What are three building blocks for improving schools?Stop blaming, establish clear aims, agree on definition of improvementSchool takes up what percentage of a persons first 18 years of life?13%According to Coleman, what is a pupils achievement strongly related to?Ed. Background and aspirations of other pupils

All children are born ________MotivatedJenkins says that _________ is destroying the inborn motivation to learn?CompetitionName three things that Jenkins says teachers need to internalize?Everyone is born motivated, techniques they have witnessed de-motivates, whatever de-motivates adults de-motivates children

List at least three psychological truths listed by Deming.Most people, once discouraged stay that way.Children dont destroy their own motivation, adults do.Theres no shortage of good people unless people create it.Ranking destroys joy.The customer defines joy.

One can more nearly predict the future through what?StatisticsWhat are three suggested steps for teachers to take in order to be successful?Explain aim of course, quiz students on square root, and use class run charts and scattergramsWhen there are more successes and fewer failures.

How can an administrator know that his/her school has improved?

According to Deming, this term is defined as what customers say.FeedbackWhen the goal is improvement, the teacher believes what?Teacher has major responsibility for student learning.What can students and teachers plan together by sharing feedback?Effective instructional strategies

Grade level is a synonym for what?AverageList the requirements for quality measurement.State course objectives, develop rubrics for single and continuous events, assess students regularly, organize assessment data into classroom chart, use feedback to make corrections.

Describe Dr. Demings method for improving learning.Provide students with info. they are expected to know; randomly select concepts of the total amount of info. And quiz on the sq. root; use class run charts and scattergrams; use data (feedback) to make correctionsWhat is the answer to those who question giving a quiz to students on concepts not yet taught?Its a preview of info; its not graded; its the hook

Describe the process (give example) of continuous improvement model described by Jenkins for assessing essential information.Explain to students that the first eight weeks of each quarter is practice time. The teacher is the coach and will be doing everything possible to help them improve. The ninth week is game week; practice is over. During the last week of the quarter, on a designated day, students bring all assignments to class. The can revise any assignment based upon instruction given, up until the due date. Teacher rolls the dice and what ever number comes up, thats the assignment number they are to turn in.

Chapters 6 and 7 - Improving Student Learning

Whats rubric?Rubrics are scales of quality and a scale must be developed. This is a performance based assessment.How do teachers know when students are better writers, better solvers of math problems, better artists,and better science researchers?Just add up the rubric scores

Can teachers inspect quality into any process?No, they must build in the quality.What are the steps for doing this?1. Provide students with rubrics by which their work will be evaluated2. Explain to students that the first eight weeks of each quarter is practice time. The teacher is the coach and will be doing everything possible to help them improve. The ninth week is game week; practice is over.

3. Assign the first assignment. Afterwards all students are to reflect upon possible errors or trouble spots.4. The teacher randomly selects five students (or sq. root of the total students in class) from each period for a 1:1 conversation regarding their assignment. The randomness is done in class so students know it is probability that chose them.5. Based on error analyses and observations from 20 assignments (four periods of five students each), teachers prepare lessons for teaching/reteaching.

6. Teachers repeat this process at least four times each quarter. Up to this point, there is still no grade recorded. 7. During the last week of the quarter, on a designated day, student bring all assignments to class. The can revise any assignment based upon instruction given, up until the due date. Teacher rolls the dice and what ever number comes up, thats the assignment number they are to turn in.8. The teacher now grades all student assignments for that portion of the grade for that class.

The goal is to improve instruction, learning, and the students products (assignments).

Chemistry: Mary Kaser - Lourdes High School - Rochester MN.

Refer to Post-Lab Assessment Rubric in Jenkins book.Mary scans all lab reports briefly, giving a 1-5 score, but then randomly selects five students from each period for the complete 1-20 scoring and item analysis of errors. At the end of each nine weeks, she selects one lab report to be gathered from each student. This is randomly selected from the 8 to 12 lab reports written each quarter.

Grade 3 Writing - Tim Sheppard and Nancy Hunter - Wenatchee, WA

All third grade teachers have agreed to randomly select sample stories by grade level. The teachers have agreed upon 11 essential skills (see pages 62 and 63.) At regular intervals the teachers have their students write on the same topic. The papers are collected from students and 15 (sq. root of the third grade classes) are randomly selected. Each teacher scores five: theres no need to read all papers; the 15 scored give all the necessary information. The teachers say that their wacky writing provides an avenue for regular conversation among grade three teachers regarding their understanding of essential writing skills and the writing process.

Continuous Improvement in the Mathematics Classroom - by Carolyn Ayers.

Students are given a math problem. The students try to solve it on their own and Carolyn scores it according to her rubric and results are graphed. The teaching comes the following day when her second graders are placed in groups of four and given the same problem again, along with a blank transparency. The students solve the problem again, this time allowing her to listen to their thinking. Each group, using their transparency, present their solution to the remainder of the class. The ensuing discussion with the whole class and the teacher is the primary method that Carolyn uses to assist them in reaching higher levels of performance.

Sixth-grade Science - Debi Molina-Walters - Antioch, CA

The school year begins with students receiving the rubric for science lab reports (see handout). Students are then given their first lab assignment and they record their results. They self-edit, using the rubric, then they have their peers edit their lab write up. Finally, Debi edits the labs so students have a model to work from the year. This lab is not graded: it is used as the foundation for future learning. The process continues throughout the year in the same manner. Experiments are conducted in groups of four, students write up their lab report, they self-edit the report, they have the report peer-edited, and then they save the report. After four labs, each student selects their two best lab reports for their portfolio., and then one of the two to be handed in for Debi to score on the rubric and record as a grade.

Sixth-grade Science - Debi Molina-Walters - Antioch, CA

Significant points:

Debi is not scoring all of the lab reports. She is scoring only 25 % of the labs herself. With the extra time she is listening. Se is listening to the discussion of each group of four while they are conducting labs and she is listening to peer-editing of the lab write-ups. Listening to students coach each other through the process gives her the information necessary to further develop their performance levels.ITS PERFORMANCE THAT MATTERS THE MOST!

True or False - every subject in every grade level contains essential information?TrueWhat should students receive during their first week of class?The essential information they need to know by the end of the course.

Middle School Science - Some districts have decided to have 100 facts per grade. Sixth-graders are responsible for the first 100 facts, seventh-graders are responsible for the second 100 facts, and eighth-graders are responsible for all 300 facts. (Students are given all of the facts in sixth grade.)Whats the result?Middle school Science classes are now connected. Instead of three separate one year programs, Science is now a three-year program.

Continuous Improvement in the History/Science Classroom by Shelly CarsonThe first history course is in the fifth grade and covers earliest times of the North American Content to the American Revolution. The second course is in the eighth grade and covers the United States from the US Constitution to 1900. The unique twist is that during the first week of 11th grade, students are provided essential facts for all three courses and every quiz, every quarterly exam, and the final includes items from all three years. So the teacher randomly selects 16 items from the 250 essential facts for quizzes.Whats the result?History classes are now connected. Instead of three separate one-year programs, History is now a three-year program.

Why use the Square Root method?The square root provides a large enough sample size to be accurate. The sample size is large enough if quizzing is done on a regular basis. Also, the square root works for both large and smaller numbers.Why use (or grade) a sample from all the students?The simple reason for sampling is theres not enough time to assess students continually on everything they need to know. Sampling takes the least amount of classroom time and provides the most up-to-date information.

Why use the method of selection by random selection?For mathematicians and scientists, random selection means accurate because no human biases are distorting the data. For educators, this means that students are no longer attempting to psych-out the instructor to determine what will be on the exam.How do teachers select random items?Specialty dice, a fishbowl with 300 facts on index cards, random number generators, bingo game with numbers 1 - 300. www.random.org

Do Items and Questions Repeat?Yes. Every essential fact has an equal chance of being drawn. The goal is not for students to know the answers to questions, but to know the concepts and vocabulary. So teachers should ask the questions in different ways, I.E., multiple choice, T or F, fill in the blank, open-ended questions.

How will parents react to students being quizzed on items that have not yet been taught?Preparation is needed. First, students need assurance that the quiz doesnt count for their grade and that the purpose is to show how they are learning individually and how they are learning collectively. They also need to be continually reminded that they will know the content at the end of the year. Second, parents are usually satisfied when they know: 1) their children are not graded on quizzes, 2) a by-product of this process is that it takes away cramming (which they know is a waste of time) and 3) each quiz is really a practice for the end-of-the-year final, which will be graded.

How long does this take each week?Teachers experience in continuous improvement say that most of the time is spent teaching-either review of prior content or preview of upcoming content. So, they dont see this as assessment time taking away from instruction; they see instruction.How can teachers get the class data quickly?In order to expedite the process, and not to embarrass students, teachers have several ways of collecting numbers. Generally, students are in groups. A monitor is assigned to each group to gather up the number correct from each student in their small group.

Steve Denny and Dave Bell of Cincinnatis Woods High School have summarized their observations regarding continuous improvement:Students have accepted responsibility for the learning goal.Students are ready and anxious to help one another.Students ideas about how to reach the learning goal are plentiful.Students become active teachers of one another.Intervention is much more successful now.Teachers have a clearer picture of where they need to intervene.Students have a much more accurate sense of their progress.Parents feel good about the progress being made.Aspects of continuous improvement motivate students.

Principal Brian Krob from Tipton, Iowa, Middle School:Controlling ones actions is self-controlDoing something without being asked is taking initiativeMeeting deadlines is being responsibleTaking pride in ones self is self-respectSticking to a purpose or an aim is perseverance Carolyn Ayres:The motivation seems to come naturally with the process of testing, checking, learning from mistakes, improving, and being able to see the visible evidence of growth on the graphs.