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Welcome to EdSpeak.org!
EdSpeak.org was created to collect, study, and exchange information on how to improve PreK-12 public schools. Visitors to this site can look at school reform models, ideas about assessment, the results of our partnership work, portable classrooms (EduCrate), a new theory for teaching and learning (VIA), and a visual gallery of student work. EdSpeak.org is the public website of The SchoolWorks Lab, Inc., a non-profit organization founded by educator Rob Southworth. We help schools, districts and education organizations make sense of school reform. Please enjoy your time here on the site!
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Home
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Evidence of Teacher and Student Learning Template |
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Written by Robert A. Southworth Jr.
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Wednesday, 06 August 2008 |
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The ETSL Template is a powerpoint representation of arts integration produced by arts-in-education Partnerships in K-12 schools in New York State. Almost 100 of these partnerships are funded by the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) every year. The goal of the ETSL template is to show evidence of teacher and student learning through data collection, assessment and peer-to-peer documentation and evaluation. The first year of piloting, 2007-2008 follows many years of hard work by the field of funded partnerships to improve their work. The SchoolWorks Lab, Inc., as the evaluator of this work since 2003, recommends that through the introduction and use of an authentic achievement Performance Assessment system, individual partnership ideas of quality can be honored across the entire system of partnerships while meeting or exceeding state standards for quality.
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Written by Robert A. Southworth Jr.
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Tuesday, 05 August 2008 |
Quoted Directly from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formative_assessment
Michael Scriven (1967) coined the terms formative and summative
evaluation and emphasized their differences both in terms of the goals
of the information they seek and how the information is used. Benjamin
Bloom (1968) just a year later made formative assessments a keystone of
Learning for Mastery. He, along with Thomas Hasting and George Madaus
(1971) produced the Handbook of Formative and Summative Evaluation and
showed how formative assessments could be linked to instructional units
in a variety of content areas. Almost 20 years ago, the Kentucky
high-stakes assessment (Kifer, 1994) initially included a major
emphasis on instructionally embedded tests; i.e., formative assessments.
Despite the long history of formative assessment presently there is
confusion about what it means. Historically formative assessments were
of instructional units and diagnostic assessments were used for
placement purposes. Formative assessments are part of instruction
designed to provide crucial feedback for teachers and students.
Assessment results inform the teacher of what has been taught well and
not so well. They inform students of what they have learned well and
not learned so well. As opposed to a summative assessments designed to
make judgments about student performance and produce grades, the role
of a formative assessment is to improve learning. As opposed to
benchmark tests that are used to predict student performance on other
tests (most often state assessments), formative assessments are
intimately connected to instruction.
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EdSpeak or, School Improvement Language? |
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Written by Robert A. Southworth Jr.
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Tuesday, 03 June 2008 |
Do we need to know what "Enduring Understanding," or "Curriculum Alignment," and "Effective Schools research" mean today? Yes, we do. If your daughter is working on a project that requires enduring understandings, we do. Or if your son brings home a packet from the school that is labeled Curriculum Alignment we do. And if you don't know that one of the seven criteria for Effective Schools is positive home/school Partnerships you really need to know these terms.
I recently came across 43 of these potentially confusing terms that were wonderfully organized and promoted as building a common language for school improvment by the West Virginia Department of Education in their report called: "Framework for High Performing 21st Century High Schools." (2006. p. 18):
1. Benchmarks - Pre-determined points during the instructional term when student mastery of
specific instructional objectives is assessed
2. Classroom Walkthrough - A non-evaluative but focused classroom observation made for a brief period of time (3-5 minutes) to observe specific classroom practices; the Walkthrough
observation is used to enhance reflective practice and to gather school-wide information
regarding Professional Development and School Improvement
3. Continuous Improvement - A set of activities designed to bring gradual, but continual
improvement to a process through constant review and refinement
4. Correlates of Effective Schools – The seven characteristics identified from research present in schools able to bring all students to mastery regardless of background factors like poverty, race,
gender, or ethnicity: Clear and Focused Mission, Safe Orderly Environment, High Expectations
for All, Time On Task/Opportunity to Learn, Strong Instructional Leadership, Frequent
Monitoring of Student Progress, and Positive Home/School Partnerships
5. Curriculum Alignment - The on-going process of bringing congruence to the written
curriculum, taught curriculum, and assessed curriculum so (1) all that is assessed has been taught,
and (2) what is taught encompasses the written curriculum
6. Curriculum Management System - A series of on-going interrelated activities designed to
implement, support, monitor, and evaluate the system curriculum to assure that all students have
access to and benefit from an aligned, high quality prioritized, and sequenced curriculum
7. Curriculum Map - A graphic representation of the recommended instructional sequence for
curriculum objectives during the instructional year and across the grades Pre K-12 which is used
as a management tool for enhancing curriculum continuity, communication, and coordination
8. Curriculum Prioritization - The local consensus process of assigning relative value to
curriculum objectives in order to make informed instructional decisions about the amount of time
allocated to an objective and the degree to which it is an instructional focus. Note: It is recommended that no objective be completely eliminated during the prioritization
process
9. Differentiated Instruction - A systematic approach to planning curriculum and instruction for
academically diverse learners; a blend of whole class, group, and individual instruction,
guided by the three principles of differentiation: respectful tasks, flexible grouping, and continual
assessment
10. Effective Schools Research – The body of research conducted in the early 70’s and 80’s as a
response to the Coleman Report which concluded that schools with certain characteristics or
“correlates of achievement” can bring all students to mastery levels regardless of student
background characteristics
11. Enduring Understanding - The big ideas and important concepts that are the heart of the content area and have lasting value and application in the student’s life
12. Essential Questions - An expression of Inquiry that motivates students to seek broader
understanding and deeper meaning of the content objectives
13. Formative Assessment - Periodic evaluation of the student’s achievement level of the WV
Content Standards and Objectives used to adjust instructional time and strategies so all students
will achieve proficiency
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Kruse Sorting Exercise Handout |
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Written by Robert A. Southworth Jr.
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Tuesday, 29 April 2008 |
CommonGround 2008
Rob Southworth & Mike Halverson
Here is the handout outline we worked from during the workshop...
Exercise I:
Travel & Accommodations evaluation
Step One
Please briefly answer the following questions separately on the index cards provided, in the color indicated. (Take no more than two minutes per question.)
A. PINK: If you could have changed anything at all about your travel to Albany or your accommodations for CommonGround 2008, what do you wish you had done differently?
B. BLUE: What resources would you have needed to accomplish the change(s)? Or what obstacles were in the way?
C. YELLOW: What is the likelihood of doing things differently next time? Why?
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Change in Thinking for our Workshop |
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Written by Robert A. Southworth Jr.
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Wednesday, 16 April 2008 |
CommonGround 2008
Rob Southworth & Mike Halverson
What might change in your thinking or arts/ education activities as a result of this workshop?
Observation
Observation is critical to human development.
I'll be more confident about the importance of PURE observation in assessment.
I like the idea of letting kids/ listening to kids, tell you what they understand.
I will continue to observe the world around me and live in it as an existential character.
I will observe, observe, observe and encourage students to evaluate themselves.
I want to listen and observe more carefully.
I will use formula of observe, assess, integrate in planning lessons and discussions.
I will revisit the concept of observation.
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Versatile Intelligence and Assessment (VIA) at Common Ground |
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Written by Robert A. Southworth Jr.
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Wednesday, 16 April 2008 |
Versatile Intelligence and Assessment
A Sustainable Instability Workshop
Building Capacity to change with Mindful Innovations
Rob and Mike, Southworth and Halverson
Common Ground, Albany, 2008
Instability is the rule
Letting go opens up change
Complex situations require a brain-like response
Build networks
Information and technology drive the fragmentation
Response to Instability
Researcher Peter Kruse says:
Stagger on with our lives
React on a case by case pattern
Rationalize
Develop a collective network of intelligence
Cortex and Limbic Systems
Cortex is quick learning and most highly evolved
Limbic is emotional and rules our actions
Scripts and learnt frameworks rule unless contradicted
Networks Respond to Complexity
Complexity, fragmentation and the loss of cohesion
Creating and adopting strong AIE Partnerships is like building brain networks of intelligence
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Feds Ease No Child Left Behind |
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Written by Robert A. Southworth Jr.
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Wednesday, 19 March 2008 |
In an Article by SAM DILLON
of the New York Times (March 19, 2008), the Federal Government began to ease its regulation of the nation's schools: "The Bush administration, acknowledging that the federal No Child Left Behind
law is diagnosing too many public schools as failing, said Tuesday that
it would relax the law’s provisions for some states, allowing them to
distinguish schools with a few problems from those that need major
surgery."
“We need triage,” said Margaret Spellings, the secretary of education.
Read more at the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/19/us/19child.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
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