A School Asks... Common Assessments 101

A campus implementing the LYS Common Assessment model sent in the following implementation questions:

SC,

We have some concerns with the 30-minute time limit on common assessments.  For ELAR, there is a fair amount of reading a piece of text or multiple pieces of text before reaching the ten questions on the assessment.  As a department, we are ready to embrace the ten questions for an assessment.  Thirty minutes is not adequate time to read and annotate the text and then answer and justify/prove the answers.  Our question is can the students spend 20-minutes reading and annotating the passages and then give them the 30-minutes to answer the ten questions?  Additionally, how does this concept work with students who have IEPs stating that they receive extra time on assessments?

SC Response

Fantastic questions, and questions that prove the campus is really committed to making the common assessment process a valuable tool for monitoring and adjusting instructional practices.

The questions you have concerning ELAR checkpoints are not unusual.  You are correct, there can be a lot of reading involved and reading takes time.  Which means for an ELAR checkpoint the passage selection is the driving consideration.  Reading passages that lend themselves to multiple questions are significantly more useful than ones that do not.  Then it has to be decided if a “hot” or “cold” read will be used.  A hot read is a passage that the student has seen before, which means that they can process it more quickly and have time to answer more questions.  A cold read is a passage that the student has not seen before. These passages take longer to process, which means that they have less time for questions.

As you mentioned the 30-minute time limit is an important design element.  30-minutes protects instructional time. Exposure to more instruction is what drives student performance, not exposure to more testing.  A fact seeming lost by most schools, school districts and states.  Because 30-minutes is the driving factor, there will be many checkpoints that have fewer than ten questions.  And that is OK, because the checkpoint is assessing the critical concepts that had to be taught in the 3-week window, not every thing that was taught.

As for students with an IEP, time is a relative concept.  If it takes a student 60-minutes to answer ten questions, I can reduce the checkpoint to five questions for that student.  Or I could reduce answer choices, or I could pre-highlight passages. 

Keep working the process. With every checkpoint cycle things become more effective and more efficient.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Upcoming Conference Presentations: TASSP Aspiring Principal Workshop (Multiple Presentations), Learning for a Change Spring Summit (Keynote and Multiple Presentations) 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

A Teacher's take on The Fundamental 5

A LYS Principal forwards a teacher’s reflection on The Fundamental 5:

OK, so I have given this much thought since this weekend when I read the "assignment." I really didn't know what to write other than, "I like this part and that part because..." and felt that was a little generic. This was until last night when at the gym I had an epiphany. I was talking to my trainer, and she was explaining the components we need to be healthy. Ironically, there were 5 that she suggested: rest, water, proper diet, exercise, and vitamins. She explained that doing one of these things without the others is OK, but will not get a person the health results they desire.

AH-HA! The little light bulb went off as I made a connection to The Fundamental 5! As the book states, doing one thing without the other components is OK, but will not yield the dramatic results of doing all of the components together. For instance, if one has the students collaborate in small groups with purposeful talk but not write critically about the idea or lesson, then while it's nice, it may not completely solidify the idea or give the educator an indication of who has mastered the concept and who needs a re-teach. To me, the write critically part is like tying a bow on a great present after the pretty wrapping is perfectly in place. The present may look all right without the bow, but a giant, sparkly bow just makes the whole thing complete.

I'll be the first to admit that I am still working on my own mastery of implementing The Fundamental 5. It takes a day to do an activity, but time to build a habit. I'm working on putting these things in daily so that in no time, it will not only be second nature to myself, but also to my students.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Upcoming Conference Presentations: TASSP Aspiring Principal Workshop (Multiple Presentations), Learning for a Change Spring Summit (Keynote and Multiple Presentations) 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

A Superintendent Writes... How Well Meaning Politicians Hurt Students - Part 1

In response to the 11/15/16 post, “How Well Meaning Politicians Hurt Students,” a LYS Superintendent writes:

SC,

I found today’s post not profound, but interesting.  I like interesting. The effects described would be hard to prove but seem intuitively obvious. An interesting research project would be to determine the effects of rapidly changing government policy on fragile students. My premise is probably accurate as far as harm goes: policy changes dictate structural changes dictate environmental changes.

Funny how high performing districts seem to have consistent leadership throughout the district. Coincidence? I think not. Consistency of adults leads to consistency for children. That matters. If it didn't matter then broken homes and single parent households wouldn't matter, yet we know they do.

Inconsistent government policies likely introduce the same instability for children that home dysfunction and divorce do. Yet we see government policies as trying to improve society even as they introduce inconsistency and turmoil thus likely a net negative for the very children such policies purport to protect.

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Upcoming Conference Presentations: TASSP Aspiring Principal Workshop (Multiple Presentations), Learning for a Change Spring Summit (Keynote and Multiple Presentations) 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

A Superintendent Writes... How Well Meaning Politicians Hurt Students

A LYS Superintendent shares the following:

LYS Nation,

I was recently talking to educators about learners with special needs.  Be it learning disabilities or learning a second language, our discussion led us to consider our school’s impact on learners with special needs. We concluded that consistency was very important.  The school should have a consistent curriculum, a consistent learning environment, and consistent discipline.  The idea is that schools should remove as much variability as possible.  Removing variability means the learner is not struggling with re-interpreting their environment over and over again, but rather can concentrate on academic learning.

A week or so later I was having an unrelated conversation with the parent of a learner with special needs.  The parent was concerned that constantly changing tests were impacting her child.  It occurred to me that she was on to something; as testing changes, so does the school’s curriculum, structure, and even instructional delivery.  We know consistency is important, especially for learners with special needs, yet the due to a steady stream of mandates we constantly inject systemic inconsistency into our school systems.

From the USDOE, to state legislatures, to state agencies, there is very little consistency in public education.  We all understand that everything changes with time, but the whirlwind changes in education policy are unprecedented in recent history.  I recall that when a recent Texas Commissioner of Education first took the job he commented that we need to get on a path and stay on it.  Great idea, but at best an empty promise, at worst a guaranteed lie.

Education is a political battleground and I suspect that the resulting policy inconsistency is causing structural and environmental inconsistencies that are doing significant harm to many more children than we would ever suspect. How could it not?  Schools have no choice but the twist and contort to policy changes. And though I believe that this harm to children is unintended, the harm is being done nonetheless. Children need policy, structures, and environments that are consistent.  For politicians to think their policies have no impact on school structures and environments is incredibly naive. 

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Upcoming Conference Presentations: TASSP Aspiring Principal Workshop (Multiple Presentations), Learning for a Change Spring Summit (Keynote and Multiple Presentations) 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook

Top LYS Tweets From the Week of November 6, 2016

If you are not following @LYSNation on Twitter, then you missed the Top 10 LYS Tweets from the week of November 6, 2016 when they were first posted.  And if you are on Twitter, you might want to check out the Tweeters who made this week’s list.

1. Congratulations to Ms. Gadeke (El Campo MS)! I observed all 5 of The Fundamental 5 instructional practices during a single PowerWalks observation! (By @LYSNation)

2. Expertise is not a destination. It is a pursuit. (By @LYSNation)

3. Great leaders don't always get great results right away. That's why their vision, guiding principles, grit and commitments are so important. (By @JonGordon)

4. Often times it's an educator's job to have high expectations for a child when no one else in society does. (By @BluntEducator)

5. Principals, any summative observation shorter than 15-minutes is unfair to the teacher. They need time to demonstrate a variety of practice. (By @LYSNation)

6. The most valuable resource all teachers have is each other. Without collaboration our growth is limited to our own perspectives. -R.J.Meehan (By @DrMetz_MHS)

7. Just got the exciting news that The Fundamental 5 (Cain & Laird) is being used in Grand Canyon University's M.Ed. program!!! (By @LYSNation)

8. "Your master schedule and your budget reflect the values of the school." (By @smithdianemarie)

9. The ACLU report finds teachers are frequently turning to School Resource Officers (SRO) to resolve minor disciplinary matters. (By @JWalshtxlawdawg)

10. I find it laughable that the anti-public schoolers are now afraid of vouchers. They just figured out that with public money comes public accountability. (By @LYSNation)

Think. Work. Achieve.

Your turn...

• Call Jo at (832) 477-LEAD to order your campus set of “The Fundamental 5: The Formula for Quality Instruction.” Individual copies available on Amazon.com!  http://tinyurl.com/Fundamental5 
• Upcoming Conference Presentations: TASSP Aspiring Principal Workshop (Multiple Presentations), Learning for a Change Spring Summit (Keynote and Multiple Presentations) 
• Now at the Apple App Store: Fun 5 Timer (Fundamental 5 Delivery Tool); PowerWalks CLC (Networked Formative Observation Tool) 
• Follow Sean Cain and LYS on www.Twitter.com/LYSNation  and like Lead Your School on Facebook