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By: Deborah Cahill

As an educator I always tell my students, what I am doing is giving you life skills so that you will know how to handle any situation in any occupation or situation in which you find yourself.  When I teach literature I very often have my students work cooperatively so that they learn how to work as a team and know the importance of contributing to the whole group by doing their specific job.  Leaders always emerge, and differences of opinion arise.  They are forced to use critical thinking skills.  This is good.  For all high school students, and specifically as a standard seniors must pass, they must do a series of oral presentations.  There is a funny thing about oral presentations: one of the top phobias is to speak in front of a group and, in fact, it is said that many people fear it more than death!  No one would leave my class without having some level of mastery in presentations.  I am in total agreement with Jay Matthews (see below) and I also believe this is where testing should be geared, toward essential life skills. Students are much more motivated to learn if they can see how it relates to their lives!

Teachers Discuss Importance Of “Essential Life Skills,” And How To Teach Them.

In an article for the Washington Post (2/18), Jay Mathews writes about “eight essential life skills” that students should learn in school, accompanied by “expert opinion on their importance and how to teach them.” Among these skills are organization, teamwork, exercise, arguing, critical thinking and presentation. In regards to the last skill Mathews writes, “As adults we often learn the hard way how important it is to be prepared, maintain eye contact and dress appropriately for the situation. It is better to learn this in school than while shaking in fear two minutes before our first job interview.”

EwingSIR does not guarantee information contained in this blog, readers are encouraged not to rely solely on this information and to do their own independent research of facts contained herein. Blog information was obtained from independent sources that we do not endorse, and we do not investigate this information for accuracy.

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Posted by Deborah Cahill on February 18th, 2010

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School Accountability Needs Proper Metrics

By: Deborah Cahill

I agree with Professor Daniel Willingham (see below) that there are no good tools to measure teachers.  If you base a teacher’s success strictly on student test scores, you have done a gross injustice to teachers and students alike.  This throws us right back to teaching to the test and sacrificing core curriculum and content which are so enriching, interesting and necessary.  Having to limit our content means our students are missing valuable material and are even less prepared if they are attending college.  Even more unconscionable is withholding funds from those states who disagree with this practice of  evaluating teachers based on test scores.  If the federal government and President Obama want educators to be held more strictly accountable then they must come up with a fair and effective way to measure teachers’ performances and stop black mailing states if they do not go along with this practice.

Law & Policy

Op-Ed: School Accountability Push Will Fail Without Proper Metrics

University of Virginia Psychology Professor Daniel Willingham writes in an op-ed in the Boston Globe (2/4), “In an effort to improve public schools, President Obama wants to hold individual teachers accountable for student test scores; indeed, states that prohibit the practice are ineligible for the ‘Race to the Top’ funds.” However, “we do not have good tools to measure teachers, and when you hold people accountable with poor measures, things…get worse. The reason is simple: Accountability changes workers’ focus from ‘do a good job’ to ‘do a job that looks good according to the measure.’”

EwingSIR does not guarantee information contained in this blog, readers are encouraged not to rely solely on this information and to do their own independent research of facts contained herein. Blog information was obtained from independent sources that we do not endorse, and we do not investigate this information for accuracy.

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Posted by Deborah Cahill on February 9th, 2010

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By: Deborah Cahill

This study ties play time to success in the classroom.  This makes perfect sense.  Even as adults with longer so called “attention spans,” when we are attending lectures or involved in classroom studies, how long does it take before we get “figidty” and want a break!  Children need to be alert and fresh.  Sometimes it is even appropriate to get the class up (whether they are elementary or college!) and have them do stretches or some other physical activity to re-focus their attention.  I don’t think we really need a study to tell us this, unless they are making a case for putting recess back in schools as the favorite class of the day!

Leading the News

Most Elementary School Principals Say Recess Positively Impacts Achievement, Poll Shows.

The Christian Science Monitor (2/4, Paulson) reported that a new Gallup survey shows “more than 80 percent of elementary-school principals believe that recess has a positive impact on academic achievement.” Also, according to “two-thirds of the principals” polled, “students listen better and are more focused in class” after recess. “The findings support a growing wave of educators who are pushing to restore the place of recess in schools and, in some cases, to improve its quality.” Schools in some cities such as “Chicago, Atlanta, and Boston…have dropped recess completely,” amid budget cuts and an increasingly intense focus on test preparation.

Nancy Shute wrote in the US News and World Report (2/4) On Parenting blog, “Recess has almost disappeared from the curriculum at many schools, edged out by more math and reading work as schools push to raise scores on standardized tests.” But more and more research “shows that adding more play to the day, not less, improves the likelihood of better test scores and behavior.” However, Shute adds, “The news wasn’t all good. The principals said most of their discipline problems happened during a recess or lunch break and said that they would like to have more staff to monitor the playground, better equipment, and training in playground management.”

EwingSIR does not guarantee information contained in this blog, readers are encouraged not to rely solely on this information and to do their own independent research of facts contained herein. Blog information was obtained from independent sources that we do not endorse, and we do not investigate this information for accuracy.

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Posted by Deborah Cahill on February 5th, 2010

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By: Deborah Cahill

Yet another follow up on NCLB, this time addressing AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) requirements for all schools.  I think there needs to be some middle ground between was has been expected and what the new expectations are to be.  Without doubt the perimeters the Bush Administration set up for “No Child Left Behind” has not worked and has only served to punish schools who have not made “the grade” but have clearly shown progress, which in many cases has been quite substantial.  Totally eliminating the program, or suspending it indefinitely, may not be the answer either.

I think perhaps the Obama administration needs to get a wider range of educators, including teachers in “the trenches,” involved nationwide to give their input and expertise based on in the field working knowledge of the situation at hand.  I believe more control needs to be given locally to states and districts because they are in a much better position to access progress and set relevant and realistic goals.  California is one state that does have the CAHSEE (California High School Exit Exam) which is a state exam that all students must pass in order to graduate.  Clearly more states needs to institute a similar program.

I am not saying that this will “fix” everything, nor I am saying that there is one solution to this problem.  Undeniably if the United States is going to remain a world force we need to step up the pace in education to make our youth viable contenders as the world leaders of tomorrow.  I am glad to see, at least, according to the article below, that this issue is starting to be more aggressively addressed.

Law & Policy

Obama Administration Seeking To Eliminate “Adequate Yearly Progress” Benchmark.

The Washington Post (2/2, Anderson, 684K) reports, “As legions of schools nationwide fall short of academic targets, the Obama administration proposed Monday to toss out” the NCLB Adequate Yearly Progress “pass-fail measure that for 15 years has been the bedrock of the school accountability system and replace it with an index that would reward educators who prepare students for college and careers.” Duncan “credited” NCLB “for exposing achievement gaps but said it has focused too much on reading and math and unfairly labeled many schools.”

Globe Calls Backing Away From AYP Mandates A “Mistake.” The Boston Globe (2/3) editorializes that the Obama administration “is retreating from a deadline to bring every child in 98,000 public schools to academic proficiency by 2014. What was seen as an attainable goal in the Bush years is now a ‘utopian goal,’ according to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.” Yet, according to the Globe, “backing away from the goal that all students achieve proficiency on their state exams is a mistake in a field where nothing short of high-stakes testing grabs the attention of students, parents, teachers, and school administrators.”

EwingSIR does not guarantee information contained in this blog, readers are encouraged not to rely solely on this information and to do their own independent research of facts contained herein. Blog information was obtained from independent sources that we do not endorse, and we do not investigate this information for accuracy.

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Posted by Deborah Cahill on February 4th, 2010

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By: Deborah Cahill

No Child Left Behind

The New York Times (2/1, A1, Dillon) reports on its front page that the Obama administration “is proposing a sweeping overhaul” of NCLB “and will call for broad changes in how schools are judged to be succeeding or failing, as well as for the elimination of the law’s 2014 deadline for bringing every American child to academic proficiency.” However, the Times adds that the “administration is not planning to abandon the law’s commitments to closing the achievement gap between minority and white students and to encouraging teacher quality.” The Times notes that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan “foreshadowed the elimination of the 2014 deadline in a September speech, referring to it as a ‘utopian goal,’ and administration officials have since made clear that they want the deadline eliminated.”

Finally some common sense when it comes to this legislation.  NCLB (No Child Left Behind) is a wonderful in theory but it lacks the realistic ability to enforce it.  You cannot expect schools in “School Improvement” to miraculously catch up to schools in areas where the average household has at least one parent with a college degree just because the state is requiring higher test scores!  It just is not possible.

Realistic goals need to be set so that we are seeing steady improvement and at the same time are not setting goals which increase each year making it impossible for these schools to ever get out of School Improvement.  This encourages and allows the best students from the School Improvement schools to leave to go to other schools which are not in school improvement, hence making it more difficult for the SI school to improve test scores because their best students are no longer in attendance to help pull up their scores! It has been a “catch 22″ which has caused a great deal of distress and unfair pressure on the SI schools.  Maybe this new understanding on the part of the government will finally help public education and take some pressure off the schools who are drowning under this deadline.

EwingSIR does not guarantee information contained in this blog, readers are encouraged not to rely solely on this information and to do their own independent research of facts contained herein. Blog information was obtained from independent sources that we do not endorse, and we do not investigate this information for accuracy.

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Posted by Deborah Cahill on February 1st, 2010

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By: Deborah Cahill

As a secondary school teacher in California for a number of years and as a classroom teacher for over 25 years I can at “test” to the fact that one of the major complaints teachers have is that we spend far too much time teaching to the test and then taking even more time out from our regular courses of study to complete the tests!  It has gotten to the point where we loose weeks each year on tests which teachers feel are unnecessary and really devalue our time.  As a result, the amount of material we love to teach and which excites the students, and which we have been able to cover, seems to diminish each year.  Here is a brief article that addresses that concern.

California’s Top Teachers Say Law Hampers Classroom Creativity, According To Study.

California’s Press Enterprise (1/26, Straehley) reported, “The best teachers don’t like the effects of the No Child Left Behind act, saying it hampers creativity in the classroom and makes it harder to teach students to love learning,” according to a UC Riverside study published in Policy Matters today. Researchers “surveyed 740 national board certified teachers in California” and “found that 84 percent reported overall unfavorable attitudes about the” law. Many teachers said that “too much class time is devoted to teaching what’s on the state tests, and there’s little time left for creative and fun lessons.” Titled, “Does the No Child Left Behind Act Help or Hinder K-12 Education,” the reports also says that “teachers did see value in the focus and high expectations set by the act, but” did not see NCLB as helping students reach those standards.

EwingSIR does not guarantee information contained in this blog, readers are encouraged not to rely solely on this information and to do their own independent research of facts contained herein. Blog information was obtained from independent sources that we do not endorse, and we do not investigate this information for accuracy.

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Posted by Deborah Cahill on January 28th, 2010

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An Educational Report

By: Deborah Cahill

As a high school teacher and Realtor, I thought our readers would enjoy an educational report.  I have a masters in Secondary Administration and Supervision so this really caught my eye.  Here’s what I found:

The AP (1/20, Sutschek) reports that according to “a study by two Northern Illinois University professors…high school girls are bored, disengaged, and stressed in science classes when compared with boys.” Co-principal investigators, Jennifer Schmidt and M. Cecil Smith “looked at 244 high school students and 13 science teachers.” Responding to a pager “students immediately reported what they were doing and thinking, rating their engagement, enjoyment, anxiety and concentration levels.” According to Schmidt, boys and girls put forth equal efforts into lessons, “but for whatever reason the engagement switch is not being flipped for the girls, in spite of the fact that they get similar grades,” said Schmidt. Smith added that girls often rated “lectures and completing work at their seats as the most engaging classroom activities.” The researchers cited “societal expectations and the role of the teacher” as possible “causes for the gender differences.”

EwingSIR does not guarantee information contained in this blog, readers are encouraged not to rely solely on this information and to do their own independent research of facts contained herein. Blog information was obtained from independent sources that we do not endorse, and we do not investigate this information for accuracy.

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Posted by Deborah Cahill on January 20th, 2010

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This is pretty  simple… Please ask ten friends to each ask a further ten today!

By: Deborah Cahill

The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting  enough people to click on it daily so they can meet their quota of  getting FREE FOOD donated every day to abused and neglected animals.  It takes less than a minute (about 15 seconds) to go to their site  and click on the purple box ‘fund food for animals for free’. This  doesn’t cost you a thing.
Their corporate  sponsors/advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate food  to abandoned/neglected animals in exchange for advertising.
Here’s the web site! Please pass it along to people you know.

For more information, go to: The animal rescue

AGAIN, PLEASE TELL 10  FRIENDS!

EwingSIR does not guarantee information contained in this blog, readers are encouraged not to rely solely on this information and to do their own independent research of facts contained herein. Blog information was obtained from independent sources that we do not endorse, and we do not investigate this information for accuracy.

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Posted by Deborah Cahill on December 16th, 2009

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