“College and Career Ready” Clearly Isn’t Enough

Thirty years ago, there was a 31 percentage point difference between the share of prosperous and poor Americans earning bachelor’s degrees.  Today, that gap is 45 points.

                -M. Bailey and S. Dynarski, University of Michigan (taken from article by Jason DeParle)

This past weekend I had the opportunity to read a heartbreaking and gut-wrenching piece written by Jason DeParle in the New York Times.  This article depicts the rise, and subsequent fall, of three promising students from Galveston, Texas.  These three young women, all excellent students, seemed to have overcome the challenges brought on by their financially poor background.  They were in excellent standing within their school, had earned high marks both academically and socially from their teachers and school staff, and, by all accounts, were “college and career ready.”  Yet, as DeParle goes on to describe, this designation did not, in fact, prepare them for college and their future careers.

If you were to go by the Common Core State Standards Initiative’s designation of what “college and career ready” truly means (at least for ELA) you would likely find that these three young women were quite qualified to earn this title.  In their school lives, they exhibited all of the tenets necessary.  Yet, as their stories exhibit, it was what was happening outside of their school (and what occurred once they entered post-secondary education) that truly put them at a disadvantage.

This article, along with an in-depth discussion with my Superintendent (my thanks to Dr. Langlois for helping to turn my reactions to the article into a blog post) helped me come to the realization that college and career readiness is all but meaningless if it is seen as an endpoint, and not a benchmark along a much longer road.  The story of these three promising young ladies shows that currently, a “college and career ready” designation is as much edubabble and jargon as it is truly beneficial to students.  To truly help students ready themselves for college and be prepared for the challenges once they enter the workforce, much is left to be done.  Here are three steps that I believe must be taken to put us on the right path:

•            Provide smoother transitions for students.  Most elementary schools and middle schools have excellent transition programs in place.  Students spend time visiting their new schools and often start the year with a modified schedule that allows for them to slowly acclimate to the different world they’ve entered.  Quite a large number of schools also have transition plans in place for middle to high school moves.  Yet, this type of transition is all but nonexistent for seniors in high school.  Why?  While it is true that every college and university is different, and many attempt to welcome freshman with open arms and some sort of “intro to college” program, not all schools are as “beginner focused” as they could or should be.  Why don’t high schools, in conjunction with local colleges and/or universities design transition plans?  So what if students may not attend that college/university?  Wouldn’t the benefit to both parties and the assistance provided to students in getting a sense of what post-secondary education is like be worth it?  Certainly the PR, in itself, would do wonders for education in the US.  In the article, none of the three women truly had any clue what college would be like, despite the best intentions of busy guidance counselors and staff members from Upward Bound.
•       Understand that “college and career readiness” can’t only be about what happens in school.  Family and social dynamics and needs greatly influence student lives.  Why then do we not provide juniors and seniors with required courses on how to deal with these pressures in relation to post-secondary education?  One of the students profiled in the article had a challenging relationship with her mother and an intense relationship with her boyfriend, both of which played a role in her fall.  Another was worried about whether her grandfather, who was a main caregiver, would survive his fight with cancer.  As educators we know the challenges of professional and personal pushes and pulls.  Life experience has helped us deal with these tough times.  For seventeen and eighteen year-olds, however, and particularly those with fewer familial and social connections, these pushes and pulls may be enough to topple even the loftiest potential accomplishments.
•       Push higher education (as a whole) to be more of an interactive learning establishment, and less of a passive informational one.  I understand that there are many colleges and universities where staff members do more than just talk about their subjects; they truly engage students and serve as master learners (rather than information spouters).  That being said, I also know that not all institutions of higher learning are designed to truly treat students as individuals.  Many times funding plays a role.  In other cases, the structure of the university or college itself may be the reason.  Regardless of the case, the three students discussed in this piece could have used more assistance at the college level to deal with the challenges they were facing.  Whether being about money, family, or specific academic courses, these young ladies all faced situations where their difficulties were not eased by their institution (as they should have been), but were instead exacerbated.  We can’t allow that.

If we truly believe that students must be “college and career ready” to succeed in life, our education system must prove it.  We can’t assume that it is only the responsibility of K-12 institutions to do this, nor can we truly state that college and career readiness is only built in the classroom.  Let’s stop adding to educational jargon, and put meaning behind the terms we use.  I encourage you to read DeParle’s piece and see how it makes you feel, and then think about how you would view education as a whole if you were these students or if they were your children.

Works Cited

DeParle, Jason.  (2012, December 22).  For Poor, Leap to College Often Ends in a Hard Fall.  The New York Times.  Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/education/poor-students-struggle-as-class-plays-a-greater-role-in-success.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

National Governors Association.  (2012).  ELA-Students Who are College and Career Ready.  Retrieved from: http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/introduction/students-who-are-college-and-career-ready-in-reading-writing-speaking-listening-language

Branching Into Food Writing

I love to eat, and I love to talk about eating.  So, it was only natural that besides writing about family, technology, and education, I would start to delve into food writing.  I'm happy to announce that I just wrote my first restaurant review post for All Things Next, a great site for what's new and upcoming in the northern New York City suburbs.  Here's the post.  Let me know what you think:

http://allthingsnext.com/2012/12/28/lolita/

Solving the "Play" Problem

As I write this, I’m sitting on a plane traveling to Phoenix, Arizona for one of the National Science Teachers Association’s regional conferences.  The flight’s a fairly long one from Newark, New Jersey, so between almost completing today’s Times crossword puzzle (anyone know a four letter word for “jazz line?”) and reading about some great “geek science” opportunities in this month’s Discover magazine, I’ve had quite a lot of time to reflect on an important conversation I had earlier this week.  

One of my roles as a regional science coordinator has me working with classroom teachers on any myriad of science education initiatives they choose to explore.  As I was planning an inquiry-based “deep observation” experience with a teacher, we got into talking about the topic of “play.”  This teacher mentioned the challenge that many of his students have with seeing more than the forest when they look at a stand of trees.  To quite a number of his students today, a plant is a plant is a plant.  Why would they need to know any more about it?

This view is a troubling one, and is a reflection of the constantly “on” lifestyle our students (and many of us) lead.  Very few of our students can remember a time where their mother or father told them to, “Get out of the house and play.”  Why?   Because hyper-scheduling has made any unstructured play a near impossibility.  Whether this is due to countless after-school activities or more time spent on homework, the end result is a crop of young people who don’t have the time to truly observe the world around them.  This is an annoyance for us as educators, but may prove to be a bigger concern if the trend continues.  True innovation requires deep thinking, and deep thinking can only happen when one has truly taken the time to observe, consider, and learn from all that is encountered.  To truly be creative, we need to have the opportunity to think outside the box, and that requires time and exposure to unique and new experiences (as opposed to the same old routines).  In an article by Tom Kelley and David Kelley in the Harvard Business Review, the need to avoid a “creativity crisis” is a main focus.  The authors emphasize that we shouldn’t stifle the innovative and creative impulses that all children are born with.  They write that education must encourage students to embrace “messiness,” the judgment of others, and taking the first, often frightening, step to exploring something a little different.

As educators, we have to be the guides that lead students along this slightly less-beaten path.  Here are a few tips for helping your students become reacquainted with play, creativity, and innovation:

·         Provide time to be one with the world.  Too much education takes place indoors.  For students who aren’t involved in outdoor sports, their only outdoor time in a given day may be running from the front door to catch the bus.  That isn’t good, and it doesn’t provide time for students to truly “see” a different world then they are used to.  Contrary to what some might believe, any class can be held outdoors.  That doesn’t mean the focus of a lesson needs to be on studying the world outside, but a Shakespearean reading on school grounds, a study of bus idling procedures, and/or a playing field area calculation all provide students with the chance to observe more than a classroom.

·         Promote percolation.  Instead of letting the class end with a bell (or the transition to lunch or recess), build in five or ten minutes for students to reflect.  For many students, reflection doesn’t just happen, and strategies (such as creating a “Questions I have. . .” chart, or an “If it were up to me. . .” learning progression statement) should be incorporated to help students begin to become more active thinkers.  By making thinking time a necessary part of your work with students, you’ll encourage them to reflect regularly and often.

·         Push for unstructured “play.”  The teacher I was working with earlier this week told me about a recent time that he was taking a bunch of students outside for recess.  Unfortunately for students, the playground balls that were usually available for recess could not be used.  Students stood around for a minute or so, and then asked to return inside.  Very few seemed to even realize that there was much more to do outside than play an organized game of football or soccer.  In some respects, many of our students today need to be “forced” to play in an unstructured-environment, if for no other reason than to learn what it means to just be a “kid.”

It worries me that my daughter, who will be three in a few months, and who engages in imaginative play at the drop of a hat, could lose that important quality, and partly because of the design and structure of our educational system.  I want her to be a truly innovative leader who thinks critically and isn’t afraid to imagine.  I believe we want that for each and every student we encounter.  We can’t afford to experience a further “creativity crisis,” and it should never be a problem for students to play.

Works Cited:

Kelley, David and Tom Kelley. (2012).  Reclaim Your Creative Confidence.  Harvard Business Review.  90 (12), 115 – 118.

“Disconnected” Doesn’t Mean “Not Connected”

This past weekend, as I sat down with a cup of tea and enjoyed what might be the last hints of warm weather here in New York, I turned to an incredibly intriguing article from the New York Times.  Written by Aimee Lee Ball, it discusses the struggles and eventual “coming around” of children and families to lives without power after a natural disaster, and just as importantly, without constant connection.  The article hints at the fact that a loss of power begins almost like any withdrawal event, and eventually gives way to rediscovering (or discovering for the first time for young children) what it means to “unplug.”  It highlights the hardships of having to give up or shift from a routine (which is anxiety-producing enough . . . read Charles Duhigg’s book on habits for more about this) to something that feels “new,” and discusses the challenges with rebuilding (or building for the first time) skills that many would consider “old school.”  For instance, in our house, after putting our daughter to bed, my wife and I spent the better part of a night playing rummy, something we haven’t done for quite some time.  While it was certainly less technologically stimulating than being hooked up to our phones or tablets (or both at the same time), we interacted personally much more effectively than if I had been playing Angry Birds: Star Wars and she had been spinning away on a slot machine app and we both just happened to be sitting in the same room.

I’ve had discussions with colleagues about whether there will be a connected “tipping point,” a time when we are too digitally connected to truly be efficient and when the benefits of knowing everything as it happens pales in comparison to what we’re missing.  Many of my colleagues feel that being digitally connected 100% of the time is a good thing.  I tend to be a little more reticent in that regard.  While I certainly consider myself a digitally connected educator I believe that there is much more to being connected than communicating through the digital cloud.  Twitter, Facebook, Skype, Pinterest, augmented reality, and ad infinitum all have excellent educational implications, but so too does sitting down with a group of other educators and engaging in heated discussion to solve a real problem in real-time.  While I imagine some would argue, I find it much easier to enact positive change when I can meet with others, face-to-face. 

The challenge, of course, for many of us, is finding a way to disconnect.  We might want to visit the classroom or office next door, but we just have so many emails to respond to.  Or, we just saw that Twitter post about Hostess going bankrupt and we have to check it out (no more Twinkies? Inconceivable).  There are so many advantages to being digitally connected 24/7 that we don’t think of the advantages of taking a break from time-to-time.  Here are three things you can do to disengage, if only for a short time.

• Take a walk with some colleagues.  Seriously.  A change in environment forces you to disconnect and often gives a different perspective if for no other reason than the fact that the scenery has changed.  Plus, it is easier to walk and talk than it is to walk and use your phone/tablet (trust me, I’ve experienced this one first-hand).  If you still need convincing, remember that it is great exercise.  I’ve found that a twenty/thirty minute walk during lunch is particularly re-energizing.

• Shut your tech down for an hour each day.  Build some time into your schedule where you can take care of non-tech items.  Maybe this is meeting with other educators in your district, doing some planning/reflecting alone, observing classrooms, or reading from a book.

• Vary your media.  If you have to send an email to someone, consider changing things up and placing a phone call.  Or, if applicable, take a few minutes to visit with that person face-to-face.  Communicating with someone in each of those three scenarios requires a different set of skills.  Our students (and therefore by extension, all of us) need to be experts in all of those skill sets.  So, why not practice?

In my eyes, we should always strive to be 100% connected.  But being connected digitally is very different from being a truly “connected” educator.    Only through the proactive action of varying our connection media can we claim that prized title.

Ball, Aimee Lee. (2012, November 12).  Hurricane Sandy Reveals a Life Unplugged.  The New York Times.  Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/11/fashion/hurricane-sandy-reveals-a-life-unplugged.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.

Duhigg, Charles. (2012).  The Power of Habit.  New York: Random House.

The Positives of Protocols

Note: A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post on the importance of adding meaning to meetings and a number of steps educational leaders can take to do more of this.  I received a number of comments from readers, and I wanted to build on that post by touching on what is an enormously important part of meeting facilitation: the engagement activity.

Plenty of meetings run like this: Everyone arrives, the meeting organizer speaks, he or she asks for questions, everyone leaves.  While this general structure may be common and may even be a fine way to hold some gatherings, it is missing a necessary piece, the engagement protocol.  As meeting organizers, we can get into the habit of assuming all participants are coming to a meeting with their minds on what we will be discussing.  After all, if we’ve spent the last few days building the agenda and running through the important points, clearly the subject must be on everyone’s mind. 

Of course, while it would be wonderful if that were true, we know deep down that it is far from it.  So, it falls on us to make sure that when we do meet, all of our participants are on the same page.  For that reason alone, the importance of an engagement activity with a meaningful protocol can’t be overstated.  Interestingly, if we think about meetings we’ve facilitated and/or organized recently, those engagement activities may be totally absent.  Paradoxically, we regularly expect our teachers to provide some sort of engagement activity at the start of each meeting with their students.  Shouldn’t we be doing the same?

Protocols and engagement activities are fairly easy to design and with a few key rules in mind, can take meetings from “mindless” to “meaningful.”  Here are a few quick tips for positive protocol production:

•      Keep engagement activities and the protocols used short and sweet.  Successful activities can be as straightforward as a five minute “pair/share” on the topic of the meeting to a lengthier twenty minute activity such as the protocol I recently created (see picture below).  Make use of the 25% rule: Your engagement activity should last no longer than 25% of the allotted meeting time, and realistically, engagement activities should not last more than thirty minutes.  Beyond that, they become a meeting unto themselves.

•       The protocol used should take participants from a general state of mind to one that is focused on the meeting topic.  Therefore, strong protocols should begin by focusing on a question, idea, or thought process that can appeal to everyone in the room, regardless of their frame of mind.  The protocol should end by placing all participants in a mindset that prepares them to focus on the meeting’s objective(s).  In the protocol pictured above, I began by asking participants to go to the picture that best represented their personality.  Then I drilled down to having them stand by the picture that best represented their thoughts on the state of contemporary public education.  Finally, they moved to the picture that best represented their thoughts on New York State’s new Professional Evaluation system.  Can you guess what the focus of the meeting was going to be?

•       Use your objectives to design the “personality” of the engagement activity.  Protocols and the activities they are used for can be incredibly upbeat, intensely reserved, or seriously focused.  The topic of your meeting should set the mood of your engagement activity, and the protocol should direct participants to that state.  By nature of the design of “The Big Picture” protocol, the activity held a light tone despite the seriousness of the topic eventually discussed.  Sometimes, that’s exactly what you want. 

What’s great about engagement activities and their protocols is that there is no downside to incorporating them.  They can only help the flow of your meetings, and though their generation can be challenging, the data gathered from a focused meeting is enough to turn any non-believer into a practicing “protocolist.”  After all, in today’s world of education, we can’t afford to waste anyone’s time.  Every meeting we have has to be meaningful.

Adding Meaning to Your Meetings

If you’re an educational leader of some kind, you know meetings.  You’ve been in them, led them, and likely given/received feedback on them.  Depending on your history as a meeting facilitator and participant, they may or may not be an enjoyable part of your profession.  They can, however, be extremely rewarding, and they should, always, be extremely important to the needs of your building and district.  A wise person should have once said, “The difference between disorder and accomplishment is a purposeful meeting.”  While that might be simplifying matters just a tad, meetings can be the difference between a clear course and a rudderless ship.  With that in mind, use the tips below to allow for meetings that sail smoother.

·         Communicate Well.  The true purpose of any meeting should be communication.  With that in mind, a meeting can’t be successful if the components aren’t communicated prior.  A strong agenda is one of the most important parts of any meeting, whether committee, cabinet, or full faculty.  Agendas should be clear and concise and should accomplish three tasks:

o   Describe a topic

o   Identify the speaker/facilitator

o   Give a timeframe (note that the jury is out on this one; timeframes keep presenters and participants focused, but can backfire if time is extended and/or if meaningful conversation is cut short. . . include this only if you can keep to it).

A well written agenda also provides space for notations and next steps, and should never exceed a page.  If your agenda needs more than one page, you need more than one meeting.  Note that prior communication also extends to informing your audience about the date, time, and location of the meeting.  A good method to doing this is the 4-1-1 process.  Send an email out to staff 4 weeks or a month prior to the meeting providing the draft agenda and time/location details.  Send a reminder 1 week prior to the meeting date with the same time/location details and agenda (this provides an easy way to let your audience know if the agenda has been reworked or modified in some way).  Send a final one sentence reminder 1 day prior.  In this way, you have provided your staff with timely meeting information and documentation.

Here is a recent agenda for a meeting I facilitated.  Note one page design and decipherable topics.  I used a total time frame at the top since I knew there would be quite a bit of important discussion.  I also regularly notate which items have handouts to help participants organize their thinking (and materials).

·         Listen as Much as (if Not More Than) You Speak.  If you’re the lead facilitator in a meeting, your goal should be to be an information receiver as much, if not more than, an information giver.  We always have an internal audience in our head, but we don’t always have one that can provide us with views different than our own.  Meetings should prove to be learning opportunities for those facilitating just as much as for those participating.  While an inexact science, one method is to provide the same amount of time for discussion as was spent providing information to attendees on an agenda item.  This accomplishes two goals: First, it shows you are interested in what others have to say, and second, it makes the meeting much more interesting for you and your audience.

·         Prompt and Push.  One of the best parts about holding a meeting is that you can solicit input from those in attendance.  So, as much as possible, you should prompt your attendees to share their thoughts.  If actions are to be taken, push them to explore and experiment with these actions.  Note that once you begin to do this, your audience will expect you to take positive risks as well.  Being a lead learner also means being a model. 

·         Provide a Detailed Recap. . . Quickly.  Once the meeting physically ends, there is still an important meeting item to take care of: documentation.  Minutes for the meeting should be composed effectively and efficiently.  Detail should be provided without writing a novel, and turnaround time should be quick; realistically, no more than a day should pass without minutes being distributed.  If your schedule is too intense for this, do one of two things: Have rotating minute takers, or reschedule your meeting.  Since education is a busy business, most of your audience will forget meeting discussion very quickly.  Timely minutes show you are serious about what was discussed, and provide an anchor for discussion of next steps and the taking of action.  If you won’t be the minute-taker, make sure that the person responsible knows what the minutes should look like and what they should include.  Communication is only as good as how it is communicated.

Here is a section of minutes from the same meeting as the agenda above.  Items are descriptive without being unwieldy, and I make it a habit of mentioning participants by name where they were involved (hence the redacted segments).

In today’s educational sphere, meetings aren’t going anywhere.  But, that doesn’t have to be seen as a negative.  If facilitated effectively, even the smallest gathering of professionals can have a gigantic positive impact.  Gatherings should always equal growth.

Is Your PLN Truly a PLN?

I’ve really gotten into Twitter over the last year or so.  As far as social media networks go, I can’t think of a better one to connect people and ideas (truth be told, I only joined Facebook two months ago, so I can’t speak to its effectiveness, and no, I haven’t been living under a rock J).  Besides sharing ideas, I greatly enjoy the many different chats designed for educators using Twitter.  I am a regular participant in #edchat, and when I can, I love participating in #ptchat (parent/teacher chat) and anything related to science. 

I’m also a lover of all things language, an ed policy follower, and a scientific skeptic by nature of my background.  So, needless to say, I’m always paying attention to what members of our profession believe the next big educational “thing” will be, and what the inherent benefits and risks of that “thing” are.  Some might call my devil’s advocacy and toe-dipping before jumping in “educational pragmatism,” others might simply call it “frustrating.”  Regardless, as I’ve become a more frequent user of social media tools, I’ve started to think more and more about PLNs and our use of the term.

PLNs, or Personal Learning Networks, are referred to regularly in Twitter chats, and tend to mean a group of like-minded people who want to learn together.  But, according to an excellent piece I read recently in the Teachers College Record, true PLNs should do much more than just bring people together to talk about similar ideas.  While I won’t recount the entire study (it is a great read if you have a subscription), the basic premise of the paper I’m referring to is this: Real PLNs have to go beyond simply “talking,” and have to result in actual “doing.”  Not only that, but they must do so with actual data as the roadmap.  True PLNs, communities that actually operate as PLNs are “supposed” to, take on what the researchers term an “improving stance,” whereby teachers use data to focus on limitations in classroom practice.  Weak PLNs spend more time validating their own worth by occupying what is referred to as a “proving stance.”  In other words, proving to each other what works and doesn’t work in education based on their own practice, and usually what they believe they do quite well.  The researchers also describe how ineffective PLNs use “disconnected talk,” where anecdotes are supplied without fact, and labels, generalization, and “buzzwords” are used regularly.  They contrast this to “true” PLNs that use “inquiry-based talk,” where conversation spirals from participant to participant (no one participant “needs” the floor), and questions and discussions are always, always, based on data, and analyses are always, always, explored and reflected upon as a community.

What, if anything, does this have to do with Twitter?  As I read this research, I began to think about all the times I’ve tweeted about how great it is to have a Twitter PLN, when, in all honesty, my engagement in Twitter chats is fairly “unPLN-like.”  I would be willing to bet, that for many of you, it is the same.  Chat discussions are often a hodge-podge of answers to questions that are extremely relevant, but often very general.  This “big picture” focus provides a great jumping off point for participants to share their thoughts and beliefs, but very little opportunity to explore and analyze “real” and “crunchable” data.  Most responses to questions, while regularly very empowering, provide anecdotes without much grounding, and only occasionally does anyone share/cite actual data.  Yes, it is tough to do that in 140 characters.  And yes, the fast pace of chats tend to make it difficult to stay focused for more than a second on any one tweet.  But, why shouldn’t we make our online PLNs as data-driven and specific problem focused as our face-to-face ones? 

Imagine this. . . What if #edchat (or any Twitter chat for that matter) was less about sharing beliefs and anecdotes and more about actually delving into a specific problem to solve?  Or, what if (and maybe this happens already), #edchat serves as a general starting point and then members from that #edchat meet up (either virtually or in person) to look at some real data about the topic that was discussed and begin to hash out ideas, solutions, and next steps.  In a future #edchat, this group could report back to the others “in attendance” and those interested would take these ideas back to their classrooms, districts, and face-to-face colleagues.  True, this would drastically reduce the speed of the Twitter chatting phenomenon, and yes, it would require those of us who participate (like me, for instance) to do more than exchange emails or Skype every once in a while with other educators in my online “PLN.”  But, if we’re going to use an educational “buzzword,” we should use it well, and more importantly, our actions should speak louder than our words (both the ones we truly speak and the ones we type).

I would love to experiment in turning an #edchat into a #beyondedchat.  If you’re interested in exploring ways to make social media PLNs more like true PLNs, let me know.  I would love to embark on a data-driven Twitter journey with you.  Contact me through Edge, or you can always find me on Twitter at @fredende.

Works Cited

Deuel, A., Holmlund Nelson, T., & Slavit, D.  (2012).  Two Dimensions of an Inquiry Stance Toward Student-Learning Data.  Teachers College Record, 114, 1-42.