Influences on GRREC’s “Learning Path” Since 2000

A Presentation for the KEDC Board of DirectorsOctober 19, 2011

The Vision Was Changing for Education in America

Old Vision Every Student Can Learn

Assessment of Learning

(Summative)

Select and Sort Students

Winners and Losers

Focus on Teaching

New VisionEvery Student Will Learn

Assessment for Learning (Formative)

The New Three R’s for All

Failure is Not an Option

Focus on Learning

The Focus Was Changing for GRREC

At a Board retreat in 2001, the

mandate became clear: Every meeting of the GRREC Board of Directors will, first and foremost, be focused on improving instruction.

The Learning Path was based

on and impacted by a variety of research that was helpling to define effective

teaching & learning.

Bob Marzano“The art of teaching is rapidly becoming the science of teaching.”

Our belief is that we are at the beginning of a new era in education – one in which research will provide strong, explicit guidance for the classroom teacher.” 2001

Jim Collins“You absolutely cannot make a series of good decisions without first confronting the brutal facts.” 2001 in Good to Great

Big Ideas for Level 5 Leaders . . . Create results

Unwaveringly resolve to do what must be done Exhibit compelling modesty Motivate with determination vs. flash Set the standard Take responsibility Give credit Set up successors for even greater success

Technology “They’re the natives; we’re the immigrants”

Apple Institute, 2002

Research indicates that

constant exposure to

multiple, overlapping

sights and sounds

has affected the neural

pathways of digital kids’

brains.

Willard Daggett“Of the 24 nations ranked, the United States was 18th.”

2002

“The meteoric rise of India and China has happened so quickly that most Americans have not really given much thought to what it means to them and their way of life.” Daggett, 2003

PISA Levels: Six Ways of Demonstrating Learning

Level 1: Find a fact in text in response to a question.

Level 2: Remember something someone else has told you and repeat it.

Level 3: Remember a procedure that someone else has taught you, and apply it accurately and fluently.

Level 4: Choose a procedure from among a number you have learned, apply it accurately and fluently, explain why you chose it, and why it might be better than another.

Level 5: Using a body of evidence, make an argument about what you think it means; anticipate and respond to counter arguments.

Level 6: Teach something you think you know to someone else.http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pisa/index.asp

The Case for Less Being More

“Given the limited time you have with your students, curriculum design has become more and more an issue of deciding what you won’t teach as well as what you will teach. As a designer, you must choose the essential.” Heidi Hayes Jacobs, 2000

“Deep implementation of a few things beats superficial implementation of many things.”

Doug Reeves, 2004

Silver and Strong“After a decade of working to align our curriculum with state standards, we realized we had left

someone important out of our equations, our students.” 2003

“The reason I hang out with these guys is because they’ve taken the work of my life, the ‘what’ of education and are showing people the ‘how’.”

Bob Marzano describing his relationship with Harvey Silver and Richard Strong

Mike Schmoker “Developing educators’ capacity to function

as members of professional learning communities is the best known means by which we might achieve truly historic, wide scale improvements in teaching and learning.” 2004

Rick Dufour “A PLC model requires teachers

to focus on learning rather than the teaching.” 2005

Rick Stiggins“Assessment of learning vs. assessment FOR learning: what a difference a word can make.” 2006

“Too many of our students who keep showing up have actually already dropped out.”

Richard Elmore

“In the United States more than almost all of our international peers, it matters tremendously what classroom students end up in.”

“Coherence occurs when adults agree on what they are trying to accomplish and are consistent from classroom to classroom.”

Research-Based Instructional Strategies

Assessment and Intervention

World Class Curriculum Design

Student-Centered Teaching Environment

Professional Learning Communities

In 2008, GRREC established a set of core commitments - our “Non-Negotiables”

Utilization of Various PD Strands

Content Training by experts in the field and GRREC staff & local region Master Practitioners

Research-based Instructional Strategies implemented over extended time

Administrator Tracks for all PD

Studies of the literature

Site Visits/Coaching by Master Practitioners

“Fish-bowl” Classroom Demonstrations

Support for Professional Learning Communities

Additional training for Teacher Leaders

44 states and D.C. have fully adopted the Common Core State Standards; 1 state has provisionally adopted the standards; and 1 state has adopted only the ELA standards.

Common Core State Standards Adoption(as of September 2011)

Gene Wilhoit

“The establishment of the Common Core standards is a first step toward bringing about a real and meaningful transformation of our education system and toward the ultimate goal of preparing all children for college, work, and success in a global econony.” 2009

“We have looked at other high achieving countries’ standards to ensure that we are using the best standards in the world.”

Promise of Common Core Standards• Deeper rigor - increased coherence, clarity, and

consistency

• Reflect what is needed for success in college and careers

• Balance conceptual understanding & procedural skill

• Respect how students learn; emphasize reasoning and sense making

• Enable America to be positioned to compete successfully in the global economy

What the Standards Do Not Define• How teachers should teach

• All that can or should be taught

• The nature of advanced work beyond the core

• The interventions needed for students well below grade level

• The full range of support for English learners and students with special needs

• Everything needed for students to be college-and-career ready

Challenge of Common Core Standards

Many teachers will need . . .

to learn their content at a deeper level (sustained content training)

to determine better what their students really know and understand (refined formative assessment strategies)

to learn how to provide for a problem-solving, student-centered environment

opportunities to reflect on & develop the “practice” of teaching (professional learning communities)

to teach differently than they have ever taught before

Leaders’ Call to Action

“We already know what we need to do. Whether or not we do it must finallydepend on how we feel aboutthe fact that we haven’t so far.”

Ron Edmonds, 1982