On-line Databases of Student Performance

Attended a great meeting today that offered an overview of several student achievement databases. Illinois Interactive Report Card once held the spotlight in online tools for comparing academic performance, but there are a growing number of intriguing and user friendly sites giving that NIU site a run for the money! Let me offer you an introduction to some ”up and comers…”

School Data 4 All was one of the impressive sites we explored. Our presenter, Jennifer Ross, President of School Data 4 All and Director of Education Policy and Initiatives with the Illinois Business Roundtable, did a great job. She knows all of these sites inside out!! What makes this site different is that rather than just looking at schools and districts, this service tracks your students. There is a fee for access, but with the access fee you are also provided with data input and programmers who will also track student data on nearly all of the standardized tests offered: Explore, Plan, ACT, PSAE, ISAT, ITBS, and on and on. Moreover, it will track this data for as many years as you have the numbers, backwards and forwards. Taking all of this into consideration, the fee is not only reasonable fee, it is a downright steal! I’m not going to quote prices because I don’t want to get them wrong, but we’re talking in the hundreds of dollars and the fee is based not on enrollment, but on physical buildings and/or the configuration of your district based on the state report card. Currently, the only views available to the public are those for WorkKeys, but this makes some sense since the site is developed to help you track individual students as well as compare districts with similar and varied demographics.

I’ll sound like Randy on American Idol, but “Check it out!”

NCEA has a national resource that allows you to compare your school and/or your district’s performance against other districts–the difference between your district’s performance and top districts’ performances they label as the “opportunity gap.” Interesting euphemism. This site also offers Best Practices organized five themes. Within each of these themes, the district, the school and the classroom are addressed. Beyond that, you can search for schools with similar demographics of your own school and find out what they are doing to meet the needs of students and AYP.  It does more than that. You can also set your school up for a survey or Best Practice Audit that I understand is free or nearly free. If you go to the audit page, you’ll see Self-Audits and note that those are closed to public viewing. I understand these audits are brief.

Brief being a relative term…the NCEA audit can be completed in a matter of minutes…that compared to the lengthy process of conducting a Survey of Enacted Curriculum. This link goes to a great PDF file that give an overview and visual representation of the survey results. I really like thhis tool–at least what it provides! The cost is low; charged per teacher for completion of the survey, so you can make decisions regarding what you want to focus on and choose your teacher respondents accordingly. It is graphically appealing; it conveys much information with map like graphics. However, I understand that it is a bit time consuming, but then, the information is both deep and broad concerning what really gets taught in a classroom compared to what the district expects to be taught and on top of that, overlays student achievement. Lots of information. More on that in another blog.

 

 

 

 

 

The Personal Commitment of Technology

Technology and personal commitment–sounds like an oxymoron! But, I had a pretty cool experience this last week that evoked all three of those terms or responses. I was doing a workshop at Rock Island High School a week ago, showing teachers how easy podcasts can be to make using Gcast. In preparation for my demonstration, I even made a podcast while they were entering into the presentation room and finding their seats. I started the workshop by playing the podcast…I was impressed at how the room feel silent as they heard my voice ring out through the district’s audio system, announcing that the “We are here at Rock Island High School today to learn how technology can help us differentiate instruction…” And then I moved from having them listen to a podcast to demonstrating how easy one can be to make–even with a cell phone. And so, I offered my cell phone to a teacher and we fumbled together to make that happen….but it flopped!!! And I was frustrated and tired–remember, I had just returned from Africa, gotten home late Saturday night and here it was, Monday. Well, you may know the feeling….when it comes to technology, hope for the best but have a backup plan. I showed them some existing podcasts that I had made and then moved to another cool tool I have written about before, VoiceThread, a digital storytelling web tool that I truly believe has exceptional potential for reaching learners and providing literacy and learning experiences.

So, you are asking, “Where does the personal commitment and technology come together here?” Several days after this debacle (a bit of an exaggeration, but when you are in front of the room!!!), I received a personal email from Garage Band apologizing for the difficult I had experienced. The email went on to explain that the transmission was not being read as an MP3 and on and on with explanation and regret!!! 

I’ve tagged this entry “caring” because I felt cared for, even though the recognition of my struggle came several days later, I was amazed that the the seemingly impersonal tool I was using to demonstrate connecting with kids came back to connect with me.

I was back at Rocky this week and feared I might get booed off the proverbial stage, but instead, several teachers expressed their curiosity about how podcasts can work for them and kids. One teacher that particularly touched my heart was a special ed teacher who had not taken much interest in technology outside of his personal use. He now sees a real advantage that could be placed in the hands of his kids…to express through audible words the learning that they are unable to show as fully in a written text.

Rocky Math and Reading teachers collaborate on a unit of differentiated instruction.

English and Math Freshman Academy teachers meet weekly to develop upcoming units and lessons.

Susan and Yolanda are working on a R.A.F.T. assessment for The Odyssey.

Conference for Illinois Teachers of English (C.I.T.E.)

I spoke Friday at Illinois State University where the Conference for Illinois Teachers of English (CITE) was being held. I was there to talk about and demonstrate wikis…which is one of my favorite topics. I had a great group of Illinois teachers! They were especially kind when I logged myself out of my wikispaces account and couldn’t log myself back in!!! I wanted to show them how easy getting and managing an account can be and then, humph!! it backfired. I don’t know what I did wrong, but somehow, I unwittingly sent a request to wikispaces for a new password. Well, I just punted and the group was great at receiving!!

 If you are interested in building your own wiki, take a look at what I created for my English teachers. Feel free to copy and paste anything you see there, and drop me a line. Use the “Notify Me” file tab or leave a comment here. My Teaching Wiki is a project I undertook as a service to teachers. I become totally engaged in building my wiki and adding various web tools to make it as engaging for my readers as it is for me in the creation process. My Teaching Wiki is a tool to help you understand the simple processes to creating your own interactive website for teaching in whatever content area you find yourself.

 

So much left unsaid: Reflections

We are back in the USA, but my mind is on rewind. The songs taught to us by Emanuel sing through thoughts and though my voice is not one that cries to be heard, the tune emerges in joy from my lips and I sing without an audience (and that is probably a good thing!).

I haven’t used my blog to reflect on the school that I visited while in Nigeria. While in Oweri, the city where our hotel was located, I had a chance to visit the school founded by Dr. Okey’s wife, Ngozi. The school was first chartered as a K – 5 in 1993 (I believe) and just in the last few years has extended its offerings through high school, which in Nigeria ends at the culmination of the 11th grade. The goal of this school is to prepare its students for the university. To enter into the university, students must achieve a prescriptive level on a state exam. If I understand correctly, there are three different types of high school exit tests that can be taken as college placement. In my mind, this sounds much like European systems that I have some familiarity with.

My first visit was on a Sunday when the students were not in attendance A school is a lonely place without children, but the emptiness does provide a clear view of what the students and teachers must “do without.” They have very few blackboards and only very dated computers…from my estimation, computers from the mid-eighties. I didn’t see many books and wondered at the difference in the ways we teach.

My second visit was later that week, just as students were finishing up exams and leaving on a month long spring break. Return to school will be in mid-April. What a change having the enthusiasm of children and learners in a building makes!! I still saw few textbooks except in the hands of a few teachers, but learning was active and energized. American educators are so dependent upon textbooks! Now I am not saying a text is a bad thing–texts are essential to learning. However, I am one of those who believe that being tied to a textbook can be constrictive to learning and moreover, can be an excuse not to venture beyond a publisher’s view of reality or knowledge and explore the multiplicities of understandings and realities. On the other hand, the availability of a textbook as needed is a liberating tool that can help students learn about ownership in learning. So I digress. Let the pictures tell the story.

All students wear uniforms, regardless of grade level.

English instruction is an essential element at PAC. Students here are educated in preparation for eventual university study. Universities instruct in English.

As I visited each class, the students stood as a group and chanted a greeting in unison. Then they awaited my instruction that they could be seated.

Hot lunches are provided for the children who make that choice, somewhat as here in the US. There is no kitchen at the school and all lunches are brought in by an outside provider.

In addition to concrete walls and a locked gate, security is provided at all times by this guard.

Children and even most adults had not seen a digital camera; all were amazed at the instantenous image to view!

Throughout the country, I saw no graffiti. At the school, concrete walls told the history of Nigeria through images painted in clear and brilliant view.

This picture began with just a child or two, but before I could squeeze the trigger, more had joined in!

These are the most books I saw while at the school. Granted, I did not get into the high school portion of the building. Those students were taking mid-term exams. The teacher told me that this was his personal library, but that he did occasionally share a book with students.

After finishing their exams, the boys began a game of soccer, but just as with the little children, when my camera came into view, they rushed to be included in a picture.

Classrooms in the elementary section of the existing building are divided by half-walls. New construction (in the foreground) will have full walls that divide the grade level classes. A much needed improvement for both teachers and students in an otherwise loud educational environment.

As a team, we came to strengthen the weak; as a team, we left strengthened by those we served.