Archive | 2013

Will Cursive writing go the way of the dinosaur?

6 Apr

Moi wrote about the importance of handwriting in The importance of the skill of handwriting in the school curriculum:

Gwendolyn Bounds reports in the WSJ article, How Handwriting Trains the Brain:

Recent research illustrates how writing by hand engages the brain in learning. During one study at Indiana University published this year, researchers invited children to man a “spaceship,” actually an MRI machine using a specialized scan called “functional” MRI that spots neural activity in the brain. The kids were shown letters before and after receiving different letter-learning instruction. In children who had practiced printing by hand, the neural activity was far more enhanced and ”adult-like” than in those who had simply looked at letters.

“It seems there is something really important about manually manipulating and drawing out two-dimensional things we see all the time,” says Karin Harman James, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Indiana University who led the study.

Adults may benefit similarly when learning a new graphically different language, such as Mandarin, or symbol systems for mathematics, music and chemistry, Dr. James says. For instance, in a 2008 study in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, adults were asked to distinguish between new characters and a mirror image of them after producing the characters using pen-and-paper writing and a computer keyboard. The result: For those writing by hand, there was stronger and longer-lasting recognition of the characters’ proper orientation, suggesting that the specific movements memorized when learning how to write aided the visual identification of graphic shapes.

Other research highlights the hand’s unique relationship with the brain when it comes to composing thoughts and ideas. Virginia Berninger, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Washington, says handwriting differs from typing because it requires executing sequential strokes to form a letter, whereas keyboarding involves selecting a whole letter by touching a key. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704631504575531932754922518.html

The importance of the skill of handwriting in the school curriculum

See, The Importance of Cursive Writing  http://www.enterpriseefficiency.com/author.asp?section_id=1077&doc_id=236382and The Case for Cursive http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/us/28cursive.html?_r=0

The Takepart.com article, Goodbye, Cursive Writing? lists the reasons cursive writing is important:

The Common Core State Standards for English do not require cursive. Some schools are electing to find a place for cursive in the curriculum, but administrators in many districts say that teachers don’t have time to teach writing along with everything else that is required.

Although typing skills are a must in a technological future, a legible signature is also still needed for daily life, say experts. Others argue that if students don’t learn cursive, how will they read historical documents? And what about the sheer personalization of writing?

Anne Mangen at the University of Stavanger’s Reading Centre in Norway has extensively researched the importance of writing with a pen. According to Mangen, writing by hand gives the brain feedback for motor skills. The touching of a pencil and paper ignites the senses. Mangen, along with a neurologist in France, found that different parts of the brain are activated when children read letters learned by handwriting.

Numerous studies show that daily handwriting lessons in schools have decreased from an average of 30 minutes to 15. Now they are on the verge of disappearing completely.

A 2010 study by the Carnegie Corporation of New York reported that students’ reading skills can improve if they write what they are reading in addition to them learning writing skills and increasing how much they write.

Vanderbilt University education professor Steve Graham, a leading researcher in this area, said in an interview last year with NPR that the brain lights up less with typing, a simple motor skill, than writing, a more complex one. But it’s not cursive writing, Graham argues, but simply handwriting. He also notes that cursive script could be taught in kindergarten or first grade instead of third grade because it’s not as elaborate as it once was.

“I would make the case that we want kids to either be really fluent and legible in either manuscript and cursive or both, but also in keyboarding, and the issue is that’s three versus teaching two, you know, there’s a real push on time in schools,” he said.

The U.S. Department of Education recommends in its “Tips for Parents on National Writing Day” to teach children to print before attempting cursive.

But some school systems are bucking the trend of abandoning cursive. In Wisconsin’s Eau Claire School District, students are now learning cursive in second grade instead of third in order for them to perform better on standardized tests. Studies show that students who know cursive often excel on tests because they can write their thoughts down faster using cursive.

The debate on cursive is likely to continue as schools eliminate—and then reintroduce—penmanship to the curriculum. http://news.yahoo.com/goodbye-cursive-writing-225300486.html

T. Rees Shapiro writes in the Washington Post article, Cursive handwriting disappearing from public schools:

The curlicue letters of cursive handwriting, once considered a mainstay of American elementary education, have been slowly disappearing from classrooms for years. Now, with most states adopting new national standards that don’t require such instruction, cursive could soon be eliminated from most public schools.

For many students, cursive is becoming as foreign as ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. In college lecture halls, more students take notes on laptops and tablet computers than with pens and notepads. Responding to handwritten letters from grandparents in cursive is no longer necessary as they, too, learn how to use email, Facebook and Skype.

And educators, seeking to prepare students for a successful future in which computer and typing skills have usurped penmanship, are finding cursive’s relevance waning, especially with leaner school budgets and curricula packed with standardized testing prep. So they’re opting not to teach it anymore.

“It’s seeing the writing on the wall,” said Patricia Granada, principal at Eagle View elementary in Fairfax County. “Cursive is increasingly becoming obsolete.”

Michael Hairston, president of the Fairfax Education Association, the largest teachers union in the county, called cursive “a dying art.”

“Cursive writing is a traditional skill that has been replaced with technology,” Hairston said. “Educators are having to make choices about what they teach with a limited amount of time and little or no flexibility. Much of their instructional time is consumed with teaching to a standardized test.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/cursive-handwriting-disappearing-from-public-schools/2013/04/04/215862e0-7d23-11e2-a044-676856536b40_story.html?wpisrc=emailtoafriend

See, Should cursive writing be required? A N.C. bill would mandate it http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/02/23/should-cursive-writing-be-required-a-n-c-bill-would-mandate-it/

Science Daily reported in the article, Better Learning Through Handwriting:

Together with neurophysiologist Jean-Luc Velay at the University of Marseille, Anne Mangen has written an article published in the Advances in Haptics periodical. They have examined research which goes a long way in confirming the significance of these differences.

An experiment carried out by Velay’s research team in Marseille establishes that different parts of the brain are activated when we read letters we have learned by handwriting, from those activated when we recognise letters we have learned through typing on a keyboard. When writing by hand, the movements involved leave a motor memory in the sensorimotor part of the brain, which helps us recognise letters. This implies a connection between reading and writing, and suggests that the sensorimotor system plays a role in the process of visual recognition during reading, Mangen explains.

Other experiments suggest that the brain’s Broca’s area is discernibly more activated when we are read a verb which is linked to a physical activity, compared with being read an abstract verb or a verb not associated with any action….

Since writing by hand takes longer than typing on a keyboard, the temporal aspect may also influence the learning process, she adds.

The term ‘haptic’ refers to the process of touching and the way in which we communicate by touch, particularly by using our fingers and hands to explore our surroundings. Haptics include both our perceptions when we relate passively to our surroundings, and when we move and act.

A lack of focus

There is a lot of research on haptics in relation to computer games, in which for instance vibrating hand controls are employed. According to Mangen, virtual drills with sound and vibration are used for training dentists.

But there has been very little effort to include haptics within the humanistic disciplines, she explains. In educational science, there is scant interest in the ergonomics of reading and writing, and its potential significance in the learning process.

Mangen refers to an experiment involving two groups of adults, in which the participants were assigned the task of having to learn to write in an unknown alphabet, consisting of approximately twenty letters. One group was taught to write by hand, while the other was using a keyboard. Three and six weeks into the experiment, the participants’ recollection of these letters, as well as their rapidity in distinguishing right and reversed letters, were tested. Those who had learned the letters by handwriting came out best in all tests. Furthermore, fMRI brain scans indicated an activation of the Broca’s area within this group. Among those who had learned by typing on keyboards, there was little or no activation of this area.

“The sensorimotor component forms an integral part of training for beginners, and in special education for people with learning difficulties. But there is little awareness and understanding of the importance of handwriting to the learning process, beyond that of writing itself,” Mangen says.

She refers to pedagogical research on writing, which has moved from a cognitive approach to a focus on contextual, social and cultural relations. In her opinion, a one-sided focus on context may lead to neglect of the individual, physiological, sensorimotor and phenomenological connections….

“Our bodies are designed to interact with the world which surrounds us. We are living creatures, geared toward using physical objects — be it a book, a keyboard or a pen — to perform certain tasks,” she says….

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by The University of Stavanger. The original article was written by Trond Egil Toft; translation by Astri Sivertsen. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110119095458.htm

It is interesting that in Silicon Valley where many of the tech elite live, many of the top managers send their children to an “old school” school. See, The private school in Silicon Valley where tech honchos send their kids so they DON’T use computers        http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2052977/The-Silicon-Valley-school-tech-honchos-send-kids-DONT-use-computers.html#ixzz2PjQ8sOfD

Matt Richtell reported in the New York Times article, A Silicon Valley School That Doesn’t Compute:

Three-quarters of the students here have parents with a strong high-tech connection. Mr. Eagle, like other parents, sees no contradiction. Technology, he says, has its time and place: “If I worked at Miramax and made good, artsy, rated R movies, I wouldn’t want my kids to see them until they were 17.”

While other schools in the region brag about their wired classrooms, the Waldorf school embraces a simple, retro look — blackboards with colorful chalk, bookshelves with encyclopedias, wooden desks filled with workbooks and No. 2 pencils. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/technology/at-waldorf-school-in-silicon-valley-technology-can-wait.html?pagewanted=all

There is quite a lot that researchers need to explore about how technology affects the mind and body connection as well as how technology affects interpersonal relationships.

Where information leads to Hope. ©                  Dr. Wilda.com

Dr. Wilda says this about that ©

Blogs by Dr. Wilda:

COMMENTS FROM AN OLD FART©                      http://drwildaoldfart.wordpress.com/

Dr. Wilda Reviews ©                                             http://drwildareviews.wordpress.com/

Dr. Wilda ©                                                                                                    https://drwilda.com/

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The 04/07/13 Joy Jar

6 Apr

Moi, like many, watched the FINAL FOUR game between Wichita State and Louisville. Both teams played their hearts out. Louisville had more points at the end, but what moi observed on the part of both teams was the ‘heart of a champion.’ Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is the ‘heart of a champion.’

Before we can talk about a championship, we have to practice like a championship team.
Mike Singletary

“Life is a place of service, and in that service one has to suffer a great deal that is hard to bear, but more often to experience a great deal of joy. But that joy can be real only if people look upon their lives as a service and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness.”
Count Leo Tolstoy

“Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your
self-respect.”
Marcus Aurelius

“What a man accomplishes in a day depends upon the way in which he approaches his tasks. When we accept tough jobs as a challenge. . . and wade into them with joy and enthusiasm, miracles can happen. When we do our work with a dynamic conquering spirit, we get things done.”
Arland Gilbert

“Zeal will do more than knowledge.”
William Hazlitt, early 18th-century English essayist

“Any man’s life will be filled with constant and unexpected encouragement if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day.”
Booker T. Washington

“A man can do only what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.”
Albert Schweitzer, 20th-century German Nobel Peace Prize-winning mission doctor and theologian
“There are two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group; there is less competition there.”
Indira Gandhi, 20th-century Indian prime minister

“Things come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.”
Abraham Lincoln

 

Tags: , , , , , , ,

The 04/06/13 Joy Jar

5 Apr

One of the great joys of Spring is the season of the tulip. Tulips grow well in Washington in more colors and varieties than one can imagine. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is the Tulip.

 

A tulip doesn’t strive to impress anyone. It doesn’t struggle to be different than a rose. It doesn’t have to. It is different. And there’s room in the garden for every flower. You didn’t have to struggle to make your face different than anyone else’s on earth. It just is. You are unique because you were created that way. Look at little children in kindergarten. They’re all different without trying to be. As long as they’re unselfconsciously being themselves, they can’t help but shine. It’s only later, when children are taught to compete, to strive to be better than others, that their natural light becomes distorted.

Marianne Williamson

But I have always thought that these tulips must have had names. They were red, and orange and red, and red and orange and yellow, like the ember in a nursery fire of a winter’s evening. I remember them.

Neil Gaiman

Here tulips bloom as theyare told; Unkempt about those hedges blows An English unofficial rose.

Rupert Chawner Brooke

“The fountain is my speech. The tulips are my speech. The grass and trees are my speech.”

George T. Delacorte

 

“The business of a poet, said Imlac, is to examine, not the individual but the species; to remark general properties and large appearances. He does not number the streaks of the tulip.”

Samuel Johnson

Every person is like a single tulip. While they may blend when together, each one is special in its own light.

Daniella Kessler

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Important statement from American Association of University Professors about cutting adjunct teaching hours in response Obamacare

5 Apr

Tyler Kingkade writes in the Huffington Post article, AAUP: Don’t Cut Adjunct Hours To Avoid Obamacare Requirements:

Colleges that reduce working hours for part-time instructors to avoid providing them health insurance coverage are under fire this week, even as they await guidance from the Internal Revenue Service on how best to credit such faculty for their time.

“We have been dismayed by news reports of a handful of colleges and universities that have threatened to cut the courseloads of part-time faculty members specifically in order to evade this provision of the law,” a statement from the American Association of University Professors reads. “Such actions are reprehensible, penalizing part-time faculty members both by depriving them access to affordable health care as intended by law and by reducing their income.”

Under a new Affordable Care Act provision going into effect in 2014, employees who work at least 30 hours a week are classified as full-time and entitled to employer-provided health insurance benefits….

While colleges wait, multiple schools in recent months have cut adjunct instructors’ hours, to ensure they are not working 30 or more hours per week.

Daytona State College in Florida recently sent out a notice that all adjuncts “will only be able to work 9 hours a week,” due to “new laws,” according to an email obtained by The Huffington Post. Daytona State did not respond to request for comment and the notice did not specify which laws.

At Oakton Community College in Illinois, the administration is considering counting the “non-instructional” hours spent tutoring, advising or attending seminars, but those would be factored into a new 21-hour weekly limit, according to a memo posted on anOakton faculty association website.

Oakton is still in negotiations with its adjunct faculty union, college spokesperson Janet Spector Bishop told HuffPost in an email. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/04/aaup-obamacare-adjunct_n_3009765.html?utm_hp_ref=@education123

Here is the statement from the American Association of University Professors:

Affordable Care Act and Part-Time Faculty

Statement on the Affordable Care Act and Part-Time Faculty Positions (April 2013)

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) affirms that access to health care is a basic human right and that no one should ever be denied access to quality health care. The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, also known as “Obamacare”) represents a major step toward making that right a reality. Specifically, PPACA is designed to provide health insurance coverage for millions of Americans who are currently uninsured, thereby increasing access to quality health care.

Implementation of the law has raised a number of questions, among them how the law will be applied to faculty members in part-time positions. One provision of the new law, scheduled to take effect in January 2014, requires employers with more than fifty full-time employees to provide health benefits to employees who work thirty hours a week or more. To comply with this portion of the law colleges and universities must calculate the weekly working hours of part-time faculty members who are typically hired and compensated per course or per credit hour, rather than hourly or on a percentage basis.

The AAUP supports guidelines under development by the IRS that explicitly address part-time faculty members, a category of individuals who are often ignored and treated as if they were invisible despite comprising more than half of U.S. faculty positions. Proposed rules issued by the IRS in January don’t provide an exact formula, but they say that employers “must use a reasonable method for crediting hours of service.” They continue:

A method of crediting hours would not be reasonable if it took into account only some of an employee’s hours of service with the effect of recharacterizing, as non-fulltime, an employee in a position that traditionally involves more than 30 hours of service per week. For example, it would not be a reasonable method … [in crediting hours for]  … an instructor, such as an adjunct faculty member, to take into account only classroom or other instruction time and not other hours that are necessary to perform the employee’s duties, such as class preparation time.

In addition to class preparation time, the AAUP recommends that institutions consider the following activities when calculating hours of service for part-time faculty members. The list is not comprehensive, but includes activities commonly engaged in by part-time faculty members:

  • Grading (taking into account class size)
  • Participating in orientation sessions
  • Participating in and preparing for departmental or other college meetings
  • Keeping current in the field (for example, by attending relevant conferences)
  • Meeting with students or responding to student inquiries
  • Mentoring students or advising extra-curricular activities or clubs
  • Participating in accreditation reviews

Colleges and universities should realize the importance of providing health insurance to employees; we call on them to comply with the law and devise fair methods of calculating adjunct faculty hours, methods that fully take into account the many activities in which such faculty members engage. We have been dismayed by news reports of a handful of colleges and universities that have threatened to cut the courseloads of part-time faculty members specifically in order to evade this provision of the law. Such actions are reprehensible, penalizing part-time faculty members both by depriving them access to affordable health care as intended by law and by reducing their income.

The national AAUP will monitor developments at institutions and remain alert to complaints regarding institutions that undercalculate and/or reduce part-time workloads for the purpose of avoiding the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. We call on our campus chapters and state conferences to exercise vigilance at the local level and to work with members of the campus community as well as community organizations concerned with social justice and local unions in ensuring that college and university administrations comply fully with the intent of the law.

File: 

AAUP_Affordable_Care_Act_PT-Faculty_April2013.pdf

Publication Date: 

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

The Chronicle of Higher Education has written several articles about the plight of adjunct teaching faculty:

Welcome to third world America.

Related:

Report: Declining college teaching loads can raise the cost of college https://drwilda.com/2013/04/02/report-declining-college-teaching-loads-can-raise-the-cost-of-college/

Where information leads to Hope. ©                  Dr. Wilda.com

Dr. Wilda says this about that ©

Blogs by Dr. Wilda:

COMMENTS FROM AN OLD FART©                      http://drwildaoldfart.wordpress.com/

Dr. Wilda Reviews ©                                             http://drwildareviews.wordpress.com/

Dr. Wilda ©                                                                                                    https://drwilda.com/

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

The 04/05/13 Joy Jar

4 Apr

April 4 was the 45th Anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. When one talks of legacy, can one have a greater impact than Dr. King? Just because most of us will never have the stature of a Dr. King doesn’t mean that our lives are not important to making the world a better place. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is the legacy of a life of contribution.

 

 

 

“Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there.

 

 

It doesn’t matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.”
Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

 

 

 

 

“Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones. A legacy is etched into the minds of others and the stories they share about you.”
Shannon L. Alder

 

 

 

“The choices we make about the lives we live determine the kinds of legacies we leave.”
Tavis Smiley, The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates

 

 

 

Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.

Horace Mann

 

 

 

You are not here merely to make a living. You are here to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, and with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world. You impoverish yourself if you forget this errand.

Woodrow Wilson

 

 

 

“No legacy is so rich as honesty.”
William Shakespeare

Tags: , , , , ,

The 04/04/13 Joy Jar

4 Apr

For really quick good fast food nothing beats an egg roll and or fried rice. Tonight, an egg roll was on the menu for dinner. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ are egg rolls and fried rice.

 

 

As long as there’s pasta and Chinese food in the world, I’m okay.
Michael Chang

 

 

“If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people .”
(Chinese Proverb)

 

 

“Coarse rice for food, water to drink, and the bended arm for a pillow – happiness may be enjoyed even in these.”
(Confucius)

 

 

“A rich and varied menu is for people who have no work to do.”

Roald Amundsen (1872—1928).

 

 

 

“The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue.”
(Confucius)

Tags: , , , , , , ,

The use of standards-based grading is growing

3 Apr

Mila Koumpilova writes in the Twin Cities Pioneer Press article, Minnesota schools give standards-based grading system a closer look:

Standards-based grading often uses a 1-to-4 scale, which corresponds to the four outcomes on state tests: does not meet, partially meets, meets or exceeds standards.

Across the country, as well, standards-based grading is gaining traction. Most districts remain reluctant to experiment with it in high school because of the key role GPAs play in college admissions.

“Standards-based grading is beginning to grow exponentially,” said Robert Marzano, a Colorado-based expert on the subject.

Marzano said some districts are doing it right. Those that fail to spell out what the new grades mean are taking “a step backward.”

SOUL-SEARCHING

Ramsey Middle School in Minneapolis opened this school year with a new staff and students. Educators pitched the idea of trying standards-based grading, Principal Paul Marietta said.

The numerical grades students get this year strictly reflect how well they have mastered the concepts they are expected to learn in their courses. Students can re-take tests and re-submit assignments. The most recent grade, not an average, holds sway. Grading against how the rest of the class does is out.

The change has not come without soul-searching among educators and parents. Marietta said the school is still working on creating more detailed and clear grade reports for parents.

“We’re running up against 100 years of history with traditional grades,” he said.

Marietta said he’s encouraged to see more students meeting with teachers before classes or on their lunch breaks to prep for do-overs. Because the new grading approach breaks down feedback to individual standards, it’s more informative.

“Traditionally, you take the test; the learning is done,” Marietta said. “We’re using the grades as a learning tool to communicate to students how they can do better.”

Osseo is midway through a three-year rollout of standards-based grading across all grades. Two years of research went into the shift.

But in a recent letter to the school board, teachers singled out grading changes, among other new initiatives, they say added stress, swelled workloads and hurt morale.

Jay Anderson, the local teachers union president, said educators have rallied around the idea of setting academic goals and grading students on their progress toward them. But they have grappled with how the district implemented the new system.

Parent Steve McCuskey, a vocal critic, said the district’s speedy shift to the new approach has created confusion: Should teachers stick to just whole numbers or use fractions in grading? What exactly does attaining a 4 (exceeding standards) take?

The new system has made it harder to get the equivalent of an A and easier to pass a course, McCuskey said.

“This hurts the overachievers and helps the underachievers,” McCuskey said.

http://www.twincities.com/education/ci_22915299/minnesota-schools-give-standards-based-grading-system-closer

Some educators like standards-based grading while many parents are skeptical.

Patricia L. Scriffiny writes in Educational Leadership article, Seven Reasons for Standards-Based Grading:

Reason 1: Grades Should Have Meaning

Each letter grade that a student earns at the high school level is connected to a graduation credit, and many classes reflect only one step in a sequence of learning. So what does each grade indicate to students, parents, and teachers of later courses in the sequence? When I first considered this question, I realized I had no answers. When I was pressed to describe the qualitative difference between an A, B, C, D, or F, my answers were vague. So, I developed a much more focused idea of what I want my grades to mean:

  • An A means the student has completed proficient work on all course objectives and advanced work on some objectives.
  • A B means the student has completed proficient work on all course objectives.
  • A C means the student has completed proficient work on the most important objectives, although not on all objectives. The student can continue to the next course.
  • A D means the student has completed proficient work on at least one-half of the course objectives but is missing some important objectives and is at significant risk of failing the next course in the sequence. The student should repeat the course if it is a prerequisite for another course.
  • An F means the student has completed proficient work on fewer than one-half of the course objectives and cannot successfully complete the next course in sequence.

Reason 2: We Need to Challenge the Status Quo

….When I assign homework, I discuss with my students where and how it applies to their assessments. My goal is to get students to constantly ask themselves, “Do I know this? Can I do this?” To my surprise, my homework completion rates have remained steady over the past three years. Some students don’t do all of the homework that I assign, but they know that they are accountable for mastering the standard connected to it. Of course, not every student who needs to practice always does so, but I am amazed and encouraged that students ask me for extra practice fairly regularly.

Reason 3: We Can Control Grading Practices

One of the biggest sources of frustration in schools today is the sense that we are at the mercy of factors we teachers cannot control. We cannot control student socioeconomic levels, school funding, our salaries, our teaching assignments, increasing class sizes, difficult parents, or a host of other important issues. However, we can control how we assess students….

Reason 4: Standards-Based Grading Reduces Meaningless Paperwork

…I don’t assess student mastery of any objective until I am confident that a reasonable number of students will score proficiently, and that makes each assessment mean much more. Students who are still struggling after a significant portion of the class has demonstrated mastery can retest individually. The bottom line is that when I review any set of papers, I walk away knowing a great deal more about what my students know than I ever did before.

Reason 5: It Helps Teachers Adjust Instruction

Imagine two different grade books for the same set of students, as shown in Figure 1. Which one of the two better illustrates what students know and what they still need to learn?

Figure 1. Comparing Traditional and Standards-Based Grade Books

Traditional Grade Book

Name

Homework Average

Quiz 1

Chapter 1 Test

John

90

65

70

Bill

50

75

78

Susan

110

50

62

Felicia

10

90

85

Amanda

95

100

90

Standards-Based Grade Book

Name

Objective 1: Write an alternate ending for a story

Objective 2: Identify the elements of a story

Objective 3: Compare and contrast two stories

John

Partially proficient

Proficient

Partially proficient

Bill

Proficient

Proficient

Partially proficient

Susan

Partially proficient

Partially proficient

Partially proficient

Felicia

Advanced

Proficient

Proficient

Amanda

Partially proficient

Advanced

Proficient

The standards-based grade book gives a wealth of information to help the teacher adjust instruction. Note that two objectives (1 and 3) may require more class instruction. The notations for Objective 2, on the other hand, suggest that the class only needs practice and one student needs some reteaching….

Reason 6: It Teaches What Quality Looks Like

In the adult world, everything is a performance assessment. If adults on the job make poor decisions or cannot determine the quality of their own work, the results are generally undesirable. Quality matters, and the ability to measure the quality of one’s own work is a learned skill….

Reason 7: It’s a Launchpad to Other Reforms

When I began using standards-based grading, I quickly discovered that I needed to reexamine my curriculum. Each class needed a clear and concise set of standards with precise levels of mastery. This prompted a number of discussions with other teachers in my department, and each year we continue to adapt our objectives. No one can use standards-based grading without clear standards….

Citation:

Educational Leadership

October 2008 | Volume 66 | Number 2
Expecting Excellence Pages 70-74

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/oct08/vol66/num02/Seven_Reasons_for_Standards-Based_Grading.aspx

Stanford Education details the pros and cons of standards-based grading in a course syllabi.

In Advantages and Disadvantages, Stanford lists the following pros and cons:

SUMMARY:  ADVANTAGES

In spite of the debate over state and national standards reform efforts, it is universally agreed by educators and experts that a key component of improving student achievement is raising standards.

In the 1996 National Education Summit, state governors, education leaders, and business leaders came to a consensus that use of standards will:

1. Help all students learn more by demanding higher student proficiency and providing effective methods to help students achieve high standards;

2. Provide parents, schools, and communities with an unprecedented opportunity to debate and reach agreement on what students should know and be able to do;

3. Focus the education system on understandable, objective, measurable, and well-defined goals to enable schools to work smarter and more productively;

4. Reinforce the best teaching and educational practices already found in classrooms and make them the norm;

5. Provide real accountability by focusing squarely on results and helping the public and local and state educators evaluate which programs work best.

Proponents of standards-based reform argue that flexibility in past reform efforts have not necessarily been shown to be successful.  State tests can highlight gaps and promote pressure for improvement, as well as demonstrate that these gaps will drive the resources to the most needy schools.  On a wider scale, a major advantage of standards-based reform is that standards and assessments can allow access of curriculum for all students, as well as more equitable outcomes.

However, it is generally agreed that in order to be successful, these higher standards must be aligned with reforms in testing, teacher education, improved teaching practices, and proper allocation of resources.

SUMMARY:  DISADVANTAGES

While several states are implementing some form of standards-based reform, there is very little empirical evidence to prove that standards, assessment, and high-stakes accountability programs are effective in improving public schools.  In many states, such as California, attempts to implement standards-based reform are inconsistently or carelessly aligned with quality research. The following are some of the shortcomings of standards-based reform.

1. Recent reports on the standards-based reform movement in New York suggest that in many schools the careless implementation of standards and assessment may have negative consequences for students.

2. Vague and unclear standards in several subject areas in several states complicate matters and do not serve as concrete standards defining what students should know and be able to do.

3. Top-down standards imposed by the federal or state government are also problematic.  They impose content specifications without taking into account the different needs, opportunities to learn, and skills that may be appropriate for specific districts or regions.                                                       http://www.stanford.edu/~hakuta/www/archives/syllabi/CalTex_SBR/procon.html

See, Pros and Cons of Standards-based Grading http://readingsolutionsblog.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/pros-and-cons-of-standards-based-grading/

Moi wrote in What, if anything, do education tests mean?

Every population of kids is different and they arrive at school at various points on the ready to learn continuum. Schools and teachers must be accountable, but there should be various measures of judging teacher effectiveness for a particular population of children. Perhaps, more time and effort should be spent in developing a strong principal corps and giving principals the training and assistance in evaluation and mentoring techniques. There should be evaluation measures which look at where children are on the learning continuum and design a program to address that child’s needs. https://drwilda.com/2011/11/27/what-if-anything-do-education-tests-mean/

Related:

What is the learning pyramid                                             https://drwilda.com/2013/03/06/what-is-the-learning-pyramid/

Where information leads to Hope. ©                  Dr. Wilda.com

Dr. Wilda says this about that ©

Blogs by Dr. Wilda:

COMMENTS FROM AN OLD FART©                      http://drwildaoldfart.wordpress.com/

Dr. Wilda Reviews ©                                             http://drwildareviews.wordpress.com/

Dr. Wilda ©                                                                                                    https://drwilda.com/

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The 04/03/13 Joy Jar

2 Apr

Moi wears socks all winter to keep her feet warm. So, moi’s feet look like crab feet and need a pedicure. But, she was looking at her feet and admiring her toes. Actually, even without a pedicure they are attractive and moi is thankful that she has them. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar are moi’s toes.

 

 

“Behind everyone who behaves as if he were superior to others, we can suspect a feeling of inferiority which calls for very special efforts of concealment. It is as if a man feared that he was too small and walked on his toes to make himself seem tall”

Alfred Adler

 

 

 

“People never add to their stature by treading on others’ toes”

Unknown

 

 

 

Fake friends are a vital piece of life. They keep you on your toes and teach you to never take the real ones for granted.

Ayjee Grogan

 

 

 

May your time be filled with relaxing sunsets, cool drinks and sand between your toes.

Unknown

 

 

 

“The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.”

Leonardo da Vinci

 

 

“What a wonderful beautiful thing, to wiggle your toes.”

Dalton Trumbo

 

 

I once tried standing up on my toes to see far out in the distance, but I found that I could see much farther by climbing to a high place.
Xun Zi

 

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Report: Declining college teaching loads can raise the cost of college

2 Apr

Moi wrote about the cost of college in Will a three year B.A. help more students afford college?

Increasingly, the question is whether colleges are using the resources available to them effectively.

A principal reason for the rush toward three year programs is the cost of college. Robin Wilson wrote in the Chronicle of Higher Education article, Colleges Spend Far Less on Educating Students Than They Claim, Report Says:

While universities routinely maintain that it costs them more to educate students than what students pay, a new report says exactly the opposite is true.

The report was released today by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, which is directed by Richard K. Vedder, an economist who is also an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a Chronicle blogger. It says student tuition payments actually subsidize university spending on things that are unrelated to classroom instruction, like research, and that universities unfairly inflate the stated cost of providing an education by counting unrelated spending into the mix of what it costs them to educate students.

“The authors find that many colleges and universities are paid more to provide an education than they spend providing one,” says a news release on the report, “Who Subsidizes Whom?”

The report’s authors used data from the U.S. Education Department’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, or Ipeds, to conclude that more than half of students attend institutions that take in more per student in tuition payments than what it actually costs them to deliver an education.

The chief reason universities inflate the figures on what they spend to educate students, says the report, is that institutions include all of their spending—whether it is directly related to instruction or not—when calculating what it costs them to provide an education. In reality, says the report, depending on the type of institution, it can cost universities much less to educate students than what the institutions bring in through tuition charges.

“This study finds that education and related spending is only a portion of many institutions’ budgets,” says a news release on the study, “and that many schools spend large amounts on things unrelated to educating students.”      http://chronicle.com/article/Colleges-Spend-Far-Less-on/127040/

The question lawmakers should be asking themselves is why society developed public universities and do those reasons still exist? In the rush to get past this moment in time lawmakers may be destroying the very economic engine, which would drive this country out of the economic famine that currently exists. While tuition is increased for students, the pay of college administrators remains hefty. Administrators are in effect pigs at the trough and should come under some scrutiny. Of course, if the current public universities were privatized, we wouldn’t have to worry about pigs still at the trough or would we? In a totally privatized university environment, administrators could be paid what the market will allow or the regents can go wink, wink at. Wait, wasn’t unfettered pay one element in the U.S. financial meltdown? https://drwilda.com/2012/06/24/will-a-three-year-b-a-help-more-students-afford-college/

Andrew Lounder writes an excellent analysis of the The American Council of Trustees and Alumni report Selling Students Short: Declining Teaching Loads at Colleges and Universities in the article, The Academic Graveyard Shift: The Costs of Declining Teaching Loads:

Gillen uses federal data to demonstrate reductions in tenured and tenure-track (TT) teaching loads across institution types, between academic years 1987-1988 and 2003-2004. He provides a cohesive synthesis of factors widely thought to contribute to this outcome, with some emphasis on Massy and Zemsky’s concept of “the academic ratchet.” The academic ratchet explains that as faculty seek reputational prestige and career mobility through increased attention to their research responsibilities, they must, and readily do, decrease attention to instruction and other responsibilities. The report neglects to mention the other half of this framework, (“the administrative lattice”), which explains how administrators enable faculty to restructure their work: they expand their ranks, also at added cost. Data show administrative growth, both in terms of expenditure and added employees, has been prodigious in recent years.

On the faculty side, the report makes small mention of “adjunctification,” the massive growth of mostly part-time instructors with little to no other work responsibilities competing for attention. There is a lack of data on the degree to which adjunct instruction constitutes a cost exchange versus an added cost, but reduced compensation is of central importance to their use. Gillen calculates his cost of reduced course load numbers based entirely on more expensive TT faculty salaries. The result is undoubtedly an overestimation. One economist figured the average hourly cost for a part-time instructor at about 64 percent less than that of a TT instructor at the time of the Gillen report’s data collection (2004), so the magnitude of that overestimation is plausibly quite large.

The report’s next misstep is to identify a percentage of tuition that could have been avoided had teaching loads not declined. But again, Gillen fails to acknowledge important variables. For example, a high tuition/high aid approach to tuition setting may not reflect the cost of providing services, such as teaching, but rather the size of an institution’s financial aid budget, or the potential for recruiting high-pay students.

Finally, Gillen goes further by assigning dollar-value opportunity costs to teaching load reductions. Specifically, he attempts to answer the question: “How much more revenue would an increase in teaching loads generate?” At Penn State, the report estimates that just one more class per term, per professor would generate nearly $700 million additional annual tuition revenue, besides providing additional enrollment capacity. But why not two, or even three more courses ($1.4 billion in additional tuition revenue is surely better than $700 million, and $2.1 billion even better than $1.4 billion)? Gillen writes, “Most public universities could raise even more by enrolling out-of-state students.” Besides conflicting with the realities of state- and campus-level enrollment planning (particularly regarding out of state students, whose numbers tend to be capped by law), the notion that any cost savings from heavier teaching loads would be passed on to students and taxpayers is not evident. Gillen’s opportunity cost argument strays from his main thesis by speaking to raising new funds and reallocating existing revenue, not reducing costs.

In the end, the report endorses the view that faculty are “essentially stealing from taxpayers and students” through their tenure-protected laziness. Yet, his dollar-value cost assessment of the declining standard of tenure-line labor and the faculty who occupy those positions is specious, and evidence does not point to systematic (or even widespread) faculty negligence. http://higheredwatch.newamerica.net/node/81552

Here is the press release from The American Council of Trustees and Alumni:

News: Press Releases

Decline in Professors’ Teaching Loads Increases Costs by Nearly $2,600 Per Student Annually

More Than Half of Tuition Increases Could Have Been Avoided if Teaching Loads Did Not Decline, Report Finds
March 20, 2013

Washington, DC—The American Council of Trustees and Alumni, in conjunction with Education Sector, today released a report that finds declining teaching loads among tenured and tenure-track faculty led to an average increased cost per student of $2,598 annually. Between 1988 and 2004, the average number of classes taught declined 25 percent—from 3.6 to 2.7 courses per term. If teaching loads had not declined, over half of tuition increases over that period could have been avoided, according to the report.

“Selling Students Short: Declining Teaching Loads at Colleges and Universities” found that the reduction in teaching loads cost on average an extra $2,302 per student annually at public institutions, and an extra $3,468 at private institutions. More than 80 percent of tuition increases at four-year public institutions and nearly a third of tuition increases at private institutions could have been avoided if teaching loads did not decline during this time period.

“This research shows that the rising cost of college cannot be blamed solely on external factors such as decreasing state appropriations or inflation,” said Dr. Andrew Gillen, Education Sector’s research director and author of the report. “Colleges can—and must—take steps on their own to stem the ever-increasing rate of tuition increases. Increasing teaching loads even marginally can have a tremendous impact on cost.”

Gillen estimates that some public universities, such as Pennsylvania State University, could generate up to $435 million in extra tuition revenue if professors taught only one more class per term. Increasing teaching loads by one course at private universities, such as New York University, could generate as much as $430 million.

“As teaching loads for the core faculty of colleges and universities decline, so does student access to the professors with whom they come to learn,” said Dr. Michael Poliakoff, vice president of policy at ACTA. “Sometimes that means students can’t get the courses they need to graduate in a timely manner. At all times, it means less opportunity for a quality learning experience. And as 4-year programs have turned into 5-year programs and beyond, the price tag for a college education rises. It’s time for colleges—and the public—to expect professors to perform their primary task: teach.”

The report was funded through a grant from the Searle Freedom Trust.

See, Are Professors ‘Selling Students Short’? http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/03/21/are-professors-selling-students-short

Moi really doesn’t know what to make of the idea of privatizing state universities. In the recent past, government had the goal of raising the standard of living and producing the economic conditions that fostered livable wage jobs. The goal of most politicians was to create the conditions that promoted and fostered a strong middle class. Particularly, after WWII and the Korean War, with the G.I Bill, one part of that equation was the wide availability of a college education. This push produced an educated workforce and a college education was within reach, no matter one’s class or social status. This educated workforce helped drive this country’s prosperity. Now, have we lost the goal of providing educational opportunity the widest number of people possible, no matter their class or social status? This question causes moi to wonder about privatizing state universities.

A couple of questions. First, has anyone ever looked at how efficient the academic world is in spending current resources? Second, is the current institutional model one that works? Should there be changes in the institutional model?

Related:

Ohio study: Deregulation in college education equals less access to modest and lower-income students https://drwilda.com/2012/10/19/ohio-study-deregulation-in-college-education-equals-less-access-to-modest-and-lower-income-students/

Center for American Progress report: Performance-based funding in higher education https://drwilda.com/2012/08/12/center-for-american-progress-report-performance-based-funding-in-higher-education/

Where information leads to Hope. ©                  Dr. Wilda.com

Dr. Wilda says this about that ©

Blogs by Dr. Wilda:

COMMENTS FROM AN OLD FART©                      http://drwildaoldfart.wordpress.com/

Dr. Wilda Reviews ©                                             http://drwildareviews.wordpress.com/

Dr. Wilda ©                                                                                                    https://drwilda.com/

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The 04/02/13 Joy Jar

1 Apr

Every season requires going through the closet and listing what needs to be mended. Having made the list, moi realized that she needed some thread in different colors. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is the needle and thread that mends clothes.

Forgiveness is the needle that knows how to mend.
Jewel

 

 

Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides.
Lao Tzu

 

 

He, who every morning plans the transactions of the day, and follows that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through a labyrinth of the most busy life.
Victor Hugo

 

 

A gentle heart is tied with an easy thread.
George Herbert

 

As every thread of gold is valuable, so is every moment of time.
John Mason

Tags: , , , , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →