http://www.lapdavt.org/blogs/ News feed for www.lapdavt.org en-us Thu, 12 Jun 2008 10:07:00 CDT Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:48:49 CDT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Legitify: Media Management System Thu, 12 Jun 2008 10:07:00 -0500 While I was riding home from work on Monday June 9th, I heard a fascinating story on NPR that really resonated with the Blog that I posted on June 5th entitled “Getting Past the Cranky”. So what resonated you ask, my response, instructional supervision and evaluation needs a major overhaul in this country and I think the genie is now out of the bottle on this important topic. Here comes “the white elephant”…… so who is best suited to take on the essential job of teacher supervision and evaluation ……, not administrators according the Toledo Ohio Teachers Union.   According to the NPR story, since 1981, the Toledo Ohio school district has been using a process called “Peer Review” to evaluate every teacher who is serving in their first year in that district. It does not matter if you are a rookie right out of college or a seasoned veteran with lots of experience, in your first year in Toledo you go through the peer review process. If you do not cut it, you’re gone!   Why do they use teachers to conduct the peer review process, because several years ago the Toledo Teachers Union concluded that administrators did a really lousy job with respect to the supervision and evaluation of teachers (ouch). The union leadership (read that union president) decided that they needed to step up and start “policing their own ranks”!! No body wants to work with a bad teacher! Caught your attention yet??   Here are a few story highlights to ponder: · Each teacher in their first year in Toledo is “supervised” by a team of consultants/master teachers. The consultants evaluate all aspects of the teachers professional responsibility including, classroom management, lesson planning, content knowledge critiques, attendance, tardiness etc. · At the end of the year a panel of teachers convenes and they decide who gets retained or dismissed. Last year approximately 110 teachers went through peer review and 13 were dismissed. (I am just telling you what I heard folks) · 70 school districts across the country are now using some form of a peer review process including school districts in Ohio, Florida and Connecticut. · Toledo union leaders contend that the prime reason why teachers are dismissed from their district include the following: No stage presence, (students read that as lack of confidence and it leads to serious classroom management problems), Lack of organization, and perhaps most egregious, some of these new hires do not know a “damn thing” Now for the million dollar question, “does peer review improve classroom instruction”, according to the NPR correspondent who presented the story you would not think so by looking at the student performance scores in Toledo. The Union response to that finding, “just think how bad the scores might be if we did not use peer review”!!!!   Let me be clear, I am not selling “peer review” per se as the supervision and evaluation panacea , I am advocating that we address the white elephant with zeal and purpose….our kids need us to step up and starting leading for instructional improvement at all levels.To Listen to NPR story click here http://www.lapdavt.org/blogs/bd/2008/06/12/Policing-Their-Own-Ranks/ http://www.lapdavt.org/blogs/bd/2008/06/12/Policing-Their-Own-Ranks/ Thu, 05 Jun 2008 11:48:00 -0500 Have you noticed…….; all the education Gurus appear cranky lately! What’s up? If you have attended a conference this year or read recent articles or books by Wiggins, Schmoker, Marzano, Reeves, Elmore, Fullan et al you may be picking up a tone. The Gurus are frustrated by what they see as our unwillingness or inability to deal with the “white elephant” in the public education leadership room, namely the idiosyncratic nature of classroom instruction that still runs rampant in U.S. schools.Some have referred to this idiosyncratic instructional model as the “do my own thing”; "you can’t make me”; or the “self employed private contractor approach to classroom instruction”. The Gurus are frustrated because they think educational leaders are either unaware of this long standing problem or they are simply unwilling to deal with it.I understand their frustration but I think we need to have a constructive way of addressing the situation as opposed to more name calling and blaming “the other guy” for what he or she is not doing! Toward that end LAPDA has created a strategy to actually help school leaders address the problem of poor or non existent classroom observation and professional supervision. We host training for a broad cadre of educational leaders to help them improve their instructional leadership practice. We offer mentoring training, supervision and evaluation training, cognate coaching, and targeted training for school principals as part of the LAPDA leadership initiative. Check out the successful venue we created this year called the Principals Toolkit Series. This series provided instructional leaders with the knowledge and skills they need to help nurture and create results orientated classrooms. That’s exactly what Schmoker is calling for in his recent book Results Now. So here’s a heads up, we will offer this series again next year and I hope more school leaders will step up and take it. Let’s do our part to “get past the Cranky” and move to consistent professional practice that ensures all students will have access to quality instruction across the board. Isn’t that what fidelity of curriculum implementation is really all about? http://www.lapdavt.org/blogs/bd/2008/06/05/Getting-Past-Cranky/ http://www.lapdavt.org/blogs/bd/2008/06/05/Getting-Past-Cranky/ Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:29:00 -0600 With a reflective look over our shoulder, we continue to pursue our most noble goals  “A journey of 1000 miles begins with one small step”On June 30, 2007 I retired from my position as Assistant Superintendent of Schools for the Lamoille South Supervisory Union (LSSU), a position I held for the past fifteen years. It goes without saying, I am very proud of my association with that fine school district and the outstanding educators that I had the pleasure of working with. Now that I have the luxury and good fortune to focus exclusively on my role as Executive Director of the Lamoille Area Professional Development Academy (LAPDA), I am ready and able to respond to the many requests that I have received to share the systems improvement journey that we have been pursuing at LSSU. With service as my goal, I will continue to provide resource support for the partner school districts of our region as part of my on going effort to contribute to public education in Vermont. I will utilize the LAPDA website and this blog as one of many vehicles to offer insights from my thirty-five years of experience and expertise with my fellow educators who are also committed to improving the quality of education for all Vermont students. In that spirit I am happy to post this Power Point presentation that I delivered as part of the Edward F. Reidy Interactive Lecture Series in Nashua New Hampshire on October 5, 2006. The Reidy series is co-sponsored by Center for Assessment and WestEd. The 2006-07 conference focus was entitled Comprehensive Systems to Improve Student Learning: Critical Design and Implementation Decisions. I was asked to speak on my experience working on the development of the LSSU Comprehensive Assessment Systems and this presentation attempts to outline the underlying change theory applications that I utilized to help build the LSSU assessment system that is in place today. I am posting this material today as the first of several pieces that I will be putting together and sharing on this timely and important topic.Best RegardsBob “Do not be afraid of moving slowly only be afraid of standing still” http://www.lapdavt.org/blogs/bd/2008/02/22/JOURNEY-OF-CHANGE/ http://www.lapdavt.org/blogs/bd/2008/02/22/JOURNEY-OF-CHANGE/ Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:27:00 -0600 LAPDA support available to help you build a cohesive and comprehensive assessment system. Vermont School Quality Standards (SQS) required each school district to develop a local comprehensive assessment plan by September 1, 2006. Many school districts are still struggling to meet this requirement and many are not sure how to even begin the work. This is where LAPDA comes in; we will continue to offer professional development opportunities to increase assessment literacy and this summer we will begin to host assessment institutes to help our partner school districts develop comprehensive assessment plans that will do more than meet compliance requirements. As you study the schematic above, let me offer a few simple suggestions on how you can begin to address each level of the assessment pyramid:Classroom assessment: Consider sending a team to our Formative Assessment Institute July 14-18. Read the Stiggins article (click link) for more information on this topic.School Assessment: Register ASAP for our two day training on Common Formative Assessment, (based on Larry Ainsworth’s book) April 8 & 9th at the Double Tree Hotel in South Burlington.District assessment: Attend our advisory council meetings and our summer institute to learn how to develop district assessments in writing, math and science. We will provide technical support at the regional level to help you develop these district assessments and we will facilitate a product and process exchange to “show case” real Vermont models. Look for a feature article from me on the LSSU change process that created the LSSU writing project and the assessment blue print that set the direction for the math and science assessment projects that are now under way.State assessment: Consider attending a VDC training session to learn how you can utilize the data warehouse to mine your assessment data and improve your instructional program. http://www.lapdavt.org/blogs/bd/2008/02/22/COMPREHENSIVE-ASSESSMENT-SYSTEM/ http://www.lapdavt.org/blogs/bd/2008/02/22/COMPREHENSIVE-ASSESSMENT-SYSTEM/