Whatever it Takes
In their book, Whatever It Takes: How Professional Learning Communities Respond When Kids Don’t Learn, Richard DuFour, Rebecca DuFour, Robert Eaker and Gayle Karhanek examine the question, “What happens when, despite our best efforts in the classroom, a student does not learn?”
In traditional schools, the response to this question has been left to individual classroom teachers to figure out. A Professional Learning Community (PLC) will not leave this critical question to each teacher to resolve. A PLC will, instead, create a schoolwide system of interventions that provides all students with additional time and support when they experience difficulty in their learning. The authors describe in detail the systems of intervention, including Adlai E. Stevenson High School’s “Pyramid of Interventions,” implemented by four different schools: a high school, a middle school and two elementary schools. In addition to these systems, the authors discuss the logistical barriers these schools faced and their strategies for overcoming those barriers.
To find out more about this important book and about Professional Learning Communities in general, visit Whatever It Takes: How Professional Learning Communities Respond When Kids Don't Learn.
Curriculum Calibration
The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) is pleased to announce a partnership with the Appalachian Regional Comprehensive Center (ARCC) to bring a DataWORKS Educational Research math Curriculum Calibration project to Kentucky. Curriculum Calibration is a process that analyzes student work in order to measure the degree of instructional alignment to grade level standards. Through this process, Kentucky will collect valuable evidence to inform math instruction and professional development programs.
DataWORKS will implement this program in Kentucky beginning this month. DataWORKS will register teacher participants, collect samples of student work, analyze student work and prepare a report that provides feedback critical to the ongoing needs of Kentucky’s math program.
This collection and identification process is important; however, it is not time consuming. Teacher participants will simply be asked to:
Ø identify three students (a high-performing student, a mid-level-performing student and a low-performing student) of one class
Ø collect the math work of those students during one week’s time
Ø label the student work with pre-printed labels provided by DataWORKS
Ø submit the student work in envelopes provided by DataWORKS
Throughout this process, all necessary steps are taken to protect student confidentiality and teacher confidentiality. Data gathered during the Curriculum Calibration will be reported at the state level and will be used to inform all efforts of Kentucky’s math program. Data will also provide information that districts may choose to use when reviewing the implemented curriculum in their schools.
KDE and the ARCC hope that your district will choose to partner with us in this work. Please carefully consider this opportunity and encourage your grades 4 through 8 math teachers, as well as your Algebra I teachers, to visit DataWORKS’ online registration site. Registration will take only a few minutes at Kentucky Teacher Registration.
If you have any questions regarding this process, please contact Maricela Lopez at DataWORKS at (800) 495-1550. You also may contact the Kentucky Department of Education’s math curriculum staff -- Joe McCowan, Charma Leveridge or Ann Bartosh -- at (502) 564- 2106.
Quotable Quotes
“High expectations for success will be judged not only by the initial staff beliefs and behaviors, but also by the organization’s response when some students do not learn.”
Larry Lezotte