News from Turning Points

This newsletter is designed to keep you informed about happenings throughout the Turning Points National Network. Please feel free to share this information with teachers, principals, coaches and in-house facilitators. We look forward to your future contributions about what is happening in YOUR region.

" It is what teachers think, what teachers do, and what teachers are at the level of the classroom that ultimately shapes the kind of learning that young people get.” Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan

SUMMER INSTITUTE
Teaching and Leading for Achievement:

                        Equity and Excellence in Practice

Center for Collaborative Education Summer Institute

We invite educators serving students in grades 6-12 to this exciting institute.

Who should attend:

Teachers, School Administrators, District Administrators

School and district teams are strongly encouraged to attend!

Conference themes include:

·         Leading for equity and excellence

·         Addressing the achievement gap

·         Creating empowering curriculum

·         Differentiating instruction

·         Succeeding with English Language Learners

·         Nurturing student voice

·         Making a difference with data

·         Building collaborative cultures

·         Promoting student achievement through school and district redesign

Registration deadline is April 12 – See details and registration form online.

AROUND THE NETWORK

LAB CLASSROOMS

Several schools in the Turning Points network have been using Lab Classrooms as a means of developing structures for teacher collaboration that enable colleagues to share best practices and learn from one another.

McKinney Middle School in Brooklyn, New York, has just completed three cycles of cross curricular, cross grade lab observations, which took place during the months of January and February. Fifteen staff members participated, nine as observers and six as lab teachers. Each observing teacher, as well as the lab teachers, chose a personal challenge area from the Turning Points Vision of Effective Classroom Instruction. These are areas that they felt were critically important to the success of their students; areas in which the teachers want to gain more expertise and experience. The teachers then wrote up their challenge areas into a question they wished to pursue. They discussed what kind of evidence they would be looking for that would help them answer their questions. Teachers watched lessons in ELA, social studies, science, and math taught by both middle and high school teachers, each of whom are focusing on the challenge area they had chosen for themselves. Each observing teacher filled several pages of double entry notes, along with questions, connections, and ideas that arose as a result of the observation. As a group, they discussed the strong points of the lesson and how the observation will help each observer learn more about his/her challenge area. Each person then chose a practice they committed themselves to try out (“take away”) related to their challenge area and the evidence they will collect to determine how well their students are responding to the practice.

In addition to McKinney Middle School in Brooklyn, teachers at Burncoat Middle School in Worcester, MA, Walter Krumbiegel Middle School in Hillside, NJ, and Calcutt Middle School in Central Falls, RI have also been using Lab Classrooms as a means of on-site professional development.

THE MIDDLE SCHOOL DEBATE

MIDDLE SCHOOL REFORM -- IT'S BAAAACK

http://www.middleweb.com/mw/news/MSreform_news01-07.doc

After dilly-dallying with high schools, in search of the perfect solution to all of public education's problems, policymakers and school reform advocates appear to be turning their attention back to the problems of adolescence and what the New York Times described recently as "chaotic middle schools." Middle grades reform, you may remember, was HOT in the 1990s, when foundations like Carnegie, Rockefeller and Clark poured millions into the search for a high-performance middle school model. Indeed, MiddleWeb exists as one result of just such investments. Why the recycling of reform?

Hypotheses abound, from lagging achievement test scores to the intriguing theory that a new generation of journalists and budding politicians have children in middle school! This link leads to a collection of recent stories about middle school reform efforts, including "Middle School Girls Gone Wild," "Students Warm to Advisory Classes," "Reformers Cite Middle School Needs," "Hard Times for Innovative School," and, of course, "Trying to Find Solutions in Chaotic Middle Schools."

SOLUTIONS TO MIDDLE-SCHOOL WOES NOT EASY
Systems across New York and the nation are struggling to remedy faltering middle schools by grouping students into academies, reconfiguring grade clusters and revamping how students are taught subjects. One New York principal, Barry M. Fein, says clamoring for quick answers doesn't always help, and research shows children have more to worry about than academics. The New York Times (free registration) (1/2)

NEW MIDDLE SCHOOL MODEL GETS MIXED REVIEWS
There is no shortage of educational experts to debate the benefits of K-8 education as opposed to the institution of combined middle and high schools. But it's clear there's no profession-wide consensus on which model works best for students and teachers. The New York Times (free registration) 1/21

HOPKINS STUDY DOUBTS K-8 SUPERIORITY

http://www.middleweb.com/mw/news/McIver_K8research.doc

A new study from Johns Hopkins University finds no academic benefit in converting from a middle school model (6-8) to a K-8 model, according to this January 2007 story from the Baltimore Sun. The multiyear study of Philadelphia's newest schools for kindergarten through eighth grade, conducted by Douglas and Martha MacIver, found no significant difference in achievement between students attending schools with one or the other of the two grade configurations.

Douglas MacIver told the Sun that "the quality of the teaching, the curriculum and other factors matter just as much." Click on the link above to download the story in MS Word format. Also see this speech about grade configuration by middle grades reform expert Hayes Mizell, "Still Crazy After All These Years" (PDF file):

http://snipurl.com/stillcrazy

COLLABORATION

CASE STUDIES -- REAL MIDDLE SCHOOL DILEMMAS http://snipurl.com/MScasestudies We've had an unusual number of teacher educators sign up for the MiddleWeb newsletter recently, so we thought it appropriate to offer something special for our newest subscribers. This article from the January 2007 issue of "Middle School Journal" will also interest staff developers, teacher coaches and others who ask themselves this question posed by the authors: "How do middle school teachers, particularly new ones, learn to cope with the dilemmas that routinely arise throughout the day? What type of professional development will best help them?" The article's title offers a good summary: "Using Real Middle School Dilemmas for Case-Based Professional Development."

It includes sample case study topics, guidelines that can help teachers write their own cases, and tips for facilitators. There's even a short case on "intellectual dishonesty." Very useful.

EFFECTIVE CLASSROOMS
MAKING AYP, ONE STUDENT AT A TIME

http://snipurl.com/AYPsteps

As schools work to meet their Adequate Yearly Progress goals under No Child Left Behind, the performance of a few students in a single subgroup can often loom large and even cause an entire school to miss AYP. This article from Principal Leadership (NASSP, February 2007) describes just such a scenario at Argyle Middle School in Silver Spring, MD. Through the use of a Strategic Monitoring/Intervention Process developed by their school system, the authors describe how they are identifying students' academic progress both individually and by NCLB subgroups and aligning student needs with preexisting or newly created interventions. (825k PDF file)

FIVE GREAT STUDENT ENGAGEMENT IDEAS

http://www.middleweb.com/mw/resources/reeves_fivetips.doc

Performance assessment expert Douglas Reeves says one of the most frequently asked questions he has from school audiences is "How can I get my students more engaged?" In this recent newsletter article, Reeves offers five ideas "for improved student engagement from teachers, research, and my personal experiences with students."

Download this MS Word file to read his excellent tips and subscribe to the Center for Performance Assessment's free monthly e-newsletter.

WRITING & MATH -- AN EXPONENTIAL COMBINATION http://www.middleweb.com/mw/resources/MSwriting_math.pdf

The academic silos that house mathematics, science, and language skills must be broken down to better replicate how those disciplines mix in the real world, say Andrew and Evelyn Rothstein in this recent article for Principal Leadership magazine. Combining mathematics with writing promotes students' ability to analyze, compare facts, and synthesize information. Written explanations also help teachers to better evaluate students' mathematical thinking. The article includes useful references and a sample letter that could be used to explore the concept of "zero." Thanks to the National Association of Secondary School Principals for providing this 800k PDF file for download!

ASSESSMENT FOR INDIVIDUALIZING INSTRUCTION http://snipurl.com/FairIsntAlways Several other new subscribers asked about good resources on differentiating instruction in the middle school classroom. We aim to please! So we thought we'd revisit a March 2006 book by teacher-author Rick Wormeli, "Fair Isn't Always Equal," which can still be read (but not printed) in its entirety on the Web. Just follow the link above and scroll down to the bottom of the publisher's page. Click on any chapter to download a free PDF version. The book covers both high-level concepts and many nitty-gritty details of classroom grading and progress monitoring, like whether to incorporate effort, attendance and behavior into academic grades (Wormeli says no) or whether to allow students to re-do assessments for full credit (see Chapter 10, "Conditions for Redoing Work for Full Credit"). Wormeli's accessible style and authentic teacher voice make this book a pleasure to read.

EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS

TOOLS TO ANALYZE YOUR SCHOOL'S EFFECTIVENESS http://snipurl.com/BRIMresources As part of its "Breaking Ranks in the Middle" initiative, the National Association of Secondary School Principals has posted a number of free resources at the NASSP website, including three survey tools that principals and faculties can use to explore questions such as

Does Your School Serve Each Student? What Is Your School's Level of Academic Rigor? and How Do the Recommendations in Breaking Ranks in the Middle Match Up to Your School Practice? You'll also find PDF versions of the BRIM report and related documents, including bibliographies about transitional programs from elementary to middle school and middle to high school.

TURNING POINTS GUIDES

Concise books that offer explanations and specific strategies for teachers, coaches, and school leaders as they engage in the Turning Points practices. To order the Guides, please use the Publications List and Order Form.

MIDDLEWEB

Most of the articles referenced in this newsletter are from MiddleWeb. To find more, go to the website www.middleweb.com

TO OUR READERS
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