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Reminder: MSP News will
continue a bi-weekly summer schedule until after Labor Day. We hope you
are enjoying your summer!
HIGHLIGHTS
AT
A
GLANCE
1. NEW IN
LIBRARY
A. "Attitude Adjustments,"
by Lesa M. Covington Clarkson, et al., Educational Leadership, November
2007.
B. "Problem-Solving
Time," by Katie Gurule, Educational Leadership, November 2007.
C. "Common Standards for K-12
Education?: Considering the Evidence: Summary of a Workshop Series,"
by Alexandra Beatty, Rapporteur, Committee on State Sandards in
Education: A Workshop Series, National Research Council, 2008.
D. "Performance
Expectations and Indicators for Education Leaders," by Nancy M.
Sanders and Karen Kearney, Council of Chief State School Officers,
2008.
2. PROJECT HIGHLIGHT
Greater Birmingham
Annual Report Year 4
Note: Please consider submitting your annual report to MSPnet. Rather
than submitting the full report, you may choose to post those sections
that feature the accomplishments of your project.
3. NEWS FROM NSF
Cora Marrett Honored
by American Sociological Association NSF Press Release --
August 5, 2008
4. UPCOMING EVENTS
A. The
Georgia Partnership for Reform in Science & Mathematics (PRISM)
invites you to the Accepting the STEM Challenge on Thursday,
September 11, 2008 through Saturday, September 13, 2008.
B. AAAS
Project 2061: Using Atlas of Science Literacy Workshops
September 15-17 in Winston-Salem, NC at the SciWorks Museum September
15-17 in Birmingham, AL at the McWane Science Center October 15-17 in
Washington, DC at the AAAS Headquarters November 5-7 in San Francisco,
CA at the University of San Francisco, Parnassus Campus
DETAILS BELOW
1. NEW IN
LIBRARY
A. "Attitude Adjustments,"
by Lesa M. Covington Clarkson, et al., Educational Leadership, November
2007.
"Math is too hard!" "When will I ever use this?" "I'm just not a math
person." Comments like these are all too common in math classrooms.
Students, parents, and sometimes even teachers often believe that
complex mathematics is just beyond certain learners. But some educators
are demonstrating that anyone can learn, understand, and use complex
math. Their efforts are illustrated in the following three stories: A
group of 6th graders realize that they can perform math that is more
complex than the work usually expected of students their age; parents
and middle school students in an Ohio community discover that math can
be both fun and relevant; and a classroom of elementary school teachers
in training come to understand the meaning behind the procedures they
memorized when they were math students.
MSPnet Location: LIBRARY>>Teaching &
Learning
http://hub.mspnet.org/entry.cfm/16011
B. "Problem-Solving
Time," by Katie Gurule, Educational Leadership, November 2007.
When teachers at Sheridan Elementary School in Spokane, Washington, saw
that only 46 percent of their students were performing at or above
grade level in math, they decided to make a concerted effort to improve
instruction. Teachers regularly met in grade-level teams with Gurule,
the school's instructional coach, and developed strategies together.
The 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade teams focused on improving students'
problem-solving skills by having them work in small groups with an
adult leader. They also established a process for problem solving that
required students to read problems more carefully, encouraged in-class
discussions of math problems, and gave students a rubric for
self-assessment. After one year, the percentage of students at or above
grade level leapt to 56 percent.
MSPnet Location: LIBRARY>>Teaching &
Learning
http://hub.mspnet.org/entry.cfm/16012
C. "Common Standards for K-12
Education?: Considering the Evidence: Summary of a Workshop Series,"
by Alexandra Beatty, Rapporteur, Committee on State Sandards in
Education: A Workshop Series, National Research Council, 2008.
"Standards-based accountability has become a central feature of the
public education system in each state and is a theme of national
discussions about how achievement for all students can be improved and
achievement gaps narrowed. Questions remain, however, about the
implementation of standards and accountability systems and about
whether their potential benefits have been fully realized. Each of the
50 states has adopted its own set of standards, and though there is
overlap among them, there is also wide variation in the ways states
have devised and implemented their systems. This variety may have both
advantages and disadvantages, but it nevertheless raises a fundamental
question: Is the establishment of common K-12 academic standards, which
states could voluntarily adopt, the logical next step for
standards-based reform?
The goal of this book is not to answer the policy question of whether
or not common standards would be a good idea. Rather, the book provides
an objective look at the available evidence regarding the ways in which
standards are currently functioning, the strategies that might be used
to pursue common standards, and the issues that doing so might present."
MSPnet Location: LIBRARY>>Ed Change &
Policy
http://hub.mspnet.org/entry.cfm/16016
D. "Performance
Expectations and Indicators for Education Leaders," by Nancy M.
Sanders and Karen Kearney, Council of Chief State School Officers, 2008.
The Performance Expectations and Indicators describe observable and
measurable leadership actions required to improve teaching and learning
for every student. Based on widely known concepts in the six ISLLC
Standards for School Leaders (CCSSO, 1996), they provide the needed
link and guide to implement broad policy standards in performance-based
licensure, leadership programs and academies, formative evaluations,
assessments, and career-long professional development plans.
The first part of the document lays out the purpose: to build
performance-based consensus and capacity of leaders and education
systems for providing what every student needs to learn at high levels.
As requested by constituents, the Performance Expectations and
Indicators are the following:
• Timely about leadership actions and dispositions in
accountability-driven policy contexts;
• Comprehensive, covering the array of responsibilities for student
learning, school and district improvement, and system performance;
• Distributed across formal and informal leadership roles; and
• Developmental for individuals along a career continuum.
The document was written by state education agency leaders in the CCSSO
State Consortium on Education Leadership, broadly informed by research
and best practice, and reviewed by local administrators. Reviewers
uniformly report that the Performance Expectations and Indicators are
immediately useful and help bridge gaps among policies, programs, and
practices.
MSPnet Location: LIBRARY>>Professional
Development
http://hub.mspnet.org/entry.cfm/16013
2. PROJECT HIGHLIGHT
Greater Birmingham
Annual Report Year 4
The Greater Birmingham Mathematics Partnership has shared sections 1,
2, and 5 of its Year 4 Annual Report. The report includes a detailed
account of the project's Year 4 progress toward meeting its goals and
objectives, highlights, and its implementation plan for Year 5.
MSPnet Location: PROJECT SHOWCASE>>Project
Highlights
http://hub.mspnet.org/entry.cfm/15997
Note: Please consider submitting your annual report to MSPnet. Rather
than submitting the full report, you may choose to post those sections
that feature the accomplishments of your project.
3. NEWS FROM NSF
Cora Marrett Honored
by American Sociological Association NSF Press Release --
August 5, 2008
Cora Marrett, NSF's assistant director for the Education and Human
Resources directorate, is this year's winner of the American
Sociological Association's (ASA) Cox-Johnson-Frazier Award. Created in
1971, the award honors the intellectual traditions and contributions of
Oliver Cox, Charles S. Johnson and E. Franklin Frazier. The award is
given annually to either a sociologist for a lifetime of research,
teaching and service to the community or to an academic institution for
its work in assisting the development of scholarly efforts in this
tradition. Read full press release online.
MSPnet Location: RESOURCES>>NSF News
http://hub.mspnet.org/entry.cfm/16014
4. ANNOUNCEMENTS
A. The
Georgia Partnership for Reform in Science & Mathematics (PRISM)
invites you to the Accepting the STEM Challenge on Thursday,
September 11, 2008 through Saturday, September 13, 2008.
In an effort to share the successes of the grant and provide others to
share their lessons learned, PRISM will host the 2008 Accepting the
STEM Challenge: Preparing K-16 students for Global Competitiveness in
the 21st Century conference on September 11-13, 2008 in Atlanta,
Georgia. This conference will provide an opportunity for teams of
educators to showcase their STEM work and learn about the successes of
similar teams from across the United States. All involved in education
(K-12 teachers and administrators, higher education faculty and
administrators, K-12 and IHE state level administrators and policy
makers, Business and community leaders) are welcome to attend. We
anticipate a variety of presentations designed to provide the tools
needed to help others move their STEM agenda forward. We welcome and
encourage the distribution of this announcement to all interested
parties.
MSPnet Location: CALENDAR
http://hub.mspnet.org/entry.cfm/calendar/show/event-4819
B. Fall
2008 Professional Development Opportunities For Science Educators From
AAAS Project 2061
Do you want to learn more about AAAS's new Atlas of Science Literacy,
Volume 2 and how to put it to use to improve curriculum, instruction,
and assessment? AAAS Project 2061 is offering four of its popular
professional development workshops "Using Atlas of Science Literacy"
this fall.
Designed for K-12 science teachers, curriculum specialists, and other
educators and researchers, the workshop demonstrates how participants
can use the conceptual strand maps in Atlas 1 and Atlas 2, along with
other Project 2061 resources, to enhance their own understanding of
science literacy and take a benchmarks-based approach to helping all
students achieve literacy in science, mathematics, and technology.
Atlas of Science Literacy is co-published by AAAS and NSTA.
Workshops will be offered the following locations: September 15-17 in
Winston-Salem, NC at the SciWorks Museum September 15-17 in Birmingham,
AL at the McWane Science Center October 15-17 in Washington, DC at the
AAAS Headquarters November 5-7 in San Francisco, CA at the University
of San Francisco, Parnassus Campus
Additional workshops will be scheduled in 2009 around the country.
MSPnet Location: CALENDAR
http://hub.mspnet.org/entry.cfm/calendar/show/event-5159
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