Download or read book Implementing Proficiency Based Learning in Vermont High Schools written by Andrew B. Jones (Ph.D.) and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Vermont Educational Quality Standards, passed in 2014, require students to graduate high school based on proficiency not merely by the accrual of course credits. The deadline to implement this policy is 2020, and thus, high schools across Vermont are feverishly revamping their systems and structures to support this change. Like many reforms, teachers are at the forefront of putting this policy into practice. The purpose of this study is to understand how teachers experience the shift to implement proficiency-based learning practices in their classrooms and how administrators support teachers in making this transition. Two Vermont high schools were selected for this study. Both were well underway with formal implementation efforts. An online questionnaire was provided to all teachers at both schools. The district curriculum coordinators and all school administrators, in addition to any instructional coaches, were interviewed on a one-on-one basis. Four teachers from each site, representing a variety of subject areas (math, science, ELA, and social studies) were also interviewed on an individual basis. Furthermore, a variety of documents were analyzed from each site, including grading policies, teacher handbooks, and other artifacts related to the implementation of proficiency-based learning. Findings suggest that teachers were actively engaged in implementation efforts within their classrooms but found the process challenging. Certain aspects of proficiency-based learning prove to be more difficult than other elements to put into practice. Engaging in a "pedagogical triage," teachers were selective with regard to which aspects of proficiency-based learning they attempted to implement. Given a lack of time and resources and the complex nature of the reform, teachers generally implemented those elements that were easier to put into practice. Furthermore, school and district administrators provided a variety of supports and resources to assist teachers' sensemaking of proficiency-based learning practices. Intentional educational infrastructure that included instructional coaches, assessment cycles, professional learning communities, and curriculum materials, were evident at both the high schools in this study. Overall, the changes teachers discussed were more evolutionary than revolutionary. This study illuminates the specific challenges with implementing proficiency-based learning in a high school setting and how teachers experience putting proficiency-based learning into practice in the classroom. Additionally, the role of instructional coaches emerged as a key element of a coherent educational infrastructure in supporting teacher sensemaking of policy messages. Proficiency-based learning holds promise as an education reform but will only work with a coordinated educational infrastructure and a timeline that allows teachers to full comprehend all aspects of the policy.

Download or read book Implementing Proficiency Based Learning written by Catherine Toland and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ABSTRACT The passage of Act 77 in June 2013 and the Educational Quality Standards passed in April 2014 are significantly changing the way education is being conceptualized in Vermont. These two policy mandates called for all Vermont high schools to shift to proficiency-based learning (PBL), also known as standards-based, competency-based or mastery-based learning, by 2020. Yet scant research exists on how to implement PBL. This qualitative study addresses this need by examining the perspectives of three exemplary high school social studies teachers who were early adopters of proficiency- based instruction and learning in their classrooms. The research centered on questions about the teachers' perspectives on the curricular, instructional, and assessment shifts accompanying and supporting the implementation of PBL. The theoretical framework that informed this study was constructivist theory and the notion that knowledge is socially constructed through the learner's interaction with the world (Brooks & Brooks, 1999). The study focused on teachers' perspectives on and understandings of these shifts in order to capture innovative tools, strategies, and instructional approaches they developed as they implemented PBL. The findings may inform the thinking of social studies educators, administrators, policy makers, students, and other stakeholders interested in implementing PBL. The major findings that emerged in this study included several key components the teachers identified as vital to PBL implementation in a classroom including the need to: 1) identify key skills and concepts required to meet proficiencies, 2) use targeted and ongoing feedback with learners, 3) enact a curricular design that situates proficiencies in authentic experiences that provide multiple opportunities for practice, 4) support the emergence of new structures in high schools such as larger chunks of time with students, high school teaming, and flexible grouping of students, and 5) teach students explicitly about the learning process. The study also identified several broader policy considerations related to the implementation of PBL including a need for: 1) targeted professional development, 2) restructured school schedules to accommodate collaborative learning conversations among educators, administrators, and students, 3) collaboratively designed (including student voice) learning proficiencies that create a coherent experience from grades 9 to 12 (Fullan, 2016), and 4) redesigned preservice teacher training so that newly credentialed teachers are prepared to teach in proficiency-based centered learning environments.

Download or read book The Standards Based Classroom written by Emily Rinkema and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2018-08-10 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Get to know which practices related to curriculum, instruction, and assessment are essential to make learning the goal for every student! You’ll learn how to Create learning targets that are scalable and transferable within and across units Develop instructional scales for each learning target Design non-scored practice activities and assessments Introduce and model skills that will be assessed and design tasks that allow students to use these skills Differentiate instruction and activities based on data from various types of assessments Maintain a gradebook that tracks summative achievement of learning targets, and score assessments accordingly Communicate progress clearly and efficiently with students and families

Download or read book Proficiency based Grading in the Content Areas written by Wendy Custable and published by Solution Tree. This book was released on 2019 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No matter the content area or grade level, proficiency-based grading puts student growth at the heart of the classroom. Designed for content-area teachers and administrators, Proficiency-Based Grading in the Content Areas details how to implement evidence-based grading and maintain its effectiveness over time. This book equips any educator -- from technical to fine arts -- with the tools to make this shift. Use proficiency-based grading (also known as evidence-based grading) to drive student success: Become familiar with the basic concepts and essential decisions of evidence-based grading that apply to all content areas. Study individual-level and institutional-level grading decisions and how they differ from each other. Become familiar with the steps, paradigm shifts, and pedagogy necessary to implement proficiency-based grading in a particular content area. Study the ways proficiency-based grading differs from content area to content area and the unique benefits it offers to each. Follow a structure that mirrors flow psychology and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's five stages of creativity. Contents: Introduction Chapter 1: Implementing Proficiency-Based Grading With Core Belief Fidelity Chapter 2: Implementing Evidence-Based Reporting in Career and Technical Education Chapter 3: Implementing Evidence-Based Grading in English Language Arts Chapter 4: Implementing Evidence-Based Grading in Fine Arts Chapter 5: Implementing Evidence-Based Grading in Mathematics Chapter 6: Implementing Evidence-Based Grading in Physical Education and Health Chapter 7: Implementing Evidence-Based Grading in Sciences Chapter 8: Implementing Evidence-Based Grading in Social Sciences Chapter 9: Implementing Evidence-Based Grading in World Languages Epilogue: Creating Self-Reliant Learners References and Resources Index

Download or read book The Grammar of Schooling Is Changing written by Stephanie Dee Ratmeyer and published by . This book was released on 2024 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vermont's Flexible Pathways Initiative (2013), also known as Act 77, and changes in the Education Quality Standards (EQS) of 2014 required a paradigm shift in how middle and high school students meet graduation requirements. A compelling promise of the new paradigm is high school education will be more engaging and equitable and that all students will graduate "college and career ready" (Flexible Pathways Initiative, 2013). The "three pillars" (Bishop et al., 2017) of the new policy are flexible pathways, personalized learning plans, and proficiency-based education requirements. Middle and high schools are now required to help each student develop a personalized learning plan and make available a wide range of learning pathways (including but not limited to taking courses) for students to demonstrate their learning. Students graduate from high school not by accumulating course credits based on time spent in class, but by proving that they have developed, at minimum, the required knowledge and skills or proficiencies. In the context of Act 77 and EQS, students are active co-creators-with educators, parents, and other stakeholders-of their learning trajectories and learning experiences. At the heart of Vermont's educational shift is a profound change in how high school students and teachers are expected to relate to each other. This collective case study (Stake, 1995) explores the experiences of seven Vermont high school teachers who worked in different schools in spring 2019, near the end of the phase-in of flexible pathways, personal learning plans, and proficiency-based education. Collective case study does not result in generalizable findings; it allows for exploration of a change or adaptation in specific contexts. The unit of analysis in this study is each individual teacher. Using Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological systems framework as explicated by Shelton (2019), this study seeks to understand how these seven teachers perceived and interpreted the new policy demands, the "ecological transition" (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), and factors that enhanced or inhibited change in their professional practice especially related to interactions with students. A contribution of this study is use of metaphor to describe and analyze how the participants positioned themselves in relation to their students as they navigated the paradigm shift in what it means to be a teacher. Findings of this study include four broad groupings of the metaphors for how the seven teachers were enacting their relationships with students: 1. Understanding the territory and journeying with students (Harbor Pilot and Coach) 2. Setting the stage for learning and stepping back for students to perform (Youth Orchestra Conductor and Acrobatic Troupe Leader) 3. Leading students down a specific learning pathway, ensuring they have fun along the way (Cheerleader and Educational Entertainer) 4. Wanting to focus primarily on content, yet unsure how to motivate students or integrate disciplinary practices (Tightrope Walker)

Download or read book Place based Curriculum Design written by Amy B. Demarest and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-10-30 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Place-based Curriculum Design provides pre-service and practicing teachers both the rationale and tools to create and integrate meaningful, place-based learning experiences for students. Practical, classroom-based curricular examples illustrate how teachers can engage the local and still be accountable to the existing demands of federal, state, and district mandates. Coverage includes connecting the curriculum to students’ outside-of-school lives; using local phenomena or issues to enhance students’ understanding of discipline-based questions; engaging in in-depth explorations of local issues and events to create cross-disciplinary learning experiences, and creating units or sustained learning experiences aimed at engendering social and environmental renewal. An on-line resource (www.routledge.com/9781138013469) provides supplementary materials, including curricular templates, tools for reflective practice, and additional materials for instructors and students.

Download or read book Proficiency based Instruction written by Eric Twadell and published by Solution Tree. This book was released on 2019 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Proficiency-Based Instruction: Rethinking Lesson Design and Delivery authors Eric Twadell, Mark Onuscheck, Anthony Reibel, and Troy Gobble offer a comprehensive guide in proficiency-based instruction and its implementation. The authors begin with a persuasive explanation of the benefits of changing from traditional instruction to one based on student proficiency. However, they recognize that the process of switching from long-standing, traditional methods of instruction to an entirely new method are both daunting and confusing. Thus, the authors offer a process of five comprehensive steps based on the creative process-(1) preparation, (2) incubation, (3) insight, (4) evaluation, and (5) elaboration-that educators can follow to make the switch to proficiency-based instruction. Moreover, the authors ensure that no instructor will go through this process alone by offering the tools necessary to carry out these steps as part of a collaborative team. Through this book, readers will gain all the tools and strategies they need to make the switch from traditional methods of instruction to a system of proficiency-based instruction.

Download or read book Schooling by Design written by Grant P. Wiggins and published by ASCD. This book was released on 2007 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authors of Understanding by Design share a compelling strategy for creating schools that truly fulfill the central mission of education: to help students become "thoughtful, productive, and accomplished at worthy tasks."

Download or read book High School Principal Leadership for the Implementation of a Personalized Proficiency Education Paradigm in the State of Vermont written by Jennifer L. Stainton and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As of 2014, the State of Vermont adopted a policy package directing schools to implement a new way of educating and graduating students. Vermont's Act 77 and Education Quality Standards require schools to identify specific skills and knowledge students must be proficient in to graduate and ensure each student has a personalized experience. Vermont's tradition of local control means high school principals are leading change in their schools. How high school principals are understanding, valuing, and acting to lead the implementation of Vermont's policies for personalized, proficiency-based education therefore varies by location. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore high school principal leadership at a critical juncture of implementing Vermont's personalized proficiency education paradigm. Principals' understanding was analyzed using an accountability vs. flexibility framework influenced by Sturgis (2016) and Labaree (1997). Principals' action steps were considered through the lens of Frontier and Rickabaugh's (2014) five levers for school change. Principals' leadership style was analyzed using transformational leadership practices (Leithwood & Sun, 2012). The findings from five high school principals suggest that Vermont's policies were valued for their potential to improve student outcomes, student engagement, and future career opportunities. Principals' understanding of the policies varied, suggesting a lack of cohesive understanding of policy goals across the state. They leveraged school structures and education standards to enact policy implementation, suggesting a focus on proficiency over personalization at the time of this study. Principals in this study were leading school change by building teacher capacity and enabling teacher collaboration, suggesting they were accessing key transformational leadership practices to enable school change. The principals also identified sticking points to implementation, including: a lack of appropriate computer software for proficiency-based grading, a limited timeframe for implementation, limited leadership resources and supports from the state, and worries about a lack of equity of opportunity for all students. This study has implications for education policy developers, state-level education agencies, and other high school principals. The findings suggest school-based implementation of state-level education policy, even in local control states, can be facilitated by supports for growing leader understanding of policy intentions and facilitating policy implementation with suggested timelines and key steps. The findings also suggest high school principals access transformational leadership practices when engaging their schools in a change process. By increasing the breadth of these practices, they can facilitate the whole-school change in a personalized proficiency paradigm.

Download or read book Proficiency based Assessment written by Troy Gobble and published by Solutions. This book was released on 2015-09-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explains how to close the gaps between assessment, curriculum, and instruction by replacing outmoded assessment methods with proficiency-based assessments.

Download or read book Equity Cultural Responsiveness in the Middle Grades written by Kathleen M. Brinegar and published by IAP. This book was released on 2019-04-01 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While developmental responsiveness is a deservingly key emphasis of middle grades education, this emphasis has often been to the detriment of focusing on the cultural needs of young adolescents. This Handbook volume explores research relating to equity and culturally responsive practices when working with young adolescents. Middle school philosophy largely centers on young adolescents as a collective group. This lack of focus has great implications for young adolescents of marginalized identities including but not limited to those with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, LGBTQ youth, and those living in poverty. If middle level educators claim to advocate for young adolescents, we need to mainstream conversations about supporting all young adolescents of marginalized identities. It empowers researchers, educators, and even young adolescents to critically examine and understand the intersectionality of identities that historically influenced (and continue to affect) young adolescents and why educators might perceive marginalized youth in certain ways. It is for these reasons that researchers, teachers, and other key constituents involved in the education of young adolescents must devote themselves to the critical examination and understanding of the historical and current socio-cultural factors affecting all young adolescents. The chapters in this volume serve as a means to open an intentional and explicit space for providing a critical lens on early adolescence–a lens that understands that both developmental and cultural needs of young adolescents need to be emphasized to create a learning environment that supports every young adolescent learner.

Download or read book The Global Achievement Gap written by Tony Wagner and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2014-03-11 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite the best efforts of educators, our nation's schools are dangerously obsolete. Instead of teaching students to be critical thinkers and problem-solvers, we are asking them to memorize facts for multiple choice tests. This problem isn't limited to low-income school districts: even our top schools aren't teaching or testing the skills that matter most in the global knowledge economy. Our teens leave school equipped to work only in the kinds of jobs that are fast disappearing from the American economy. Meanwhile, young adults in India and China are competing with our students for the most sought-after careers around the world. Education expert Tony Wagner has conducted scores of interviews with business leaders and observed hundreds of classes in some of the nation's most highly regarded public schools. He discovered a profound disconnect between what potential employers are looking for in young people today (critical thinking skills, creativity, and effective communication) and what our schools are providing (passive learning environments and uninspired lesson plans that focus on test preparation and reward memorization). He explains how every American can work to overhaul our education system, and he shows us examples of dramatically different schools that teach all students new skills. In addition, through interviews with college graduates and people who work with them, Wagner discovers how teachers, parents, and employers can motivate the &"net"; generation to excellence. An education manifesto for the twenty-first century, The Global Achievement Gap is provocative and inspiring. It is essential reading for parents, educators, business leaders, policy-makers, and anyone interested in seeing our young people succeed as employees and citizens. For additional information about the author and the book, please go to a href="http://www.schoolchange.org"www.schoolchange.org

Download or read book Protocols in the Classroom written by David Allen and published by Teachers College Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For nearly 2 decades, Looking Together at Student Work and The Power of Protocols have sustained educators in their professional learning. Protocols in the Classroom expands the scope of those books from teachers’ professional learning to include students’ learning, providing teachers with the tools they need to use discussion protocols to support students in developing crucial skills and habits as readers, writers, critical thinkers, and active participants within the classroom community. For each protocol the authors provide a clear set of steps, tips for teachers and students in facilitating the protocol, and a story of a teacher using the protocol with students. The book is filled with resources for getting started using protocols with students, as well as for deepening the use of protocols over time. It also relates protocols to other strategies for supporting students’ learning, including Accountable Talk, Thinking Routines, and Socratic seminars. The authors describe how protocols contribute to a schoolwide culture of discussion, inquiry, and reflection. “These authors really know what they are writing about—not just protocols (though they are world experts there) but teaching and learning.” —From the Foreword by Joseph P. McDonald, emeritus professor, New York University “Excellent examples, along with multiple protocols, provide the tools to get started immediately. This book is a phenomenal resource.” —Kari Thierer, School Reform Initiative “This is the perfect guidebook for teachers to use protocols effectively in their classrooms.” —Ron Berger, EL Education

Download or read book Reaching and Teaching Students in Poverty written by Paul C. Gorski and published by Teachers College Press. This book was released on 2017-12-29 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This influential book describes the knowledge and skills teachers and school administrators need to recognize and combat bias and inequity that undermine educational engagement for students experiencing poverty. Featuring important revisions based on newly available research and lessons from the authors professional development work, this Second Edition includes: a new chapter outlining the dangers of grit and deficit perspectives as responses to educational disparities; three updated chapters of research-informed, on-the-ground strategies for teaching and leading with equity literacy; and expanded lists of resources and readings to support transformative equity work in high-poverty and mixed-class schools. Written with an engaging, conversational style that makes complex concepts accessible, this book will help readers learn how to recognize and respond to even the subtlest inequities in their classrooms, schools, and districts.

Download or read book The End of Average written by Todd Rose and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2016-01-19 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are you above average? Is your child an A student? Is your employee an introvert or an extrovert? Every day we are measured against the yardstick of averages, judged according to how closely we come to it or how far we deviate from it. The assumption that metrics comparing us to an average—like GPAs, personality test results, and performance review ratings—reveal something meaningful about our potential is so ingrained in our consciousness that we don’t even question it. That assumption, says Harvard’s Todd Rose, is spectacularly—and scientifically—wrong. In The End of Average, Rose, a rising star in the new field of the science of the individual shows that no one is average. Not you. Not your kids. Not your employees. This isn’t hollow sloganeering—it’s a mathematical fact with enormous practical consequences. But while we know people learn and develop in distinctive ways, these unique patterns of behaviors are lost in our schools and businesses which have been designed around the mythical “average person.” This average-size-fits-all model ignores our differences and fails at recognizing talent. It’s time to change it. Weaving science, history, and his personal experiences as a high school dropout, Rose offers a powerful alternative to understanding individuals through averages: the three principles of individuality. The jaggedness principle (talent is always jagged), the context principle (traits are a myth), and the pathways principle (we all walk the road less traveled) help us understand our true uniqueness—and that of others—and how to take full advantage of individuality to gain an edge in life. Read this powerful manifesto in the ranks of Drive, Quiet, and Mindset—and you won’t see averages or talent in the same way again.

Download or read book Leaders of Their Own Learning written by Ron Berger and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2014-01-07 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From EL Education comes a proven approach to student assessment Leaders of Their Own Learning offers a new way of thinking about assessment based on the celebrated work of EL Education schools across the country. Student-Engaged Assessment is not a single practice but an approach to teaching and learning that equips and compels students to understand goals for their learning and growth, track their progress toward those goals, and take responsibility for reaching them. This requires a set of interrelated strategies and structures and a whole-school culture in which students are given the respect and responsibility to be meaningfully engaged in their own learning. Includes everything teachers and school leaders need to implement a successful Student-Engaged Assessment system in their schools Outlines the practices that will engage students in making academic progress, improve achievement, and involve families and communities in the life of the school Describes each of the book's eight key practices, gives advice on how to begin, and explains what teachers and school leaders need to put into practice in their own classrooms Ron Berger is Chief Program Officer for EL Education and a former public school teacher Leaders of Their Own Learning shows educators how to ignite the capacity of students to take responsibility for their own learning, meet Common Core and state standards, and reach higher levels of achievement. DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of the e-book file, but are available for download after purchase.

Download or read book Equity Centered Trauma Informed Education written by Alex Shevrin Venet and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-09-01 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Educators must both respond to the impact of trauma, and prevent trauma at school. Trauma-informed initiatives tend to focus on the challenging behaviors of students and ascribe them to circumstances that students are facing outside of school. This approach ignores the reality that inequity itself causes trauma, and that schools often heighten inequities when implementing trauma-informed practices that are not based in educational equity. In this fresh look at trauma-informed practice, Alex Shevrin Venet urges educators to shift equity to the center as they consider policies and professional development. Using a framework of six principles for equity-centered trauma-informed education, Venet offers practical action steps that teachers and school leaders can take from any starting point, using the resources and influence at their disposal to make shifts in practice, pedagogy, and policy. Overthrowing inequitable systems is a process, not an overnight change. But transformation is possible when educators work together, and teachers can do more than they realize from within their own classrooms.