EQUIP

TEACHERS in acrostics

2011-08-15T05:22:00.001-07:00

TEACHERS

T ruly commit to students & their learning
E xpert in the subjects, know how to teach
A ct responsibly – manage student learning
C ommunities of learning be a part
*H ave systematic thinking of their practice
E nable knowledge, skills, dispositions
R ich in diversity, field experience
S eek qualification and performance

Sing to "You Raise Me Up"

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Based on this article from: http://www.sagepub.com/eis2study/standards.htm

Summary of the Standards

Welcome to this brief overview of professional teaching standards. The effective teaching strategies described in Effective Instructional Strategies: From Theory to Practice, Second Edition, are drawn from more than 40 years of research on effective teaching. The content has been closely aligned with the current view of teaching and learning reflected by national and state professional teaching standards. The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), and the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) have played central roles in research on effective teaching.

National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE)

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) is one of two national agencies that accredit colleges, schools, or departments of education in the United States. The second agency, the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC), was recognized by the Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) in fall 2003. The agencies differ in that NCATE applies external criteria for accreditation, whereas TEAC applies internal criteria.

NCATE is an alliance of national professional education and public organizations (see www.ncate.org ). NCATE accreditation is a mark of distinction, and provides recognition that the college or school of education has met national professional standards for the preparation of teachers and other educators. These standards include a conceptual framework that provides structure and direction for programs, courses, teaching, candidate performance, faculty scholarship and service, and accountability. The six NCATE standards include:

Standard 1: Candidate knowledge, skills, and professional dispositions

Standard 2: Assessment system and unit evaluation

Standard 3: Field experiences and clinical practice

Standard 4 : Diversity

Standard 5: Faculty qualifications, performance, and development

Standard 6: Unit governance and resources

The performance-based NCATE standards require that institutions provide evidence of competent teacher candidate performance. Candidates must know the subject matter they plan to teach and how to teach it effectively.

The Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) was founded in 1997 by a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving academic degree programs for professional educators. TEAC's accreditation process examines and verifies evidence teacher education programs have to support their claims that they prepare competent, caring, and qualified professional educators. To be accredited, an institution submits a research monograph, called an Inquiry Brief, in which the institution documents the following:
Evidence of their students' learning
Evidence that their assessment of student learning is valid
Evidence that the program's continuous improvement and quality control is based on information about its students' learning

TEAC accredits the institution's programs based on an audit of the Inquiry Brief.

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS)

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) is an independent, nonpartisan organization governed by a board of directors, the majority of whom are classroom teachers. The mission of the National Board is to advance the quality of teaching and learning by
establishing high and rigorous standards for what effective teachers should know and be able to do,
developing a national voluntary system to certify teachers who meet National Board standards, and
advocating related education reforms to integrate National Board Standards in American education for the purpose of improving student learning.

The National Board formed five core propositions relative to what teachers should know and be able to do to bring about student learning. The five propositions essential to effective teaching are as follows:

Proposition 1: Teachers are committed to students and their learning.

Proposition 2: Teachers know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students.

Proposition 3: Teachers are responsible for managing and monitoring student learning.

Proposition 4: Teachers think systematically about their practice and learn from experience.

Proposition 5: Teachers are members of learning communities.

The propositions with detailed discussions can be accessed on-line at the NBPTS website ( www.nbpts.org/about/coreprops.cfm ). The NBPTS further details what constitutes effective teaching in every subject and for students at all stages of development. The standards provide career-long learning curriculum for accomplished teaching.

The Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC)

The Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) was formed in 1987 to create broad standards that could be reviewed by professional organizations, state agencies, and teacher preparation institutions as a basis for licensing and preparing beginning teachers. The 10 broad INTASC standards are further explicated in terms of teacher knowledge, dispositions, and performances that all beginning teachers should have regardless of their specialty area. These standards present a wide range of content knowledge, pedagogical methodologies and strategies, and personal beliefs and personal behaviors that promote student learning.

Here are the 10 INTASC standards, which can be accessed along with supporting discussion on-line at http://www.ccsso.org/content/pdfs/corestrd.pdf . Most teacher preparation programs are specifically aligned with these standards.

Standard 1: Subject Pedagogy. The teacher must understand the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she teaches and be able to create learning experiences that make these aspects of subject matter meaningful for students.

Standard 2: Student Development. The teacher understands how children learn and develop and can provide learning opportunities that support their intellectual, social, and personal development.

Standard 3: Diverse Learners. The teacher understands how students differ in their approaches to learning and creates instructional opportunities that are adapted to diverse learners.

Standard 4: Instructional Strategies. The teacher must understand and use a variety of instructional strategies to encourage students' development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills.

Standard 5: Learning Environment. The teacher must be able to use an understanding of individual and group motivation and behavior to create a learning environment that encourages positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.

Standard 6: Communication. The teacher uses knowledge of effective verbal, nonverbal, and media communication techniques to foster active inquiry, collaboration, and supportive interaction in the classroom.

Standard 7: Planning Instruction. The teacher plans instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, students, the community, and curriculum goals.

Standard 8: Assessment . The teacher understands and uses formal and informal assessment strategies to evaluate and ensure the continuous intellectual, social, and physical development of the learner.

Standard 9: Reflection and Professional Development. The teacher must be a reflective practitioner who continually evaluates the effects of his or her choices and actions on others (students, parents, and other professionals in the learning community) and who actively seeks out opportunities to grow professionally.

Standard 10: Collaboration. The teacher fosters relationships with school colleagues, parents, and agencies in the larger community to support students' learning and well-being.

These standards require the ability to integrate knowledge of subject-matter content, learning, students, and community in order to be an effective classroom teacher. They require the application of research-based principles of effective teaching that define what teachers need to know and how to apply that knowledge in a diverse classroom setting.

TEACHERS in acrostics

2011-08-15T05:04:00.000-07:00

Working With Students With Autism

2009-02-08T14:32:00.000-08:00

Transcript
Working With Students With Autism

Guests:
Marcie W. Handler, director of home and school consultation at May Institute, has provided training and behavioral consultation in system-wide, classroom, and individual positive behavior support practices for 15 years. She and her colleagues have been awarded grants by the Massachusetts Department of Education to provide summer institutes for educators working with children with ASD in the general education classroom.

Paula Kluth is a consultant, teacher, inclusion facilitator, and advocate on the topic of autism spectrum disorders. She has authored six books on autism and inclusion, including "You’re Going to Love This Kid!" Her research and professional interests include differentiating instruction and supporting students with autism and significant disabilities in inclusive classrooms.

Stephen Shore, author of Understanding Autism for Dummies and Beyond the Wall: Personal Experiences with Autism and Asperger Syndrome, is a professor at Adelphi University where he teaches courses in special education and autism. Diagnosed as a child with "Atypical Development with strong autistic tendencies," Shore presents and consults internationally.

Elizabeth Rich (Moderator):

Welcome to our live chat on working with students with autism--an issue that concerns educators, administrators, and parents.

Our guests today are three experts on autism spectrum disorders. Marcie Handler, director of home and school consultation at May Institute, provides training and behavioral consultation for educators and families working with children with ASD. A former classroom teacher, Paula Kluth is an inclusion facilitator, consultant, and author of six books on autism and inclusion. Stephen Shore is an author and educator on the topic of special education and autism. Diagnosed as a child with “Atypical Development with strong autistic tendencies,” Shore presents and consults internationally.

I’m Elizabeth Rich, an online editor for teachermagazine.org, and I’ll be your moderator today.

We have received a lot of great questions already, so let’s get started.
Question from D. Jackson, ASD Consultant:

When a student with ASD is aggressive for no apparent reason,(No clear antecedent triggers are observed) what do I do?
Paula Kluth:

This is always a hard question because there are so many antecedents we, as teachers, cannot detect. For instance, a student may hear a sound you don't hear or be frightened by something that isn't scary to others. For instance, I knew a child who would react every time he saw Halloween images (e.g., cartoon ghosts). These images were not scary to others, but they were to him. So without knowing what is causing it, it is hard to offer solutions. I would talk to the family and see if they can guess. I would also ask any teachers (or therapists or social workers, etc) from his past who have had success with him. See this link from my website to get a "strengths and strategies" tool to use for this purpose. In any instance you can always do a sensory inventory to make sure he is comfortable (is the lighting ok, how about seating), make sure he has motivating and interesting curriculum (boredom will cause a lot of behavior problems), provide appropriate channels for communication (another common cause of behavior problems), provide opportunities for breaks and plenty of movement, and ensure that he or she has plenty of opportunities to interact with and enjoy activities with peers.
Question from Joanne Calver, Resource, HH School:

How do you effectively support regular classroom teachers in providing appropriate education, when they are feeling overwhlemed by the programming demands, and simply want you to provide pull out support, or seperate programming and often feel that you are not supporting tehm because you are not providing a seperate program that they have no input into for a teacher's assistant to fill out.
Marcie W. Handler:

I would recommend collaborating with the general education teachers to identify where they are having the most challenges in supporting students with special needs. For inclusion to be successful, general education teachers typically need some background training on autism and ongoing assistance to implement new strategies. Start with something small that can be successful and require little effort for them to implement (e.g., providing the student with choices about what work to complete first, or modifying the assignments). When possible try to identify classroom-wide strategies that can benefit more than one individual (e.g., creating routines that help several students get organized, complete work, or access support).
Question from Anonymous:

How can I best promote self-regulation in a student with 'mild' Aspergers tendencies?
Stephen Shore:

It's important to know where and when the students is experiences self-regulation challenges. Once those are determined the next step is to give the student awareness of his or her own sensory and emotional challenges by using visual strategies. Some of these strategies, such as emotional thermometers can be found in books such as the Hidden Curriculum by Brenda Myles and Understanding Autism for Dummies by me, Stephen Shore.
Question from Dr. Somyos Lorwatanapongsa, teacher, Redeemer International School Thailand:

How can mainstreamed teachers help parents/helpers to help ASD children at their homes? What are the do's and don'ts.
Paula Kluth:

Great question! There are almost no "DON'Ts"-- it is always great to see enthusiasm for school-home partnerships. DO encourage parents to share "what works" at home. In turn, teachers should share "what works" at school. As I shared in another post, you may want to collaborate on the "strengths and strategies" profile from my website. DO videotape any strategies that seem to work at school and send them home for parents to see. Some kids on the spectrum get confused to see mom and dad hanging out at school and act differently than they would otherwise. Therefore, observation is sometimes difficult. Videotapes work well for this purpose. DO attend conferences and seminars as a team. Look for funding opportunities for both of you and, when possible, go to sessions on inclusion or autism as a group. DO pass on favorite resources-- books, local groups, etc.
Question from Gayle Gadison, M.Ed.,Curriculum Manager, Cleveland Metropolitan Schools and maother of an autistic son:

What is being offered to help teachers to work with typical students to be more tolerant of their peers with autism?
Marcie W. Handler:

It has become more common for local autism agencies and community-based organizations to offer "autism awareness" workshops for students and their teachers. Some larger school systems may have internal resources like psychologists or counselors (or parent groups) that can present information on the characteristics of autism, the challenges, and how to support your peers with autism. Evidence-based peer-mediated interventions are highly effective in promoting social skills and begin with education about understanding students with autism.
Question from Debra Lawrence,SPED TA/paraprofessional Nantucket Elementary:

How does a child affected with autism and bipolar fit into a general classroom when his/her behavior is very unpredictable?
Marcie W. Handler:

If it has not been done already, it may be helpful to conduct a functional behavioral assessment in order to better determine what does and does not contribute to the challenging behaviors. It helps to identify patterns even if it is not always predictable. Staff can then develop a better plan to modify those areas that seem to contribute more often to the behavior and attempt to make his/her time in the general ed classroom more predictable and reinforcing. It will be neccessary to develop strategies (teach using structured examples and practice when the student is not agitated) that the student can use to regulate emotions, and appropriately access escape or help if the general education class is "too much" for him/her to manage successfully that day.
Question from Martha Garner-Duhe, preK teacher, St. Charles Elementary, Iberia Parish, LA:

How much should one "pressure" a non-verbal child to speak? I don't want the picture communication chart to become a prop that prevents progress, but am not sure how much or in what ways I should be trying to get the child to use words instead.
Paula Kluth:

Well, you probably won't be able to pressure him to speak very much as we know now that difficulties in communication are not behavioral problems but complex issues related to movement and the body. To help a child use more speech, you might actually try using MORE augmentative and alternative communication, not less. I would infuse a wider range of options including something with voice output (there is some recent research that suggests that kids who hear that voice may try to mimic it and use more speech). Hearing what one types or chooses can be very helpful to the language learner. I would also incorporate gestures and, in general, a total communication approach. Make sure he also has lots of opportunities to work and learn around typical peers so he can be exposed to all of those communication models. Finally, give lots of opportunities for communication - not just choice making. Make sure he has many different opportunities to share in class, socialize with peers, and ask and answer curriculum-related questions.
Question from Weston Koyama, Student, Summit High School:

As a student I understand that autistic people need special help often including individualized attention. Many of the people in class although understanding of special needs students are frustrated by the extra help autistic students receive while unable to keep up with the curriculum themselves. How should a teacher assuage the frustration of struggling students as more of his or her time is spent helping special needs students?
Marcie W. Handler:

It's great to hear the student perspective. One piece to keep in mind that every student (those with or without identified special) should have access to the supports he/she needs to be successful in working to their individual potential. When schools utilize effective school-wide positive behavior support (PBS) practices, they can create environments where ALL students can benefit from general academic and behavioral curriculums, some will need additional group-based supports (e.g., social skills groups, additional reading groups), and a few should need intensive academic and behavioral support. But I think there is a bigger question to address here given your concern. That is, if many students in a class are struggling to keep up, it suggests a need to assess the difficulty level of the tasks, and consider modifying the instruction, checking for student understanding, and creating more opportunities for students to access support from each other (e.g., cooperative learning groups). That way the teacher can be responsive to the needs of more students.
Question from Sonia Rodriguez, Student Teacher, CSUB:

I am currently in my first quarter as a student teacher, grade level 1. We have one student who is diagnosed with Asberger Syndrome. He seems to be easily distracted, constantly needing stimuli on the shoulder and proximity to stay on task,yet, will respond when not spoken to. My question is, when/how do we decide that keeping him mainstreamed may be a disservice to this child?
Stephen Shore:

Hi Sonia, The answer to the question of inclusion is whether a student is benefiting more from an inclusive rather than separate special education program. His need for stimuli to remain focused makes me wonder if this student has sensory issues that could be diagnosed and treated by a competent occupational therapist. Whenever possible I like to set up an educational environment supportive of people with diverse learning needs.
Question from Diane Bajor, art teacher, Middletown, NJ, school system:

I am an elementary art teacher who has been teaching since 1978. Presently, I have about 30 self-contained low functioning autistic students. The autistic population in our district continues to grow. Most have skills at pre-school level and below. I have no special education training, no special curriculum and no supervisor for help. I have been trying to find an outlet for help either in resources, networking or futher education, but with little success. As an art teacher, are there any programs or resources that I could participate in to further understand how to help these autistic children?
Marcie W. Handler:

This is quite a challenge when you are given little to no support, even with the best intentions! Great that you are willing to seek out additional support. Some local resources can be found (in every state) through Autism Speaks and locally The New Jersey Center for Outreach and Services for the Autism Community offers workshops to professionals. I recommend beginning with a workshop that helps you understand more about the strengths and challenges working with students with autism. In the meantime, one of the most effective interventions is to provide lots of visual supports to help students (especially those who do not read) create predictable routines - e.g., to learn the schedule, where to find things in your room, what steps to follow to complete the activity, how to access help, etc. Perhaps you can connect with the special education teachers around this. It may be a great place for you to start (and something you would enjoy) given your art background!
Question from Chris Ryberg, classroom aide:

I work in the classroom with one child, with very little direction from the classroom teacher or specialists. I always wonder if I should be trying all the time to shape his behavior, or should I (merely!) attempt to assist him and soothe him in a very difficult environment--the classroom.
Paula Kluth:

This is a great question and one that is all too common. I really appreciate your concern for this child and his success. I am not sure exactly what kinds of behaviors you are seeing, but it would be best if you could get the special education teacher or case manager of the student to observe you working in the classroom and give you feedback and tips. You, as a classroom assistant, should not be coming up with curriculum, instruction, or behavior interventions. You should be taking direction from a certified teacher. Other specialists could also help - you could ask for observations from the OT or even the speech therapist. In turn, you could also watch them support the child in the general education classrom and get tips that way. For now, do your best to engage him in the activities- involve peers when you can and encourage at least partial participation. Infuse his interests into the lesson. I am also recommend that you look at one of the articles, Hanging In There, on my website. It provides tips for keeping kids comfortable in the classroom. It also provides suggestions for adapting the environment. Hope it is helpful.
Question from Cathy Riehle, Sped teacher, Kahakai Elem:

I have a high functioning Aspergers student who has focusing issues. What are tools I can use to promote an increase in on task behaviors.
Stephen Shore:

Sometimes a schedule denoting work and break times helps. Another powerful motivator is to find out what the students special interests are. Then teach what needs to be learned through those interests. For example, A child with a passion for airplanes could be taught math for figuring our time taken to travel distances, relate social studies to where airplanes fly, and a host of other subjects. Also, it's important that the curriculum matches the child's developmental level. Too high or too low will be boring and not relevant to a child with AS... or anyone else.
Question from Amy-Hays, KS:

Is it typical for a young child with Autism to have trouble sleeping?
Marcie W. Handler:

Yes, although not a core feature of the disorder itself, it is commom for many children with Autism to have trouble sleeping. Sometimes there are medical reasons for this that relate and other times it is the result of a pattern that develops once a child has initially been up and adults indirectly reinforce it (e.g., the child who wake up from having a cold or fever one night, has a bad dream, etc.) For each child, it may be something a little different that contributes to it.
Paula Kluth:

I find these sites helpful for art teachers-- maybe you will find them useful-- Dick Blick [Special Needs Section] Dick Blick sells adapted drawing and painting materials, as well as furniture that can be used in the art room. Art Education and Disability Resources on the Web Created by a doctoral candidate in art education, this site contains links to vendors, ideas for finding and using adaptive equipment, and information on how and why to adapt art activities for students with disabilities. Art Therapy and Autism Information about art therapy, links, and materials for further study.
Question from candi Special Education Teacher, Garden Grove Elem.:

I have minimal experience and knowledge of teaching academics to higher functioning autistic students. Any academic teaching strategies that could be shared would be appreciated.
Stephen Shore:

Here are some tips... 1. Be clear and consistent with directions and routines. 2. Provide visual supports such as a schedule of the day's events on a bulletin board or a wall. 3. Find the students' passions and work them into the curriculum 4. Make sure the environment is sensorially friendly. That means good (usually not fluorescent) lighting, ventilation, and is quiet. The other students, in addition to those with autism, will benefit.
Question from Linda Sampietro, 4th Grade Teacher, Thompson Elementary School:

If a teacher suspects a child might be autistic, but school medical records and/or parents do not indicate any such condition, what steps should be taken to find out such information without breaking any "rules and regulations"?
Marcie W. Handler:

Perhaps begin a dialogue with the parents about the general concerns you have - what behaviors or characteristics appear to be impacting the child's success in school. Then determine if parents see similar concerns at home or in the community. Once you you have developed a relationship whereby they trust your opinion, then you will be in a better position to identify supports in your school system (e.g., the school psychologist) that can help the parents examine whether or not to move forward with an evaluation.
Question from Substitute Elementary Education Teacher:

As a substitute teacher, I have gone into Special Education classes with some or little knowledge about autism. Are there any web sites/books or classes you could recommend? I want to be the best that I can be to provide the appropriate instruction for all students.
Paula Kluth:

I applaud your interest in students on the spectrum. They are so often good teachers to those of us who want to improve our practice in the classroom. I have so many favorite books and sites-- I would start with Stephen Shore (another guest today)-- his website is AutismAsperger.net. I also highly recommend Stephen's books- especially his autobiography which is Beyond the Wall. My own website has a lot of information for teachers as well- PaulaKluth.comOn it, you will find a lot of free articles on topics ranging from differentiating instruction to literacy and autism. I would also recommend ANY of the autobiographies on autism-they are so helpful and easy to read and enjoy. One favorite is Luke Jackson's Freaks, Geeks, and Asperger Syndrome. Another is Liane Holiday Willey's PRETENDING TO BE NORMAL. A new book that everyone seems to love (and I do too) is Look Me in the Eye by John Elder Robinson. Many of these authors also have great websites too so just google their names. I will recommend one more site too- it is called Inclusion: School as a Caring Community. This is a fantastic website filled with short essays written by general and special educators.
Question from Angela Johnson, teacher, Pillow Elementary:

*Could you please explain the use of "social stories" for autistic children? Are there books or websites that you can recommend? *What should a teacher whose school district refuses to test and or identify autism spectrum students for fear of costs and liability, tell parents? What kind of specialist can parents take children to for diagnosis? Should they begin with a pediatrician?
Paula Kluth:

To get accurate information on social stories, you should go right to the source. Carol Gray is the creator of the social stories method and you can read about them here. Social stories often work very well for students but they have to be used correctly-- that is, they are too often created, shared with a student, and put on a shelf until we need them! Instead, you should create the stories, share them regularly, teach the child to get them out when stressed or when he needs them. Some teachers are even creating auditory social stories and letting kids listen to them on the bus on their IPod. Carol is even teaching about video social stories now so check out her website to learn more.
Question from Dr. Margaret Desjardins, Professor of education at Edison State College, FLorida:

How can a classroom teacher prepare for the inclusion of a high functioning autistic child into their classrooms. ...or what steps can the classroom teacher take to allow for a smooth transition for all children?
Stephen Shore:

There are a number of things that can be done. 1. Increase awareness and sensitivity of the regular education students by studying well-known people with or suspected to have had autism or other disabilities. There are a number of historical and contemporary people to choose from. 2. Engage the class in a discussion about strong points and challenges they face. Persons with autism and other disabilities have strengths and challenges too... just to a much greater degree. 3. Make sure the room is sensorially friendly. Good lighting, ventilation, and low noise levels. 4. Clarity in giving directions and predictability of routines is also important. I have more tips listed in my third book, Understanding Autism for Dummies.
Question from Margie Crooks, teacher, Middle Point Middle School:

How is Asperger syndrome different from autism?
Marcie W. Handler:

With both, there are 1) impairments in social interaction skills and 2) repetitive and sterotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities. With autism, there is also an impairment in communication skills (e.g., significant delay or lack of spoken language). And with Asperger's there is no significant delay in cognitive development.
Question from kathy miller, special education teacher, New Milford:

Some of the students are very sensitive to noise but are extremely loud when they speak. Are there any strategies to help them adjust to normal classroom noise and also regulate their own voice level?
Paula Kluth:

Students can be loud for a variety of reasons-- it might be because they don't hear their voice as you do or because they can't modulate it very well. Sometimes when I ask a student to speak more softly, he begins to whisper-- this is common. It is as if they just cannot get the volume knob to turn the right amount! Some have tried audiotaping or videotaping the person to show them and let them hear themselves talking. For some kids, this seems to do the trick. You can also try give a visual cue to simple let them know they are speaking too loudly. It can be as discrete as a hand signal or a picture you point to. This may help students attempt to regulate their voice without others knowing they are being singled out. Finally, I would see if this seems to happen when it is very noisy. Some kids get overwhelmed with the noise and bring their volume up. So you can try bringing the noise down in the classroom too.
Question from Rita A. Sablan, Commissioner of Education, CNMI Public School System:

What type of support system can be provided to parents and families that have autistic children? What can the school system do to help parents cope with this disorder?
Marcie W. Handler:

Great question. Schools can do a lot. In many districts, they have been a resource to parents who develop support groups so that accurate information can be shared about what the school can do to support their children's education and development. In some cases, they sponsor parent trainings groups to give parents general information about educational services (e.g., ABA, OT, how to facilitate inclusion) or about home supports (e.g., teaching parents basic ABA principles, developing behavioral support strategies at home and at school, fostering communication between home and school). In addition, many school systems are providing home-based therapy and/or behavioral consultation to families to prevent the need for more costly, intensive and restrictive placements.
Question from Cindy Lassalle, teacher, Episcopal School of Acadiana, Lower School (grades pr-K-5th):

What are the benefits and drawbacks of labeling a child with Asperger's Syndrome?
Stephen Shore:

I think there are more benefits than drawbacks. In a practical sense a label provides a key to needed educational and other services. Additionally, by taking a strength-based approach in telling a child they have AS, it can lead to much greater understanding of their own situation. I have developed a four step method for doing this consisting of... 1. Discussion of the child's characteristics with them. 2. Lining up strengths and challenges. A two column piece of paper can help. I also try to find at least one strength to accommodate for a challenge. For example, a child who is good with a computer can type his papers rather than writing by hand if penmanship is difficult and slow. Also... I don't use "weakness" because that's a static and negative word. 3. Comparison of his characteristics with others he knows. The point is to show different people have different characteristics and they aim to use their strengths to lead fulfilling and productive lives. 4. Bringing out the label is preceded byt talking about scientists and others studying peoples' characteristics. And it just so happens that your set of characteristics is called "Asperger Syndrome" That way the label becomes a framework for understanding a person's situation rather than something to be ashamed of.
Question from Ann Maher, Principal, West Canada Valley CSD, upstate New York:

What do you see as the key elements in providing appropriate educational programming for autistic spectrum disorder students?
Paula Kluth:

In short, I would say you would want to see these pieces: - sensory support and comfortable environment (appropriate seating, lighting, fidget toys if needed, breaks) - motivating and meaningful curriculum - appropriate instruction (movement, learning with peers, interests infused into activities) -- communication supports (augmentative communication if needed, lots of natural opportunities to share and learn from peers) -- social supports (facilitated friendships if needed, help with navigating the social world) -- welcoming school culture (bully free environment, teachers willing to learn about/from the student)
Question from James Mullen, Music Instructor, Calvary Christian Academy:

Are there some good strategies and/or music materials to use in reaching autistic children?
Stephen Shore:

Yes there are. In essence I develop routines involving manipulation of the elements of music. Depending on the needs of the child it may be as simple as picking up letters and dropping them into a box or giving them to another person. Other students may get involved with writing the letter note names on little yellow stickies and pasting them on a piano keyboard. At some point the child realizes that what they are doing is playing songs they know and music becomes interesting on its own right. At this time there is no specific music curriculum for children with autism. More information about music and autism can be found on my website AutismAsperger.net and in my first book Beyond the Wall: Personal Experiences with Autism and Asperger Syndrome.
Question from Beth Frymire, Teacher, Shoreline Schools:

I would like some suggestions for helping build social skills between those with ASD and those in regular ed. Thanks.
Paula Kluth:

I would never say that buddy programs and any peer-support program can't be helpful because many do work well, but I have found that many kids on the spectrum do well when we build social experiences around their areas of passion and interest. So, either getting kids together in clubs (Yearbook) or creating clubs for kids (Weather Watchers Club). In addition, look for curriculum that helps kids give and get support-- games, cooperative learning, collaborative learning structures are all good options for this. Book clubs with selections related to social issues and challenges can be great tools too. For young kids, I love the book, Because We Can Change the World by Mara Sapon Shevin-- lots of great activities Jed Baker's work is very good too and check out this site for some quick and easy tips: Teaching Resources from the Desk of Laura Candler
Question from Alejandra G. Rodriguez, Fine Arts Teacher at V. M. Trevino School of Communications & Fine Arts:

How are we to meet the needs of our students if no training has been provided? Wjy can't administrators introduce training through their Staff Developments sessions? Autism is not the only disorders that is needing training but ADHD/ADD is also very important.
Marcie W. Handler:

Absolutely! The needs of the children we educate are diverse and teachers need ongoing professional development to adapt instruction to these varying needs. Schools either need to invest in prevention (by providing training to teachers and additional supports to carry out these practices) or they will have to respond in different ways later on that require more resources and time(e.g., with students failing, behavioral problems in the classroom, drop out, higher special education supports, or more students requiring more intensive supports).
Question from Cindy Songer, mother of ASD son:

My son is 7 years old and is making great progess in school and at home. Are there any programs anywhere that would help him learn to handle his frustration better. He is speaking and communicating on a 5-6 year old level, but he still can get frustrate and will have trouble expressing himself.
Stephen Shore:

Yes... There are a number ways to help. One is to use "emotional thermometers" to help him visually gauge his frustration levels and determine what to do about it. If he's having meltdowns then you may want to look into the "Rage Cycle" as discussed by Brenda Myles in the books Asperger Syndrome and Difficult Moments, and in my Understanding Autism for Dummies. There are ideas in a book titled The Hidden Curriculum by Brenda Myles as well.
Question from Kim O'Byrne, Inclusion Teacher, Mayfield High School:

At what age do autistic symptoms start to manifest? If you suspect a child is autistic where do you go from there?
Marcie W. Handler:

Believe it or not, there are children getting diagnosted as young as 18 months or 2 years old. But it is not always easy to do and requires skilled professionals. Typically, parents indicate that some of the symptoms can be identified when the children are babies and they fail to respond to adults or explore their environment in a typical way. If you susepct it, parents typically begin with a discussion with their pediatrician (the American Academy of Pediatrics has guildeines for prediatricians to screen children early on for the signs of autism). Then should be seen by a specialist in autism or team of clinicians from there.
Question from KayDee Caywood, Ph.D., Professor, National University, Los Angeles, California:

I am interested in strategies for inclusion with students that are low level functioning and that have autism.
Paula Kluth:

Look at each segment of time during the day and look at each activity in this way -- What are other kids doing and which piece of this can XXX do? How can we meet his goals using these materials and this activity? For instance, during SSR, your student perhaps cannot hold a book, but can he listen as a peer reads, read an apdated POWERPOINT book, listen to an audiobook, or work on a related software program? During a science lab, can the student have a related role if he cannot manipulate the materials easily? Can he photograph the steps of the lab? Can he check off the completed steps? Can you focus on one part of the curriculum for him to learn such as "What is a living thing?" Integrate IEP goals such as using a communication board- for this activity, a board or device might contain utterances like "What is the next step?" or "Wow that was cool" or "Who wants to do the calculation?" Other ideas for kids with more significant disabilities-- have them: - distribute or collect materials - direct the activity with communication device (or at least practice doing this) - take photos or video of an activity - draw questions from a jar for the teacher or kids to answer - hold up visuals or create visuals for lesson
Question from Fabrizia Baso, student at Cà Foscari University:

I'm a student of University Cà Foscari in Venice, who is writing a degree thesis about Asperger Syndrome. The title of my degree thesis is the following: Children with Asperger’s Syndrome in primary school: difficulties with foreign language learning. I'm asking you some help because I'd like to have information about the acquisition of a foreign language in children with Asperger Syndrome. Can they learn a foreing language? Which are their problems in learning a foreign language? and How can we help them? Thank you for help, Regards!Fabrizia Baso
Stephen Shore:

I wish I could answer your question in an academic sense. However, all I have is personal experience. I tend to learn foreign languages easily is long as things remain in the spoken mode. Writing is more difficult. Good luck on your thesis. You are covering important ground in which as far as I know, there is not much there.
Question from Rocio Galarza:

How can the use of technology help autistic children learn basic skills?
Stephen Shore:

There's a lot here. Many, if not most people on the autism spectrum are attracted to technology. The computer can be great for being a patient and consistent teacher in learning skills in communication and other others Much success has been found in using video for modeling skills such as the many activities of daily living - brushing teeth, putting on clothes, etc.
Question from Joanne Vale: Field Supervisor for student teachers at Manhattanville College:

What is the most important thing I should emphasize to new teachers as they enter the field regarding how best to approach working with students "on the spectrum" who are placed in their classrooms.
Paula Kluth:

I love this question-- I actually just did a little video vignette for Autism Speaks and answered this exact question so if you google my name (Paula Kluth) and "U Tube" or go to the AS website you can see me chatting about it. In short, I said that I think teachers need to realize that if you know ONE child with autism, you know ONE child with autism! Every kid will bring different skills, interests, passsions, fascinations, struggles, and quirks to your classroom so try to know the kid before you get caught up in knowing everything about autism. Also, I like to suggest to new teachers that they try to learn from the student and be generous and open in interpreting behaviors and tendences-- instead of thinking, "He does that to escape classwork!", ask, "I wonder why he does that? Is it helpful? Is he avoiding something or getting something from doing it? Is he uncomfortable? Does he undestand what to do?" etc. Talk a lot to the family and if possible, to the student!
Question from Joy Marcantel, mom, Wallburg Elementary:

My son is ASD. He will be transitioning from elementary to middle school next year. Can you give any helpful hints to make this a smooth transition? Thank You
Stephen Shore:

Yes... Focus on the transition by... 1. talking about and showing pictures of the middle school. 2. visiting the middle school, first when it is empty and then later when there are students. 3. consider having him spend some time in a class while is it in session at the middle school. This will be a good start.
Question from Cynthia Rucker, teacher, Maysville High School:

How can I help my soph ASD student develop better peer relationships? (such as having someone to eat lunch with)?
Marcie W. Handler:

First, be sure he/she has all the prerequisite skills to make peer interactions successful. E.g., this may include knowing how to order lunch, eating lunch neatly, how to begin a conversation, how to maintain a conversation, picking topics that are age appropriate and interesting to other students. You may want help developing social stories ("scripts") for these situations that can be taught to him/her. Work with the school to identify a peer that is familiar to your child and friendly. Adults will likely then need to facilitate some of the initial interactions either in school or outside of school until your child obtains reinforcement from having these relationships. Teach the skills, prompt their use, then reinforce the skill.
Question from John Wu, Parent, Boston Public School System:

We have a son who has been diagnosed with Aspergers. We are trying to get him placement into a very small program for kids in an inclusion setting for BPS the problem is that it is a small school with limited seats. My question is what is the best approach and strategy for getting him into the school he needs?
Stephen Shore:

The most important thing is to make sure that school is a good fit for him. Beyond that it may be difficult to jump in line ahead of other people who are waiting. While you are waiting for a slot, it might be possible to observe what positive things are happening there to bring home or suggest be done in the school he is presently in.
Question from Kim O'Byrne, Inclusion teacher, Mayfield High School:

There seems to be many variations, or levels to Autism. How do you address these in a full inclusion class? Obviously there isn't one method, are there some strategies that have worked overall?
Paula Kluth:

Kim- YOu are right about all of the ways we see autism. In fact, I always say, "If you know one child with autism, you know ONE child with autism" This is being pretty general, but here are some strategies I use no matter the "place" on the spectrum: - use plenty of visuals (illustrations, visual cues, writing) - provide lots of active learning opportunities, breaks, and movement -- infuse passions and fascinations (see PaulaKluth.com) for more info -- provide a schedule and lots of previews -- make sure the rooms are comfortable (check seating/lighting/visuals) -- provide lots of opportunities for kids to communicate/share -- start from what kids CAN do and then, as they get more comfortable, increase demands
Question from amy betts, advocate, consultant, slp:

I have found that school districts are very resistant to inclusive practices that require flexibility - especially children who have "high level" autism. One student had reading comp in the fourth grade range but was only going into kindergarten. I suggested that the SD place her in a regular kindergarten class (with support) for part of the day and resource or regular class for reading (starting her at the first grade level miniminally. Thanks
Marcie W. Handler:

Yes! It can be very challenging for everyone to appreicate the individual needs of each student. It requires a constant dialogue with parents and school systems to develop the right supports... for all students. We work very hard to facilitate this process as well. For more information about autism support or PBS services through the May Institute, please visit MayInstitute.org or info@mayinstitute.org.
Question from Portia Randolph HS teacher:

Any suggestions on how to motivate students that sit and smile at you, have a great attitude, but do not display any comprehension skills?
Paula Kluth:

Quick answer since we are at the end-- Again, I'll direct you to my website (sorry to keep doing that but easier than rewriting it all!)-- PaulaKluth.com for an article on comprehension and kids with autism-- First of all, the child may know the answer but not be able to express it so try letting him show you physically (act it out) or show you w/ pictures. Also, slow it down as you read. Stop and have him take picture notes a few times during the story, for instance. And be sure to set a purpose before you read-- in other words, tell him what you are reading to learn (In this story, we are going to find out what Ben caught when he went fishing)
Question from Diane Scully Occupational Therapist:

What is the cause of a new behavior that our 4 year old high functioning preschool student has recently acquired. He floats his hand past his eyes. What are your suggestions to extinguish, Mother is very concerned and can be a barrier to his paricipation.
Stephen Shore:

What is important is to find the Function behind this Behavior through a good Functional Behavior Assessment to find the cause. If it is recently acquired then there may have been a recent change in his environment or routines causing a higher level of self-stimulatory behavior. Stim behaviors demonstrate a need to self-regulate. Rather than extinguishing the stim it may be more helpful to think of redirecting the behavior instead.
Question from Susan Autry, Academic Supervisor, Oakwood School :

I see teachers in my school working to gain and hold a student's attention. Do we need to change our definition of what "attention" means for Asperger's students? Sometimes a student does not appear to be "attending" but can answer questions about the lesson. What should we expect from students?
Stephen Shore:

People on the autism spectrum "attend" in different ways as you described. It may be that attempting to look at a teacher may be too sensorially overloading and preventing work from being done. My sense is that a student demonstrating that the material has been learned and is not disruptive has gained a grasp of the material -- even if they aren't looking at the teacher during the time of instruction.
Question from Vivian Watts, teacher, King WIlliam High School:

How can parents help stimulate children with autism? No matter how much work is done at school, the child is at home every evening and weekend and continues to need training.
Marcie W. Handler:

It is a round the clock job! There needs to be communication with parents about the skills being worked on at school and parents should share what they work on at home. Generalization across school and home needs to specifically be fostered - it does not tend to happen as quickly or naturally as may be the case when working with typically developing children.
Elizabeth Rich (Moderator):

I’m afraid that’s all the time we have. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get to all of the questions we received and we had so many good ones from educators and parents. I’d like to thank our guests, Marcie Handler, Paula Kluth, and Stephen Shore. The transcript of this chat will be posted shortly on teachermagazine.org.
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Mikke wrote:
Why does everyone think that regular classroom teachers are adept at dealing with all of the special education students? It seems to be doing everyone a disservice to have the students be mainstreamed with someone who is untraineda and unprepared.
1/29/2009 9:23 AM EST on EdWeek Recommend (2) Report Abuse

Mikke wrote:
Not only that, some teachers choose not to study ESE because they don't want to work with ESE students - or else they would have taken those classes.
1/29/2009 9:25 AM EST on EdWeek Recommend (1) Report Abuse

Mamadou Doumbia wrote:
My name is: Mamadou Doumbia We are graduate students majoring in educational management, and we are working on a topic related to Reading deficit areas. My question is do Autism is like Dyslexia? If yes what should be done by teachers and parents to help children with autism to improve their reading skills? Please explain the symptoms of autism and how it can affect children reading ability. If possible would please send to e-mail address detailed answers to these questions: dounana2004@yahoo.fr
Respectfully submitted.
1/29/2009 9:58 AM EST on EdWeek Recommend (3) Report Abuse

http://www.edweek.org/chat/transcript_01_28_09.html?r=700988389

2008-03-21T19:00:00.000-07:00

Interview
Embracing Your Practice
March 21, 2008

An author and 31-year educator says making connections with students and colleagues is the key to vitality in teaching.

Coleen Armstrong, a 1996 finalist for the National Teachers Hall of Fame, is the author of The Truth About Teaching: What I Wish the Veterans Had Told Me, and a sought-after commentator on the teaching profession. Armstrong taught at the secondary level for 31 years and says she never found the job dull. “Teaching exists in two separate planets,” she says, “The education planet where it’s about teaching math or science or writing, and the relationship planet where kids can feel safe and secure enough to bring you anything that comes to mind.” She believes it was her ability “to live easily and comfortably on both of those planets” that kept her practice fresh. Armstrong spoke to us about how teachers and administrators can work together and independently to create the best possible environment for a rewarding practice in an increasingly demanding field.
—Ryan Kurtz for Teacher Magazine

How would you describe the life cycles of a teacher’s career?

As more random than you might assume, since regardless of your level of experience, many weeks feel like three steps forward and one (or perhaps four) back! Also, every school year is different, depending on your assignment, your mix of students, and even what’s happening in current events. The Columbine shootings, for example, in April of 1999, turned what might have been a buoyant spring into a very dark one, with many classroom discussions about bullying and random violence— instead of what students were planning for the upcoming summer.

Of course teachers pass through various career levels, ranging from shy neophyte to dedicated soldier to incendiary boat rocker to master/sage. But what’s odd is that a teacher often drifts in and out, back and forth among all of the above. And unfortunately, some sink into a depressed slump— and then stay lonely and isolated indefinitely. More often, though, as a seasoned teacher, you just learn to bide your time until the “climate” changes.

Drs. Mark and Pam Littleton of Tarleton State University have created a fascinating graph which traces a single school year’s stages from a beginning teacher’s viewpoint. Anticipation and survival take place in the fall, disillusionment in the winter, rejuvenation and reflection in the spring. So it’s tempting to apply that same graph to one’s entire career—except that even a veteran teacher can experience several mini-stages during a single weekend, and mapping 30 years can look less like ebbs and flows, and more like the zigs and zags of some hyperactive brain scan.

When I was a teacher, I was continually astonished at how often I see-sawed in my views, or else needed to relearn the same lessons in tolerance, understanding, and acceptance year after year. Similar challenges, like the need to question my own assumptions about my students, kept appearing in different forms, and I didn’t always recognize the pattern until after an episode was over. In the end, I reached the same solid, powerful conclusion that had inspired my career in the first place: Warm teacher interactions with individual students were what truly fueled my vitality and propelled lasting changes—and therefore, transformations.

What are some of the greatest dissatisfactions that teachers express and why?

You might expect me to mention salary first—but frankly, I don’t think that even ranks within the top five. What does? Being held accountable for things that we don’t control, like attendance and student dropout rates.

"The realization that we can't solve all problems can come as a crushing blow ... The trick is to look at the big picture and [see] what you do have control over. Find your strength there."

The biggest frustration, however, is the unrealistic workload, which involves one person’s becoming an executive manager in charge of a hundred or so others, while also serving as his or her own secretary, scribe, accountant, researcher, career motivator, and gofer. It’s no longer enough to keep mere records of grades, attendance, and completed assignments. Now you need to log in excruciating detail every intervention (and there had better be plenty) for every student who’s in academic jeopardy, file and store all papers in case a student claims you “lost” his essays, write up every disciplinary altercation in case there’s a question later (and there usually is), and chart your own professional goals and to what extent you’re reaching them under the watchful eye of your building administrator.

Then, rest assured, you’ll still hear newspaper columnists and armchair quarterbacks huffing that schools aren’t doing nearly enough to help children. They don’t realize that we’d embrace the luxury of concentrating solely on the kids.

There is a lot of discussion in the profession about a perceived mid-career slump. Why is this, since teachers tend to hit their stride around the same time?

This is actually an easy question. Just about the time you’ve gained a good grasp of your subject matter and your assignment’s vast scope, and your little webbed feet are kicking up a storm underwater where nobody else can see them, you’re also hit by the disturbing awareness that your job has not gotten any easier. The sheen of the new has worn off but the pressures and mandates only grow.

For a mid-career teacher the realization that we can’t solve all problems can come as a crushing blow or worse, a career death knell. And yet, we’ve all come to realize that universal education is our only level playing field, perhaps our only hope of remaining a civilized, equal-opportunity society. The trick is to look at the big picture and be realistic about what you do have control over. Find your strength there.

What practical advice can you give to teachers to help them get out of the mid-career doldrums?

You must establish a few permanent, reliable connections. Friendships—with fellow teachers and administrators, with supportive parents, and most particularly with former students now grown up— are essential. Surround yourself with people who respect and admire you, and whom you respect and admire in return. They can soothe and reassure you that the situation is far from hopeless.

Attitudes Towards Teaching During First Year

SOURCE: Mark Littleton and Pam Littleton, Tarleton State University

Cultivate a private passion. Perhaps it’s reading historical fiction. Maybe it’s sail boating. Do as much of it in your spare time as possible. Think of it as a mini-vacation. You owe yourself time away from work.

Get healthier. I know it’s such a cliché, but a brisk walk every evening will clear your head faster than endless bellyaching to your spouse. Eat more salad and less meat loaf. Go to bed super early on Wednesday nights. Putting yourself first in some fundamental way will make you far less defensive and angry.

And resist falling into the same-old, same-old morass. If you have the courage, request an abrupt change of assignment. Move from teaching sophomore biology to 7th grade science. You’ll be surprised to see how much of your material translates just fine; only the approach will be different. A fresh slant will nearly always reboot your enthusiasm.

What sort of professional development opportunities are most helpful to teachers to advance their careers or deepen their satisfaction?

No matter how outstanding you are as a teacher/juggler, you’re unlikely to find much spare time to research career growth options. Another example of putting ourselves last! We’re all more likely to attend workshops scheduled by our administrators. So take a couple of shortcuts. Scan resources like this Sourcebook; you’ll stumble across offerings you never knew existed. Talk to fellow teachers. Ask about postgraduate courses they’ve particularly enjoyed.

A superb one that I heartily recommend is sponsored by The National Writing Project, a nonprofit that promotes K-16 teacher-training programs in the effective teaching of writing. The emphasis is on teacher growth, and then it’s up to him or her to pay it forward. Even if you aren’t a writer (let alone a writing teacher), you will become one after four weeks of journaling, discussing, and reading aloud your own work. Don’t object, “But I teach Social Studies, not English.” The insights and the camaraderie gained, not to mention the validation of having peers shouting “Yes!!!” to what you’ve put on paper, can jump-start the soul and leave you walking on air for months. Some universities also offer two-week advanced seminars, which you can take again and again for additional credit hours. Move outside your own comfort zone. You could grow to love it.

What can you suggest for teachers whose districts or school administrators can’t or don’t send them for professional development?

Your district’s grant writer may be able to alert you to funding and scholarship opportunities that are otherwise overlooked. Universal rule: If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Ditto, local universities’ education departments. You can’t count on school officials to apprise you of such offerings; they may not know about them.

Call on civic groups. Every community has a quiet philanthropist who might be delighted to establish a teacher development fund. Write a heart-tugging letter. Some PTA/PTO groups fundraise for teachers’ trips. An art teacher, for example, might request one to New York’s Metropolitan Museum. A history teacher might visit the Tower of London.

Read, read, read absolutely everything published about teaching and education, including Web blogs like those at inspiringteachers.com or edweek.org. You won’t agree with everything that’s said; that’s okay. It will still keep you in touch and up to date—and also give you something cool to bring to that next faculty meeting discussion group.

The Truth About Teaching

In her book The Truth About Teaching: What I Wish the Veterans Had Told Me, Coleen Armstrong offers these suggestions for keeping your practice on an even keel:

• Bring your principal a solution rather than a problem.

• Be careful what you say; someone may still be repeating it 50 years later.

• Never pass up an opportunity to convey a compliment to a colleague.

• Beg for chances to observe the most talented veterans.

• Don't feel the need to resolve every problem.

• Get enough rest.

What role can administrators play in improving teacher satisfaction?

Listen. Teachers are rarely asked their opinions on educational issues, perhaps because they already offer them so freely! But if your staff has a genuine concern, it’s wise on many levels to hear them out. I witnessed a number of changes in procedures based solely on faculty input.

I’m also a huge fan of staff meetings that focus on small group discussions about educational issues, rather than listening to announcements read aloud. Caution: Don’t assume that only administrators can be group leaders.

In addition, mentoring programs not only offer plenty of help to beginners; they also make veterans feel valued. Getting opportunities to coach (not just football, but also debate teams and chess clubs) has long been cited by teachers as extremely rewarding. And organizing parent volunteers to assist with tasks like duplicating materials is appreciated by teachers more than many administrators (who generally have secretaries) realize. An entire prep period can be forfeited just by standing in line at the copier.

As far as teacher retention goes, just asking why someone is leaving can be illuminating. Something that sounds innocuous, like traveling between classes (I know from dismal experience), can pretty much annihilate a young teacher’s zeal.

It all falls under the same heading— creating an atmosphere which encourages open dialogue. For a teacher, being heard is just as important as witnessing change.

Teachers often feel they face a glass ceiling unless they go into administration. What kind of career-advancement opportunities should a teacher take advantage of to prepare for a leadership position?

That glass ceiling is an ongoing teacher irritant. Not only must you leave the classroom in order to earn more; there’s added professional status in telling outsiders that you’re now an administrator. So the prospect of moving up that ladder can be compelling. But you owe it to your school and your district to become a leader with both vision and compassion.

First, give yourself enough time to become a truly excellent teacher. That probably means seven to 10 years. We’ve all known administrators who deliberately put themselves on a three-year fast track in order to abandon the classroom ASAP. These folks do the profession— and themselves— a terrible disservice. They will neither learn from or remember their teaching experience, and therefore fall prey to the ivory tower syndrome, where they view every complaint as a situation where the teacher just isn’t working hard enough.

Second, don’t just watch effective administrators; study them. Who gains the respect of students, teachers and parents—and why? What, exactly, do they do right? Tweak the best approaches to suit your own personality and make note of the little things. An outstanding administrator sees his primary job as being a teacher facilitator, even when his time is largely sapped by tasks which seem to have little to do with the classroom.

Third, always remember that you began your career as a motivator, so make sure that’s the driving force behind your climb. Educational leadership should be precisely that. Your university course work will focus on building management, but you’ll also need to think about effective ways to inspire teachers to strive harder and become better.

Many in education say we need a teacher “ladder” of success, so that accomplished teachers don’t have to go into administration. I think efforts in that direction have so far been incomplete and based too heavily on quantifiable data. It would be nice if we had an advancement program that recognized uplifting teacher-student relationships. But that sort of magic is not measurable.
By Elizabeth Rich

Vol. 01, Issue 02, Pages 12,14-16

http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/articles/2008/03/01/02armstrong.h01.html?print=1

2008-03-21T18:52:00.000-07:00

Supporting Teachers' Success
March 21, 2008

Through intensive mentoring and staff development for everyone from novice instructors to top district leaders, a long-troubled California system is giving educators a chance to succeed.
By Lynn Olson
Photographs by Jessica Brandi Lifland

East Palo Alto, Calif.

When Erik G. Brown launched his teaching career at the Cesar Chavez Academy here five years ago, he wasn’t alone: 75 percent of the teachers in the 400-student middle school were new to the district, and two-thirds of those were new to the field.

The school had gone through six principals in six years, and its largely Hispanic, low-income student population was struggling. That year, only 1 percent of 8th graders scored at the “proficient” level on the state algebra test.

“We had one other 7th grade math teacher at the school site,” Brown recalled, “and she was brand new as well. There wasn’t too much we could do to help each other.”

Last year, however, the once-troubled school retained more than eight in 10 of its teachers. It enjoyed the highest student-attendance rate in the district for three consecutive years. And 22 percent of its 8th graders scored at the proficient level on the state algebra exam—a huge improvement from where the school started.

The transformation is part of a major push to turn around the 3,000-student Ravenswood City School District, which serves East Palo Alto and part of adjoining Menlo Park.

The effort involves intensive mentoring, staff development, and leadership training up and down the K-8 district—from novice teachers to principals to the superintendent herself.

While a national debate has focused on recruiting teachers to hard-to-staff schools and districts by offering financial incentives, Ravenswood and its partner, the New Teacher Center, based at the University of California, Santa Cruz, are taking another tack.

They are gambling that the key to improving student achievement, teaching, and teacher retention is to build human capital and create environments in which educators want to work.

As Miakje Kamstra, a former project director with the New Teacher Center, put it: “We’re mentoring the system one conversation, one relationship, at a time.”

Turning To Mentors

For a district of only 2.5 square miles, Ravenswood has had its share of problems. Separated from its more affluent neighbors by a major thoroughfare, East Palo Alto is overwhelmingly poor and minority.

In 1992, it was dubbed the “murder capital” of the United States, notorious for its high rates of gang violence and gun assaults. A court-ordered desegregation plan, now in its 20th year, permits students to transfer out of the school system to neighboring jurisdictions, starting in kindergarten.
The teachers now "feel a strong part of where we are going," says Superintendent Maria Meza-De La Vega.

And since 2000, the school system has been under a court-ordered consent decree because of deficiencies in its special education program that nearly led to a state takeover of the district in 2001. Meanwhile, five area charter schools compete with the school system for students.

“Ravenswood has historically been involved in a lot of controversy and conflict and lawsuits, and turmoil at the top,” said Maria Meza-De La Vega, who was named the superintendent of the district in December 2006, after serving in an interim capacity for 1½ years. “The high turnover of teachers,” she added, “was a huge impediment to us moving forward.”

In 2003, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, based in neighboring Menlo Park, Calif., provided a $350,000 grant for the nonprofit New Teacher Center to provide intensive mentoring support to novice teachers in two Ravenswood schools: Cesar Chavez and Green Oaks Academy, a K-4 school that also had a teacher-turnover rate of about 75 percent.

In 2005-06, a third school, Willow Oaks Elementary School, asked to join the project. And last school year, the New Teacher Center scaled up its work to provide mentoring and professional development to all seven schools in the system.

"Full-Court Press"

The New Teacher Center specializes in providing systematic support to new teachers, and more recently principals, through the work of highly trained, full-time mentors.

Under the more intensive model being used in Ravenswood, the typical ratio of one mentor for every 13 to 15 novices is reduced to one mentor for every nine new teachers, all of whom work in the same school. By working closely with a small number of teachers in one site, said mentor Michael Russo, mentors are able to develop deep, trusting relationships and to tap into the “heartbeat” of the school.

The project also provides a coach for every principal and for the superintendent. And it has made available ongoing professional development, focused primarily on literacy instruction, to teachers and administrators throughout the school system.

New Teacher Center staffers also serve as liaisons between schools and the district office. “As we are on the ground, supporting teachers, we really have a good sense of what is working and what’s not working, and what level of support is needed,” Kitty Dixon, director of school/district support and innovation for the center, explained. “Although our individual work with teachers is confidential, my job is to listen to my mentors and my administrative coaches and think about the patterns and trends.”

Those messages are then fed back to district leaders, she said, to focus on what needs to happen for teachers and students to move achievement forward.

Ellen Moir, the director of the New Teacher Center, said the kind of “full-court press” being applied in Ravenswood is needed, because the nation’s hardest-to-staff schools are often in districts that themselves face so many challenges and complexities that they can’t pave a path for success for new teachers.

“What we have found is that by really intensifying the support services for new teachers, we’re able to not only accelerate their development and retain them in the profession,” she said, “but we’re [also] trying to change the culture of the school.” In essence, Ravenswood and the center are trying to create a “community of practice” across the district, said Ms. Moir.
Principal David Herrera of Cesar Chavez Academy consults with Lorie Chamberland, his coach from the New Teacher Center.
—Jessica Brandi Lifland for Teacher Magazine

That has meant doing everything from writing grant proposals to paying for book corners and math manipulatives for classrooms, to working with teachers to supplement the Open Court reading program with strategies and materials to address individual students’ needs. It has also entailed helping the district revise its professional development policies and even draw up a strategic plan that will link its after-school programs to instruction.

Because the charge to be advocates for teachers and help them navigate the district bureaucracy is novel work for mentors, they also receive intensive, continuing training in addition to that regularly provided to mentors through the New Teacher Center.

In Ravenswood, the mentors get together three or four hours every other week to focus on systemic issues in the district. “It’s very powerful,” Russo said. “In tough-to-teach settings, you need that.”

Learning Teams

One of the biggest breakthroughs came in the school year before last, when the district formed a professional development committee to address teachers’ concerns about the lack of time for planning and collaboration. The committee—which included teachers, administrators, and providers of professional development—met once a month throughout the spring.

Now most Wednesday afternoons, which previously had been devoted to district workshops and activities, are reserved for novice and veteran teachers to meet in learning teams at their school, with mentors providing support. At the middle school level, 7th and 8th grade teachers meet in subject-specific teams across schools in the district.

The teams follow a standard “cycle of inquiry,” developed by the New Teacher Center, in which teachers analyze student data, plan an activity, and go back and implement it in their classrooms. They then meet the next time to reflect on what’s worked and what hasn’t, and either revise their plans or begin a new cycle.

Each of the meetings is led by a teacher facilitator who receives training once a month from the New Teacher Center in collaboration with a district team, helping prepare a corps of future leaders for the school system.

The format had an immediate impact on teachers.

“Each meeting, we had something tangible to work on,” said Brown, Cesar Chavez’s math teacher. “Sharing ideas definitely helps people teach certain concepts and avoid some of the mistakes. And building up the morale and teamwork and enthusiasm of teachers helps people get over rough spots.”

He also predicted that it will keep people like him in the Ravenswood district, “because when you feel isolated and frustrated and unsuccessful, I think that’s one of the big reasons for teachers quitting or moving to a different district.”
Scores on the Rise

Principals also meet once a month to do walk-throughs of one another’s schools and learn how to create and nurture professional learning communities, in addition to more frequent, one-on-one meetings with their coaches.

Joan E. Talbert, a senior research scholar at Stanford University who is conducting an evaluation of the New Teacher Center’s work in Ravenswood for the Hewlett Foundation, said that the center’s focus on improving teaching and learning at all levels of the system is starting to pay off.

In 2006, Green Oaks had a 101-point gain under California’s accountability system, known as the Academic Performance Index, or API, the largest for any elementary school in San Mateo County. In 2004, 84 percent of Green Oaks’ students scored “below basic” in language arts; in 2006, that figure dropped to 53 percent.

At Cesar Chavez Academy, the proportion of students reading “below basic” dropped from 62 percent to 48 percent from 2004 to 2006; at Willow Oaks, it declined from 61 percent to 46 percent. A similar pattern has occurred across the district in math, with the number of students reaching proficient status in algebra rising steadily, according to the New Teacher Center.

“So the schools the New Teacher Center was working in before this year are definitely showing a real bringing-up of the bottom,” said Talbert, who is a co-director of Stanford’s Center for Research on the Context of Teaching.
A Sense of Hope

Equally important, teachers and principals here say, the initiative has brought back a sense of hope, collaboration, and stability to the district.

Teachers no longer work in isolation and they “feel they are a strong part of where we are going,” said Superintendent Meza-De La Vega.

Not coincidentally, the retention rate in the district has jumped to over 80 percent for two years running, she said.

But sustaining such an intensive effort is a challenge, and the proof will come in whether Ravenswood can continue to hold onto teachers and improve student achievement over time. Two years ago, the Hewlett Foundation provided $2.46 million for the New Teacher Center to scale up its work in Ravenswood, or about $800 per student. In February of last year, its board approved another $3.8 million over the next two years. The plan is to reduce foundation support over the next five years as the district builds its own internal capacity. The center calls the approach a “gradual-release model,” in which leadership is increasingly assumed by the district.

“People have seen a shift in working conditions,” said Amy R. Gerstein, an independent consultant who is helping the center evaluate its work in Ravenswood. “The schools are safer. It’s a lot calmer, and their systems are a lot smoother. The leadership opportunities for teachers are significantly different.”

But salaries still lag well behind those for teachers in neighboring school districts, she said, and the overall workload for teachers and administrators has not changed.

“Our pay scale is one of the lowest in the area,” acknowledged Meza-De La Vega, who has worked to increase teacher salaries and benefits and to improve practices within the human-resources department.

“How, then, do we try to hold on to teachers?” she said. “We believe that it’s through the support that we can give them, and the voice to participate in the learning and teaching process.”

Lynn Olson is a Managing Editor of Education Week. This article originally appeared, in a different version, in Education Week in March 2007.

Vol. 01, Issue 02, Pages 18,20-22

http://www.teachermagazine.org/tm/articles/2008/03/01/02mentoring.h01.html

2008-03-21T18:37:00.001-07:00

Career Intelligence
March 21, 2008

What career challenges and opportunities do teachers face? What should teachers look for in a school, and what should they expect? To get answers to questions like these, teachermagazine.org recently hosted a live Web chat in which three veteran educators, all members of the Teacher Leaders Network, addressed readers' concerns about careers in teaching. Excerpts follow.

I am a career changer currently getting a Master’s in elementary education. I often hear horror stories about teaching. Can you give some insight on the realities of the job?

Julie Dermody: One of the biggest insights is that some of the things that new teachers find the hardest aren’t covered in any college courses. These are generally issues related to classroom management, time management, integration of subjects, and differentiated instruction (including working with students who don’t speak any English and students who are gifted in certain subjects). There are several great books to help in these areas, including the classic The First Days of School by Harry and Rosemary Wong.

Another way to prepare yourself for real-life teaching is to visit classrooms in different kinds of schools. Get a sense of the sorts of challenges teachers face, and consider what sort of school environment feels most comfortable to you. Look for a school that values what you do. The better the fit you have with your school, the fewer horror stories you (or anyone else) will have. Remember that teaching shouldn’t be an isolating experience: There are lots of colleagues who can and want to help you. In the end, your happiness as a teacher will come down to relationships— relationships with your students, their parents, fellow teachers, and administration.

In my job search, how can I identify a school that values nontraditional teaching methods? (Think “Freedom Writers.”)

Deanna Harris: Whenever I have applied for a position at a different school, I’ve tried to remember that I’m not just being interviewed; I am interviewing the administrator or interview team as well. Well-crafted questions for the principal, administrator, or interview team can help you determine what instructional methods are valued at that school. Providing insight into teaching methods that you value and use in your classroom with the team can help you share your experiences and help you gauge their acceptance of the methods that you value.

What is the one thing you wish you had known before stepping into your own classroom for the first time?

Mary Tedrow: I remember being surprised by the varying levels of my students and by the very poor academic skills of many students. At first I thought, “Why hasn’t anyone taught these kids anything?” But then I realized that these learning-levels had always existed— and probably always will— but that I had not seen them in my life as a student.

Secondly, I was amazed by the amount of paperwork and non-classroom work teachers have to do on top of actually teaching. At this point, I’ve learned to streamline a lot of the multi-tasking work teachers have to do throughout the day. If you see a teacher with an efficient way of handling routine paperwork, steal it! As a waitress, I learned to make every step count, to do many things on one trip to the kitchen. Now I’ve learned to do that as a teacher.

What career paths are available in literacy that are outside the classroom and the realm of administration?

Julie Dermody: The job of literacy coach is definitely growing. I know it is in my district. These positions are more staff- development oriented than the traditional reading positions used to be.

What suggestions do you have for student-teacher supervisors and career-development directors regarding how we can best prepare our college students for the first year of teaching and beyond?

Deanna Harris: Real experience is key! Having as much time in front of classes and working with teachers in the trenches will provide college students with the real-world experience they need. Classroom observations by college students should begin as soon as they realize that teaching is their chosen profession. I also hope that your student-teacher supervisors and career-development directors spend time observing today’s classrooms and teachers. Sometimes it is easy to become removed from the very profession for which we are working to train our students.

Traditionally trained teachers tend to view new educators from alternative programs with suspicion. What advice would you give to these new teachers so that they go in with the best possible strategy to be accepted?

Mary Tedrow: I’ve seen a number of career-changing teachers come, do outstanding work, and stay in the profession. Others come and go rather quickly, sometimes within the year. So new alt-cert teachers should be aware in advance that your colleagues will have seen this pattern as well— and may have been on the receiving end of a newcomer who has an attitude that they are there to “save” public education because the current system (including the current teachers) is inadequate.

All of us need to be sensitive to each others’ perspectives. The quickest way to any teacher’s heart is to ask for help, and then listen to the answer! The best teachers love helping others succeed. That’s why they teach. It will be easy to find these teachers among your colleagues. Their attitude will tell it all. By asking for help, a novice is acknowledging that he or she is just starting down the path. Listening to advice from master teachers honors the giver.

Please discuss the potential for high-quality, school- and team-based professional learning to provide teachers the support they need to succeed and to stay in the profession. Why don’t schools use this kind of professional learning more?

Mary Tedrow: I’m happy to report that the message that teacher collaboration works best is starting to trickle down to the building level. At least we are starting to hear the words more often than in the past. Finding time for this worthwhile work is always the problem. And time is money of course. My district is struggling with the bottom line and juggling mandates from above— which makes finding time for collaborative work even harder. I think the emphasis on testing has definitely taken precedence over improving professional development programs. Fortunately, good mentors steered me to the National Writing Project, the gold standard for the teacher-collaborative approach to professional development, in my view. I credit the organization with keeping my teaching fresh and my attitude upbeat.

What are the top 2-3 sources of joy in teachers’ work and what are the top 2-3 sources of frustration? What suggestions do you have for alleviating the frustrations?

Deanna Harris:
From my experiences, the joys have always surrounded student learning, the teachable moments, and my work in providing professional development to my colleagues. The frustrations have been and will probably continue to be the bureaucracy and the politics that often squelch the spirit, innovations, and passion of many teachers. And the sometimes endless paperwork.

We need more teacher leaders, more openness to teacher voices, more school-based personnel making the decisions for the curriculum, instruction, facilities, and staff of their schools.

Please describe what you consider to be positive working conditions for teachers and how it affects student learning conditions.

Mary Tedrow: Here is my list for ideal teacher working conditions: conversations that include the teacher in the development of building-level decisions; support in obtaining classroom teaching materials; technology support; clean, bright classrooms; and availability of basic supplies. Another key is mutual respect between teachers and administrators. I want the same kind of community I try to provide for my students, where risk-taking is welcome and problems are solved rather than created.

And a window in the classroom is always nice. Seriously, little things can make a difference. They acknowledge that we may be in the same building for a career, not just a few years like the students.
"From my experience, the joys [of teaching] have always surrounded student learning, the teachable moments, and my work in providing professional development to my colleagues."
Deanna Harris

Do you have any advice for prospective elementary teachers who are having a hard time finding a job?

Julie Dermody: Come to North Carolina! Seriously, if you are flexible, there are jobs available in different spots all over the nation. In my area right now, we can’t find enough teachers, and we are opening new schools every year. If you can’t move, consider adding on to your license so you could work with elementary students in specialized areas— such as English language learners, gifted education, or special education. Often you can be more attractive to school districts if you have extra areas of expertise.

I’m a graduating senior and I’m trying to decide if I want to pursue a career in education. What are some of the most important things I should keep in mind when making this decision?

Mary Tedrow: Teaching is a great profession, if you like children. And though this seems obvious, it isn’t always. Some teach because they love their subject. Others are attracted to the hours, which do afford an earlier ending time and a summer break.

But the truth is that to do the job well you must like the “messiness” of working with children. And though, on paper, the day ends early and there are summer breaks, the work during the school year is intense, extending beyond the day spent with the kids and often into the weekend. When summer rolls around, the break is well deserved.

I read this statement once, and it rang true to me: “Some love to teach English. Some love to teach children. Some love to teach English to children.” It is the third sentence that reveals the careful balance you need to be the kind of teacher who will actually enjoy the work. Even loving children too much won’t work out if the subject matter is neglected.

"Remember that teaching shouldn't be an isolating experience... In the end, your happiness as a teacher will come down to relationships."
Julie Dermody

After teaching middle school for 12 years, I’m feeling the effects of burnout. Are there concrete ways (strategies/techniques/career & life changes) teachers use to cope with all the demands placed on them?

Deanna Harris:
Well, for me, I took steps to make concrete change. I went from the language arts classroom to the library media center, though still in the middle school setting. Some of the challenges are the same, but there is a whole new set of challenges, too, ones that allow me to grow and stretch as a professional.

I also made a list of all the extra things I was doing— club sponsorships, committees, workshops, etc.,— and ranked them. After I determined what was most important, I gave notice that I would not be involved in the others the next school year. Guess what?! There were others that could serve on those committees! Perhaps you need a change of venue, subject, position, or a non-teaching activity to energize you.

In today’s standards-based atmosphere, how do teachers provide meaningful lessons and personal relationships?

Mary Tedrow: Good teaching generally encompasses the standards and more. And meeting the standards doesn’t necessarily mean eliminating the other items you mentioned. Confident teachers know that establishing relationships and routines with students will make the time spent on curriculum “stick” in the long run.

Though it varies from state to state, lists of objectives can be distracting if a classroom teacher looks at each one as a discrete goal, because well-crafted units should knit many objectives together. Teachers can make the mistake of trying to cover it all and doing none of it well, as opposed to doing most of it well and ensuring that basic objectives were met even as the students actually learned something they can carry to the next level.

I would rather have the equipment I need to teach and an extra conference period for planning than a raise. How do other teachers feel about this?

Julie Dermody:
Actually, most teachers would agree with you. Poor working conditions are what most teachers cite when they leave, not the lack of pay (although we all would like to have bigger pay checks!) Having adequate planning time is a huge problem, especially in elementary schools. Having equipment— that works— is also a problem in many schools.

A positive, nurturing, and supportive school climate would top most teachers’ list as well. It’s not all about the money. But it is about being treated as a professional.
Vol. 01, Issue 02, Pages 23-26

Guests for This Chat

Deanna Harris, library media coordinator at East Cary Year-Round Middle School in Cary, N.C.

Julie Dermody, literacy specialist at Mary Scroggs Elementary School, Chapel Hill, N.C.

Mary Tedrow, 12th grade English and Journalism teacher at Milbrook High School in Winchester, Va.

2008-03-21T18:30:00.000-07:00

Making Online PD Work
March 21, 2008

Online professional development programs offer the obvious benefits of convenience, access, and progress-tracking. But experts warn that these programs can be ineffective if they are treated too casually. Instead, like other high-quality professional development options, they should be given strong oversight and integrated into a coherent plan for teacher learning.

Here are some tips for those involved in setting up online teacher-learning activities.

USE ONLINE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS that can be tailored to the needs of your district rather than a one-size-fits-all program. What might work well in one district may not apply in another because of different classroom approaches, curricula, data-gathering tools, and testing methods.

PROVIDE TEACHER INCENTIVES for course completion, including reimbursement for the cost of courses if an A or B grade is earned. With such incentives, a higher percentage of teachers will likely complete the courses and use what they have learned to improve their instruction.

GIVE TEACHERS THE SAME CREDITS, stipends, or time for participating in online courses as you would for traditional programs that require educators to attend in person. This policy sends the message that good online training is as important as other types of professional development.

BE WILLING TO INVEST in high-quality online professional development. Because resources on the Internet are often free, many administrators think that online coursework should be cheaper than traditional training. That is often not the case.

Vol. 01, Issue 02, Page 6

2008-02-14T08:53:00.001-08:00

The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life

reviewed by Vincent L. Cyboran — January 30, 2008

Title: The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life
Author(s): Parker J. Palmer
Publisher: John Wiley, New York
ISBN: 0787996866, Pages: 272, Year: 2007
Search for book at Amazon.com

Parker Palmer is a courageous man. He has chosen to not only passionately live and explore what Freud termed an impossible profession, but to delve deeply and to then resurface to share his hard-won wisdom with the rest of us. In this 10th anniversary edition, Palmer revisits his original text and adds: a foreword, an afterword, and even a CD of interviews of himself conversing with two colleagues, all of which provide insights gained since the first release of the book.

Though some books can be read in any order, the chapters in this book are best read sequentially from start to finish. Palmer slowly and surely takes the reader on a journey starting with the self and ending full circle in community. The first three chapters address the individual or self. Chapters 4 through 6 address the self in community. The final chapter ties things together nicely. The journey is peppered with pointed stories that exemplify Palmer’s points. Though many of these stories are based on Palmer’s own teaching experiences, he is careful to also include a generous number told to him by colleagues and by workshop participants.

Since the book was originally published in 1997, some things have changed, or perhaps, been clarified. It is not only those who hold the title of ‘teacher’ who teach. So, too, do other professionals, including members of the major professions: that is, doctors, lawyers, and accountants. The revised text addresses the needs of what Palmer calls in the afterword, “the new professional.” This new professional is one “who can confront, challenge, and help change the workplace” (p. 203) regardless of what type of work is being done. Clearly, Palmer is neither a revolutionary, nor a reactionary. He does not arm the reader with tools to reach a pedagogical utopia.

Because Palmer’s work has never been faddish, readers of the original text need not worry that Palmer has abandoned his earlier tenets. The basic premise remains the same: to survive and thrive as a teacher, a teacher must live an undivided life, a life in which “soul and role” co-exist in harmony. As Palmer puts it, “teaching is always done at the dangerous intersection of personal and public life” (p. 18). As such, he asks readers to actively embrace life’s paradoxes and dialectics while remaining true to themselves. He himself remains fervent that technique is not the solution to our pedagogical problems. “If teaching cannot be reduced to technique, I no longer need suffer the pain of having my peculiar gift as a teacher crammed into the Procrustean bed of someone else’s method and the standards prescribed by it” (p. 12). This is not a book of quick fixes and lists, the literary equivalent of an in-service; instead, it requires quiet reflection by the reader.

Parker Palmer is a practical man. He draws on his experiences as a longtime Quaker and shares methods for teachers to use with their colleagues. One method is what he terms the “clearness committee” (p. 157). In this method, a focus person brings a problem or issue to be addressed; circle members “are forbidden to speak to the focus person in any way except to ask that person an honest, open question” (p. 157), thus allowing the focus person to achieve clarity about the problem or issue. One is reminded of the ‘Critical Friends’ movement in K-12 schools.

Palmer is at his most insightful in his treatment of the dialectic of organization and movement, the need for stability and structure and the simultaneous need for change of that structure to avoid stagnation. Addressing educational reform, he offers readers a four-stage model based upon his study of successful social movements. In Stage 1, “Isolated individuals make an inward decision to live ‘divided no more’” (p. 172). In Stage 2, these individuals “form communities of congruence that offer moral support and opportunities to develop a shared vision” (p. 173). In Stage 3, these communities “go public.” In Stage 4, institutions are changed and movements are sustained through recognition of and enactment of “alternative rewards” (p. 173).

Palmer takes great care to anticipate and to address potential criticism of his work. In fact, in the Introduction he goes so far as to state that, “If you are a teacher who never has bad days, or who has them but does not care, this book is not for you” (p. 2). Further, he maintains that, “The work required to ‘know thyself’ is neither selfish nor narcissistic. Whatever self-knowledge we attain as teachers will serve our students and our scholarship well. Good teaching requires self-knowledge: it is a secret hidden in plain sight” (p. 3). Even further, “My focus on the teacher may seem passé to people who believe that education will never be reformed until we stop worrying about teaching and focus on learning instead” (p. 6). Doth he protest too much? Methinks not. This is a shrewd strategy or technique (my apologies to the author) used with equal success in popular texts such as this and in academic theses.

One caution to potential readers: Palmer’s language is rated ‘L’ for Love. For example, “There is a name for the endurance we must practice until a larger love arrives: it is called suffering” (p. 88). In a culture that promises us both weight loss and wealth without work, this is strange-sounding language indeed. Just don’t call it ‘touchy-feely.’ That is a fighting word to Palmer, or would be if he weren’t a Quaker. Palmer is also a great fan of poetry; each chapter begins with a poem or part of a poem that is then used within the chapter to bolster a point. Readers who dislike poetry, or who cringe at words such as ‘soul’, ‘heart’, ‘love’, ‘sacred’ and ‘self’ may find the book tough going, but to them I say “Hey, hug it out!” (my apologies to Ari Gold, Jeremy Piven’s character on “Entourage”). Even the most hardened skeptics will be left with a gnawing at their hearts after reading the stories in this book and listening to the CD. Parker Palmer is an inspirational man, I mean, teacher.

Cite This Article as: Teachers College Record, Date Published: January 30, 2008
http://www.tcrecord.org ID Number: 14945, Date Accessed: 2/14/2008 11:53:05 AM

2007-12-27T07:32:00.001-08:00

The Teacher Effect

This just in: Good teaching matters. Indeed, a new study out of Pittsburgh suggests that improving teacher quality across the board may be the surest way to close the racial achievement gap. The study, which looked at Pittsburgh students’ test scores over a two-year period, found that a student’s teacher was a better predictor of his or her performance than race. The scores varied widely depending on the teachers’ ranking, the study says, regardless of students’ race. “These … are not random effects,” said Robert P. Strauss, a Carnegie Mellon University professor who led the study. “In Pittsburgh, the teachers who are successful are successful with black kids and white kids.”

Still, school officials cautioned against reading too much into the report. “Poverty is a factor that affects achievement … race is a larger factor,” said Linda Lane, Pittsburgh’s deputy superintendent of schools. “And there’s a lot of variation in African-American achievement from one school to the next … but we don’t always know what that difference might be.”

Posted by Anthony Rebora, teachermagazine.org on September 12, 2007 11:43 AM |

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/webwatch/2007/09/the_teacher_effect.html

2007-12-27T07:28:00.000-08:00

Pittsburgh study: Teachers key in affecting pupils' success

By Mike Wereschagin
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Though yawning achievement gaps exist between black and white students in Pittsburgh Public Schools, who the teacher is might be the best predictor of how well students will do, according to a two-year study of student performance presented to the school board Monday night.

The report, which included test scores in 199 math teachers' classrooms, found average test scores varied as much as 59 percent from the top teacher's classroom to the bottom, regardless of the students' race, according to the study led by Robert P. Strauss, a professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University.

"These ... are not random effects," Strauss said. "In Pittsburgh, the teachers who are successful are successful with black kids and white kids."

Still, black students in Pittsburgh Public Schools lag twice as far behind their white classmates as they did in the mid-1990s, according to the study.

As students get older, the achievement gap grows, Strauss said.

In math, white students score about 3 percent higher than the statewide average in Pennsylvania System of School Assessment tests. Black students score about 10 percent below average. By 11th grade, that 13 percent gap increases to nearly 20 percent, the study found.

Similar gaps exist between students from poor families and those from middle- and upper-income families, according to the study, which cost the district $25,000.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income for Pittsburgh's white families -- $45,327 -- is more than $21,000 higher than the median household income for the black families.

"Poverty is a factor that affects achievement; however, race is a larger factor," said Linda Lane, the deputy superintendent. "And there's a lot of variation in African-American achievement from one school to the next. We do know there's a difference, but we don't always know what that difference might be."

School board member Randall Taylor proposed continuing the study to see what teachers in high-achieving classrooms are doing differently.

"If their father's in jail, or their mother's on drugs, that still doesn't take away from the fact that we have to educate them," Taylor said.

Strauss, however, cautioned against reading too much into the different classes' test scores, saying more research was needed.

"There are differences, but I don't know which way it cuts," he said. "I'm not saying, to one of these teachers in the lower quadrant, 'Off with her head.'"

Mike Wereschagin can be reached at mwereschagin@tribweb.com or 412-320-7900.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/pittsburgh/print_526792.html

2007-10-27T17:18:00.000-07:00

The Make-or-Break Game of Office Politics
Bob Weinstein

October 11, 2007

Picture this all-too-common scenario: You just started a new PM job, and you want to make a great impression and fit in. Knowing how important those first couple of months are, you don’t want to make any mistakes. While everyone seems friendly and accepting, you notice that there are definite cliques. You see them in the company cafeteria and in the hallways.

There is probably no intent, but they make you feel like an outsider. And you’ve hardly been with the company a month. Although it may seem like you’re back in high school, what you’re experiencing is real. It’s office politics--a powerful force not to be ignored.

How do you become part of the team, someone your co-workers admire and accept? It’s not by merely doing a great job, but by playing office politics. For many people, the concept of office politics has a negative connotation. What they don’t realize is that there’s a right way to play the office politics game and win. So say Louellen Essex and Mitchell Kusy. Essex is an organization learning and development consultant and a professor at the University of Minnesota, and Kusy is a professor in AntiochUniversity’s Ph.D. program in leadership.

Office politics are not about popularity--they’re about power. In every office, there are organizational leaders: supervisors, managers and senior-level executives. But there are also employee-assigned power brokers. These are people who co-workers follow and look up to because of their skill in leading, mediating and influencing others. These are the company’s potential movers and shakers, the people who can make things happen.

Greek philosopher Aristotle was on the money when he said, “Man is by nature a political animal.” Author George Orwell said, “In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’” But the futuristic author also said, “All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.”

It’s doubtful that all of these attributes can be applied to office politics. But one thing is certain: organizational politics are real and can make or break you if you don’t respect their awesome power. Getting to know who these informal power brokers are in your company--and becoming one yourself--is more important than ever. It’s because organizations have placed more value on individual leadership and power sharing.

Taking the time to play the politics game well will pay off. Decision-makers will begin to notice you, and you’ll start to attract more support and recognition for your work. As you become more familiar with the power dynamics in the workplace, you’ll also begin to see what makes your organization tick, which makes you even more valuable.

By understanding alliances, you will be able to navigate through them more easily. This skill will also pay off when the time comes for a team effort on a new project that won’t work unless you can win supporters and fend off resisters. Having the respect of power holders has tangible benefits as well, such as helping you get promoted. Here are eight tips from Essex and Kusy that will help you play the office politics game the right way:

Identify the power brokers. Who in your organization do others look up to and why? Knowing who the power brokers are will give you insight into the complex labyrinth of relationships at work, and how you can navigate through them.

Adjust your work style. How do people at your organization measure success? Which is rewarded: risk taking or deliberate, well-planned methods? Do decisions come down from above, or is a collaborative approach to problem-solving encouraged? The better your working style jibes with the senior power brokers, the more influential you will become among your peers.

Become an expert. Try to gain expert power by having valuable knowledge others don’t have. Established credibility will serve you well, especially in times of political upheaval.

Recognize but do not abuse your coercive power. Although you don’t want to abuse this type of power, it’s a fact of life that people in managerial positions have both reward and coercive capabilities. When you can take away from others the things they value (withholding assignments and opportunities, and even firing them), you have power. Use it wisely.

Be a connector. Develop a strong network of relationships that allows you to get things done quickly and thoroughly, and that also gives you access to exclusive information that’s only shared by the organization’s leaders.

Be respected. Called “referent power,” this type of power comes when you are liked and respected and have a reputation as a leader with whom people want to work. Give respect and you will be respected back.

Don’t align too strongly with one faction. If you do, you will alienate other factions, which could work against you if there is political upheaval.

Don’t ignore your blockers. People make the mistake of ignoring their enemies and sidling up to their allies in times of upheaval. Instead, focus on working with and listening to your opponents. If you can win them over, your former enemies will become your staunchest allies. If you can’t, you will at least increase your knowledge of the other party’s view.

Copyright © 2007 gantthead.com All rights reserved.
The URL for this article is:
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2007-09-12T18:54:00.000-07:00

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2007-09-12T17:49:00.000-07:00

Fix It and They Might Stay: School Facility Quality and Teacher Retention in Washington, D.C.

by Jack Buckley, Mark Schneider & Yi Shang — 2005

The attrition of both new and experienced teachers is a challenge for schools and school administrators throughout the United States, particularly in large urban districts. Because of the importance of this issue, there is a large empirical literature that investigates why teachers quit and how they might be induced to stay. Here we build upon this literature by suggesting another important factor in the teacher decision to stay or leave: the quality of school facilities. We investigate the importance of facility quality using data from a survey of K - 12 public school teachers in Washington, D.C. We find in our sample that facility quality is an important predictor of the decision of teachers to leave their current position, even after controlling for other contributing factors.

The attrition of both new and experienced teachers is a challenge for schools and school administrators throughout the United States, particularly in large urban districts. Because of the importance of this issue, there is a large empirical literature that investigates why teachers quit and how they might be induced to stay. Here we build upon this literature by suggesting another important factor in the teacher decision to stay or leave: the quality of school facilities. We investigate the importance of facility quality using data from a survey of K–12 public school teachers in Washington, D.C. We find in our sample that facility quality is an important predictor of the decision of teachers to leave their current position, even after controlling for other contributing factors.

A major provision of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) mandates that all teachers in core subjects be “highly qualified” by 2005–2006. Leaving aside the debate over the precise definition of “highly qualified,” few would challenge the assertion that the nation needs to attract the best possible teachers to the profession. However, as school administrators and education researchers have long known, hiring bright new teachers is only part of the problem: The retention of both new and experienced teachers is a challenge for schools and school systems as well.

The importance of teacher retention to administrators and policymakers has led to a substantial literature on the subject in the field of education research. In this article, we make two contributions to this literature. First, we argue that the quality of school facilities is an important factor in the decision making of individual teachers. Although, as we note below, much of the research linking facility quality to teacher retention examines the school systems of developing countries, the results are relevant in the United States, as is confirmed in various surveys conducted by teacher unions and other domestic trade organizations. We believe this literature may be particularly applicable in large, urban school districts like Washington, D.C., in which facility quality is often poor.

Second, we test our argument empirically by comparing the effect of facilities, ceteris paribus, to that of other factors identified in the literature as affecting teacher retention. To do this, we use data from a survey of teachers in Washington, D.C., conducted in the spring of 2002. We find that, even when a host of other factors are controlled for, the quality of school facilities is an important predictor of retention/attrition.

We begin with a brief review of the relevant literature on teacher retention. After this, we discuss why the quality of facilities may be particularly important to the decision to stay at a given school or in the profession altogether. We then present our empirical evidence and briefly conclude with some implications of this research for educators and policymakers.

WHY DO TEACHERS QUIT?

Few would challenge the assertion that teacher attrition is a major component of the current school staffing problem in the United States. Indeed, research has shown that approximately one-quarter of all beginning teachers leave teaching within four years (Benner 2000; Rowan, Correnti, and Richard 2002). In general, teachers list family or personal reasons, such as pregnancy, the demands of child rearing, and health problems as reasons for leaving the profession. This finding is supported in part by the fact that most teachers who quit teaching quit the workforce altogether (Murnane and Olsen 1989, 1990).

Job dissatisfaction, primarily due to poor salary, poor administrative support, and student discipline problems, is also among the most frequent reasons teachers give for leaving the profession (Tye and O’Brien 2002; Ingersoll 2000; Macdonald 1999). In addition, some qualitative studies suggest that more general factors, including government policies, portrayal of teachers in the mass media, and community attitudes, also influence teachers’ general esteem and status in society, which features largely in their professional commitment and morale.

Because there are so many possible factors identified in the literature that influence retention, we organize our review of the literature below into factors related to teachers, schools, and the broader community.

TEACHER FACTORS

The leading cause of teacher attrition cited in the literature is the profession’s relatively low wages, especially considering the number of years of higher education that the average state-certified teacher has completed. For example, in a 2002 survey, teachers in California who were considering leaving the profession ranked “salary considerations” as the most important factor driving their decision (Tye and O’Brien 2002). Similarly, Gritz and Theobold (1996) find that compensation is the most important influence on the decision to remain in the profession for male teachers and experienced female teachers. From a comparative perspective, Dolton and van der Klaauw (1995) report that teacher attrition rate in the United Kingdom is also driven by poor salary relative to nonteaching jobs.

Others have argued that relative wages are important, but that their effect is mediated by the larger context of the labor market. For example, Stinebrickner (2001), using the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972, finds that graduate education and teaching experience are significant determinants of teaching salary, which, in turn, has a positive effect on teacher retention. Although men and women receive similar wages in teaching, men have much greater opportunities for higher-paying, nonteaching jobs. Additionally, individuals with higher SAT math scores have a notable wage advantage in nonteaching jobs, which they lose if they choose to teach. In turn, the relative attractiveness of nonteaching jobs may be the primary cause of teacher attrition for “academically gifted” teachers (as measured by SAT math scores) and male teachers.

The idealism of teachers also matters. Perhaps counterintuitively, Miech and Elder (1996) find that there are higher attrition rates among teachers who have a strong “service ethic” (measured by the importance of service to society for individual teachers relative to other motivations to teach) and that this effect is still strong after controlling for variables such as family socioeconomic status background, occupational commitment, salary, marital status, number of children, public or private school, race, employment history, and academic ability. The authors offer various explanations for the high attrition rates among idealists, with perhaps the most compelling one being that the school environment in general provides less than sufficient guidance on the goals, means, and evaluation of their work and people who are highly service-motivated are easily frustrated with this uncertainty.

The quality of preservice teacher preparation is also cited as a contributing factor to attrition. Teachers who graduate from traditional university-based programs have lower attrition rates than teachers with other, nontraditional forms of preparation (Harris, Camp, and Adkison 2003). A large percentage of new teachers also report that the teacher preparation programs they completed did not provide enough help for them to cope with their first-year experience, which intensifies the need for proper mentoring, professional development, and administrative support in their working environment—factors that are all too often lacking (Tapper 1995).

SCHOOL FACTORS

Hanushek, Kain, and Rivkin (2004) argue that, although clearly important, teacher salaries are not all that matter. They show that teacher preferences across a range of job and school conditions may be just as important as salary in retention. According to their study, “teachers might be willing to take lower salaries in exchange for better working conditions” (see also Antos and Rosen 1975; Chambers 1977; Baugh and Stone 1982; Hanushek and Luque 2000).

Rosenhotz and Simpson (1990) offer a detailed analysis of how organizational factors contribute to teachers’ commitment to the workplace. Their evidence shows that school management of student behavior and the burden of nonteaching obligations affect new teachers’ commitment much more than they do that of experienced teachers (see also Hargreaves 1994; Macdonald 1995). On the other hand, experienced teachers appear to be more concerned with their own personal discretion and autonomy.

Other important predictors of teachers’ commitment include performance efficacy (a teacher’s perception of how his or her teaching, in a particular school context, will affect students’ learning), psychic rewards (a variable that, like performance efficacy, is generated both from a teacher’s own qualifications and from the school’s organizational structure), and learning opportunities (including mentoring for new teachers and other forms of professional development). Rosenhotz and Simpson (1990) further find that teachers’ commitment to the workplace, measured by their disaffection, absenteeism, and defection, is highly correlated with attrition.

The lack of resources in a school can also contribute to teachers’ job dissatisfaction and, ultimately, attrition. In interviews of public school teachers in New York City in the 1990s, a large percentage of new teachers said they did not have adequate access to basic supplies. Most teachers had to use their own money to equip their classrooms. Of the teachers interviewed, 26 percent reported spending $300 to $1,000 of their own funds on classroom supplies over the year. Additionally, most teachers interviewed reported that they did not have enough textbooks or that the textbooks they did have were in poor condition and that since school copy machines were frequently broken, teachers had to rely on family, friends, or other private resources to reproduce classroom materials (Tapper 1995).

Finally, and ironically, NCLB itself may be working against the improvement of the nation’s stock of quality teachers. In Tye and O’Brien’s (2002) survey of teachers, the top-ranked reason for quitting teaching among those who had already left the profession was “accountability” and the increasing use of high-stakes, standards-based testing with the associated “drill and kill” curricula that often come with it (see also Darling-Hammond and Sykes 2003).

BROADER COMMUNITY FACTORS

Erratic government education policies (such as those relating to teacher licensing and certification) and unresponsive education bureaucracies are also a significant source of frustration for new teachers. Tapper (1995), for example, reports that a majority of the teachers interviewed “spoke at length and with anger” about confusion over policies, the lack of clear and accurate information, and repetitive and costly licensure or certification procedures. Some also expressed concern about staying in the teaching profession because of government budget cutting.

Another important factor in the decision to stay or leave may be the social status of the teaching profession in the broader community (Tye and O’Brien 2002). Interviews with rural Australian teachers, for example, reveal that a primary source of their anxiety about the profession is dealing with a misinformed community. Teachers report that they have to repeatedly battle public stereotypes that their professional day begins at 9 A.M. and ends at 3 P.M., that they enjoy high salaries and numerous vacations, and that their jobs are easier than most other professions. All the teachers in the sample report being alienated from people in nonteaching professions. Overall, teachers report a professional paradox: Their communities have great expectations from education, but teachers are accorded low social status and held in low esteem (Jones 2001).

In the United States, this problem may again be exacerbated by the same legislation that currently mandates high-quality teachers. As several researchers have suggested, the provisions in NCLB that brand schools as failing if they do not meet “adequate yearly progress,” by stigmatizing them with the “in need of improvement” or “failing” label, may perversely increase the difficulty of hiring and retaining good teachers in the schools where they are needed most (Darling-Hammond and Sykes 2003; Figlio 2001).

WHAT ABOUT SCHOOL FACILITIES?

Most, if not all, teaching takes place in a specific physical location (usually a school building) and the quality of that location can affect the ability of teachers to teach, teacher morale, and the very health and safety of teachers.1 Despite the importance of the condition of school buildings, serious deficiencies have been documented, particularly in large, urban school districts (see, for example, General Accounting Office 1995). Moreover, since school buildings in the United States are, on average, over forty years old—just the age when rapid deterioration often begins—we should expect problems with school facilities to worsen in the near future.

Many factors contribute to the quality of the school building and, in turn, may affect the quality of teacher life—and pupils’ educational outcomes.2 For example, poor indoor air quality is widespread, and many schools suffer from “sick building syndrome,” which in turn increases student absenteeism and reduces student performance (see Environmental Protection Agency 2000; Kennedy 2001; Leach 1997; Smedje and Norback 1999; Rosen and Richardson 1999). Since current student-focused asthma studies show that students lose considerable school time because of the poor conditions present in schools, it is likely that poor indoor air quality affects teachers’ health as well. Furthermore, in our study, we find that fully two-thirds of Washington teachers surveyed reported poor indoor air quality in their schools.3

Another area in which research has linked school facilities to teacher performance is thermal comfort. Lowe (1990) finds that the best teachers in the country (winners of state teacher of the year awards) emphasize their ability to control classroom temperature as central to the performance of both teachers and students. Lackney (1999) shows that teachers believe thermal comfort affects both teaching quality and student achievement. Corcoran, Walker, and White (1988) focus on how the physical condition of school facilities, including thermal factors, affects teacher morale and effectiveness.

Classroom lighting may also play a particularly critical role in teacher morale and student performance (Phillips 1997; see also Heschong Mahone Group 1999). Jago and Tanner (1999) cite results of seventeen studies from the mid-1930s to 1997 that find that appropriate lighting improves test scores, reduces off-task behavior, and plays a significant role in the achievement of students. Over one-fifth of the Washington, D.C., teachers in our study reported that the lighting in their schools was inadequate.

Recently there has been renewed interest in increasing natural daylight in school buildings. Until the 1950s, natural light was the predominant means of illuminating most school spaces, but as electric power costs declined, so too did the amount of daylighting utilized in schools. Recent changes, however, including the advent of energy-efficient windows and skylights and a renewed recognition of the positive psychological and physiological effects of daylighting, have heightened interest in increasing natural daylight in schools (Benya 2001).

Lemasters’s (1997) synthesis of fifty-three studies pertaining to school facilities, student achievement, and student behavior reports that daylight fosters higher student achievement. A 1999 study by the Heschong Mahone Group, covering more than 2,000 classrooms in three school districts, is perhaps the most cited evidence about the effects of daylight. The study indicates that students with the most classroom daylight progressed 20 percent faster in one year on math tests and 26 percent faster on reading tests than those students who learned in environments that received the least amount of natural light (Heschong Mahone Group 1999; see also Plympton, Conway, and Epstein 2000). Despite the importance of natural lighting for learning and achievement, over 20 percent of the teachers in Washington, D.C., reported that they can’t see through the windows in their classrooms.

The final facility condition that we note here is soundproofing to reduce ambient noise levels. The research linking acoustics to learning is consistent and convincing: Good acoustics are fundamental to good academic performance. Earthman and Lemasters (1998, 18) report three key findings: that higher student achievement is associated with schools that have less external noise, that outside noise causes increased student dissatisfaction with their classrooms, and that excessive noise causes stress in students (see also Crandell, Smaldino, and Flexer 1995; Nabelek and Nabelek 1994; American Speech-Language-Hearing Association 2002; Crandell 1991; Crandell and Bess 1986; Evans and Maxwell 1999). Teachers also attach importance to noise levels in classrooms and schools. Lackney (1999) found that teachers believe that noise impairs academic performance. Indeed, it appears that external noise may cause more discomfort and lowered efficiency for teachers than for students (Lucas 1981). Again schools in our study are failing to provide this basic input to education: Almost 70 percent of Washington teachers report that their classrooms and hallways are so noisy that it affects their ability to teach.

FACILITIES AND RETENTION

Although a literature linking school facilities to pupil learning outcomes and teacher morale is developing, there has been little research on the effects of school facility quality on teacher retention. The existing research is generally limited to two areas: research on the education systems of developing nations and research by unions and other trade groups. In developing nations, a general finding is that the poor condition of classrooms, lighting, and furniture is linked to attrition (Chapman 1994; Kemmerer 1990).

Among the union and trade group research, the findings are similar. For example, a National Education Association survey finds that among the association’s nationally representative sample of public school teachers, 5.8 percent in 1991 and 8.7 percent in 1996 identified “good materials, resources, and facilities” as the factor that helped them the most in providing the best service in their teaching position. In terms of hindrances to teaching, 12.4 percent of teachers in 1991 and 10.6 percent of teachers in 1996 ranked “lack of materials, resources, and facilities” as the top factor (National Education Association Research 1997). Another survey conducted by American Association of School Administrators shows that “safe, clean schools” are ranked as the seventh-most-effective factor in retaining teachers among other elements such as salary and professional development (Steuteville-Brodinsky, Burbank, and Harrison 1989). Similarly, summarizing the research literature on effective in-service techniques for promoting teacher retention, Gayles (1989) reports that adequate facilities and equipment form an important factor in teachers’ job satisfaction and are necessary to maintain even a minimal level of professional commitment (see also Louis and Smith 1990).

Thus school facilities are a potentially important factor for a variety of educational outcomes, not the least of which is teacher retention. Nowhere in the research literature, however, has the quality of facilities been included in a systematic, multivariate study of retention of individual teachers. It is to such a model that we now turn.

DATA AND METHODS

In order to test the extent to which facilities quality affects teacher retention, we use data from the survey of teachers in Washington, D.C., noted above.4 Our dependent variable is the dichotomous response to a question that asked teachers, “Do you plan to remain another year in your current school?” Thus we are operationally defining attrition more narrowly than a departure from the profession; however, retaining teachers in any given school is essential to its functioning and ultimately to meeting the mandate of NCLB.

The review of the literature above identified many potential factors associated with teacher retention. Therefore, in order to get an accurate estimate of the effect of school facilities on teacher decisions to remain or leave, we must control for other factors in any empirical model. Accordingly, we estimate a maximum-likelihood probit regression of individual teachers’ reported decision to stay (coded 1 if yes) on a set of covariates reflecting a host of factors that may drive the decision to stay or leave.

Our main variable of interest is the condition of the school facility, reflected by the grade that the teacher assigns to his or her school facility (on the familiar A–F scale, which we treat here as a continuous measure in which A = 4, B = 3, . . ., F = 0). In addition, we include a series of measures that reflect individual, school, and community factors that can affect the propensity to leave. These include such individual measures as the respondent’s age (actually measured categorically but assumed to be continuous here) and age squared (to account for a likely nonlinear effect); whether the respondent is female; whether he or she is “very dissatisfied” with his or her present salary; the number of years spent at his or her present school; whether he or she holds D.C. teaching certification; and dichotomous variables for self-reported race as white or other (black is the excluded, modal category).

To reflect school and community conditions, we measure teacher responses to a series of conditions: their level of satisfaction with their central district leadership and management; how they judge the level of involvement of parents and the local community; whether or not they feel the community and parents are “very important” to the functioning of the school; and whether they would be willing to be involved in planning improvements in their school’s facilities.

Table 1 summarizes the list above and reports the observed sample mean or proportion responding in the affirmative for the various covariates. After listwise deletion of missing values, the remaining sample size is 835. The results of the estimation of our model are presented in Table 2. We should note that because, in most cases, we received responses from several teachers in the same school, we estimate robust standard errors clustered on the reported D.C. school building number (White 1980; Rogers 1993).5

As Table 2 shows, we find a statistically significant coefficient for the effect of facilities grade on the decision to stay. As the perceived quality of the school facilities improves, ceteris paribus, the probability of retention increases. We also find significant effects for teacher age,6 dissatisfaction with pay, dissatisfaction with the involvement of parents and the community, and length of service at the present school. Overall, the model correctly predicts 83 percent of the observations, for a modest but measurable reduction in error of 6 percent over simply using the modal category to predict. In addition, based on a chi-square test of the ratio of log-likelihoods, we can reject a constant-only model compared to the full model at p <.01.

As is well known, because of the nonlinearity of the probit model, we cannot gauge the magnitudes or relative effects of the various factors on the decision to stay or leave simply by looking at the estimated coefficients (Liao 1994). Accordingly, we compute predicted probabilities using stochastic simulation (King, Tomz, and Wittenberg 2000; Tomz, Wittenberg, and King 2000) to explore our results in greater detail. Our general approach is to present the marginal effects of the various factors individually while holding the other covariates constant at their observed sample means or, for dichotomous variables, the modal values as reported in Table 1.

In Figure 1, we present predicted probabilities of an average teacher’s deciding to remain at his or her present school across increasing levels of perceived facilities quality. As the figure shows, the mean predicted probabilities increase over the range of grades, but at a slightly decreasing rate. The maximum difference between predicted probabilities is about .05; this represents the predicted average increase in probability of a teacher’s deciding to stay at his or her job were he or she to be moved from a school with the lowest facility quality to one with the highest, with all other factors held constant.

Perhaps a more important question than just the marginal effect of facilities on retention, at least to the administrator or policy analyst, is the effect of facilities relative to the other significant covariates in the model. In Figure 2, we compare the marginal change in predicted probability estimated by varying facility quality over its entire range to the maximum marginal age effect (between those 20–30 and those 41–50), the marginal effect of being very dissatisfied with pay, the marginal effect of being very dissatisfied with the community, and the marginal effect of length of service at the same school (again holding all else constant at the mean/modal values).

As Figure 2 shows, the effect of facilities quality, although small in comparison to the effects of age, time, and community satisfaction, is nevertheless larger than the effect of dissatisfaction with pay (p < .05). Although this comparison is based on the change of a school’s facility quality from F to A, even a change in perceived quality from F to only C yields an increase in predicted probability of retention of .03—almost two-thirds of the pay effect. In short, the effect of facilities quality on retention is substantively significant.

DISCUSSION

Schools and school districts attempting to increase their rate of teacher retention have several possible strategies, some more feasible than others. The results of our empirical analysis suggest that the most important factors—age and time in service at the school—are largely not under the control of administrators.

Of the remaining significant factors, pay, parent and community involvement, and facilities quality, the one with the largest effect is improving the teachers’ relationship with parents and the broader community. Strategies to improve this relationship have been a staple of education reform for decades, but progress is difficult, and the challenge of increasing parental involvement is perhaps greatest in urban districts such as Washington, D.C., the school system we study in this research. Increasing teacher salaries appears to improve retention, but this is also a difficult task in a time of reduced budgets—and personnel are the single largest expense in the provision of education.

Improving the quality of school facilities can be expensive as well. However, as our research here suggests, the benefits of facility improvement for retention can be equal to or even greater than those from pay increases. Furthermore, a major facilities improvement is likely to be a one-time expense, last for many years, and have supplemental sources of state or federal funding available. It could thus be a more cost-effective teacher retention strategy than a permanent salary increase for teachers in the medium to long term. Indeed, in the limited research on facilities and retention in developing nations, facilities improvement has been found to offset low wages (Macdonald 1999; Oliveira and Farrell 1993). Our research suggests the same may be true in the United States as well.

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JACK BUCKLEY is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation at Boston College’s Lynch School of Education. His major areas of research interest are applied statistics and education policy.

MARK SCHNEIDER is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at SUNY Stony Brook. His most recent book, Choosing Schools (Princeton University Press, 2000) won the Policy Studies Organization’s Aaron Wildavsky Award for the best book on public policy in 2000–2001.

YI SHANG is a graduate student in the Department of Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation at Boston College’s Lynch School of Education. Her major areas of research interest include quantitative methods in social science and educational policy analysis.

Cite This Article as: Teachers College Record Volume 107 Number 5, 2005, p. 1107-1123
http://www.tcrecord.org ID Number: 11852, Date Accessed: 9/12/2007 8:42:43 PM

2007-08-21T19:10:00.000-07:00

10 THINGS FOR NEW PRINCIPALS TO THINK ABOUT

Jul 11th, 2007 by vivek

In India there is a saying “Naya Maulvi zyada Allah, Allah karta hai;” the new priest invokes and proclaims God’s name much more than do the older ones.

First-Time Principals, especially if they have been appointed at a youngish age and/or have come from another school, could fit this description. I talk from experience, I was asked to head a school at 25. Some observations and advice:

Top Ten Things I would Do (when you reach the end don’t forget to download the inspirational story by Chinua Achebe)

1) Start by meeting every member of staff: Yes, every member. Teacher to Administrator to Janitor. Ask them what they like about school and what they didn’t. What could improve? What made them come to work here every morning. Make it personal- if you strike a rapport ask after their families. Its nice to be cared for.

2) Talk to at least 10% of the kids: Make sure you cover every age-group, have an good mix of boys and girls, of the studious ones and of the jocks.

Doing A & B above may take you 3 months or more. The information you gain from these conversations will give you years of vicarious learning.

3) If you haven’t done already, find out what your school board expects from you and the school. if you disagree on something, NOW is the time to tell them. Meet the parents council. Write to the rest of the parents. Tell them about yourself. Tell them you want to listen. Ask them to write. When they do, respond politely, but don’t rush action.

4) Reflect. If you’ve been keeping a journal as a teacher, read it. Find out what bugged you about Principals and administrators and resolve not to do any of those things.

5) Dream. Make a plan for what the school will look like 6 months from now. 12 months from now. 5 years from now.

6) Dream. Make a plan for what the school will feel like 6 months from now. 12 months from now. 5 years from now. Is it a place radiating with happiness? Smiling faces? Interested parents? Committed teachers?

7) Sweat the small stuff. Get into the details. Make a note of every little thing you want to see at the school. Every change you want to make, every practice you want followed, every value you would like cherish, every attitude you’d like honoured. Write it. Flesh it out. If it takes 50 pages or even a 100 to express- Do it.

8 ) Communicate your 10, 20, 50 page vision in One Page. Yes 1 Page. Then Distribute it to every member of your school.

9) Track your vision document. See how you are doing. If you don’t track it, you won’t achieve it.

10) Smile! You can enjoy anything you aren’t having fun doing!

Some other things to keep in mind

a) Don’t re-invent the wheel: You aren’t the first ones facing the challenges you are facing. Find support- ask other Principals. Read. Research. The answers are out there.

b) Don’t be in a hurry to Change: We may find things that are not working as we think they should. We believe there is a better way. But don’t brandish your diktat on the school in your early days. Schools are delicate ecosystems. Understand them before you begin tweaking.

c) Make every interaction and opportunity to convey your vision, your plan. Use every interaction to make sure you leave people better than you found them.

d) Don’t always take their word for it. Apply judgement. New Principals are often told they don’t know ‘how it works around here’ or worse ‘how it always has worked around here.’ Before you create negative perceptions about anything on anyone based on this information try and find out more.

e) Its OK not to know everything. Nobody does. I didn’t, but in the initial days I pretended to. Then I realised it was better to accept, learn from others and in sum, come up with a better idea.

If you have made it thus far, congratulations. As a young Principal, I could never have listened to someone else so patiently. After all, I did think I knew everything and was going to change the world!

However, if there is one thing you must take away from this post, it should be the story “Dead Man’s Path” by Chinua Achebe. You can download that story here. It is the story of a Young Principal, his over-inflated sense of self, his disenchantment with the ‘old ways of teaching’ and a disregard for tradition that leads to a sad end. The best work of fiction on school administration I have ever read.
Love for all of you to add to this post with comments and tips!

Posted in Teaching, Tips, Principals, Education, Literature, Work, Learning, Administration, School | 12 Comments
12 Responses to “10 THINGS FOR NEW PRINCIPALS TO THINK ABOUT”
on 12 Jul 2007 at 10:28 am
1 Indiamusing

Great post Vivek. Love the energy and passion that comes across in your thinking, your work..

on 12 Jul 2007 at 12:03 pm
2 Madhav

Dear Vivek,
The message I have found in your views is that don’t rush at all, be patient, and strike a relationship between school and yourself. To start with, the principal is an outsider and the onus is on him for acceptance in the community. All the steps, you have mentioned will help him to in his efforts, provided he is receptive and humble in his approach.
This post should not be taken as passport to authority, instead an opportunity to grow further in the filed of learning through collective wisdom of the school. I really appreciate your view on individual limits of not knowing everything. It may sound simple but is takes lot courage to accept your own limitations. This expression shows your maturity.
Congratulations on approaching the importance of ‘preparation’ before one embarks upon the desired course of action (I am hesitating to use the word ‘change’) in such a simple manner. After reading this, I really wonder why we make things complicated for ourselves and wearisome for others.
Keep it up.

on 12 Jul 2007 at 1:06 pm
3 Krishnan

Couldnt help but noticing that Point No. 5 is a complete subset of Point No. 6

Its really very interesting of the things we thought the Principal could do - smile for once, I cant recollect one Principal in my school who never instilled fear - he used to be like the master of punishments… Going to the Principal’s room was like - you have done “The Crime”

Commanding respect by fear is actually easier - I guess people choose the easier route out for shorter term gains.

One thing my friend Sidharth told me is that even though many of my classmates who had done average or below average in school, were doing decently in life. He said that these were the very guys who were taunted like crazy for not being able to grasp Physics or score marks and labelled as “gone cases”.

He said that there needs to be a revamp of the system to build personalities and not mark-scoring machines… Our schools are too academic oriented - the mindset change is slowly coming in but ous system still ails with outdated curriculums and mode of teaching!

I guess the Principal in the school should try to change the above mindset by setting examples - however it is a really slow process and cannot happen overnight as you rightly pointed out!

on 12 Jul 2007 at 2:57 pm
4 vivek

Indiamusing: Thank you very much! I look forward to your being here more often

Madhav Sir: Of all the people, you are the one who has no use for this post. I see that, as usual, you have distilled it beautifully and captured its essence. Maybe you could add a few points to it, too?

Krishnan: Thanks for the observation viz points 5 & 6. I was debating on whether I should have both there and then decided I probably Should. Doing 5 is a critical Key- it helps you visualise all the things you’d need to write in 6.

I am not sure one commands respect with fear. Discipline, maybe. Fear, I dont think so. But yes, it sure is easier.

Thinking about your comment on the “gone cases” doing well. Equate your ‘master of punishments’ principal with the closedness of the economy. Who thrived? Those who got around the law. The abiding ones did well, but maybe not as well. Isn’t that what you say you’ve found? Now think of a school where the system was designed to motivate students to perform an an atmosphere that encouraged it. Wouldn’t many many more benefit? It’s a leap in logic, but I hope i’ve expressed my point.

on 12 Jul 2007 at 9:36 pm
5 ebrown

Wow! This is good and very applicable. I am a firm believer in application as a result of information. If we do not apply what we learn, what good is it?

As much as I like 1-10, I REALLY like a-e. I too have written about these very same things on WeirdGuy. The one item that transformed my old staff was “E”. I started asking them what they thought.

Keep blogging,
-ebrown

on 13 Jul 2007 at 8:45 pm
6 Scott Elias

These are awesome, Vivek! Thanks for sharing! I’m adding your blog to my reader immediately!!

on 13 Jul 2007 at 10:44 pm
7 vivek

Scott, thanks for dropping by and thank you for the commendation! I look forward to a sustained conversation.

on 14 Jul 2007 at 7:49 am
8 Mike Waiksnis

These tips are wonderful. Thank you for sharing your insight!

on 14 Jul 2007 at 8:21 am
9 Kari

I had my first principal interview this week and am hopeful for a callback. I wonder about the dissonance between presenting your one page vision manifesto and your admonition not to be in a hurry for change. Your thoughts?

on 14 Jul 2007 at 10:00 am
10 vivek

Kari: Thank you for your comment! Yes, schools are sensitive ecosystems- best to handle them with kid-gloves until one gets an understanding of them. The one-page manifesto I talk about is an outcome of vision, reflection and conversations throughout the ecosystem (refer points 1-4) that should take you 4 months to get through. Only then, I believe, can one think about expressing desire for change.

Also, if one’s vision if significantly different from the status quo and the participants have been working in a particular manner for a while, gain acceptance and then opt to change. It will work better. It may take time, but it will. That’s my point about not hurrying. Thanks for clarifying. Look forward to seeing you around here often.

All the best with the interview. Hope you get called back!

Mike: Thanks for dropping by. I visited Ed LeaderWeb for the first time yesterday, and feel I am going to spending time there more regularly! Do keep dropping by, look forward to a sustained conversation.

on 19 Jul 2007 at 12:42 am
11 Bharati Kapoor

Dear Vivek,
Good thinking and good points. Was pleasantly surprised to see the article on readability statistics in this blog. I only wish that along with the other things you’ve advised the prncipals to do, you’d also talk about the importance of giving a thought to the underachiever. The child with average or above average intelligence, with or without learning disabilities who is not given a thought to inour schools.
The day Principals start doing that is the day education in our schools will be true education.
Regards,
Bharati Kapoor

on 24 Jul 2007 at 7:50 am
12 11th Edition of the Carnival of Leadership Growth « The Organic Leadership Blog

[…] khemka presents 10 THINGS FOR NEW PRINCIPALS TO THINK ABOUT posted at The Red Pencil, saying, “Article on how to manage your first leadership role. […]

http://theredpencil.wordpress.com/2007/07/11/10-things-for-new-principals-to-think-about/

2007-07-31T15:55:00.000-07:00

Staff Development FAQs

Q: What is staff development anyway?

A: Staff development is the term that educators use to describe the continuing education of teachers, administrators, and other school employees.

Teachers need a wide variety of staff development. For example, a science teacher might need to attend classes to learn more about the content of the science she's teaching. In addition, she might need other types of staff development to learn better ways to teach that new science material. She might also need to learn more about classroom management techniques, how to incorporate technology into her instruction, and how to better address the needs of language minority students in her classroom.

Q: Is staff development the same as inservice?

A: The terms inservice education, teacher training, staff development, professional development, and human resource development are often used interchangeably. But some of these terms may have special meaning to particular groups or individuals.

Q: So, staff development means teachers are attending classes, right?

A: Not necessarily. Attending classes, workshops, or conferences is one way that teachers – and other school employees – learn some of what they need to know. But other types of staff development are just as important and, often, more effective than traditional sit-and-get sessions.

For example, when teachers plan lessons together or study a subject together, that's a form of staff development. A teacher who observes another teacher teach is also participating in a form of staff development. If a teacher is being coached by another teacher, that's staff development. Visiting model schools, participating in a school improvement committee, writing curriculum, keeping a journal about teaching practices – all of those can be staff development activities.

Q: If teachers are professionals, why don't they learn on their own time?

A: Communities need to recognize the importance of improving teacher quality. Even though most teachers arrive prepared to teach, they need to stay up-to-date in their skills and knowledge in order to continue being effective teachers.

Private sector employers understand that it is their responsibility to ensure that employees–even professionals–stay current in their skills and knowledge. They're willing to provide time during the work day for their employees to learn–and often to make the necessary arrangements to have someone else handle their responsibilities for the day. Schools are no different from that.

Q: My school district routinely sends kids home – or has them start late – in order to provide staff development. Is that the best way to provide the kind of time you're describing?

A:It's certainly one way but it' not the only way. Often, the most effective staff development is woven into a teacher's workday.

Many schools structure their schedules to provide teachers with an hour a day (or several times a week) to prepare for their classes. You've probably heard teachers talk about these as prep hours or prep periods. Teachers typically use those periods to grade papers and tests and to prepare lessons.

In addition to those prep periods, many schools also provide a common meeting time for teachers who teach the same grade or the same subject. For example, in many middle schools, all of the teachers on one team share the same free hour and use that as a daily meeting time. You often hear teachers call these hours "team time.''

Teachers can use those meeting periods to plan lessons, write curriculum, examine student work, explore new ideas, etc. Although those activities contribute directly to their work with students, they also are excellent staff development opportunities for the teachers.

Q: But if staff development is part of the teacher's workday, that still means my child doesn't get as much time with the teacher. So my child is still being shortchanged.

A: When schools provide teachers with prep periods and "team time,'' students are not left on their own.

In elementary schools, for example, regular classroom teachers may get their prep periods or "team time'' while their students are in art, music, or gym classes. So the students are still receiving regular instruction but their classroom teachers are learning at the same time.

Some schools, like Hefferan Elementary School in Chicago, structure their week so that children concentrate on their core academic subjects from Monday through Thursday. On Friday each week, students take all of their "specials:" music, art, physical education, foreign language. And, each Friday, their regular classroom teachers have a full day to devote to planning and learning for their job.

Q: Even if schools are doing a lot of staff development during the work day, there still are going to be times when schools want to have half-day staff development programs. Why would they need that much time?

A: Many schools dismiss students for half or full days so large number teachers can participate in special workshops or seminars. Often, districts find that it's more cost-effective to have a special training session on-site rather than having large numbers of teachers travel to another location.

Q: Shouldn't the school district make some kind of plans for students on those days?

A: If your school district regularly sends students home during staff development time, talk with members of your school board about changing that policy and encouraging schools to find creative ways to keep students learning while their teachers are learning.

For example, community or church groups might be encouraged to develop programming for students during those times, especially if you know that large numbers of children in your community will be left on their own whenever school is not in session.

Perhaps your community could organize an athletic field day around one of your half day staff development or an "art in the field'' day. Perhaps special Those kinds of activities would release regular classroom teachers while ensuring that students have a quality learning experience at the same time.

Of course, remember that many families appreciate having an occasional half day "vacation'' from school. They use that time for medical appointments or for a special outing.

Q: This all sounds very expensive to me. How much should my district be spending on this staff development?

A: School improvement specialists generally recommend that a school district devote at least 10 percent of its operating budget to staff development and that teachers devote at least 25 percent of their work time to personal learning.

When school districts calculate their staff development expenses, they often include only the cost of paying tuition and covering the cost of substitute teachers.

That was a system that worked fine when most school districts were providing only sit-and-get "inservices.'' But, as staff development becomes more sophisticated, school districts will also need to calculate the cost of time for team meetings, school improving planning, peer coaching, observing classrooms, developing curriculum – any of the new methods of staff development.

Q: You've convinced me that teachers need to keep learning in order to improve the quality of their teaching. But sometimes these staff development sessions at my school are for janitors and school secretaries. Is that really necessary?

A: Everyone who works for the school district needs to continually learn to improve the work they do.

Janitors, bus drivers, and school secretaries make important contributions to creating a school climate where children feel safe and welcome as they learn. They also have frequent contact with parents – especially school secretaries – so it's important for them to understand many aspects of school life.

Any adult who comes in contact with a student during the school day has an opportunity to influence their learning. Those individuals need to know as much as possible to be effective in that important role.

Q: How do schools make decisions what teachers are going to learn? Who gets to make these decisions? Can parents be part of this decision making too?

A: We believe that schools should establish goals for student learning and then examine data – from tests, from classroom work – to determine how many children have been meeting those goals. Examining data also helps teachers identify areas where students are struggling. Then, we encourage schools and school districts to provide the staff development that will enable teachers to help all children reach those goals.

If you'd like to learn more about this, the U.S. Department of Education has recognized several schools with strength in this area. (Click here for more information on this U.S. Department of Education award program.)

Q: Is there a better place to situate staff development in a school district --Curriculum & Instruction or Human Resource Development?

A: This is one of those frequently asked questions to which there is not a precise answer. Throughout the country, I surmise that directors of staff development are probably split among the two assignments. However, there are several important points to consider as you make the best decision for your local context.

First, I recommend that the staff developer sit on the superintendent's management team. The staff developer will serve as an individual who views all conversations from the perspective of their implications for educator learning in the school system. Does our staff possess the knowledge and skills to accomplish what the team is proposing? How can the knowledge and skills be developed given the current situation in the system? The staff developer will also ask the research base for many programs that are often recommended as quick fixes to today's school challenges. While other leaders may ask these questions as well, with the staff developer sitting at the table you can gain confidence in the questions being consistently asked. The staff developer can also serve as facilitator for such meetings so the superintendent doesn't have to worry with this responsiblity.

Secondly, in the ideal situation, the staff developer would report directly to the superintendent. Staff development touches every department in a school system. Where staff development is located is not as key as which meetings include the staff developer. Human resource departments typically address induction, mentoring, and evaluation of employees. Each of these issues has staff development implications and needs. Curriculum and instruction addresses teaching, curriculum, testing, and other issues that also have staff development implications. Other aspects of school systems also have implications for staff development: district planning, school improvement planning, principal supervision, leadership development, family involvement, technology.

In the end, the best assignment is the assignment that ensures that staff developer expertise and perspective is used whenever issues with staff development are addressed and that the staff developer has the position authority that ensures the recommendations are honored. (Stephanie Hirsh)

Q: What are the effects of teacher efficacy on professional development? How does this impact instruction?

A: I recommend for the most recent research on the relationship between teacher efficacy and professional development that you conduct multiple searches using a variety of search engines. You will find countless articles that have been written on this subject. (Stephanie Hirsh)

Q: What new forms of professional development are available and what are the outcomes of their implementation?

A: For background on professional development "forms," I recommend you study the information available through the NSDC web site and in particular the Standards for Staff Development (click here). Even more specifically study the standards: Design and Learning.(Stephanie Hirsh)

Q: What can you tell me about the Standards self-assessment?

A: SEDL (Southwest Development Laboratory) is developing a self-assessment instrument for the National Staff Development Council that will measure the degree to which a school’s professional development program adheres to the twelve NSDC standards. The development of the instrument consists of writing items that correspond t to the twelve standard and conducting a series of pilot studies to begin establishing the reliability and validity of the instrument. Data on the psychometric properties will demonstrate the degree to which the instrument measures what it was intended to measure, and whether it does so in a ma consistent and stable manner. Once the instrument reaches a point where the psychometric properties appear stable, the instrument will be available to schools for assessing the extent to which their professional development programs adhere to the NSDC standards. (Stephanie Hirsh)

Q: What are the characteristics of a good professional development program?

A: The characteristics are the same as the Standards for Staff Development which are available on this web site (click here)

Q: What about staff development for parents?

A: Yes, all the adults who are important in a child's education need to keep learning. Parents need to continually improve their understanding about curriculum – both what their school is offering and why as well as what they could and should be offering and why. Parents need to understand how the education their children receives connects with national expectations for an excellent education. Only when parents have the best information available will they be able to fully participate in the decision making at their child's school.

Q: I want to pursue a career in staff development. What degree should I seek?

A: Unfortunately, few universities offer a degree in staff development. So the next best alternative is to see if your university offers a minor in staff development. If that is unavailable, look for a degree program in educational leadership. Take whatever courses you can in leadership, adult learning, curriculum development, instructional leadership, etc.

Also, study the Dimensions of Staff Developer Practice prepared by the National Staff Development Council for an overview of the skills required to perform your duties as a staff developer. Preparing for a career in staff development requires a well-rounded educational career. There are multiple pathways to achieving your goal. Be an active participant in high-quality staff development. Be an avid reader of professional development journals. And, of course, join the National Staff Development Council. Good luck with your goal.

Q: What do we know about the link between student learning and teacher technology knowledge?

A: The research literature is mixed about the link between student achievement and teacher technology knowledge. However, the literature is very clear that what teachers know does influence student achievement as it relates to teacher content and pedagogy knowledge. For specific references, see What Works in the Middle: Results-Based Staff Development (www.nsdc.org/midbook/index.cfm). This NSDC document includes descriptions of content-specific staff development for middle grades teachers that have evidence of increasing student achievement. Look especially at Chapter 2, a synthesis of the literature about linking professional development with student achievement.

Documents regarding results-based staff development in elementary and high schools will be published in 2001.

For more specific information about the link with teacher technology knowledge, seek information from the International Society for Technology Education at www.iste.org.

Q: Could you tell me about NSDC's process to "certify" or "recognize" outstanding staff developers?

A: NSDC's Distinguished Staff Developer designation is awarded to individuals who demonstrate to a panel of peers that they have achieved an exemplary level of work according to the Dimensions of Staff Development Practice. The process is performance-based and guided by a set of competencies that outline expectations for professionals in the field of staff development.

Two NSDC publications provide you with everything you need to know to apply for and participate in this recognition process:

NSDC Dimensions of Staff Development Practice (1999). Presents a rubric that defines the eight dimensions and the 40+ competencies at the basic, proficient, and exemplary levels. This tool is also valuable in establishing job descriptions, growth plans, or evaluation systems. Item #B70 in the NSDC Online Bookstore.

NSDC Distinguished Staff Developer Orientation Packet (1999). Presents the goals for the peer review process that enables one to earn the Distinguished Staff Developer designation, individual benefits of participation, descriptions of exemplary practice of staff development, requirements of the process, applicant guidelines, and all materials necessary to engage in the process. Orientation packet includes NSDC Dimensions of Staff Development Practice. Items B69 & B70 in the NSDC Online Bookstore.

The process begins with the completion of the registration form. An individual may take up to two years to complete the process. Reviews occur year round, and the final review panels are scheduled twice a year (summer and December). The total cost for the recognition process is $1,500.00.

Q: What will be the impact of the No Child Left Behind Act on professional learning?

A:The legislation has the potential to affect professional development enormously. First, billions of dollars are included in the legislation to ensure teacher quality. Second, the legislation indicates that the government has recognized what makes professional development effective; the definitions of professional development in the law are roughly in line with the NSDC standards.

However, the specifics of the implementation of No Child Left Behind will ultimately determine how much attention is paid to professional development. While the stringent requirements for selecting and evaluating professional development will help to ensure its quality, they will also make it easier to use the money allotted for teacher quality in other ways. The teacher quality provision also emphasizes teacher recruitment and retention, and those areas will be drawing from the same monies that fund professional development. Decisions made at the state and local levels about teacher quality and school improvement programs will be deciding factors in the role professional development plays in No Child Left Behind.

For more information see the NCLB area of the NSDC Library.

http://www.nsdc.org/library/basics/faqs.cfm

2007-07-31T15:54:00.000-07:00

The Multiple Roles of Staff Developers

By Joellen Killion and Cindy Harrison

Journal of Staff Development, Summer 1997 (Vol. 18, No. 3)

Everybody has his own theatre in which he is manager, actor, prompter, playwright, sceneshifter, boxkeeper, doorkeeper, all in one, and audience in the bargain.-- Augustus William Hare

Serving in multiple roles is common for most staff developers. During the last several decades, the transformation in the roles of staff developers has paralleled the shift from inservice education focused primarily on individual teacher change to a more comprehensive, systemic focus on the entire organization and the individuals who comprise it (Henkelman, 1991; Killion & Harrison, 1991, 1992; Phillips & Shaw, 1989). Throughout the history of staff development, the journey of staff developers has had eight major stops, each one adding a new role.

Staff developers began their work primarily as trainers and coordinators of training in the 1970s. Throughout the 1970s, staff development focused largely on the delivery of workshops and training. Staff developers also assumed responsibilities for managing training departments, training others to be staff developers, coordinating on-site follow-up, and evaluating program effectiveness.

In the mid-1980s, the focus of staff developers’ work reflected the movement toward organization development, school improvement, and systemic change. With the spread of school improvement processes, staff developers added to their repertoire the roles of facilitation for the school improvement process and other projects.

Today, staff developers emphasize developing learning organizations and learning communities. This newest role involves all stakeholders in the educational process and capitalizes on the strengths of all for improving the entire school community.

Adding new roles for staff developers seems to parallel changes from a centralized decision-making system to a decentralized system. The shift from bureaucratic organizations to more organic organizations that fostered school-based decision making, school improvement planning, teacher leadership, and individual school communities has created the need for different forms of support from staff developers. As staff developers’ roles expand and change, their work broadens and incorporates more responsibility and accountability to respond to continuous changes in educational programs.

The need for each role continues to be strong within most school organizations. The roles described in this article are necessary for effective staff development. In some districts and schools, a variety of people assume responsibility for these roles.

At the district level, a curriculum coordinator, school improvement coordinator, or assistant superintendent may share the role with a staff developer. At the school, teacher leaders, the principal, or others may share roles which are not filled at the district level, or they may assume those roles most necessary to advance their school improvement plans.

Eight Roles

There are eight distinct roles of staff developers (see Figure 1). Each role differs in its key responsibilities; however, the roles often overlap in real life situations. For example, staff developers acting as trainers or training designers also commonly assume the role of coach.

The scenarios provide examples of specific contexts in which a staff developer performs each role. In each role, the staff developer depends on skills that are particular to that role. However, as roles overlap, so do skills. Staff developers face challenges that often are unique to each individual role.

Trainer/Designer

The director of materials management asked the staff developer to train his office staff on how to deal with difficult people. He said his staff was experiencing stress and frustration because they didn’t feel very successful in meeting client demands.

The staff developer met with the director and several department members to learn more before designing a training program. Before the training, the staff developer met again with the director and the staff to review the training plan and assess whether the design addressed the group’s needs. As part of this discussion, the staff developer helped the group develop a plan to evaluate the training.

The training was delivered in several sessions. Between each session, the staff developer met again with the planning team to make necessary revisions. He also visited the work site to provide coaching on skills and techniques as participants transferred the new learnings to their practice. During these visits, he learned how to further customize the training. The staff developer was also available by phone to help individuals with questions and problems.

The early training role of staff developers continues to be important. The staff developer helps others acquire new skills, knowledge, and attitudes through designing and delivering training. Staff developer’s current role in training is more comprehensive than in the past. Rather than delivering a predesigned program, today’s staff developer often custom designs training, plans on-site implementation assistance, focuses on measuring the training’s impact, and influences the necessary systemic changes.

The training role is highly visible and places the staff developer "on the stage." But, the staff developer who conducts successful training spends as much or more time behind the scenes preparing learning experiences. The trainer/designer assesses participants’ needs, designs learning experiences which meet identified needs, creates a plan that honors adult learning, focuses on implementing the learning, and adjusts the instruction and learning environment to ensure success.

Occasionally, the staff developer only designs the training while another person conducts the actual training. But, in most situations, staff developers assume the roles of both designer and trainer. A client may initiate the request for training, but it is not unusual for a staff developer to initiate the service in response to a district- or building-identified need for knowledge or skill development.

To be successful as designers of training, staff developers must know and be able to apply theories on adult learning, instructional design, diagnosis, evaluation, group process, and individual and organization change. In addition, the staff developer needs the skills of delivering content in an engaging and effective manner to optimize learning, build rapport with learners, monitor participants’ responses and adjust the design or delivery, and evaluate the training’s impact.

Designers of learning are challenged to ensure clarity and variety in their instructional design while incorporating the latest research and practice on teaching adults. Designers must constantly update their understanding of the specific content and explore effective ways of delivering the desired learning to participants.

This includes becoming competent in using instructional technology, various models of staff development (Sparks & Loucks-Horsley, 1990), and the National Staff Development Council’s Standards for Staff Development (NSDC, 1994, 1995a, 1995b).

As a trainer, the staff developer faces the challenge of simultaneously being an expert and being a learner. As an expert, the staff developer must provide thorough, in-depth information related to the content.

As a learner, the staff developer must be open to new knowledge gained from participants about the multiple ways to implement the new learning. Trainers are also challenged to be responsive to their participants’ learning needs and to constantly adjust and fine-tune their work for their audience.

Coach

As they developed a multi-year staff development program in developmentally appropriate practices, the staff developers in Thompson School District recruited teachers who were successful in implementing developmentally appropriate practices as coaches for other teachers who completed the training. These coaches and the staff developers met several times to clarify what appropriate usage of the new strategies might look like.

They developed checklists and guidelines that delineated the difference between novice and sophisticated users. The coaches prepared several interventions to match the stages of concern outlined in the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (Hall & Hord, 1984) so they would have some quick references to use as they worked with individual teachers. For example, teachers who struggled with management concerns might be given time to observe a teacher who was doing well in this area.

After the training was over, coaches visited each participant and helped each reflect on how they were implementing the new learning and practices from the training. Coaches gave specific attention to the teacher’s behaviors, students’ responses, classroom situation, and curriculum. Coaches helped teachers reflect on their decisions and consider possible alternatives. With help from their coaches, teachers felt more comfortable taking risks and using new strategies.

At some schools where several teachers received the training, the staff developer formed support groups to encourage participants to help each other with difficult implementation problems. Teachers shared ideas, encouraged one another, and commiserated about the complexities of changing well developed practices and habits.

The coach also met with the teachers in support groups, offered constructive feedback, helped them share resources and ideas among themselves, and established a peer observation schedule that allowed teachers to observe each other.

Coaching is essential to increase the transfer of learning. As a coach, a staff developer’s key responsibility is helping participants transfer structured or unstructured learning experiences into practice. Coaches support their clients as they adjust new learning to fit their work setting or personal style.

Staff developers go to the work site, observe clients at work, gather information about participants’ behaviors, and offer feedback and support. The feedback should strengthen new learning and increase its use. Staff developers also encourage clients to become self-analytic by asking questions to promote reflection and metacognition. Sometimes, coaches might work indirectly by arranging for peer coaching.

Successful coaches have expertise in questioning, listening, giving feedback, coaching, and problem solving along with a thorough understanding of the change processes and the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (Hall & Hord, 1984). In this role, the staff developer understands expectations of the staff development program and the range of acceptable practice, and designs interventions to assist both reluctant and eager users.

The greatest challenge for the coach is to encourage adaptions of the new learning. Often staff developers find themselves struggling with the expectation of replication rather than encouraging variations and adaptations as part of learning and internalizing new skills and applying them in daily practice.

Resource Provider

When the high school’s improvement team needed assistance identifying instructional strategies to meet the needs of at-risk students, they went first to the staff development office. After collecting resources from the professional development library, the staff developer posted a message on an electronic bulletin board seeking suggestions from teachers, university personnel, administrators, and other staff developers across the country.

The staff developer showed the team how to do an ERIC search to gather references for relevant articles or papers. The school had gained access to information in multiple databases from subject area associations, regional educational laboratories, university partnerships with public schools, and the U.S. Department of Education’s resources. Within 48 hours, the staff developer was able to link the school improvement team with six other high schools working on the same problem.

As resource provider, the staff developer is asked to provide information regarding speakers, research about best practices, consultants, or teaching resources. Staff developers might be asked to recommend the best video on multicultural education to show at a staff inservice, recommend a book for a study group, or help a principal create a slide presentation for his parent organization.

The staff developer’s goal as resource provider is to provide or link clients with resources that will help them reach their desired outcomes. The resource provider also can disseminate current trends and research through a newsletter, research update, or other means.

Staff developers need a variety of skills for this role. They must:

• Know how to research a variety of areas including school improvement, instructional strategies, leadership, program evaluation, and student assessment

• Know how to locate, access, and search on-line databases, libraries, journals, and catalogs.

• Network with colleagues to locate information or people to assist in particular areas.

• Critically analyze information and resources to verify their accuracy, assess their quality and relevance, and determine their appropriateness for the given audience.

As a resource provider, the staff developer faces several challenges. First, they must keep abreast of the rapidly changing field of education and share with others how to research their questions. By teaching others how to do the research, the staff developer not only meets the request, but also increases others’ capacity to gather the information for themselves in the future.

Second, the staff developer must be careful not to bias the information presented by selecting only that which agrees with his or her professional or personal philosophy or practice. Ensuring that clients have as much information as possible, including conflicting information on a topic, will build a clients’ ability to analyze information and critique its validity, reliability, and value. Staff developers might help clients develop and use questions to guide their review of information.

Third, staff developers must consider the audience for a particular resource. The resource provider must have more than one idea, book, video, or presenter for any given topic. An effective video that describes active learning strategies in a succinct fashion could be a disaster at a high school faculty meeting if none of the examples in the video relate to the high school level.

Program Manager

The state legislature recently passed a law requiring school districts to provide an induction program for new teachers. The staff developer called the director of personnel to discuss how the two departments might work together to provide this service. The staff developer held focus groups for new teachers, principals, and experienced teachers to gather specific data to help design the program. She researched district, state, and university induction programs. She also collected additional data with a districtwide needs assessment.

The staff developer examined ways to involve all the necessary stakeholders in developing and implementing the program. With the collective input from all the stakeholders, a committee of volunteers, facilitated by the staff developer, developed a clear vision for the program, wrote a proposal for the program, presented the proposal to the school board, and received the requested funding.

The staff developer, as program manager for induction, assumed responsibility for selecting, training and supporting mentors, and coordinating orientation and training sessions for new teachers. The staff developer also supervised the program’s support staff.

During the program’s second year, the staff developer worked with the teachers’ association to develop language for the teachers’ contract regarding induction. She also coordinated the training of new mentors and beginning teachers, matched mentors and new teachers, set up the induction teams, met with new employees to explain the program requirements, managed the program budget, conducted an annual program evaluation, and made the necessary revisions in the program based on an annual program evaluation.

As program manager, a staff developer may be responsible for an entire department or just a project. Program managers are accountable for program development and management. Staff developers may manage different types of programs. Examples might include an induction program for beginning teachers, a professional development program for administrators, a partnership project with a university, a diversity initiative, or a staff development department.

But the responsibilities and skills for each of these situations are much the same. In the program manager role, staff developers provide leadership and carry out necessary managerial functions such as managing budgets, coordinating services, delegation of responsibilities, or personnel management. Functions will vary depending on the project and its magnitude.

A program manager’s key responsibility is to ensure effective and efficient program operation. A program manager ensures that necessary supports for program success are in place. For example, if the program is a district-level staff development program for teachers, the necessary follow-up support, classroom resources, and ongoing opportunities to extend learning must be addressed.

Another responsibility is creating programs that respond to client needs. An additional responsibility for the program manager is to establish clear and measurable outcomes, assess the progress toward those outcomes, and make necessary modifications to reach the identified outcomes.

Staff developers acting as program managers need a comprehensive set of skills. One set of skills relates to the program and includes action planning, creating a vision, program evaluation, budget management, delineation of responsibilities and tasks, shared decision making, advocacy and influencing, and communication.

When the program involves employees, such as managing a staff development department, then the program manager depends on another set of skills. These skills include coaching and evaluating personnel, motivating people, and delegating responsibility.

This role challenges staff developers to place outcomes of the program and the needs of its clients above his or her own needs. The staff developer must recognize that the program serves others’ needs. There must be constant evaluation and revision so the program remains vibrant and responsive to the identified needs.

Program managers also must use appropriate decision-making processes when issues arise. The program manager often selects the stakeholders who will be involved in decision making, and determines when and by what means to involve them. The staff developer must make decisions which are in the best interest of the client.

This concept of "stewardship" as defined by Peter Block (1993) requires that the program manager and clients have a partnership built on the foundation of a shared vision, common beliefs, and absolute honesty which emphasizes service over self-interests. The program manager practices stewardship in all aspects of program management.

Consultant

The assistant principal at Pinkerton Elementary School recognized that the school’s vision and goals were not helping teachers make difficult decisions about classroom practice. The assistant principal called the staff developer and asked for her help. After some conversation, the staff developer discovered that neither the teachers nor the principal referred to the vision and goals which they had written a number of years ago.

The staff developer helped the assistant principal define the problem and design a plan for on-site assistance. The assistant principal wanted to facilitate the process of identifying common beliefs, revising the vision, and aligning school goals with the vision. To assist the assistant principal, the staff developer assumed the role of consultant.

The staff developer met jointly with the principal and assistant principal to review various models of school improvement and strategic planning, and discussed the appropriateness of each model for the task at hand. The staff developer helped the school leaders examine the potential value and use of a shared vision, and the need to explore the beliefs of all members of the school community before revising the current vision and goal statements.

The staff developer helped the clients design the agenda for the first meeting with the faculty. Following this faculty meeting, the staff developer debriefed the principal and assistant principal.

Since the staff developer did not attend, she could ask questions that encouraged the administrators to reflect on the meeting from various perspectives. The staff developer and principals jointly developed the next steps in the process including agendas and strategies for accomplishing the tasks.

This cycle continued for several months. Throughout the process, the interval between visits, debriefing sessions, and joint planning sessions became increasingly longer. Never once did the staff developer work directly with the staff. After several months invested in the school and the leadership development of the administrators, the staff developer realized that her guidance, coaching, and assistance were no longer needed.

By then, the school staff had revised their vision and aligned the school goals so they would guide critical instructional and management decisions and promote professional development and systemic change. The staff developer celebrated the accomplishments of the administrators and recognized that they both acquired skills, strategies, knowledge, and the confidence to engage in this process again without the same level of assistance.

Staff developers often serve as consultants. "A consultant is a person in a position to have some influence over an individual, a group, or an organization, but who has no direct power to make changes or implement programs" (Block, 1981, p. 1). Consultants help, guide, assist, and support. As a consultant, a staff developer provides assistance to a single client, small group, or team and views each client as a microcosm of the entire organization (Phillips & Shaw, 1989).

Consultants rely on sets of skills for each of the four phases of their work (Block, 1981; Friedman & Yarbrough, 1985; Phillips & Shaw, 1989). The first phase establishes a relationship with the client. The next phase clarifies expectations for the consultant’s work and negotiating the specifics of the working contract between the consultant and the client. Third, the consultant diagnoses the situation by selecting and using appropriate means for data collection, analysis, and presentation to the client. Fourth, the consultant guides the client in determining the best intervention to accomplish the goal.

In the consultant role, staff developers assist clients in thinking through situations, provide guidance and resources, design interventions, and lend expertise and a fresh perspective. What distinguishes consultation for other roles is that the goals or outcomes are unknown as the staff developer enters the situation. The goals must be determined through a careful organizational diagnosis which guides the consultant’s intervention.

As a consultant, the staff developer has several key responsibilities. The first is facilitating organizational change and development by working with individuals who comprise the organization (Phillips & Shaw, 1989; Schein, 1988). A consultant’s second key responsibility is sharing skills and knowledge to build the capacity of others. The third is helping the client be successful in his or her work by coaching, advising, considering consequences, and suggesting alternatives.

The consultant promotes client learning and development by working collaboratively with the client rather than being the expert who prescribes solutions, strategies, or specific approaches. The consultant works at the client’s invitation, provides another perspective, asks questions, and offers a variety of possibilities, but refrains from directing or having a single right answer.

As consultants, staff developers depend on many skills. One key skill is deep listening, not only to the content but to the implicit messages underlying the words. The consultant listens for the client’s understanding and consideration of the various perspectives, openness to change, and sense of efficacy or futility.

Other skills include data gathering, questioning, and analyzing information about the organization and its members to be used when designing appropriate interventions. Since much of the interaction between the consultant and the client centers around identifying problems and designing interventions, the staff developer needs these skills.

Staff developers also need skills in contracting, the process of reaching agreement between the client and the consultant about the scope of the work, the relationship between the consultant and client, the expectations each has of one another and for the work, and the logistics related to the work such as the time frame or financial resources available.

The greatest challenge the consultant faces is having the patience to allow the client to learn "in process." Since one of the consultant’s goals is to build the capacity of others, the consultant must "think aloud" concerning the steps of the process, the rationale for his or her decisions, the process for making decisions, and the information used in each decision.

In addition, the need to fix, heal, solve, or correct the situation by identifying the right solution often traps the consultant. Consultants must strive to let go of that need and instead find multiple solutions and assist the client in deciding which solution is best in the particular situation. The final choice must always rest with the client.

Another challenge for the staff developer-as-consultant is letting go of the ego needs for recognition. When moving into a less public or visible role, the loss of accolades, acknowledgement, and public recognition requires a strong sense of self.

Instead, the reward is found in valuing the success and new skills of others and sharing knowledge, skills, and practices so they might use them in new situations. There is never enough support within an organization. By building the capacity of others through consulting, however, the staff developer increases the chances of accelerating change.

Task Facilitator

The middle school principal asked a staff developer to facilitate the school’s budget committee as it developed the next year’s budget which required an 8% budget reduction. At the first meeting with the principal and the school’s steering committee which would oversee the budget committee’s work, the staff developer clarified what was expected of budget committee members and the staff developer.

The first several budget committee meetings were devoted to helping the group of parents, community members, students, and staff form a sense of community by establishing norms, building an information base about past budgets, and understanding the committee’s charge. It was particularly important for the committee to understand that it would be making a recommendation, not a final decision.

The staff developer established agendas for the first two meetings and helped the group prepare "press releases" to communicate their work to the school community, clarify the problems, generate solutions, make decisions about the best solutions, and assess its progress toward the outcome.

After several meetings, the facilitator gradually became less active, allowing members to co-facilitate and, eventually, to facilitate themselves. When the task was accomplished, the staff developer ensured that there was a celebration to honor the committee members.

An increasingly common role for staff developers is that of facilitator, one who makes things happen with ease. The role of facilitator differs from a consultant in that the consultant is responsible for conducting a diagnosis to determine a course of action. That consultant role is broader than that of facilitator, usually occurs before facilitation, and may result in the need for a facilitator.

Facilitators have defined goals to achieve, such as designing a parental involvement program or strengthening the working relationship among teams of teachers. Consultants must seek to define their goals based on an intensive analysis of the context and situation.

There are two roles of facilitators. A task facilitator orchestrates a project or assists a group complete its task; a process facilitator focuses on the interactions among group members. Commonly, the facilitator assumes both task and process responsibilities.

A task facilitator works directly with the group, unlike the consultant who is more invisible to the group. Task facilitation is typically initiated by a client who needs assistance with a project or task. The goal of the staff developer as task facilitator is to ensure that the group achieves its desired outcomes (Schwarz, 1994). Unlike a committee chair, a task facilitator has no vested interest or necessarily any expertise in the task area.

A task facilitator is responsible for designing the process the group will use to accomplish its task. In task facilitation, the staff developer is responsible for initiating the group, working with the group to accomplish its task or charge, and reaching closure with the group and its work.

Each phase of facilitation involves specific tasks. For example, in initiating the group, the staff developer must establish a sense of team or community through team-building activities; identify explicit norms or agreements about how the group will work together; contract with the group about the roles and responsibilities of both the facilitator and group members; and clarify the group’s purpose and non-purpose (McNellis, 1992).

The facilitator must draw from a wide repertoire of strategies to help the team gather data, organize information, evaluate information, determine a course of action, communicate with the larger community, and make decisions. The facilitator must be ready to assist the group in making decisions and handling conflicts that may occur during the work.

In addition, the facilitator must help the group periodically assess its progress. Finally, the facilitator must help the group bring closure to its work and celebrate its accomplishments. One goal of all task facilitations should be developing team members’ skills to assume future group facilitation themselves (Schwarz, 1994).

Facilitators undertake a wide range of tasks such as planning for change as in school improvement teams, revising or designing curriculum, creating a process for implementing a districtwide program in shared decision making, or exploring ways to involve more parents of at-risk students in school activities. Regardless of the nature of the task or its breadth, the role of the staff developer remains the same–to assist the group in achieving its goals.

Groups with a specific task to accomplish by a certain time succeed better with trained facilitators than groups that have no facilitator (Schwarz, 1994). The facilitator who is not directly invested in the project’s outcome or task is a better facilitator because he or she is able to remain more neutral and ensure that all perspectives are incorporated into the best possible outcome.

Task facilitators rely heavily on skills for organizing, listening, planning, anticipating, observing, making decisions, and intervening appropriately. The facilitator must be careful to attend to what is happening in the group in the present, focus on the many dimensions of task completion, and make a constant stream of decisions about how to help the group with the next logical step. Understanding the task thoroughly is prerequisite to successful facilitation.

In addition to a wide array of skills, the facilitator needs a broad repertoire of strategies to help groups accomplish their work. The staff developer-as-facilitator needs group strategies for identifying problems, setting the purpose, gathering, organizing, and assessing data, generating and evaluating solutions, and decision making.

Maintaining neutrality is a facilitator’s greatest challenge in working with task groups. As a facilitator of either task, process, or both, the facilitator’s chief responsibility and goal is to help the group reach its outcome. The facilitator must be especially careful to keep his or her focus on facilitating the group rather than becoming involved with the task. Sometimes, it is particularly difficult to facilitate a group when the group’s topic or work is something about which the facilitator has strong feelings.

Process Facilitator

The elementary school principal asked the staff developer for assistance. She said her staff had difficulty getting along professionally and agreeing on any issue. Acknowledging that the staff had some animosity toward her, Ms. Fredericks recognized that she might also need to change her own behavior.

At their first meeting, the staff developer contracted with the principal to address roles, expectations, and outcomes. The staff developer asked the principal for permission to collect more data to identify issues. Both agreed that information would only be shared with the staff, not with the principal’s supervisor or parents at the school. The staff developer designed questions for discussions with staff members. After the discussions, the staff developer analyzed the responses and identified patterns.

In a meeting with the principal, the staff developer shared the data, including information that directly related to the principal’s leadership. The meeting was difficult for both the principal and staff developer since sensitive and hurtful information had to be shared. The staff developer had to be careful to maintain the data’s integrity, her relationship with the principal, and a problem-solving orientation. During the meeting, the staff developer helped the principal prepare for the full-staff meeting at which the data would be shared.

Emotions and tension were high at the staff meeting. At the beginning of the meeting, the staff developer helped the group establish norms. Next, the staff developer identified the patterns of responses gathered from the data collection. After a question-and-answer period, the staff developer helped the staff design several interventions.

The staff developer worked with the staff for about nine months by building skills, facilitating meetings where some conflict mediation occurred, and providing feedback to the staff on observed behaviors as they worked with one another. At the end of the nine months, the follow-up assessment indicated that the situation had improved but that the staff still had more work to do. The staff designed a second year’s plan to continue their work. The new plan involved only periodic assistance from the staff developer.

As a process facilitator, the staff developer helps groups of individuals when they request help with group interactions or when they struggle with their work. "Process relates to the underlying feelings and motivations people bring to the task and to each other" (Phillips & Shaw, 1989, p. 46).

Process is less visible and accessible than the task or work a group has to do, but the success of the task depends on the process. When groups request help with their interactions, the process facilitator becomes a mirror for the group by describing behaviors which promote and which hinder the group’s productivity and relationships.

The group’s productivity is reduced when there are strained relationships and conflict among group members or when the group is struggling with its task. The process facilitator works to create productive and healthy interaction among participants so they can achieve their goals. The group invites the staff developer to assist by facilitating the group as an outside, neutral facilitator. Process facilitation occurs in large groups, small groups, and, occasionally, between two individuals.

Process facilitators have three responsibilities:

1. Help group members or individuals recognize their behaviors and the impact of their behaviors on others (Schwarz, 1994);

2. Help individuals change unproductive behaviors; and

3. Help the group agree upon and implement expectations or norms for interactions to maintain the safe environment in which to accomplish their work (Schwarz, 1994). Process facilitators give group members feedback about the way they communicate with each other so they can improve their group interaction in order to accomplish their task.

In addition to the skills needed by the task facilitator, the process facilitator needs strong expertise in conflict resolution. The staff developer must be comfortable addressing difficult issues and intervening appropriately (Schwarz, 1994). Collecting and analyzing data are critical for process facilitators since they must diagnose the situation thoroughly before recommending appropriate interventions.

Process facilitators must be able to give nonjudgmental feedback and use nonjudgmental, descriptive language. They must be aware that they model salient communication skills to group members. They need fluency with a wide range of interventions that improve group members’ relationships and productivity.

Most of all, the process facilitator must remain neutral. It is far too easy to be swept into the emotions of those involved or the issues with which the group is struggling. The staff developer must be cautious about withholding judgment about anyone’s behavior while focusing the group on necessary changes to increase the group’s productivity and improve relationships among its members.

Walking the delicate balance between enabling the group by intervening too quickly or allowing the group to solve its own problems is a particularly difficult challenge for process facilitators.

Catalyst for Change

The staff developer has a unique role in the school district. She has been involved in designing many major district and school-based innovations in the past 10 years. In her work with staff members, she has been perceived as someone who is honest, willing to help others, unafraid to ask hard questions, and comfortable challenging the status quo.

The large numbers of students who returned to summer school year after year frustrated the staff developer. Summer school was designed to help students who failed to earn the credits they needed and be successful students the following school year.

Yet, judging from the number of students who repeated summer school each year, summer school seemed to do nothing to provide these students with the skills they needed to be successful when they returned to their regular schools in the fall.

What needed to change, both in the summer school program and within the regular school program, to prevent a high rate of student failure? If the summer school program engaged students, emphasized learning how to learn, and provided support for at-risk students, would the failure rate decrease?

When the staff developer asked these questions at principal meetings, they sparked both excitement and frustration. The staff developer wondered if summer school could be an exciting place for all students who wanted to extend their learning rather than exclusively a place for students who needed remediation. The staff developer proposed creating a summer school that incorporated a professional development school for researching and sharing ideas on teaching at-risk students.

The staff developer gathered information about other nationally recognized innovative programs, collected information from neighboring school districts about their summer school programs, and scheduled a meeting with the summer school administrator.

Being a catalyst for change is a demanding and new role for staff developers. In this role, the staff developer suggests new ideas and questions existing practices. By examining ways to be more effective, to move beyond the status quo, and to question underlying mental models and personal theories (Schön, 1987; Senge, 1990), the staff developer promotes learning and continuous improvement throughout the organization.

Learning organizations are built on the premise that learning in organizations means continuously testing the way people think, act, and interact (Senge, 1990; Senge et al., 1994).

The process of change begins with exploring the "truths" or assumptions upon which people base their actions. The staff developer, acting as a catalyst for change, reveals truths and identifies what is often unspoken as a way of initiating discussion about alternative ways of behaving and thinking.

The staff developer has two key responsibilities as a catalyst for change. One responsibility is promoting and guiding continuous analysis and reflection among members of the organization. To improve, members of the organization must examine the effectiveness of their current practices, policies, and procedures.

The staff developer-as-catalyst for change is also responsible for initiating alternatives to current practices. The staff developer is committed to bringing members of the organization new perspectives, ideas, and suggestions for consideration. The staff developer must be courageous and comfortable being perceived by others as "on the edge." Success in this role depends on the staff developer’s status within the organization as a respected and trusted leader.

Staff developers who are catalysts for change have their "ears to the ground" and research new practices and programs. To be credible as catalysts for change, staff developers model continuous improvement in their own work by searching for ways to improve, inviting critical friends to work with them, listening to suggestions for change, and viewing their work through the perspectives of their clients.

They read avidly and widely within and outside the field of education, always searching for applicable ideas and new perspectives. They network with colleagues to inquire about others’ approaches and perceptions regarding similar tasks or projects. They use a variety of strategies, including sharing readings, arranging visits, creating newsletters to share information, and suggesting innovative practices.

Another powerful strategy catalysts use is asking a few key questions: How did it come to be this way? Whose needs are being served here? What do these actions convey to our community?

To be successful in the role of catalyst for change, the staff developer needs to be comfortable challenging current practices in a positive and constructive manner. The staff developer depends on questioning skills to encourage others to explore possible changes. The catalyst for change must be gentle, yet persistent and provocative.

Since the staff developer’s key responsibility is encouraging others to examine their own practice and propose possible changes, the catalyst for change depends on both task and process facilitation skills to lead teams through the process of creating and implementing plans for change. The staff developer needs skills in needs assessment, planning, evaluation, resource acquisition, forecasting, and action planning.

It is particularly important to analyze data and look for significant trends that may need attention. Most importantly, the staff developer must have a firm foundation in research about organizational development and processes for initiating, implementing, and institutionalizing change.

The staff developer walks a delicate line between initiating the needed change she wants and planting seeds which allow others to craft the change they want. The staff developer must give the group, team, or initiator ownership of the change without directing the outcome.

It is critical for the staff developer to realize that others will be responsible for implementing the change. As a catalyst for change, the staff developer typically works behind the scenes and often gets no recognition. When the group says, "We did it," the staff developer knows she has been successful.

As catalysts for change, staff developers must realize that not every new idea comes to fruition through their efforts. Staff developers must be willing to question, challenge, probe, and initiate change many more times than they expect to see change take place.

While this may be frustrating, the catalyst for change knows change is a long-term process and occurs most successfully when those who are responsible for implementing change are ready for the change and have had a significant role in shaping the change.

Conclusion

The staff developer’s work is multifaceted, challenging, and demanding. Staff developers are responsible for juggling numerous roles simultaneously. Staff developers must depend on their flexibility, creativity, and adaptability to respond to the disparate responsibilities and requests which shape their daily work.

Despite these demands, staff developers have assumed additional roles while striving to balance the new ones with those already in place and while making a meaningful contribution to the overall improvement of student success.

As they assume new roles and accompanying responsibilities, staff developers must assess their own skills, seek opportunities to develop those that are associated with their new roles, and monitor how they respond to many challenges.

References

Block, P. (1981). Flawless consultant. San Diego, CA: University Associates.

Block, P. (1993). Stewardship. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

Friedman, P. & Yarbrough, E. (1985). Training strategies from start to finish. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Henkelman, J. (1991, Feb.). Staff developers as consultants. The Developer, p. 3.

Hall, G. & Hord, S. (1984). Change in schools: Facilitating the process. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Killion, J. & Harrison, C. (1991, March). Staff development is more than training. The Developer, p. 3,7.

McNellis, J. (1992). Creative planning. New Brighton, PA: The McNellis Company.

National Staff Development Council. (1994). National Staff Development Council’s standards for staff development, middle level edition. Oxford, OH: Author.

National Staff Development Council. (1995a). National Staff Development Council’s standards for staff development, elementary level edition. Oxford, OH: Author.

National Staff Development Council. (1995b). National Staff Development Council’s standards for staff development, high school level edition. Oxford, OH: Author.

Phillips, K. & Shaw, P. (1989). A consultancy approach for trainers. San Diego: University Associates.

Schein, E. (1988). Process consultation: Its role in organization development (Vol. 1). (2nd ed.). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Schön, D. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Schwarz, R. (1994). The skilled facilitator. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Senge, P. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Doubleday.

Senge, P., Roberts, C., Ross, R., Smith, B., & Kleiner, A. (1994). The fifth discipline fieldbook: Strategies and tools for building a learning organization. New York: Currency-Doubleday.

Sparks, D. & Loucks-Horsley, S. (1990). Models of staff development. In R. Houston (Ed.), Handbook of research on teacher education (pp. 251-263). New York: Macmillan.

About the Authors

Joellen Killion is a staff development trainer and a past president of the National Staff Development Council, and Cindy Harrison is director of staff development, Adams Twelve Five Star Schools, Staff Development Training Center, 11080 Grant Drive, Northglenn, CO 80233-3312, (303) 450-3772, fax (303) 450-3777, (e-mail: killionj@aol.com and cindy_harrison@together.cudenver.edu).

http://www.nsdc.org/library/publications/jsd/killion183.cfm

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/special-education/curriculum-planning/26106.html

2007-07-27T22:05:00.000-07:00

Special Needs Resource Center

Find answers to questions about issues such as ADD/ADHD, inclusion, and assessment. This extensive collection of tips, articles, and materials was put together in collaboration with the Council for Exceptional Children.

Adapting Materials for the Inclusive Classroom

These helpful articles describe ways to modify the curriculum to reach all of students.
ADD/ADHD

These articles and resources will help you to deal with the special nature of students with ADD/ADHD.
Behavior Management

From environmental considerations to behavior programs – our resources will help you in this key area.
Being a Resource to Others

Descriptions of roles that will help you define your job as a schools' resource teacher.
Children's Books About Disabilities

This extensive list details books for both children and adults that deal with disabilities. The books are sorted by readability and their descriptions include the type of disability addressed.
Crossover Children – LD and Gifted

These resources will help you to work successfully with children who are both learning-disabled and gifted.
Culturally Diverse Students with Learning Problems

Learn how to meet the needs of students who come from diverse backgrounds.
English-Language Learners

There are many effective strategies and procedures for providing learning opportunities for English-language learners (ELL), even when the teacher doesn't speak their native language.
Helping Students Deal with Crises

You can help yourself and your students in your most needy times at school.
IEP Resource Center

These articles define, organize, and enhance the process and functioning of IEPs (Individualized Education Programs).
Learning Disabilities: Glossary of Terms

This glossary provides definitions of important terms related to learning disabilities.
Making Assessment Accommodations

Including students with disabilities in state- and district-wide assessment programs became a requirement in the 1997 Reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Find over 25 practical accommodations that can be made in most classrooms. Social Skills and Autism

Techniques and strategies to help autistic students interact with their peers.
Strategies for Effective Document Management

Managing mounds of paper requires organization. These suggestions are successful strategies for creative and efficient document management.
Study Skills

These articles and handouts will help students to study more effectively.
Adaptations and Modifications for Special Needs Students

These articles and resources detail easy modifications to incorporate in your classroom.
Assessment and Accommodations

Read our suggestions for modifying assessments and trying new techniques to improve your knowledge of your students.
Behavior Management

From environmental considerations to behavior programs – our resources will help you in this key area.
Inclusion

Read best practices and handy tips to make inclusion a success in your school.
Learning Disabilities: Glossary of Terms

This glossary provides definitions of important terms related to learning disabilities.
Special Needs Web Resources

Use these sites to learn more about special learning needs.
Student Behavior Web Resources

Find strategies to change student behavior problems into positive behaviors.
Teaching English-Language Learners with Learning Difficulties

Practical information and guidelines for those working in districts or schools that provide services to students with a variety of learning difficulties for whom English is a second language.

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Adapting Materials for the Inclusive Classroom

When you're teaching in an inclusive classroom, it can be difficult to accomodate your materials to fit everyone's needs. These helpful articles describe ways to modify the curriculum to reach all of your students.

Adapting Instructional Materials -- Providing Direct Assistance

Providing one-on-one assistance to a student is perhaps the most demanding adaptation that needs to be made in an inclusive classroom.
Adapting Reading and Math Materials in the Inclusive Classroom

Descriptions of eight principles for making reading and math adaptations in the inclusive classroom.
Simplifying or Supplementing Existing Materials

Students with special needs can successfully become part of the regular classroom setting when existing materials are simplified or supplemented for them.
Structuring Lessons to Promote Learning from Materials

This article offers suggestions on modifying materials while teachers are planning for a lesson, not during the lesson.
Teaching Strategies for Using Materials in an Inclusive Classroom

Two well-defined strategies are described for helping special needs students become independent learners.
Adapting Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science for the Inclusive Classroom

A list of steps that provide a suggested framework for making decisions about using material adaptations effectively.
Adapting Existing Materials

An article on adaptations that can be used when existing materials are judged to be inappropriate but may only need simple modifications.

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/reading-instruction/teaching-methods/6729.html
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ADD/ADHD

These articles and resources will help you to deal with the special nature of students with ADD/ADHD.

Frequently Asked Questions on ADD/ADHD

These questions address issues around dealing with ADD and ADHD.
Learning Disabilities: Glossary of Terms

This glossary provides definitions of important terms related to learning disabilities.
Teaching Children with ADD/ADHD

This article details practice and theory behind teaching children with Attention Deficit Disorders.
Teaching Strategies for Students with ADD

A collection of articles outlining suggestions and strategies to use when working with students with ADD/ADHD.
ADHD and Children Who Are Gifted

Some children are both gifted and have Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Diagnosing and working with these students can be challenging; this article will help teachers and parents better understand this complex combination.
ADHD

Learn about attention deficit disorders and how they are treated.
Organization: Advice for Parents

Offer these tips to parents to help them teach their children to become more organized.
Parent/Teacher Relations

Handy suggestions for creating and maintaining positive parent/teacher relationships.
Children's Books About Disabilities

This extensive list details books for both children and adults that deal with disabilities. The books are sorted by readability and their descriptions include the type of disability addressed.
What Teachers and Parents Should Know About Ritalin

Read about the most prescribed medication for children -- the facts and fables of Ritalin.
Six Tips for Dealing with ADD Students

Learn practical, easy-to-implement ideas for dealing with ADD students.

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/add-and-adhd/resource/5348.html
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Behavior Management

From environmental considerations to behavior programs – our resources will help you in this key area.

Awards and Certificates

Reward your students by recognizing great effort, achievement, or progress with these printable certificates and awards.
Behavioral Contracting: A Technique for Handling Disruptive Behavior

This disruptive behavior technique involves using behavior contracts to prevent poor behavior.
Behavior Management Forms

Use these charts, forms, and contracts to monitor your students' behavior.
Behavior Management -- Proactive Measures

A list of proactive measures that can be taken to keep order in your classroom.
Behavior Techniques

These behavior techniques are particularly appropriate for younger children, but can be adapted to meet the needs of students of all ages.
Bully-Proof Your Classroom

Find suggestions on how to make your classroom a peaceful, non-threatening environment.
Catch Them Being Good: A Technique for Handling Disruptive Behavior

This behavior technique includes ways to focus on the good behavior a child displays.
Characteristics of Effective Behavior Managers

Characteristics of teachers who are effective behavior managers.
Charting and Reinforcing Behaviors

Two handy charts are given to track student behavior as well as a list of possible positive reinforcers.
Classroom Forms

Use these all-subject forms to help organize your classroom.
Controlling Aggressive Behavior

These references describe how behavior and classroom management are interrelated. Included are strategies for success.
Convey Acceptance

This handy list of techniques will help you build trust and establish a positive environment in your classroom.
Decision-Making Sheet

This sheet is designed to help students write about and organize their behaviors in a productive, positive manner.
Elementary Classroom Survival Tips

These survival tips will assist elementary teachers in reading, math, social studies, science, health, and more.
Environmental Interventions

Adapting the environment to the learner is a key to managing disruptive behavior. This list details some basic environmental interventions.
Are Teachers the Culprit Behind Poor Behavior?

If you're having behavioral problems in your classroom, find out if your own actions could be creating an environment that encourages students to misbehave. Students' Contributions to the Rules

Brainstorm classroom rules with your students at the first of the year so your students know what is expected of them and feel responsible for following the rules.
Tips for Achieving and Maintaining Discipline

There are certain steps you can take to ensure that your students are disciplined and behave in an appropriate manner. Find those tips here.
Establishing Trust

The key to effective behavior management is establishing trust. This article details the key points to facilitating a trustworthy environment.
Expeditionary Learning: Building Confidence by Risking Failure

Expeditionary Learning is a unique program that emphasizes hands-on, project-based, group learning, where students participate in expeditions and the real world becomes the classroom.
Getting to Know Your Students

This resource page will give you plenty of tips and suggestions for getting to know your students, from icebreakers to self portraits to first-day celebrations.
How to Manage Disruptive Behavior in Inclusive Classrooms

Managing disruptive behavior is examined in detail.
Positive Classroom Behavior

Read ideas and find resources on establishing and maintaining acceptable behavior in your students.
Putting a Positive Spin on Peer Pressure

Peer pressure has the potential to be a powerfully positive force. By leading students through self-awareness activities, you can create a group of peers who value individualism, practice it in their own lives, and encourage it in others.
Personalizing the Secondary Classroom

These excellent resources will provide you with ideas and activities for back to school, as well as the rest of the school year.
Positive Descriptions of Student Behavior

An extensive list of verbs and phrases that will help you to prepare positive, descriptive statements about a student's behavior.
Room Arrangement

Arrangement of class space is crucial when dealing with disruptive students and important to consider for all students.
Setting Limits

The general guidelines for setting limits with all ages of children are listed here.
Classroom Management Strategies

Get instant ideas on how to manage your toughest behavior challenges.
Tough Love: How to Work with a Disruptive Student

You're a teacher challenged with a difficult student. You've tried being nice and not so nice, going back and forth between these extremes. Now may be the time to try "tough love," an approach that works.
What I Wish I'd Known When I Was a New Teacher: Advice

A compilation of valuable and effective pieces of advice from experienced teachers on classroom management, lesson planning, and more.

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/classroom-discipline/resource/5806.html

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Being a Resource to Others

In the past, the role of the special education teacher did not offer much interaction, if any, with the rest of the school. The job was to work with the students and keep them "out of the way." Special education teachers belonged to their students in their room.

Over the years, special education teachers have gradually moved up and out into the school world. They and their students flow in and out of the hallways, lunchrooms, and classrooms, and interact with the rest of the school. Special education classes are no longer isolated and cannot be ignored. Special education teachers no longer belong just to their students; they are in the mainstream of schools.

Many of you are now in what is called a resource room setting. Your students flow into and out of your room, as well as mainstream into regular education classes. You have to interact with regular education personnel.

Each of the following roles will help define your job as a school's resource teacher. Take what you can and adapt it to your own needs and priorities. Remember that your effectiveness as a resource depends, at least in part, on your being confident and comfortable with the role. Make it fit you and your school.
Salesperson/PR Person

Collaborator/Communicator

Liaison

Disseminator

Time Manager

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/teaching-methods/teacher-training/9853.html

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Children's Books About Disabilities

This list has been sorted by the books' readability levels. To find what you want, click on a readability grouping below:

AC = Adult Read to Children. For Pre-K to Grade 3, ranging from 10 to 30 pages, with illustrations; typically designed for parents to read to their children.

JE = Juvenile Easy Reader. For children who are beginning to read on their own, such as those in Grades 1-2; ranging from 30 to 80 pages; illustrations are included to break up the text.

JF = Juvenile Fiction. Children's fiction or chapter books; for children in Grades 2-6; ranging from 60 to 200 pages, the books are generally divided into chapters, contain fewer illustrations, and have more complicated plots or concepts than either AC or JE books.

YA = Young Adult. For young adults in Grades 5-12; more complicated plots and topics of general interest to the young adult population.

A = Adult. Contains language and/or content that may be unsuitable for young adults.
AC – Adult Read to Children
Title: Andy and His Yellow Frisbee
Author: Mary Thompson
Publisher: Woodbine House, 6510 Bells Mill Road, Bethesda, MD 20817; 1996
ISBN #: ISBN-0-933149-83-2
Disability: Autism
Story Profile: Sarah is a new girl at school who is curious about why Andy spins his yellow frisbee every day by himself on the playground. When Sara tries to talk to Andy, Rosie, Andy's older sister, watches and worries about how her brother may react. Rosie knows that Andy is in his own world most of the time, and that he has trouble finding the words to express himself.
Reading Level: AC

Title: A Picture Book of Helen Keller
Author: David A. Adler
Publisher: Holiday House
ISBN #: ISBN-0-8234-0818-3
Disability: Deaf-Blind
Story Profile: Some salient details in the life of Helen Keller are described in this pictorial biography; her frustration and untamed behavior and the radical changes effected by Anne Sullivan Macy.
Reading Level: AC

Title: Armann and Gentle
Author: Kristin Steinsdottir
Publisher: Stuttering Foundation of America, PO Box 11749, Memphis, TN 38111-0749; 1997
ISBN #: ISBN-0-933388-36-5
Disability: Stuttering
Story Profile: A six-year-old boy, Armann, stutters when he is frustrated.
Reading Level: AC

Title: A Very Special Friend
Author: Dorothy Hoffman Levi
Publisher: Gallaudet University Press, Kendall Green, 800 Florida Ave., NE, Washington, DC 20002-3695; 1989
ISBN #: ISBN-0-9300323-55-6
Disability: Deafness
Story Profile: Frannie, a lonely little girl, discovers a new friend when a deaf girl her age moves in next door.
Reading Level: AC

Title: A Very Special Sister
Author: Dorothy Hoffman Levi
Publisher: Gallaudet University Press, Kendall Green, 800 Florida Ave., NE, Washington, DC 20002-3695; 1992
ISBN #: ISBN-0-930323-96-3
Disability: Deafness
Story Profile: Mixed feelings are experienced by Laura, a young deaf girl, upon finding out her mother will soon give birth. Her initial excitement is replaced by worries that the new child, if able to hear, would be more lovable.
Reading Level: AC

Title: Be Good to Eddie Lee
Author: Virginia FilIing
Publisher: Philomel Books, Putnam & Grosset Group, 200 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
ISBN #: ISBN-0-399-21993-5
Disability: Down Syndrome
Story Profile: Eddie Lee, a young boy with Down syndrome, follows the neighborhood children into the woods to find frog eggs. They are resentful and try to make him stay home.
Reading Level: AC

Title: Big Brother Dustin
Author: Alden R. Carter
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Co., 6340 Oakton Street, Morton Grove, IL 60053-2723; 1997
ISBN #: ISBN-0-8075-0715-6
Disability: Down Syndrome
Story Profile: Dustin, a young boy with Down syndrome, learns that his parents are expecting a baby.
Reading Level: AC

Title: Cat's Got Your Tongue?
Author: Charles E. Schaefer, Ph.D.
Publisher: Brunner/Mazel, Publishers, 19 Union Square, New York, NY 10003; 1992
ISBN #: ISBN-0-945354-45-2 hard copy; ISBN-0-945354-46-0 paperback
Disability: Communication Disorders, Mutism
Story Profile: Anna, a kindergartner, is diagnosed as an electively mute child.
Reading Level: AC

Title: Eukee: The Jumpy Jumpy Elephant
Author: Clifford L. Corman and Esther Trevino
Publisher: Specialty Press; 1995
ISBN #: ISBN-0-921629-8-1
Disability: Attention Deficit Disorder
Story Profile: Eukee is a smart little elephant who likes to chase butterflies,
blow bubbles, and do cartwheels. He always feels jumpy inside, however, and can never finish the march at school. Unhappy that he doesn't have any friends, he consents to a visit to the doctor where he learns he has ADD.
Reading Level: AC

Title: Clover's Secret
Author: Christine M. Winn and David Walsh, Ph.D.
Publisher: Fairview Press, 2450 Riverside Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55454; 1996
ISBN #: ISBN-0-925190-89-6
Disability: Child Abuse
Story Profile: Clove attempts to hide family violence. She feels much better when she confides in her teacher and the family receives help.
Reading Level: AC

Title: Danny and the Merry-Go-Round
Author: Nan Holcomb
Publisher: Jason and Nordic, Publishers, PO Box 441, Hollidaysburg, PA 16648; 1987
ISBN #: ISBN-0-944727-00-X
Disability: Cerebral Palsy
Story Profile: Danny, who has cerebral palsy, visits the park with his mother and watches other children playing on a playground. He makes friends with a young girl after his mother explains cerebral palsy to her and points out that it is not contagious.
Reading Level: AC

Title: Happy Birthday Jason
Author: C. Jean Cutbill and Diane Rawsthorn
Publisher: IPI Publishing Ltd., 50 Prince Arthur Avenue, Suite 306, Toronto, Ontario, M5R 1B5 Canada; 1984
ISBN #: 0-920702-37-6
Disability: Reading Disability, Dyslexia
Story Profile: A delightful story that will help children better understand their world by understanding Jason's. His story reveals that children with learning disabilities are more similar to other children than they are different.
Reading Level: AC

Title: Having a Brother Like David
Author: Cindy Dolby Nollette and Others
Publisher: Minneapolis Children's Medical Center, Early Childhood Center,
2520 Minnehaha Ave., South, Minneapolis, MN 55404; 1985
ISBN #: N/A
Disability: Autism
Story Profile: Marty's brother, David, is autistic. Marty explains that David looks a lot like other children but has special needs.
Reading Level: AC

Title: Ian's Walk: A Story About Autism
Author: Laurie Lears
Publisher: Albert Whitman and Company, 6340 Oakton St.,
Morton Grove, IL 60053-2723; 1998
ISBN #: 0-8075-3480-3
Disability: Autism
Story Profile: Tara feels frustrated while taking a walk with her autistic brother, Ian. After she becomes separated from him, she learns to appreciate the way Ian experiences the world.
Reading Level: AC

Title:Keith Edward's Different Days
Author: Karen Melberg Schwier
Publisher: Impact Publishers
ISBN #: ISBN-0-915166-74-7
Disability: Down Syndrome; Physical Disabilities
Story Profile: Keith meets a variety of people with differences, including Down syndrome and physical differences, and learns that being different is okay.
Reading Level: AC

Title: Knots on a Counting Rope
Author: Bill Martin and John Archambault
Publisher: Henry Holt
ISBN #: ISBN-0-8050-0571-4
Disability: Blindness
Story Profile: A boy is told a story by his grandfather of a boy born blind.
Reading Level: AC

Title: Lee: The Rabbit with Epilepsy
Author: Deborah M. Moss
Publisher: Woodbine House, 5615 Fisher's Lane, Rockville, MD 20852; 1989
ISBN #: ISBN-0-933149-32-8
Disability: Epilepsy
Story Profile: Lee is a young rabbit who experiences occasional
blackouts and trances. After Dr. Bob, the wise owl, administers a series
of neurological tests, Lee is told she has epilepsy.
Reading Level: AC

Title: Leo the Late Bloomer
Author: Robert Kraus
Publisher: Harper Collins, 1971
ISBN #: ISBN-0-87807-042-7
Disability: Developmental Delays
Story Profile: Leo is a tiger cub who just can't keep up with what the other animals are doing. He can't read, write, or speak, and he is a sloppy eater; he's a late bloomer.
Reading Level: AC

Title: Luke Has Asthma, Too
Author: Alison Rogers
Publisher: Waterfront Books, 98 Brookes Ave., Burlington, VT 05401; 1987
ISBN #: ISBN-0-914525-06-9
Disability: Asthma
Story Profile: Luke has an older cousin who teaches him some aspects of asthma management and serves as a general role model.
Reading Level: AC

Title: My Brother, Matthew
Author: Mary Thompson
Publisher: Woodbine House, 5615 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20852; 1992
ISBN #: ISBN-0-993149-47-6
Disability: Mental Retardation
Story Profile: David is a young boy who describes life with his younger
brother who was born with a mental disability.
Reading Level: AC

Title: My Mom Is Handicapped: A "Grownup" Children's Book
Author: Barbara Turner Brabham
Publisher: Cornerstone Publishing, PO Box 2896, Virginia Beach, VA 23450; 1994
ISBN #: ISBN-1-882185-22-6
Disability: Physical Disabilities
Story Profile: A six-year-old boy describes life with his mother, a teacher with physical disabilities.
Reading Level: AC

Title: Otto Learns About His Medicine: A Story About Medication for Hyperactive Children
Author: Matthew Galvin
Publisher: Magination Press/Brunner Mazel, 19 Union Square West, New York, NY 10003; 1995
ISBN #: ISBN-0-945354-04-5 hard copy; ISBN-0-945354-03-7
Disability: Hyperactivity
Story Profile: Otto, a fidgety young car that has trouble paying attention in school, visits a special mechanic who prescribes a medicine to control his hyperactive behavior.
Reading Level: AC

Title: Russ and the Apple Tree Surprise
Author: Janet Elizabeth Rickert
Publisher: Woodbine House, 5615 Fishers Lane,
Rockville, MD 20852; 1992
ISBN #: 1-890627-16-x
Disability: Down Syndrome
Story Profile: Russ, a five-year old boy with Down syndrome longs for a swing set. All his backyard has to offer is an apple tree. When his grandparents visit, Russ discovers the job of picking apples and making them into apple pie. He decides that his apple tree may be just as good as a swing set.
Reading Level: AC

Title: Russ and the Fire House
Author: Janet Elizabeth Rickert
Publisher: Woodbine House, 5615 Fishers Lane,
Rockville, MD 20852; 1992
ISBN #: 1-890627-17-8
Disability: Down Syndrome
Story Profile: Russ is a young boy with Down syndrome whose everyday life experiences - not his disability - are the subject of books in this series. Russ goes "on-duty" with his Uncle, a fireman. Their shift includes a full inspection of the fire equipment, including keeping it clean. He also encounters Spark, the firehouse dog. At the end of this exciting day, all the firemen thank Russ for his hard work and invite him back for another visit.
Reading Level: AC

Title: Russell Is Extra Special: A Book About Autism for Children
Author: Charles A. Amenta III, M.D.
Publisher: Brunner/Mazel, Publishers, 19 Union Square, New York, NY 10003; 1992
ISBN #: ISBN-0-945354-43-6
Disability: Autism
Story Profile: This portrayal of an autistic boy and his family is designed to help children (ages 4 to 8) and their parents understand this serious developmental disorder.
Reading Level: AC

Title: Silent Observer
Author: Christy MacKinnon
Publisher: Gallaudet University Press, Kendall Green, 800 Florida Ave. NE,
Washington, DC 20002-3695; 1993
ISBN #: ISBN-1-56368-022-X
Disability: Deafness
Story Profile: Christy MacKinnon is a young girl born in 1889 on a farm on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada who became deaf after having whooping cough. She describes her life in adjusting to deafness, her relationships with family, and her problems trying to understand and be understood by hearing individuals.
Reading Level: AC

Title: Talking to Angels
Author: Esther Watson
Publisher: Harcourt Brace, 525 B Street, Suite 1900, San Diego, CA 92101-4495; 1996
ISBN #: ISBN-0-15-201077-7
Disability: Autism
Story Profile: Christa is an autistic girl who is described in this picture book by her sibling. Her behavior is described and illustrated in mixed media, including her favorite sounds and textures, occasional staring and fixation on stimuli, and interactions with others.
Reading Level: AC

Title: There's a Little Bit of Me in Jamey
Author: Diana M. Amadeo
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Co., 6340 Oakton Street, Morton Grove, IL 60053-2723
ISBN #: ISBN-0-8075-7854-1
Disability: Leukemia
Story Profile: Brian struggles with the fact that his brother Jamey has leukemia and submits to a bone marrow test, which leads to a transplant.
Reading Level: AC

Title: Thomas Alva Edison: Great Inventor
Author: David A. Adler
Publisher: Holiday House
ISBN #: ISBN-0-8234-0820-5
Disability: Deafness
Story Profile: Thomas Edison's life and his many inventions, despite his deafness, that shape our lives today are explored in this book.
Reading Level: AC

Title: What Do You Mean I Have a Learning Disability?
Author: Kathleen M. Dwyer
Publisher: Walker and Company, 720 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10019; 1991
ISBN #: ISBN-0-8027-8102-0
Disability: Learning Disabilities
Story Profile: Ten-year-old Jimmy is having problems at school and believes he is stupid. After a parent-teacher conference, he is tested and found to have a learning disability.
Reading Level: AC

Title: What It's Like to Be Me
Author: Helen Exley
Publisher: Friendship Press, 1984
ISBN #: ISBN-0-377-00144-9
Disability: Various Disabilities
Story Profile: Children from all over the world write about themselves and their disabilities. They tell us how they see themselves and how they want to be seen. All of the illustrations are created by the children.
Reading Level: AC

Title: You Can Call Me Willy. A Story for Children About AIDS
Author: Joan C. Verniero
Publisher: Brunner/Mazel Publishers, 19 Union Square West, New York, NY 10003; 1995
ISBN #: ISBN-0-945354-60-6
Disability: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)
Story Profile: Willy is an eight-year-old girl with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Describing her life, she shares her hobbies, friends, family life, and aspects of her medical care and how it impacts her activities.
Reading Level: AC

Children's Books About Disabilities

JE - Juvenile Easy Reader
Title: Andy Finds a Turtle
Author: Nan Holcomb
Publisher: Jason and Nordic Publishers, PO Box 441, Hollidaysburg, PA 16648; 1988
ISBN #: ISBN-0-944727-02-6
Disability: Physical Disabilities
Story Profile: Andy enjoys physical therapy most of the time, but sometimes he doesn't. One day he's told he acts like a turtle with his legs and arms drawn in tight - but Andy doesn't know what a turtle is, so he goes in search of one. In this search he protects his baby sister from a strange invader and discovers something important about himself.
Reading Level: JE

Title: Andy Opens Wide
Author: Nan Holcomb
Publisher: Jason and Nordic Publishers, PO Box 441, Hollidaysburg, PA 16648; 1990
ISBN #: ISBN-0-944727-06-9
Disability: Cerebral Palsy
Story Profile: Andy, a young boy with cerebral palsy, is frustrated by his inability to open his mouth wide enough for his mother to feed him easily.
Reading Level: JE

Title: Anna Joins In
Author: Katrin Arnold
Publisher: Abingdon Press, 201 Eighth Ave. South, Nashville, TN 37202
ISBN #: ISBN-0-687-01530-8
Disability: Cystic Fibrosis
Story Profile: Anna is a young girl who has a difficult pattern to her days because she has cystic fibrosis.
Reading Level: JE

Title: A Smile from Andy
Author: Nan Holcomb
Publisher: Jason and Nordic Publishers, PO Box 441, Hollidaysburg, PA 16648; 1989
ISBN #: ISBN-0-944727-04-2
Disability: Cerebral Palsy
Story Profile: Andy, who has cerebral palsy, is very shy. One day he meets a girl who helps him discover something that he can do to reach out to others in his own special way.
Reading Level: JE

Title: Buddy's Shadow
Author: Shirley Becker
Publisher: Jason and Nordic Publishers, PO Box 441, Hollidaysburg, PA 16648; 1991
ISBN #: ISBN-0-944727-08-05
Disability: Down syndrome
Story Profile: Buddy, a five-year-old boy with Down syndrome, purchases a puppy.
Reading Level: JE

Title: Can't You Be Still?
Author: Sarah Yates
Publisher: Gima B. Publishing Inc., Box #713-740 Corydon Ave., Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3M 0Y1; 1992
ISBN #: ISBN-0-9696477-0-0
Disability: Cerebral Palsy
Story Profile: Ann, who has cerebral palsy, attends school for the first time.
Reading Level: JE

Title: Charlsie's Chuckle
Author: Clara Widess Berkus
Publisher: Woodbine House, 5615 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20852; 1992
ISBN #: ISBN-0-933149-50-6
Disability: Down syndrome
Story Profile: Charlsie, a seven-year-old boy with Down syndrome, has an infectious laugh and enjoys bicycling around his neighborhood. On one such excursion he inadvertently wanders into a disputatious city council meeting and brings humor and harmony to the argumentative adults.
Reading Level: JE

Title: Cookie
Author: Linda Kneeland
Publisher: Jason and Nordic, Publishers, PO Box 441, Hollidaysburg, PA 16648; 1989
ISBN #: ISBN-0-944727-50
Disability: Down Syndrome
Story Profile: Molly, a four-year-old girl with Down syndrome, has difficulty talking. Her frustration with communication difficulties is relieved when someone comes to teach her sign language.
Reading Level: JE

Title: Fair and Square
Author: Nan Holcomb
Publisher: Jason and Nordic Publishers, PO Box 441, Hollidaysburg, PA 16648; 1992
ISBN #: ISBN-0-944727-10-7 hardback; ISBN-0-944727-09-3 paperback
Disability: Physical Disabilities
Story Profile: Kevin is confined to a wheelchair and has limited motor skills. A therapist introduces him to a computer game he can play and win, and shows him how to adapt other games for his use.
Reading Level: JE

Title: How About a Hug
Author: Nan Holcomb
Publisher: Jason and Nordic Publishers, PO Box 441, Hollidaysburg, PA 16648; 1987
ISBN #: ISBN-0-944727-01-8
Disability: Down Syndrome
Story Profile: A young girl with Down syndrome includes the details of a typical day in her life. While her daily activities require a degree of concentration and don't go perfectly smoothly, she is surrounded by helpful, supportive, and affectionate friends, family, and teachers, all of whom she agrees to hug when they offer.
Reading Level: JE

Title: I'm Like You, You're Like Me: A Child's Book about Understanding and Celebrating Each Other
Author: Cindy Gainer
Publisher: Free Spirit Publishing, Inc., 400 First Avenue North, Suite 616,
Minneapolis, MN 55401-1724; 1998
ISBN #: ISBN-1-57542-039-2
Disability: General Disabilities
Story Profile: Children interact with people who are different from themselves; share, take turns, work and play together; discover and develop traits and skills that make them unique; and explore the many ways in which they are like and unlike others.
Reading Level: JE

Title: Joey and Sam
Author: Illana Katz and Edward Ritvo
Publisher: Real Life Story Books; 1993
ISBN #: ISBN-1-882388-00-3
Disability: Autism
Story Profile: Sam is five and has autism, and Joey is his six-year-old brother. They describe an ordinary day at home and at school, showing some of the ways they are different and alike.
Reading Level: JE

Title: Kathy's Hats: A Story of Hope
Author: Trudy Krisher
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Co., 6340 Oakton St., Morton Grove, IL 60053; 1992
ISBN #: ISBN-0-8075-4116-8
Disability: Cancer
Story Profile: Kathy is a young girl who develops cancer and loses her hair as a result of chemotherapy.
Reading Level: JE

Title: Kevin's Story
Author: Dvora Levinson, Ph.D.
Publisher: IPI Publishing Ltd., 50 Prince Arthur Avenue, Suite 306, Toronto, Ontario, M5R 1B5 Canada; 1984
ISBN #: 0-920702-22-88
Disability: Reading Disability, Dyslexia
Story Profile: Kevin exhibits reading problems and is referred for testing with a psychologist who explains reading and learning disabilities to him and his family.
Reading Level: JE-JF

Title: Little Tree: A Story for Children with Serious Medical Problems
Author: Joyce C. Mills, Ph.D.
Publisher: Brunner/Mazel Publishers, 19 Union Sq. West, New York, NY 10003; 1992
ISBN #: ISBN-0-94534-52-5 hardback; ISBN-0-945354-51-7 paperback
Disability: Chronic Illness
Story Profile: A small tree that loses some branches in a storm is used to illustrate the questions and feelings children may experience during and after medical problems.
Reading Level: JE

Title: Luna and the Big Blur: A Story for Children Who Wear Glasses
Author: Shirley Day
Publisher: Magination Press, 19 Union Square West, New York, NY 10003; 1995
ISBN #: ISBN-0-945354-66-5
Disability: Visual Impairments
Story Profile: Luna resents the fact that she needs glasses to correct her nearsightedness.
Reading Level: JE

Title: My Sister Is Different
Author: Betty Ren Wright
Publisher: Steck-Vaughn Company, PO Box 26015 Austin, TX 78755; 1990
ISBN #: ISBN- 0-8172-1369-4
Disability: Mental Retardation
Story Profile: Carlo tells us what it is like to have an older sister with mental retardation.
Reading Level: JE

Title: Naomi Knows It's Springtime
Author: Virginia L. Kroll
Publisher: Boyds Mills Press Inc., 910 Church St., Honesdale, PA 18431; 1987
ISBN #: ISBN-1-56397-006-0
Disability: Blindness
Story Profile: Naomi tells us of the signs of spring through the mind of the blind.
Reading Level: JE

Title: Patrick and Ima Lou
Author: Nan Holcomb
Publisher: Jason and Nordic Publishers, PO Box 441, Hollidaysburg, PA 16648; 1994
ISBN #: ISBN-0-944727-03-4
Disability: Cerebral Palsy, Spina Bifida
Story Profile: Three-year-old Patrick has cerebral palsy. He is having a hard time managing his new walker, but with the help of a new friend, Ima Lou, who is six and has spina bifida, they both discover something very important about each other.
Reading Level: JE

Title: Sarah and Puffle: A Story for Children About Diabetes
Author: Linnea Mulder
Publisher: Henry Holt
ISBN #: ISBN-0-94534-41-X hardback; ISBN-0-945354-42-8 paperback
Disability: Diabetes
Story Profile: Sarah feels resentful of the limitations the disease places on her activities until a stuffed animal (Puffle) comes to life and offers her encouraging rhymes about coping with diabetes.
Reading Level: JE

Title: Sarah's Surprise
Author: Nan Holcomb
Publisher: Jason and Nordic Publishers, PO Box 441, Hollidaysburg, PA 16648; 1990
ISBN #: ISBN-0-944727-07-7
Disability: Articulation Impairments
Story Profile: Six-year-old Sarah, who is unable to talk, has used a picture board to communicate. She is now ready for an augmentative communication device. With the help of her speech therapist she gives everyone a surprise at her mother's birthday party.
Reading Level: JE

Title: See You Tomorrow, Charles
Author: Miriam Cohen
Publisher: Greenwillow
ISBN #: ISBN-0-688-01804-1
Disability: Blindness
Story Profile: Charles is a first grader who is adjusting to school as a blind student.
Reading Level: JE

Title: Shelley: The Hyperactive Turtle
Author: Deborah M. Moss
Publisher: Woodbine House, 5615 Fisher's Lane, Rockville, MD 20852; 1988
ISBN #: ISBN-0-933149-31-X
Disability: Hyperactivity
Story Profile: Shelley is a young hyperactive turtle who faces difficulties due to his inability to sit still and his frequent behavior problems, which lead to problems at school and on the bus, at home, and with friends, eventually leading to a poor self-image and depression. After a visit to a neurologist, he no longer thinks of himself as a bad turtle and his condition gradually improves.
Reading Level: JE

Title: The Bob (Butterbean) Love Story
Author: Terry Page and Bob Love
Publisher: Boo Books, Inc., PO Box 201128, Chicago, Illinois 60620-1128; 1995
ISBN #: ISBN-1-887864-40-7
Disability: Speech Impairments
Story Profile: Bob's autobiography tells his story: a famous basketball player with a speech impediment.
Reading Level: JE

Title: The Night Search
Author: Kate Chamberlin
Publisher: Richard S. McPhee, Jason & Nordic, Pubs., PO Box 441,
Hollidaysburg, PA 16648; 1997
ISBN #: ISBN-0-944727-31-X
Disability: Blindness
Story Profile: Heather, who is blind, resists using her white cane until her puppy wanders off.
Reading Level: JE

Title: There's a Blue Square on My Brother's School Bus
Author: Sally Craymer
Publisher: The Wishing Room, Inc., PO Box 58, Studley, VA 23162
ISBN #: ISBN-0-931563-12-7
Disability: Disabilities
Story Profile: This book discusses various types of disabilities. An emphasis is placed on what children with disabilities are able to do and ways in which they can participate in mainstream student life.
Reading Level: JE

Title: Thumbs Up, Rico!
Author: Maria Testa
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Co., 6340 Oakton Street, Morton Grove, IL 60053-2723; 1990
ISBN #: ISBN- 0-8075-7906-8
Disability: Down Syndrome
Story Profile: Rico is a boy with Down syndrome who loves basketball. The story describes his relationship with a neighborhood boy named Caesar, his older sister Nina, and his art class.
Reading Level: JE

Title: We Can Do It!
Author: Laura Dwight
Publisher: Checkerboard Press, Inc., 30 Vesey St., New York, NY 10007; 1992
ISBN #: ISBN-1-56288-301-1
Disability: Disabilities
Story Profile: The daily activities of five children who each have either cerebral palsy, blindness, spina bifida, or Down syndrome. Color photographs show the children engaging in their favorite pastimes at home and at school, with family members and with peers.
Reading Level: JE

Title: We'll Paint the Octopus Red
Author: Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen
Publisher: Woodbine House, Inc., 6510 Bells Mill Road, Bethesda, MD 20817; 1998
ISBN #: ISBN-1-890627-06-2
Disability: Down Syndrome
Story Profile: Ima is a little girl who has a new baby brother with Down syndrome.
Reading Level: JE

Title: What About Me? When Brothers and Sisters Get Sick
Author: Allan Peterkin, M.D.
Publisher: Brunner/Mazel Publishers, 19 Union Sq. West, New York, NY 10003; 1992
ISBN #: ISBN-0-94534-48-7 hardback; ISBN-0-945354-49-5 paperback
Disability: Chronic Illness
Story Profile: Laura is a young girl attempting to cope with her brother Tom's chronic illness. The story describes her wide range of emotions including guilt, fear, anger, anxiety, and a general sense of disruption of normal family life.
Reading Level: JE

Title: When I Grow Up
Author: Candri Hodges
Publisher: Jason & Nordic Publishers, PO Box 441, Hollidaysburg, PA 16648; 1995
ISBN #: ISBN-0-944727-26-3
Disability: Deafness
Story Profile: Jimmy is a deaf youth who takes a field trip and encounters various careers of deaf individuals.
Reading Level: JE

Title: Where's Chimpy?
Author: Berniece Rabe
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Co., 6340 Oakton Street, Morton Grove, IL 60053; 1988
ISBN #: ISBN-0-8075-8928-4
Disability: Down Syndrome
Story Profile: Misty, a young girl with Down syndrome, misplaced her stuffed monkey and reviews her day with her father to try to remember where she left him.
Reading Level: JE

Children's Books About Disabilities
JF - Juvenile Fiction
Title: Adam and the Magic Marble
Author: Adam and Carol Buehrens
Publisher: Hope Press, PO Box 188, Duarte, CA 91009-0188; 1991
ISBN #: ISBN-1-878267-30-2
Disability: Tourette Syndrome; Cerebral Palsy
Story Profile: Adam, Chris, and Matt are often harassed by bullies until they discover a magic marble.
Reading Level: JF

Title: A Zebra Named Al
Author: Wendy Isdell
Publisher: Free Spirit Publishing, 400 First Ave., North, Suite 616, Minneapolis, MN 55401; 1993
ISBN #: ISBN-0-915793-58-X paperback; ISBN-0915793-59-8 manual
Disability: Learning Disability
Story Profile: Julie is an eighth grader who has trouble in math. Frustrated, she rests her head on her book... and is awakened by an Imaginary Number who suddenly appears in her room. When she follows the Number through a mysterious portal, she enters a strange land of mathematics, where she meets a zebra named Al.
Reading Level: JF

Title: A Season of Secrets
Author: Alison Cragin Herzig and Jane Lawrence Mali
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN #: ISBN-0-316-35889-4
Disability: Epilepsy
Story Profile: Benji is a six-year-old who has been fainting at school and Brooke and Jason, his teenage sister and brother, wonder all summer long what is wrong with him.
Reading Level: JF

Title: At the Back of the Woods
Author: Claudia Mills
Publisher: Four Winds
ISBN #: ISBN-0-07830-5
Disability: Mental Retardation
Story Profile: Davey is a young boy with mental retardation who is at a special care facility. His sister, Clarisse, and his parents come to visit him.
Reading Level: JF

Title: Eagle Eyes: A Child's View of Attention Deficit Disorder
Author: Jeanne Gehret, M.A.
Publisher: Verbal Images Press, 19 Fox Hill Dr., Fairport, NY 14450; 1991
ISBN #: ISBN-0-9625136-4-4
Disability: Attention Deficit Disorder
Story Profile: Ben, a boy with attention deficit disorder, describes the frustrations and feelings associated with his initially unidentified syndrome.
Reading Level: JF

Title: First Star I See
Author: Jaye Andras Caffrey
Publisher: Verbal Images Press, 19 Fox Hill Drive, Fairport, NY 14450; 1997
ISBN #: ISBN-1-884281-17-6
Disability: Attention Deficit Disorder
Story Profile: Paige is a young girl with ADD who is trying to win a school writing contest.
Reading Level: JF

Title: Here's What I Mean To Say...
Author: Sarah Yates
Publisher: GIma B. Publishing Inc., Box #713-740 Corydon Ave., Winnipeg,
Manitoba, Canada R3M 0Y1; 1997
ISBN #: ISBN-0-9696477-2-7
Disability: Cerebral Palsy
Story Profile: Ann (age nine) who has cerebral palsy, takes us through her struggles with everyday activities.
Reading Level: JF

Title: Hi, I'm Adam. A Child's Story of Tourette Syndrome
Author: Adam Buehrens
Publisher: Hope Press, PO Box 188, Duarte, CA 91009-0188; 1991
ISBN #: ISBN-1-878267-29-9
Disability: Tourette Syndrome
Story Profile: Adam, a ten-year-old boy diagnosed with Tourette syndrome, wrote this book to help children with Tourette syndrome understand that they are not alone and that other children are experiencing similar difficulties.
Reading Level: JF

Title: How Dyslexic Benny Became a Star: A Story of Hope for Dyslexic Children and Their Parents
Author: Joe Griffith
Publisher: Yorktown Press, PO Box 795667, Dallas, TX 75379-5667; 1998
ISBN #: ISBN-0-9569379-0-9
Disability: Dyslexia
Story Profile: Benny, who has dyslexia, struggles while his fifth-grade classmates' skills improve. He is suddenly terrified when he is called upon by his teacher to read aloud.
Reading Level: JF

Title: Howie Helps Himself
Author: Joan Fassler
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Co.; 1975
ISBN #: ISBN-0-8075-3422-6
Disability: Cerebral Palsy
Story Profile: Howie has cerebral palsy. He gets around in a wheelchair, or rather, other people get him around in his wheelchair. More than anything, Howie wants to move that chair himself.
Reading Level: JF

Title: How Many Days Until Tomorrow?
Author: Caroline Janover
Publisher: Woodbine House
ISBN #: ISBN-1-890627-22-4
Disability: Dyslexia
Story Profile: Josh is a 12-year-old who has dyslexia. When he spends a summer on an island with his grandparents, he develops his strengths and discovers talents he did not know he had.
Reading Level: JF

Title: I'm Joshua and "Yes I Can"
Author: Joan Lenett Whinston
Publisher: Vantage Press, Inc., 516 West 34th St., New York, NY 10001; 1989
ISBN #: ISBN-0-533-07959-4
Disability: Cerebral Palsy
Story Profile: Joshua, a young boy with cerebral palsy, describes his fears and insecurities about his disability on his first day in first grade.
Reading Level: JF

Title: Josh: A Boy with Dyslexia
Author: Caroline Janover
Publisher: Waterfront Books, 98 Brookes Ave., Burlington, VT 05401; 1988
ISBN #: ISBN-0-914525-18-2 hardcover; ISBN-0-914515-10-7 paperback
Disability: Dyslexia
Story Profile: The life and adventures of Josh, who has dyslexia, as he moves to a new town and school.
Reading Level: JF

Title: Learning Disabilities and the Don't Give Up Kid
Author: Jeanne Gehret
Publisher: Verbal Images Press, 19 Fox Hill Drive, Fairport, NY 14450; 1990
ISBN #: ISBN-9625136-0-1
Disability: Dyslexia
Story Profile: A dyslexic boy wants to grow up to be an inventor like Thomas Edison but is constantly frustrated by problems at school. He switches into a small special education class of children with auditory processing difficulties. The teacher gives him more personal attention, using an example from Edison's life to inspire him.
Reading Level: JF

Title: Ludwig van Beethoven: Musical Pioneer
Author: Carol Greene
Publisher: Childrens Pr.
ISBN #: ISBN-0-516-04208-4
Disability: Deafness
Story Profile: The life of Beethoven is chronicled from his despair over his worsening deafness to his deepening commitment to his music.
Reading Level: JF

Title: Margaret's Moves
Author: Bernice Rabe
Publisher: Dutton
ISBN #: ISBN-0-525-44271-5
Disability: Spina Bifida
Story Profile: Margaret is nine years old and has problems with the fact that she is in a wheelchair and blames it for slowing her down.
Reading Level: JF

Title: My Friend Ben
Author: Wanda Gilberts Kachur
Publisher: Peytral Publications, PO Box 1162, Suite 976, Minnetonka, MN 55345; 1997
ISBN #: ISBN-0-9644271-4-1
Disability: Head Injuries
Story Profile: Narrated through the eyes of a classmate, this story tells of Ben, a boy with traumatic brain injury who is included in a general education, third-grade class.
Reading Level: JF

Title: My Name Is Brain Brian
Author: Jeanne Betancourt
Publisher: Scholastic Inc., 730 Broadway, New York, NY 10003; 1993
ISBN #: ISBN-0-590-44921-4
Disability: Dyslexia
Story Profile: Brian, a sixth-grade boy is diagnosed as having dyslexia. His initial trepidation at being singled out for attention and diagnosis is gradually replaced by enthusiasm for learning new ways of learning.
Reading Level: JF

Title: My Sister Annie
Author: Bill Dodds
Publisher: Boyds Mills Press Inc., 910 Church St., Honesdale, PA 18431; 1989
ISBN #: ISBN-1-56397-114-3
Disability: Down Syndrome
Story Profile: Charlie is an 11-year-old boy who attempts to cope with growing up in the shadow of an older sister with Down syndrome.
Reading Level: JF

Title: Rosie: A Visiting Dog's Story
Author: Stephanie Calmenson
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co., 215 Park Ave. South, New York, NY 10003; 1994
ISBN #: ISBN-0-395-654477-7
Disability: Disabilities
Story Profile: Rosie, a Tibetan terrier who is trained to work as a visiting dog, provides therapeutic comfort and entertainment to children and adults who are hospitalized or in nursing homes.
Reading Level: JF

Title: Sara's Secret
Author: Suzanne Wanous
Publisher: Carolrhoda Books; 1995
ISBN #: ISBN-0-87614-856-9
Disability: Cerebral Palsy
Story Profile: Justin is five with cerebral palsy and mental retardation. He "can't walk or talk or feed himself, or even sit up," but still, he makes his sister Sara happy. Sara is not happy, however, when her teacher plans a unit on disabilities. Sara doesn't want her friends to know about her brother.
Reading Level: JF

Title: The Best Fight
Author: Anne Schlieper
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company, 6340 Oakton Street, Morton Grove, IL 60053-2723; 1995
ISBN #: ISBN-0-8075-0662-1
Disability: Reading Difficulties
Story Profile: Jamie is an adolescent boy who has learning disabilities that impair his reading. Frustration at his low reading ability combines with alienation due to his placement in special classes. His mixed emotions toward his teachers, friends, and family are explored.
Reading Level: JF

Title: The Flying Fingers Club
Author: Jean F. Andrews
Publisher: Kendall Green
ISBN #: ISBN-0-930323-44-0
Disability: Deafness
Story Profile: Donald is a third grader who is bitter about repeating that grade when he meets Matt, who comes to class with an interpreter because he is deaf; they become fast friends.
Reading Level: JF

Title: The Summer Kid
Author: Myrna Neuringer Levy
Publisher: Second Story Press, 760 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Canada M5S 2R6; 1991
ISBN #: ISBN-0-929005-20-1
Disability: Language Impairments
Story Profile: Karen, a ten-year-old girl who stays at a summer cottage with her grandmother encounters Tommy, a nine-year-old boy with a severe language disorder.
Reading Level: JF

Title: Trouble with School: A Family Story About Learning Disabilities
Author: Kathryn Boesel Dunn and Allison Boesel Dunn
Publisher: Woodbine House, 5615 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20852
ISBN #: ISBN-0-933149-57-3
Disability: Learning Disabilities
Story Profile: A family's real-life experiences with learning disabilities follows Allison and her mother as each tells her side of the story of diagnosing and adjusting to Allison's special learning needs.
Reading Level: JF

Title: Wrongway Applebaum
Author: Marjorie Lewis
Publisher: Coward
ISBN #: ISBN-0-698-20610-X
Disability: Learning Disabilities
Story Profile: Stanley is in fifth grade when his awkwardness and inability to tell left from right conflict with his family's interest in baseball.
Reading Level: JF

Title: Zipper, the Kid with ADHD
Author: Caroline Janover
Publisher: Woodbine House, Inc., 6510 Bells Mill Road, Bethesda, MD 20817; 1997
ISBN #: ISBN-0-933149-95-6
Disability: Attention Deficit Disorder
Story Profile: Zachary (nicknamed Zipper), a fifth grader who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has trouble concentrating and controlling himself until a retired jazz musician recognizes his talent, believes in him, and gives him the motivation to start trying to do better.
Reading Level: JF

Children's Books About Disabilities
YA - Young Adult

Title: Annie's World
Author: Nancy Smiler Levinson
Publisher: Gallaudet Univ. Press, 800 Florida Ave., NE, Washington, DC 20002; 1990
ISBN #: ISBN-0-930323-65-3
Disability: Deafness
Story Profile: The adjustment of 16-year-old Annie to her family move, which necessitates her becoming mainstreamed into a public high school.
Reading Level: YA

Title: Are You Alone on Purpose?
Author: Nancy Werlin
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co., 222 Berkeley St., Boston, MA 02116-3764; 1994
ISBN #: ISBN-0-395-67350-X
Disability: Autism, Physical Disabilities, Giftedness
Story Profile: This novel focuses on the lives of two Jewish families, one including an autistic boy and his academically gifted sister, the other featuring a bully who suffers a severe spine injury in a diving accident and is paralyzed from the waist down.
Reading Level: YA

Title: A Thousand Lights
Author: Hope Benton
Publisher: Open Minds, Inc., PO Box 21325, Columbus, OH 43221-0325; 1996
ISBN #: ISBN-1-888927-81-X; ISBN-1888927-28-3
Disability: Hearing Impairments
Story Profile: Two brothers, Will and Donnie, one with a severe hearing impairment, climb Mt. Fuji in Japan.
Reading Level: YA

Title: Best Friends
Author: Hope Benton
Publisher: Open Minds, Inc., PO Box 21325, Columbus, OH 43221-0325; 1996
ISBN #: ISBN-1-888927-78-X; ISBN-1888927-25-9
Disability: Physical Disabilities
Story Profile: Kathryn, who uses a wheelchair, coaches her friend in coping with a broken leg.
Reading Level: YA

Title: Bus Girl
Author: Gretchen Josephson
Publisher: Brookline Books, PO Box 1047, Cambridge, MA 02238; 1997
ISBN #: ISBN-1-57129-041-9
Disability: Down Syndrome
Story Profile: Gretchen, through poetry, describes her emotional development toward independence and adult relationships.
Reading Level: YA

Title: Don't Stop the Music
Author: Robert Perske
Publisher: Abingdon Press, 201 Eighth Ave. South, Nashville, TN 37202; 1986
ISBN #: ISBN-0-687-11060-2
Disability: Cerebral Palsy
Story Profile: Follow our teen hero and heroine (with cerebral palsy) through thrills, romance, and adventure all rolled into this "who-done-it."
Reading Level: YA

Title: Down the Aisle
Author: Hope Benton
Publisher: Open Minds, Inc., PO Box 21325, Columbus, OH 43221-0325; 1996
ISBN #: ISBN-1-888927-80-1; ISBN-1-888927-27-5
Disability: Physical Disabilities
Story Profile: The story of two sisters, one of whom has a physical disability (Kathryn), as they prepare to participate in a wedding.
Reading Level: YA

Title: Dyslexia My Life: One Man's Story of His Life with a Learning Disability
Author: Girard J. Sagmiller
Publisher: DML, PO Box 537, Smithville, MO 64089-0537; 1995
ISBN #: ISBN-0-9643087-1-1
Disability: Dyslexia
Story Profile: Girard's autobiography dealing with dyslexia chronicles his struggles to overcome the ignorance and prejudice of his friends, family, and society in order to succeed in school, business, and life.
Reading Level: YA

Title: Emily Good as Gold
Author: Susan Goldman Rubin
Publisher: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1250 Sixth Ave., San Diego, CA 92101; 1993
ISBN #: ISBN-0-15-276632-4 hardback; ISBN-0-15-276633-2 paperback
Disability: Mental Retardation
Story Profile: Emily, a 13-year-old girl with mental retardation, experiences adolescence.
Reading Level: YA

Title: Emily in Love
Author: Susan Goldman Rubin
Publisher: Harcourt Brace & Co., 525 B Street, San Diego, CA 92101; 1997
ISBN #: ISBN-0-15-200961-2
Disability: Developmental Delays
Story Profile: Emily is developmentally delayed. She is included in a general education high school and has to deal with her feelings of confusion, frustration, and anger towards her parents for protecting her too much, and at herself for being unable to understand and accomplish everything she wants.
Reading Level: YA

Title: Extraordinary People with Disabilities
Author: Deborah Kent and Kathryn A. Quinlan
Publisher: Children's Press, 1996
ISBN #: ISBN-0-516-26074-X
Disability: Various Disabilities
Story Profile: Nearly 50 men and women with mental or physical disabilities are profiled in this collection including well-known figures such as: Thomas Edison, Ludwig van Beethoven, Harriet Tubman, Tom Cruise, Chris Burke, and Robert Dole. In addition to those mentioned are: a champion wheelchair marathoner with spina bifida, a partially blind ballet dancer, a photographer with polio, a deaf author and book reviewer, an Indian chief with muscular dystrophy, and an activist and psychotherapist with cerebral palsy.
Reading Level: YA

Title: Franklin D. Roosevelt: Gallant President
Author: Barbara Feinberg
Publisher: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard
ISBN #: ISBN-0-688-00434-2
Disability: Poliomyelitis
Story Profile: A biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Reading Level: YA

Title: Idea Man
Author: Karen Melberg Schwier
Publisher: Diverse City Press, 1997
ISBN #: ISBN-1-896230-09-1
Disability: Down Syndrome
Story Profile: Erin is angry when her parents leave her overnight with family friends. The family's older son, Jim, has Down syndrome and Erin doesn't want to be seen with him because he's known as the Dork, but kids from school witness Jim giving her a hug. She realizes she misjudged him after he helps her with a homework assignment.
Reading Level: YA

Title: Iron Horse: Lou Gehrig in His Time
Author: Ray Robinson
Publisher: Norton
ISBN #: ISBN-0-393-02857-7
Disability: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Story Profile: Lou Gehrig, nicknamed the Iron Horse for the number of consecutive games he played for the New York Yankees baseball team, died in 1941 after a two-year struggle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Reading Level: YA

Title: Probably Still Nick Swansen
Author: Virginia Euwer Wolff
Publisher: Holt
ISBN #: ISBN-0-8050-0701-6
Disability: Learning Disabilities
Story Profile: Nick is 16 and in special ed classes with "Down" kids and some "hyperactive" students, too. He can't figure out if there's a word for his placement in special ed.
Reading Level: YA

Title: Reach for the Moon
Author: Samantha Abeel
Publisher: Pfeifer-Hamilton Publishers, 210 West Michigan, Duluth, MN 55802; 1997
ISBN #: ISBN-1-57025-013-8
Disability: Learning Disabilities
Story Profile: Samantha, a 13-year-old girl with a learning disability in understanding mathematical concepts, provides a collection of illustrated poems and stories. She writes about her difficulties in middle school, including coping with her disability and the accompanying emotional challenges and the
encouragement received by her English teacher to develop her writing talent.
Reading Level: YA

Title: Retarded Isn't Stupid Mom!
Author: Sandra Z. Kaufman
Publisher: Brookes Publishing Co., PO Box 10624, Baltimore, MD 21285-0624; 1988
ISBN #: ISBN-0-933716-96-6
Disability: Mild Mental Retardation
Story Profile: The mother of a child diagnosed as mildly retarded at the age of two recounts experiences of the child's growing up into an adult.
Reading Level: YA

Title: Stevie Wonder
Author: John Swenson
Publisher: Harper & Row
ISBN #: ISBN-0-06-097067-7
Disability: Blindness
Story Profile: Stevie Wonder's life from his birth in Saginaw, Michigan, in 1950, through his rapid rise as a Motown artist in the early 1960s and up to his present-day work.
Reading Level: YA

Title: Tell Me How the Wind Sounds
Author: Leslie D. Guccione
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN #: ISBN-0-590-42615-X
Disability: Deafness
Story Profile: Amanda is 15 when she meets Jake on Clark's Island. She is angered at every encounter with him until he tells her he's deaf.
Reading Level: YA

Title: The Nautilus
Author: Wanda Gilberts Kachur
Publisher: Peytral Publications, PO Box 1162, Suite 976, Minnetonka, MN 55345; 1997
ISBN #: ISBN-0-9644271-5-X
Disability: Physical Disabilities
Story Profile: Kathryn is an adolescent who longs to be a professional ballet dancer but is seriously injured in a car accident and must face her disabilities.
Reading Level: YA

Title: The Worst Speller in Jr. High
Author: Caroline Janover
Publisher: Free Spirit Publishing, 400 First Avenue, North, Suite 616,
Minneapolis, MN 55401-1730; 1995
ISBN #: ISBN-0-915793-76-8
Disability: Dyslexia
Story Profile: Katie Kelso, an adolescent girl with dyslexia, describes her struggles with issues of peer acceptance, dating, and academic achievement, all of which are complicated by her dyslexia.
Reading Level: YA

Title: Turning Around the Upside-Down Kids: Helping Dyslexic Kids Overcome Their Disorder
Author: Harold Levinson and Addie Meyer Sanders
Publisher: M. Evans and Company, Inc., 216 East 49th Street, New York, NY 10017; 1992
ISBN #: ISBN-0-87131-700-1
Disability: Dyslexia
Story Profile: Continuing with the eight characters from The Upside-Down Kids, these students and their compassionate teacher Ms. Jensen, examine the various successful treatments for each child's unique symptoms in a way that is both comprehensive and simple to understand.
Reading Level: YA

Title: Views from Our Shoes: Growing Up with a Brother or Sister with Special Needs
Author: Donald Meyer, Ed.
Publisher: Woodbine House, Inc., 6510 Bells Mill Rd., Bethesda, MD 20817; 1997
ISBN #: ISBN-0-933149-98-0
Disability: Disabilities
Story Profile: Forty-five siblings share their experiences. The children whose essays are featured range in age from four to 18 with a variety of special needs, including autism, cerebral palsy, developmental delays, attention deficit disorder, hydrocephalus, visual and hearing impairments, Down syndrome, and Tourette syndrome.
Reading Level: YA

Title: Waiting for Johnny Miracle
Author: Alice Hendricks Bach
Publisher: Harper and Row
ISBN #: ISBN-0-06-020348-X
Disability: Cancer
Story Profile: Theo and Becky are 17-year-old twins when they find out Becky has a malignant tumor in her right thigh.
Reading Level: YA

Title: Whoa, Nellie!
Author: Hope Benton
Publisher: Open Minds, Inc., PO Box 21325, Columbus, OH 43221-0325; 1996
ISBN #: ISBN-1-888927-79-8; ISBN-1-888927-26-7
Disability: Physical Disabilities
Story Profile: A story of a young girl, Kathryn, who happens to have a physical disability and uses a wheelchair, her friends, and their experiences at summer camp as they search for a favorite horse.
Reading Level: YA

Title: Wish on a Unicorn
Author: Karen Hesse
Publisher: Penguin Books, 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014; 1991
ISBN #: ISBN-0-14-034935-9
Disability: Mental Retardation
Story Profile: A sixth-grade girl, Mags, lives in a trailer and has a younger sister named Hannie with mental retardation. Hannie finds an old stuffed unicorn and believes it is magical when strange things start to happen.
Reading Level: YA

Children's Books About Disabilities
A - Adult

Title: The Doctor He Begged to Be
Author: A. McDonald Vaz
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Co., Inc., 643 Smithfield Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222; 1996
ISBN #: ISBN-0-8059-3815-X
Disability: Dyslexia
Story Profile: Garth Vaz is a Jamaican man with dyslexia who wanted to be a physician. His brother tells of his struggles during his two attempts at the University of Florida College of Medicine, and the challenges he faced including neurological, physical, financial, marital, and racial obstacles.
Reading Level: A

Title: The Me in the Mirror
Author: Connie Panzarino
Publisher: Seal Press, 3131 Western Avenue, Suite 410, Seattle, WA 98121-1028; 1994
ISBN #: ISBN-1-878067-45-1
Disability: Physical Disabilities
Story Profile: Connie Panzarino is a woman with Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type III. She tells of her struggles and triumphs, relationships with family, her turn to lesbianism, and her pioneering work in the disability rights movement.
Reading Level: A

Title: The Silents
Author: Charlotte Abrams
Publisher: Gallaudet University Press, 800 Florida Avenue, NE, Washington,
DC 20002-3695; 1996
ISBN #: ISBN-1-56368-055-6
Disability: Deafness
Story Profile: Charlotte writes her autobiography about day-to-day life with her deaf parents. She describes the communication challenges they faced as a Jewish family overcoming the Depression and the hardships of World War II, as well as the additional challenge and fear the mother faced when she found out she was going blind.
Reading Level: A

Title: Under the Eye of the Clock: The Life Story of Christopher Nolan
Author: Christopher Nolan
Publisher: St. Martins Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010; 1988
ISBN #: ISBN-0-312-01266-7
Disability: Cerebral Palsy
Story Profile: The author, a 21-year-old Irishman severely disabled by cerebral palsy, tells the story of his childhood and how he must cope with his handicap, revealing the thoughts and realities of his world.
Reading Level: A

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/learning-disabilities/reading/5316.html?for_printing=1

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http://www.teachervision.fen.com/teacher-parent-conferences/teaching-methods/6482.html

2007-07-27T22:03:00.000-07:00

Parent-Teacher Communication Advice from Veteran Teachers

Parents will be much more supportive of you and helpful disciplining their children if you contact them as soon as a problem starts. Keep them updated on their child's progress. Most kids just need to know what their boundaries are!

Susan Cowell
Medfield High School
Medfield, MA
Grade Levels: 9-12

Remember you are not just doing a job, but you are also advocates for the children. Become a member of the PTA, and have a voice in what goes on at the legislature level.

Val Gentry-Fernandez
Kearney Middle School
Kearney, CO
Grade Levels: 6-8

Keep parents informed regularly of what you are doing in class. They really do appreciate this and it helps with parent-teacher communication. Using MyGradebook.com has been a lifesaver as parents know their child's grades at all times. This cuts down on questions like, "Why is my child getting this grade?"

Lynette Wehner
Central Middle School
Plymouth, MI
Grade Levels: 6-8

Send home a weekly newsletter to parents and have them sign it. This way you are keeping the parent informed about what is going on at school.

Anonymous
Grade Levels: All

Get to know parents and students ahead of time. Ask the counselors to give you a list of your students about two weeks before school starts. Send the students and parents a "Welcome to my class. I can't wait to meet you postcard." It does wonders for opening communication lines!

Keron Gwaltney
Luella Middle School
Locust Grove, GA
Grade Levels: 6-8

You can say no to parents. Politely, diplomatically, gently, but firmly, you can say no and survive!! For example, a parent asks if you can send each assignment home a day ahead so that they can go over it with him or her the night before? You can respond with a no and then give an explanation.

Mary A. Lang
Gwynne School
Gwynne, Alberta, Canada
Grade Levels: K-2

Call home or send a postcard to parents as soon as possible letting them know how enthusiastic you are about having their child in class. Be sure to state that you want parents to call you if they experience a problem. I have yet to find a parent who doesn't tell a teacher to do the same. Besides, students are less likely to misbehave once they realize you and parents "know each other". (Although this is substantially more work at the middle or high school level, the positive results make it worth the effort).

Charmaine Wierzbicki
Calumet High School
Gary, Indiana

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/educational-associations/education-and-state/6442.html

2007-07-27T22:02:00.000-07:00

Lesson Planning Advice from Veteran Teachers

Return to the What I Wish I'd Known Page
You don't have to fill in the whole square of the lesson plan book, just because it is there. You don't need to write everything you want to say; just brief notes.

Margaret Stanush
La Vernia Elementary School
La Vernia, TX
Grade Levels: 3-5

You don't have to do everything you say you are going to do in your plans for that day. See them as a road map where detours are all right as long as you eventually arrive at the intended destination.

Dotty Bailey
Shamrock Middle School
Decatur, GA
Grade Levels: 6-8

Make great plans for the first week of school! Plan a lot of interesting activities, but never expect to get through them all in any given day.

B. A. Morris
Liestman School
Houston, TX
Grade Levels: 3-5

Never stop experimenting with lesson ideas and teaching approaches. Be continuously reflective about your teaching. If something does not work, be very honest with yourself about the possible causes. Restructure your lesson and try again. Always be flexible and willing to change.

Patrick Allen
Canton Intermediate School
Canton, CT
Grade Levels: 6-8

Keep track of everything you do and why you do it. Writing "reading workshop" in a plan book will not help you plan next year. Write your objectives, exact mini-lessons, or a general theme you are studying. I know that the long hours I spend planning units of study will be a tremendous asset to kicking off the new school year!

Liz
Levy Lakeside School
Merrick, NY
Grade Levels: 3-5

Meet and share lessons with other colleagues even if they don't teach the same subject or grade level. Constant communication and rewriting of lessons and ideas are important to personal growth as well as professional growth in the classroom.

Nancy Parks
East Islip High School
Islip Terrace, NY
Grade Levels: 9-12

I wish I had known:
that it's OK to teach from the textbook. Every lesson can't be an innovative, hands-on, cooperative learning experience.
that drill and practice is a good thing. In truth, once students are truly familiar with the material, they are more interested, not less.
to look through my grade book every day, and focus on the kids who are doing well, trying hard, or improving. Remember that they are doing so because you are a good teacher.

Sandy Follansbee
Hillview Jr. High School
Pittsburg, CA
Grade Levels: 6-8

I wish I had known:
that when I was enjoying the lesson, the kids were having fun, too.
how to recognize the signs that I needed to alter the pace of a lesson (glazed expressions, fooling around, fidgeting, etc.).
that quantity of work and assignments did not equate to quality.

Sue Ritchie
Nathaniel Morton Elementary School
Plymouth, MA
Grade Levels: 3-5

I wish I had known:
As you complete a lesson, take notes on what worked, what you can change and on what didn't work. Next time, you'll have a good idea on what needs to be done to improve the lesson.

Shannon Cegielski

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/teaching-methods/teacher-training/6480.html?for_printing=1

2007-07-27T22:01:00.002-07:00

Helpful Bits of Advice from Veteran Teachers
Keep a sense of humor, stay organized, be flexible and document everything.

Mariella Brenlla
Ponce de Leon Middle School
Coral Gables, FL
Grade Levels: 6-8

Buy a large scrapbook. When a child gives you a school picture, make sure they sign and date it. Then, place it in your scrapbook along with a brief note to yourself to help you remember that student. You will never regret taking the time to keep it updated.

James Gates
West Shore School District
New Cumberland, PA
Grade Levels: 6-8

Leave your personal problems at the door and show the kids you care.

Michael Uhl
I. E. Evans Intermediate School
Bonham, TX
Grade Levels: 3-5

The first people you befriend in a new school are the secretaries and the janitors. They can help you enormously! They are the most valuable assets in the school; treat them well.

E. F. Pool
J. C. Burroughs School
Chicago, IL
Grade Levels: All

Memorize and learn the students' names, first and last, before they arrive! It is very important to start off your school year with knowledge. Know your students' name, write them on name cards and assign them a seat so you can also memorize them in order.

Doreen Travis
Fairview School
Sylva, NC
Grade Levels: 6-8

Find a mentor! A veteran teacher that you can go to anytime and ask lots of questions.

Patricia Contreras
Central Elementary School
San Diego, CA
Grade Levels: K-2

Read or simply skim and scan Harry Wong's book The First Days of School.

Donna Allen Krug
Mann Middle School
Brandon, FL
Grade Levels: 6-8

Find another staff member to help you understand the unwritten rules of your new school, like who to ask for supplies or cafeteria procedures.

Chris Kinney
Rockwell Jr. High School
Warren, MI
Grade Levels: 6-8

Say something personal and something positive to every child, every day. Kids need to know that you care.

Lori McLoughlin
Ellen T. Briggs School
Lake Hopatcong, NJ
Grade Levels: 3-5

On the first day of school, ask each student to write pertinent personal information on an index card. Then take the cards home and use them to call or write thank-you notes. Have the students list the following information: name, nickname, birthday, phone number, address, birth date, parent name(s), favorite hobbies, best and worst subject, and something I need to know about you. Although home data is usually provided by your school, having these index cards at home is useful all year and in some cases, many years later.

Kathleen Beardsley
CNY Teaching Center
Nedrow, NY
Grade Levels: All

Accept help whenever it is offered and find as many ways as possible to praise students because that is what they respond to the best.

Wendy DuToit
Blackmon Road Middle School
Columbus, GA
Grade Levels: 6-8

I wish I knew:
that a smile in those first critical few moments when facing the class for the first time would change the pace of the day.
that the deep trembling all the way down to my toes would eventually go away before the first period was over.
that the kids were more apprehensive about the teacher they were getting than I was about them.

Shaeeza Haniff
Islamic Elementary School
Queens, NY
Grade Levels: K-2

A simple, kind word or smile means everything to a child. Take time to listen to your students and give them adequate time to share. Trust your instincts and judgments.

Sue Ritchie
Nathaniel Morton Elementary School
Plymouth, MA
Grade Levels: 3-5

Start the school year the way you want the rest of the year to progress. If you want quiet, expect it the first day. If you want meaningful interaction throughout the year then make sure you have it on the first day. Give students the respect and guidelines they need. Make sure they know what you expect of them from day one and the rest of the year runs itself.

Diane Shortall
Loma Vista School
Santa Ana, CA
Grade Levels: K-2

A few musts:
Teach your students as you would wish your children to be taught.
Have one premise for your classroom rules – mutual respect.
Have no more than three rules – mine are: think, be polite, do your work.
Live and love your subject(s).
Select the simplest way at all times and focus on rapport and calm discipline before trying to teach content.
Rely on all the mistakes you make.
Never fight a battle you can't win, and never ask a question you don't know the answer to.
Program some fun into every lesson and the rest will follow.

Mrs. Falconer
Kingsgrove High School
Sydney, Australia
Grade Levels: 9-12

A few more musts:
Realize that you will make mistakes, because becoming a teacher did not make you perfect.
Don't be afraid to apologize to your students when you have made a mistake.
Realize that the lesson plan is just that – a plan. Remember, we make plans every day of our life but rarely do we carry them out 100% of the time.
Get a good night sleep every night.
Read, read, read as much about the teaching profession as you can.
Join a professional organization.
Write your name in permanent ink on the front of everything you own in your classroom. Teachers are notorious for borrowing something of interest and then forgetting where they got it from.
Don't let your teaching job become your life! Of all the professions in the world, teachers could easily work themselves to death because so much in this world can be used to teach our students.

Henry Gail McGinnis
V. I. Grissom Elementary
Houston, TX
Grade Levels: 3-5

Take the time to get to know your students. It's amazing just how much you might accomplish when you get to know your students on a personal level. When you stop caring, it's time to move on.

Mylina Stanfield
Boaz Middle School
Boaz, AL
Grade Levels: 6-8

No matter how hard you try to please the parents, the administration, and the students, never stop trying to please yourself.

Lesley Golkin
UCSF Child Life School Program
San Francisco, CA
Grade Levels: All

You can't do it all at once. Be sensitive to your own needs and temper your drive to succeed with moments for milk, cookies, and a good book. Renew your reasons for teaching as often as possible. It will always bring you back to the pleasure of a toothless smile when something difficult has been achieved! Remember the fuel for your day; smile, smile, smile.

Lois Accardi
Glenwood Elementary School
Short Hills, NJ
Grade Levels: K-2

Consider the source when accepting advice – what works in an urban school may not in a rural one; elementary school is vastly different from high school.

Becky Rayburn
Gates County High School
Gatesville, NC
Grade Levels: 9-12

Pay heed to the words spoken in The Emperor's Club (with Kevin Kline as a classics teacher). I must paraphrase, but it goes something like this: it isn't one single success or failure that makes a great teacher, but rather the trend over time. This helped me to put a negative experience in perspective. We can't win 'em all! This was a wonderful movie, and generated a terrific quote about great teachers, that I want to share with our most senior teacher in the district, who is still inspiring kids and going the extra mile. It says:
Great teachers have little external history to record.
Their lives go over into other lives.
These men are pillars in the intimate structure of our schools.
They are more essential than its stones or beams.
They will continue to be a kindling force and a revealing power;
part of the necessary fabric men breathe.
Good luck to all new teachers!

Shyrl Cone
Third Grade Teacher
Hartland, Michigan

The students in your class need to know you as a caring human being before they will trust you as their teacher.

Anonymous

There are three things that come to mind....

1. Where the bathrooms were all located.

2. Never tell the kids how old you are.

3. Never, EVER, be SUPER NICE when disciplining a kid.

Anonymous

I am about ready to retire and am so sorry that I did not keep the index cards I had kids fill out each year listing their names, addresses, phone, etc. I only started doing this 15 years ago. I am at the point where I now have taught a few children of my former students.

R.S. Carlson

I keep an index card file of every student that I have with pertinent info. such as name, address, schedule, etc. On the backs of these cards I keep notes of that student's progress in my class-whether it is behavioral or grade-related-this gives me good records for those impromptu parent conferences. This is especially helpful if you have students that you see a pattern forming!

Deana Pittman
Batesville Junior High
Batesville, MS

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/classroom-management/teaching-methods/6429.html

2007-07-27T22:01:00.001-07:00

Classroom Organization Tips from Veteran Teachers

Use accordion folders with 10 to 14 slots to organize anything. It helps to keep assignments, activities, quizzes, tests, and lecture notes in order.

Beth Hayes
West Liberty, WV
Grade Levels: 9-12

Teach your class an attention code. I say "Hey" in a sing-song voice and the class responds with "Ho." This code alerts the children that they need to stop whatever they are doing and immediately look in my direction. This is useful in the classroom when the students are working in centers and I need their attention. If we are on the playground, my class is quickly distinguished from the others by this code.

Angie Dulaney
Delhi Elementary School
Delhi, LA
Grade Levels: 3-5

Make a file folder for each child for all parent/teacher communication. Then all year you have a concise record of every note you have either written to or received from parents.

Jerri McCreless
Brookwood Elementary School
Tuscaloosa, AL
Grade Levels: 3-5

Collect the kids' school supplies at the beginning of the year so they don't overfill the desks and floors. Label them with their names and do a bimonthly supply restocking.

Jane Armbruster
University Park Creative Arts School
Charlotte, NC
Grade Levels: 3-5

You don't have to grade and record every paper or piece of writing. As a new teacher, I felt I had to read through every piece of their work, write comments, and record nearly everything in the grade book. Prioritize what work is important enough to grade, note which students aren't catching on, and then recycle the rest of the papers and worksheets!

Natalie
St. Cecilia School
St. Louis, MO
Grade Levels: 3-5

At the beginning of a new quarter give each student a piece of paper with three bathroom passes drawn on it. They may use them during the quarter, but if they do not, add extra points to their report card grades. It motivates the students to use the restroom during their normal breaktimes, and really cuts back on classtime disruptions!

Marissa Hurley
Mt. Carmel School
Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands
Grade Levels: 3-5

Assign each child the number that corresponds to the number in the grade book. Each child writes that number in the upper right-hand corner of everything that has to be turned in. With this done, I can simply put the papers in numerical order and call out any missing numbers. It also helps with recording grades in the grade book and saves loads of time.

Angie Dulaney
Delhi Elementary School
Delhi, LA
Grade Levels: 3-5

Make a class list with columns. Draw the necessary columns next to the students' names and assign headings that are appropriate for that specific list. It can be used to keep up as students bring in supplies, money for field trips, and important signed forms.

Sybil Derderian
Shrine of the Little Flower Elementary School
Royal Oak, MI
Grade Levels: 3-5

Offer extra credit when you need papers back ASAP. Give the extra credit to all that return the papers within two days!

Jennell Ward
Pines Middle School
Pembroke Pines, FL
Grade Levels: 6-8

Make an "Appointment Clock" at the beginning of each quarter. Draw an outline of a clock, but only label the times 12, 3, 6, and 9. Next to these numbers I draw a line. I run off enough for each student and use a different color for each quarter. Then give students 3 minutes to get an appointment (or partner) for each of the times. They must have four different people and can not repeat the previous quarter. They clip it into their binder and the next time I say, "Meet with your 12 o'clock partner" they know exactly who to go to.

JodiLyn Simmons-Machota
Dirksen School
Joliet, IL
Grade Levels: 6-8

The first week of school, write all of your student's names on 3"x5" notecards. When looking for "helpers," taking turns reading, or answering questions refer to the names on the cards. This will give everyone an equal chance and keep them on their toes. Use a blank card to separate the beginning and end; when you get to the blank card shuffle the cards before going on. It also cuts down on discipline problems because if students are not doing what they should be, then they forfeit their turn.

Patti Kopp
Sigel Elementary School
St. Louis, MO
Grade Levels: K-2

When I was a new teacher, I amassed materials. That was 12 years ago. Since then, I have taught many different subjects and ability levels. I have also moved classrooms more times than I can count. With the wonder of the Internet and scanners and CD burners, it is no longer necessary to carry (and move) loads of papers and books everywhere. If I were starting out now, I would
a)choose a color-code system and stick to it from the get-go, and
b)store as much electronically as possible.
I'm preparing to go back to school to a new position and have spent much of the summer re-organizing, cleaning out files (wow, the things I'd forgotten I had!) and minimizing clutter. If only I'd started out that way!

Good luck to all new teachers!

Shyrl Cone
Third Grade Teacher
Hartland, Michigan

Make sure you find out bus numbers for each child before school starts if you are a kindergarten, first grade or special education teacher.

Anonymous

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/classroom-management/teaching-methods/6427.html

2007-07-27T21:57:00.000-07:00

Behavior Management Tips from Veteran Teachers

Don't make any rules for your class that you are not willing to follow through with. Always be consistent and fair and let your students know that you mean what you say.

Joan Young
Chestatee Elementary School
Gainesville, GA
Grade Levels: 3-5

The first few days are the most important ones of the year. Help children to formulate two or three rules for the classroom. If the kids help it's easier for them to own the rules. Be sure that you're consistent in keeping the rules so the children know that they are important. Have fun and let children know you care about them.

Sister Doreen Willis
St. John the Evangelist School
Silver Spring, MD
Grade Levels: K-2

Never get into a power struggle with your students. Always listen to both sides with a nonjudgmental and non-confrontational attitude. Watch the body language for both yourself and the students. With the student, it can give you clues as to what the real problem is; for the teacher, you need to convey that not only are you listening but you are hearing what the student is saying. Then have them help in the solution.

Ann Koutrouba
Lit People's
Sacramento, CA
Grade Levels: K-2

You won't damage your students' psyches by taking the lead and being the boss of your own classroom. Once you gain the confidence things will go more smoothly, and once you take a firm lead, the students will respect and respond more readily.

Patricia Duncan
Centralia, WA
Grade Levels: K-2

Have a good balance of discipline and humor with the children. In order to gain their respect, you need to convey your genuine enjoyment to be with them. My students understand I am sometimes tough on them because I care enough to wish they try harder and get better. I also manage to find a way to show I care in some meaningful way. Humor is important to have for your own perspective and for the children. It keeps the days lively and enjoyable.

Georgene Asseiri
Montessori Day School
Phoenix, AZ
Grade Levels: K-2

It's not what you teach, but how you teach it that makes all the difference. If what you are doing in your classroom is exciting and motivational, classroom discipline problems disappear. Students do not want to get in trouble because they do not want to miss out on what is going on in your room.

Linda Burdine
Perry Meridian High
Indianapolis, IN

Not every student will like you. And, you won't like every student. Try to find at least one thing you can respect each student for – even if it's just showing up at school.

Angela
Cityview Community
Minneapolis, MN
Grade Levels: 6-8

Avoid putting the "bad" kids in the front of the room. Unfortunately, that's often what they want. Now they are able to gain everyone's attention. This is exactly what you do not want. Put these students toward the back of the room and minimize their ability to use disruptive behavior to get attention.

Kelly Wandler
Stobart High School
Saskatchewan, Canada
Grade Levels: 6-8

Children will quiet down when the teacher is quiet and waiting for their attention. I lost my voice the first year trying to focus their attention on me. Now, I simply wait for the attention I deserve before moving on to the next lesson or set of instructions.

Cecilia Martinez
Sylmar, CA
Grade Levels: 3-5

In terms of behavior management, there are three key principles I always try to keep in mind and they all revolve around being positive.
Make sure not to hold onto grudges from the day before. Wake up and start with a clean slate.
Introduce a positive reinforcement schedule. This simply means that each child's positive behaviors should be noted by you and whenever a child displays a certain amount of positive behaviors, reinforce them with a little prize or something that shows you care that they are behaving well.
Compliment each child at least once a day.

Sergio
New York City, NY
Grade Levels: K-2

Adolescents love choices and challenges! Whenever possible, give students choices – whether it's a long-range project on a country they select, or coloring a map with crayon, marker, or colored pencil! I try to give as many "small" choices as possible, even if it seems insignificant.

Linda Norman
Ayer Middle School
Ayer, MA
Grade Levels: 6-8

Examine your classroom carefully for the best traffic patterns. Even if you have to ask a custodian to move a "permanent" fixture such as a pencil sharpener mounted on the wall, arrange traffic so that students may get out of their seats to take care of business (sharpen pencils, turn in work) without walking through areas where students may still be working. I have found that this works especially well to keep many potential mischief makers in check at the high school level where students are a bit old to ask permission every time they need to "blow their nose."

Charmaine Wierzbicki
Calumet High School
Gary, Indiana

Don't "play games" with the students in an attempt to get to know them on the first day. Establish yourself as the authority in the classroom, and you will get to know the kids soon enough. How I WISH someone had given me this advice eleven years ago when I started. I was SO SMART that I played the "Toilet Paper Game" with middle schoolers on my first day in the classroom. Not only was that day a disaster, it was difficult to salvage the rest of the year, because I'd already established myself as a "goofball," instead of the teacher. This doesn't mean you can't have fun with your students; it's just best not to do it on the first day in the classroom before you've established your classroom presence.

Cynthia A. Knight Jones

2007-07-27T11:34:00.000-07:00

TEN TEAM TIPS

Wear One Hat
Team leaders often confuse their team mates by not making their role clear. Are you participating as a team member? Or as the team leader? To alleviate the confusion, let your team mates know which hat you are wearing and when you change your role.

Focus on the Deliverable
Teams can get off-track pretty quickly without a purpose, agenda or defined outcome. When gathering together, get a clear picture of the meeting deliverable by asking, “What do we want to walk away with today?” All your efforts should support the development of the deliverable.

Do Collective Work
Teams are great for collaborative work such as planning, coordinating, decision-making, evaluation, brainstorming and sharing information. So use teams where appropriate and farm out tasks more suitable for individual work to one (or two) people to do.

Share the Wealth
There is so much to do and so little time. So make sure you share the tasks fairly among your team mates. Leverage their talents and strengths, provide developmental opportunities, coach them into accepting responsibility so that all members of the team can share the work and the resulting rewards.

Encourage Robust Dialogue
Discussions within teams should be candid and straightforward, bringing out the positive and the negative. It’s a Socratic dialogue where team members ask the right questions, debating them and finding realistic solutions… Larry Bossidy, in his book Execution, insists that “debating the assumptions and making trade-offs openly in a group is an important part of the social software…As they construct and share a common comprehensive picture of what’s happening on the outside and inside, they hone their ability to synchronize efforts for execution. And they publicly make their commitments to execute.”

Suffer the Silence
The currency of teamwork is airtime and no one likes to see time being wasted. So when we pose a question or ask for a volunteer, it’s easy to rush in to fill the void and continue talking. We need to “suffer the silence” to allow our team mates to think through the question, evaluate the options and then to raise their voices.

Get Naked
One of the cornerstones of cohesive teamwork is trust. To build trust, Patrick Lencioni
encourages team members to “get naked” - a process of getting to know your team mates at a deeper level. You can get naked through behavioral preference and conative profiles such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Kolbe Indexes, reading professional books, sharing personal histories, conducting team activities and experiential exercises, using feedback instruments and frequently communicating with each other.

Take a Straw Poll
For really important decisions, it is worth taking a moment to poll your team mates on where they stand on the issue. Provide an opportunity for any objections to be raised…and then discussed to create an even better solution. It’s better than having the objections raised much later…out in the parking lot or in the middle of a sabotaged implementation.

Follow Through
The enemy of accountability is ambiguity. So never finish a meeting without clarifying what the follow-through will be, who will do it, when and how they will do it, and how and when the next review will take place. Follow through ensures that people are doing the things they committed to do, according to the agreed upon timetable.

Celebrate Success
Look for ways to celebrate even the smallest of victories (even though you may have mentally moved onto the next task or project!) Your team mates need to know that their efforts are recognized and appreciated…so they are willing to continue their labors!

ASSESSMENTS for Teams

2007-07-27T11:19:00.000-07:00

Welcome! Saturday, July 28, 2007

GSI™
The Group Styles Inventory™ (GSI) assesses the way in which team members interact with one another and approach problems and decisions. Insights into these interaction styles enable teams to identify what they need to do to work together more effectively and achieve synergy – that is, to ensure their interactive efforts have a greater impact than the sum of their individual efforts.

The 72-question GSI queries the perceptions by individual team members as well as the collective perspective of the team as a whole. The individual and team results are self-scored and displayed on the “circumplex”, a unique way of illustrating twelve behaviors that are grouped into three clusters – Constructive, Passive/Defensive and Aggressive/Defensive.

The GSI is frequently used to:
Enhance the impact of team-building sessions
Assess the styles and processes of teams as they work to solve real problems
Improve team dynamics in “real time” to enhance the quality of team decisions
Increase members’ satisfaction with their teams
Integrate team development with individual/leadership (LSI) and organizational (OCI) development.

OCI®
The Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) is recognized as one of the most widely used and thoroughly researched organizational surveys in the world. The 108-question OCI provides a picture of an organization’s (or team’s) operating culture in terms of the members’ behaviors that members are expected or implicitly required. By guiding the way in which members approach their work and interact with one another, these “behavioral norms” determine the organization’s (or team’s) capacity to solve problems, adapt to change and perform effectively.

The OCI “Ideal Culture” results illustrate leaderships’ normative beliefs and/or the shared behavioral expectations that operate within the organization or team. The OCI also assesses the current culture such as shared values and beliefs, members’ role clarity, role conflict, perceptions of service quality and satisfaction. The Ideal and Current results are presented on the “circumplex”, a unique way of illustrating twelve behaviors that are grouped into three clusters – Constructive, Passive/Defensive and Aggressive/Defensive.

The differences or “gaps” between the Current and Ideal Culture profiles, as well as the impact of its Current Culture on outcomes, provide the basis for developing plans for strengthening your organization’s long-term effectiveness. The plan includes the key actions to be taken to facilitate positive change (i.e. leers for change) as well as the factors to be monitored to gauge the success of your organization’s (or team’s) change efforts (i.e. targeted cultural gaps and outcomes).

MBTI®
The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is one of the most widely recognized instruments dedicated to creating heightened self-awareness about individual preferences. We use the results of the 92-question MBTI (Form M) to create a personalized profile to recognize and appreciate team diversity as well as the challenges that same diversity may create. In a team setting, the use of the MBTI can be a very powerful intervention to increase individual and team effectiveness.

We train your team on the interpretation and use of the MBTI to improve team dynamics and communication. The goal of this initial workshop is to motivate participants to understand their type and be open to share their type with their team mates. The desired outcome is heightened self-awareness for greater self-management.
We highlight the differences through experiential exercises of the four preference pairs.
We reinforce openness and self-awareness.
We share how each preference fits, typologically, into the organization and the team.

Kolbe®
The Kolbe A™ index is a 36-question assessment tool designed to measure the conative dimension of the mind—the actions you take as a result of your natural instincts. This measurement, called your MO, gives you greater understanding of your own human nature and your national talents and allows you to begin the process of maximizing your potential both personally and professionally.

Kolbe TeamSuccess® program enhances your ability to build on individual strengths and improve overall team performance and synergy. This workshop explores the different ways instinctive talents play off one another:
? inventory the instinctive talents that make up your actual not just desired – team synergy
? leverage these talents so team members consistently and effectively work together
? incorporate diagnostic and prescriptive information so you can improve team productivity

Participants of the TeamSuccess seminar learn positive strategies for trading off individual abilities, taking advantage of individual differences and making the most of knowing who can be counted on to perform necessary tasks.
LSI™ The Life Styles Inventory™ offers individuals a guided tour in strengthening their thinking and to better understand the styles that promote effectiveness and moderate styles that prevent them from realizing their full potential – and to be better team players, managers and leaders.

With the LSI Stylus, participants receive specific, constructive feedback on the implications of their behavior from trusted associates. The report then combines this feedback with information about how an individual perceives him/herself – for an accurate description of personal strengths as well as potential development needs. All feedback received is confidential – only composite scores are reported.

This customized, detailed report (typically 50-70 pages) then guides participants through the process of self-improvement by providing practical recommendations and strategies for changing ineffective behavior and building on positive individual characteristics.

Like the MBTI and the Kolbe, the LSI is developed under the premise that self-understanding and awareness can lead to better self-management. Unlike the MBTI and the Kolbe, the LSI takes it a bit further and provides comprehensive, prescriptive feedback to help the participant become a better team player, manager or leader.
Executive Team Advantage™ Profile Created for our Executive Team Advantage™ (www.ExecutiveTeamAdvantage.com) program, this assessment is designed with the executive/leadership team in mind. Consisting of 50 questions, this assessment compares your team with the benchmark of other highly successful leadership teams in five specific areas:

©2003 Quality Process Consultants Designed and hosted by AIMS

2007-07-27T11:06:00.000-07:00

What Makes A Team Extraordinary

At QPC Inc., we facilitate your team's awareness and understanding of the way it achieves results. From our many years of facilitation and teambuilding experience, we know what makes a team extraordinary - and what doesn't. And while the subject and writings of teams, team work, and team building are extensive, we have narrowed the characteristics of an extraordinarily successful team to having a few common elements:

A clear vision
Open and clear communication
Cooperation
A positive atmosphere
Managed conflict
Effective decision-making
Shared leadership

We can help your team move to higher levels of performance! Please contact us for further information or if you have any questions. Check out this site or visit our other pages to learn more about QPC, Inc. and to make your teams truly extraordinary.

Extraordinary Teams Have:

A Clear Vision

An extraordinary team has a clear vision of its desired result, purpose, direction and goals. The extraordinary team recognizes the diverse roles and unique contributions that each member brings to the team, both job-related and in other areas such as organizing, clarifying, creating, team building. You'd be surprised at how many people don't know why they are doing certain activities, but with an extraordinary team, everyone is pulling in the same direction for success and each person contributes to the overall success.

Open and Clear Communication

Poor listening, poor speaking, and the inability to provide constructive feedback can be major roadblocks to team progress. For success, team members must listen for meaning, speak with clarity, engage in dialogue and discussion, and continually provide feedback to each other.

Please don't confuse talking with communication. We all know people who talk alot and say nothing. In an extraordinary team, people not only talk, but they participate in a meaningful fashion. Each individual contributes when appropriate.

Cooperation

There is a real feeling of cooperation in an extraordinary team. Since the team members know that they need each others' skills, knowledge and expertise, they can build or produce something together that they could never do separately. There is a sense of belonging and a willingness to make things work for the good of the whole team.

A Positive Atmosphere

In an extraordinary team, people are comfortable enough with each other to be creative, take risks and make mistakes. There is a climate of trust and openness. Members of the team are committed and involved. It also means you hear plenty of laughter and the team members enjoy what they are doing.

Managed Conflict

Extraordinary teams have conflict too! Only the team members just make sure that their problems aren't swept under the rug. It's only natural that some folks deal with conflict by competing to have their opinions heard, while others accommodate stronger team members or just avoid the conflict altogether. The extraordinary team manages the conflict - generating light about the issues rather than beat up on each other over positions. They see conflict as a healthy way to create new ideas and to solve difficult problems.

Effective Decision-Making

Extraordinary teams are aware of and use many methods to manage conflict and arrive at difficult decisions. Consensus is often touted as the best way to make decisions in a team environment - and it is in many cases - but the team doesn't get stuck using just one method, but uses other appropriate methods like command decision, expert decision, majority vote, minority control, or command decision with input, depending on the time available, the amount of commitment and resources required.

Shared Leadership

And finally, the litmus test of an extraordinary team is whether the "leader" is a good coach and teacher, shares responsibility and the glory, is supportive and fair, and creates that climate of trust and openness. This leadership role shifts at various times, and in the most productive teams, it is difficult to identify the leader during casual observation.

http://www.extraordinaryteam.com/extra.shtml

Back to School in Six Easy Steps

2007-07-27T11:01:00.001-07:00

Summer Changes
Back-to-school struggles still surprise many parents. After all, kids go back to school every year -- why don't they know what to expect? Well, consider this:

The growth rate of kids is so fast that going back to the previous year's routine can seem pretty stale.
Kids either dread or look forward to a new school year depending on what they remember from last year. Expectations are nearly everything.
What's it like to go back to school? Imagine a job change for you. Your kids also may be in a new building this year, which makes it even harder to feel comfortable.

1. Get a Grip
Your relationship with your children has a great effect on them. So it's important not to act too crazed about the return to school. Build in extra time, put irrelevant projects on hold, stay rested, and try to stick closer to your kids. Dads need to listen up, too. Many jobs seem to pick up at this time of year, and it's easy to get sucked down by the undertow.

2. Case the Joint
Even if your child knows the school well, it still feels good to get reacquainted. My third-grade daughter was always crabby until she saw her classroom, thought about the schedule, met her teacher, and picked out her clothes. Your kids may enjoy getting a "sneak preview" with another child from her school or class. Call before you go, since school buildings may be open the Saturday before opening day.

3. Don't Clean the Slate
Fresh starts are so promising that we tend to overdo them. This may seem like a great time to clean up, sort out, and set new ground rules for family life. Chores are reassigned, allowances renegotiated, and afterschool sports and activities scheduled. While change is good, the timing requires some reflection. Too much too soon can make even the most cooperative child balk. Focus on the start of school, and revisit the other issues after your kids feel more settled.

4. Be Reassuring
Tell your kids that they'll be fine! Before school starts, encourage them to reconnect with school buddies they may not have seen over the summer. This may take some brokering, depending on the particular social appetite of your child, but it's money in the bank for reducing fears of isolation in the new classroom. If they want to, let them take part of their sticker or baseball card collection to school (with the teacher's approval). Listen to their worries and don't minimize, dismiss, or try to talk them out of them. These fears are real to your child.

5. Set the Stage
Shopping for supplies and clothes should be fun, but overdoing this can be boring and a little scary to kids. Spend time thinking together about quiet time and reading and work space in the house. Choose special places, like corners of rooms, or certain tables or chairs, to show your kids that you'll help them find space where they can do the things that matter, like reading and homework.

6. Meet the Teacher
Your child is still young enough to feel comforted by an open communication between parent and teacher. In fact, when parents and teachers have regular discussions about school and home events, kids feel a more trusting connection with the school as a whole, and tend to try harder both socially and academically. Check-ins about new or recently lost pets, family moves, births, and deaths can help a teacher fathom something in your child that might otherwise seem mysterious. Most good schools would rather know sooner than later if you are worried about your child's school experience.

2007-07-23T22:09:00.000-07:00

Classroom Management That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Every Teacher
by Robert J. Marzano, Jana S. Marzano and Debra J. Pickering

An ASCD Study Guide for Classroom Management That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Every Teacher

This Study Guide is designed to enhance your understanding of Classroom Management That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Every Teacher, an ASCD book written by Robert J. Marzano with Jana S. Marzano and Debra J. Pickering. This book describes and illustrates the management strategies that research suggests can have a major positive impact on student achievement. The questions that follow are designed to enhance your understanding of the book and to help you make connections between the text and your personal experiences.

The study questions provided are not meant to cover all aspects of the book; rather, they are intended to address selected ideas we believe might warrant further reflection. Most of the questions contained in this study guide are ones you can think about on your own. But you might consider pairing with another colleague or forming a group of people who have read (or are reading) Classroom Management That Works.

Chapter 1: The Critical Role of Classroom Management

On page 4, the following statement is made: ". . . a strong case can be made that effective instructional strategies and good classroom curriculum design are built on the foundation of effective classroom management."
Explain why many feel classroom management is the "foundation" on which curriculum and instruction are built.
How do effective instructional strategies and good curriculum design, in turn, influence classroom management?

In the section on the history of the research on classroom management, a great deal of evidence emphasizes the relationship between classroom management and student achievement. However, sometimes people do not trust research and statistics. If you were talking to someone who dismissed this body of research as untrustworthy, how would you explain, from a logical point of view, the relationship between classroom management and student achievement?

Spend some time studying Figure 1.4 and the accompanying explanation. To test your understanding, see if you can explain that figure to a colleague.

This chapter offers an answer to the question, "Are good classroom managers born or made?"

Apparently, teachers can learn to be good classroom managers, even when only given information about the techniques. What type of training have you received in classroom management and what was most effective for you?

Chapter 2: Rules and Procedures

Before reading this chapter, describe your own strengths and weaknesses related to establishing rules and procedures in your classroom.
Describe the differences between rules and procedures. Why do you think making this distinction is important?

The concept of "confidence interval" is explained on page 15. Take some time to make sure you have a general understanding of how this is applied to research data.

There are a limited number of studies on the effect of rules and procedures in middle school classrooms; however, other evidence suggests that the effect is there. Even if we had no evidence, how would you persuade a new middle school teacher of the importance of rules and procedures?

A strong case is made for involving students in establishing rules and procedures. To what extent do you or others involve students? What might be some pitfalls to avoid when involving students?

Action Step 1 includes a discussion of six areas for which rules and procedures might be established. Rate yourself as to how well you feel you or others address each of these areas.

Chapter 3: Disciplinary Intervention

Evidence presented in the introduction indicates that teachers spend a large portion of classroom time disciplining students. To what extent is this consistent with what you have observed? Describe some mistakes you or others have made that you believe resulted in constantly disciplining students.

Examine Figure 3.1 and read the explanation on pages 28 and 29. Do any of these findings surprise you? Why do you think an approach to discipline that includes a combination of punishment and reinforcement seems to have the most positive effect on students' behavior?

In Figures 3.4 and 3.5, parents and students were asked to rank both negative and positive consequences according to their beliefs about the effectiveness of each. Notice the consequences that parents ranked as No. 1 and that students ranked as No. 2 in each of the figures. What does this suggest to classroom teachers?

Action Step 1 explains five categories of techniques teachers use to acknowledge and reinforce positive behavior and to acknowledge and provide negative consequences for unacceptable behavior. For each category, reflect on how effectively you or others use these techniques. In addition, try to remember specific teachers from your past who were particularly skilled at any of these techniques.

Chapter 4: Teacher-Student Relationships

Examine Figure 4.2 and read the explanation on pages 42–44.
Try to give specific examples of behaviors of teachers that are high, but not extreme, in the areas of dominance and cooperation.

Reportedly, teachers often start out as highly cooperative and then develop high dominance over time. However, it was also reported that as some teachers develop appropriate dominance, they decrease the tendency toward being cooperative. Why do you think that might happen? How can teachers maintain both high cooperation and high dominance throughout their years of teaching?

When reading Figure 4.4, what is your reaction to the number and varieties of problems with which so many students must cope and and that they bring with them to school? The assertion is that teachers are most effective when they learn how to respond differently to students, always with sensitivity to the unique problems of each student. Accepting this daunting challenge means continuously building a repertoire of strategies. What are some resources that teachers must seek out to build this repertoire?

Action Steps 1 and 2 make specific recommendations for establishing both dominance and cooperation in your relationship with students. Reflect on how these recommendations describe you as a teacher, or describe other teachers with whom you are familiar.

Action Step 3 provides a valuable resource for descriptions of types of behaviors students might be exhibiting and offers some insights into the types of interactions that could work with each type. Make a commitment to reading, reflecting on, and adding to this list in order to heighten your awareness of and ability to relate to these types of behaviors.

Chapter 5: Mental Set

Read the explanations of "withitness" and "emotional objectivity." It is interesting that teachers who demonstrate these two characteristics tend to be the most effective with students. Why do you think it is difficult for teachers to learn how to be "withit" and "emotionally objective" in the classroom?
A new teacher noticed that he takes it very personally when his students misbehave: "I know I shouldn’t, but how can I stop myself?" Obviously, just telling him to maintain "emotional objectivity" would not be very helpful. What would you specifically suggest to him?

The action steps in this chapter make very specific recommendations for developing these two qualities. As you read them, reflect on the extent to which you and others engage in these behaviors. What would you add to these lists?

Chapter 6: The Student's Responsibility for Management

The first pages of this chapter present a dilemma. Although teaching methods of self-responsibility to students is very effective, it often requires much more from the teacher, more classroom time, and sometimes a more intensive teacher-student relationship than other approaches to classroom management. What current characteristics of schools and classrooms make it less likely that teachers will choose this challenging approach to classroom management? What would have to change for more teachers to use this approach?

The recommendations in Action Step 1 are probably the least time-consuming for the teacher. These include holding classroom meetings, using a language of responsibility, generating written statements of beliefs, and asking students to analyze their own behaviors. Which, if any, of these have you used, or seen used? How effective were they and why?

Some teachers report that when they use the types of strategies described in Action Steps 2 and 3, they typically use them early in the year. However, as time passes, they find it difficult to continue using these strategies that shift responsibility to students. Why do you think it is hard to maintain the use of these types of strategies? What suggestions might you make to help teachers sustain the use of these strategies?

Chapter 7: Getting Off to a Good Start

After reading the research and theory section of this chapter, think back to the Chapter 4 discussion on dominance and cooperation. Describe how the recommendations in that chapter are similar to and influence the ideas presented in this chapter about the beginning of the year.
Action Step 1 stresses the importance of arranging and decorating your classroom in a way that supports a positive learning environment. The classroom examples in Figure 7.2 and 7.3 are fairly common arrangements. Some teachers get very creative when they arrange and decorate their rooms. If you have ever seen examples of this creativity, or have demonstrated it yourself, try to describe how the creative elements did or did not allow for smooth traffic flow, a variety of groupings, students access to information important to the rules and procedures, and so on.
Action Step 2 provides specific examples for how to experience a good first day. Describe how these suggestions are similar to and different from the message conveyed in the old adage that used to be communicated to new teachers, "Don’t smile until Christmas."
Time is precious. When teachers feel the pressure of making sure they are teaching all that is required, they may not accept the advice in Action Step 3, which is to spend a good deal of time teaching and reinforcing classroom management. How would you explain to them the reasons for spending time in this way?

Chapter 8: Management at the School Level

On page 105, there is a list of teacher and administrator behaviors that might lead to a school becoming an unsafe, even violent, place. If you were leading a school where these behaviors were evident, what specific steps might you take to begin to change both attitudes and behaviors of the faculty?

Action Step 1 for school-wide management reminds us of the first aspect of classroom management, establish rules and procedures. Reflect on your own school, or schools with which you are familiar, and determine if there are areas of the school, or certain school routines, that are potential problems. Begin to brainstorm remedies for these problems.

There is an emphasis in Action Step 2 on making sure all students are aware of the rules, procedures, and consequences associated with misbehaviors, such as bullying, sexual harassment, drug use, etc. It is often not sufficient to publish such information in a student handbook. Although we might agree, "ignorance of the law is no excuse," schools must take responsibility for helping students maintain an awareness of unacceptable behaviors and consequences for engaging in such behaviors. Only one example of communicating with students is provided. Try to generate additional ways of communicating with students and parents.

Action Step 3 encourages schools to establish appropriate consequences for specific types of misbehavior. Although the studies reviewed in the section indicate that there are some fairly common types of consequences among schools, "the relative effectiveness of these various consequences is not well studied." If you were working with a school trying to identify appropriate consequences, in the absence of research to guide you, how would you decide which consequences to use the most and the least?

Action Step 4 recommends establishing a system for "early detection of students who have high potential for violent and extreme behaviors." Although this can be very effective, what are some cautions that come to mind when trying to identify and support these students?

Classroom Management That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Every Teacher was written by Robert J. Marzano with Jana S. Marzano and Debra J. Pickering.
This 143-page, 8 1/2" x 11" book (Stock #103027; ISBN 0-87120-793-1) is available from ASCD for $20.95 (ASCD member) and $25.95 (nonmember). Copyright 2003 by ASCD. To order a copy, call ASCD at 1-800-933-2723 (in Virginia 1-703-578-9600) and press 2 for the Service Center. Or buy the book from ASCD's Online Store.

Table of Contents

Copyright © 2003 by Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. All rights reserved. No part of this publication—including the drawings, graphs, illustrations, or chapters, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles—may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from ASCD.

© Copyright ASCD. All rights reserved.

Classroom Management That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Every Teacher

2007-07-23T21:37:00.000-07:00

by Robert J. Marzano, Jana S. Marzano and Debra J. Pickering

Chapter 1. The Critical Role of Classroom Management

Teachers play various roles in a typical classroom, but surely one of the most important is that of classroom manager. Effective teaching and learning cannot take place in a poorly managed classroom. If students are disorderly and disrespectful, and no apparent rules and procedures guide behavior, chaos becomes the norm. In these situations, both teachers and students suffer. Teachers struggle to teach, and students most likely learn much less than they should. In contrast, well-managed classrooms provide an environment in which teaching and learning can flourish. But a well-managed classroom doesn't just appear out of nowhere. It takes a good deal of effort to create—and the person who is most responsible for creating it is the teacher.

We live in an era when research tells us that the teacher is probably the single most important factor affecting student achievement—at least the single most important factor that we can do much about. To illustrate, as a result of their study involving some 60,000 students, S. Paul Wright, Sandra Horn, and William Sanders (1997) note the following:

The results of this study will document that the most important factor affecting student learning is the teacher. In addition, the results show wide variation in effectiveness among teachers. The immediate and clear implication of this finding is that seemingly more can be done to improve education by improving the effectiveness of teachers than by any other single factor. Effective teachers appear to be effective with students of all achievement levels regardless of the levels of heterogeneity in their classes. If the teacher is ineffective, students under that teacher's tutelage will achieve inadequate progress academically, regardless of how similar or different they are regarding their academic achievement. (p. 63) [emphasis in original]
Researcher Kati Haycock (1998) uses the findings of this study and others conducted by William Sanders and his colleagues (e.g., Sanders & Horn, 1994) to paint a dramatic picture of the profound impact an individual teacher can have on student achievement. The point is illustrated in Figure 1.1, which depicts the differences in achievement between students who spend a year in class with a highly effective teacher as opposed to a highly ineffective teacher.

According to Figure 1.1, students in the classes of teachers classified as the most effective can be expected to gain about 52 percentile points in their achievement over a year's time. Students in the classes of teachers classified as least effective can be expected to gain only about 14 percentile points over a year's time. This comparison is even more dramatic when one realizes that some researchers have estimated that students will exhibit a gain in learning of about 6 percentile points simply from maturation—from growing one year older and gleaning new knowledge and information through everyday life (see Hattie, 1992; Cahen & Davis, 1987). The least effective teachers, then, add little to the development of students' knowledge and skill beyond what would be expected from simply growing one year older in our complex, information-rich society.

Figure 1.1. Impact of Teacher Effectiveness on Student Achievement

Sanders and his colleagues, who gathered their data from elementary school students in Tennessee, are not the only ones to document dramatic differences in achievement between students in classes taught by highly ineffective versus highly effective teachers. Haycock (1998) reports similar findings from studies conducted in Dallas and Boston.

I have come to similar conclusions in my work, although I have taken a very different approach from that used in the studies that form the basis for Haycock's conclusions. Whereas the studies conducted in Tennessee, Dallas, and Boston were based on data acquired from students over time, I used a research process called meta-analysis to synthesize the research on effective schools over the last 35 years (see Marzano, 2000a, 2003b). That approach enabled me to separate the effect on student achievement of a school (in general) from the effect of an individual teacher. Figure 1.2 illustrates my findings.

Figure 1.2. Effects of a School vs. a Teacher on Student Entering at 50th Percentile

To understand the impact that a teacher can make, let's consider each of the five scenarios in Figure 1.2. (For a detailed discussion of how the computations in Figure 1.2 were derived, see Marzano, 2000a.) As depicted in Figure 1.2, if a student begins at the 50th percentile in mathematics, let's say, and attends an average school and has an average teacher, her achievement will still be at the 50th percentile at the end of about two years. The student has learned enough to keep pace with her peers. But what happens to that student if she attends a school that is considered one of the least effective and is unfortunate enough to have a teacher who is classified as one of the least effective? After two years she has dropped from the 50th percentile to the 3rd percentile. She may have learned something about mathematics, but that learning is so sporadic and unorganized that she has lost considerable ground in a short time. In the third scenario, the same student is in a school classified as most effective, but she has a teacher classified as least effective. Although the student entered the class at the 50th percentile, two years later she leaves the class at the 37th percentile. In contrast to the two previous scenarios, the fourth presents a very optimistic picture. The student is not only in a school classified as most effective, but also is in the class of a teacher classified as most effective. She enters the class at the 50th percentile, but she leaves at the 96th percentile. The fifth scenario most dramatically depicts the impact of an individual teacher. Again, the student is in a school that is considered least effective, but she is with a teacher classified as most effective. The student now leaves the class at the 63rd percentile—13 percentile points higher than the point at which she entered. It is this last scenario that truly depicts the importance of individual teachers. Even if the school they work in is highly ineffective, individual teachers can produce powerful gains in student learning.

Although the effect the classroom teacher can have on student achievement is clear, the dynamics of how a teacher produces such an effect are not simple. Rather, the effective teacher performs many functions. These functions can be organized into three major roles: (1) making wise choices about the most effective instructional strategies to employ, (2) designing classroom curriculum to facilitate student learning, and (3) making effective use of classroom management techniques.

The first role deals with instructional strategies and their use. Effective teachers have a wide array of instructional strategies at their disposal. They are skilled in the use of cooperative learning and graphic organizers; they know how best to use homework and how to use questions and advance organizers, and so on. Additionally, they know when these strategies should be used with specific students and specific content. Although cooperative learning might be highly effective in one lesson, a different approach might be better in another lesson. Some general strategies that have a good research “track record” in terms of enhancing student achievement have been detailed in Classroom Instruction That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement (Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001).

The second role associated with effective teaching is classroom curriculum design. This means that effective teachers are skilled at identifying and articulating the proper sequence and pacing of their content. Rather than relying totally on the scope and sequence provided by the district or the textbook, they consider the needs of their students collectively and individually and then determine the content that requires emphasis and the most appropriate sequencing and presentation of that content. They are also highly skilled at constructing and arranging learning activities that present new knowledge in different formats (e.g., stories, explanations, demonstrations) and different media (e.g., oral presentations, written presentations, video presentations, Web-based presentations, simulations, hands-on activities).

The third role involved in effective teaching is classroom management. This, of course, is the subject of this book. The following chapters detail and exemplify the various components of effective classroom management.

Before delving into classroom management, however, it is important to note that each of these three roles is a necessary but not sufficient component of effective teaching. That is, no single role by itself is sufficient to guarantee student learning, but take one out of the mix and you probably guarantee that students will have difficulty learning. Nevertheless, a strong case can be made that effective instructional strategies and good classroom curriculum design are built on the foundation of effective classroom management. As Long and Frye (1985) note in their book, Making It Till Friday: A Guide to Successful Classroom Management, it is a myth to believe that

. . . effective teachers can prevent all discipline problems by keeping students interested in learning through the use of exciting classroom materials and activities. The potential for problems exists beyond academics. Students experience difficulties at home which spill over into the classroom; students experience problems with peers during class breaks and in the classroom which often involve the teacher; and students experience mood changes which can generate problems, to name just a few. (pp. 3–4)
Similarly, in their synthesis of the research, Edmund Emmer, Julie Sanford, Barbara Clements, and Jeanne Martin (1982) note that

At all public school grade levels, effective classroom management has been recognized as a crucial element in effective teaching. If a teacher cannot obtain students' cooperation and involve them in instructional activities, it is unlikely that effective teaching will take place ... In addition, poor management wastes class time, reduces students' time on task and detracts from the quality of the learning environment. (p. 13)
A Brief History of Classroom Management Research

It is probably no exaggeration to say that classroom management has been a primary concern of teachers ever since there have been teachers in classrooms. However, the systematic study of effective classroom management is a relatively recent phenomenon. Here we briefly consider the major studies on classroom management. (For more detailed and comprehensive discussions, see Emmer, 1984; Brophy, 1996; and Doyle, 1986, 1990.)

Arguably, the first high-profile, large-scale, systematic study of classroom management was done by Jacob Kounin (1970). He analyzed videotapes of 49 first and second grade classrooms and coded the behavior of students and teachers. Kounin's findings are discussed in more depth in Chapter 5, but it is worth noting here that he identified several critical dimensions of effective classroom management. Those dimensions (among others) are (1) “withitness,” (2) smoothness and momentum during lesson presentations, (3) letting students know what behavior is expected of them at any given point in time, and (4) variety and challenge in the seatwork assigned to students. “Withitness” involves a keen awareness of disruptive behavior or potentially disruptive behavior and immediate attention to that behavior; of the four dimensions, it is the one that most consistently separates the excellent classroom managers from the average or below-average classroom managers.

In 1976 Brophy and Evertson reported the results of one of the major studies in classroom management, up to that point, in a book entitled Learning from Teaching: A Developmental Perspective. Their sample included some 30 elementary teachers whose students had exhibited consistently better than expected gains in academic achievement. The comparison group consisted of 38 teachers whose performance was more typical. Brophy and Evertson's study, then, might be considered a comparison of exceptional teachers with average teachers. Although the study focused on a wide variety of teaching behaviors, classroom management surfaced as one of the critical aspects of effective teaching. Much of what they found relative to classroom management supported the earlier findings of Kounin. Brophy and Everson (1976) say this about their study:

Much has been said . . . in the book about our findings concerning classroom management. Probably the most important point to bear in mind is that almost all surveys of teacher effectiveness report that classroom management skills are of primary importance in determining teaching success, whether it is measured by student learning or by ratings. Thus, management skills are crucial and fundamental. A teacher who is grossly inadequate in classroom management skills is probably not going to accomplish much. (p. 27)

A series of four studies conducted at the Research and Development Center for Teacher Education in Austin, Texas, marked a milestone in the research on classroom management. The first study involved 27 elementary school teachers. The second involved 51 junior high school teachers. Results from the elementary school study were reported in Emmer, Evertson, and Anderson (1980) and Anderson, Evertson, and Emmer (1980). Results from the junior high study were reported in Evertson and Emmer (1982) and in Sanford and Evertson (1981). Both studies were descriptive and correlational in nature and identified those teacher actions associated with student on-task behavior and disruptive behavior. Again, Kounin's earlier findings were strongly supported. One of the more significant conclusions from these studies was that early attention to classroom management at the beginning of the school year is a critical ingredient of a well-run classroom.

The third and fourth studies, also conducted in the elementary and junior high schools, respectively, examined the impact of training in classroom management techniques based on findings from the first two studies. The findings from these studies were reported by Emmer, Sanford, Clements, and Martin (1982); Emmer, Sanford, Evertson, Clements, and Martin (1981); and Evertson, Emmer, Sanford, and Clements (1983). As described by Emmer (1984),

In the later two studies, the interventions occurred at the beginning of the school year and resulted in improved teacher behavior in many, but not all, management areas and also in more appropriate student behavior in experimental group classes as compared to control group classes . . . (p. 17)

Together, these studies set the stage for research and practice in classroom management for the late 1980s through the 1990s and resulted in two books on classroom management: one for the elementary level (Evertson, Emmer, & Worsham, 2003) and one for the secondary level (Emmer, Evertson, & Worhsham, 2003); both are now in their sixth edition. To date, these books have been considered the primary resources for the application of the research on classroom management to K-12 education.

The Classroom Strategy Study conducted by Jere Brophy (see Brophy, 1996; Brophy & McCaslin, 1992) was the next major study addressing classroom management. It involved in-depth interviews with and observations of 98 teachers, some of whom were identified as effective managers and some of whom were not. The study presented teachers with vignettes regarding specific types of students (e.g., hostile-aggressive students, passive-aggressive students, hyperactive students) in specific situations. Among the many findings from the study was that effective classroom managers tended to employ different types of strategies with different types of students, whereas ineffective managers tended to use the same strategies regardless of the type of student or the situation. One of the study's strong recommendations was that teachers should develop a set of “helping skills” to employ with different types of students. (Chapter 4 presents the implications of Brophy's study in more depth.)

In spite of the profound impact of these various studies, classroom management received its strongest endorsement in a comprehensive study by Margaret Wang, Geneva Haertel, and Herbert Walberg (1993). They combined the results of three previous studies. One involved a content analysis of 86 chapters from annual research reviews, 44 handbook chapters, 20 government and commissioned reports, and 11 journal articles. This analysis produced a list of 228 variables identified as having an impact on student achievement. The second study involved a survey of 134 education experts who were asked to rate each of the 228 variables in terms of the relative strength of their impact on student achievement. The third study involved an analysis of 91 major research syntheses. The end result of this massive review was that classroom management was rated first in terms of its impact on student achievement.

In summary, the research over the past 30 years indicates that classroom management is one of the critical ingredients of effective teaching. Many studies and many books have been published articulating the specifics of effective classroom management. So what does this book have to offer that has not already been established? Certainly, this book reinforces the findings and suggestions from many of the previous works. However, the recommendations in this book are based on a new research methodology not previously employed with the classroom management literature per se. That methodology is meta-analysis.
Meta-Analysis and Classroom Management

Meta-analysis is an approach to research that was formally developed by researcher Gene Glass and his colleagues (see Glass, 1976; Glass, McGaw, & Smith, 1981) in the early 1970s. In simple terms, it is a technique for quantitatively combining the results from a number of studies. Since its inception, it has been used extensively in the fields of education, psychology, and medicine. The powerful impact that meta-analysis has made on these fields of study is chronicled in the book How Science Takes Stock: The Story of Meta-Analysis by Morton Hunt (1997).

In effect, this research technique has allowed us to construct generalizations about education, psychology, and medicine that were previously not available. A logical question is, Why is the simple act of combining the findings from a number of studies so powerful? The answer is that any single study, no matter how well constructed, will have “uncontrolled error” influencing its outcomes. To illustrate, let's consider a well-designed study that examines the impact of a specific classroom management strategy on students' behavior. The study might randomly assign students to two groups—one that uses the strategy (the experimental group) and one that does not (the control group). The study might ensure that both groups do everything exactly the same except for the classroom management strategy that is being studied. Even with this level of tight control, the findings that come from the study might be influenced by uncontrolled error. For example, the way student behavior is measured might not be sensitive to behaviors that are important to the study; something might happen to the students in the experimental or the control group that is not related to the study but influences their behavior, and so on.

In fact, it is almost impossible to control all the error that might creep into a study. This is why researchers assign a probability statement to their findings. When researchers report that their findings are significant at the .05 level, they are saying that there is a very small chance—less than 5 chances in 100—that their findings are a function of the uncontrolled error in the study. When researchers report that their findings are significant at the .01 level, they are saying that there is as an even smaller chance that the findings are a function of uncontrolled error—less than 1 chance in 100. By combining the results of many studies, we can say with far more certainty than we can with a single study that certain strategies work or do not work. This concept is considered again in more detail in Chapter 2.

To write this book, I undertook a meta-analysis that included the findings from more than 100 separate reports. I discuss, in non-technical terms, the results of that meta-analysis throughout the book, and they form the foundation for my recommendations. (See the Appendix for a more detailed discussion of the meta-analysis and Marzano, 2003a, for a technical description.)

As shown in Figure 1.3, my meta-analysis addressed four general components of effective classroom management: (1) rules and procedures, (2) disciplinary interventions, (3) teacher-student relationships, and (4) mental set. The remaining chapters of this book address these factors (along with some others) in depth. However, let's briefly consider the meaning of the scores presented in Figure 1.3. The fourth column indicates the number of studies that were examined for each of the four components. The third column reports the total number of students involved in those studies. The second column presents the average effect size for each of the four general components of classroom management.

Figure 1.3. Meta-analysis Results for Four Management Factors

Factor           Average             Number        Number                      Percentile
                       Effect Size       of Subjects     of Studies           Decrease in Disruptions

Rules                    −.763              626            10                                             28
and
Procedures

Disciplinary      −.909             3,322           68                                           32
Interventions

Teacher-             −.869            1,110              4                                            31
Student
Relationships

Mental Set        −1.294             502                5                                             40

Note: All effect sizes are significant at the .05 level.

An effect size is a metric used in meta-analyses. In the context of this book, it tells you how much of a difference in behavior you can expect between classes that effectively employ a given aspect of classroom management and classes that do not. To illustrate, let's consider the average effect size for disciplinary interventions, as shown in Figure 1.3. It is −.909. This average was computed using the findings from 68 studies involving 3,322 students. An average effect size of −.909 can be interpreted to mean that in classes where disciplinary procedures were used effectively, the average number of classroom disruptions was .909 standard deviations less than the average number of disruptions in classrooms that did not effectively employ disciplinary procedures.

One of the benefits of using the effect size metric is that we can translate it into a percentile change relative to the average number of disruptions that occur in a classroom. Let's think of a disruption as any type of student behavior not sanctioned by the teacher. A disruption can be as innocuous as a student talking to her neighbor or as severe as a student being disrespectful to the teacher. So, for this example, we are not distinguishing the severity of disruptions, only the number of disruptions. What does an effect size of −.909 for disciplinary interventions tell us? In this case, an effect size of −.909 translates into a decrease of 32 percentile points relative to the average number of disruptions in class. (For a discussion of how effect sizes are translated into percentile changes, see the Appendix.) This means that the average number of disruptions in classes where disciplinary interventions are employed effectively will be at the 18th percentile in terms of the distribution of disruptions in classes where disciplinary interventions are not employed effectively.

To further understand the distribution of disruptive behavior, consider Figure 1.4. Let's assume that the average number of disruptions per day is 10 in classes where disciplinary interventions are not employed and that the standard deviation is 5.0. This is depicted in the distribution on the right of Figure 1.4. Given what we know about normal distributions, this implies that some days there will be many more disruptions than 10. In fact, we can predict that on some days the number of disruptions will be two standard deviations (or more) above the mean. That is, on some days there will be 20 disruptions in these classrooms. Conversely, some days the number of disruptions will be two standard deviations below the mean—some days there will be no disruptions. In other words, the classes that don't employ disciplinary interventions will have a few “low-disruption days” and a few “high-disruption days,” but the average number of disruptions will be 10 per day. Now let's consider the distribution on the left of Figure 1.4, which represents the classes that use disciplinary interventions effectively. Here the mean is 5.46 and the standard deviation is again 5.0. On high-disruption days, these classes will have 15.46 disruptions. On low-disruption days these classes will have none.

Figure 1.4. Effect Size of Disciplinary Interventions

In summary, Figure 1.4 indicates that classes that use disciplinary interventions will have their good days and bad days, as will classes that don't. However, the average number of disruptions in classes that use disciplinary interventions effectively is substantially fewer than in classes that don't. Over a year's time, this decrease in disruptive behavior results in a significantly different atmosphere in the two types of classes. Over a year's time, classes that employ disciplinary interventions will have about 980 disruptions, whereas classes that do not will have about 1,800.

The effect sizes reported in Figure 1.3 make a strong case that effective use of classroom management techniques can dramatically decrease the disruptions in your classes. The results of my meta-analysis also demonstrate the impact of effective use of classroom management strategies on student engagement and student achievement (see Figure 1.5).

Figure 1.5. Effects of Classroom Management on Engagement and Achievement

Outcome              Average             Number        Number           Percentile
                            Effect Size        of Subjects     of Studies           Increase

Engagement          +.617                   784                         7                                23

Achievement        +.521                    553                        5                                20

Note: All effect sizes are significant at the .05 level.

Figure 1.5 reports that classes in which effective classroom management techniques are used have engagement rates for students that are .617 standard deviations higher than the engagement rates in classes where effective management techniques are not employed. This translates into a 23-percentile-point increase in engagement. Figure 1.5 also indicates that classes with effective classroom management techniques reach achievement levels that are .521 standard deviations higher than the achievement in classes without effective classroom management techniques. This translates into a 20-percentile-point increase in achievement. In other words, my meta-analysis indicates that, on the average, students in classes where effective management techniques are employed have achievement scores that are 20 percentile points higher than students in classes where effective management techniques are not employed. By a number of measures, then, effective classroom management has a powerful impact on students.
Are Good Classroom Managers Born or Made?

Although the characteristics of an effective classroom manager are clear and even somewhat intuitively obvious, what might not be as clear or obvious is how you become an effective classroom manager. You might ask the question, Are effective classroom managers born, or can you become one if you are not one already? Fortunately, the answer to this question is that effective classroom managers are made. Good classroom managers are teachers who understand and use specific techniques. Awareness of and training in these techniques can change teacher behavior, which in turn changes student behavior and ultimately affects student achievement positively. Again, research evidence supports this assertion.

To illustrate, consider the research by Walter Borg and Frank Ascione (1982). In a study involving 34 elementary school teachers who were randomly assigned to experimental and control conditions, they found that (1) teachers who had been trained in the use of effective classroom management techniques (the experimental group) improved their use of those techniques when compared to a group of untrained teachers (those in the control group), and (2) the students of the teachers in the experimental group had fewer disruptions and higher engagement rates than those in the control groups.

One of the most promising findings from the research on becoming a skilled classroom manager is that apparently it can happen relatively quickly. For example, in their study of some 40 junior high school teachers randomly assigned to experimental and control groups, Emmer, Sanford, Clements, and Martin (1982) found that teachers' skills at classroom management could be significantly improved even by the simple intervention of providing them with a manual and two half-day work-shops. As described by Emmer and his colleagues,

The experimental treatment in the study was mainly informational, with no opportunity for feedback, directed practice, diagnosis with targeted intervention, or continued support and encouragement from staff or colleagues. Thus the treatment conforms to the type noted . . . as a minimal intervention . . . (p. 65)
Similar findings were reported for minimal interventions for elementary school teachers by Emmer, Sanford, Evertson, Clements, and Martin (1981).
How This Book Is Organized

The seven remaining chapters in this book cover various aspects of classroom management in greater detail. Chapter 2 addresses classroom rules and procedures. Chapter 3 discusses disciplinary interventions. Chapter 4 addresses teacher-student relationships, and Chapter 5 addresses mental set. Chapter 6 provides a different perspective on classroom management. Instead of considering what the teacher can do to enhance the management of the classroom, it considers the role of the student in the effective management of the classroom. In effect, it discusses student responsibility for classroom management. Chapter 7 considers how to begin the school year in a way that ensures a good start to management. Finally, in a shift from the individual-classroom perspective of Chapters 2 through 7, Chapter 8 considers the role of the school in the business of management.

Each chapter begins with a consideration of the research and theory. Next, specific programs that are particularly strong in a given aspect of classroom management are considered. The heart of each chapter is a section entitled “Action Steps.” These are specific recommendations for you, the classroom teacher.
Summary

Clearly, individual classroom teachers can have a major impact on student achievement. Of the three roles of the classroom teacher—making choices about instructional strategies, designing classroom curriculum, and employing classroom management techniques—classroom management is arguably the foundation. Research on classroom management supports this argument, as does the meta-analysis on which this book is based.

Table of Contents

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