We Thought We Should Mention

Laura Devaney’s recent article How Secondary School Principals Can Master the Common Core in eSchool News offers suggestions for implementing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and supporting each site’s classroom teachers.  By recognizing the transition to CCSS as a unique and momentous opportunity, principals can more effectively advance the transformation of classroom instruction and student attitudes toward learning.

Devaney references Kentucky’s efforts to equip school districts with skills and resources that will aid in their transition efforts. Measures suggested include:

• identify engaging instructional resources
• align instruction to the CCSS
• revise curriculum maps and pacing guides
• prepare samples of instructional units

In addition, principals can signal their support and help lead their school’s transition to the Common Core standards by taking a number of critical steps:

1. Actively participate in all available trainings
2. Use available tools offered by the state and district
3. Build capacity within your school
4. Assure vertical alignment from kindergarten to high school graduation
5. Use free apps, such as the Common Core Standards app
6. Provide professional learning opportunities and peer networking
7. Build in quality time for teachers to use and implement the CCSS for instruction and assessment
8. Monitor progress continuously
9. Provide time for teachers to analyze data and make appropriate decisions
10. Become thoroughly educated on the CCSS

Kentucky is also working hard to stay up-to-date on current research-based data.  For example, consider Kentucky’s alignment to the Lexile Framework^® for Reading and The Quantile^® Framework for Mathematics. Their partnership with MetaMetrics in assuring their educational community has access to these developmental measures has been incomparable. Kentucky continues to encourage their staffs to understand the meanings of the measures and how they may be utilized to guide classroom instruction and track growth toward college and career readiness.

Kentucky is to be commended for their efforts to lead the way in transforming education in their state and to ensure that each student graduates college and career ready.

As the new Common Core State Standards are being implemented in math classrooms around the U.S., middle school educators are facing two challenges:

1. Keeping middle school students interested in learning

2. Meeting the rigor of the new standards

Here’s a little hope for math teachers: A recent survey of middle school students by Raytheon Co., indicates 7 out of 10 students like math!  The survey also indicated that Math is the third most popular subject just behind gym and art.  That’s good news.    Another finding in the survey sheds light on how students prefer to learn new subjects.  48% of students prefer hands-on learning, while  37% of students report preferring to learn with computers.  Dead last in order of preference is lecture from a textbook. 

Fortunately, the Quantile Framework for Mathematics provides teachers easy access to hands-on, computer based, free resources to help spark student interest in learning mathematics.  These resources are aligned with Common Core State Standards, and all 50 state curriculums and are available in the Math Skill Database and Quantile Teacher Assistant.

Additionally, these easy to use tools offered at no cost to educators allow for differentiating instruction to meet the needs of all students without the difficulty of navigating through endless math websites. Dr. Malbert Smith and Jason Turner, in a recent white paper wrote, “As the rigorous Common Core State Standards in Mathe­matics move from the adoption stage into the implemen­tation stage, it is imperative that classroom educators be given the tools and resources that will allow them to move beyond whole-class instruction and begin to differentiate for math students at every level.”  The Quantile website simplifies teacher efforts to locate and utilize relevant materials because these resources are attached to each Common Core standard.

As the implementation of the Common Core standards becomes a reality the Quantile website can be a vital tool in the classroom.  In addition to the tools mentioned for the teacher, the free tools offer a meaningful way to differentiate math instruction for all learners and to link students to resources in a way that can be engaging and fun.

Recently, I have been reflecting upon the work of Atul Gawande.  Gawande is a physician by training, but is also the well-known author of The Checklist Manifesto and Complications, both which deal primarily with topics and trends in medicine.   In 2004, Gawande published an important article, “The Bell Curve”, in the New Yorker.  While educators and researchers in the social sciences often use the term “bell curve” the term is used less frequently by physicians or those in the medical field.    Gawande’s observations and findings cut across disciplines, however, and are just as applicable to the world of education as they are to medicine.

In “The Bell Curve”, Gawande describes the medical community’s efforts to successfully treat cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease which thickens the body’s secretions and slowly fills the lung’s airways with hardened mucous, leaving those afflicted with severely reduced lung capacity – effectively smothering the ill from the inside out.  In 1966, the average life expectancy for a child with cystic fibrosis was 10 years.  Fortunately, we have made great strides over the last few decades; continuing research and enhanced treatment methods have increased life expectancy to 33 years.

Still, each year about 1,000 American children are diagnosed with the disease and there are now 117 treatment centers in our country.   To qualify as a treatment center, each center must undergo rigorous certification, follow the same standardized guidelines for treatment, and become ultra-specialized.  Each center must implement the same specialized treatment protocol.

Based on the fact that cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease and that all treatment centers are certified and follow same treatment protocols, one would surmise that most of the treatment centers have the same success rate in treating the disease.  Said differently, one would not expect average life expectancy to differ significantly across treatment centers.  That assumption is incorrect.  And I was stunned to learn that, in terms of average life expectancy, the success of the treatment centers is represented as a bell shaped curve.

How can that be?  How can a genetic disease that has a standardized treatment protocol have a health care outcome that looks like a bell shaped curve?    As the article makes clear, success is a product of aggressive implementation, or what I would label “treatment fidelity”.  The best performing centers did not passively implement the treatment protocols.  Instead, they were maniacally focused on implementing each and every component of the treatment, aiming at 100% fidelity in each and every visit with each patient.  Site visits revealed that success takes more than the knowledge and skills to succeed.  As Gawande makes distressingly clear, “even doctors with great knowledge and technical skills can have mediocre results”.

Now think of the profound implications the treatment of cystic fibrosis has for education.  If a genetic disease that has an agreed upon treatment protocol and is delivered by 117 certified treatment centers is subject to a bell shape distribution due to “fidelity of treatment”, then is it any wonder that we have uneven outcomes in reading and math achievement  across the 100,000+ schools around the US?   Like the treatment of cystic fibrosis, when it comes to the teaching of reading and math skills it is not a matter of how we do it, but how well we do it.  Passionate and unwavering fidelity of treatment would be a big step in ensuring that students continue to climb the ladder toward college and career readiness.  Lessons, like those found in ‘The Bell Curve’, resonate as we look toward education policy and should shape how we think about the educational outcomes across schools, districts, and states.

We’ve long-known that, despite socioeconomic differences, all students have the ability to learn and often proceed at the same rate of growth in reading and math during the academic year.  Unfortunately, there are a number of factors – language learning differences,  summer learning loss, lack of differentiation – that can stall or derail a student’s learning progress.  With intensive remediation or intervention, however, most students have the ability to catch back up with their peers, to regain a foothold on the trajectory toward college and career readiness.  For all of us that work in education, this story offers an inspiring reminder on the importance of targeting each and every student and on each student’s tremendous capacity to learn, despite a host of disadvantages and diverse backgrounds.

Because a high number of parents report feeling intimidated by math concepts we can assume that uncertainty and unease translates into a failure to routinely discuss math skills and concepts with their own young children.  Even parents not steeped in the technical details of reading comprehension and literacy development often spend time reading with their children; and informal literacy activities, e.g. asking a young child to sound out a word, look at an illustration for context clues, or pick their favorite book are a regular part of many parent’s nightly routines.  So it’s not surprising that math discussions and activities often get left behind.  As this recent article by Annie Paul makes clear, failure to introduce young minds to mathematical concepts at an early age can have serious impact on the student’s readiness to learn math skills later in life:

But speaking to them about numbers, fractions, and decimals? Not so much. And yet studies show that “number talk” at home is a key predictor of young children’s achievement in math once they get to school. Now a new study provides evidence that gender is part of the equation: Parents speak to their daughters about numbers far less than their sons…

The frequency of number talk in the children’s homes had a big impact on how well the youngsters understood basic mathematical concepts such as the cardinal number principle, which holds that the last number reached when counting a set of objects determines the size of the set (“One, two,
three—three apples in the bowl!”). A subsequent study by Levine found that the kind of number talk that most strongly predicted later knowledge of numbers involved counting or labeling sets of objects that are right there in front of parent and child–especially large sets, containing between four and ten objects.

Paul goes on to offer a set of helpful suggestions for introducing ‘number-talk’ early on in a child’s development and urges that parents attempt to incorporate number talk at least as often as they talk about words and letters:

• Note numbers on signs when you’re walking or driving with children: speed limits and exit numbers, building addresses, sale prices in store windows.
• Ask children to count how many toys they’re playing with, how many books they’ve pulled out to read, or how many pieces of food are on their plate.
• Use numbers when you refer to time, dates, and temperatures: how many hours and minutes until bedtime, how many weeks and days until a holiday, the high and low the weatherman predicts for that day.
• With older children, math can become a part of talking about sports, science, history, video games, or whatever else they’re interested in.

We couldn’t agree more.  Mathematics has received far less attention than literacy at both school and at home.  It’s our hope that parents will recognize the importance of numeracy and that lessons that important must start at home.

We’ve written before on the remarkable success of myON reader and Capstone Digital’s intent to provide myOn through mobile devices like the Kindle Fire.  Well that initiative has taken off and it appears to be paying dividends for students around the country.  Students in Cheatham County, Tennessee, in particular, are excited about being able to access targeted reading material on their Kindles:

At ACES, Jonet Williams has been thrilled with the response of her students, who look forward to activating their Kindles each day.

Williams likes being able to manage her class work through the Internet.

“I can find out what they’ve read, how much time they’ve spent reading, and see their assessment scores,” she said.

The teachers are also able to see their students’ successes and challenges, using the myON reader as a tool for flagging needs and reflecting ability levels.

“We can choose libraries for them that correlate with what we’re studying,” said Williams, citing a recent reading assignment on Benjamin Franklin and American symbols to reinforce what her students are learning in social studies.

MyON seamlessly blends assessment and instruction for young readers in a digital environment, allowing students to receive updated Lexile measures through their reading experiences.  Based on those updated Lexile measures, students continue to be presented a wider range of targeted texts.  Not only do students receive targeted text, but they exercise choice as well.  MyON allows students to self-select topics of interest to them and students can choose from a long list of subjects.

On a related note, the world of education software has also recognized Capstone for the contribution they’ve made to reading.  MyON recently won a Bessie for the ‘Best Reading Website’ award for upper elementary students.  Congratulations to Capstone on achieving so much in such a short period of time.  We’re proud to partner with an organization so dedicated to getting more students reading everywhere!

We love hearing from teachers on the ways they’ve utilized the Lexile Framework for Reading to support reading growth.  Of special significance to us is hearing teachers describe their successes and their understanding of the Framework in their own words.  That’s why we were thrilled to read this recent piece (subscription required) from educator, Margaret Reed in Kodiak, Alaska:

Last month, I talked about three key ingredients that, when mixed together by a student, create a recipe for reading success.  First is reading practice, third is feedback concerning the effectiveness of the reading practice.  I’d like to focus on the second ingredient:  awareness of the level of text you are choosing to read.

When you pick up a book, how do you know if you will understand most, all, or none of what you are reading? If you are told you are reading at the third grade level, how do you use that information to help you choose text you know you will understand? When you look at a book, what can you use to predict how well you will understand that book?  The Lexile Framework provides a tool to help answer these questions!

Margaret goes on to do a nice job describing some of the more technical aspects of the Framework and even includes information on using the Lexile measure in an instructional setting.

If you’ve seen instances of great ways to introduce educators and parents to the Lexile Framework for Reading, feel free to pass along.  We’re always eager to hear how our metrics are being put to use and helping students around the globe.

We’re always happy when we hear about our tools and metrics being put to use by those outside of education. We designed tools, like Find a Book, with more than educators in mind. Our hope is that parents are able to use Find a Book year round to help students select books they actually want to read. That’s why we’re thrilled to see posts like this from Ellen Weeren over at A Reason to Write:

If you have ever been to the library or book store with a child, you know full well how hard it can be to find a “just right” book for that child to read.

Well, Lexile will make choosing a book a (much) easier undertaking.

On the Lexile website, at the top of the homepage (right next to the “home” tab on the upper left corner of the site) is the “find a book” tab. Click it and you will be prompted for your child’s Lexile measurement. (You can also get an estimate of that by pulling up a book that s/he has recently read and seeing what it’s ranking is. Then use that ranking for your child as an estimate.) Then they will also ask what grade the child is in.

Then you to select what types of books the child enjoys reading – mystery, fantasy, humor, etc.

Finally, you will get a long ‘o list of suggestions. Click on one that interests you/your child and you will get a summary of the book and a list of awards it might have won…

This is also a wonderful place for grandparents to figure out what books to buy their grandchildren.

And don’t forget Find a Book’s link to the public libraries as well. By clicking on the WorldCat link, users can determine if a public library carries the title they want – making books accessible to all readers. If you haven’t yet used it, be sure to give Find a Book a try.

Here’s Anthony Colucci offering educators some useful reminders on their impact in the classroom  Classrooms are about more than just curriculum and accountability testing. He argues that while it is necessary to continually revise our state standards there are many bedrock values, core principles that underlie all classroom activity.

Here’s Colucci’s list of standards that are worth remembering:

• My class will be engaging.
• I will stress the importance of hard work.
• I will teach my students what it means to be responsible citizens.
• I will encourage my students to find careers they will love.
• I will treat my students with respect.

While curriculum standards will continue to evolve and grow, keeping these basic principles in mind will go a long way in helping ensure that today’s students become tomorrow’s passionate, educated, and engaged adults.

Here’s a useful reminder from Dr. Joseph Wise on why it’s so important that every student graduate prepared college and career:

 Lexile reading levels of newer technical and military manuals aims at what we used to know as blue-collar jobs now consistently surpass the Lexile reading levels of typical undergraduate liberal arts textbooks.  You have a high schooler who wants to focus on vehicle mechanics or computer technology-her reading demands will be more severe than her classmate who wants to pursue political science at a college.

If you encounter a colleague who asserts, “well not all kids are meant for college” you might say, “care to be the one to decide who goes and who does not”?

Dr. Wise goes on to remind us why college and career readiness is more than just a noble goal.  It’s imperative to our country’s survival and continued competitiveness:

When in India last year speaking to a college of aspiring teachers in Hyderabad one young woman asked me why the USA is so focused on kids going to college.  My answer to her was: In India you have a record population of 1.2 billion and many suspect that if those unaccounted for were added you’d have nearly 1.6 billion.  In the USA we only have 300 million-so we must get every kid ready for the choice of college or high wage important job.  Our economy and way of life depends on it.