Recently, we asked Educational Leadership readers to write about a time when they challenged the status quo. Here, six educators tell us what happened when they spoke up for change. From school library policies to teacher evaluations, these educators looked at what had always been and envisioned what could be.
From Showpiece to Learning Hub
Nancy Anthony
In September 1993, I took the reins in a newly expanded and renovated library media center at Birch Meadow Elementary School in Reading, Massachusetts. The library was a showpiece for visitors, the “hub of the school,” but students had too little time and freedom to use this wealth of resources. Teachers dropped off their classes at the media center once a week for a 30-minute visit. Certain rules—such as allowing students to take out only two books at a time and prohibiting kindergartners from checking out books altogether—kept the place organized, but were too restrictive on students.
With all we know about creating print-rich environments and how much practice students need to be successful readers, isn't it imperative that a school library give students as much barrier-free access as possible? At the end of my first year at Birch Meadow, I approached Principal Richard Davidson and asked him straight out, “Did you build this very expensive facility so that kids could visit just once a week?”
Davidson had a strong sense of purpose: Students come first. He accepted with alacrity the idea of open access replacing scheduled library classes. At an end-of-year staff meeting, teachers agreed to try open access for one year and then assess its effectiveness.
The next fall, library use had been transformed. The library was open to all students at all times while school was in session. Students could check out books right up until the last day of school and were allowed to take out as many books as they wanted.
Library use dramatically increased. Students began to use the library for “just in time” learning. If students were working on a project, they could visit daily; sometimes, a class would spend an entire morning in the library. The flexible scheduling encouraged teachers to collaborate with me to design projects. Students still came weekly to check out books, helped mostly by parent volunteers.
With automated library circulation systems, we easily managed to solve logistical problems as they arose. We found that students learned to make good choices because they had so much opportunity to practice selecting appropriate books. Some kids took out stacks of books, and many students expressed their delight with library visits. Kindergartners, especially, felt important and relished all that free choice—and they loved the books!
Nancy Anthony is Library Media Specialist at Marblehead Veterans Middle School, Marblehead, Massachusetts; 781-639-3120, ext. 3238; npa55@comcast.net.
Demanding More for the A
Robb Bingham
Fairview High School in Williamson County, Tennessee, where I taught from 1999 to 2001, exempted students at all grade levels from taking exams in any discipline if they had a high enough grade point average and a good attendance record. I felt strongly that we were doing our college-bound students a disservice by not giving them the opportunity to provide feedback on all they had learned throughout a semester or year of content, and I set out to change that.
Although I couldn't persuade enough faculty or administrative staff members to rethink this policy, my school leadership team gave me the authority to implement what I called the Grade A Project requirement in my drama, choir, and TV production classes. This policy required students who wanted anA to extend their learning outside classroom walls. Here's how it worked.
A student could accumulate enough points through required classwork and homework to receive aB for a job well done. But if the student wanted an A, he or she had to develop and implement a project that applied the content learned in the classroom to “real life.” Projects had fairly wide-open parameters: Students could dream up and enact a vision (individually or with a class partner), but they had to go beyond minimal requirements. Some students poured their skills into community service projects, such as planning and presenting a live concert for a senior citizens' group or creating a proposal for a scholarship for Fairview high school graduates. Others came up with in-school service projects—for example, developing a process for categorizing and keeping track of all scripts used in the school.
Many students were happy accepting a B, even in “easy” classes like choir or drama. The toughest sell (as you can imagine) were those college-bound learners who didn't want a lower GPA, and who were already taking challenging math, science, and English courses. But few of those courses taught them the real-world job skills of making a proposal, gaining sign-off, setting milestones, working in teams, implementing a plan, documenting lessons learned, and reporting back to the group.
Once I put the plan in place, approximately 5–10 students in each of my classes chose to create projects. Without exception, I got to know these students better, and I was able to act as both coach and mentor, helping validate dreams and lead students to creatively make a difference or give back to the community. I recently heard from a former Fairview student named John who was initially exasperated that he had to do a community service project to turn a B in my choir class into the A he wanted for his sterling GPA. John wrote,My project was to analyze a piece of music and study it to the point that I could direct the choir in singing it at a performance. I remember enjoying it after I got over being stubborn. We performed for a local breakfast for the elderly and the performance went well. When it was completed, I had learned a lot about rehearsing and the preparation that goes into a piece from a director's perspective. Looking back, the main thing I learned was this: It's not all about me. I thought way too highly of myself at the time, and I didn't want to be challenged in a way that I had not set my mind to being challenged.
All of the participating students learned things about themselves and about the academic subject at the root of their projects that they wouldn't have learned within our traditional school setting. Isn't that what school is supposed to be all about?
Robb Bingham is an Education Consultant with Convergent Solutions, 8027 Tatum Rd., Lyles, TN 37098; 931-670-6787; Robb@ConvergentSolutions.us.
Evaluating Teachers? Ask the Students
David Dentinger
As a new curriculum leader in my school, I was looking for effective ways to evaluate teachers. I work at a large Catholic high school with a diverse student population that draws from the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as well as from surrounding suburbs. Classroom observation seemed valuable but insufficient as an evaluation technique, providing a snapshot view that might or might not be typical. Moreover, written student evaluations of teachers often proved frustrating: What exactly does “He's not fair” or “She's fun” mean?
Finally, I came up with the idea of interviewing students as a class without their teacher present, which I proposed to three master educators. Most professionals, such as chefs, doctors, or salespeople, perform their jobs in front of others, while teachers, for the most part, work behind closed doors, wary of interlopers. The teachers agreed, with some trepidation.
The three teachers—Betty, Jackie, and Sherrie—and I came up with a plan. I was teaching one class at the time, as most of our administrators do. We decided that Jackie would interview the students in my AP English class and that I would interview the students in her freshman theology class; Sherrie and Betty would do likewise with their classes. We left our classrooms for 50 minutes while our partner led a discussion using two simple prompts: What's working for you in this course? What's not working? The teacher explained to the students that we were experimenting with different kinds of teacher evaluations with the aim of improving our teaching and that we would appreciate the students' honest reflections and feedback. After the discussions, the three teachers and I met to share the results.
Processing the feedback was more challenging than I had imagined. I felt wounded when Jackie told me that my students thought I had belabored Hamlet and “force-fed” them poetry and poetry terms. But they also said that I encouraged independent thinking and that they had grown as writers in my class. Ultimately, we received powerful, detailed feedback from our students that informed our practice.
In my case, because I taught an AP English class, I had always felt an obligation to cover certain material. However, the student feedback that I received confirmed what I already knew: Coverage does not equal learning. As for what I learned about teaching Hamlet, I decided that, going forward, I would focus on fewer passages but go into them in greater depth. And although I would continue to teach poetry terms, I would let my students choose which poems they would like to read to come to an understanding of those terms.
After hearing her students' feedback, Betty, a science teacher, significantly changed the way she designed reading assignments, giving her students more specific indications about what they should focus on in their reading. She also began to routinely discuss with her students what was or wasn't working for them in class. Sherrie, on hearing her students' feedback, reported a sense of affirmation. In their discussion with Betty, her students expressed one of Sherrie's deepest beliefs about education: Learning is more important than grades, and “if you learn it, the grades will come.” Jackie noted an unintended result of the discussions: Her students were grateful that a teacher asked them their opinion, respected them, and treated them as partners in learning. This was, it turned out, a common reaction among all the students.
I have since used this evaluation process with other teachers and have never found students to be vindictive or patronizing. Next year, I will use the practice with all new teachers and will offer it as an option to veteran teachers for their ongoing evaluations and professional growth.
Some degree of staff development is helpful in supporting teachers in becoming successful facilitators of the interview-discussion evaluations. Teacher-facilitators need to develop and demonstrate certain key skills, such as careful listening, effective questioning, flexibility, and diplomacy. But after all, aren't these the very skills that serve us in becoming skillful teachers in our own classrooms?
For some teachers, this evaluation process might seem unnerving. It takes guts and trust to hand your students over to another teacher to discuss your practice. But time and time again, this kind of evaluation provides rich, authentic, and usable information while giving students the voice that they deserve.
David Dentinger is Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Pius XI High School, 135 N. 76th St., Milwaukee, WI 53213; 414-290-8137; ddentinger@piusxi.org.
Taking the Message Home
Mary Kennerly
As our school and the surrounding neighborhoods aged, the demographics of our student population began to change. Two subsidized apartment complexes became a part of our attendance area, and the proportion of our students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch suddenly increased. We realized that fewer families were attending school events than in the past. We were especially missing parents on conference days and at student performances.
We decided that if parents wouldn't come to us, we would go to them. We now plan one evening event a year at each of the two apartment residences. We set up in the manager's office lounge and in the parking lot with food, music, and student artwork. Students dance, and community organizations set up booths; teachers, administrators, and PTA representatives meet and greet parents. In addition, we distribute free books to the children and provide the opportunity for adults to register to vote. Last year, even some of our school board members came.
The children look forward to this annual event, and every year more and more parents attend. Even those parents who don't come know that we've been there. In addition, all faculty members make home visits; some of our teachers now visit the family of every student in their class. Most students are thrilled when their teacher comes to their home.
When we started these practices about five years ago, many of our teachers expressed some fear of going into low-income neighborhoods. It was a new experience for them, but with time we've all come to know what a difference it can make in building relationships with our families. When we drive into the apartment complexes, children often run beside our cars, wave out of their windows, and hug us when we get out. Their parents greet us in the driveways. The apartment managers have become our friends, which goes a long way in solving problems throughout the year.
After our third year, two other schools in the district began having apartment evenings for their families, and they have enjoyed some of the same successes. This practice has become a new way for us to build a sense of community and improve family-school communication.
Mary Kennerly is Principal at Nursery Road Elementary School, 6706 Nursery Rd., Columbia, SC 29212.
AP for All
Robyn R. Jackson
For three years, I had taught advanced placement Language and Composition at a diverse high school in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., yet my class of approximately 35 students did not reflect the diversity of the school's population. School policy stipulated that in order to take my AP class in 11th grade, students had to take an honors class in 10th grade—and that was the problem. I decided to challenge that policy and let any interested student take my class.
I told the principal that I wanted to try this new approach and showed him research suggesting that the number of AP classes a student takes in high school is a more accurate predictor of college success than a student's grade point average. I also detailed my plans to support the students. The principal knew me as a teacher and decided to trust me. In fact, he had been considering making such a policy change in the school himself, but many staff members were resistant. I would act as a test case showing the rest of the staff that this approach could work.
I visited every 10th grade English class to invite students to sign up for the AP class that I would be teaching in the fall. My colleagues thought I was making a huge mistake. “Those kids aren't AP material,” they pointed out. Undaunted, I continued recruiting and soon had 96 students signed up. This new group, which included African American students and students with diverse learning styles and needs, more accurately reflected the school population.
- Start where your students are, but focus on where they are going.
- Envision where students should be at the end of their time with you and clearly communicate this vision to them.
- Demystify the academic process—the classroom should have no secrets.
- Measure whether students can apply what they have learned.
- Focus on quality rather than quantity.
- Provide careful scaffolding for students and then remove that scaffolding as they progress.
- Never work harder than your students.
I offered to bake cookies for my AP classes if 95 percent of the students signed up for the AP test. I required study groups that met once a week outside of class, created online discussion groups for students, used a class Web site to encourage an online community, and taught the lost art of sentence diagramming.
Many teachers considered these strategies to be unorthodox. What perhaps made them unorthodox was that they were conceived entirely in response to student needs. I didn't have a preset strategy when I started. Instead, I outlined to students where I wanted them to be by the end of the year and asked them what they thought they would need to get there. They told me what they needed; I created lessons, tools, and venues in response. I made my students my partners.
At the end of that first year, the percentage of students who scored a 3 or above on the AP test increased: In the previous year, approximately 56 percent of 35 students had scored at least a 3; the following year, approximately 60 percent of 96 students did so. This meant that three times as many students were successful than in the year before. Soon, other teachers in the school were inviting any interested student to take their AP courses. Where there had initially been only one section of AP Language and Composition, now the school was running three or more of these classes.
As we began to remove the gates and open access to rigorous, challenging courses for all students, the entire culture of the school changed. Although the initiative was risky, it was worth it because it created new options for our students.
Robyn R. Jackson is Assistant Principal at Thomas W. Pyle Middle School, 6311 Wilson Ln., Bethesda, MD 20817; 301-320-6540; robyn_r_jackson@mcpsmd.org.
Easing the Angst of Classroom Placements
Roger D. Vanderhye
As principal of Spring Hill Elementary School in McLean, Virginia, I was concerned. Students and parents showed great anxiety regarding the assigned classroom placements for the following school year; some even lobbied the administration all summer.
Our standard operating method was to announce classroom placements on the Friday evening before Labor Day. Since the 1960s, administrators at Spring Hill had posted the class rosters on portable bulletin boards just inside the front doors of the school and hurried away for the weekend. Throughout the holiday weekend, parents and children would trudge up to the front of the school, peer through the windows, and cheer, frown, cry, or vow, “I will speak to that principal on Tuesday!”
- Sparks communication between teacher and students over the summer.
- Generates new friendships over the summer among students who will be in the same class.
- Avoids a mad rush before and during the first days of school.
- Gives administrators a chance to modify some student placements in the quiet of the summer.
- Shows parents and students that attending school through the last day matters.
Spring Hill is the only public school in Fairfax County, Virginia, that handles classroom placements this way. A school's principal and faculty must be organized and committed to reap the benefits of this practice. Once implemented, however, the pluses for students, families, faculty, administration, and overall school climate are more than worth the effort.
Roger D. Vanderhye is Principal of Spring Hill Elementary School, 8201 Lewinsville Rd., McLean, VA 22102; 703-506-3405.
