Posts Tagged ‘
CLASS Project ’
The spring of 1978 proved to be a pivotal time shaping my career. These were the ten weeks I completed my student teaching at a small rural high school in Colton, Washington.
Fortunately, I was taught and mentored by a marvelous master language arts teacher, Diana Carlson. Our first meeting was memorable. “Mr. Jamison, I have good news for you. In the coming weeks you will become the Language Arts Department at Colton High School.”
With thirty-five years of distance and perspective since that spring, and wonderful experiences along the way, I am deeply grateful for the high expectations and rigorous regime framed by this fine educator. Diana required me to teach four different grade levels of high school English, business communication, a social studies class, and to assist in directing the high school play after hours. Working fifty to sixty hours a week, I planned, created, delivered, evaluated…breathed, ate, laughed, fretted and lived… with these students and classrooms consuming my life.
We all know the importance of strong induction and mentorship supports for our newest professionals. While I benefitted the following year from an equally strong teacher who mentored me in my first full-time teaching job in Independence, lately I have looked back on that experience in Colton for an entirely different reason. Increasingly, I am concerned we are not adequately serving and supporting Oregon’s rural schools. (more…)
Category:
Chalkboard Project, CLASS Project |
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Tags: Chalkboard Project, CLASS Project, Colton, Dan Jamison, education policy, education reform, Oregon Education, planning and development in rural areas, rural districts, rural leadership, teaching and learning, Washington
I know I have been in the teaching profession for a while because the pendulum is swinging back to where I started: the ‘90s. Just like a greatest hit, overplayed, buried and then resurrected, project-based learning (PBL) is seeing its resurrection. Project-based learning has been around for a while with a bulk of research done on its powers of motivation and higher level thinking done in the ‘80s. With the testing craze and research-based programs of the recent past, PBL was mostly shelved.
Unfortunately for today’s young people, PBL is what American kids needed all along. Recent technological innovations have made rote knowledge and the specific skill tasks demanded by our recent curricula almost obsolete. Now we can ask our phone what the capital of Delaware is or how many ounces are in a pound. What we can’t get from our phones are skills dished up in PBL.
PBL involves working with others to solve a relevant problem. There are skills to learn along the way, but the objective is a polished and presented product. Rolled into the project is the ability to work with others, discern what information is valid, and the critical thinking needed to solve a complex problem. (more…)
Category:
CLASS Project, Teacher Effectiveness |
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Tags: Chalkboard Project, CLASS Project, Elephant Lilly, measuring assessments, mentoring, mentorship, Oregon Zoo, PBL, Project-based learning, Ruth Wallin, specific targets
Nicholas Sowa is a fifth grade teacher at St. Mary’s Public School within the Mount Angel School District. He is the project manager for the Mount Angel School District CLASS Project grant and has been a teacher in the district for the past 6 years. He is currently enrolled at George Fox University in pursuit of administrative credentials. He also obtained his BS degree from Eastern Oregon University and MA in teaching degree from George Fox University. Nicholas plans to continue to offer his knowledge of teaching to students who speak English as a second language and ultimately obtain an administrative position in an elementary setting. Nicholas is supported by his wife of 12 years and three young children. He has a passion for creative instruction, empowering his students, and implementing technology in his classroom.
Through our work with the CLASS Project here in Mt. Angel we have had some interesting discussions focused on career pathways. In particular, our discussion continually touches on the fact that there is no “new money” within the foreseeable future. The task we are then charged with is how can we create creative career pathways for educators without adding to our already tight budget? Furthermore, how can we ask teachers to continually do more with less? (more…)
Category:
CLASS Project |
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Tags: Chalkboard Project, CLASS Project, do more with less, education, Mt. Angel school district, Nicholas Sowa, Oregon Education, St. Mary's public school
Educators throughout the nation and state are strengthening the profession by recruiting a more diverse and talented pool of candidates, improving preparation, and improving ongoing support for teaching and learning. We seek a more seamless, efficient and effective system. In this blog post I will specifically address two ways we are improving teacher preparation.
Portland State University and many other universities with high quality teacher preparation programs are making many changes in the clinical experience and two are of utmost importance. First, we are moving away from placing student teachers individually in random schools and classrooms to systematic and strategic “clustering” of four to eight student teachers in schools where they can gain an optimum clinical experience AND contribute to the success of the P12 students in the school. (more…)
Category:
teacher preparation |
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Tags: andy hargreaves, Chalkboard Project, CLASS Project, clinical experience, co-teaching, cooperating teacher, michael fullan, Portland State University, PSU, Randy Hitz, student teacher, teacher preparation
Below is a news release from last week sharing hopeful news about the graduation rates in CLASS districts.
Portland – November 29, 2012 – In light of the news this week of Oregon’s sub-par graduation rate, the Chalkboard Project is sharing hopeful news about the graduation rates in CLASS districts. Oregon has begun investing in CLASS-like work through Senate Bill 252, the School District Collaboration Fund.
Between 2008-09 and 2010-11, the first group of CLASS districts improved its cohort graduation rate by 5 percentage points and the second group improved its rate by 3.8 percentage points. During the same time, the rest of the state only improved by 0.9 percentage point.¹
CLASS provides teachers the opportunity to collaborate on plans for teacher professional growth and success tailored to local needs. Teachers create for themselves what every professional deserves: a clear career path, opportunities for feedback, relevant and individualized training, and recognition for leadership and results. (more…)
Category:
CLASS Project |
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Tags: Arne Duncan, CLASS Project, graduation rates, Oregon Education
Kathleen Sundell is President of the Salem-Keizer Education Association. She has been a special educator for 38 years. Kathleen received her bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University and two master’s degrees from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She has been an advocate through her career and has worked to foster collaborative relationships. Kathleen has been at the forefront of the education reform effort in Salem-Keizer, chairing its Performance Evaluation Committee, which, through collaboration among teachers, administrators and central office personnel, redesigned the evaluation system for 2200 Salem Keizer educators.
As I sit next to my companion on our way to a conference, I think about how far I’ve come. You see, I am the President of the one of the largest Teacher’s Association/Union local in the state, my companion is our District Superintendent, Dr. Sandra Husk, and the conference is a joint labor-management conference. We will join our school board chair and share with districts from all over the nation how we collaborate around District and Association issues big and small. Little did I know, fifteen years ago, that this special education teacher from small town Iowa would be leading her colleagues in education reform.
How did we get here? Dr. Husk introduced us to the CLASS (Creative Leadership Achieves Student Success) Project. We were skeptical at first, and unsure about what it was and why we would sign on. But as we talked, we realized that our educators wanted different career opportunities without leaving the classroom; our professional development system, while improved, still needed work; and, we needed a new evaluation system since ours hadn’t been updated since 1983. What CLASS funding brought us most was time and expertise. The grant gave us time for collaboration, and guidance from our CLASS coach, Chalkboard staff, and experts that they brought in from all over the country. Also, time to talk about issues important to educators. (more…)
Category:
CLASS Project |
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Tags: CLASS Project, Kathleen Sundell, labor-management conference, performance based compensation, Salem-Keizer, Teacher Incentive Fund, TIF, value-added model, VAM
Kim has worked in the Lebanon Community School District since 1995. She is the Spanish – College Now Teacher at Lebanon High School and wears several hats in the administrative realm as well. She lives in Lebanon with her two youngest children. Her oldest daughters and their families (including two grand babies) live nearby as well. Kim was Vice President of the local Association for four years followed by eight years in the presidency. At the end of her tenure in the Association she helped to write the initial CLASS grant with the Chalkboard Project that has shaped the work of the school district ever since.
Education in the 21st Century requires a new set of skills, but not just for students. Teachers, education support professionals and administrators face daily a myriad of hurdles that slow or deter students from achieving at the highest levels. Mobility, socio-economic status, historically ineffective instructional strategies, the disintegration of family and solid home life, alcohol and drug abuse, domestic violence and apathy can destroy the academic chances of children from as early as one year of age. So how do we cope? What can we do to combat these invisible enemies? (more…)
Category:
Chalkboard Project, CLASS Project |
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Tags: Chalkboard Project, CLASS Project, design team, Kim Fandino, Lebanon Community Schools, TIF grant
Dr. Krista Parent is the Superintendent of South Lane School District. It is her 28th year in the district as a teacher, principal, curriculum director, assistant superintendent and superintendent for the past 12 years. Heather Bridgens is in her 13th year in the district as a high school Language Arts teacher, department head, coach and CLASS Executive Team member. Jan Jacobs is in her 26th year in the district as a middle school Language Arts and Social Studies teacher, coach and CLASS Executive Team member.
South Lane School District Pursues TIF 4
South Lane School District’s decision to pursue a Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grant from the U.S. Department of Education was really a “no brainer.” The district has anchored their key improvement efforts around the CLASS Project and the four blueprint areas. These four areas focus on performance evaluation for teachers and administrators, alternative models of compensation, career pathways for teachers to play significant leadership roles in the district’s work, and professional development that is relevant and differentiated for the needs of staff. The TIF grant was simply a way to seek more resources to accomplish this important work.
South Lane School District has a long history of collaborating with their teachers. A culture has been created over the years where everyone – teachers, administrators, custodians, secretaries and other staff – are truly invested in doing whatever it takes to ensure student success. South Lane’s core beliefs include:
Kids Come First!
Decision Making is Student Centered
Kids Learn Best When They Want To Be At School (more…)
Category:
CLASS Project |
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Tags: administrators, CLASS Project, coaching, collaboration, contract maintenance committee, leadership, South Lane School District, Teacher Incentive Fund 4, teachers, TIF 4, tosa
Randy Hitz is the Dean of the Graduate School of Education at Portland State University.
Educators throughout the nation and state are strengthening the profession by recruiting a more diverse and talented pool of candidates, improving preparation, and improving ongoing support for teaching and learning. We seek a more seamless, efficient and effective system. In this blog post I will specifically address two ways we are improving teacher preparation.
Clinical Experience
At the heart of preparation are school/university partnerships and, most notably, the student teaching or clinical experience. There are significant national and state efforts devoted to improving clinical experiences for educators, for evaluating performance, and for creating more seamless systems for professional preparation and professional development. The National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) has an initiative with eight alliance states, including Oregon, to improve the clinical experience. The NCATE standards have recently been adopted by the Teacher Standards and Practices Commission (TSPC) and have become increasingly rigorous, especially with regard to expectations related to clinical experiences and school/university partnerships. The creation of a new set of model standards for teachers (InTASC) by the Council of Chief State School Officers is a major step forward and these new model standards have also been adopted by both the Oregon Department of Education and the TSPC. The InTASC standards are aligned with NCATE standards and with the standards of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. As such they form a key leverage point for improving school/university partnerships and the clinical experiences for teacher candidates. (more…)
Category:
teacher preparation, Uncategorized |
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Tags: CLASS Project, MAT, Portland State University, PSU, Randy Hitz
In June I traveled to New York City to attend the 2012 Social Impact Exchange conference, “Taking Successful Innovation to Scale.” Over 400 foundations, philanthropists and philanthropy advisors convened to discuss innovative methods to support scaling and the replication of high-impact nonprofit initiatives. It was a great opportunity for Chalkboard to learn about potentially scaling CLASS further, especially after presenting at the Labor Management Conference where there was significant interest around how to replicate CLASS in other states.
A blog post by Sarika Bansal at Dowser.org highlights key takeaways from the conference, “Scaling Social Impact in Six Steps.”
Read more about the conference on SIE’s blog.
Category:
CLASS Project |
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Tags: Chalkboard Project, CLASS Project, Sarika Bansal, Scaling Social Impact in Six Steps, SIE, Social Impact Exchange, Sue Hildick, Taking Successful Innovation to Scale
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