First of all, I offer deepest condolences to the family of Todd Henry, teacher at John Tyler High School in Tyler. This is one of those incidents that one just cannot explain. Good words came from Nelson Clyde, publisher, Tyler Morning Telegraph, who asked those questions all on our minds… “Why, and What now?”


The State Board of Education decided to leave Christmas, Rosh Hashana, César Chávez, and Thurgood Marshall in the social studies standards. They also voted to reduce expenditures for English textbooks by 4.74% for a savings of $23 million.

Kudos to all 26 of the schools recognized as winners of the federal DOE Blue Ribbon School Award. Nominated by TEA each have at least 40% of the students identified as members of econically disadvantaged familes.

I refrain from commenting on President Obama’s address to our youth. Don’t get me wrong, I have an opinion to which anyone who knows me well can attest. I just don’t want this blog to become tainted with whining. Let me say only that how one can find controversy in such a non-controversial moment begs the question of intellect.

The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009 passed the House by an almost purely partisan vote with the Texas delegation divided strictly by party lines. With few differences the bill as introduced by Rep. George Miller (D), Chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, implements President Obama’s budget proposals for FY2010 student financial aid. Click here for the Committee’s review of the $87 billion injection and here for a more critical review.

Embedded within this legislation is an interesting initiative called the Early Learning Challenge Fund, the basis of President Obama’s Zero-to-Five initiative. The Fund provides moneies to state education agencies to plan, build, and sustain quality early learning programs and increase participaton of disadvantaged children. The Fund is composed of two types of grants: the Quality Pathways Grant and Development Grant. QPGs are for states well on the way toward establishing quality early learning systems. They are approved for five years, and renewable. DGs are rewarded to those states in the beginning stages of early learning system planning. These are issued for three years and non-renewable. For an overview go to Womenstake (I love this site and its progenitor National Women’s Law Center).

Well, so much for Education in September.  I'm sure there is lots more, but these seem to be the highlights.  If I missed something that you want posted, just say so.

We're All Different :-)

I teach French at the high school level. It is not a core course, but, rather, a faux-core course. A student needs not a foreign language to graduate. However, since most students follow the state recommended plan, they must pass two years of the same foreign language as part of the requirements. That means the majority of students in my classes want only to get through the two years, and that’s not a problem. Here’s the problem. How does a teacher deliver the curriculum in a manner that accommodates the various learning styles and motivational levels? After all, it’s neither good teaching nor good learning when everyone is force-fed the same curriculum through the same strategies given the same amount of time.


I don’t profess to have the answer to that, but I do work a plan. I use common empirical data combined with competency-based evaluations to identify and differentiate student ability. I then categorize students by grade as struggling (<70), core (70 – 89), or expanded (≥90). Historically, the population falls as 10% expanded, 70% core, and 20% struggling.

Once categorized, My objectives and strategies are differentiated by group. For example, the curriculum may call for verb study. The core students may work on an activity of filling in the blanks with the correctly conjugated form of a verb. Those of the expanded group, which often includes Gifted-Talented students, may develop their own sentences using the same list of verbs. The struggling students may have to circle the correct verb form from two verb offerings for each sentence. Through these strategical differences I try to avoid the frustration for individual learners of a too slow or too fast pace and to increase the level of learning outcomes.

I monitor categorization of students with a feedback loop that requires a review every three weeks. At the end of the six-week grading period, I evaluate the population shift. If it moves positively with a shift of struggling students to the core group and of core students to the expanded group, it is a success. When an individual learner’s grade moves upwards, or that student moves to a higher group, I deem it successful. When I see any negative movement as a group, then I review the strategies for that group. When I see a negative movement by individual learner, then I look at that student from a personal perspectve, often confering with the counselor.

Is this the answer, probably not. Does this plan work, yes. Is this a lot of work for me, yes again. But when a student moves up in the ranks, it is worth the extra time.

Ah, August. The month of AYP results, legislative actions, and a new school year. What a busy month.

 In Texas (TEA News Releases Online), more students took AP exams with a higher rate of success than last year; SAT math scores improved, but reading and writing scores declined; ACT composite scores increased along with the subtests scores; and, we are behind on NCLB’s goal for meeting highly qualified teacher requirements.

The Center for Desease Control predicts an increase in Swine flu cases this year, especially on school campuses. TEA willl continue to offer waivers for high absentee flu-related days, but “school closures will no longer be recommended to limiting transmission.”  Super-size me with anti-bacterial hand soap, please.

TEA also released its 2009-2010 Minimum Salary Schedule. AFT’s Survey and Analysis of Salary Trends 2007 ranked Texas at 29th, up from 36th in the nation. However, that’s not the point just yet. The point is the language of the law that stipulates how to calculate teacher pay. It seems to shift the burden of increase from the state to the Local Education Agency. Sorry, I cannot explain something that I don’t understand.

The state Legislative Budget Board announced that $2 billion of the Stimulus money earmarked for education will go to recurring expenses. That means the next legislative session will have to get real creative with educational funding. Perhaps they can leave that to the LEAs as well.

Several school districts are now requring new substitutes to show teaching certification as a requirement of employment. In a sluggish economy, the substitute teacher pool rises. Some districts see the new screening process as a way of moderating an influx of applicants.

The August 30, 2009 issue of the Las Vegas Sun ran a great interview conversation with Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education. Here are some select quotes of what may be things to come.

The process is broken for every teacher at every ability level, and if it’s broken for each of them, it’s broken for every student, too. Good teachers don’t get recognized and rewarded. We don’t learn from them. Teachers in the middle don’t get the support they need. And teachers in the bottom who, frankly, shouldn’t be teaching, don’t get identified.


Schools being open six hours per day, five days per week, nine months per year is an outdated model. It’s based on an agrarian calendar. Our kids aren’t working in the fields anymore.

We’re challenging districts and states to talk about common standards that demonstrate our students are ready for college, career and to compete internationally.

Finally, we say farewell to one of education’s strongest allies, Senator Edward Kennedy. During his tenure he impacted educational policy with his unique input from the Higher Education Act of 1965 through Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. We can only pray for others to fill his shoes.

Is this for a grade?

We begin a new school year with guess what, a new grading policy. Let’s face it, grading is an art, not a science. Sure, you can do the math, calculate the curves, and post the numbers. The question, however, is, “how meaningful is that grade to the students, the parents, the administration?” The answer depends, of course, on who answers.

How important are grades? Well, we use them to determine class rank, GPA, UIL eligibility, scholarship awards, school club membership, at-risk identification, school rank, and a plethora of other school and non-school judgments. We grade for responsibility (doing it reliably) and processibility (doing it gradually) and mastery (doing it correctly). (I won’t even address the impact of the behavioral grades that we all give.)

The grade for responsibility is based on quantity, how much of the assignment did the student complete? This is appropriate if your objective is to teach the student the consequences of not doing the job. It does little for content mastery other than encourage practice. Grading for processibility, the formative assessment, provides your students with a idea of where they are in the learning process for that lesson, unit, project. We call these quizzes, notebook checks, labs, workbook exercises, and other process controls. Grading for mastery, the summative assessment, is the mother lode of learning feedback. It lets your student know if she got it and how well. We call these major tests, six-week tests, semester projects, term papers, and other assignments that arrange the building blocks of the lesson into a completed structure.

I wrestle with testing every year. I adjust and re-adjust my assessments to match ability, differentiate, accommodate, and evaluate in a meaningful manner to communicate to the student where he or she is at that given moment. Currently, I am reading Ken O’Connor’s How to Grade for Learning. (For his latest, A Repair Kit for Grading: 15 Fixes for Broken Grades, Anne Keith offers a good overview.) Rick Wormeli’s Fair Isn’t Always Equal: Assessing & Grading in the Differentiated Classroom is next on my list. Some day, if I am up to it, I might tackle Robert Marzano’s Classroom Assessment and Grading That Work (Still, anyone who remixes and updates Bloom’s Taxonomy on a scholarly level intimidates me a bit.). And, I’m not even ready to approach Alphie Kohn.

So, how well does your grading policy, whether personal, departmental, and/or district, give meaningful feedback to the student? Can you defend your assessments to a disgruntled parent? Are you in sync with the latest directive from administration? Are you personally satisfied that your grading methodology is the best that it can be?

First Day Back

Well, it’s almost here: The First Day of School. All of you seasoned teachers have developed a first day/week routine. All of you new teachers, here’s some help.

My first day includes:
Greeting students at the door with a warm hello.
Starting the class on time with a warm-up activity.
Calling roll with a personalized greeting to each student.
Beginning class with a classmates icebreaker.
Sharing something personal about myself.
Giving an assignment to be reviewed at the next meeting.
Keeping it light; I don’t want to scare them off the first day.

My first week includes:
Completing any administration mandated assignments.
Detailing my classroom management philosophy.
Discussing the class rules.
Distributing and reviewing the course syllabus.
Painting a mental picture of what an “A” student looks like.
Introducing the textbook front to back.
Assigning the first six-weeks project.
Beginning the first lesson.

In case you need some details, here are a couple of my favorite lists of hints, ideas, and activities. Education World and A to Z Teacher Stuff®

Anyone want to share their personal secrets? Comments are always welcomed.

Do Your Research!

I just completed a professional development course on research methodology using the Independent Investigation Method (IIM®) from Active Learning Systems, LLC. Our facilitator, Melanie, did a great job of covering a usually two-day class in one day.

The authors, Cindy Nottage and Virginia Morse, begin IIM® with a deceptively simple philosophical statement, “All students can do research.” To the best of my recollection, I learned the how-to of research, the methodology, through the dreaded high school social studies or English term paper. That consisted of a trip to the school library where we trudged through the Dewey Decimal System. That’s kind of like running in sand. You can do it, but it is really not fun. We never thought about the actions of research, much less learned a system.

Along comes IIM® with a simple 7-step process of research that all K-12 student, individually or collectively, can use in any class. It’s simple, easy to learn, and easy to use. Best of all, once learned in the early grades, a student’s research efficacy and efficiency increases through her school career. She simply produces more sophisticated quality research through adherence to the steps. So, from Kindergarten TEKS through the Social Studies Research Methods course, we are not just required by law, but obligated as educators, to provide our students with an understanding of the how-to of research.

Now, where is the district administration direction to mandate a standardized research methodologies system, like IIM® ? LEAs need to step up with local funding, development, training, and implementation of a system that will carry its students from K-12 into a guided approach to critical thinking, reasoning, and subsequent intelligent action throughout life.

As a side note, I promised to link Diigo in this post. Diigo advertises itself as offering two services in one, “it is a research and collaborative research tool on the one hand, and a knowledge-sharing community and social content site on the other.” On the research side it offers is a bookmark organizer and text highlighter where the researcher can add notes, tags, send info, filter, search keywords, create lists, and more. As a knowledge-sharing community it offers a social/professional network where one can invite friends/colleagues, create groups by topic for discussion, search & explore established groups, create lists, search & explore others lists, and still more.

I keep the Diigo toolbar resident everytime I go on-line. Try it and pass it along to your students.

Monthly Happenings

Farewell, Frank McCourt. Becky and I listened to him read his Teacher Man book as we raced across the West Texas desert between El Paso and Ft. Stockton. If you have not read his book, don’t. Listen to him read it. Then, go to Only A Teacher for his frank responses about teaching.

The feds approved $2 billion of ARRA funds for Texas educational use, primarily funding pay raises. I’ll leave my thoughts in the words of Frank McCourt when he said, “We know that surgeons are well paid… It should be the same way with teachers. They're the single most important profession in the country because they're shaping the future.” Who’s listening?

Speaking of the feds, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spoke to the National Council of La Raza re-stating several statistics about the Latino drop-out rate. The answer, according to the administration, is the Race to the Top program initiated with $4.35 billion from ARRA. If you don’t know about our Race to the Top, go to this page at ED.gov

Finally, speaking of the drop-out rate, TEA announced its annual school ratings. Due to rules changes the number of exemplary schools doubled, but nearly matching that is the increase in academically unacceptable ratings. It’s all a matter of crunching the numbers. I predict a record increase of appeals from borderline school districts in the lower ratings.

Hope you had a great July. Wishing you a cooler August with anticipation of a new school year.