Driven to Blog (Part 2)

Research Questions for LDC pilot:

1. What is the theory of action of the Gates initiative focused on the instructional tools? 
2. Do teachers believe that the tools are strong models for teaching literacy and math?
3. What were the experiences of teachers as they developed and implemented the literacy and math tools? What were their successes and what were their challenges?
4. What kinds of supports did teachers receive and how did this vary (e.g., by content area, school, district)?
5. What are the conditions necessary to best support the successful adoption of the tools at the building level? District and local level?

• Questions 3-5 are great qualitative questions around the LDC project. These ancillary questions could really be used to support a solid research question. 
• Question 1 makes little sense for any research.  Your theory of research is not a question, but your framework and basis grounded in educational theory.  I would hope they could answer the question without conducting any educational research in the field.  Although they failed to do so in their report and have 0 references cited.  This is why the research is not published in a peer-reviewed journal.
• Question 2 is a yes/no answer.  Research questions should never be answered with yes/no.  That's educational research 101.

If I were to write a research question here is what it would be:

• What are the effects of the Literacy Design Collaborative on student achievement?

This can be quantified and gets at the heart of what we should really be asking.  

• Is this tool effective?  How effective?  
• Does it result in any statistically significant difference from current practices?  
• Is it better than other implementations of the new Common Core Standards?

All answered with a pre/post design.

Driven To Blog (Part 1)

It's not often that I write, not that it isn't useful but it isn't something I enjoy.  I learn more when I read and therefore it is the task I put the most effort in. Today I was inspired to write about education and in particular two projects I am currently involved in heavily (Thanks Renee for having me think critically about my work). A critical voice is needed and I need to have answers to the questions. I will be the first to admit my writing is not smooth but I hope it makes educators think.

Project 1 - Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) http://www.literacydesigncollaborative.org/info/

This project is in its fourth year.  I actually joined it after it had been in existence for 3 years.  It is based around building authentic writing tasks and intentionally instructing the process throughout in a systematic way.  I think it is something that is needed in our current classrooms and that it is challenging students.

The issues surround the educational "research" and whether this is research-based.  In my opinion it is not educational research for several reasons.  The first is it follows no formal educational research convention.  Read the research background listed.  It violates the first thing I learned in grad school; reading and writing a literature review.  There are NO cited articles. Quality research is grounded or stems from other research.  The LDC stems from an idea but is not linked to the current research that exists.  It's actually lazy on behalf of those conducting the research because an afternoon on the web would result in many writing, reading, and literacy research articles to support the work.

That's not the only issue.  LDC is in year four and has yet to produce any quantifiable data.  They allude to how this is necessary, but they are not collecting this quantifiable data, or else they are doing so against the practice of using an IRB.  As a classroom teacher my students data has been collected but only on 8 papers out of the 115 students I have.  This hardly screams of a multi-million dollar research project.  The data they do produce is of the nature of teacher surveys and percentages. This is elementary scholarly work.  Assuming that the goal is to increase student achievement, they might want to do pre/post design and actually measure this.  Conveniently the leaders state they will do so after 2014-2015.  This puts us in year 6 of the project as the first time they will quantifiable measure if it is effective with no mention of how they will control for extraneous variables that are actually built into the LDC framework.

• In most research projects the subjects are given the option of participation or at least notified of their participation.  By going through school districts this project has been forced on teachers.  Students have no idea they are part of this research.  These ethical points do not sit well with me.
• Does the project have an external evaluator?
• Why were the initial pilot results not published in a peer-reviewed educational journal?  They only appear in reports written by Research for Action.

One could argue that educational research is archaic and slow.  However, these students we deal with only get one opportunity.  Involving them in a mandated strategy that may or may not work is not an ethical educational decision.  It also undermines the profession and our abilities as instructors to develop instruction that meets our students needs.  On one hand we are told to use research-based instruction and on the other we are mandated to use instruction that provides the district with money?  We see which one wins.

CHETL Part 2

If you followed me @csstem over the last month you realized I have been active in the Common Assignment Study (CAS).  This study combines teachers from three school districts in two different states to develop a common “units” around the new standards in the subject areas of Science, Social Studies, and Language Arts.  The largest challenge in the project is the collaboration of 8-10 teachers who have never previously worked together.  When we all arrived in Seattle to meet last week, the group dynamics and collaboration were some of the best I had ever been a part of.

That brings me to a challenge that we all face and struggle with.  How do we create a Professional Learning Community (PLC) that is effective and leads to highly-effective instruction?  I have been a part of numerous collaborative planning groups in the past that were anything but effective.   I have experienced the group with one person who has to have everything their way and their lessons they have used for decades are the best it can be.  I’ve been a part of the group where no one wants to share anything and we spend the better part of an hour discussing topics that aren’t relative.  I’ve been to professional development on differentiation over ten times.  I’m not sure if they think I missed it the first time or that it has just left my brain each year. We have to stop wasting our planning time and our professional development and start being effective collaborators.

The reason we were so successful in Seattle during the CAS is that prior to meeting, a small cadre of teachers and researchers met and discussed what framework was needed to ensure effective collaboration.  We talked about being open to others’ ideas, not being afraid to share, and structuring time to achieve the assigned tasks.  One of the most important activities we completed was a sharing of an effective community we belong to.  Think about an effective community outside of school that you belong to.  What are the aims of the community? What are the values of the community?  Why do you continue to be a member of the community?

I think these things are all important to ponder when entering a PLN or seeking professional development.  The community I shared with my group values sharing the STEM disciplines and professions with students.  We work together to provide extra opportunities outside of the school day to underrepresented populations in an effort to expose them to as many STEM careers as possible.  This is something that I value as I was simply not aware of all of the career possibilities in STEM when I was a youth.  If I had been exposed to more of the STEM careers it is likely I would have chosen a career other than teaching.  Beyond this, the group pushes me to achieve beyond my individual capacity.  We have applied for numerous grants and put out papers for publishing this summer which I never would have been able to do alone.  Each member of the group challenges me to push my ideas forward for the benefit of students.

As you enter a new school year please actively think about what it is you want to share and receive from your PLN.  Intentionally planning for this area of our profession will result in much more development and in turn more highly-effective and rewarding instruction.

CHETL Part 1

As part of our new push to reach out to our KCTM membership, we recently took on the responsibility of writing articles for our publications on a monthly basis.  When I was tasked with writing an article on CHETL, I admittedly had to contact someone to find out in the educational world of acronyms what exactly this meant. In my defense, I missed the May KCTM board meeting for the birth of my son, but it could also have been that I was in a constant state of sleeplessness, or that I’ve grown tired of trying to keep up with the latest regulation, acronym fad, or whatever you would like to call it.  Take your pick.

Most of us know characteristics of highly effective teaching.  It didn’t take a state document to tell us, but it does open the conversation around determining if we are doing all we can to help our students.  As I read through the characteristics I was excited that the students are required to “accept responsibility for his/her own learning” but highly disappointed there was no similar statement for the teacher.  As we move through our summer “break”, it can be difficult to find time to do much in the way of learning to benefit our students. Recent cuts in state professional development funds have made the ability to continue our own education even more difficult. The number of university courses in the summer has even dwindled due to decreases in the post-secondary funding.  This leads to fewer “traditional” opportunities for teachers to become more highly-effective teachers. 

The summer is a time to re-energize our batteries, but also a time to learn and grow.  I invite you to take yourself to the Internet for a webinar, get on twitter for #edchat, check out educational pins on Pinterest, or even just call up a colleague for a meeting at Starbucks to discuss a new project.  Make your learning fun, but most importantly make it your own.  Find something that you enjoy and that will also benefit your students.  Natural curiosity leads to learning that will be retained and most-likely used.

In the coming months I will be writing to you about different parts of the CHETL document via my challenges and growth.  I have the distinct honor of piloting a STEM course in my middle school.  Piloting isn’t really the right word as I am responsible for teaching and if it goes badly then my students will lose a year of learning. This will not be an elective course, but rather a double-block course of Math and Science with the same group of students.  Two challenges await; combining and teaching two new sets of standards (CCSSM and NGSS) and engaging students for over two hours each day.  I’m sure I will struggle along the way just as my students struggle.  I have less than two months to put together a curriculum.  I have plenty of ideas in my head, but it’s time to head out and do some professional development and learning to make sure I’m prepared to be a highly-effective teacher.  I’ll let you know what I find.

You can follow my school journeys on Twitter at @csstem.