NYSSBA Convention Notes
Andrew Crapo
no way represents the position of the Scotia-Glenville Central School
District Board of Education.**
Last October I spent 2 1/2 days at the New York State School Boards
Association (NYSSBA) annual convention in Buffalo. This event is
attended by several thousand NYS school board members and public
school administrators. It includes keynote addresses and workshops.
Many of the presentations are made by board members and
administrators, This thread will share some of the information that I
found to be particularly interesting.
At lunch one day David and Pam and I took a walk looking for a place
to have lunch. We ran across a food court with a notice that it was
run by the Buffalo Public Schools. Intrigued, we went in and had a
delicious lunch. All aspects of the operation from food preparation to
cashiering to table service were done by high school students in a
culinary program. Several students indicated, upon being questioned by
our group, that they would not be in school if it were not for this
program. They spend two periods a day in the program and must attend
and do well in their other classes in order to continue. It was
delightful experience!
** Note: this post is the observations/opinions of the author and in
no way represents the position of the Scotia-Glenville Central School
District Board of Education.**
Andrew Crapo
General Session with NYS Education Commissioner John B. King, Jr.
John King became NYS Commissioner of Education in July of 2011. He delivered an address on Friday morning with a number of change-oriented messages. You can view the slides from his presentation here. His major themes included the following.
- Graduation rates rose from 2001 to 2006 (see slide 2), but both college instructors and employers say that over 40% of graduates are not ready for college or work (see slide 3) and there are huge disparities across racial groups.
- Approximately 2/3 of jobs require post-secondary education. Jobs requiring only a high school diploma and providing a family-sustaining income and health and retirement benefits are disappearing, a trend expected to continue.
- The Regents reform agenda focuses on highly effective teachers, highly-effective school leaders, and college/career-ready students. See slide 10 for details.
- There is a widening gap between the current trend in spending and the revenues under the tax cap. Commissioner King sees three ways forward: a) slow cuts that erode public education, b) tinker around the edges to try to protect students and learning, or c) redesign schooling to improve processes, outcomes, and sustainability.
- He views teacher effectiveness and investment in technology-based learning systems as the keys to increased productivity (better student performance per $ spent).
- Board members should become intimately familiar with the Common Core and ensure its implementation (training is available here) and set policies and professional development plans around Common Core, Annual Professional Performance Review, and student achievement data. The 2012-13 budget should be aligned with this plan.
Andrew Crapo
Innovative Possibilities And Differentiated Strategies (IPADS)
The Lockport City School District did a presentation on their use of and experience with iPads. They initially received a $200K grant from Enhancing Education Through Technology, which they used to buy hardware, software, and training. They also engaged the University of Buffalo to be the evaluators of the impact of the technology on student achievement. Their initial view was the application of iPads to help special education students. (See 60 Minutes segment on iPad Apps for Autism.) However, this view is expanding. For example, first graders are now involved and draw pictures on the iPad, which they then integrate into stories that they have written. Finally they read their stories with sound recording to complete their production, which they can share with parents and classmates. The district is beginning to experiment with iCloud and other technologies.
One of the main themes of the presentation was that the iPad in the hands of the student changes the focus from the front of the room to the individual student's potentially customized experience. The claim was that it makes differentiated instruction easy to implement. Training was leveraged—the purchased training under the grant, received over the course of the first year, created internal trainers who then handled the final “innovative” professional development for the rest of the staff. A veteran special education teacher of 30 years stated, “This was the best professional development ever!”.
Instructional applications on the iPad are perceived by students as games that they “play”. Lockport found that students engaged not just with the iPad but with each other as well. They are moving in the direction of using text book money to purchase technology, moving away from expensive, inflexible, and dated text books. A superintendent in the district expressed his expectation that eventually students will bring their iPad (or its successor) to school just as they brought their pencil to school in the past.
The district is also finding applications of the iPad in administration. For example, an application allows an administrator to complete the “paper work” during a classroom visit for a teacher evaluation, discuss the evaluation with the teacher after the class, and obtain the necessary signatures, all in one block of time. This significantly reduces the administrative burden inherent in the more frequent evaluations required by the new Annual Personal Performance Review (APPR).
During Q&A, a board member from another district expressed frustration with rapidly changing technologies and the risk of stranded investments, e.g., laptops and smart boards. Lockport's response was to “use what you have, don't regret the investments”, adopt new technology as soon as you can, and have a plan. Don't just purchase technology for the technology. Have a vision and use technology to help you achieve that vision.
Slides may be downloaded from here or are available as a movie here.
Andrew Crapo
** Note: this post is the observations/opinions of the author and in no way represents the position of the Scotia-Glenville Central School District Board of Education.**
Measuring and Modeling Growth in a High-Stakes Environment
This was a very interesting session
about the difficulties inherent in teacher evaluations under the new
Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) requirements. Rather
than try to summarize in prose, I'm just going to post the notes that
I took during the session. The slides are available here. There are
some related slides from a different session that I did not attend
here with a related paper.
Moved from model of education reform that focused on fixing schools to a model that is focused on fixing the teaching profession
Testing → Metric (Growth Score) → Analysis (Value Added) → Evaluation (Rating of 1-20)
Not much science behind last step but can lead to a lot of work for “ineffective” teachers.
Must do something to control for the effect of the school.
Must do something to control for the effect of the student (e.g., challenging students)
Other variables besides teacher that affect the growth of the student?
New system focuses school resources across all performance groups of students
Showed example of how a test may have very little discriminating power at the top (or at the bottom). Example test was very good at what it was designed to do—determine if kids were above or below proficiency bar.
Counter example was a test that is computer-adjusted so that kids at top or bottom get different questions to determine where the student is actually at (adaptive test).
NYS 6th grade Math—not as bad as CA STAR but still has problems at top and bottom.
Recommendation is to leave decisions in the hands of the principle (not NYS approach, which is under challenge)
Value add models assume that the school doesn't add a source of variation that isn't controlled for in the model, e.g., young teachers are assigned a disproportionate numbers of students with poor discipline records. If done for educationally sound reasons the courts will be favorable. Not suggesting random assignment of students to teachers.
Belief: every test should have potential benefits for education of the student, not just for teacher evaluation.
Special ed teachers pose a particular problem because of small numbers.
Possible controls: instructional time, attendance, splitting growth between multiple teachers, presence of student teacher.
Would like to compare teachers to a large pool of teachers, not just within a building.
He believes achievable in a different way. Empower well-trained principles. Tests should only be a tool for the well-trained principle to use to help him.
Andrew Crapo
Turn Your Board Self-Evaluation Tool Into a Governance Tool
This session by the Rush Henrietta Central School District related how they operate as a school board on an annual cycle. They have a new board member orientation handbook. They hold an annual retreat in July for team building, review of goals, and setting of new goals. A board evaluation is filled out in June by the superintendent, collectively with the administrative team, and by board members and is used as input to the retreat and as guidance in workshop planning. The board meetings throughout the year have a normal rhythm with respect to topics covered. Everything is planned and executed with the end-goal of better student outcomes. A copy of their Orientation Manual, including 2011-2012 goals and workshop schedule, is available here.
Andrew Crapo
Increasing Graduation Rates with Counseling
Lake Shore Central Schools is a low-income district in which many students, if they attend college, will be the first generation to do so. This presentation told how they increased their high school's four-year graduation rate from 72 percent to 87 percent in one year.
Before they began their program the school counselors reported to five different people and the counseling program was “in disarray”. The district created a department chair for counseling and implemented grade-level counseling so that students have the same counselor throughout their high school experience. (I believe that Scotia-Glenville has grade-level counseling.) They also hired a full-time, specialized and highly effective counselor specifically for at-risk kids. In addition, two part-time counselors were moved to full-time. At-risk kids are assigned to the at-risk counselor freeing up other counselors to do more to create bonds with their students and parents. Counselors focus on career, social, and academic development. They are charged not just with graduation but with getting kids to the next step after graduation—college, job, military, etc.
The district seeks to help each child envision him or herself in college. The PICS survey, “a software program that assesses a student's personality and then determines the ideal characteristics of a college suited to the individual”, is given in 5th, 8th, and 9th grades. College and career month is held in each school in the district each year during the month of April. All college counseling happens before 12th grade--"12th grade is too late". Each junior chooses a school to visit and goes to college for a day. “Kids love it!” Up to 40 colleges come on campus during the year to visit and recruit their students. A STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) program helps kids pick a college major that will be financially viable. Finally, the BOE raised the legal dropout age from 16, the NYS default, to 17.
The district paid the University of Buffalo $10,000 to look at everything they did. The comprehensive audit showed that everything increased: graduation rate, regents diploma rate, college entrance, etc.
Andrew Crapo
** Note: this post is the observations/opinions of the author and in no way represents the position of the Scotia-Glenville Central School District Board of Education.**
AccelerateU
AccerateU is an on-line educational program within EduTech, a Wayne-Finger Lakes BOCES and Genesee Valley Educational Partnership. It has been offering on-line professional development for 13 years and on-line student courses for 9 years. With a faculty of around 30 NYS-certified teachers and a curriculum of 79 courses, AccerateU primarily teaches students in grades 7 to 12. Students enroll for credit recovery, for missing graduation requirements, because of scheduling conflicts, and to pursue individual interests. The latter includes gifted students who are able to remain with their class while completing advanced courses. The students and teachers come from across NYS. Participation is via a district's local BOCES.
The presentation slides list the advantages of on-line courses, the characteristics of students who are usually successful in such courses, and several student-support models employed to help students succeed. Costs for student courses are under $700 per student per course per semester and professional development courses are under $150. Costs for course enrollment qualify for state aid. In addition to the presentation slides, details of how the process works are available here and a list of courses here. More information, as well as the ability to access courses as a guest, is available on their Web site.
Nicole
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Claire Houlihan
Is AccelerateU available to students at S-G? If so, maybe it can be
used as an cost effective alternative for students who find that an AP
class is either not available at the HS or conflicts with their
schedule.
On Feb 4, 8:41 am, Andrew Crapo <awcr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> ** Note: this post is the observations/opinions of the author and in no way
> represents the position of the Scotia-Glenville Central School District
> Board of Education.**
> AccerateU is an on-line educational program within EduTech, a Wayne-Finger
> Lakes BOCES and Genesee Valley Educational Partnership. It has been
> offering on-line professional development for 13 years and on-line student
> courses for 9 years. With a faculty of around 30 NYS-certified teachers and
> a curriculum of 79 courses, AccerateU primarily teaches students in grades
> 7 to 12. Students enroll for credit recovery, for missing graduation
> requirements, because of scheduling conflicts, and to pursue individual
> interests. The latter includes gifted students who are able to remain with
> their class while completing advanced courses. The students and teachers
> come from across NYS. Participation is via a district's local BOCES.
>
> employed to help students succeed. Costs for student courses are under $700
> per student per course per semester and professional development courses
> are under $150. Costs for course enrollment qualify for state aid. In
> details of how the process works are available here<http://s3.goeshow.com/nyssba/CFP/2011/client_uploads/handouts/Using%2...>and a list of courses
> here<http://s3.goeshow.com/nyssba/CFP/2011/client_uploads/handouts/NewAU11...>.