Do you think parents should have the right to know which of their kids’ teachers are the most and least effective?

Original Article HERE

According to Newsweek, the local teachers union is infuriated over the disclosure of teacher performance metrics. Quoting: ‘Do parents have the right to know which of their kids’ teachers are the most and least effective? That’s the controversy roaring in California this week with the publication of an investigative series by the Los Angeles Times’s Jason Song and Jason Felch, who used seven years of math and English test data to publicly identify the best and the worst third- to fifth-grade teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The newspaper’s announcement of its plans to release data later this month on all 6,000 of the city’s elementary-school teachers has prompted the local teachers’ union to rally members to organize a boycott of the newspaper.’ According to the linked Times article, United Teachers Los Angeles president A.J. Duffy said the database was ‘an irresponsible, offensive intrusion into your professional life that will do nothing to improve student learning.’”

From original article:

Do parents have the right to know which of their kids’ teachers are the most and least effective? That’s the controversy roaring in California this week with the publication of an investigative series by the Los Angeles Times‘s Jason Song and Jason Felch, who used seven years of math and English test data to publicly identify the best and the worst third- to fifth-grade teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District. The newspaper’s announcement of its plans to release data later this month on all 6,000 of the city’s elementary-school teache

rs has prompted the local teachers’ union to rally members to organize a boycott of the newspaper.

The disclosures are unprecedented, and it remains unclear whether other school districts or newspapers will follow suit; local laws prevent some school districts from publicly identifying their most ineffective teachers by name. It also remains unclear how the LAUSD will deal with parent complaints that their child has been assigned to an ineffective teacher. Los Angeles is the second-largest school district in the country.

]]> http://www.backbonecommunications.com/news/ranking-teachers-by-effectiveness-and-public-for-parents/feed/ 0 http://www.backbonecommunications.com/news/ten-ways-online-education-matches-or-surpasses-face-to-face-learning/ http://www.backbonecommunications.com/news/ten-ways-online-education-matches-or-surpasses-face-to-face-learning/#comments Mon, 30 Aug 2010 03:00:59 +0000 Josh http://www.backbonecommunications.com/?p=2951 by Mark Kassop

Note: This article was originally published in The Technology Source (http://ts.mivu.org/) as: Mark Kassop “Ten Ways Online Education Matches, or Surpasses, Face-to-Face Learning” The Technology Source, May/June 2003.

How good is online education?

Debate about the relative quality of Internet-based courses has raged almost since the advent of this new teaching and learning medium. In my opinion, the answers are being settled rather conclusively at my school and 18 other community colleges sharing courses in the New Jersey Virtual Community College Consortium (NJVCCC). I have taught more than 50 online sections of sociology to more than 1,200 students at Bergen Community College and Thomas Edison State College. As the distance learning coordinator at Bergen Community College and as chair of the NJVCCC, I have worked closely with faculty members and administrators throughout New Jersey and other states to create, deliver, and assess online courses. Can online courses match traditional face-to-face (F2F) courses in academic quality and rigor? Can online courses achieve the same learning objectives as F2F courses? Can students learn as much and as well online as they do in F2F courses? Not only is the answer to these questions a resounding “yes,” but there are many ways that online courses may actually surpass traditional F2F classes in quality and rigor. For the record, I am writing from the perspective of a long-time (30+ years) classroom instructor, a sociology professor, a day-to-day user of the consortium’s WebCT course management system, and a person who truly thrives on interaction with students. I still thoroughly enjoy the classroom environment, and I believe that it is a sound arena for teaching and learning; however, as this article will suggest, I am distinctly impressed with the early successes and potential of the online environment as a teaching/learning medium.

Here are 10 ways in which I believe online education excels:

1. Student-centered learning: Academics have recognized for years the shortcomings of the faculty-centered classroom, but it has been difficult to break away from the paradigm. Whether the classroom instructor uses lecture, discussions, role playing, small group activities, or any other technique, it is still the instructor running the show. In an online environment, however, the instructor soon takes a back seat. Students are empowered to learn on their own and even to teach one another. Particularly in the discussion group mode, students have the opportunity to explain, share, comment upon, critique, and develop course materials among themselves in a manner rarely seen in the F2F classroom. In a recent online discussion about the meaning of deviance, students in an Introduction to Sociology course were asked to cite a human behavior that is considered deviant in all cultures. Twenty-five students contributed more than 125 responses in a week-long exchange in which various students suggested that rape, murder, homosexuality, terrorism, child abuse, and other behaviors are universally deviant. Other students noted how certain cultural contexts could make any of those behaviors (and all other behaviors) nondeviant to one or more groups of people, depending on their perspectives. Students served as instructors to their classmates, and together they worked toward learning goals more effectively than if they had been provided with the answer by the instructor.

2. Writing intensity: For many years, our colleagues in the English department have told us that the best way to teach students how to write more effectively is to have them write more often. Online education has made this maxim a reality. On average, online courses are far more writing-intensive than traditional classes have ever been. In both F2F and online classes, major assignments are submitted in written form. But in an online course, general discussions, requests for elaboration or assistance, answers to directed questions, group projects, most assignments, and many tests and quizzes are in written form as well. The consensus among my online colleagues is that when instructors require that students submit carefully written and proofread assignments, the quality of many students’ work improves over the duration of the course. Those writing teachers seem to be on to something!

3. Highly interactive discussions: One of the most exciting features of an online course is the discussion forum. In the traditional F2F classroom, the instructor asks a question, and the same four or five extroverted students inevitably raise their hands. They offer spontaneous, often unresearched responses in the limited time allotted for discussion. In the online environment, discussions enter a new dimension. When an instructor posts a question on the asynchronous discussion board, every student in the class is expected to respond, respond intelligently, and respond several times.

Many online students have indicated that this is the first time they have ever “spoken up” in class and that they enjoy the opportunity. Similarly, instructors say that it is a pleasure to hear the surprisingly compelling ideas of the more introverted members of their classes. Many online instructors have also observed that the relative “anonymity” of online discussions helps create a level playing field for women, homosexuals, students with physical handicaps, and members of other potentially marginalized groups, as they can participate in class activities without being stigmatized. Moreover, the format gives non-native speakers of English extra time to contemplate questions and compose appropriate answers.

In addition to prompting more discussion, online education fosters higher-quality discussion. Before students respond to an instructor’s discussion question or to classmates’ posted comments, they can refer to their course materials and think through their answers. As a result, students have the opportunity to post well-considered comments without the demands of the immediate, anxiety-producing F2F discussion, which often elicits the first response that comes to mind rather than the best possible response. See Exhibit 1 for a sample discussion exchange that illustrates this point and others made within this article.

Finally, asynchronous discussions are not limited to a few minutes of live class time; they frequently last for a week, and it is not unusual to have 100 or more student postings during that period of time. When was the last time that you saw that many well-reasoned responses in a F2F setting from the majority of the students in attendance?

4. Geared to lifelong learning: In their everyday lives, individuals do not have a teacher at their side to direct them in their acquisition of new information. One of the roles that we need to perform as educators, then, is to teach students to find and learn information on their own or in concert with their colleagues. The online environment fosters self-motivated education. Students direct their own use of Internet links, search engines, discussion boards, chat, e-mail, and other media. While such resources cannot guarantee student initiative, they establish a framework that gives precedence to the autonomy of the learner.

5. Enriched course materials: I distinctly remember the time I showed one of my highly respected history colleagues a publisher-created online course site that gave students the opportunity to “visit” recreations of battles, military museums, and various primary source documents. “Wow!” he said. “This site offers my students so much more than I have ever been able to give them in the classroom.” This response is typical. A well-constructed, creative online course can take anthropology students to cultures all over the world, archaeology students to active digs, art students to the finest museum collections, and business students to corporations large and small. World-class resources can be accessed, viewed, and studied 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

If they wish, instructors can pair these virtual experiences with physical ones for an expanded benefit. An art appreciation instructor that I know requires his online students to visit a local museum and write a report on selective works that they either strongly liked or hated.

6. On-demand interaction and support services: Help is only a click away in an online course. Instructors can offer many types of interactive learning aids on their course sites (e.g., flash cards, immediate feedback tests, and PowerPoint presentations). Contact with the instructor and classmates through e-mail can occur any time, not just during traditional (limited) on-campus office hours. Students can also use e-mail, chat rooms, and discussion boards to establish impromptu or scheduled study groups that defy conventional time and space restrictions. Just as importantly, an online course site can make a whole host of campus services available to students, including registration, academic advising, financial aid information and forms, services for students with disabilities, 24/7 libraries, and online tutoring through Smarthinking or similar vendors.

10. Faculty development and rejuvenation: As a faculty member with more than 30 years of experience, I am thrilled to see and hear my colleagues venture into this new academic mode. Creating an online course takes them back to the excitement and work of creating a course for the first time. Undeniably, teaching online is more work—frequently much more work—than teaching in a classroom. The thinking, planning, research, learning, and effort that goes into constructing and teaching an online course has rejuvenated many faculty members who were frankly going through the motions after numerous years of teaching the same courses, semester after semester, in the same classroom environment.

Admittedly, some faculty members have learned that their teaching styles do not work in the online environment (just as some students have discovered that their learning styles make online courses unworkable for them). However, over a very short period of time, a significant number of my peers—including many who were skeptical at first—have adapted and discovered the satisfaction of creating and teaching online.

In conclusion, online education is one of the most exciting enhancements to contemporary education. Online education is neither right for all students nor right for all faculty, but it frequently meets the needs of both for an exciting, high-quality educational experience. As with any instructional mode, the quality of online courses varies, but the potential—often met and still expanding—is on a par and in some respects even better than with the traditional F2F mode. Admittedly, it is up to future research to support or reject the impressions I have reported in this article. The important point, however, is that online education can be done well, and the demand for it is such that we all have to work to make it better. It is here to stay for all of the right reasons.

by Joel Mathis, Macworld.com

Read Original Article HERE

“I think we realize that at some point in the future, textbooks will be digital and that we’ll be using a device like the iPad in the classroom,” said George Saltsman, Director of Educational Technology for the Adams Center for Teaching and Learning at Abilene Christian University, where the device will be used in two classes this fall. “I don’t know that we’re ready to say that we’ll do that next year, but I do think that in five years all our students will be getting their texts digitally.”

Catalyst for classroom participation At Abilene Christian—where the iPad is being distributed to 100 students in two pilot program classes—Dr. Ian Shepherd has designed his fall Econ 261 class to incorporate a digital textbook from McGraw-Hill, the Blackboard Learning Mobile app, as well as PDFs of supplemental texts. He’s perhaps most excited about the No Advance NOtice (NANO), an ACU-built assessment tool that lets him instantly quiz the entire class using polls, true-false questions and open-ended essay queries. He believes that tool will help him draw reticent students into classroom discussions. He’s taking aim at the “20-80 Rule”—the belief among educators that 20 percent of students dominate classroom time.

Leslie Szramiak
Willow Canyon High School, Arizona

He will discuss the most serious challenge to overcome in the quest to teach all students to read well by the end of third grade is diversity among students in their talent and preparation for learning to read. In this session, Dr. Torgeson will present information about the most important kinds of diversity among students when they enter school that affect their ability to learn to read. He also will provide specific information about methods being used in successful schools to meet all students instructional needs, and describe the organizational and instructional strategies for providing differentiated instruction at the classroom and school level.

“With an eye-popping price tag of $578 million, it will mark the inauguration of the nation’s most expensive public school ever. The K-12 complex to house 4,200 students has raised eyebrows across the country as the creme de la creme of ‘Taj Mahal’ schools, $100 million-plus campuses boasting both architectural panache and deluxe amenities. … At RFK, the features include fine art murals and a marble memorial depicting the complex’s namesake, a manicured public park, and a state-of-the-art swimming pool. ‘There’s no more of the old, windowless cinderblock schools of the ’70s where kids felt, “Oh, back to jail,”‘ said Joe Agron, editor-in-chief of American School & University, a school construction journal. ‘Districts want a showpiece for the community, a really impressive environment for learning.’ … Critics note that nearly 3,000 teachers have been laid off over the past two years, the academic year and programs have been slashed, the district faces a $640 million shortfall and some schools persistently rank among the nation’s lowest performing.”

“Officials in LA say the new schools were planned before the economic crisis hit, and are funded by $20 billion in voter-approved bonds that do not impact the educational budget.”

See Syracuse.com original article, Click Here

See Yahoo News original article, Click Here

Tom Hood/Larson Newspapers

Sedona Red Rock High School Principal Dave Lykins kicks back during a surprise party for him at the school May 26. Staff members hosted the party for Lykins after learning he was chosen as Principal of the Year by the Arizona School Administrators Association.

People are always pleased to honor someone they know, and it’s even better when they can have fun in the process.

Fun is exactly what the staff at Sedona Red Rock High School had when they surprised Principal David Lykins with a congratulatory breakfast

May 26. The Sedona-Oak Creek School District received a notification May 21 Lykins had been named Arizona High School Principal of the Year by the Arizona School Administrators Association, District Superintend

ent Mike Aylstock said.

“I nominated him with letters of support from Elaine Vail and Karyl Goldsmith. After working with Dave for two years I thought it was appropriate to honor him,” Aylstock said. “I have been an administrator for 19 years. I have never worked with a better high school principal than Dave Lykins.”

In response, Lykins said he appreciated the recognition, and a lot of credit should go to school staff, parents, teachers and students.

“It’s always nice to be recognized for your hard work, commitment to do the right thing for kids. This is a career I chose and when I look back on my 25 years, I know I made the right one [choice]. I love working here with the kids, the parents, teachers and the community,” Lykins said.

Vail asked 11 random students to describe Lykins and received 11 different, positive descriptions. Ten teachers she asked gave 10 different, yet similar replies. She asked the students and teachers because she said SRRHS is a community and everyone should have some input. She included the responses in her letter.

“As the educational leader of our

school, Mr. Lykins sets a tone of respect by honoring others’ talents and empowering members of the school community to work toward a common vision of academic excellence. I have frequently witnessed Mr. Lykins build rapport with students and parents as he listens, cajoles, guides, encourages and expects academic excellence,” Vail wrote in her letter.

Teachers Marc Sterling and Mal Cooper put together video skits using a computer skit program and placed teachers’ faces on the characters to liven up the breakfast.

Two of the skits shown on screen featured Lykins — one as a dancer in a 1980s “Soul Train” episode, and one of him dancing the hula with a coconut shell bra.

In a third skit, five teachers

were featured as Chippendale dancers, and another skit featured four teachers as “Star Wars” characters escaped from the Empire’s forces.

Through every skit the teachers roared with laughter, especially when they saw their face on one of the characters.

“It’s a fun way to end the year,” Goldsmith said.

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Thurman Redhouse

Cottonwood Day School, Chinle, AZ

SDE: Staff Development for Educators

Today, SDE has grown to become one of America’s leading providers of professional development for PreK through Grade 12 educators.

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Kathy Oshton

North Layton Jr. High School, Davis School District

Utah Charter School Conference

Utah charter schools are achieving their unique missions through the training, advocacy and support of the Association. Their mission is to promote and support quality public charter schools for Utah children.

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Cynthia Swanson

Central Elementary School, Belen Consolidated School District

New Mexico Coalition of School Administrators Conference 2010

NMCSA represents school administrators and provides effective leadership in advocating for a quality educational system in New Mexico. They serve as a liaison with other organizations and agencies in legislative affairs and educational policy.