth of growth was two inches. If she produced a MAP Growth math score of 180 on her eighth birthday and a 195 on her ninth birthday, she made 15 RIT points of growth. For her, one year’s worth of growth was 15 RIT points because that’s how much she grew during the year.

Kids don’t grow at the same pace

NWEA provides growth norms that allow educators to compare a student’s observed growth relative to a nationally representative comparison group. The norms provide a context for knowing how much growth is typical or atypical for students over a school year or between varying time intervals within a school year. For example, the fall-to-spring growth exhibited by first-graders with a fall math RIT score of 130 is described by a normal distribution (a bell curve) with a mean of 19 points and a standard deviation of seven. It looks like this:

About half of first-graders with this fall score of 130 will show fall-to-spring growth less than about 19 RIT points, and about half will show more than 19 RIT points.

Some schools tabulate the percentage of their students whose growth meets or exceeds their individual growth projections (50% of students typically do so) and report this value as a performance indicator.

Here’s the important thing: while 19 points of growth might be typical for the first-grader who has a fall RIT score of 130, it’s not typical for all first-graders. First-graders with fall math scores of 180 have a fall-to-spring growth distribution that has a mean of 14 and a standard deviation of seven, looking like this:

For these first-graders, “typical” growth is only 14 points.

A “year’s worth of growth” (as defined by mean normative values) varies across kids of differing initial achievement and across kids of different ages. Growth in achievement, just like growth in height, is not constant across all kids. Furthermore, students who meet typical growth are not necessarily on track to meet any external performance criteria, such as state proficiency or college readiness. These students are merely showing change that is at or above average, compared to other students like themselves.

A tip for reporting data

If you work with data from growth measures such as MAP Growth, the next time you are asked what percentage of students shows a year’s worth of growth, give the correct answer: 100%. But if you are asked what percentage of students show change that is “typical” or is consistent with statistical, normative expectations, don’t forget to take into account where students start and how much instructional time is in the test interval of interest.

The post To measure a year’s growth, begin with the student appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Over the next two months, at least 25 million elementary, middle, and high school students nationwide will sit down for state exams in reading, math, and science. Most caregivers will want to know how their child did. Are they performing on grade level? Did they make a year’s worth of growth since last year?

If the results come fast enough, caregivers could invest in extra learning supports this summer, or even consider a different school for their child for the fall. Teachers could use the summer to review their students’ performance and adjust their lesson plans for next year. Principals could use the results to assign students in need of extra support to their best teachers next year.

All of these actions depend on getting test results back quickly. But if history is any guide, we probably won’t have the results of spring 2023 testing for months.

Like it did in creating the state testing mandate, Congress needs to step in and require states to send preliminary score reports back to families and teachers very quickly. Such a shift would be good policy at any point, but it’s especially urgent right now. Due to COVID-19 and the long periods of remote learning it necessitated, today’s students are far below where they otherwise would be. Students who were in need of extra help before the pandemic fell even further behind.

Many school district leaders are working to develop interventions to help address these gaps, but students aren’t signing up for the summer-school, after-school, or tutoring programs that are being offered. Caregivers could be receptive audiences and engaged as partners to help boost participation rates, but only if they’re given time and space to do so.

The problem: State test results are too slow

Most state tests are administered in April or May. The graph below shows when states released the results of their 2022 tests to the public. Each dot represents one state and the date they released their results. As a reference point, the chart also includes dotted horizontal lines for August 1 and September 1. Although school start dates vary across and within states, these lines are intended as rough proxies for when the following school year starts.

As the graph shows, in 2022, only five states released their results in June or July, in advance of the new school year. Another 10 released results in August, just before or right around the start of the new year. But that means 35 states and the District of Columbia all released their results in September or later.

Source: 2022 data comes from the author’s scan of state department of education websites.

The chart above shows which states released their official results to the public, and a handful of states share preliminary data with parents and educators in advance of the official public release. However, that’s far from standard practice.

Why aren’t states releasing their results faster? It’s likely not a technical problem. States have been administering annual tests for two decades, and the tests themselves are now routinely taken on computers.

This suggests the delays are mostly a function of political processes. NWEA provides results on MAP® Growth interim assessments to schools within 24 hours after a student completes a test. Students who take the ACT, SAT, GRE, and AP tests can all expect their results online within about two weeks. These are for the easy-to-score multiple choice components of the tests, but the makers of the ACT and SAT tests warn that results may take another few days or up to two weeks to score written test items. In contrast to the state tests, which typically have no stakes attached to them for individual students, these latter examples are all vetted results that have high stakes for students.

What’s different is that these tests are sold on the private market and must be responsive to end users. In contrast, states have configured their testing systems more as a compliance exercise in response to the federal testing mandate, at the expense of timely and actionable information to parents and educators.

The feds have not been helpful in this regard. Congress imposed a long list of data points that must be included and disaggregated on school report cards, but it is silent about how fast the results must be relayed to parents, teachers, or the public.

The U.S. Department of Education has layered on its own technical specifications for state tests. Its most recent assessment peer review process focused much more on technical concerns around the test itself than it did on timeliness and usability of the results. For example, it included a single question on reporting and asked for states to provide evidence of a “timeline that shows results are reported to districts, schools, and teachers in time to allow for the use of the results in planning for the following school year.” However, the same process evaluated state tests on 29 other “critical elements” related to the test itself and the processes by which the tests are administered and monitored. Taken as a whole, the peer-review process nudges states to adopt more technically complex tests at the expense of simplicity and speed.

In short, we need a new thumb on the scale to make the state tests timely and actionable for the intended users.

The solution: Require states to release results to caregivers and educators within two weeks

Congress should amend the testing rule to require states to send preliminary results to caregivers and educators within two weeks of a test’s administration. States could take more time to produce vetted results for public accountability purposes, but the preliminary results would provide immediate, actionable information to the people in the best positions to act. Some states already choose to send score reports back to caregivers and educators earlier than the public release, but a quick return of results should be the standard operating practice across the country, and that will only happen with congressional action.

There’s a case to be made that even the vetted school- and district-level results should be released much faster than they are today. School and district leaders could also make much better use of their summer time if they had faster results.

But if nothing else, states should get preliminary results back to caregivers and educators quickly because they can take immediate actions. If caregivers knew their child’s results by the end of May, they might be able to make different decisions for their child for the summer, such as finding a tutor or signing up for summer school. They would also have time to consider alternative schooling options for their child for the following school year.

Processing the results quickly would also provide teachers and school leaders the time to actually look at and reflect on their students’ performance. Given enough lead time, a teacher might be able to change their instructional practices for the following year. A principal might be able to respond to schoolwide challenges, such as problems with early reading skills, or they might consider a student’s test score when making classroom assignments for the following year. District leaders might adopt different curricula—and provide staff the time and training to adapt—or change school-level staffing levels.

Policymakers and advocates have touted all of these use cases for state tests before, but they’re impossible to do well with the current slow pace of the results. A key portion of the theory of action behind state tests depends on processing the results quickly. State administrators need to be nudged to focus on speed and getting test results back to caregivers and educators as quickly as possible.

The post State test results must be released more quickly to benefit kids appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

When I was a new teacher, summer became a “parking lot” of my ideas. During the school year, whenever I would realize an opportunity for growth in myself, I would think, “That’s what I’ll use my summer for.” Oh, sweet little newbie.

Teacher Summer is a time for sleep. For restoring. For relaxing. For travel. Summer is the time we fill up our yearly gas tanks for one of the hardest jobs on Earth. I did not know that at first.

After teaching years one and two, I got the End-of-Summer Scaries. I would spiral into a guilt-ridden rollercoaster of all the things I didn’t do: I didn’t flip my classroom. I didn’t rewrite my least favorite unit. I didn’t hand-embroider each student’s birth chart.

Now I’m finishing up teacher year nine, and I’ll be honest with you: summer is still my parking lot. I still have lofty, noble plans that may or may not happen in those too-short weeks. I still feel a little guilty for what I don’t do. But time and experience have taught me that the oxygen mask metaphor is correct, and that my summer is for me. To show up in September as my best teacher self, I have to rest first. And if I get a little energy to better myself, maybe those projects can be small and accomplishable.

I have about 10 weeks of summer break, so here are 10 things I might do this summer—some to develop my professional self and some to decidedly abandon any duty-driven ideals whatsoever. And who knows? Maybe I’ll decide my “me time” doesn’t include any of these things. You, teacher friends, can pick and choose too.

1. Read some “beachside books,” whether I’m beachside or not.

No, these aren’t lofty tomes or canonical enrichments; these are what I want to read. Period. A few on my list are:

• Late Bloomers by Deepa Varadarajan. Tagline: “An Indian American family is turned upside down when the parents divorce thirty-six years into their arranged marriage in this witty, big-hearted debut.” I am not only excited to learn more about a culture apart from my own, but I’m so ready for a love story that isn’t starring twenty-somethings! And lately, whenever I see “debut,” I go for it. An old favorite (The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern) and a new staple (Chemistry Lessons by Bonnie Garmus) are both debuts.
• Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld. Tagline: “A comedy writer thinks she’s sworn off love, until a dreamy pop star flips the script on all her assumptions.” It’s on Oprah’s and Reese’s booklists, and the book cover looks like vintage candy. Remember when I said I could do whatever I want?
• A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow. Tagline: “A captivating modern fantasy about Black sirens, friendship, and self-discovery set against the challenges of today’s racism and sexism.” I’ve had my eye on this one for a while, as it’s not only timely and relevant, but it’s YA magical realism set in Portland, Oregon, where I live (hi!).

Got a library card? Download the Libby app to check out eBooks and audiobooks from your local library on your phone, for free!

2. Try out the cold plunge craze.

Orrrrr sit back in a warm blanket with a glass of wine and watch videos of foxes laughing. I haven’t decided.

3. Go to Fusion, NWEA’s summer conference, in Atlanta.

I’m from Atlanta, and I’ve got my eyes on some sessions and some restaurants. From June 27th to 29th, I’ll haunt the Marriott Marquis for terrific sessions by day. By night? I’ll be stuffing myself with the food of my homeland. Here’s my plan:

• Session: “Eliciting evidence of students’ math understanding,” led by my buddy Nicholas Joe. Nick is approachable and relatable and just wants to make math easier for kids.
• Restaurant: I like to celebrate my daily learning with perhaps a craft cocktail and a deviled egg, you know? I’ll head to White Oak Kitchen, which my ATL girlfriend Lindley correctly calls “Elevated Southern Food”—with a top hat emoji.
• Session: “Does four equal five? A review of the evidence on four-day school weeks,” led by smarty-pants researcher Emily Morton. I love that NWEA is at the forefront of relevant research into school improvement, and Emily always distills weighty information into digestible snacks.
• Restaurant: Speaking of snacks, sometimes I want a bit of everything. At Krog Street food hall, I can bite, shop, and sip my way around the dozens of stores and restaurants, all inside some blessed air conditioning.

4. Investigate a capsule wardrobe to minimize decision-making.

I’m a teacher. I don’t have lots of extra time to kill. Maybe I can make getting dressed in the morning easier by beginning with the 333 challenge. Orrrr maybe I’ll have an entire Miss Frizzle fashion renaissance.

5. Go on a hike (for me) and make an extended class activity on mileage, rates, elevation, and estimation (for my students).

I like this activity from Math Learning Center. Or I may design a class field trip to a local craft store with a budget, ending in a fabulous arts and crafts math project. Hey, it’s better than my idea to take them all to an Orangetheory class. (Do you know how much math is on those treadmill screens?! Rates, minutes, laps, tenths of a mile inching glacially by…)

6. Take a class just for me that I cannot and will not turn into something for my math class.

There are lots of options to choose from. Here are just three:

• Drawing. My editor, Monica, is taking “Drawing for people who think they can’t draw (but actually can!)” by Sarah Levy, here in Portland, Oregon. Google “drawing class” to get some results near you, even if you, too, think you can’t draw. Monica didn’t exactly invite me…yet.
• Make-up. Bobbi Brown’s MasterClass on “simple, natural makeup” might finally be the place I can figure out my new, grown-up-who-wants-nice-yet-straightforward makeup routine. And I can mess up in the privacy of my own home. (I know makeup isn’t everyone’s thing, so check out the other offerings from MasterClass. Get this: a family plan is $23 per month, for six devices. Grab friends and family and split the cost!)
• Pottery. These clay kits from Sculpd, to be done in my own home at my own pace, are always in my cart. I never check out because I have other things to do. Not this summer. It’s pottery time!

7. Film my own TV screen (classy).

I dream of compiling top computational moments from The Great British Baking Show to add some flair to my own fractions baking challenge.

8. Check out some professional learning from my living room.

Two favorites are Global Online Academy’s catalog of courses (for all disciplines) and YouCubed (aka Queen Jo Boaler) for math teachers.

9. Collaborate with an ELA colleague.

I want to pitch reading The Martian and working through the math. Except I know he’d never give up Animal Farm, Macbeth, or Kafka (yes, Kafka).

10. Rewatch Queen Charlotte of the Bridgerton universe…

…and pray that season 3 is as good as this prequel.

Teachers, whatever is (or isn’t!) on your list this summer, I wish for you joyous rest and restful joy. We deserve it, y’all!

The post 10 ways I’m putting myself first this summer appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

The end of the school year is a time for celebration and reflection—and it’s important to make sure instructional coaching doesn’t get swept aside by urgent tasks, like testing season and end-of-year events.

Here are four important conditions that can help a coach stay centered during a potentially chaotic time of the school year.

Condition #1: Reflection

It’s easy for the school year to rush by and for teachers not to have the opportunity to really reflect on all their progress with students. Coaches should focus their coaching conversations on facilitating teacher reflection. For instance, a coach could design an end-of-year reflection meeting that includes questions to help teachers identify significant learning moments of the year, as well as cement ideas for the fall. Here are some possible questions to include:

• What did you learn about your teaching practice this year?
• What worked well? Why?
• What didn’t work so well? Why?
• What will you do differently next year?
• What did you learn about your students?
• What strategies or content remained sticky in your students’ learning?
• What do you most want your students to remember?

If a coach has worked closely with a teacher over the school year, this can also be a great time to ask reflective questions related to the coaching experience, such as:

• Have you implemented new teaching strategies because of working with your coach? If so, can you give an example?
• How has coaching made a direct positive impact on your professional practice?
• Overall, what has been useful to you about working with a coach?

Condition #2: Time

Expect the unexpected, and block out time in your calendar for end-of-year planning and coaching meetings with teachers.

Coaches are often asked to take on a wealth of “other duties as assigned” as the last day of school approaches, so it’s important for you to have a plan for what you are willing to take on (such as helping with an assembly) while still focusing on the true nature of coaching. If your calendar becomes loaded with competing tasks and responsibilities, evaluate which tasks are most closely aligned with coaching. Possible questions to ask yourself:

• Which tasks support teacher planning, reflection, and/or celebration?
• Which tasks support student reflection, achievement, and/or celebration?
• Which tasks can I reasonably take on without compromising my focus on student and teacher learning?
• Which tasks won’t have much lasting impact?
• Which tasks can be delegated or eliminated?

Condition #3: Collaboration

Whether it’s co-planning with teachers or working with your principal to plan for the fall, remember that true collaboration includes the exchange of ideas and viewpoints, as well as a shared set of responsibilities. In other words, you can’t (nor should you) do everything by yourself. Coaches should also strive to create collective and collaborative opportunities for teams to reflect on their work together. Consider these reflection questions for teams:

• Have you seen one of your colleagues go beyond the call of duty sometime this school year? Please share.
• How have the attitudes and actions of your colleagues positively affected your experience as a teacher this year?
• What is one thing about our team that you hope will never change?

Condition #4: Celebration

Endings are full of joy and relief for teachers, so find ways to incorporate evidence of success into your celebrations.

A coach should identify a variety of ways to highlight the positives and successes of the teacher and their students. This could be in the form of student work, a strategy or lesson a teacher implemented, or even a significant learning event. Here are some ideas for ways to highlight success:

• Student work samples from a favorite unit or project
• Individual or collective student growth from a formative assessment
• Student responses on an engagement survey

If teachers’ schedules are completely full and you aren’t able to sit down with a teacher to discuss specific evidence of growth, then a thank you letter noting the teacher’s contributions to their classroom or the school can still be a meaningful way to acknowledge and celebrate their efforts.

You’re invaluable

Coaches serve a unique and special role in their schools, and being mindful of the conditions explored in this post can ensure a more rewarding and satisfying end-of-year experience.

Coaches also serve to solidify powerful memories and beliefs about learning for teachers, so they should consider how the end of a school year is not simply closing down for the summer. As Louis L’Amour says, “There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.”

To learn more about professional learning for instructional coaches, visit our website.

The post 4 conditions for maintaining instructional coaching success at the end of the school year appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

When we use progress monitoring with a student, will we close gaps in learning? Maybe, but maybe not. It all depends on how we respond to the data. So how can we be planful and clear about connecting data to real decisions about intervention change?

Progress monitoring is about this: when we do an intervention, we want to know that it is working. If it isn’t, we want to make a change quickly. Because progress monitoring involves collecting student data at a higher frequency—often weekly—it can provide a faster data-based decision cycle in the area of our intervention. With MAP® Reading Fluency, progress monitoring can be done in oral reading fluency, phonics and word recognition, and phonological awareness.

What does it mean for an intervention to be “working”? An intervention is an increase in intensity and individualization, and its purpose is to accelerate growth over what regular, Tier-1 classroom instruction has been producing. “Working” means that the intervention is boosting the student’s growth in the domain of interest.

Two components are critical for deciding whether an intervention is accelerating a student’s growth sufficiently. One is to define “sufficient,” by setting a goal. The other is to lay out how and when we will conclude that we are or are not on track toward that goal.

Setting the goal

The National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII) offers three approaches to setting a goal for student growth during an intervention:

1. Benchmarks
2. National growth norms
3. Intra-individual framework

First, we can use benchmarks as the end goal. This means finding the end-of-year performance we expect of typically achieving students and setting that as the goal for our individual student. From the student’s baseline—their performance now—we draw a line to the goal. This line becomes the goal line, and we track the student’s growth against it.

The second approach is to use growth norms, or the typical slope of growth we see on average for all students. Maybe we find that in oral reading, normal growth for a particular grade and season is an increase of one word correct per minute (WCPM) per week. With this approach, we draw a line with that same slope beginning from the student’s baseline. Notice that the endpoint, or goal, comes second, because it is calculated by following that slope forward for a set period (e.g., 12 weeks).

The final approach to setting a goal for a student’s growth during intervention is more self-referential. Beginning with the student’s past growth rate, we calculate an increase. If the student has been growing at a rate of one WCPM per week already, then we might set the new goal line at a slope of 1.5 or two WCPM per week.

Important considerations for goal setting

To help navigate these three approaches, both NCII and other progress monitoring researchers have offered some important guidance.

When choosing a goal, we should be sure to find a balance between ambitious and realistic. For some older students with very low initial performance, targeting the benchmark may be unrealistic by end of year. For example, a third-grader who reads 12 WCPM in winter may not reach a benchmark of 112 WCPM in one season. That would require an increase of something like eight WCPM per week. That’s definitely ambitious. It may not be very realistic, though.

At the same time, aiming to simply match typical rates of growth may not be enough. If our third-grader starting at 12 WCPM only has a target of increasing by one WCPM per week, that means we are only targeting 24 WCPM at the end of the year. That’s still a far cry from where their typical peers will be. The necessary growth to close a gap is inevitably steeper than the normal growth we see for typical students. (Check out the excellent discussion of normal vs. necessary growth by my colleague Michael Dahlin.)

We need to acknowledge what it will take to close a gap, but we also need to be realistic about just how much any intervention can advance a student in a given timeframe. Setting goals for progress monitoring should take both into account.

Setting decision rules

Once we have a goal for how much an intervention will accelerate a student’s growth, we need to clarify how we will make decisions. Eyeballing a set of data points and making gut decisions based on what we see leaves too much room for our own biases. We run the risk of either settling for something that’s not really working or fiddling too early and often with something that is. So how can we set up rules about how we will read the data to inform our decisions?

We need to acknowledge what it will take to close a gap, but we also need to be realistic about just how much any intervention can advance a student in a given timeframe.

Oregon, a state known for great research on progress monitoring, offers some guidance to consider. (While Oregon is a leader here, be sure to check your own state, too!) They suggest two possible approaches to setting decision rules. Remember: laying out these decision rules ahead of time moves us away from falling back to our own biases.

The first method is to compare the most recent data points to the goal line. If we are looking at the last four data points on a student’s graph, for example, and they are all below the goal line, then the decision rule is to make a change to the intervention: growth is insufficient. If all four data points are above the goal line instead, then the decision rule is to either fade the intervention out or increase the steepness of the goal line. (Ambitious goals, remember?)

The second method is slope analysis. After many weeks, we fit a linear trend line to the student’s data, to characterize the trend in their overall actual growth. Then we compare the steepness of the student’s growth trend to the slope we want: the slope of the goal line. If the student’s slope is more shallow than the goal line, then growth is insufficient. It’s time to make a change to the intervention.

As we plan out and then navigate our decision rules, we should hold some principles in mind. We want to err on the side of helping the student, first and foremost. That means we may plan to be more liberal in concluding that we should improve the intervention, but more conservative in concluding that the intervention has been successful. As educators, we need to proactively problem-solve when interventions are not working well, and we need to verify that what looks like success in reaching goals is both real and lasting.

Putting it all together to close gaps

Setting a goal and a set of decision rules is not enough, of course. These components only make a difference when they surround solid, research-based interventions and a clear capacity for improving those interventions when needed. When our decision framework says to make a change, we need to know how to increase intensity. What does that look like? It can look like more time on the intervention, or it could look like more opportunities to respond and get feedback (think smaller group). There are other ways to increase intensity, too. Luckily, NCII has a great tool for thinking about intervention intensity, complete with an accompanying video. Spend some time with each.

Progress monitoring, done well, is the heart of data-based problem-solving. It means setting the bar for student learning high and holding ourselves, as teachers, accountable for accomplishing that, through constant use of data. It means a commitment to equity, to the idea that all students deserve whatever support is needed to reach high standards and expectations. If we don’t want to fall back to the kinds of bias that come from eyeballs and gut feelings, then let’s be clear and specific right up front about how we intend to connect data to real decisions.

The post How to use progress monitoring to close gaps in foundational reading skills appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

The idea of fluency is big in K–12 mathematics education. However, there is not a clear, shared meaning of the word. In fact, if you were to ask educators to define “fluency” in the context of learning mathematics, you would probably get a dozen different answers.

I encourage you to stop reading this post and think about fluency. Go ahead and pause for a moment. This post can wait. What do you believe fluency in math education is?

What fluency is when we’re talking about math?

Sometimes educators think about fluency as getting the right answer quickly. Sometimes, it’s about accurately performing a standard algorithm efficiently or remembering facts. But there is much more to it.

Fluency demands thinking about mathematical procedures with efficiency, accuracy, flexibility, and appropriateness. Being fluent means that students can choose among methods and strategies to solve contextual and mathematical problems, that they understand and are able to explain their approaches, and that they are able to produce accurate answers efficiently.

It helps to also define what I mean by “efficiency,” “accuracy,” “flexibility,” and “appropriateness”:

• “Efficiency” is the ways in which students carry out strategic procedural plans easily, keep track of sub-problems, and make use of intermediate results to solve a problem
• “Accuracy” means students reliably produce the correct answer
• “Flexibility” refers to students knowing more than one approach, being able to choose a viable strategy, and using one method to solve and another method to double-check their work
• “Appropriateness” means students know when to apply a particular procedure

An example: The role of fluency in understanding fractions

Simply memorizing facts and procedures does not a fluent student make. According to research done by the Rational Number Project, students who only memorize will experience challenges in making sense of math. This is especially true when students begin to learn about fractions and operations with fractions. And, even more specifically, difficulty with operations with fractions often stems from a lack of a robust understanding of the idea of a fraction.

For example, children have difficulty internalizing that the symbol for a fraction represents a single entity. When asked if 2/3 is one or two numbers, many children will say that the symbol represents two numbers. When students consider 2/3 as two numbers, then it makes sense that they would try to treat them like whole numbers. For example, when students add two fractions by adding the numerators and then denominators, they are interpreting the symbols as four numbers, not two. Many errors with fractions can be traced to students’ lack of mental images for the quantity a symbol represents.

Students who have not fully developed fluency with fractions often have difficulty ordering fractions, since ordering fractions is more complex than ordering whole numbers. Comparing 1/4 and 1/6, for example, conflicts with children’s whole number ideas. Six is greater than four, but 1/4 is greater than 1/6. With fractions, more can mean less. In contrast, 3/5 is greater than 2/5 because three of the same-size parts are greater than two of the same-size parts. In this case, more implies more.

Being able to order plays an important part in estimating fraction addition and subtraction. Ideally when a student adds 1/4 and 1/3, they should be able to reason, from their mental images of the symbols, that a) the answer is greater than 1/2, but less than one, and b) 2/7 is an unreasonable answer because it is less than 1/2.

Understanding fraction equivalence is not as simple as it may seem. Some children have difficulty noting equivalence from pictures.

Imagine a circle partitioned into fourths with one of those fourths partitioned into three equal parts. Some children may be unable to agree that 3/12 equals 1/4, even though they can see that the two sections of the circle are the same size. Children can struggle to remove the extra lines drawn in the fourth that’s partitioned into three equal parts. But that is just what must be done to understand fraction equivalence from a picture.

All of these challenges related to a foundational understanding of the idea of a fraction can lead to the difficulties children have with fraction addition and subtraction. These difficulties come from asking students to operate on fractions before they have a strong conceptual understanding of these new numbers.

Fluency involves getting answers as well as thinking about reasons, providing explanations, and communicating thinking clearly.

How asking—and answering—“why” can improve mathematical fluency

To help students gain fluency in math, it’s important to help them explore and understand why.

Consider the following problem: 2/3 x 3/4. Most readers will likely be able to compute the correct answer mentally (the answer is 1/2). It is important to be able to get this answer but also to explain how it makes sense. When working with students on a problem like this one, consider asking them questions like these:

• Why does 2/3 x 3/4 equal 1/2?
• Both 2/3 and 3/4 are bigger than 1/2. Why does multiplying produce a number smaller than the two numbers being multiplied?
• Why do we multiply the numerators and the denominators?

Again, both the answer and the explanation of how the answer makes sense are important.

Why does 2/3 x 3/4 equal 1/2? Because when we multiply fractions, we multiply the numerators and the denominators:

• 2/3 x 3/4 = (2 x 3)/(3 x 4)
• 2 x 3 = 6 and 3 x 4 = 12, so (2 x 3)/(3 x 4) = 6/12
• 6/12 = 1/2

Why does multiplying produce a number smaller than the two numbers multiplied? It helps to begin by thinking about the second part of our equation, 3/4, since that’s the larger number.

What does 3/4 look like? Picture a rectangle.

To find 3/4 of the whole rectangle, we must cut it up into four equal parts. Each is 1/4.

Now we’re ready to think about 2/3 of the 3/4. If we cut each of the fourths of the rectangle into three equal pieces, we get a rectangle that looks like this.

Notice that the white portion of the whole rectangle represents 6/12 of the entire rectangle, or 1/2. Do you see it? That’s why multiplying produces a number smaller than the two numbers multiplied.

Why do we multiply the numerators and the denominators? Look at the diagram again. Do you see where 2/3 and where 3/4 are found?

Worth the effort

Providing reasons for why answers to math problems make sense can be challenging, but it’s critical for helping students move beyond memorization into true fluency in mathematics. How can you explore the why more during your next math lesson?

For even more ideas, I encourage you to read “Engaging mathematical thinking through formative conversation starters” by my colleague Ted Coe and downloading the NWEA conversation starters guides, available for grades 2–8.

The post Why it’s important to support fluency in mathematics appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

The pandemic took an extraordinary toll on teaching and learning in US schools; however some groups of students, including those with disabilities, were disproportionately impacted. The negative impact of the pandemic on students with disabilities can be seen on a host of measures, from long-term trend data on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to declining graduation rates and limited access to services.

As we work collectively as a nation to recover from the historic disruption to K–12 schooling, it’s important to consider the role of assessment. At the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD), we and our allies have fought hard for the inclusion of historically marginalized students, including those with disabilities, on statewide summative assessments.

Assessment requirements

Students have to be assessed in reading and math annually in grades 3–8 and once in high school. They must also be tested in science once in grades 3–5, 6–8, and high school. The data must be reported by subgroup categories, so the public can see how schools are helping all children succeed. Prior to this federal requirement, some subgroups, particularly students with disabilities, failed to get access to grade-level content. In addition, their performance wasn’t analyzed or prioritized.

At the height of the pandemic, states received waivers to skip this testing during the 2020–2021 school year. Today, states are once again required to administer these summative tests annually to all students. But there is a big push through, for example, US Department of Education state assessment grants, the US Chamber of Commerce Design Challenge, and the National Urban League and UnidosUS Future of Assessment and Accountability project to overhaul them to be more instructionally relevant, engaging, and shorter, among other things. As states reconsider current assessment systems, it’s vital that the needs of students with disabilities are included.

With that in mind, NCLD recently conducted a national survey with educators and caregivers of students with disabilities and held focus-group discussions with young adults with disabilities and caregivers to gauge how they feel about current assessment systems, policies, and potential changes on the horizon. In a recently released report, we lift up the results of those surveys and discussions and share information gleaned from interviews with disability rights experts. I’m grateful to NWEA for the opportunity to also share what we learned here.

What our survey revealed

We conducted our survey and focus group interviews to better assess how the disability community and teachers feel about state summative tests. In general, caregivers take a more positive view of assessments than educators.

For example, among caregivers of students with learning disabilities, 73 percent “agree” or “somewhat agree” that state summative assessments provide important information that helps them determine how their child is performing in school. In contrast, only 52 percent of educators held that viewpoint. In addition, 78 percent of parents and guardians said they believed the federal government should request that states administer summative assessments at least once per year, as is required by federal law, compared to 48 percent of educators.

Testing accommodations, however, are an area of agreement. More than three-fourths of both caregivers and educators say accommodations are essential for children to show their potential on assessments.

A variety of factors may help explain the differences in views held by the two groups. For example, educators may be more likely to devalue the instructional role of assessments because they have more access to formative assessment data and other instructional information than caregivers, who are generally eager for data that informs them about their child’s academic progress.

Focus group findings

Several key trends also emerged from our focus group conversations with families and young adults with disabilities.

Both caregivers and former students were well aware that assessments were used to measure student progress against standards. They were largely unaware, however, that state summative tests were used to hold schools accountable for student subgroup performance.

Those interviewed also held misconceptions around the impact of scores on individual students, including around grade-level promotion. They said better communication by school and system leaders would be helpful in ensuring families understand the purpose of state summative tests. Caregivers also noted their kids were unnecessarily anxious about state summative tests, mistakenly thinking they were high stakes for the students. The young adults interviewed said accommodations, like extra time and separate testing rooms, eased their anxiety but sometimes made them feel stigmatized.

Families and the former students interviewed said state summative tests should be used to evaluate schools along with multiple measures, like attendance, teacher qualifications, student–teacher ratios, and access to counselors and advanced coursework.

Innovative assessments

Our report also examines the push nationwide for innovative assessments. Two federal programs, the Innovative Assessment Demonstration Authority and Competitive Grants for State Assessments, are aimed at encouraging states to improve their assessments. Key goals include making them more robust, more instructionally relevant, and less burdensome.

At NCLD, we applaud those efforts but also want to be sure new assessments are inclusive of students with disabilities. Assessments should continue to measure student progress against grade-level standards and against content areas within a subject and grade. All students, and especially students with disabilities, may have uneven performance within a grade or content area, and identifying areas in which kids are struggling is important.

Policy recommendations

To continue to spur innovation and ensure the needs of all students, including those with disabilities, are met, federal policymakers should consider the following recommendations.

• Preserve requirements that ensure families, educators, and leaders can measure individual student progress and subgroup progress against grade-level performance targets
• Assist states in providing equitable access to standardized assessments, including ensuring they build accessible tests
• Allocate funding for innovative assessments and prioritize the development of tests that support subgroups traditionally excluded from standardized assessment systems
• Incentivize collaboration across states to drive improvements

State and district policymakers should consider the following actions:

• Allocate sufficient funding to improve assessments
• Bring together stakeholders to refine assessment systems and make them accessible and inclusive
• Apply the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to assessments
• Improve communication to families related to assessments and assessment results

Assessments are vital for supporting students with disabilities. Improving them is important, but we need to ensure we do so in ways that make them better, make them more equitable, and expand access in meaningful ways.

If your school or system is taking steps to improve assessments, we’d love to hear how it’s going. Reach out at @ncldorg on Twitter.

The post States must keep the needs of all students in mind as they revamp assessments appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of eighth graders in United States public schools enrolled in algebra or a more advanced mathematics course more than doubled to 43 percent. This increase was particularly pronounced in California, where eighth-grade algebra enrollment rates peaked at 65 percent in 2013, in the wake of a decades-long policy effort to make algebra the default mathematics course for eighth graders.

The push to enroll more students in eighth-grade algebra is predicated on the idea that exposing students to more advanced material accelerates their skills acquisition and improves their labor market outcomes. Yet evidence on the effects of course acceleration is mixed: All students can thrive in well-designed algebra classrooms. However, quasi-experimental evaluations suggest that, on average, algebra policies administered at scale have modest or even negative average effects on students’ mathematics achievement.

The algebra trend nationwide

In light of mixed research findings, many states and districts across the country are rethinking their push to enroll more students in eighth-grade algebra. Some districts are trying to push as many students as possible into the accelerated course. Other districts—San Francisco and New York City in particular— have gone so far as to eliminate eighth-grade algebra.

Since we know that eighth-grade algebra has historically been an important step on the way toward high school calculus and college STEM majors, we have searched for more clarity on not only how access can vary across students and schools but also on the effects access to the course can have on student outcomes.

The algebra trend in California

With the exception of San Francisco, as noted earlier, California previously led efforts to provide algebra to nearly all students by the end of eighth grade for the better part of two decades. I, along with a few colleagues, studied how schools responded to this effort to enroll more students in algebra while embedded in a complex set of accountability, institutional, technical, and internal political pressures.

As one could imagine, schools’ responses varied from “detracking” and providing algebra to nearly all of their students in eighth grade to “tracking up” and creating a new accelerated pathway for students to complete geometry by the end of eighth grade. These patterns correlated with a school’s socioeconomic advantage, effectively maintaining persistent inequalities: “detracking” occurred primarily in disadvantaged schools, while “tracking up” occurred primarily in advantaged schools.

The benefits of taking algebra in eighth grade

In a recent analysis investigating whether enrolling in eighth-grade algebra leads to better student outcomes, a different set of colleagues and I studied the effects of eighth-grade algebra across several hundred California middle schools. Our analysis relied on the fact that many schools place students into eighth-grade math classes based largely on their seventh-grade test scores. We also saw that schools used different seventh-grade math test score cutoffs to decide which students should take algebra in eighth grade. By comparing students just above that threshold with their peers just below, we isolated the effect of eighth-grade algebra on students’ later educational outcomes, including achievement and course taking.

We found that the average effects of eighth-grade algebra enrollment on students’ advanced math course enrollment are substantial and positive, while the average effects on mathematics and English language arts (ELA) test scores are modest.

Enrolling in eighth-grade algebra boosts students’ enrollment in advanced math in ninth grade by 30 percentage points and eleventh grade by 16 percentage points. Math scores in tenth grade rise by 0.05 standard deviations. Encouragingly, we find that women, students of color, and English language learners benefit disproportionately from accelerated coursework.

The downsides of eighth-grade algebra

Importantly, however, we also found substantial cross-school variation in the achievement effects of eighth-grade algebra. For example, even though we found that the average effects of algebra were positive, we also found that in 38 percent of the schools and years for which we have data, placement in eighth-grade algebra significantly hurt students’ math achievement.

This variation puts earlier and mixed findings about the effects of eighth-grade algebra in a new light, suggesting that this one treatment—a seat in an eighth-grade algebra class—might have very different consequences in different educational contexts.

Moving forward to support middle school math students

Our findings suggest that some of this cross-school variation is predictable: The benefits of eighth-grade algebra are substantially larger in schools that set their eligibility threshold higher in the baseline achievement distribution. The results from both studies suggest a potential tradeoff between increased access and rates of subsequent math success.

It probably won’t surprise teachers to learn that the same class can have vastly different consequences in different contexts. Teachers know that teaching style, student readiness, textbook quality, and the sorts of supports they receive from their school all influence the extent to which students struggle or thrive in a given course. But educational researchers and policymakers may not know enough about this. We’re used to asking about what works to improve schools. These findings challenge us to think more systematically about what works, but also where and for whom.

Thurston (Thad) Domina, the Robert Wendell Eaves Sr. distinguished professor in educational leadership at UNC Chapel Hill’s School of Education, coauthored this post. A sociologist by training, Thad works with educational practitioners to better understand the relationship between education and social inequality in the contemporary US. Learn more about him on the UNC website.

The post Research reveals the pros and cons of algebra in eighth grade appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Please let me be clear: I am an almost five-foot-two musical theater kid who teaches math. The one sport I watch is soccer (#GoTimbers). Yet here I am, using baseball to sound cool make sense.

I sat down with Aaron Marion, a MAP® Growth expert here at NWEA, to better understand the learning continuum, a digital tool that helps teachers make sense of how their students did on MAP Growth. What we found was a metaphor.

Before I get into that, let me remind you of a few things about MAP Growth:

• MAP Growth is an interim assessment that asks students around 43 questions from a much larger pool(usually thousands) of questions.
• The computer-adaptive test keeps adjusting the difficulty of questions based on whether a student answers a question correctly. If they get a question right, their next question will be a bit harder. If they get the question wrong, the next one will be easier.
• The goal of the assessment is to approximate a student’s zone of proximal development (ZPD), the sweet spot of just-the-right-amount-of-challenge that motivates kids to keep learning. Think of it as a perfect Jedi middle.
• Because the goal is to identify each student’s ZPD, kids can’t get all the questions on MAP Growth right. Students will answer test questions correctly about 50% of the time.

Now about that learning continuum…

What the learning continuum is—and isn’t

The learning continuum is the best way to understand what kinds of skills are assessed by MAP Growth test questions that fall within a 10-point RIT band. (A RIT is the score each student gets on the assessment. You can read more about it in “12 common questions parents ask about MAP Growth.”) Each 10-point RIT band has a long list of learning statements, occasionally upward of a few hundred. Learning statements speak generally about the type of test questions a group of students with similar RIT scores got right about 50% of the time. While the statements won’t provide specific details on what a particular student knows, they’re a useful place to begin your formative assessment from.

The most important thing to remember is this: the learning continuum is just a place to start. It’s not meant to replace a teacher’s expertise, and it’s certainly not meant to work as a lone data point, separate from formative assessment and other information you know about your students. More on that after our metaphor.

How the learning continuum is like baseball

Let me walk you through the metaphor Aaron used to help me better understand how the learning continuum helps educators. Here’s a cheat sheet:

• Teachers = Coaches
• Students = Baseball players
• RIT scores = Previous leagues the players played in

Imagine you are the coach on a brand-new baseball team. Your new players come from all kinds of other minor league teams, ranging from AAA (the highest level of minor leagues) all the way to rookie league (the entry-level league). These leagues have reputations. The rookie league is known for having talent in certain areas but also for having players who haven’t fully rounded out their skill set. Meanwhile, the AAA league is known for having players who are almost ready for the major leagues and are ready to perfect their game.

On your first day as a coach, knowing what league each of these players came from helps you save time because it helps you ask smarter questions about each player and assign each one drills where you could begin the real work: assessing their specific skillsets.

The literal students in your classroom typically have a RIT score around 210, but you also have some students far above and far below that number. You know the learning statements in each 10-point band speak generally about the type of test questions a group of students with similar RIT scores got right about 50% of the time.

You take a look at the learning statements associated with each RIT score band in your class. You use the learning continuum as a starting point to develop your formative assessment plan, which will help you move from the generalities of what the assessment data tells you to the specifics of who each student is.

After contemplating the level of complexity you want to evaluate and applying your professional expertise, you develop the best questions to ask individual students that will identify their individual needs. Having this starting point saves you time by enabling you to ask more targeted questions and avoid having to start your formative assessment from scratch. What once was a classroom of RIT scores has now been transformed into a time-saving,data-informed formative assessment plan that launches the real teacher magic: evaluating each student’s specific skillset.

That’s a lot of metaphor! Let’s see it side-by-side to bring it home. (Get it? Home base?)

Where this metaphor gets sticky

Even though knowing a student’s previous “league” is useful, keep in mind some distinctions:

• Don’t rely on RIT scores/learning statements to determine grouping. Just because kids got similar scores (i.e., came from similar baseball leagues) doesn’t mean that’s automatically who they should be grouped with for every learning activity. The specific alchemy of student groups should consider far more factors than just a RIT score. And remember to always aim for flexible grouping.
• RIT score learning statements aren’t a prescriptive or comprehensive list. If a student has a RIT score of 159 and your room is closer to a 210 average, that student doesn’t only need 159-level material. They should still participate in group exercises, work with challenging content expected of their grade level, be given instructional supports to help them work toward greater independence, and receive instruction on foundational skills that bolster learning areas that need attention. Giving kids consistent access to grade-level content is an equity issue. (For more on providing access to challenging material, read “Let’s talk equity: Reading levels, scaffolds, and grade-level text.” The wisdom in it applies to all content areas.)

The first day of practice 

The learning continuum’s list of learning statements can answer many questions: Which league did the player come from? What foundational areas do I know, from reputation, I need to evaluate first? By answering these questions, the learning continuum helps you use your experience as a coach to establish a starting point, after which you can begin designing the type of practice those in your charge need to become the best player they can be.

The learning continuum can’t tell you that your pitcher can’t throw a curveball or that your player at first base should really play third. It doesn’t tell you how to structure your practice or what drills to work on, and it definitely doesn’t indicate that a certain player should skip what the rest of the team is doing. What the learning continuum can do is provide teachers a place to begin asking smart questions, saving them time and streamlining subsequent decisions.

Learning who our players are is a long process. But at least we know what our first practice can look like. Play ball!

The post How baseball helped me understand the MAP Growth learning continuum appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Math content and skills build along increasingly complex progressions, and without learning supports, students can fall behind very quickly. The range of learning differences, strengths, and needs just in one class can feel overwhelming for a teacher as well. Making sure all students experience the best-fit learning supports during class is important yet hard work. So, what can we do?

I sat down with Doug Buttorff, a secondary math teacher and teacher-leader known to his students as Mr. B, to get his thoughts. Why Mr. B? Because my own daughter was lucky enough to take his class, and he helped her resolve unfinished learning in algebra and demonstrate that she could meet rigorous content standard expectations. Perhaps even more importantly, her attitude about math shifted from negative to positive. Mr. B’s answers have been edited for length and clarity.

What exactly does “integrating learning supports for success” mean to you as a math teacher?

To me, learning supports are tools in a toolbox that my students and I can use together. The toolbox is full of approaches, strategies, and mechanisms that can help all students thrive as we tackle math content standards together. My math class toolbox is organized into at least two sections. This is so that my students and I can easily find and utilize what’s best.

One section of the math class toolbox contains supports that must be used. These are tools that align to the expectations outlined in legally mandated accommodation and modification documents, like IEPs or 504 plans. I read and review these routinely because many of the legally mandated supports for individual students can benefit other students, too.

Here’s an example: Your daughter’s plan includes allowing for extra time or quieter spaces to complete math tasks. These supports are helpful for several other students, so I make sure to craft procedures that allow your daughter as well as any other student to have them. (This helps me out, too, because I can save prep time by using ideas from the legally mandated plans with students in general, when appropriate. For more on this, read “3 ways gen ed teachers can support students with disabilities.”)

The second section of my math class toolbox contains additional supports that are not outlined in those legally mandated plans but are beneficial for all students. This section of the toolbox includes tools for math engagement, representation, and action and expression, following Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines.

Here’s another example: I noticed your daughter was really interested in Tetris, and it also fascinated several other students. I was able to use that information to make connections between the game and concepts we were working on in class. These connections helped your daughter and the other students make meaning that was motivating to them. Tetris became an engagement support in our toolbox.

What inspired you to use this toolbox approach with your students?

When I was a student, I didn’t know where to go for help when I got stuck. I didn’t know what pieces I was missing, and that resulted in the feeling, “I guess I am just bad at math,” so I stopped practicing.

Two math educators made a huge difference. The first was a middle school teacher who knew my friends and I were fans of Dungeons and Dragons. The teacher helped us improve our math fluency in operations by borrowing terminology from the game and talking in terms of hit points (addition and subtraction) and chained combos (multiplication). The teacher showed us these tools, kept them available in our toolbox, and helped us use them as learning supports. Then, in college, I had a professor use fantasy baseball to help me make sense of statistics.

I noticed there are still so many students like me when I became a teacher. Students can do math, but there may be a strong emotional response that can be a barrier, and we can’t assume students have the best-fit tools or know how to use them.

Why is it so important that math teachers integrate learning supports into their lesson plans and day-to-day actions with all students?

Too many students still feel that they “can’t do math” and internalize that story. Math seems to have a common fixed mindset associated with it. Because this emotional response is still common, it’s important that all math educators, not just specialists, are equipped to recognize and address it.

For more about fixed mindsets in math and how we can work with students to shift to “un-hate” math, check out “The mythical math gene: 5 ways to build growth mindset.”

How do we integrate learning supports for success with formative and summative assessment? 

Many of the learning support tools already in the toolbox from other parts of the learning journey will also help with classroom assessment, such as self-assessment, feedback, quizzes, and tests. In fact, when learning supports are part of everything we do, students will already have access to and practice with best-fit learning tools when it comes time for assessment.

There are a few things to check for to be sure all students have what they need for success with assessment processes, though. For a list of things teachers will want to be sure to have in place, our readers should see your article “5 ways to check classroom assessment processes for quality.” Math educators can also use formative conversation starters with students to empower them to practice thinking habits, making meaning, and problem solving.

Here are two specific considerations I also learned to use with assessment:

• How many tasks or questions are enough?
• What are the alternative options students can use to express their thinking?

I credit your daughter with helping me remember this. During exercises, quizzes, or tests, she would put her head down. When I asked her for help understanding what was getting in her way, I remembered that sometimes there were just too many written response questions. In some cases, she didn’t need so many questions, and she could explain her thinking faster verbally instead of in writing. She was shutting down because she (rightfully!) felt bogged down. So I cut back the volume, and I provided verbal response opportunities. These are examples of following UDL Guidelines for representation and action and expression.

These learning supports were not reserved just for your daughter. She helped me remember to add these options to our toolbox. It was a great reminder for me of how a quick conversation with one student can help update the toolbox with best-fit learning supports that are helpful for multiple students during the learning journey, including during assessment.

Now you might be wondering, do other students get angry when some students don’t have to do all the questions or do the questions in the same way? No, but this is because we do a lot of work strengthening our learning culture,which includes building trusting relationships. When we have trusting relationships, we can work as a team to find and use learning supports that are equitable. Students can see that although they might not need a specific support on one assessment, such as verbal options, they might need other learning supports, such as additional time. With this trust, there is a lot less resistance and reluctance and there are a lot more learning gains and shows of agency.

Planning your next steps

I am so glad Mr. B could take the time to share his wisdom. I hope you can start by celebrating how you already use these approaches in your daily practice. When you’re ready, I recommend trying at least one new idea. Here are some questions that can help you decide on next steps:

• How do I already effectively integrate learning supports into math classes with my students?
• What is at least one new idea from this blog post or the embedded resources that I could try next?
• Who can help me try out at least one new idea? (My team or PLC members? An instructional leader? A mentor? My students?)
• How can my administrator help me with this work?
• Who can help me advocate for and receive the support I need to do this work?

The post How consistent learning supports help math students succeed appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

For many communities across America, a school calendar with four-day weeks is unheard of. And in many of these communities, such a proposal would garner little support. Indeed, there isn’t a single urban district that has adopted the schedule, and it’s rare to find a suburban district that has made the switch. But the story is very different in parts of rural America, where four-day school weeks are well-liked and gaining traction.

The most recent survey, taken during the 2018–2019 school year, found that 650 districts, or about 1,600 schools, in 24 states had adopted a four-day schedule. That’s up significantly from two decades ago, and those numbers appear to be climbing. Communities backing the trend cite benefits for teacher recruitment and retention, cost savings, community support for the schedule, and more.

How is the schedule different from a typical five-day week?

Most districts that adopt a four-day week close on Fridays, though some opt to have Mondays off. The districts then redistribute the time from the day they are closed to the rest of the week, starting school earlier and ending school later than their five-day week counterparts. How much earlier they start and how much later they end varies, but on average they add about 50 minutes to each school day.

An extra 50 minutes in a day could equate to adding 10 minutes to five different classes. So, in theory, it’s not impossible that students could be receiving the same amount of seat time in five subjects (e.g., math, English, social studies, science, and an elective) on a four-day week.

But the differences between a four-day and five-day week are not as simple as a choice between four 50-minute classes per week in each subject versus five 40-minute classes. Students may benefit from non-core academic time at school each day, such as morning meetings, recess, passing time between classes, advisory periods, and lunch. And they’d get less of that in a four-day week since, overall, districts with four-day weeks have 31 fewer days of school than other schools: typically, they’re open 148 days a year, compared to 179.

Because they spend less time at school, students on a four-day week schedule have more free time outside of school. Students tend to spend their extra time on a variety of activities, but they also spend substantially more time on chores and work (for their family or at a job) over the course of a week than students at similar five-day week districts, according to research by the RAND Corporation.

Where and why do districts switch to four-day weeks?

Four-day weeks have generally been most popular in rural areas in states west of the Mississippi River. The approach is particularly growing in Arkansas, Missouri, and Texas. However, some policymakers are pushing back against the trend. In Oklahoma, for example, lawmakers have made it harder for districts to operate four-day weeks, establishing challenging accountability standards and requiring districts to apply for a calendar waiver.

About 90 percent of districts operating four-day weeks are located in rural areas. Leaders in those communities cite teacher recruitment and retention, cost savings, and community support among the reasons they’ve opted for the shortened week.

Childcare is often raised as a concern related to four-day weeks. However, families and school leaders at the school districts that have adopted the schedule have said that childcare is not an issue for the majority of the community. In some cases, this is because the school district is a major employer in the community, so many adults have the day off when schools are closed. In other cases, rural adults work from home in farming or ranching, and the extra day off school allows younger children to both be cared for and engage in those family responsibilities. It is also common to have multi-generational and extended family networks in the community who might help provide childcare support when needed.

What are the impacts?

The research is mixed on the impact of four-day weeks on student achievement, but most studies find small to medium negative impacts on achievement on average. These negative effects are roughly equivalent to a student being two to seven weeks behind where they would have been if they had stayed on a five-day week.

But local context and implementation matter a lot. Notably, in one recent multi-state study, researchers found that the negative impacts were concentrated among districts with the shortest school days on the four-day schedule. In particular, districts operating with fewer than 30 hours per week drove the negative effects in the study, whereas there were no significant impacts of the schedule on student achievement at districts operating 32 hours or more per week.

The existing research also shares the impacts of the schedule on cost savings, student behavior, and attendance. Cost savings, despite being a primary motivation for adopting the schedule in many districts, are only about two percent, on average. Some district leaders maintain that these small savings, equivalent to about $57,000 per district, are meaningful in their district. Others acknowledge that the schedule saves them less than they originally anticipated, but they continued to use a four-day week schedule for other reasons.

Proponents of the schedule claim that it improves school climate and student behavior, but the evidence is mixed. In support of the claim, research shows the four-day week significantly reduces high school bullying and fighting incident rates and increases the amount of sleep elementary students get. However, surveys of four-day week and five-day week students and families found no differences in their ratings of school climate.

Another argument for four-day school weeks is that they improve attendance, allowing students to travel for appointments and extracurricular activities that can be far away on their day off. But the evidence provides little support for that argument, as studies have not found any effect of four-day weeks on attendance rates.

Despite this mixed evidence on the schedule’s effects, communities’ satisfaction with the schedule is clear. Survey data shows 84 percent of families and 95 percent of students in four-day week districts would continue to choose a four-day week over a five-day week. Families noted a range of reasons they preferred the four-day week, with some of the most common reasons being increased time with family, reduced stress, and flexibility for appointments.

More research is needed to investigate the impacts of the schedule on other important outcomes, such as teacher recruitment and retention, efficiency of class time, rates of food insecurity, student safety and mental health, and family income and resources.

Policies to consider

For any community thinking about switching to or continuing on a four-day week, it’s important to consider the benefits and drawbacks of the schedule. The local context and proposed implementation of the schedule are critical components of the decision.

For districts using the schedule, there are policies education leaders can adopt to minimize any negative impacts. Among the most important is ensuring schools maintain or increase the total time spent on academic learning.

School and system leaders should closely audit instructional minutes to see how the change is impacting teaching and learning. For example, students and teachers may have 50-minute class blocks on the four-day schedule instead of 40-minute blocks. School leaders should collaborate with and support educators to restructure curriculum and lesson plans as needed to ensure students get the instruction they need and educators have the time to teach all the required material.

Another important policy decision is what, if any, services the district provides on the day off. Additional time at home is of particular concern for students whose lives outside of school are unsafe or for those lacking access to resources, such as food or a caring adult. School leaders considering a four-day week need to be particularly thoughtful about how to design the schedule and provide wraparound supports (e.g., backpack lunch programs, enrichment opportunities on the day off) for these students and families.

Monitoring and evaluating the policy

The use of data is essential for monitoring and evaluating this kind of complex change. Schools need to closely monitor students’ academic growth, teacher recruitment and retention, and other metrics, before and after the transition, and compare their own progress to that of similar five-day week schools.

Pursuing research partnerships may be an especially promising strategy for districts interested in evaluation support. Our research team is actively recruiting district partners to study the implementation and impacts of four-day school weeks. Consider collaborating with us. Or, if your school community has moved to a four-day week, we’d love to hear how it’s going. We are @NWEAPolicy on Twitter.

The post What the research tells us about four-day school weeks appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Happy spring! I hope your school year has been fantastic. Mine has been a bit hectic due to seven snow days, which caused rescheduling of, well, everything. Luckily, I’ve been reading When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel Pink, which has helped me understand that the timing of when I make decisions can be a big deal.

I found this book so valuable that I purchased both the hard copy and audio versions, which come with the Time Hacker’s Handbook, a must-have. When contains a wealth of interesting and important information that I just can’t do justice to in one blog post. However, I can highlight some key points to save you time and pique your interest in reading more. Here are my top takeaways.

1. Research says timing matters

Have you ever wondered, “Can the when of things improve your health? Is it really true that important decisions should not be made in the afternoon?” Daniel Pink opens up his book with these tantalizing questions, making you want to know the answers. I mean, if doing something at a certain time can make a big difference, then let’s make sure we know as much as we can about the science of why.

Many of us believe that timing is an art, and we rely on our intuition to make decisions. In his book, however, Pink shows us that scientists have discovered that timing can provide insights into human behavior, and he shares practical advice for working more efficiently and living better.

2. Discover who you are

The first thing Pink encourages his readers to do is discover what our chronotype is. That’s everyone’s natural inclination to sleep at a certain time, and it also includes when we feel most energetic. Knowing your chronotype will help you determine when to do those important thinking-and-decision-making tasks versus when to do more fun, creative tasks or tasks that don’t require much thinking at all.

You can begin to identify your chronotype by asking yourself three questions, as outlined in the book. Try to think about the times that work best for you when you’re not constrained by a schedule, like making it to your Monday morning staff meeting.

• What time do you usually go to sleep?
• What time do you usually wake up?
• What is the middle of those two times?

I typically go to bed at 10 p.m. and get up at 6 a.m. The middle point of my pattern is 2 a.m.

To further help us identify our chronotype, Pink shared work by researcher Till Roenneberg, an expert in chronobiology, that categorizes us all into three big buckets, based on our midpoint of sleep. We are all either a lark, third bird, or owl depending on our midpoint of sleep:

• Lark: If your midpoint is 12:00–3:30 a.m., you fall into this category, along with about 14% of the population.
• Third bird: If your midpoint is 3:30–6:00 a.m., you and about 65% of the population are a third bird.
• Owl: If your midpoint is 6:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m., you are an owl. So is about 21% of the population.

Pink goes on to explain that studies on how brain power is impacted by time of day have yielded three key findings. First, cognitive abilities fluctuate throughout the day. Second, fluctuations in cognitive abilities are more significant than most people realize. And third, task performance depends on the nature of the task. Knowing your chronotype can help you better understand when your cognitive abilities are at their peak.

While knowing your chronotype is important, it’s also worth noting that your chronotype changes as you age. According to Roenneberg, most people become more of a lark as they get older.

3. Expect a dip about seven hours after you get up

In chapter two, Pink focuses on explaining how, for most of us, cognitive fluctuations occur around seven hours after waking. That makes 2 p.m. a potentially dangerous time for me to make big decisions.

It was eye-opening for me to begin to understand how the rhythm of my daily routine affects me and others. For example, research cited in chapter two shows that the probability of a problem during a healthcare procedure increases significantly as the day progresses. Anesthesiologists with a regular day shift have a 1 percent probability of making a mistake at 9 a.m., but by 4 p.m., the chances of making an error increase to just over 4 percent. Similarly, research into colonoscopies shows that doctors detect fewer polyps later in the day. These trends can be life-threatening, and the data left me wondering how I can take extra care when making decisions for my school in the afternoon.

4. Rest

How can we keep our cognitive abilities sharp? The answer is simple: take a break! Pink shares more studies on this, including one on how breaks can make a huge difference in how kids do on tests. He offers some guiding principles on what a break should look like:

• Choose a short break over no break. Just a few minutes can do wonders for productivity.
• Get up and move. A walking break, even if it’s a short one, can improve your energy and focus.
• Find a break buddy. A few minutes for social connection can help you manage stress and improve your mood.
• Go outside. Fresh air and plants are incredibly restorative. If you can’t get outside, finding an indoor break spot near plants can be beneficial, too.
• Put your phone down. Gadgets distract us more than we realize, and sometimes they cause stress, too. Take a phone-free break when you can.

Following this advice in my busy school schedule has been a challenge, but it’s been worth it. By making sure I’m at my cognitive best each afternoon, I can contribute to a safe and effective school environment. I’ve been taking five-minute walks outside with a few colleagues whenever I can. It’s been so invigorating that we now set an alarm to remind us to take breaks together.

Worth your time

When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel Pink is a treasure trove of insights and practical tools for mastering the science of timing. I encourage you to grab a copy, dive in, and explore the fascinating world of chronotypes and circadian rhythms. Take notes, highlight your favorite tips, and start making smarter decisions about when to tackle your most important tasks. Trust me, you won’t regret it!

If you’d like more resources related to Pink’s book, check out the resources on his website. I also really like the talk he gave at Google in 2018.

The post What Daniel Pink can teach principals about timing appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

Schools are full of symbols. Walk the halls and take note of what’s on the walls and you will see what holds value historically, academically, and culturally. Who is represented? What perspectives are presented? Who decides what gets featured? I was recently involved in a situation that addressed this very issue.

Several years ago, our school started a “wall of kindness” as part of an initiative with Kind Bar and Harvard’s Making Caring Common project. There are challenges with efforts like these because students are encouraged to freely express their identities, which may offend, confuse, or upset others. It wasn’t long before we encountered an issue requiring us to have some difficult conversations.

We chose not to criticize this freedom of expression and, instead, we embraced it as part of the diversity that makes up our community. It wasn’t always easy, and we worked together to ensure no one was harmed by anything on our wall. Here is our story.

A triggering symbol on our wall of kindness

At the start of every year, our sixth-grade students create a brick representing their identity. They decorate them with symbols that can be anything from a video game character to a Black Lives Matter fist to a favorite food, beloved pet, rainbow flag, or something entirely different. Students are told about the origins and parameters of the project. They are encouraged to think deeply about how they want to be represented and, in a sense, memorialized on our wall. Once their brick is completed, it is mounted on the wall with the others. This wall is a predominant feature in our middle school hallway.

Two years before I arrived at the school, amid the height of COVID-19, political polarization, and racial tensions within our country, a Blue Lives Matter brick was placed on the wall. At that time, it was brought to the attention of members of the school’s leadership team and our diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) director. They were all told that it evoked strong feelings and discomfort for students in our Black Student Union (BSU), a student group for Black students. Discussions and conversations were had, and it was determined that the brick would remain. However, there wasn’t clear communication about this decision and the BSU students assumed the brick would be removed.

Fast forward two years to my arrival and the arrival of our new DEIJ director. This issue resurfaced when our new director met with the BSU students, a group she was advising. To understand the situation, she began difficult conversations with students and the leadership team only to uncover confusion, mistrust, and lack of follow-through. It was a mess! Emotions were running high, and two years had passed since the initial talks, making it more difficult for all parties to know how to move forward. The brick needed to be addressed because students and staff in our community felt disrespected, hurt, and excluded by it.

Determining a path forward

Our DEIJ director, the person charged with navigating the situation, was new. Two months into the job, she, a woman of color, was asked to navigate a problem with multiple players while she still had limited social capital. She discovered that the student who had created the brick had never been spoken to about the situation and was now in eighth grade. The BSU government and student body had changed, but mistrust and feelings of exclusion remained. The leaders who took part in initial conversations thought there had been a resolution. They were put in a situation where they felt their integrity was challenged, and emotions ran high. It was a lot to manage. Here’s how we got through it:

1. Engaged in crucial, difficult conversations

We gathered as an academic leadership team and discussed how we felt about the issue, possible solutions, seen and unseen consequences, a communication plan, and future implications. Discussions were difficult and filled with strong emotions, but we were able to come up with a plan of action.

For ideas on how to have challenging talks in your school, read “Let’s talk about it: The right way to have hard conversations about race and ethnicity” and “7 tips for getting through difficult conversations.”

2. Gathered all perspectives

Our DEIJ director listened, reframed, and checked for understanding to ensure that she had all parties’ unique views. When individuals did not feel comfortable bringing forth their concerns or perspectives, she did so on their behalf, ensuring that she stayed true to their message.

3. Presented the situation and its implications to the student who created the brick

The young person who made the brick had no idea that the symbol they created and mounted on the wall had caused harm to others. They thought their brick signified the importance of first responders and did not know it was a counter symbol to Black Lives Matter. It was an important part of their identity and an important thing in their life.

The student was asked to consider solutions to the issue and create a plan to repair the harm caused by the symbol they chose to use.

4. Closed the communication loop

The student who used the Blue Lives Matter symbol returned with a solution; they decided to create another brick because they did not want to hurt anyone. They chose to use another symbol that still represented the importance of first responders, beyond just police officers.

This plan was communicated to all parties involved: the academic leadership team, the BSU, the head of our school, and all impacted students and faculty members.

5. Reviewed policies

Whenever a challenge or issue does not fit into an existing organizational policy, it is time to pause and re-examine it. What might you change? Why? Will there be any equity issues as a result? Who will a modified policy serve? Who will it protect? What will the intended and unintended consequences of the policy be?

Re-examining our policy on what could be included in the wall allowed us to ensure that we had a process that produces a consistent and equitable response. Our wall policies now state that if any member of our school community expresses concern over any symbol on the wall, we follow all the steps I’ve listed here.

6. Revisited the purpose of the wall and other symbols within our context

Our wall of kindness brought forward the issue of symbols in our context. What other things in our context did we want to challenge or remove? Did what was in our halls and classrooms represent our values and beliefs about inclusion? How might we start conversations to examine what is featured and by whom?

All schools have symbols on display that mean something. Some are historical, and new information about their origins may make those symbols hurtful to many today. Newer symbols can also be triggering. Either way, conversations can help address a path forward.

7. Educated ourselves

Situations like the one my school experienced with the Blue Lives Matter brick always reveal flaws or gaps in knowledge and understanding. We have a predominantly white leadership team, and the onus was on us to educate ourselves and dig into our thoughts, feelings, and understanding.

Listening with an open heart and mind, asking difficult questions, and researching solutions were a big part of this process. We knew we had to be vulnerable and open to change if we wanted our staff, students, and families to do the same.

Why we chose to share our story

Nothing is a problem until it is. In our case, we thought the issue of that sixth-grader’s brick had been resolved, with a solution found, but that was not the case. Students still felt excluded and hurt. We decided that if we were living our values of belonging and inclusion, we needed to lean into the difficult conversation and address the issue head-on.

When educators bring an equity and inclusion lens to our work, we can walk the halls with new perspectives and information and ask difficult questions about what and who we include—and do not include—in our schools. We choose to involve students in discussions and honor their voices in the process. This is part of the journey to creating an inclusive community. It’s difficult work, but it’s worthwhile and you can do it, too.

The post 7 steps to having difficult conversations in your school appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

“Why do so many of our students meet their growth projections on MAP® Growth but fail to ‘meet standards’ on the state test?”

Educators from NWEA partner school districts send versions of this question to me and my fellow researchers often enough that it’s clear there’s a need for better explanations for what we mean by normative growth versus necessary growth when setting growth goals for students.

“Normative growth” and “necessary growth” defined

Normative growth refers to growth projections based on NWEA norms. They show how much growth is average for students over time.

Necessary growth refers to the amount of improvement a student needs to make to reach a desired benchmark, such as “meeting standards” on a state test.

For some students, especially those who begin the year performing below grade level, having normative growth alone won’t be enough. For example, the NWEA 2020 norms document tells us that a sixth-grader with a fall math score of 212 is performing at about the 43rd percentile, relative to other US sixth-graders at that point in the school year. The document also tells us that sixth-graders with fall math scores of 212 show about eight points of growth between fall and spring, on average. Given that knowledge, we can estimate that a sixth-grader with a fall math score of 212, if they show average (or normative) growth, will score at about a 220 in the spring. Eight points is the growth projection, but whether that is sufficient to “meet standards” depends on the standard.

How we partner with states and support teachers

Every state department of education establishes standards or benchmarks on their state tests that define whether a student meets grade-level expectations. NWEA regularly conducts, publishes, and updates state linking studies that provide estimates of the MAP Growth cut scores predicting proficient performance on state tests. We can use these cut scores to predict which students are likely already meeting standards, which students (assuming normative growth) are currently on track to meet standards, and which students must show above-average growth to meet standards.

This excerpt of Table 3.6 from the New York state linking study, for example, shows the spring math proficiency cut score at 227, corresponding to 59th percentile achievement:

If our hypothetical sixth-grader with the fall math score of 212 resided in New York, they would need to demonstrate 15 points of growth by spring to be on track to meet standards. For them, normative growth (so, eight points) would not be sufficient to meet that goal. The student would need to make far-above-average growth, or her teachers would need to allow much more time to get there. These kinds of calculations are done automatically in the MAP Growth Projected Proficiency Summary report, and customized growth goals can also be set for individual students using the MAP Growth Student Profile report growth goals module.

Data designed to help

We provide references to both normative and necessary growth to help educators get the most from their MAP Growth data. Both are important when setting goals for students to ensure that their successes are meaningful and that their aspirations are realistic.

The post Normal vs. necessary academic growth appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

An NFL player, a US poet laureate, a YouTube star, and the US Secretary of Education walk into a room…

That sounds like the start of a joke, but it was actually my experience at SXSW EDU 2023. It may sound unreal, but SXSW EDU brings an integrated approach to imagining the future of education that is truly no joke.

I had the privilege of attending SXSW EDU 2023 and co-hosting a workshop on integrating social justice into the science classroom. During the four days of the conference, I built Lego sculptures to represent abstract concepts, heard insights from exceptional educators, like the national teachers of the year, explored how tech tools including social media and AI can support students and promote equity, and heard from students who use coding and engineering to design dance performances. I spent quality time away from my day-to-day work co-creating a vision for the future of education filled with joy, pragmatism, creativity, and, most of all, hope.

Over the course of this experience, three main themes emerged for me around the future of science education (and education in general). Here are those themes, along with a few resources I discovered during the conference.

#1: Stories are critical, and they make content accessible, meaningful, and relevant

There are so many kinds of stories. We often think of folk tales, songs, and film, but what about data? Part of analyzing and interpreting data is uncovering what stories exist in a data set, how those stories impact us, and how our experiences and biases impact the stories we notice. In the science classroom, data connects with students when we help kids find stories that matter to them.

What can we do in the classroom today? Challenge students to create their own data stories by combining robust data with critical questions. Data Nuggets are free, data-centered activities co-designed by scientists and teachers that cover a variety of life and earth science topics. Census at School hosts an international database of student-generated survey information about our students’ favorite topic: themselves. Combine meaningful data sets with the types of questions in the equity on-ramps for the science classroom to explore how data stories can perpetuate or dismantle inequity.

#2: Education comes from a multitude of sources. Classrooms must value and leverage all of them

So many speakers at SXSW EDU discussed educational experiences that happen beyond classroom walls. These experiences might be digital, like Hank Green’s Study Hall program, which provides low-cost college credits through YouTube videos, or real-world, like the NewComm Fellows project, which uses deep study of literature to develop community-based engineering projects.

A common theme was finding ways to connect these out-of-school experiences to the classroom to enhance and support learning for all students. Whether we are finding new insights from traditionally disconnected disciplines, uplifting voices that have been historically silenced, or exploring ways to make higher education more available, learning experiences of the future can be more connected, more diverse, and more meaningful than ever before.

What can we do in the classroom today? Design lessons that provide opportunities to incorporate knowledge from other disciplines, prior experiences, and the local community. Use these lessons to drive engagement in issues that matter beyond the classroom walls. For example, our “It’s Hot Out Here” science unit combines historical sociopolitical data, current environmental data, and student experiences to help students understand the impacts of heat on people and how we can mitigate these impacts for the people who are most affected.

#3: Persistent inequity in education remains a daunting challenge but progress is possible using the astounding array of tools, strategies, and insights we already possess   

Most sessions at SXSW EDU discussed at least one significant barrier to equity in education. However, these challenges were paired with the astounding creativity, expertise, and drive of each presenter. Ultimately, I left the conference feeling empowered and energetic, ready to continue my own work toward making science educational experiences more effective, inclusive, and equitable for students.

What can we do in classrooms today? Stay hopeful, find fun, and keep at it. Strategies from Critical Creativity in Action in particular help students build understanding in ways that promote whimsy and joy.

Making changes that last

We know transforming education isn’t easy, but we also know we can do it. Because when an NFL player, a US poet laureate, a YouTube star, and the US Secretary of Education walk into a room, you just know that something is coming that is bound to be innovative, inspiring, and better than ever.

The post Science at SXSW EDU: 3 themes to bring back to our science classrooms (and beyond!) appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

At NWEA, our mission is Partnering to help all kids learn®. We strive to truly live this mission across the organization, including on the research team. In practice, this means we want to do research that will have an impact, and we focus on conducting rigorous research that is timely, actionable, and directly relevant to the needs of schools who use our assessments.

The best way to make sure our research is practically relevant is by working directly with districts. We believe that doing good research means integrating multiple perspectives, especially from those closest to the most pressing issues and needs (that’s you!). We call these collaborations our research partnerships.

About research partnerships

Research partnerships are a cornerstone of our research team’s work. In these partnerships, we work closely with schools and districts on all aspects of a research project, from developing a research agenda that tackles questions that really matter to a school, to actively collaborating on the development of research outputs, to codeveloping dissemination plans that make sure findings are shared with all educators and community members who need them.

Partnership research is also important because it allows us to broaden our scope and ask new and important questions we wouldn’t otherwise be able to answer. NWEA researchers use the Growth Research Database, or GRD, a longitudinal repository of MAP® Growth test scores, to conduct research that shines a light on how students grow over time. But when it comes to the GRD, the well is deep (we collect anonymous MAP Growth data from millions of students going back decades) but it’s not very wide: we know only how students performed on MAP Growth, and some very basic demographic information.

The best way to make sure our research is practically relevant for MAP districts is by working directly with them.

Test scores alone cannot capture other critically important aspects of students’ experiences in schools. For instance, we know a student’s achievement and growth are impacted by factors like how positive a school’s climate is, the quality of the supports and services they receive, and how instructional time is used. Working in partnership with schools makes it possible to incorporate additional information about students to ask more nuanced questions and produce more actionable answers to those questions. These partnerships give us more than a few data points on a page; they paint a more complete picture.

Our commitment to educators

In the past, launching new research partnerships has often happened in rather happenstance ways. Maybe someone on the research team joined a call with a school administrator who had a question about their MAP Growth data. During that call, they spent some time chatting and realized they had a shared interest in a specific topic. The researcher suggested a collaboration and, voilà! A new partnership was born.

Moving forward, we want to be more intentional in how we seek out and establish new partnerships so that this opportunity is open to all who might be interested and who might benefit. To do this, we’ve launched a new research partnerships website. On it, you can learn about some of our ongoing and previous partnerships and our general approach to partnership work.

This new site also features prospective partnership ideas on topics that are of interest to us and that we think might be of interest to MAP schools as well. Think of this section as a really nerdy personal ad where we describe a research idea we have and the data and partner we’re looking for to help us ask—and answer—our question.

Right now, we’re interested in four broad research areas that we think are timely, actionable, and directly relevant to the needs of MAP districts and their students:

• Supporting subject/grade acceleration in schools
• Examining the effects of four-day school weeks
• Understanding the impacts of school discipline on student growth
• Establishing and validating algebra readiness cut scores

Reach out!

Want to learn more about our research areas? You can find more information about them on our site.

If any of our research areas resonate with you, let us know. Our site includes a form that will put you in touch with our team so we can discuss your interest further. (Just scroll to the bottom of the page.) Completing this form in no way obligates you to partner with us; instead, it provides an opportunity for us to explore if there is a partnership fit for a particular project. Also note that there is never any cost to districts working with us on these projects. We want this to be entirely of benefit to you and the broader education community.

At the end of the day, we simply want to do research that matters: research that is practical and relevant to what schools are dealing with in the moment. Through research partnerships—and, more importantly, by working with you—we believe we are better positioned to meet that aim.

The post How NWEA research partnerships serve students appeared first on Teach. Learn. Grow..

If the science of reading were to invite me to a dinner party, I betcha I can tell you who else would be there: data-based decision-making. That’s because the science of reading and data-based decision-making are besties.

The science of reading is about the converging evidence of what matters and what works in helping students to read with comprehension. A key piece of that is data-based decision-making. We can decide to implement practices with a good evidence base, but next we need ongoing data cycles to make sure what we’re doing is really working with our particular learners.

Questions versus decisions

Lots of us bring questions to our data, like “Where are most of my students growing least well?” But once we find an answer in our data, we can’t stop there. That would be like printing a big red poster that says, “Collect data and carry on,” a terrible new take on the British meme. Looking at data and then carrying on as usual: That’s not solving a problem. That’s just admiring it.

Instead, let’s use data to inform real decisions. A real decision involves deciding which action to take, contingent upon what the data tells us. In implementing the science of reading, we make different kinds of decisions. We make decisions about resource allocation, about immediate instructional planning, and about program improvement. Let’s think some more about each of these.

Resource allocation decisions

In a better world, we would be able to offer extra intensity or special programming to every student. But resources are limited and it’s still us school folks who are running most of the bake sales. This is why we identify subsets of students eligible for extra support: Title 1 services, tier 2 intervention, summer school, tutoring, even some talent enrichment programs.

The science of reading needs our art of teaching. Data can only inform our decisions, not make them.

We are deciding this: Who gets allocated something that not everyone can get?

Screeners are key in helping us decide who might need intervention resources. We determine a cut-point to identify students as demonstrating some risk of poor reading outcomes, and we consider allocating intervention resources to those below it. In MAP® Reading Fluency, this risk is clearly indicated by a flag on the Screener Outcomes report.

An important part of resource allocation is figuring out who gets which: when a student is flagged as showing some risk, it’s time to ask where to focus intervention efforts. Not every student should be put into a phonics intervention; for some students, a focus on vocabulary and oral language development might be indicated instead. On the MAP Reading Fluency Screener Outcomes report, comparing a flagged student’s foundational skills domain scores for a lowest area makes it straightforward to find an intervention focus.

Instructional planning decisions

While our standards and our curriculum guide our instruction, we know that making adjustments based on student learning is key. This involves checking whether the class as a whole is ready to move on, but it also involves deciding where to differentially teach skills and scaffold in response to individual student needs.

Boiled down to a question, we are deciding this: How should I adjust my instruction in the near term?