Introduction

In November and December, 2000, a team of three researchers visited thirteen schools in the Kansas City, Missouri School District to gather data for a qualitative evaluation. The group of schools selected for this evaluation included eight elementary schools-- Attucks, Chick, East, Franklin, Gladstone, Richardson, Satchel Paige, and Swinney; three middle schools--Kansas City Middle School of the Arts, J. A. Rogers, and Paul Robeson; and two high schools--Paseo Academy and Lincoln College Prep.

One researcher spent a school day at each elementary school, and a team of two researchers visited each middle and high school for a school day. At each school, the researchers interviewed the principal or another administrator designated by the principal, observed in classrooms, and talked informally with teachers and children. In the elementary schools, researchers observed in classrooms at each of the grade levels in the school; in each classroom they observed an entire lesson or a significant portion of a lesson. In the middle and high schools, researchers observed in some classrooms in each core curriculum area--language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies--at each grade level, as well as other curriculum areas, such as foreign language, computers, or the arts, as time permitted.

The visits focused on the issues of implementation of the KCMSD Core Curriculum, the implementation of the professional development plan negotiated in 1998, and the use of assessment tools aligned with the Core Curriculum and MAP. More specifically, the research questions that guided the evaluation were:

1. To what extent is the Core Curriculum being implemented in schools in the KCMSD? Do teachers have the materials necessary to implement the Core Curriculum?

2. Are school personnel being provided with professional development that supports their continued improvement, and is that professional development in keeping with the KCMSD Professional Development Plan negotiated in 1998?

3. Do schools have in place assessments that can be used to document students' progress toward the Show Me Standards and the Core Curriculum? Are the assessments that are used aligned with the MAP?

Interview and observation data from the schools were used to develop a set of case studies, one for each school, that are presented later in this report. Care was taken in the development of the case studies not to include information in descriptions of classroom observations that would identify or place in jeopardy any individual teachers or students. Principals of the schools were invited to provide feedback and/or corrections to drafts of the case studies. The comments of principals were considered in developing the final drafts of the case studies.

The three researchers, faculty members in the College of Education at Roosevelt University in Chicago, are all experienced at gathering data through interviews and observations. A protocol was developed by the researchers and used to structure the site visits. A copy of the protocol is found in Appendix A.

Summary of Findings

Implementation of the Core Curriculum

The Core Curriculum of the KCMSD addresses what students should know and be able to do. It "asks students to apply knowledge in different contexts" (The School District of Kansas City, Missouri, p 6). It also affirms that learning is an active process of making meaning and building concepts and understanding in the "Rationale and Guiding Principles" for each of the disciplines it addresses (pp. 8, 75, 127, 157, 193, and 243).

This evaluation was not intended to be a curriculum audit; it is simply not possible, in the small amount of time spent in schools and classrooms, to determine whether the content of the curriculum is being implemented in classrooms in the KCMSD. Rather, researchers sought to determine whether the intent of the Core Curriculum, with its focus on active learning, meaning-centered learning, and application of knowledge in meaningful contexts, is being implemented in classrooms. Analysis of the interview and observation data found the following:

· All schools reported using the Core Curriculum as an integral part of the teaching and learning process. Some schools reported using the document as a basis for determining quarterly, monthly, or weekly objectives for grade levels or curriculum areas.

· Several principals described the new Curriculum Designer software and the alignment of the Core Curriculum and the MAP as a valuable tool that has the potential to help teachers in their schools implement the Core Curriculum more fully.

· Observations showed that the intent of the Core Curriculum, however, is not being implemented consistently across schools, across classrooms, or even across disciplines in the same classrooms. The case studies describe classroom practice that ranges from drill and practice with little meaning or connection to rich, meaning-centered activities in which children learn and practice knowledge in authentic ways.

· In some schools, there seems either to be a lack of understanding of the intent of the Core Curriculum or no expectation that it be implemented.

· The Core Curriculum is standards-based. Teachers still do not understand the difference between standards-based and objective-based curriculum, as evidenced by their use of the Core Curriculum document to develop the behavioral objectives that are posted in most classroom.

· The implementation of the Balanced Literacy project and the Principles of Learning seem to make a difference in the implementation of the intent of the Core Curriculum.

- In the two elementary schools and one middle school visited where the Balanced Literacy project and the Principles of Learning are nearly fully implemented, there is a strong focus on meaning-centered learning that has reached beyond reading and writing to teaching and learning in other disciplines. In these schools, students are becoming active agents in their own learning.

- In the elementary schools where the Balanced Literacy project and the Principles of Learning are implemented even partially, students have more opportunities for meaning-centered, active learning in reading and writing.

- The schools that have not fully committed to implementing Balanced Literacy or the Principles of Learning have some teachers who provide meaning-centered, active learning activities for their students. But they also have teachers who do not.

· There seems to be a relationship between the intent of the Core Curriculum and the commitment to and quality of professional development at the school.

· In most elementary schools visited, mathematics and literacy are clear priorities; in some there are almost no opportunities for students to engage in science or social studies.

Related to the implementation of the Core Curriculum is the availability of materials necessary for such implementation. In general, most classrooms seem to have appropriate instructional materials. However, there were classrooms visited where the necessary materials seemed not to be available. Several elementary classrooms, for example, did not have adequate supplies of manipulatives for all the students. An elementary science classroom had only enough microscopes for every six children to share. A high school social studies teacher reported, and observation confirmed, the lack of any maps in his classroom. A high school English teacher reported not having enough classroom sets of quality literature available for multiple sections of a class.

The Kauffman Foundation provides grants to schools in the Balanced Literacy project to purchase materials that supplement those provided by the KCMSD. Administrators and teachers in those schools confirm that the grants provide some materials that are basic, rather than supplemental, to the literacy program. Some administrators reported that it will take several years of such grants to have enough books in classrooms. This raises the concern that the school district may not be providing materials to support basic instruction, as well as the issue of inequity of materials from school to school.

Professional Development

In 1998 the KCMSD developed a Professional Development Plan in collaboration with the AFT and the plaintiffs. This plan called for comprehensive and systematic professional development that is consistent with research-based principles of professional development and adult learning. The goal of this professional development plan is full implementation of the Core Curriculum and the KCMSD Instructional Plan, the development of curriculum embedded assessments, and accountability as outlined the KCMSD Accountability Plan.

The 1998 KCMSD Professional Development Plan established performance rather than the completion of professional development activities as the measure of the effectiveness s of the plan. In other words, the success of professional development should be determined by degree to which the professional development affects classroom practice.

The Professional Development Plan described coaching as a critical component of effective professional development and outlined the role of Instructional Coach in the professional development process. It also provided for professional development for Instructional Coaches.

Site visitors talked with administrators and teachers about professional development in their schools. The site visitors also looked for evidence of that professional development in classrooms. They found the following:

· Some schools, like those in the Balanced Literacy project, have systematic professional development that is focused on teaching and learning. Other schools have professional development that is a series of unrelated events.

· Schools where the effects of professional development are evident in classrooms have systematic professional development that includes opportunities for observation in classrooms, follow-up, and coaching, as well as workshops and other presentations in their professional development plans.

· Schools where professional development consists of a series of unrelated events have the least evidence of that professional development in classrooms.

· The schools where the most significant changes have happened in classroom practice are those that have become communities of learners and where commitment to and responsibility for learning is shared by all staff members.

· Even when a school has a systematic and effective professional development plan, teachers learn at different rates and need varying levels of support.

· The quality and quantity of coaching in schools with Instructional Coaches seems to be uneven, calling into question both the professional development that is provided to coaches and the number of responsibilities given to coaches that are not related to coaching.

Assessment

In the schools visited, the development of assessments that are embedded in the curriculum and that document students' progress in meeting the Show Me Standards and the Core Curriculum seems to have just begun. Except for schools that have implemented Balanced Literacy, where assessment and teaching are seamless, there were few examples of such assessments observed. Most principals acknowledged that teachers were in the process of developing assessments that were modeled after items from the MAP, and that they have MAP teams or MAP coordinators who are being provided professional development in assessment by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Observers found the following:

· Some schools rely on MAP and SAT 9 to provide data about students' progress toward meeting standards.

· No school seems to have developed an assessment system.

· There is wide variation in administrators' and teachers' understanding of assessment of student performance.

· There is also wide variation in the format and quality of performance tasks and rubrics that have been developed.

· In the schools that have fully implemented Balanced Literacy, students and teachers together develop rubrics for judging performance. Students in those classrooms understand what quality performance is and have become adept at self-assessment.

Recommendations

There are exciting things going on in some schools and in some classrooms in the KCMSD. The school district has models of innovative and effective implementation of the Core Curriculum at all levels--elementary, middle, and high school. But children still have no assurance that they can attend any school or classroom in the KCMSD and be offered full implementation of the intent and content of the Core Curriculum or opportunities to meet the Show Me Standards,. They also do not have assurance that the teachers who teach them understand how they learn and know how to engage them in active, meaning-centered learning. Most of the schools that were visited are somewhere on the journey to

Implementing the Core Curriculum

· The KCMSD must consistently communicate the expectation that the Core Curriculum be implemented. Administrators and teachers must be held accountable for the implementation.

· There are still many teachers who do not understand how children learn, as evidenced by the activities in their classrooms that have little potential to result in learning. Helping teachers understand how children learn, which was a part of the 1998 Professional Development Plan, must be a priority for the KCMSD.

· Teachers need professional development to understand standards-based curriculum and how it is different from objectives-based curriculum.

· Administrators and teachers must have training in using the newly developed Curriculum Designer software. Without such training, it is unlikely that all teachers will use it. It should go without saying that teachers need to have easy access to the appropriate hardware for the software to be used on a regular basis.

· The KCMSD must commit to providing the instructional materials necessary to implement the Core Curriculum.

· Elementary schools need to expand their priorities beyond literacy and mathematics to include regular, high quality learning activities and experiences in science, social studies, and the arts. Science, social studies, and the arts all can be integrated with literacy and mathematics, and it is important for students to meet standards in these disciplines, as well.

Professional Development

· Schools need to develop and implement systematic professional development plans that focus on specific strategies for the improvement of teaching and learning. Such plans should include opportunities for observation in classrooms, follow-up, and coaching. Schools should also be encouraged to have study groups, another effective form of professional development, around professional literature related to the focus of their professional development.

· Instructional coaches should be coaching and mentoring teachers, and modeling and demonstrating teaching practices. Adequate professional development should be provided for coaches so that they understand the practices they are coaching and mentoring.

· Administrators and teachers should cultivate climates in their schools that are conducive to learning and the risk-taking that accompany the use of new classroom practices. At the same time, there should also be a culture of accountability for the new practices.

Assessment

· Schools should be expected to develop assessment systems that document students' progress toward meeting the Show Me Standards and the Core Curriculum. These assessment systems should be designed to provide data that can be used to also document the school's progress toward meeting goals set in their School Improvement Plans, to help set priorities for professional development, and so on.

· Teachers should be provided with professional development that supports them in developing assessments that are embedded in curriculum and the everyday activities in their classrooms.

Reference

The School District of Kansas City, Missouri. (1997). Core curriculum. Kansas City, MO: Author.

Case Studies

Attucks School

Attucks School serves 352 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. The children come from a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds, including some children who are homeless. The children come from all areas of the city, and parents are responsible for transporting their children to the school.

Because of its partnership with KCPT, channel 19, and the donations made to support it, the school has maintained its communication theme. The school also has partnerships with sports broadcasting and minority broadcasting.

The improvement of student achievement, according to the principal, is a priority at the school. The full time instructional coach is a part of that effort.

One site visitor spent a day at the school, interviewing the principal, observing in classrooms, and talking informally with teachers. The visitor had the opportunity to observe the instructional coach working in several classrooms in the school on the day of the visit. The visitor also noted students' work that was displayed in classrooms and common areas of the school.

On the day of the visit, two teachers were absent. One of the classrooms was staffed by a substitute teacher; the other class moved to another room and joined that class for the day.

Implementation of the Core Curriculum

Teachers at the school use the Core Curriculum to determine quarterly objectives. The teachers have also worked to align the Core Curriculum with the Show Me Standards. There was little evidence in classrooms, however, that teachers understand the active, meaning-centered application of knowledge implied by the Core Curriculum. Teachers in most classrooms have created positive learning environments, but only a few activities were observed that were in keeping with the intent of the Core Curriculum.

One of these was a social studies lesson observed in one classroom that engaged children in comparing and contrasting modern day Boston with Boston in the 1600's when it was settled. The lesson, which began with a whole group review of beginning settlements in America, drew on the social studies text, other books the children had read, and experiences they had had, to form the background for the day's group work. In partners and small groups, children wrote answers to questions the teacher had listed on the board. The questions all required that the children use factual information to compare and contrast Boston long ago and today. Student to student talk observed by the visitor was focused on the task and productive.

In another classroom, a science lesson observed had children using hand lenses and rocks as they discussed rock characteristics for classification. All of the children were involved in discussing what they were observing.

In some other classrooms, there was evidence that teachers are beginning to implement some strategies that engage children in meaning-centered learning.

In one such classroom, the teacher engaged the children in a lively discussion about ears and hearing that led to the introduction of a book entitled Ears. The teacher helped the children make connections to their own lives and experiences with ears and hearing. They discussed the author and the title page, and reviewed the table of contents of the book. As the children read the table of contents, the teacher provided good hints to help them figure out words that they did not know. A chart displayed in the classroom provided information about accountable talk. The next step for this teacher could be to encourage, label, and give feedback to students about accountable talk.

Several lessons observed focused on drill of isolated skills that has little potential to result in real learning, such as computation in mathematics without any connection to application in real world problem solving. There was also little attention to students understanding or being able to describe the computation process. The observer also noted instances of round robin reading of books or stories with no attention at all to the meaning of text.

A lesson in one classroom where children were working with the n sound demonstrated a misunderstanding of active learning. In that classroom, children were making necklaces with noodles (macaroni, actually), but there was no focus at all on the n sound. During the activity, the observer noted lots of conversation among the children and between the teacher and instructional coach, all of which focused on the process of stringing macaroni rather than the letter n or the sound it represents.

In still other classrooms activities observed had the potential to interfere with children's development of concepts.

In a mathematics lesson on multiplication, where, contrary to the stated objective "to form division statements/equations" which the teacher had the children read to begin the lesson, the teacher used tens rods to represent ones as she demonstrated multiplication and wrote the accompanying equations.

In one classroom, the observer noted the teacher actively interfered with student learning. In that classroom, children were each allowed to select only two books for Drop Everything And Read. During DEAR time, the teacher never stopped talking for the ten minutes he allowed for reading, even though he kept reminding students that DEAR time required silence.

Children's work was displayed in several classrooms at the school. In some classrooms, a variety of projects that showed children's work across the curriculum demonstrated that all such work was valued. In one classroom, for example, children's spelling was displayed regardless of the quality of the work. In other classrooms, work was displayed too high for viewing by children, and in some, little children's work was displayed at all.

Professional Development

The school's instructional coach had developed a positive relationship with teachers. According to the principal, the coach models balanced literacy strategies and plans on-going professional development in literacy. She mentors teachers, one on one, and she facilitates grade level meetings. The instructional coach also heads up the school's weekly MAP preparation; third, fourth, and fifth graders prepare for taking the state assessment by using released items from the MAP.

On the day prior to the site visit, teachers at the school had viewed a demonstration videotape of read alouds, with the goal of understanding how to encourage deeper accountable talk.

Evidence of the literacy project was observed in some classrooms. Collections of books were available to children, and charts of such activities as accountable talk were displayed. Some classrooms also displayed rubrics, although no use of rubrics was observed.

The visitor noted the presence of the instructional coach in several classrooms during observations, but no coaching or mentoring was observed. The instructional coach did assist the teacher in the classroom where children were stringing macaroni in learning how to wrap the yarn for stringing. The coach also followed children as they moved from center to center in another classroom. The coach also interrupted children who were working well but noisily in another classroom to talk with the whole class about "how we work in groups," referring to a chart about group work displayed in the classroom. (When children returned to work quietly, neither the coach nor the classroom teacher acknowledged the children's quiet work.)

Assessment

The principal reported the need to work on developing continuous assessment, including analyses of pre- and post-test results. The primary grades in particular need to work on continuous assessment. The school has worked to align the Core Curriculum with the Show Me Standards; the teachers are still working to determine if students are meeting the standards. Their is to decide how to do this across grade levels and within grade levels.

In one classroom where children's writing was displayed with a rubric, the rubric did not include descriptors of the levels of the rubric. The writing had been scored, but it was not clear what criteria had been used to award the scores.

Improving Student Achievement

The principal reported that improving student achievement is an important issue at the school. The school has undertaken several efforts to improve student achievement. These include giving teachers released MAP items and asking them to work with the elements of the assessment tasks within their daily teaching and having weekly lessons focused on MAP preparation in third, fourth, and fifth grades. Teachers at the school are coached to have students write more, and children are coached on test-taking skills.

To help students be better prepared for middle school, teachers at the fourth and fifth grade levels loop with their children. One of the teachers who had looped with the children described the ease with which children had moved from one grade level to the next in the fall. The teacher reported that parents also had commented on the smooth transition.

At the same time, the school has identified the need to challenge higher achieving students, and is currently addressing that need by moving those students to the next higher grade.

The school has a number of volunteers from the YMCA who tutor children on reading for details.

Summary

Attucks School's participation in the Balanced Literacy project is to be commended. Attucks will need continued financial support to purchase books and other necessary materials and a great deal of professional development to implement and institutionalize effective literacy strategies in all classrooms.

Attucks teachers need professional development in developing strategies for active, meaningful learning in other curriculum areas, as well, and the mentoring and coaching provided by the instructional coach should extend beyond literacy to the entire curriculum. It seemed clear to the observer that teachers at the school do not have a good understanding of how children develop concepts and how teachers can facilitate and support that development. A study group for teachers about constructivism could provide them with valuable insight upon which to build effective classroom strategies. The observer also wondered about expectations for and training of the coach.

Designing an assessment system that is embedded in curriculum and instruction should also be a priority at Attucks School. As teachers become proficient in the assessment that is part of Readers and Writers Workshop, they will become more adept at observation as an assessment tool. They should also learn how to use good learning activities as assessments so that precious instructional time is not used for testing and assessment that does not lead to learning. The development of quality assessments with rubrics that are known and salient to children and the routine use of such rubrics in classrooms will focus children themselves on quality performances, preparing them much better for the MAP than any added on test preparation could do.

Chick School

Chick School is a neighborhood school with an Afro-centric theme evident throughout the school in the beautiful displays of African and African-American artifacts and photography. The school serves 287 children in kindergarten through fifth grade; there are two classes of each grade level. The majority of the children at the school are from middle income homes.

The school has worked to build a strong feeling of community, and the vice principal reported a feeling of family characterizes the climate of the school. This feeling of family, according to the vice principal, extends across all stakeholders at the school: children, parents, staff, teachers, administrators, custodians, and so on. The school also houses Caring Communities which helps to provide necessary social services to the school community. The school also has a working relationship with Swope Park Mental Health.

One site visitor spent a day at the school interviewing the vice principal and observing in one classroom at each grade level, as well as noting the children's work on display throughout the school. The principal was not at the school on the day of the site visit. The visitor was escorted throughout the day by the school's instructional coach; there was little opportunity for her to speak privately with teachers to confirm with them what had been reported in the interview. Because the instructional coach controlled the length of visits and the classrooms visited, it is difficult to know whether the instructional activities observed in the classrooms visited are representative of those in other classrooms at the school.

According to the vice principal, the school has a high level of parent and community involvement. Parents have been trained to work in classrooms, the cafeteria, and Chick's after-school program. The school hold a "read in" monthly, and parents and community members are invited to participate. The school also has a grandparents program; grandparents serve as paraprofessionals in classrooms. No grandparents, however, were observed to be in classrooms on the day of the site visit.

The vice principal reported that learning comes first in everyone's mind at the school. The climate of the school is such that students have high self esteem which allows them to take responsibility for their own learning. The vice principal also told the visitor that all Chick community members hold high expectations for all students to learn.

The site visitor noted that children were calm and orderly throughout the school. Children seemed comfortable and even eager to share what they were doing with the visitor.

Implementation of the Core Curriculum

All teachers have copies of the Core Curriculum, and the school provides one-on-one inservice to new and associate teachers to help them become familiar with it. Teachers use the Core Curriculum as a guide for planning monthly and weekly plans for their classrooms. The vice principal reported that last school year, a focus of the school was to help teachers work with unit plans that were developed from the Core Curriculum. The school works to infuse the Afro-centric theme into the Core Curriculum.

The school day is organized to allow for a two and a half hour block of time for communication arts each day in every classroom. The observer noted that the large amount of books available to children in the classrooms at Chick was a visible affirmation of the importance of literacy at the school.

The observer noted that in several of the classrooms visited, children experienced high levels of passive, rote learning. There were opportunities for the active, meaning-centered learning implied in the Core Curriculum, but there seemed to be more focus on reciting rehearsed responses than on thoughtful, individual responses or reflection.

Classrooms visited held many books, and most classrooms displayed teacher-made charts that described reading strategies, accountable talk, and the Principles for Learning. Rubrics were also displayed.

Children in three of the classrooms visited were focused on a variety of literacy activities. Observations of instruction in these classrooms showed that teachers were beginning to use some effective literacy strategies but still maintaining the high level of teacher direction with which they were comfortable. In one classroom, the children gathered on the carpet to read the morning message. The teacher pointed out the punctuation marks in the morning message and then had the children repeat the names of the punctuation marks and "say what the mark tells them to do." The teacher had the children read the morning message aloud as a group and then had individual children read the message aloud. Little attention was focused on the meaning of the message; the teacher did not take the opportunity to focus on reading as a meaning making activity. Even while children read the message aloud, the teacher interrupted to redirect students not focused on the reading, interrupting the flow of the message and the meaning for any children who might have been listening.

Later, in the same classroom, the teacher read aloud Nappy Hair, a book that is written in call and response form. In introducing the story, the teacher gave students an opportunity to tell what the title of the story made them think of. Then the teacher and teacher assistant read the story aloud, stopping to add information that would help children understand the story. Although there was a chart displayed about accountable talk, the opportunities for accountable talk during the story were missed. After reading the story, the teacher invited the children to brainstorm about family gatherings like the one in the story, but the teacher did not allow any children to provide responses. Only the teacher brainstormed. At the end of the lesson, however, the teacher did allow one child to tell about a favorite part of the story.

In another classroom where literacy activities were observed, children were completing workbook pages and phonics worksheets. No meaning-centered literacy experiences were noted.

In the third classroom, children were working on spelling. The spelling words, according to the teacher, were words related to a classroom project. Children defined the words as the teacher listed them; they had opportunities to "add on" to other children's definitions, an indication of the teacher's understanding of accountable talk.

A science lesson was observed in one classroom visited. Children there used eyedroppers to drop water on pennies. The children, who were working in groups, were investigating how many drops a penny would hold before overflowing. Children worked together to collect data of several attempts; then they made individual graphs of the data. During the data collection phase of the activity, children shared observations and made suggestions to one another. The observer noted that all children in the class were engaged in the activity and sharing ideas about how to get the most drops on the penny. "Drop carefully, squeeze slowly. If we do it too fast, it'll make a bigger splash." "We don't want a big splash 'cause it'll make it spill out." "When we did it slowly, we got more drops." Children seemed to have constructed some knowledge from the activity; unfortunately, the teacher did not provide the opportunity for a closing discussion or reflection that could have allowed her to assess how the children's learning was forming or that would have enhanced the children's concept development.

Children in another classroom were observed working on a social studies project on Native

Americans. Each child had selected an Indian Nation to research, and on the day of the observation, children were painting flower pots white in preparation for decorating them later with designs from the Nations they were researching.

Student work was displayed attractively in classrooms and in the common areas of the school. The work included writing, both creative writing and reports, art work, and displays of student projects. In one classroom, students' family trees were accompanied by eight-paragraph autobiographies; reports of students' individual research on dinosaurs was displayed; and book reports, labeled "Pillow Talk," were written on pillow cases!

Professional Development

According to the vice principal, all staff have participated in professional development.

The school has an instructional coach who is reported to work closely with new teachers and associate teachers. According to the vice principal, the school has taken a "village" approach to mentoring new and associate teachers. On the day of the site visit, the instructional coach accompanied the site visitor. There was no opportunity to observe the instructional coach working with teachers.

All staff of the school have participated in professional development from the Institute for Learning on accountable talk, constructing meaning, organizing for learning, academic rigor, and self-assessment. Teachers have viewed videos to see how each of these play out in the classroom, they have visited two demonstration schools where they had the opportunity to observe in classrooms and talk with teachers, and they have taken "learning walks." Teachers have opportunities to observe one another, and they share ideas. Teachers at the school also have reading material available to them as support, including Word Matters, a book about word study.

The vice principal reported that Teachers at Chick School meet weekly as grade levels and have a full day of professional development every two months.

The observer noted that teachers' work with children in classrooms shows that they are beginning to implement some of what they are learning through their professional development in literacy and the Principles for Learning. Continued professional development, especially in the forms of observation of master teachers, follow up, and coaching will be necessary for teachers to fully implement the literacy strategies and the Principles for Learning.

Assessment

The vice principal explained that performance assessment was a priority at the school, and she described a variety of activities that teachers assess. No specifics for how those activities would be assessed were provided.

The observer noted that rubrics were displayed in most classrooms at the school and that they had been used in some classrooms to score student work. In one such classroom, where a rubric for writing was displayed, the observer noted that the rubric had been used to score some children's' writing that was displayed with the rubric. The rubric had not been evenly applied to the writing, however. Several of the pieces of the writing had been scored as 4's, although they included misspelled words and one of the indicators in the rubric for a 4 was "No misspelled words."

In one classroom the visitor observed the use of a performance assessment that the teacher explained was preparation for the Missouri Assessment Math Test. There, the teacher distributed materials for the assessment and read aloud the performance "directions." The teacher also read the criteria for a "good answer." Children worked independently on the task, which required them to make a bar graph that compared travel times to a variety of destinations. The time for completion of the task was limited. The observer noted that the assessment was probably related to the curriculum and to prior instruction; children did know how to make bar graphs. Much of the value of such an assessment was lost to the children. Because it was not embedded in instruction, it was a separate exercise that did not extend the meaning of instruction or learning. Even in terms of preparation for MAP, the value of the task would have been enhanced had the children scored their own responses using the rubric.

One teacher explained to the visitor that grade levels have been working to develop rubrics, but they are so different from what she has always done that it is hard for her to use them. She reported not using rubrics as often as she should but that she is trying.

Improving Student Achievement

The vice principal reported that the school uses its test results to identify weaknesses and addresses them in helping students to improve. A number of stakeholders in the school, parents, children, teachers, administrators, and business partners, have been involved in determining the objectives of plans for school improvement.

Summary

The hands-on, active learning and application of knowledge in a meaningful context implied in the Core Curriculum and embodied in the constructivist philosophy of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education challenge the traditional practice of rote, rehearsed recitation and passive learning of basic skills at Chick School.

Among the teachers at the school, the level of comfort with the new practices seems to vary, but all teachers seem to be in the process of trying new strategies and beginning to move away from the teacher directed instruction with which they seem comfortable to allowing children more involvement in directing their own learning. They will need continued professional development and support to adopt this different theoretical stance and the practices that support it.

East Elementary School

East Elementary School serves children in preschool through fifth grade. Besides regular elementary classrooms, the school has Head Start; early childhood classrooms; SLD, BD, and MR special education classrooms; and support services in physical education, art, science, vocal music, computers, library, Title I, Reading Recovery, ESL, Arena, and Speech. The school has two full-time counselors, a parent-school liaison, and an instructional coach. There is also a Parents As Teachers office at the school.

The school moved into its current facility in August, 2000; they spent the two previous years at another site. According to the principal, they are still moving in and trying to get everything in place. For example, at the time of the site visit in December, bulletin boards had just been hung in the school's hallways.

East Elementary School is housed in a former high school building that has been refurbished and retooled for use as an elementary school. The building, with classrooms on five floors, seems remarkably well-suited to elementary school. There are two cafeterias, one on the first floor and one on the fourth floor.

The wide hallways of the school allow for carpeted reading nook areas, and children were observed reading in them on the day of the visit. Even though the hall bulletin boards had just been installed, they already held displays of children's work

The school has adopted the BIST program, a classroom management program that has helped teachers learn how to respond when children are off task. The program, in which teachers have had professional development, uses Buddy Rooms and time out. Each classroom has a Buddy Room; children out of control in their own classrooms go to their Buddy Room for time out.

East Elementary has joined with Franklin, Milton Moore, and Banneker Schools in a Read to Be Ready project. The project, funded by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, addresses reading in kindergarten through third grade. The project provides materials, funds for staff development, and consultants to help teachers in those grade levels improve their teaching of reading.

One site visitor spent a day at the school interviewing the principal, observing in classrooms, and talking with teachers and students. The observer also took note of the students' work displayed in the classrooms and common areas of the school.

Implementation of the Core Curriculum

The principal reported that the new Curriculum Designer software and the school district's work to align the Core Curriculum with the Map would be a valuable tool to assist teachers in using the Core Curriculum. Teachers at the school meet quarterly in grade level teams to discuss and determine objectives for the quarter based on the Core Curriculum.

In some classrooms, teachers were facilitating the kinds of active, meaning-centered activities implied in the Core Curriculum.

Children in a first grade classroom were observed during the read aloud of a big book, The Bear Who Wouldn't Share by Jonathan Allen. The teacher asked questions that required thinking and analysis: What do you think that means? Why do you think he's embarrassed? Children identified the theme of the story as "not being greedy" and "sharing." Several of them made a connection between this story and Dickens' A Christmas Carol, that the teacher was reading aloud to the children, and one said, "Scrooge might learn to share." In the culture of this classroom, accountable talk seemed to be expected, and children were obviously comfortable with it. The children left the carpet to write in their journals about their favorite parts of the story. The teacher asked the children what they should do to if they needed help spelling, and the children suggested looking at the word wall or looking at the print around the room.

Children from a second grade classroom were observed in the hallway in an activity that integrated mathematics and literacy. The class, with the teacher's assistance, was making a graph of their favorite stories on one of the large bulletin boards in the hallway. The children were using accountable talk, discussing the graph as it was being completed and interpreting the information shown on the graph.

In another second grade classroom, it was center time. The teacher was reading with one child, and the other children were doing a variety of activities that included several kinds of writing. Some children were writing thank you letters for the class Christmas tree. One child was writing a story about a loose tooth, while another was working on a book about Christmas. Two boys were using construction paper, markers, and glue to make animals and other figures. When asked, they explained that they were making characters from stories they had read. The boys showed the observer each figure and retold at least a part of the story the character was from.

Fourth grade children were working in groups to write and illustrate stories in the pattern of The Mitten. One group of children retold the story, explained how their story was different, and explained why they were illustrating the way they were.

Children in a fifth grade classroom had just had a read aloud of Westlandia, by Steven Gammell. The story is about a boy who invents things. The teacher was distributing a variety of materials--tissue paper, yarn, string, sticks, paper bags, clay, paper plates, and so on--for the children to use to "invent" something which they would later write about.

Other literacy lessons were observed that were meaning-centered and involved children actively in the learning. But there were lessons observed that were not meaning-centered or active.

In an intermediate grade classroom, the lesson observed related to exchanging international currencies for dollars. While this might have been a worthwhile lesson, the teacher presented misinformation. The teacher asked such questions as, "What do they call the dollar in Germany?" Children in that class may have come away from the lesson thinking that the dollar is the basic unit of currency in every country, and that it just has a different name.

A mathematics lesson observed required children to compare two four- or five-digit numbers and determine which of the two was greater. The children could not read the numbers, possibly indicating that they needed to learn about place value, but even then, had the teacher begun by modeling a process for determining the greater number, at least children could have learned a process. Instead, after labeling the places (ten thousands, thousands, hundreds, tens, ones) and talking about the signs (>, <), the teacher distributed a worksheet for the students to complete.

And in one classroom, children were being punished by reading the science textbook, copying vocabulary words, and copying definitions from the glossary. The observer wondered what students would learn from such an activity.

In a primary classroom, children were observed copying words from the board. (The observer could determine no point to this activity that was related to learning.) The teacher, who was seated at her desk, threatened the children to keep working, reminding them that the work would be graded. In this classroom, there was little individual student work displayed.

In most classrooms and in the hallways, children's work was displayed attractively and creatively. Most of the work displayed was writing, communicating that writing is valued. Only a few classrooms displayed work other than writing.

Professional Development

Teachers at East Elementary have many opportunities for professional development. In addition to the Read to Be Ready program already mentioned, the school is part of the Balanced Literacy project which all teachers at the school in kindergarten through grade five. The principal described the professional development that is part of the literacy project as having addressed phonics, leveling books, and developing criterion charts and rubrics. The Kauffman Foundation also brings in speakers, and teachers from the Balanced Literacy project are invited. Most recently, third and fourth grade teachers from East Elementary were invited to hear Carl Anderson speak about conferencing with students as part of Writers Workshop.

In January, a study group will begin; teachers will read and discuss In the Company of Children by Joanne Hindley. The book describes using Readers and Writers Workshop in elementary classrooms.

On the day prior to the site visit, consultants from Rigby, the company that publishes the reading materials currently being used in kindergarten through third grade, provided a workshop on using their materials in classrooms. A teacher described the workshop as very helpful; she reported that the consultants had provided telephone numbers and email addresses and were willing to provide on-going one on one support as needed by teachers.

East Elementary School holds regular after school "chat 'n chew" sessions for teachers. The sessions offer short (40 to 60 minute) presentations on a variety of topics and provide follow up on other professional development. The principal said that these sessions help to provide a balance for new teachers.

February staff development day will offer several different levels of activities to meet the differing needs of the associate teachers, new and beginning teachers, and experienced teachers at the school. The school is also planning to have a professional development retreat at the end of the school year.

There is evidence of the Balanced Literacy project in classrooms in the school. Most classrooms have collections of children's books that are organized by genre and/or levels. In several classrooms, the book of the month was displayed. In most of the primary classrooms, children had baskets of books on their tables or desks. Many classrooms had word walls. And some displayed criterion charts and rubrics.

Observations confirmed that many of the teachers at East Elementary School are at least trying the literacy strategies that they are learning through the Balanced Literacy project. The observer did not see Readers Workshop or Writers Workshop going on in any classroom, however.

Assessment

A key piece of the Balanced Literacy project is assessment. Criterion charts and rubrics developed as part of the literacy initiative are displayed in some classrooms in the school, but the observer noted only one instance of a teacher referring to a rubric.

No evidence was noted that showed teachers at the school to be using performance assessments or assessments that were curriculum-embedded, although the principal did report that fourth grade teachers are developing assessments using the released items from MAP as models.

Assessment is a key component of the Balanced Literacy project. If teachers use Readers Workshop and Writers Workshop in their classrooms, they will be using curriculum-embedded assessment on a daily basis.

Improving Student Achievement

All of the professional development efforts at the school are focused on improving student achievement. The principal noted that third and fourth grade teachers have taken the lead in preparing for the MAP. They recently completed an item analysis of the MAP. The third grade teachers are using that information to plan activities and lessons that are correlated with the MAP. The fourth grade teachers are using released items from the MAP as models for designing assessments for their classrooms.

Summary

Moving into the "new" East Elementary School has been a monumental task for the staff of the school. With a short timeline for moving in and unpacking, the teachers and administrators are to be commended for providing such attractive and inviting workspaces.

In general, teachers at the school are working hard to implement what they are learning though the Balanced Literacy project, and in many classrooms, already engaging children in meaningful reading and writing activities. Continued professional development and support will be necessary as they work to institute and institutionalize Readers and Writers Workshops in their classrooms. To be able to consistently provide a comparable level of meaning-centered learning and authentic, hands-on activities in mathematics, science, and social studies will require the same level of commitment, professional development, and support as teachers are having through the literacy project.

A key part of establishing and maintaining such high quality teaching and learning is the design and implementation of an assessment system that provides opportunities for continuous documentation of children's learning and feedback to teachers about instruction. Developing such a system is a challenge that East will face as it seeks to improve teaching and learning.

Chester Franklin Elementary School

Chester Franklin Elementary School is a neighborhood school that serves 370 children in preschool through grade five. The school houses three special education classrooms, and three preschool classes. The poverty level of the families served by the school is high, and, the principal reported, only about 15 percent of the children come from two-parent families.

Five parent workers complement the instructional staff, and a number of volunteers also work at the school. Village Presbyterian Church in Overland Park, Kansas, supplies approximately 40 volunteers, while Seniors for Youth provides ten retired teachers to work with students at the school. No volunteers were observed at the school on the day of the visit.

One site visitor spent a day at the school, interviewing the principal, observing in classrooms, and talking informally with teachers and students.

Implementation of the Core Curriculum

The principal reported that the Core Curriculum is implemented at the school, and that there was 100 percent involvement with Adding Rigor. He noted that problem-solving and journal writing are daily activities for all the children in the school. The school is part of the Balanced Literacy project; the principal stated that Balanced Literacy is completely implemented in kindergarten through third grade and fifth grade classrooms, and that fourth grade is having a more difficult time with the implementation.

Observations at the school do not confirm the principal's report of full implementation of the Core Curriculum or the Balanced Literacy project. The observer noted that some teachers at the school are making efforts toward implementing the active, meaningful learning implied in the Core Curriculum, but other classrooms provide no evidence of such efforts.

In a fifth grade classroom, a read aloud of the book of the month, The Black Snowman, was going on. 'The teacher's reading engaged the students fully in the story. The read aloud generated a discussion about the symbolism of color, i.e., black is bad, white is good. At the beginning of the discussion, all of the talk was between teacher and students, with students responding to questions from the teacher. But after a while, students began initiating the talk, and a lively student to student discussion took place. Throughout the read aloud and the discussion, the teacher communicated both verbally and nonverbally that students' ideas were valued; the teacher encouraged students to share and support their ideas with evidence.

Children in a third grade classroom were observed during a vocabulary lesson. In the lesson, children were working with words from a story they had read earlier in the day. The teacher said a word, and children went back to the story to find the word. They used the context of the story to create their own defintions for the words. After the vocabulary lesson, the teacher asked students to use a story web to identify the elements of the story. When a child asked the teacher how to spell a word, the teacher referred the child back to the story to find the word. Children in the class were eager to tell the visitor about the story. One child reported that the story was about a deaf child, and that the teacher had taught the class some sign language as part of the lesson. The observer noted that the teacher's responses to students nearly always communicated to students the expectation that they were competent. Rather than answering questions directly, the teacher nearly always helped students to find information for themselves.

Kindergarten children were observed during word work. The classroom had words hanging from the ceiling, and children were identifying words that began with the letter "p." The teacher pretended to be on a plane ride and invited children to join her. To join her, children had to find a word that began with "p." At the end of the activity, the teacher provided an opportunity for the children to reflect on the activity, and they discussed how they activity went and how they could make it better.

In other classrooms, few opportunities for active, meaning-centered learning were observed, And in a few, no instruction at all was taking place. In one such classroom, some children were filling in the blanks in a spelling book while others worked at mathematics drill and practice. In another, several children were sitting doing nothing for most of the time the observer was in the classroom.

In several other classrooms, when the observer arrived, the teacher stopped the activity that was going on and began a read aloud. In at least one of those classrooms, the read aloud seemed to be a rehearsed performance; children remarked that they had done this already. But even in this classroom, once the read aloud began, children were engaged in the story and the discussion that accompanied the story. One child told the visitor that he loves read alouds because "they are better books that I read, and my teacher reads them."

No instruction in mathematics, science, or social studies was observed during the visit to the school, and only a few artifacts of such instruction were evident. There was some evidence of mathematics instruction noted by the observer. In one classroom, there was a problem on the board that involved some sophisticated patterning, evidence of problem solving. Children were observed in a few classrooms completing mathematics practice; in all those classrooms, the practice involved basic computation with no use of manipulatives or opportunities for application within a meaningful context.

In one class, evidence of a social studies unit was noted. While no instruction in either content or process was observed, some students in the class was preparing to begin developing a large report about Africa. Students working in pairs selected, from a list provided by the teacher of ten parts of the larger report, one of the parts for their own report.

Professional Development

Franklin School is part of the Balanced Literacy project, and teachers at the school were provided inservice in October related to the project. Teachers in kindergarten through grade two participated in a workshop provided by the consultant from the Rigby reading series, while teachers in grade three through five had a workshop on the Principles of Learning. Teachers at the school have also had opportunities to visit demonstration sites for Balanced Literacy.

The Kauffman Foundation provided the school with a grant of $15,000 to support the implementation of Balanced Literacy. The Kauffman Foundation also provides coaching and follow-up for teachers at the school, according to one of the facilitators from the foundation.

The school has an instructional coach, but the observer did not meet the coach on the day of the visit or observe the coach in classrooms.

The school has just begun implementation of Balanced Literacy; observations in classrooms confirm that most teachers are making efforts toward implementation. The observer noted that most teachers are implementing read alouds and are helping their students to understand and use accountable talk.

Assessment

The principal reported that the school is creating student portfolios, and doing Writers Workshop once every two weeks, but that because of being in the first year of the Balanced Literacy project, they had not had time to address the issue of assessment in other ways.

Improving Student Achievement

The principal reported that all of the professional development was aimed at improving student achievement.

Summary

Only a few teachers at Franklin School were observed to be implementing the active, meaning-centered learning implied in the Core Curriculum. But Franklin School has joined the Balanced Literacy project, and according to the coach provided by the Kauffman Foundation, teachers have been working on read alouds. So many teachers stopping what they were doing to do read alouds when the observer arrived in their classrooms may be evidence that teachers are feeling comfortable with read alouds.

The principal reported that teachers were using journaling in their classrooms, but no journaling was observed. The observer did note that in one classroom, the teacher told students when they left the room that when they returned, they would write in their journals.

Teachers at Franklin are participating in professional development related to literacy and the Principles of Learning. The principal explained that the implementation of the practices that teachers are learning through this professional development is nearly overwhelming; no efforts to develop assessments are going on, but the literacy project and the Principles of Learning have the potential to improve student achievment.

Gladstone Academy

Gladstone Academy, a neighborhood school, serves 641 children in kindergarten through fifth grade. The school, which has four sections of each grade, also includes two classes of children who are deaf and hard of hearing. More than one-fourth of the students at the school speak a language other than English as their home language.

Gladstone Academy is a demonstration site for the Balanced Literacy project, funded by a grant from the Kauffman Foundation. The school hosts many visits and observations by teachers from other schools in the KCMSD, and teachers from Gladstone make visits to other schools as part of the mentoring that they do.

The new principal at Gladstone Academy has continued the school's culture of a community of learners working and learning together; she has joined the community as a colearner and reports relying on the leadership of teachers in keeping with the shared governance of site-based management. The staff at Gladstone work together on the budget, they monitor and analyze student performance, and they select and purchase instructional materials together. Currently teachers are selecting next year's books of the month.

Technology at the school has recently been upgraded with the installation of a computer lab of 25 iMAC computers. When the new lab was installed, teachers requested training in using the new hardware and integrating it into the work of their classrooms; to meet that request, the computer lab teacher has opened the lab before and after school, not only to teachers, but to paras, custodians, and cafeteria personnel, as well.

One site visitor spent a day at Gladstone Academy, interviewing the principal, observing in classrooms, and talking informally with teachers and children. The site visitor also took note of the student work displayed throughout the school.

Implementation of the Core Curriculum

The principal reported that the school was working to make optimum use of the new Curriculum Designer software that has aligned the Core Curriculum with MAP. The software the contains suggested activities and has the capability to help develop reports for parents. Several teams of teachers at the school are working to learn the various components of the software package.

Observation in classrooms at the school show teachers throughout the school to be implementing the intent of the Core Curriculum, with its focus on meaning-centered, active learning. Many of the children at Gladstone Academy are active agents in their own learning, making decisions about it and taking responsibility for their own learning. In all classrooms in the school, charts developed collaboratively by teachers and children describe literacy strategies and procedures, as well as rubrics for many classroom activities.

In a kindergarten, children were involved in Readers Workshop. Beginning with a guided reading lesson of a non-fiction book about the work of Jane Goodall, the workshop continued with students reading the books in their book boxes for 20 minutes. During that time, the teacher conferenced with individual students about how to tell the difference between fiction and non-fiction books. The observer noted a rubric for Readers Workshop posted in the classroom and asked a student what it was for. The student clearly understood the rubric. He invited the observer to listen to him read the pages he was planning to share during the wrap up at the end of Readers Workshop. In this classroom, "reading" the pictures is clearly honored as literacy, and the child proudly read the pictures on the pages he had chosen from a book about boats. The illustration on one page was of several boats on a river at night. The child read, "Even though it's midnight, the boats are still racing on the river." When asked to explain if his books were fiction or non-fiction, he readily did so, explaining how he could tell. Other children asked by the observer were also able to explain the differences between fiction and non-fiction and accurately sort the books in their book boxes.

A fourth grade classroom was observed during a read aloud of Marianthe's Story One: Painted Words, by Aliki. This is a book that includes two stories, one beginning on one cover, and a second story beginning on the other cover. The teacher invited students to sit with their "carpet partners" and to make pictures "in your mind from some of the words" as she read the story. One child said, "You have the book upside down." The teacher explained, "It's a special book. It has two different stories." Another child asked, "Won't you get mixed up?" The teacher showed how there is a dividing page between the stories. As the teacher read the story about a little girl who does not speak English and her experience going to a school in the United States, a child asked, "Do the other kids know that she speaks another language?" Several children responded, with the teacher reminding one to "defend that answer." The teacher honored the children's speculation and prediction, bringing them back to the book and finding evidence to support what they said. A later discussion about what grade the classroom in the story was led the teacher to invite the children to "do some turn and talk about the disagreement about the grade described." Children discussed with their partners. The ones closest to the observer defended their predictions with evidence from the text and their own experience. Most of them also labeled the evidence with such statements as "in the book it said . . ." and "remember when we were in first grade?"

During the wrap-up of Readers Workshop in a fifth grade, a child who had read about polar bears shared with the class that polar bear cubs sometimes are eaten by their parents. Other children made connections to hamsters and sharks, who also eat their young. The first child told the class a little about how a zoo keeper in Atlanta rescued a polar bear cub by from being eaten by its father and asked the class, "Should it be worth it to spend a lot of time and money on a bear?" The teacher and student together added that the zoo had asked the zoo keeper to stay home and raise the baby until it could fend for itself. A student asked, "Did the zoo keeper jump into the cage and save the baby? It could live and have more babies." Another student said, " I think it's worth it and not worth it. If it's natural for the father to eat the baby, then maybe it should be OK." Another student talked about the value of life. One student connected the dilemma to "It's a Bug's Life."

In a third grade, the mathematics lesson was about regrouping in subtraction. The students wrote explanations of why it was necessary to regroup in their math journals and then shared their explanations. The teacher recorded some of their responses on the board as the children shared them. Then the teacher had the children review regrouping with base 10 blocks, working several examples of subtraction that required regrouping and then representing what they did with numbers on the board, with children always explaining why they were doing what they were.

The mathematics lesson observed in a second grade class provided the opportunity for students to understand the value of grouping objects for counting by fives and tens. Children were given a set amount of time to make as many stars as they could in their math journals. When the time was up, the teacher asked them to count the number of stars they had made. Then the teacher asked the children to circle groups of five stars and then recount by fives. The teacher asked the children to write in their journals the number of groups of five and the number of stars left over. He also asked the children to write how they came up with their answers. To a child who was having trouble explaining in writing, the teacher said, "I'm confused about how you got that answer." The child explained, and the teacher said, "Write that down." And then, after the child had written the explanation, the teacher said, "Very smart! You wrote what you did."

In the same classroom, after the mathematics lesson, the teacher asked students to get their theme study notebooks and to be prepared to share what they had learned during their last theme study session. Children shared what they had written during the previous lesson about the sun, moon, and stars. As one child shared, another said, "I want to add on to what [another child had] said." After a period of sharing, the teacher commented that the children had shared things they hadn't even talked about yet.

In a social studies lesson observed, children were finishing maps they had made of their classroom. As they finished, the teacher used a rubric to provide feedback about the maps. The teacher also used some completed maps that were "4-star" maps to show children the differences between those maps and others that hadn't met the standards for four stars. The teacher gave children the opportunity to continue working on their maps to reach "4-star" quality.

Even support teachers are part of the school's focus on literacy. The principal reported that even the physical education teacher has a word wall in the gymnasium. A visit to the art room and observation of a lesson showed the content to be connected to what the children were studying in their regular classroom. During the observed lesson, children worked on "magic slippers," directly drawn from the school's book of the month. The lesson also involved designing and continuing patterns, which supported what the students were currently working on in mathematics.

Children's work was displayed throughout the school, in classrooms and in common areas. The work provided evidence of learning in all areas of the curriculum. Examples of that work included drawings of how energy is produced from the sun, accompanied by written explanations, self-portraits, punctuation posters that showed appropriate use of punctuation marks, and many pieces of writing.

Professional Development

The culture of the school is one of learning, with professional development a part of nearly every activity. The Balanced Literacy grant has continued to provide support and resources for professional development. Teachers at the school have a study group that focuses on reading literature related to issues they would like to address at the school. Most recently, teachers identified conferencing during Writers Workshop as an area of concern. To address this, they are currently reading and discussing Carl Anderson's book, How's It Going?: A Practical Guide to Conferencing with Student Writers.

Teachers have also worked with consultant Dianne Seltzer on using non-fiction in their classrooms, and they have read and discussed the book Nonfiction Matters: Reading, Writing, and Research in Grades 3 - 8 by Stephanie Harvey. In January, 2001, they will begin working on strategies for teaching spelling.

Observations in every classroom showed evidence of the results of the professional development teachers have been involved in. Besides the teaching, facilitating, and coaching observed in classrooms that demonstrated what the teachers have learned through the professional development, there are many artifacts of that work. These include the charts and rubrics that are developed jointly by teachers and students and referred to throughout the day; the classroom organization that includes such things as children's individual boxes and baskets of books; the classroom maps that show children's reading places and "Buddy Places;" the envelopes that hold individual spelling words; and the materials for reading and writing, as well as other curriculum areas, that are plentiful and accessible to children.

Assessment

Assessment is an on-going process at the school; it is embedded in everything that students do in classrooms, according to the principal. A review of the school's MAP scores by the staff identified the need for more work in the areas of math and science literacy, and the staff is planning to extend the focus of their professional development to include mathematics and science workshops. The school's MAP coordinator convenes monthly assessment team meetings to review student work from the standpoint of MAP. With the addition of health to the fifth grade MAP, teachers at the school have looked for ways to incorporate health into their literature and word study.

Throughout the day and throughout the school, the observer noted that assessment was truly embedded in instruction. Teachers were noted to be "kid watchers." gathering information during conferencing with children and through observing them as they worked on classroom activities. They also provided opportunities for and coached children to assess their own learning through the many rubrics that were displayed in classrooms. And they were observed providing feedback to students that was focused on the learning and the learning processes.

The read aloud observed in a first grade classroom provided good examples of the kind of feedback heard throughout the school. As children talked about the story, what had happened and predicted what would happen, the teacher asked, "What would make you think so deeply about . . .?" Children also provided feedback. One child explained to another who was new to the school, "when you add on you say the same but more, something different." When a child described how a character in the story felt as depressed, there was a discussion among the children about what it means to be depressed. One child, who offered an accurate explanation, added that for her, that was a connection between the text and life because she had a parent who was depressed. The teacher said, "You were being the kind of reader who looks deep into the picture."

Increasing Student Achievement

The principal reported that student performance in writing on the last administration of MAP surpassed the state standard. As noted above in the discussion of assessment, teachers at the school use data from assessment to identify areas for their own improvement and for professional development. They also use the data they gather all day long, through conferencing and observing, to make decisions about the kinds of instruction that the children in their classrooms need.

Summary

At Gladstone Academy, the intent of the Core Curriculum is clearly being implemented. The principal shared that teachers know that they need to learn how to apply what they have learned from the literacy initiative to improving math and science workshops. Teachers have already translated many of the skills and strategies they have learned through the literacy initiative to other curriculum areas, and there was evidence that teachers use social studies and science themes in their literacy instruction.

The notion of teachers as learners seems institutionalized at Gladstone Academy. There is formal professional development, but there is also informal professional development as teachers work together, share ideas, and learn from and build on the strengths of their colleagues.

Assessment is embedded in every learning activity. Teachers gather assessment data as they conference with children and as they observe children. They help children to focus on self-assessment through the effective use of rubrics that they develop with the children. And they give feedback that focuses on the learning and the process.

It is exciting to visit Gladstone Academy. Children and adults at the school are engaged in and excited about learning. One teacher shared her excitement about her work with the visitor. She explained that several years ago, she was just counting down the days, months, and years until she could retire. But with all of what she has learned about teaching and children's learning, and the excitement of seeing children so engaged in learning and learning so well, she thinks now she may never retire!

Richardson Elementary School

Richardson Elementary School is a community school that serves approximately 375 children in grades K through 5 in the Ivanhoe community of Kansas City, according to school personnel, one of the highest crime areas of the city. Seventy-four percent of the children at the school qualify for free lunch, and the school delivers Title I service as a schoolwide program.

A technology magnet school five years ago, Richardson has focused on developing community as they have transitioned from magnet status. This focus on community has included efforts to build children's self-esteem as well as to teach strategies for peaceful conflict resolution and forming positive relationships with families.

One site visitor spent a school day at Richardson Elementary School, interviewing the principal and observing in classrooms at every grade level. Two classrooms at each grade level were observed except third grade where a substitute teacher was in one classroom on the day of the visit. The observer also chatted informally with several staff members, including the instructional coach, the Reading Recovery teacher, the music teacher/Accelerated Schools facilitator, and classroom teachers, as well as students in most classrooms.

Evidence of the commitment to community was observed during the site visit to the school. Teachers and children begin each school day in the school's gymnasium with a community meeting. The community meeting, led by the principal, includes greetings, general announcements, an academic challenge such as science questions for the children to investigate, and the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance and the school pledge together. As the adults and children assembled, and later left for their classrooms, the observer noted many instances of communication of caring. Comments such as "I'm glad to see you," and "How are you doing today?" were heard repeatedly and noted between children as well as between adults and children.

The principal described her efforts to call attention to children's acts of kindness, as well as their good work, by distributing slips of paper to children she observes in acts of kindness and doing good work as she walks through the school and classrooms each day. Two bicycles have been donated to the school, and the slips of paper she distributes become tickets in the raffle for the bicycles later in the school year. Children in several classrooms and the cafeteria told the observer how many tickets they had received. When asked why they had received the tickets, the children explained that they had been kind, they had been good members of the community, or that they had been working hard.

Evidence of the school's efforts toward peaceful conflict resolution was also noted. As the observer arrived at the school, two children also arrived at the office to report to the principal that they had been pushed by another child on their way to breakfast. The older of the two children explained she was especially concerned that the younger, a kindergartner, had been pushed by an older and larger child. The principal told the children that the incident would be investigated later. After the community meeting, the principal sought out the child who reported the incident; the child identified the "pusher" and said that another adult was already talking with him. The principal thanked the child for handling the situation appropriately, noting to the observer the effort it had taken to keep children from retaliating.

The school's efforts to establish a positive environment are also evident in the lunchroom. Rather than have children wait in long lines that have the potential for conflict, the school personnel who work in the lunchroom seat the children at their tables. Many children take books to the lunchroom and read while they wait for their table to be invited to go through the cafeteria line. Children chat quietly with one another and the adults in the room during the lunch periods. The observer noted that inappropriate behavior was addressed through redirection rather than punishment or coercion. A child who "was having trouble" was invited to join the principal and the observer; he was invited into the conversation, and no further attention was called to his "trouble".

Richardson Elementary School is in its second year as part of Missouri's Accelerated Schools project. The principal noted that 100 percent of the staff made the commitment initially to participate in Accelerated Schools, and that a significant number of parents have been involved in the effort from the beginning, as well. The school also participates in the Balanced Literacy grant funded by the Kauffman Foundation.

To support these initiatives, the school has budgeted to have a full time vice principal, a full time counselor, and a full time instructional coach. In addition, the school provides Reading Recovery and supportive services in music, art, physical education, library, and computers. Further assistance is provided by a cadre of volunteers, some of whom were at the school on the day of the site visit.

Implementation of the Core Curriculum

The principal, as well as several teachers at the school, described their efforts to implement the Core Curriculum. Accelerated Schools cadres have been formed for each of the four major academic curriculum areas--language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies--with the cadres focusing on improving learning in that area. Teachers at the school have also worked to cross reference the Core Curriculum with MAP and to design assessments that document children's learning in the Core Curriculum through tasks that are similar to those of the MAP.

In most classrooms in the school, the observer noted the engagement of children in active, meaning-centered tasks that required higher order thinking, the integration and application of knowledge in a variety of contexts, the synthesis of learning, and reflection. The observer also noted the integration of technology into the instruction in several classrooms.

The day of the site visit to Richardson Elementary School was November 8, the day after the presidential election. Students in several classrooms were observed discussing the election. In one classroom, students had been watching several races in particular. The teacher led the students in a discussion comparing their own personal responses to the results of those races with information from the Kansas City Star and with what they had heard and seen on TV. The teacher demonstrated how to find information on the Internet about the election results, as well. The students' writing assignment for Writers Workshop was to write about their personal responses to any of the races they knew about, citing information they gleaned from one or more of the media sources. (There were copies of the Kansas City Star in the classroom, as well as more than ten computers connected to the Internet, available for children to refer to as part of their prewriting.) During the discussion the children and the teacher compared the results to their own preferences, referring to a graph of personal preferences the class had made from their own straw poll the previous day. Throughout the discussion in this classroom, while the teacher took the lead, much of the discourse was initiated by students and directed either toward the teacher or toward other students. The children seemed very interested in understanding how the election returns were reported by the media, and they raised questions such as "Why did some states flash last night?" Rather than give answers, the teacher allowed the children to discuss and formulate the answers to their questions.

Children in a primary classroom were observed during language arts block, as well. The second grade classes were involved in a thematic unit about grandparents. In this particular classroom, the previous day, several of the children's grandparents had visited the classroom, and on the day of the visit students were working in small groups and engaged in a number of literacy activities related to the grandparents unit. One group was reading stories about grandparents. A second group worked on memory boxes, boxes that would hold artifacts that represented special memories. Another group read personal stories of their grandparents that the teacher had solicited from the children's families and identified the main ideas of the stories. Three small groups focused on finding words that began with consonant blends, with one group listening to Blueberries for Sal, a story that contains many words that begin with blends, a second group finding words beginning with blends in the signs and print located around the classroom, and the third group searching a big book to find the blends in the story. The teacher assisted children as they asked for help or as the teacher observed that it was necessary; her role was clearly that of facilitator, providing materials and assistance, but the learning was directed almost entirely by the children.

In an intermediate grade classroom, the teacher engaged the children in a lesson about comparing and contrasting, a language arts lesson that the teacher connected to the science lesson of the previous afternoon. The lesson began with reading a selection about the differences between two kinds of snakes. The teacher and some of the students "thought aloud" the strategies they used as they read the story. They predicted and confirmed, they used context to determine the meaning of the word "venom," and they kept checking back to make sure that they were indeed learning the differences between the two kinds of snakes from the selection they were reading.

A mathematics lesson in a fifth grade classroom focused on estimation. The teacher asked students to recall the work they had done previously on "front end" estimation and "rounding," giving the students a minute to look back at their notes on estimation from the previous lesson. After a short discussion about the value of being able to explain a mathematics process in words, the teacher asked the students to write a paragraph explaining one of the two strategies in their mathematics journals. As students shared their paragraphs, the teacher invited others to look for details that might be missing from the explanations. The class then worked an example together using each of the strategies and compared the results with the "actual" answer. Individually, children worked two examples in their mathematics journal and then wrote a sentence about what they had learned.

In a few classrooms, however, activities were not as meaning-centered. In a second grade classroom, for example, students were working on addition and subtraction of two- and three-digit numbers that required regrouping. As one student completed an example on the overhead, the others were supposed to be checking their work in their math journals. The student talked through the process, but the focus of the talk was on the process and not the meaning. At no time did the teacher attempt to focus the talk on the meaning of the process. In addition, in contrast to most other classrooms where all students were engaged in lessons observed, some of the students in this classroom did not have math journals on their desks, and some of the students who did have them did not seem to be checking their work.

In another classroom, the stated objective of a social studies lesson was to compare and contrast Washington, DC today and in the past. The observed activity, however, was a round robin reading of a short selection that described Washington, DC today in a social studies text. The teacher asked students to describe what they saw in the illustrations in the text. She also called attention to the homophones "capital" and "capitol" and explained their meanings. But the lesson included no general meaning-making strategies (prediction and confirmation, for example) or content-specific strategies (attention to headings, information in sidebars, and so on), nor did it include any information about Washington, DC, historically, that would allow students to compare and contrast, as the objective stated.

Throughout the school, student work was displayed attractively. Nearly all of the work displayed in this school was student writing, although in a few classrooms, there were graphs and other artifacts of mathematics work. Most classrooms also display teacher-and student-developed charts and rubrics for a variety of processes in literacy. Some classrooms also displayed some charts about mathematics. But little of the displayed work, charts, or rubrics focused on science, social studies, or the arts.

Professional Development

The principal and other school personnel described the professional development efforts at the school as centered around the school's Accelerated Schools efforts. As part of those efforts, cadres of teachers and other school personnel focus on each of the core areas of the curriculum--language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. Teachers had also participated in professional development related to the cross-referencing of the Core Curriculum with the MAP, designing assessments aligned with the Core Curriculum in content and the MAP in process, and the professional development provided through the Balanced Literacy grant. The school's instructional coach also has worked with teachers to follow up this professional development work.

Evidence of the work on literacy is noted throughout the school. The student work displayed, the read-alouds and guided reading lessons observed, the charts in classrooms that outline aspects of the reading and writing processes, and even some lessons in other curriculum areas show that teachers are implementing what they are learning through the Balanced Literacy project and that teachers' learning is impacting student learning.

In a primary classroom, a read aloud of Arthur's Chicken Pox was observed. During the read aloud, students related the content of the story to their own experience, discussing what it feels like to have chicken pox, and they made predictions and confirmed them through the reading of the story. They also noted such literary elements as the author's uses of his own children's names in his stories, how the author has changed his illustration from one book to another, and so on.

In an intermediate grade discussion about the presidential election, the students organized information they had learned about elections into a web. As they completed the web, the teacher led students to be metacognitive, to think about and describe their thinking processes. When the web was completed, students ordered the information and set priorities for it, all in preparation for the writing they would do about the election during the day's Writers Workshop.

Evidence of professional development related to assessment was noted by the observer and is described in the next section of this case study. The effects of other professional development related to mathematics, social studies, and science were less evident in classrooms.

Assessment

School personnel described several efforts toward implementing assessments that are aligned with both the Core Curriculum and MAP. These include using the released items from MAP with students and as models for designing other assessment tasks, developing rubrics for daily activities, such as those for listening that were posted in many classrooms, and encouraging student self-assessment.

To help students understand rubrics and how they are applied to student work, some teachers described having their students use rubrics from released MAP items to score actual student responses. Teachers have also had students construct their own responses to released items, using the rubrics. In addition, some teachers at the school have been designing tasks and rubrics that are aligned with the Core Curriculum. One second grade teacher showed the observer several projects developed as assessment tasks. One such project was an "encyclopedia of video games" developed by the students as an assessment for their Encyclopedia of Music Instruments unit. This task required students to develop an encyclopedia entry about a video game. The rubric is written in language that students could use to assess their own work. According to the written description of the task, the assessment "utilizes Core Curriculum benchmarks RG1, RG4, RH3, RJ1, WC1, WK1, OA1, and OB2" as well as being aligned with MAP 2000 Language Arts 2.1 and 2.4, Reading Operations 8.2 and 8.14, Study and Research Skills 11.3, 11.4, and 11.9, Vocabulary 13.4, and Writing 14.1 and 14.6.

The observer noted several teachers called attention to, or led students to review, rubrics for such activities as listening during classroom lessons. In a kindergarten classroom, for example, before a read aloud, the teacher asked the students to "name one thing that makes a good listener." Students listed all the attributes of good listeners that were included in their classroom rubric, as well as a few more attributes that were not included in the rubric, indicating that the rubric was not only understood by the children, but a living document that progressed as it was understood.