I must respond--Competencies

Much to say this week. Here is the first commentary on Competencies. There was an episode of Laura Knoy's The Exchange on NHPR. Here is the link so you can listen for yourself.

Very old. 2009. Could turn into something. 

http://www.nhpr.org/node/27325

One comment:
Competency Based Ed is a new name for Outcome Based Ed. Google Peg Luksik/ you tube/ and she will explain what OBE is all about. It's snake oil folks.

No, wrong. Outcome based education was an excellent idea that we implemented in a poor way. Outcomes were excellent ideas. Measuring how students get to outcomes was not done well. In the outcome based education model a student was told that they met the outcome if they answered a certain %age of questions correctly. This is not understanding.

Competencies are an advancement of outcomes because it means that students must prove that they know a certain amount of material.

In the program Knoy asked if there would be 22 students requesting to do civics a different way. This is NOT what is going on.

Brennan makes sense.

Khan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM95HHI4gLk

The Khan school has been getting some good and bad press. The positives:

--homework is watch the videos.

--classwork is the old homework.

start with the building blocks

learn math the way you learn anything. do it as long as it takes until you get to mastery

everything that can be taught in this type of a framework--this is key--he is not claiming critical thinking.

red blue green

time--did we benefit because we are fast

His argument is that using Khan Academy frees up time for the teachers to teach the critical thinking--he is clear that his system can only do certain things.

--

Interview

An old one from 2011. Partially done.

I had the chance to interview for the Assistant Principal job at Concord High School the other day. It was a short interview and I was over-prepared. So I wanted to lay out why I think I would be helpful to CHS.

Overall Focus--Student Learning

• Curriculum--I feel that we need to make sure to continue (as a school) to focus on competencies and to focus revising and refining the existing competencies. And where possible we need to examine how we can do this in a collaborative way.
  
• Instruction--The teachers at CHS are excellent but there are always new strategies to consider and especially new ways of planning instruction in teacher groups. It is also has become more and more important to be clear about the goals. Real world skills are being stressed more and more by teachers and politicians and other leaders.
  
• Assessment--How can we increase student assessment of their own work? Not evaluation (grading) but creating a system where students regularly look at the work that they have created and compare it to the goal. When a person is working on re-doing a roof they should regularly look at other roofs that are well installed. Or when working on a writing sample writers might look at exceptional writing samples.
  
• Climate and Culture
• Administration and Support
  

Kahn Mathematics Experiment

Never published. Started in 2011.

Tonight your homework assignment will be to watch an mathematics lecture online. Tomorrow we will work problems related to the lecture.

This is what mathematics teacher Tim Beaulieau of Concord High School in Concord NH told his students one day this spring. He had read about the work of Sal Kahn and had decided to use Kahn's web lectures in his class. Kahn rose to national prominence when Bill Gates introduced him at the 2011 TED talks and supported him with a 2 million dollar development grant. Kahn is a self described hedge fund manager who began making web tutorials for his young cousins so they could learn the math that they were having trouble with. At this point he has created over 2000 YouTube videos in the areas of math and science and there have been more than 50 million page views of Kahn's content.

Kahn uses a simple approach. Simply put he uses an online blackboard and his voice to give the lecture on a particular subject. It is nothing special but he advocates a topsy turvey approach to education that involves his videos. The thought is that student's homework would to be to watch the lectures--the current norm of during the day math teaching. Then when they returned to class during the day the teacher would have the time to work on basic problems related to the lecture and then on problems where students would transfer their learning and apply what they had learned. The idea being that the math teacher no longer provided the lecture--they would provide the context and the application of the learning.

Tim began by asking a group of Algebra students to view a Kahn Academy video for homework. During the school day class he had explained to students where to go to access the site and how they could complete the assignment if they did not have home internet.

Thoughts

 A very simple one. These should be put into a bigger and better article someday.

Thoughts from Tom

Read The Souls of Black Folk by WEB DuBois.

Listen to David Blight’s semester class from Yale on the causes of the civil war.

Read Self Reliance by Emerson.

Read Good to Great by Jim Collins.

Read some Calvin and Hobbes.

Have kids write more and create fewer powerpoints.

Don’t be an over-delegator.

Don’t be an under-delegator.

Tell people, clearly, what you want to see from them. 

Use a style guide like Brian Garner’s Dictionary of Modern American Usage but don’t be an asshole about it.

Eschew Buffalo wing analogues.

September 11

 9/11/2001

Minus Post 1

I didn’t feel well. I was up at four AM and considered calling in sick for the day. I’m not sure what made me decide to go.

On the way to school I bought something, a beverage or something, at Cumberland Farms. Leaving the store I walked between two dumpsters without noticing they were being picked up. If the operator had moved the dumpster forward I could have been crushed.

My morning of teaching was uneventful. I taught what I needed to teach for my chemistry class and when the bell rang at 9:15 the class was dismissed. I don’t know who told me to turn on the TV during the passing time but I did. They were already replaying the video of the first plane hitting the towers. At first I thought it was a Cessna that had gotten off track. Then as I realized what was going on I realized that the scale of a cessna to the towers was off. This was a big plane.

It was such a beautiful day. I went on a bike ride with a friend of mine and the silence, after a day of TV, was surreal. It was such a beautiful day.

In the days after I thought: “What if we had the balls to send peace?” Could we, would we be bold enough to execute the greatest turn the other cheek in the history of the world? Instead of attacking as everyone said we must, why not send people and love and friendship. For the first time in the world a country would not fight war with more war and -- and here I got a little crazy even for this crazy notion -- the world would follow and there would be peace. (I learned -- only this year -- that Stanley McCrystal was reflecting on the US response after 9/11 and said that he would have like to spend a year doing nothing military. A year to teach 10,000 Americans Dari/Farsi and Pashto and Arabic. A year to better understand what just happened and plan the response.)

In Star Trek First Contact, the captain explains to the people of earth’s past that after humans realized that they were not alone in the universe they stopped all wars and came together. Could 9/11 be something like that for the real humans instead of the fictional ones of the Star Trek franchise? No.

No, it could not. And as time wore on I began to think that maybe the human race won’t ever get to peace. Our ability to solve problems with one another amicably and peacefully is not only lacking -- it seems to be getting worse. On 9/11 I was in my late 20s. Now, nearing 50, I have started to think about what I have accomplished in my own life and what humans will have accomplished during my brief time here. I’m hoping for a lot more.

Dinner at Mo’s July 2023

I wanted to take advantage of being in Baltimore, so I really wanted to get either some really good crab or some fresh oysters. Before Amelia's lacrosse games on Saturday we scouted out some places. The night before we were casting about for places and walked through a spinning door and were deposited into an ice cold black tie only lobby that was clearly not for a sweaty, shorts wearing, dad and his daughter. Saturday we walked around a little bit in the sweltering boiling heat of a Baltimore Summer and found a place called Moe's that looked pretty good and looked like you know sort of a working place. There were people there for lunch so forth and so on.

We came back after her games. She took a shower. I drank a beer and we went over to Mo's. I was a little nervous because it was 7:30 and I didn't know if they would have a wait. It seemed like the type of place that really could get hopping with locals as the evening progressed. But they had a table for two and sat us right away. The place was bustling. Three round couples who seemed to be from Indiana came in. The impressively bellied men wore trucker hats and conservative themed t-shirts and the pear shaped wives all had the same short economical hairstyle that you can find at SuperCuts. They were enjoying life and having a great vacation. They were very happy to be led to their seats upstairs.

I like dive bars. Dive bars are not shitty or dirty bars. They are small, well-run, and well loved by their patrons. My sense in the morning and my initial sense after my first 10 minutes of observation was that I was in the presence of a wonderful dive bar style experience. The first little twitch that something was off was when they delivered our drinks. Amelia's soda was fine. I had ordered a dirty martini and it appeared a little bit lime green and cloudy. Imagine a frog pond. 

The very pleasant server came back and she asked us what we'd like. Amelia doesn't eat meat but we had looked at the menu ahead of time and she picked out some things that she would like. She asked for macaroni and cheese. The server said, “Oh you don't want to order that here but it's on the menu so I'll bring it if you really want.” to that I said well my daughter is a vegetarian so are there other things that you might recommend. the server then recommended chicken chicken tenders or a hamburger. everything was moving too fast and I only realized later that what she had wondered was or what you thought about Amelia was can I get you something that is not fish. so Amelia gave up on the mac and cheese and ordered a Caesar salad which she usually Likes I ordered oysters a dozen and we waited for our food to come out.

With no mac and cheese coming for Amelia I encouraged her to eat all of the rolls that came out.

My oysters were served traditionally on a bed of ice but the first one I ate was lukewarm. I thought about just getting up and going but there was nothing overtly wrong with the oysters they just weren't ice cold which is the way I prefer eating them. I looked to Amelia and she said that the lettuce was okay the dressing was bad and the croutons and cheese were bad. so not a very good Caesar salad. I ate most of my oysters we ask for the check there was no line to give a tip I ask the server if there was a way for me to give a tip and she disappeared we did not see her again. so I signed the bill and we left.

 My friend Alex shot himself 6 years ago and he died four days later. I had been feeling down for a long time. Maybe a year maybe two years before he died but sadly his death or his death sadly was a turning point where I said I have to confront why I'm feeling bad because I know I don't want to get to where he got.

After he died I contacted a therapist and started meeting with her and it was one of the best things that I've ever done. I'm sure that most people say the exact same thing going to see a therapist or something most important thing they've ever done or the one of the best things they've ever done and what's interesting is when people say why don't or why doesn't everyone have a therapist and that's a great question.

 As you can imagine with therapy it wasn't all about my friend Alex, and it wasn't about all about me but it was about why I felt the way I did. There were a couple things that emerged. I had previously had a superintendent and a principal that believed in me and trusted me completely I was now working with a superintendent and a principal who did not have that feeling. An example is that I had written a teacher evaluation under the previous superintendent that had been held up as an example of how to do evaluations by the previous superintendent and when I submitted a teacher evaluation that was identical the new superintendent talk to me about it being a perfect example of how not to write evaluations 

I just never got off on the right foot with the new superintendent she was wonderful as a person and as a superintendent just our working relationship never really gelled. the new principal I'm not sure what happened I don't know if you didn't trust me or still thought of me as a brand new teacher even though I had been a teacher of her 12 years and and it's system principle for five by the time he started.

The more important point about all of this is taking care of oneself if this doesn't happen and if it isn't allowed in your organization or is an encouraged in your organization that is something that needs to be addressed if you don't have the power to be the one who addresses it then you need to speak to someone with a little bit more power who can help address it. 

The other thing that I learned in the process of working with therapists eventually being diagnosed with major depression or severe clinical depression is that the right step to take are to contact your supervisors and the people in human relations as soon as possible so they do not think that you're taking sick days with no reason and instead they understand that you have an actual situation going on and that they can support you I have since advised many fellow Educators to do the same thing when they have come to me in distress with depression or other issues I always say to them talk to a trusted administrator about what is going on so that that administrator knows and can be a proactive supporter of what's happening with you

Unforced Errors

 Unforced Errors

• It is time to put away your summer clothes and put on collared shirts, ties, dresses, and professional footwear.
• Parent-teacher conferences will be online again this year but teachers are required to be in the building to conduct them. This will avoid possible disturbances from pets and children.
• Make sure to sign in when you get to the faculty meeting.
• Turn in your certificate of participation for the conference or you will not get professional development hours.

School administrators make mistakes all the time. They are tasked with making hundreds of decisions every day. They might be told that there are no paper towel in the 4th floor girls bathroom and in the next moment be told that there is a bullying and sexual harassment situation that involves ten students. Confronted with the sheer volume of decisions large and small it is inevitable that administrators will make mistakes. Given that mistakes will be made it is crucial that administrators work to eliminate unforced errors.

Unforced errors in tennis are the ones that are not caused by your opponent but by you. Unforced errors in administration occur when administrators insert themselves where they are not needed OR decides to create or enforce a rule that doesn't do anything to improve student learning.

        Don't wear jeans, etc. These type of edicts are dead on arrival and immediately turn everyone against you the administrator. The people who wear jeans all the time don't change their behavior and the people who have never thought about wearing jeans to work feel that you don't appreciate them as professionals. Instead of delivering a message to all teachers that they shouldn't wear jeans talk to the teachers who you feel are dressing a bit unprofessionally. I did this with two teachers and the both responded positively. They asked if wearing shorts was prohibited. I said no, but I thought it was not appropriate for high school teachers. They didn't agree but both of them stopped wearing shorts.

Still works

 Wow

School Law Class Post 1

You have a teacher in your school who cites verses from the Koran to students when relevant to the activities for the day. A parent calls to complain. What would you do as a school administrator? Cite case law to support your decisions.

First I would attempt to clarify exactly what the teacher was doing. Then I would invite them in and would say, "We have to have an open and honest conversation. This is not a one way conversation, I want to hear your side of the story but in the end we need to be clear on how to move forward."

Then I would explain what I had been told while giving the teacher ample time to respond. As part of our discussion I would clarify what the teacher felt the value of including verses in the instruction were. I might suggest that there are other ways to engage the students with quotes or inspiring movie clips that were not religious in nature.

The case law and constitutional documentation is quite clear on this issue. The Bill of Rights established the separation of church and state and Reynolds v. United States in 1879 clarified that there must be a separation. The fourteenth amendment clarified that the separation of church and state must extend to all states.

I also found a good quote in The Principal's Quick Reference Guide to School Law by Dunklee and Shoop; "It is important for teachers and others in the school setting to remember that they are employees of the government and subject to the establishment clause and thus required to be neutral concerning religion when carrying out their duties."

In concluding the conversation with the employee I would make sure that they clearly understood their own personal first amendment rights and that they also fully understood the role that they needed to take as a public school teacher.

Tom

Great Start

I want to share some of the awesome things that we have done in the Concord School District so far this year.

• Summer training of Mentors for 9th grade students--the students were incredible and were so excited to do the work.
• Success of the mentor program. 1. We didn't do anything like this previously. 2. Everyone involved is talking about the increase in connection to the school and the increase in academic motivation.
• Algebra Assessment--incredible results from the high school. They were able to give the assessment, score it, and turn it around in less than a week. This is what we want to do with implementing Driven by Data.
• 9th grade success program--we have id'd students who are struggling earlier than ever before and we are taking action to help them earn credit in their classes.

I'm excited!!!!!!!!!!

Founding Fathers

9th Grade Mentor Program--Note 1

Ninth Grade Mentor Program Initial Planning Meeting

This week I met with our one of our Assistant Principals Andy Carlson. And one of our great student leaders Elliott Tannenbaum. Our mission was to replicate the work of Nathan Frank an assistant principal at a similarly composed high school in Pennsylvania. His school is 5 years into a ninth grade mentor program and they are seeing positive results. Most notably they have increased the number of students earning 5 credits in their first year of high school from 35% to 65%.

Our high school is an excellent high school that regularly places students in Ivy League colleges and has provided an educational base for all of Concord's residents. As Jim Collins says, however, it is important for every good to great organization to confront the brutal facts of their reality. We have an epidemic of 9th grade failure. The number of students failing at least one class during their first year in high school has remained constant at above 20% for years.

The meeting this week was the first official planning meeting to begin our mentor program. Andy reflected on the success of a similar program for all students at his high school where they had big brothers and big sisters. I expressed my hope that this would be a positive experience for both mentors and mentees. I want students to be proud to be part of the program and I want them to have some fun even though much of the work will be hard. Elliott was excited about the possibilities but a little worried about the scope of the program and whether we would be able to pull it all off in time.

We resolved to split up the work.

• Andy said he would work on a plan to communicate with guidance counselors and ask them what students might be good candidates for the mentor role. We all agreed that the students did not need to all be all star students or members of NHS, Key Club, etc. If they wanted to be part of the group and could commit to the commitment then we wanted them.
• Elliott agreed to work on a letter that would go out to students asking them to be part of the group.
• I agreed to work on a plan of expectations for the group members. I also will plan a calendar for the timelines that we need to meet.

In general we have a couple other planning pieces that we are working on. They are:

• Before the end of the school year create a meet and greet for mentors and future 9th grade students.
• Plan a the summer 1/2 day conference for the mentors. This will be on Friday August 12th.
• Plan a month by month theme schedule for the mentors and mentees to focus on.

All three of us are quite excited by the challenges that are ahead of us.

John Adams

"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain."

Some Interesting Links

A few links that I have enjoyed this week.

This is about the effects of mainstreaming for low achieving students. The author's conclusions are that whole class instruction is not necessarily a negative for low achieving students.

The second is an account of school turnaround in Hartford, CT. The reviewer says this to wrap up her not entirely glowing account of the reform...

“It is not clear,” Pappano concludes, “whether Hartford Public High School is actually being turned around.” The book ends with descriptions of which academies will be abandoned, which are in the works. Would it not be more productive to convert the energy being spent on academies to ensuring that all students receive, at long last, a content-rich curriculum with a pervasive emphasis on reading, writing, speaking, and reasoning? In this respect, Hartford’s story is indeed America’s story.

With the recent onslaught against public education going on I did some looking into research on the positive effects of education on the populace. The College Board has published these statistics on the effect of education for various groups. They are from 2004 but they certainly show the positive effects of education.

An Essay I wrote for Plymouth State

PSU Statement of Purpose Essay

Tom Crumrine

13 March 2011

Early Years in Teaching

My mother always joked with me that I retired first. For four years after college I wandered a bit. I lived in five states and had 17 different odd jobs. I was a logger and a bookseller. I worked at LL Bean and I spliced fiber optic cable for MCI (remember MCI?). For a time I even worked at a plasma bank as a phlebotomist. When I turned 25 my mom sent me a Time magazine with a title something like When We Were 25. It showcased people like Bill Gates telling stories of how awesome they were when they were my age. While a bit heavy handed I got the point. Angry at first, I soon realized that my mom was right. Ever since I decided not to go to medical school in my senior year of college I had been adrift in what I wanted to do. I worked through the summer at my existing dead end job and applied to Bowling Green State University for the teacher certification program. I was going home to live in my parents’ basement and commute to school.

In all honesty I can’t tell you that at age 25 I knew that teaching would become the sole purpose of my life. Even at 28 or 29 it might not have been what I wanted to be remembered for. But as I developed as a teacher and as I met inspiring educators along the way I realized that I wanted teaching to not just be my job but my way of life. Teaching for me is my profession and my hobby and my favorite thing to do. When I’m walking with my daughter in the woods I tell her stories about evolution and ecology. At the doctor’s office the other day I explained to her that the little gold fish in the tank were members of osteichtheys—the bony fish. She’s only 2 and a ½ but I’m pretty sure it is sinking in.

I have been fortunate in my educational journey to be inspired by many great educators. In my first year at Concord High School my mentor Lise Bofinger was an incredible guide. She didn’t teach me how to make handouts or how to turn the book into notes for students. She taught me how to be a better teacher. Lise allowed me to sit in on her classes many times during my first school year. During these visits I learned from her that it is not the teacher’s job to answer all student questions. It is their job to help students discover the answer to questions on their own. Lise showed me how to teach as a coach rather than a lecturer. She also invited me to become a member of a formative assessment study group in 2003, long before the term had become such a buzz word. This group included mainly science teachers and from it I learned that even veteran teachers like Lise needed to continue to learn as they progressed in their careers. I was impressed during our meetings that Lise, a 20 year veteran, would often share mistakes she had made just a week ago. And she would offer them up to the group for criticism and analysis. It was Lise who encouraged me to take on the job as Assessment Coordinator.

Chris Demers, my first colleague as Assessment Coordinator helped me to see how powerful data can be. He showed me how to become an excellent presenter of data and he taught me what to include and what to leave out of a presentation. In our years together we worked to run data retreats that really focused on the data but that were fun too. We also worked diligently to do some of the hard data analysis behind the scenes so that we did not waste teacher time with crunching numbers. We helped them to focus on what to do with the results. Chris also taught me how to be a better listener. When you speak with him he always puts you at ease because you are certain that he is listening to you. He is not thinking about what to say next he is thinking about what you are saying and what he might ask you next. I continue to improve in this area but Chris’s example is what I strive for.

Finally, Christine Rath and Gene Connolly have given me incredible insights into what it takes to be an effective administrator. For the last seven years Mr. Connolly has been the principal where I teach and my frequent collaborator. We worked together on regaining accreditation for the high school (see resume and below) and have met weekly to discuss how to guide the school on its academic journey. Superintendent Chris Rath has taught me how to delegate and how to be the leader of a meeting without dictating what will happen in the meeting. Her skill with working with all stakeholders in a school community is incredible and I have learned much from her.

Future in Education

In the next 25-35 years I want to continue to teach young people and adults. I love teaching students in the K-12 realm but I also am passionate about leading professional development for educators. I am proud of my 10 years as a teacher and now I hope to do more with my own education so that I can work with more students and adults.

I have experienced success working with large groups of teachers to create positive change and I want to continue that work. I know that I need more academic qualifications to become a principal or a superintendent and I am committed to earning those in the near future.

At PSU I hope to research change leadership and effective administrative practices. In my work as Assessment Coordinator my main role has been in leading change. Clearly I want to work with a PSU faculty member and receive their guidance but my initial research thoughts fall into two categories. First would be a meta-analysis of the literature to look for what exemplary school leadership looks like in effective schools. Determining definitions for exemplary leadership and effective schools would be the first steps of my work. The second idea, following along the same lines, would be to conduct field research on what practices occur in effective schools. I would want to conduct interviews and observations but I would also want to make sure that that information can be collected in a way that it can be statistically analyzed and reported in a meaningful way. I would be particularly interested in schools where change leadership has been effective. Of course I realize that an actual research study would require me to narrow these questions considerably. These suggestions are meant to frame the areas where I hope to improve as an educational leader.

How did I get here?

My interest in this kind of research comes from my work as teacher but also from my work as Assessment Coordinator. In my first year as Assessment Coordinator my role was to lead the 150 member high school faculty through a process of designing and implementing a measurable mission. Our school was on probation from our accrediting body and we had exactly one year to come into alignment with their directives. The district leadership agreed with the suggestions of the accrediting body but the high school faculty needed some convincing. My strength in the role was that I had the ability to process the science and the research behind the change but I could also empathize with teachers who were not seeing the connection between what the research said and what was happening in the classroom. As a school we went through a year long process where we had ups and downs and fits and starts. But in the end we had 100% consensus that we had done the right thing. And after our accrediting body reviewed our work they re-instated us as a fully accredited high school.

I am also interested in further graduate studies because of my work with data. As Assessment Coordinator for our district I organize when tests will be given and make sure teachers have support and materials. I also do a great deal of professional development with teachers on what to do with the data. I feel that I am proficient in doing this work but I know that there is more that I need to know. Our district has moved from conducting a data meeting once a year to currently having data meetings as a district 3 or 4 times per year. But I know from examining research on schools that are really closing the achievement gap that the analysis of common assessment data needs to happen on a much more frequent basis.

My purpose is to focus on student learning. I love students. I love teaching. Everything that we do as educators needs to be in the service of student learning. I will bring a lot to PSU while I am there and I promise to do a lot when I leave. I would love the chance to learn more from you.

Rubric and Grading Issues

A discussion that may help.

Hi Tom,

Here in the art department we are in the midst of a lovely process of attempting to revamp how we teach Color & Design. We are proudly marching forward in lockstep on new projects in which we are all doing more or less the same thing at the same time. Because this is CHS, I do need to mention a caveat out here - namely, that our part timer is not currently part of this since shared planning time is not possible. We do plan to bring her into the loving embrace of this process within a semester or two.

Why am I telling you this? Because I'm insecure and need constant reassurance, of course. No, that's really only part of the reason. As the process unfolds we are having to reach consensus on all sorts of issues, which is working out about as well as this whole peaceful transition in yonder Egypt.

The issue of the moment is trying to develop common rubrics. During yesterday's work time (which I sadly missed due to a meeting down in Manchester) the others arrived at a five point rubric. Like lots of other folks in the building (I suspect), they were unaware of the conversion norms that we have theoretically adopted as a school.

I love to crush the naive optimism of newer teachers as much as the next guy but before I do so in this case, I just want to make sure I'm clear on the parameters. Here are the specific issues:

This really is a sad state. Much of the good thinking and good change in education is ruined by the adherence to past ideas. An adherence that does not help students and as you indicate does not help new teachers.

1. Is it true that all 1-5 rubric scales should be converted according to the same conversion numbers throughout the school? I'm pretty sure about this but just wanted to confirm...

This was agreed upon last year. As you may recall some teachers were making the strict mathematical conversion of 4=80, 3=60, etc. and some were making other conversions. The idea of converting what is supposed to be a system that is helpful to and encourages learning is insane and useless but I guess necessary in high school. (You will have to add the commas :)

2. I just looked for that conversion on the assessment page but in my haste I did not see it. Can you send me the actual conversion numbers?

It is not on there because I am embarrassed to have it in such a public space. Here is what the administration agreed upon. I agree that it is imperative that students know what each grade means but I struggle with these conversions. But as a good soldier I use them. 5=100, 4=92, 3=80, 2=65, 1=50.

3. Does the conversion include halve-sies (e.g. 4.5)?

Technically it doesn't but I feel that half scores make the system easier to use for some teachers. It does not help the issue of being clear to students exactly what each grade means but it does help teachers with some flexibility.

4. If one has a rubric with let's say 4 criteria (Composition, Craftsmanship, Problem Solving, Use of Color...) is there a policy for how one deals with the differing scores for each criteria. In other words if a kid got a 4 on three of the criteria and a 1 on the fourth criterion, is there a normative practice of averaging, or perhaps eliminating the high and low, or is it a matter of personal autonomy for us to do as we see fit?

I believe in professional discretion in this area. I use many rubrics with 4 or 5 criteria and it is my job to determine the final score. Marzano and O'Connor codify this thinking in what they call a logic rule. For example: Almost all scores at 4 and no 2s or 1s. In my teaching I set this up before I grade an assignment and it seems to work fairly well. Clearly there is an important line between subjectivity and objectivity but I try to think of like minded people looking at the same evidence. I try to think about what Lyn Vinskus would think of the project, paper or assignment. Would she have major difficulties with the grade that I gave or would she say, "I might disagree slightly but I agree with your reasoning." I go for the later.

5. We are trying to incorporate an element of the reach goals into the rubric - probably under a separate section a la the CRTC (at least for the 'relate, excel, aspire' sections). Do we have a standard conversion as a school? Must we use the conversion of the CRTC or are we to make it up as we go?

There is no standard conversion so I would advise you to be leaders in this regard. I have been impressed by the Crimson Code statements but increasingly frustrated by students who do not live up to them. As I have tried to work with these goals, that are much more realistic and less ethereal than the sacred seven, I have been routinely disappointed. Students are not respectful, not on time, not helpful to other students. We are on the right track but we cannot do it individually we need to do it as a school.

6. 4 equals 92, as I recall. This seems low to me since I rarely go above a 4 (so to me a 96ish seems about right). To another member of my department, 4 seems high since, she argues, the kid is doing a little more than the minimum expected which would be a passing grade of 70. She thinks the 4 should be an 80. I know you hate this part because there is no good answer. I suppose that in a way it is easy since we have a policy. But my guess is that as that policy becomes better known, more people will be vocal in disliking it. Any thoughts on how to navigate these treacherous waters?

Frankly, the conversion to percent grades totally ruins the effect of assigning rubric scores. As you well know the idea of rubric scores is to divest percentage grading from education. The point is to tell students where they are in relation to a goal and then give them chances to attain that goal. Converting to percentages is much more useful when it comes to sorting students. Rubric scores are meant to be criterion referenced whereas percentage scores are most often norm referenced. The two systems do not go together and do not work well together at all.

My advice is to use the policy and then use .5 scores to help with individual score discrepancies.

I originally was a big supporter of rubric style grading. But given my experience over the last few years I would suggest the following grading change for high schools. Eliminate percentage grading. Adopt letter grading that has A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D+, D, D-, and F. These are known to parents and would not create conversion controversy. What I would do for a school is very clearly define what each of the 12 levels meant. What exactly does a C+ mean? And ideally I would use the foundation that Marzano and Reeves have discussed. They advocate systems where students know that a given score means the same thing in every class.

I'll come find you soon and we can talk more about this.

Tom

Charter Thoughts

The idea of starting a charter school is exciting. I have been in discussions lately about starting one in Concord and I wanted to brainstorm some ideas with all of you.

• Very hard math--but make this math relate to real world endeavors. Focus on probabilty and statistics. Because probability and statistics are what people need in the real world.
• 7-10
• No classrooms--instead a workspace with places for collaboration and places for quiet work.
• 60 % gifted, 40% struggling--These are not hard and fast but I want enough in each group that cliques will not form.
• Students who understand that working together is not giving someone else your hard work. It is learning to work together in the same way that you will work together for the rest of your life.
• Develop leaders.
• Develop a love of learning and a connection with students.
• Morning meeting of adults to discuss data related to student needs. Target students who are in difficulty that very day.
• Director will visit with all students at least one time per week.
• Director will observe each student for 10 minutes on a regular and rotating basis.
• Everyone involved in the school will work on having and creating a growth mindset even in the face of daily setbacks.
• Adults will support each other in weekly 1/2 hour de-breifing sessions. These are not sessions to complain--they are sessions to vent a bit and then work on solutions.
• The school will be an incubator for ideas that everyone has had but has had no place to try.
• There will be work samples throughout the building. The space will look like a museum.
• Students AND adults will clean their workspaces at the end of the day.
• The school will have a leadership council that will make major decisions about learning. This will be similar to the council at Souhegan high school. Teachers and students will be part of the council.
• Students and teachers will understand and come to learn that failure is an essential part of learning. They will learn how to accept failure, make course corrections and do better the next time.
• The school will likely be small enough that we will be able to regularly meet as an entire group. This would be like a corporate meeting. The director would speak about timely issues and a student would speak as well.
• Summative assessments would be primarily student led conferences.
• Appropriate and business use of technology would be encouraged. Texting, picture messaging, video, video editing by students.
• There would be an online student paper that would be published weekly.
• Writing, writing, writing, writing. Students will write 1000 words per day. It doesn't matter what but they will be writing every day. If they are having a meltdown and can't do anything then they will write about that. They will write about academics, they will write about their lives, they will write about whatever they need to write about to get to 1000 words per day at least.
• Tele-presence room. 1 experience per week with someone from the outside world. A paleontologist from Montana one week,
• Teachers students and director will eat together for lunch. (Think Phillps Andover where they all eat in the same space. Sometimes teachers eat with kids sometimes not, but they all eat in the same space.
• Snack time and current events at would happen at a midpoint in the morning. This would be social, with no agenda and would be attended by all. Parents would supply snacks or student groups would make them. There would be announcements by students an other updates.
• T-shirts, sweatshirts, polo shirts, bumper stickers, these things might seem silly but they matter.
• Students would come up with the name for the school, the design logo, and so forth.
• There would be an app for the school.

Having visitors would be essential to this school. In addition to local professionals I will draw upon successful friends to provide a constant lecture series that goes throughout the year.

• Ted Lord--anesthesiologist
• Ron Sandler--environmental ethicist
• Chris Elliott--Owner Ohio Soil Recycling--a bioremediation firm
• Justin Wells--OSR
• Jim Gooch--Trust for Public Lands
• Tucker Richmond--hedge fund manager
• Scott Evans--CIO TIAA-CREFF
• Val Scheutz--veterinary assisstant
• Liz Hogheem--architect
• John McLeod--architecht
• Seth Webb--director of recreation for Killington VT
• Becky Jones--nurse
• John Crumrine--conservationist and dad
• Chris Irwin--Engineer at Honda
• Ryan Macaulay--Owner Epic Sports

Inspired by Gawande

Saving Money in Education by Learning from Health Care[1]

As professional educators we have much to learn from our wealthier more established older professional siblings medicine and business. While business has taught us to more effectively use data in education, medicine has taught us more and is closer match as it shares a similar mission. Like medicine we seek to analyze individuals and plot the best course for them. And like medicine we do not accept the idea that some people just cannot make it. We try hard for all students.

Recently Atul Gawande published a piece in the New Yorker where he begins by talking about Jeffery Brenner. This is a quote from the Gawande's article about the first patient Brenner worked with.

The first person they found for him was a man in his mid-forties whom I’ll call Frank Hendricks. Hendricks had severe congestive heart failure, chronic asthma, uncontrolled diabetes, hypothyroidism, gout, and a history of smoking and alcohol abuse. He weighed five hundred and sixty pounds. In the previous three years, he had spent as much time in hospitals as out. When Brenner met him, he was in intensive care with a tracheotomy and a feeding tube, having developed septic shock from a gall bladder infection.

The traditional model, the one in effect now, for working with a patient like this is for them to occasionally have a 20-30 minute meeting with their doctor and then, when things go haywire they go to the ER. This had been the model for Hendriks and in recent years he had been spending more than half of every year in the hospital. He had no home, he couldn’t work and when he fell down he was so heavy that he had to call 911 to help him get up.

Brenner did some fairly simple things to help Hendricks. He began spending time with him and talking with him about his life. He learned about his interests and what his life had been like in healthier days. Brenner began to work with a small team that included a nurse practitioner and a health coach[2]. They met frequently to discuss Hendricks’s health. The nurse checked in with him at his home on a regular basis and if he missed an appointment someone came to talk with him immediately.

The success has been remarkable. Hendricks has lost weight, has stopped smoking, drinking and doing drugs and has lost more than 100 pounds. Active in his church before his bad health he has returned to that community. A line cook before he now makes healthy meals for himself. His medical problems remain but they are well managed and because of this if he has to go to the hospital he stays for a few days not a few months. The doctors do not have to rebuild him every time he comes in at the point of major crisis.

Of course this kind of care is not easy and it could not be done for everyone. That is the exact point. Not everyone needs this kind of care. Brenner has looked at medicine like a police chief looks at a neighborhood. Where are the areas that need the most attention? Where does the most crime occur? Brenner has looked at what he calls hot spots of care and has identified those patients. Now Brenner and his team have hundreds of these “worst of the worst” (his words) cases. They truly work as a team on their group of patients. Every day they begin with a meeting and they look at who has missed an appointment or who has a concerning medical test. Then they take action right away. Some patients are doing fine and need nothing, others need a visit from a health coach, others need to come in and see a doctor right away. Each patient receives appropriate and timely care when they need it.

Have I hit you over the head with it too obviously? Clearly this all applies to the Concord School District. I am not going to say that what we have done in attempting to educate all children is wrong. Far from it—examples of wonderful caring educators can be found throughout the district. What we have learned in recent years is that it is not the people, it is the system. I am sure that before Dr. Brenner, there were many wonderful people who worked with Mr. Hendricks to care for him and at points keep him alive. But they were working in a system that was built for most people. Most people only need a 20 minute office visit every once in a while. Just as most students do just fine in the model that has been the basic default educational model for decades.

What can we learn from the medical model that can help students learn?

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[1] Inspired by Atul Gawande. All of the ideas are his. I just summarized them and morphed the process for Concord.

[2] Health coaches are an interesting part of Brenners approach. They are not necessarily connected with medicine. Often times they have not gone to college. One mentioned in Gawande’s article worked at Dunkin Donuts. Her experience in customer service is what made her a successful health coach. She was interested in helping people and that is all that was needed.