Stay tuned - I'm working on a piece about equity, which will probably go out on a weekend. I firmly believe the best way to achieve equitable outcomes is the hardest solution:
1) The best teachers in front of the kids who need it most, which requires compensating those teachers accordingly and;
Stay tuned - I'm working on a piece about equity, which will probably go out on a weekend. I firmly believe the best way to achieve equitable outcomes is the hardest solution:
1) The best teachers in front of the kids who need it most, which requires compensating those teachers accordingly and;
2) Track those kids like a hawk from preschool to 12th grade and;
3) Spend $$$$ resources on supports for those kids, especially reading and mental health;
Too often the solution to the achievement gap in this town is just one shot in the dark after another: more consultants! mental health apps! trendy curriculum! peace and restorative practices! shaming parents!
All of this is a way to avoid having to tackle the genuinely hard problem of recruiting, retaining and training the A+ best educators in the business.
Hi Tom, you mentioned the reading curriculum in a previous post in a cultural context, but you might want to dive a bit into science of reading vs balanced literacy issue. This has a huge effect on equitable outcomes and test scores. I am not quite sure where the district stands on this issue. From what I can tell they are now using more phonics based curriculum but used balanced literacy in the past.
Yes, they finally changed to a phonics-based curriculum this year and (at least for 2nd grade) it is far superior to the previous. Or maybe that's because my daughter's teacher is a reading specialist. She no longer gets to act in that capacity (man this district is crazy) but at least one class gained an amazing teacher.
When my older son was learning to read with the old curriculum I couldn't understand why he kept looking at the picture to try to figure out what a word was. When I found out that "check the picture" was literally one of three steps they learned in class for figuring out a tricky word, I was flabbergasted. Another step in the previous curriculum was something along the lines of "take a guess at what the word might be and see if it makes sense." Incredible. I can't remember the third step but I'm guessing it was equally unhelpful.
Tom Hayden For D65 Board President! Your letter really nails what is wrong currently and what is needed to fix the gap and what forms of ‘equity’ would actually have major impact! The things you could could be described as ‘fundamentals’ I think, vs. what’s been done at D65, which would be more of following education trends and fads and performative solutions.
Stay tuned - I'm working on a piece about equity, which will probably go out on a weekend. I firmly believe the best way to achieve equitable outcomes is the hardest solution:
1) The best teachers in front of the kids who need it most, which requires compensating those teachers accordingly and;
2) Track those kids like a hawk from preschool to 12th grade and;
3) Spend $$$$ resources on supports for those kids, especially reading and mental health;
Too often the solution to the achievement gap in this town is just one shot in the dark after another: more consultants! mental health apps! trendy curriculum! peace and restorative practices! shaming parents!
All of this is a way to avoid having to tackle the genuinely hard problem of recruiting, retaining and training the A+ best educators in the business.
Hi Tom, you mentioned the reading curriculum in a previous post in a cultural context, but you might want to dive a bit into science of reading vs balanced literacy issue. This has a huge effect on equitable outcomes and test scores. I am not quite sure where the district stands on this issue. From what I can tell they are now using more phonics based curriculum but used balanced literacy in the past.
I don't know anything about either one of those things. I will research.
Yes, they finally changed to a phonics-based curriculum this year and (at least for 2nd grade) it is far superior to the previous. Or maybe that's because my daughter's teacher is a reading specialist. She no longer gets to act in that capacity (man this district is crazy) but at least one class gained an amazing teacher.
When my older son was learning to read with the old curriculum I couldn't understand why he kept looking at the picture to try to figure out what a word was. When I found out that "check the picture" was literally one of three steps they learned in class for figuring out a tricky word, I was flabbergasted. Another step in the previous curriculum was something along the lines of "take a guess at what the word might be and see if it makes sense." Incredible. I can't remember the third step but I'm guessing it was equally unhelpful.
That's a relief! These links will explain what happened and how we got here:
https://www.thefp.com/p/why-65-percent-of-fourth-graders
https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/
Tom Hayden For D65 Board President! Your letter really nails what is wrong currently and what is needed to fix the gap and what forms of ‘equity’ would actually have major impact! The things you could could be described as ‘fundamentals’ I think, vs. what’s been done at D65, which would be more of following education trends and fads and performative solutions.
Could not agree with you more! Thanks, I was thinking I was just wackadoodle!