January/February 2006
The
"Data Wise" Improvement Process
Eight steps for using test data to improve
teaching and learning
by Kathryn Parker Boudett, Elizabeth A.
City, and Richard J. Murnane
The package containing data from last spring’s mandatory
state exam landed with a thud on principal Roger Bolton’s
desk. The local newspaper had already published an article listing
Franklin High as a school “in need of improvement.”
Now this package from the state offered the gory details. Roger
had five years of packages like this one, sharing shelf space
with binders and boxes filled with results from the other assessments
required by the district and state. The sheer mass of paper was
overwhelming. Roger wanted to believe that there was something
his faculty could learn from all these numbers that would help
them increase student learning. But he didn’t know where
to start.
School leaders across the nation share Roger’s frustration.
The barriers to constructive, regular use of student assessment
data to improve instruction can seem insurmountable. There is
just so much data. Where do you start? How do you make time for
the work? How do you build your faculty’s skill in interpreting
data sensibly? How do you build a culture that focuses on improvement,
not blame? How do you maintain momentum in the face of all the
other demands at your school?
The rest of this article can be found in the current
issue of the Harvard Education Letter. Buy
this issue.
Eliminating
Ableism
Thomas
Hehir on the aims of special education
Thomas Hehir is professor of practice and director of the
School Leadership Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education
and former director of the U.S. Department of education’s
Office of Special Education Programs. In his new book, New Directions
in Special Education, Hehir addresses the challenges of eliminating
ableism in schools.
What do you mean by the term “ableism”?
Ableism is essentially like racism and sexism and homophobia.
It’s a societal prejudice against people with disabilities,
some of which is blatant-like when disabled people aren’t
ableto attend an event because they use a wheelchair-and some
of which is more subtle, such as the desire for disabled people
to perform life tasks in the same ways as nondisabled people.
In educational practice, this would be reflected in the desire
for children with very little vision to read print as opposed
to Braille; having deaf children read lips as opposed to signing;
or having kids with physical disabilities spend an inordinate
amount of time taking physical theraphy so that they might walk-even
if it’s just a few stumbling steps-at the expense of taking
academic instruction.
The rest of this article can be found in the current
issue of the Harvard Education Letter. Buy
this issue.
Degrees
of Improvement
States
push to reverse the decline in preschool teachers’ qualifications
by Michael Sadowski
Better preparation for elementary reading, writing, and math.
Lower rates of special education placement and grade retention.
Higher incomes and lower incidence of arrest during adulthood..
The short- and long-term benefits of quality preschool education
are well documented by research dating back decades.
Yet at a time when recognition of preschool’s importance
seems to be growing, the educational qualifications of preschool
teachers are steadily declining. Around the country, advocates,
policymakers, and teacher educators are struggling to find ways
to improve the skills and credentials of those who teach our nation’s
youngest students.
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