A changing Bear . . .

Thursday night and I’m blogging about football.  I can’t believe it.  I gave up my tickets to the last Seahawk preseason game for a number of reasons with the most important one being the Tahoma Bears playing Kent Meridian at French Field.  It would need to be a much, much, much more meaningful Seahawk game before I would miss the Bears.  

Coach Davis unveiled a new spread offense that proved unstoppable as the Bears won 52 to 21.  They gave up a lot of yards and some big plays with poor tackling, but their offense was something to watch.  Still can't believe what I just watched, the grind it out Bears now throwing and throwing and throwing.  The one down side is it sure made for a long game.

By the way, the Seahawks beat the Raiders 21 to 3.

Focus on the watershed . . .

Mark your calendar for the Annual Premier Screening of the Watershed Report where students come together with leadership from Peter Donaldson and support from the Friends of Cedar River to share positive sustainability projects in our Cedar River-Lake Washington watershed.  Twenty two students from seven districts and private schools will be sharing a number of student-produced videos of these projects as well as data and other information.  Eleven of those twenty two students are from our school district, so once again our kids are leading the way.

This year the event will be held on September 12^th starting at 6:00 p.m. at the Seattle REI Flagship Store.  Please note that this event is well attended and that you must RSVP to the e-mail address in the heading above. 

Jayaram Ravi shared the invitation with me and I am pleased to share it with you.  The kids do an awesome job and bring a deep commitment to making a difference in our watershed.

A possible learning resource . . .

In case it escaped your attention, this is World Water Week.  Why blog about this?  Much of our curriculum is focused on water with Lake Wilderness, Cedar River, and the Puget Sound providing on site opportunities for our young people to focus on this critical resource.  I also believe that as the world’s population continues to increase making it more and more difficult to feed and water all of us; this resource will be at the heart of future world conflicts.  To head this possibility off we need to equip today’s students with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to find adaptive solutions to this growing problem.

The focus of the event is on achieving food security for the world’s population.  Even with increased production and a United Nations goal to decrease by 2015 the number of hungry from 840 million to 240 million, by 2012 the actual number has grown to about one billion.  This despite production increases during this same period.

In a report published to coincide with this conference titled, Feeding a thirsty world:Challenges and opportunities for a water and food secure world, the authors define food security as:

“food security exists when all people at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.

Since 70% of all water withdrawals in the world are used in agricultural production, water is one of the large variables in the search to change the trend and see more people in a state of food security.  Another large variable in this issue is energy consumption.  We can only hope that those involved with Water Week are more productive than those attempting to change energy consumption across the world.  This report and this conference are good sources of content for engaging young people in issues that directly impact them today and in the future.  They also demand the use of Habits of Mind and thinking skills to examine this complex issue and reinforce the need for our Outcomes and Indicators as they research and identify adaptive structures and regulations to change the trend.

Sharing a message . . .

This week adults in each building will come together to prepare for a new year.  I always look forward to observing at some of these meetings as the principals and teacher leaders share their work and the focus for the year.  This year I have been asked to share our College and Career Committee work over the summer with the High School and Junior High staff.  I don't often get an opportunity to participate in these meetings so I am looking forward to sharing our work.

I was also asked by one of our principals to replicate a conversation we had last spring where I provided him with feedback about the need for teachers to receive feedback as they work on our Classroom 10 goal. Though it will be difficult to generate the same conversation, I am excited with the opportunity and pleased that he wants his staff to see that he also needs feedback and that he views it as a form of support.

I miss coming together as a whole staff to start the year as we did before budget issues and lost days due to the budget problems.  It was a time for all in attendance to hear the same message and for me to reflect on what that message should be considering the scope of all that I could share.  For example, this year I would have needed to focus on Common Core work and the College and Career focus, things that I blog about.  The message needs to be shared, but now we will do it in multiple meetings using multiple voices.

Common core assessment items . . .

Today, I had another opportunity for a conversation about the Common Core with a Renton elementary school teacher.  She is in the initial stages of learning about these new standards and what she must do to prepare her students for the new assessments in 20015.  She understands the importance and need, but is not at a point yet to feel anxiety over the new assessment items.  I believe that as she begins to see the new sample items the anxiety level for her and all teachers will increase.

Implementation of these new standards is another demand being placed on our teachers.  We must respond with the same level of support as teachers begin this work.  Nancy and the Teaching and Learning team are doing this as they review and revise integrated units and our district's literacy curriculum.  Teacher leaders are involved in this effort and are also working with our math coaches to better understand what support will look and sound like for math teachers.

This Education Week article will give you some idea of the rigor in some sample assessment items.  Below is the timeline for the Smarter Balanced Consortium that our state has signed onto.

You can learn more about the test specifications here that also links to some sample items.  I'm concerned about timeline and opportunity to learn for our young people.  We need to embrace this work and engage young people in learning opportunities that prepare them for these new, more rigorous assessment items.  

From the Education Week article.

“What we are starting to see here are tests that really get at a deeper understanding on the part of students, not just superficial knowledge,” said Robert L. Linn, an assessment expert and professor emeritus of education at the University of Colorado at Boulder who reviewed a sampling of the consortia’s materials. “But unless students are really prepared for them, it’s going to be a huge challenge.”

And, a different quote from the article.

In the case of the common assessments, he said, “we’re not talking about a new version of an existing assessment. We’re talking about a revolutionary kind of change,” not only with different kinds of items, but also computer-based or computer-adaptive technology. “What they are trying to do with these items pushes the bounds,” he said. “To get this done in the amount of time they have is going to be a challenge.”

You can find a link to assessment items for all grade levels on this site.  The items are too long to include in this post.

Reformer motivation . . .

Amy is good at feeding me posts and articles focused on the reform movement, especially those against much of what is unfolding in today’s public schools.  One of her favorites is Diane Ravitch a champion of public schools and a fierce critic of the reform movement.  In this piece she questions the real goal of the reform movement.  Is it focused on creating better environments and learning for young people or is it focused on breaking the unions and toppling public schools as we know them to be replaced by privatization of all public schools?

http://www.mainstreetmonroe.com/voice/topic.asp?topic_id=24474

The more conversations I have about the entire “reform” movement, the more convinced I am that it’s really about disbanding teacher unions so that the majority of education programs will eventually be part of a private industry thus paving the way for the privatizing of all public systems.

To support her argument she cites the regulations that public schools must work within compared to the freedom that charter schools are given.  She believes that the system being created by policy makers focused on test scores and teacher evaluations tied to them is designed for failure so that the real goal of privatization can be achieved.

It’s as if these policy-makers have found a way to rig the game: Create new rules that make for impossible goals and then watch a good system that serves the public fail under these new rules. They have set up the game so that the players will fail no matter what–IF you believe the rules are sound.

I do not believe that this is the driver for reform in our state as we still do not have charters and I want to believe that it is not the driver for the majority of policy makers and foundations supporting reform.  I do, however, believe that the coming Common Core assessments will give reformers that may be aligned with the goal of privatization additional leverage in the battle.  Those initial results across the nation and in our state will raise questions as to how well we are preparing young people for these college and career standards.  Will the charters and other private schools be faced with the same challenge or will their students not take the assessments?  If not, it doesn’t seem like a fair playing field. 

What is your reaction to this Ravitch post?

Building a coalition . . .

Yesterday was important because we welcomed new teachers, but it was also important because of a meeting we had in the afternoon with representatives from a diverse group.  In the room were two high school students, two high school administrators, and representatives from the central office, City of Maple Valley, Chamber of Commerce, DLR Architects, Green River Community College, Renton Technical College, Center for Advanced Manufacturing Puget Sound, and a King County representative on a phone link.

Why this diverse group of people in a meeting at our high school?  The topic was the possibility of building a new, comprehensive high school on the county’s “donut hole” property that I first blogged about here and here.  The reason for the diversity is because the concept that is emerging is one of a regional learning center resulting from a partnership with institutions of higher learning and manufacturing.  The intent of the meeting was to determine if those in the room share the values that we have for our students and our growing concern for their success in post high school learning and work.  The conversation resulted in a coalition forming to begin moving the concept forward.

I am excited and energized with the potential for this initiative to meet our student housing needs, our newly emerging program needs for all students post high school plans, and for supporting the city and greater community goals of living wage jobs in the city.  Will it be easy?  No, there are many issues that must be resolved and for us a bond measure that must be passed.  In my career, however, I have found that the one thing that can overcome obstacles is a truly shared vision.  I sensed that beginning to form yesterday.

I believe in this Margaret Wheatley quote and I believe that the thoughtful people were in the room yesterday.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”