Welcome to EL Extra. We have designed questions to help you and your colleagues foster meaningful discussions around this issue of Educational Leadership.
These questions will not cover all aspects of this issue, but we hope that they will help you generate a conversation around key ideas. Feel free to adapt the questions to be more relevant to your school or school district. Although you can consider many of the questions on your own, we encourage you to use them in pairs, small groups, or even large study groups.
The Achievement Gap
In “Closing the Achievement Gap,” (p. 6) Kati Haycock examines statistics that show a widening gap between the academic performance of low-income and minority students and that of other U.S. students.
In small groups, discuss her four lessons, each group examining one lesson. How might you apply that lesson to your school or to schools in your district, particularly to help those students who are not high performers? In a large group, talk about the findings. Do you agree with Haycock’s assertions? What other strategies might help close the achievement gap in your school or district?
Grading Issues
Carol Ann Tomlinson, who has written extensively on differentiated instruction, describes how grading practices must respect student differences and individual growth. In “Grading for Success” (p. 12), she writes that grading practices must evolve out of a teacher’s philosophy about learning. Teachers must look at whom, how, and where they teach before they have a sense of how to grade their students.
Individually or in pairs (you may even want to complete this activity at home), answer the questions as they apply to your classroom. Whom do you teach? How do you teach? Where do you teach? Takes notes on your answers, and then consider your grading system. Does it reflect your students’ individual growth over time? Do you recognize the portraits of the students whom Tomlinson characterizes? How might you incorporate her suggestions into your classroom? Are there aspects of Tomlinson’s grading philosophy that you disagree with or feel are unrealistic?
Think about how you were graded when you were in school. Did you feel that you were labeled an A, B, or C student, and how did your teacher’s expectations match or influence your self-assessment? To what extent—for better or worse—do your grading practices reflect your past experiences in school?
Everybody Can Read
Students who can’t read will struggle to achieve in school. Louisa C. Moats (p. 36); Bruce Joyce, Marilyn Hrycauk, and Emily Calhoun (p. 42); and Robert J. Sternberg, Elena L. Grigorenko, and Linda Jarvin (p. 48) all address literacy problems and programs, issues and insights, particularly as they relate to older students.
Literacy is everyone’s responsibility—not just that of the language arts teacher. Think of a student you know who is struggling to read. What would you do, given your role in your school? How would you identify and help that student?
What policies or intervention programs does your school or district have to evaluate the reading skills of students at various ages? Do pullout programs, tutoring sessions, or other strategies within your school ensure that poor readers do not fall through the cracks? Brainstorm how you might improve your programs across the curriculum and at different grade levels.
