Study: Elementary/Middle School Teachers Making Huge Impact on Young Children's Futures

In the same article I cited in yesterday's post, findings in a recent study show that children who had strong teachers in grades 3-8, as judged through value added performance, outperformed their peers later in life -- in the colleges they attended, in their lower numbers of teen pregnancies, in their salaries. I always knew it. It does make sense that students whose early years are on solid footing, who increase their skills substantially each year, will, in fact, do better as the years progress. But it's better, of course, when we move forward on proven results, not merely gut impulses.

Value-Added Approach to Teacher Assessment

Anyone who has followed the teacher assessment debate knows the complexity of the issue. Students who live in wealthier areas tend to do better than children from impoverished. Teachers who have special needs children assigned to their rooms have far more challenges to their skills and time than those who don't. Evaluation itself is a very inaccurate science.

But there's hope. An article in Slate tells about value-added approach to teacher evaluation. This looks at the growth children make over the course of a year; it also may look at successive years of a teacher's record. This tends to allow years when teachers have a more difficult class (and we've all had them) to be averaged in with more manageable years. The value-added approach doesn't expect all children to reach one single benchmark (the bane of NCLB) but rather grow in their own abilities.

It's certainly worth looking into. I'm eager to see where this might lead. I do think we need some type of assessment that helps guide teachers and administrators in an honest direction.

Pre-K: Growing Popularity?

Here in the Kansas City area, we tend to think of those children who need pre-kindergarten -- schooling for three and four year olds -- as those who appear to be behind in the developmental skills s/he will need for school. In the Shawnee Mission District here in Overland Park, it is called Smart Start. But the Sunday New York Times (12/18/11) has a write-up of how popular pre-K is in New York City -- to the point that middle class and wealthy parents are scrambling for a spot in the strong programs.

And the spots aren't there. Some parents are forming their own pre-K groups but, given the politics of running a program for one's children, parents are finding the task harder than expected. I don't know if this is the trend of the future or just an East Coast experience; I'll be interested to wait and watch.

CADERS, The Test

     CADERS is not only the name of the early readers I have but a computerized assessment reading test I've developed. It's all on www.sheilaberenson.com, but at this point I have the site locked since student scores are listed on it (and once you open the site, all scores are available). Once I figure out a way to make it available to the public, I'll be able to unlock it and let anyone use it for testing their classroom or own child. It assesses phonic skills, comprehension, and literacy and is very user friendly. Not ready for public use yet, but someday and soon...

Online Learning: May Not Yet Be What We Think

   There's an intriguing article in Education Week this week that tells of studies in Colorado and Minnesota, describing how students who complete all their studies online are not keeping pace with traditional classrooms. Who knew? I had assumed that already flesh-and-blood teachers would be running a fast race against online learning -- after all, look at the way our children take to online games, both educational and recreational. The article also reports there's even some question as to the financial incentives some of these online schools have. (Now that I had always suspected.)
    But of course there are huge advantages to online learning -- most importantly, its ability to individualize --and I think such companies just haven't discovered what they can do and what we traditional teachers can't do (given the numbers of children in any classroom). How often we've wanted some great program that will take our most struggling students -- or our brightest -- and let them soar...

You Can Now Download Early Readers...

You can now download my early readers (CADERS), at least the last few postings. I am presently designing a website where you'll be able to download all 80+ beginning readers I have. More are being created each week. Instructions for how to create the 8-page booklets are at the end of each posting. And be sure to refer back to November 14, 2010 for explanation of these booklets.

Please do remember -- these are posted for families and communities. They are not for other websites, to earn $, or anything other than to for single copies with your children (or class sets with your students). Enjoy!

CADERS (Early Readers): Can a Cliff Sniff? (for studying blends)

                     Can a Cliff Sniff?

This 8-page story practices blends, as posting 21 and 22 included, but it doesn't use digraphs. Don't forget to play with the vocabulary. And definitely, definitely, much of the fun of these stories is in how the children use them -- drawing illustrations on their copies, creating skits off of each page.

As always, check back with November 14, 2010, if you need to see more about these CADERS readers.

Directions for creating this 8-page booklet:
1. Click on story title above, then on link that opens under it.
2. Run off story that opens. (If your printer prints double-sided, print only on one side.)
3. Take every other page and turn it upside down. All pages will still face upwards, but every other one will be upside down.
4. Run in copier, double-sided.
5. Fold in middle. Result is 8-page booklet, using only two sheets of paper.
6. If making more than one copy, set copier to "sort."