Education Week - April 2, 2014 - 11

Versions of the articles on
Pages 10-11 originally appeared
in the Education Week Teacher
story package "New Directions
in Assessment," published online
March 5, 2014. To see the rest
of the collection, go to
www.edweek.org/go/NDIA.
Coverage of policy efforts to
improve the teaching profession
is supported by a grant from
the Joyce Foundation, at www.
joycefdn.org/Programs/
Education. Education Week and
Education Week Teacher retain
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BLOGS www.edweek.org/go/blogs
Urban K-12 Leaders Cite Shortage
Of Principals for Turnarounds
constructing arguments, however,
Ms. Pecsi said teachers will need
to begin using more inquiry-based
problem-solving. That might entail
"20 minutes of students digging
deep into one problem and debating
[it]," she said. "Ideally, that could
be an entire lesson eventually. And
that would drastically change what
our formative assessment looks
like."
Rather than ask multiple-choice
questions or scan quickly for right
and wrong answers, teachers will
need to be attuned to what students
are saying during those discussion
and debate sessions. "If you're walking
around with a clipboard or notebook
as kids are working through
application [of their learning]," Ms.
Pecsi said, "you're hearing, are they
using mathematical thinking? Are
they attending to precision? How
well are they using the mathematical
practices?"
The Struggle
And while some teachers are already
asking those questions, fullscale
adoption of new assessment
techniques will not happen overnight.

"I see this as being a three-year
process, even though we only have
a year before PARCC [testing] starts,"
Ms. Pecsi said. "It will take time to
evolve to the point where we change
to meet where the common core
asks us to [go]. In our urban environment,
it's particularly difficult."
Bob Bickerton, the co-chair of
the PARCC non-summative working
group, said the consortium is still
looking for a vendor for some of the
formative tools, so those will not be
available until the 2015-16 school
year.
But it remains to be seen whether
these formative-assessment tools
can really offer the deep dive into
student understanding that teachers
are likely to be aiming for.
Teachers are "shifting from understanding
formative assessments
as a noun-as a bunch of tools-to
really thinking more closely about
formative assessment as a practice,"
said Ms. Frey, and seeing
more opportunities for ongoing
data collection.
The data teachers are looking for,
she said, are "all around you. It's
whether you choose to pay attention
to it and act upon it. That's where
the struggle is."
EDUCATION WEEK | April 2, 2014 | www.edweek.org | 11
| DISTRICT DOSSIER | Without a deeper bench of principals who
specialize in overhauling chronically failing schools, the Obama
administration's efforts to turn around low-performing schools will
have a fleeting impact, city K-12 leaders told federal education
officials last week, four years into the administration's $5.5 billion
School Improvement Grant program.
Top U.S. Department of Education officials did not disagree.
Deborah Delisle, the assistant secretary for elementary and secondary
education, acknowledged that the SIG program-which puts
principals' jobs in jeopardy if schools don't improve quickly enough-
may not have zeroed in enough on the leadership piece.
"My fear is that we have not placed enough of a laser light on the
building principal," she told superintendents, administrators, and
school board members gathered in Washington for the Council of the
Great City Schools' annual legislative conference.
Ray Hart, the council's director of research, said surveys and
interviews of district administrators are turning up other challenges
related to the role of school leaders in turnarounds, as well.
For instance, when new principals come in, they are either stuck
with implementing a plan they didn't write, or they are trying to
make changes to it, he noted.
Congress recently opened the door to some changes to the troubled
SIG program, which many educators have decried as too rigid, but in
the two months since the bill passed, the department is still thinking
through how to put those new options into practice.
Preschoolers Can Engage Deeply
In Science, NSTA Declares
| EARLY YEARS | Grown-ups-including teachers-tend to
underestimate preschoolers' capacity to learn scientific principles,
as well as the length of time they'll spend exploring such ideas,
the National Science Teachers Association says.
-LESLI A. MAXWELL
The declarations come as part of the Arlington,Va.-based
group's new recommendations for early-childhood educators.
This is the first time the organization has articulated an opinion
on early-childhood education, said Kate Falk, the group's senior
manager of public relations.
Effective science investigations can deeply engage young children
for extended periods of time, beyond a single activity or session, the
organization says. It recommends that teachers and other education
providers should, among other actions:
* Provide experiences in the early years that focus on the content
and practices of science, with an understanding of how these
experiences connect to the content defined in the Next Generation
Science Standards; and
* Understand that science experiences are already a part of what
young children encounter every day through play and interactions
with others, and provide a learning environment that encourages
children to ask questions, plan investigations, and record and discuss
findings.
Boys & Girls Clubs to Offer
After-School Arts for 'Tweens'
| TIME & LEARNING | The Boys & Girls Clubs of America will develop
and pilot after-school arts programs for urban "tweens" with support
from a $5.35 million grant by the Wallace Foundation. If all goes
well with the initiative over the next 2½ years, Wallace will provide
another $6.55 million for the Youth Arts Initiative.
The Boys & Girls Clubs has agreed to design its program for tweens
(students in grades 5-8) around 10 principles of high-quality arts
programming, including hiring instructors who are professional,
practicing artists.
The first programs will be developed at the Boys & Girls Club
of Green Bay, in Wisconsin; the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central
Minnesota; and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee. Green
Bay will focus on digital-music production, and Central Minnesota
and Greater Milwaukee will focus on hip-hop and step dance.
-SAMANTHA STAINBURN
-JULIE BLAIR
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Education Week - April 2, 2014

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