The Whole Child Podcast

The Future of Assessment

January 12th, 2012

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The true measure of students’ proficiency and readiness for college, career, and citizenship has to be based on more than just their scores on any state standardized reading and math assessments. It has to be based on valid, reliable, multiple sources of information. In 2002, the passing of the No Child Left Behind Act (the revision of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act) required more tests and it raised the stakes of those tests by meting out sanctions if students failed to reach each state’s minimum levels of improvement. The emphasis of the law really was on documenting proficiency, and unfortunately that did not necessarily translate into improving assessment overall. When ESEA is reauthorized in the coming years, testing is likely to remain a key part of the law.

In our Assessment 101 show, we looked at the meaning and purpose of assessment, the different types, and how they are used to monitor student progress, provide timely feedback (or not), adjust teaching-learning activities, and contribute to student achievement overall. In this episode, we discuss the future of assessment and how the current accountability model must evolve from one that is punitive, prescriptive, and often overly bureaucratic to one that is truly learning-driven, informative, promotes supportive learning communities and cultures of continual improvement, and rewards achievement. You’ll hear from

  • Susan Brookhart, an ASCD Faculty member, author, and senior research associate in the School of Education at Duquesne University. Brookhart has spent the last 20 years studying and writing about classroom assessment and specializes in combining research-based strategies and practical applications, working with classroom teachers and administrators to customize strategies for their schools.
  • Deborah Gist, the Rhode Island Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education and member of the governing board of the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, a consortium of states working together to develop a common set of K–12 assessments in English and math anchored in college- and career-readiness. Gist began her career as an elementary school teacher in Texas and has also served as a senior policy analyst at the U.S. Department of Education.
  • David Griffith, the director of public policy at ASCD who leads the development and implementation of ASCD’s legislative agenda as well as ASCD’s efforts to influence educational decision making at the local, state, and federal levels. He has 20 years of political experience as a congressional aide and on several political campaigns. Prior to joining ASCD, Griffith was the director of governmental and public affairs for the National Association of State Boards of Education, where he oversaw the organization’s advocacy and political activities as well as media relations.

What is your vision for the future of assessment?

Assessment 101

December 7th, 2011

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The reality in the United States right now is that we focus extensively on test scores and far too little on the whole child. We then choose one-size-fits-all fixes based on those test scores while ignoring solid research about the infinite ways kids learn and children develop. The true measure of students’ proficiency and readiness for college, career, and citizenship must be based on more than just their scores on any state standardized reading and math assessments. It has to be based on valid, reliable information from multiple sources.

In this episode of the Whole Child Podcast, we’re taking a look at the meaning and purpose of assessment; the different types, including formative and summative, standardized and subjective, and informal and formal; and how assessments are used to monitor student progress, provide timely feedback, and adjust teaching-learning activities to maximize student progress. What should we know that assessments can’t do for us? What should we think about when we look at that data, assess its meaning, and decide how to use it for future planning? You’ll hear from

  • Nancy Frey, professor of literacy in the School of Teacher Education at San Diego State University and coauthor of several ASCD books, including The Formative Assessment Action Plan and Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques for Your Classroom.
  • Tom Whitby, adjunct professor at St. Joseph’s College and founder of #Edchat, which has been recognized with an Edublog Award for the Most Influential Educational Twitter Series.
  • Peter DeWitt, principal of Poestenkill Elementary in New York, consultant for the International Center for Leadership in Education, and author of the Finding Common Ground blog for Education Week and the upcoming book Dignity for All: Safeguarding LGBT Students.

Follow host Molly McCloskey and our guests on Twitter @Molsmcc, @NancyFrey, @tomwhitby, and @PeterMDeWitt and share your thoughts on assessment. In January’s episode of the Whole Child Podcast, we will continue the conversation by looking at what the future of assessments should be.

How do we demonstrate our high expectations of students—and ourselves—through our curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices?

More Than Just Gym: Integrating Movement Across the School Day

November 3rd, 2011

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A high-quality physical education program is indisputably important, and so is ensuring that students are active across the school day and not just in gym class for 45 minutes—or worse, 20 minutes every other day. Research shows that kids who are physically active are not only healthier, but are also likely to perform better academically, and short activity breaks during the school day can improve concentration, behavior, and enhance learning. In short, school-based physical activity is valuable exercise—it aids cognitive development, increases engagement and motivation, and is essential to a whole child approach to education.

In this episode of the Whole Child Podcast, we discuss new ways to encourage movement and how schools are bringing physical activity out of the gym and into the classroom to maximize learning and well-being. You’ll hear from

  • Jill Vialet, CEO and founder of whole child partner Playworks, the only nonprofit organization in the country to send trained, full-time program coordinators to low-income, urban schools, where they transform recess and play into positive experiences that help kids and teachers get the most out of every learning opportunity throughout the school day.
  • Michael Opitz, a former elementary school teacher and reading specialist and current professor of reading at the University of Northern Colorado, is the author of Literacy Lessons to Help Kids Get Fit & Healthy, in which he shares secrets for combining literacy-rich, ready-to-use lessons with easy-to-implement fitness exercises.
  • Andria Caruthers, is principal at West Education Campus in Washington, D.C., where she works toward student success through motivating her students to focus on academics and the well-being of the total body.

How do you design your classroom lessons to include movement and physical activity? What effects has this had on student engagement and overall school climate?

Building a Better School Community: Using PLCs to Support Student Success

October 6th, 2011

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Ensuring that all children are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged is fundamental for students to become college-, career-, and citizenship-ready. Our policies and practices need to be realigned to support the whole child, and that means a change in how the adults work together. Professional learning communities (PLCs) have emerged as perhaps the best, most agreed-on means of continual improvement in instruction and student performance.

Whether it be in a single school or online, in study groups, action research teams, communities of practice, or conversation circles, educators working together with a shared focus on learning and accountability help all students learn at high levels.

In this episode of the Whole Child Podcast, we take a look at collaborative and collegial learning environments where staff members feel safe to express themselves, discuss, and take an active part in the school improvement process and the student success process. You’ll hear from

  • C. Robert Maxfield, associate professor and teacher leadership coordinator in the Department of Educational Leadership at Oakland University in Michigan and cohost of the podcast series “Podcasts for Leaderful Schools,” a program that focuses on the importance of creating effective professional learning communities centered on student success. Maxfield’s research interests include teacher leadership and reforming school organizational structures.
  • Steven Weber, who has been a classroom teacher, assistant principal, and state department of education consultant in Arkansas and North Carolina and is currently the director of Secondary Instruction for Orange County Schools in Hillsborough, N.C. He is a member of the Triangle High Five, a regional collaborative that offers professional development on the topic of PLCs. Weber also consults with school systems in aligning their curriculum and in unpacking curriculum standards.
  • Sunndip Panesar, a grades 6–12 online/distributed learning teacher in Vancouver, Canada. As a consultant for Generation: Outreach, Panesar helps teachers and education leaders overcome the challenges of PLCs and understand how they can be used to effectively affect student achievement, and she provides workshops on new teacher survival skills, classroom management, 21st century learning, effective assessment practices, integrating best teaching in the classroom and online, and more.

Who is in your professional learning community and how do you collaborate to improve student learning?

Partnerships Between Home and School: The Real Missing Link?

September 8th, 2011

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Families are a central source of children’s learning and development, and their influence cannot be ignored. Engaging with families can inform, complement, reinforce, and accelerate educators’ efforts to educate the whole child. Without strategic and continual connections between families and educators, we cannot ensure that students are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged.

In this episode of the Whole Child Podcast, we examine research that overwhelmingly reinforces the need for family engagement, practices that create and sustain meaningful involvement, policies that can bring about systemic change, and barriers that we must overcome to achieve this vision. You’ll hear from

  • Heidi Rosenberg, research analyst at the Harvard Family Research Project, whose research projects address family involvement in education, complementary learning systems, and evaluation strategies.
  • Sheila Jackson, director of the Department of School Improvement and the Comer School Development Program Office and Regional Training Center for Prince George’s County (Md.) Public Schools, who consults nationally on school reform, community development, child and adolescent growth and development, parental engagement, and more.
  • Trise Moore, Family and Community Partnership Director for Federal Way Public Schools in Washington State, where she has built a team of parents and staff leaders that helped the district gain recognition by the National PTA and the Harvard Family Research Project as one of six exemplary family engagement frameworks in the United States.

What do you think is the most powerful way a family can be engaged in the education process?

Inclusive Learning: Meeting Each Student's Special Needs

August 3rd, 2011

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Creating an inclusive environment where each student feels safe and supported in an engaging and appropriately challenging environment is rarely an easy feat, yet it is essential to educating the whole child. Regardless of strengths and challenges, each student needs and is deserving of full membership within the classroom and school community. While each student benefits from this inclusive environment, it is critically important and often challenging to ensure it for students with special needs.

In this episode of the Whole Child Podcast, we focus on creating inclusive learning environments that develop students at all levels. You’ll hear from

  • Timothy Shriver, chairman and CEO of Special Olympics. In that capacity, Shriver serves 3.1 million athletes and their families in 175 countries. He has helped transform Special Olympics into a movement that focuses on respect, acceptance, and inclusion for individuals with intellectual disabilities in all corners of the globe.
  • Evan Heller, a student who has been involved with and coached Special Olympics for eight years. Heller is also a member of the national Special Olympics Youth Activation Committee and his local Massachusetts State Youth Activation Committee. He is a recent high school graduate and this fall will be a freshman at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where he plans to double major in psychology and English.
  • Latoya Dean, a doctoral student at the University of North Texas in the Leadership for Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders program. She is also a Content Mastery/Helping teacher in Garland, Tex. Dean has worked in varies capacities with people with disabilities, and her current research interests include transitioning students with disabilities into adulthood, parental involvement, and interagency collaboration. She is interning this summer at the Office of Special Education Programs at the U.S. Department of Education.

Do you have an Evan or Latoya at your school? What can you do when the school year begins to help create inclusive environments to meet each student’s special needs?

School Environments: Transforming Learning Spaces

June 9th, 2011

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Schools that take a whole child approach to education are conscious of the intersection between physical space and the academic, social, and emotional development of students. The learning environments we create—the physical along with school climate—can either help or hinder learning, development, teaching, and collaboration.

In this episode of the Whole Child Podcast, we look at what kind of school environments optimize the way students learn, teachers teach, and communities interact and hear from guests who are creating learning environments that facilitate the process of ensuring students are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. You’ll hear from

  • Bob Pearlman who shares his extensive experience and expertise working at nearly every level of the school transformation process. Extend your learning with resources on new learning environments to support 21st century learners. Download a free chapter on designing new learning environments, written by Pearlman, from the book Rethinking How Students Learn.
  • Kristin Cuilla, director of new school development for New Tech Network, who describes how schools and communities are rethinking teaching and learning to create and transform learning environments where students are highly engaged.
  • Luis Torres, principal of P.S. 55 in the Bronx, N.Y., and a 2011 ASCD Outstanding Young Educator, who will share how he has used nearly every part of the learning environment, from the halls and walls to the neighborhood and community partnerships, to revitalize the school, students, family, and community. Learn more about Torres’ work in this interview:

What is your school doing to transform the learning environment in ways that make a difference for students’ learning and development?

Beyond Our Halls and Walls: Getting to Community Engagement

May 12th, 2011

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There is much talk about the need for community involvement in educating the whole child. However, for many, questions persist about the concept of community:

  • Who is my community?
  • What does community involvement look like?
  • How do we build and sustain community involvement?

When these and other questions remain unanswered, it’s difficult to create an active community that is a meaningful part of a whole child approach to education.

In this episode of the Whole Child Podcast, learn what it means for communities to be involved in schools and how everyone has a role to play in ensuring that each student is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. You’ll hear from

  • Hugh Price, visiting professor in the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and author. From July 1994 through April 2003, Price served as president and chief executive officer of the National Urban League and launched its historic Campaign for African-American Achievement. In 2006–07, he cochaired the Commission on the Whole Child.
  • Dave LaRose, superintendent of the South Kitsap School District in Washington State, where he has developed partnerships with community agencies, health organizations, mentoring programs, and faith-based leaders to provide the resources students need to succeed in school. In 2009, LaRose received Washington State ASCD’s Reaching the Whole Child Award for his systemic and strategic approach to meeting the needs of all students.
  • Deborah Wortham, former superintendent of the Steelton-Highspire School District in Pennsylvania and former assistant superintendent for high schools and director of professional development for Baltimore (Md.) City Public Schools. Wortham has received numerous honors and awards, including teacher of the year and principal of America’s Best Elementary School for Significant Improvement.

Is your community looking for the “will” or the “way”?

The Middle Grades: Zits, Braces, and Hormones

April 14th, 2011

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The middle grades are a complex, challenging, and confusing time for adolescents and for adults to support and develop! Even so, more and more research points to the importance of this stage of childhood, when young people are grappling to figure out who they are. Helping young people through this process of identity formation is crucial as kids transition physically, cognitively, emotionally, and socially.

In this episode of the Whole Child Podcast, we examine how to foster middle grades students’ healthy development; create environments that facilitate learning throughout this transitional time; and support those who are working with these students in schools, in the community, and at home. You’ll hear from Al Arth, a professor of education at York College in Nebraska, and Caroline Bloxom, principal of Pocomoke Middle School in Maryland.

Throughout his career, Arth has been a strong advocate for middle school education. Among his many accomplishments, he was a founding member of whole child partner the National Association of Secondary School Principals’ (NASSP) Middle Level Council, served on the board of directors of the National Middle School Association (also a whole child partner), and developed one of the first doctoral-level middle school programs in the country at the University of Nebraska. Arth is the facilitator of ASCD’s Middle Grades Professional Interest Community; join the mailing list by e-mailing aarth@york.edu.

As principal of a multiple-award–winning rural school, Bloxom has created a safe and welcoming learning environment for students by combining a rigorous curriculum with strong emotional support for its student body. Pocomoke Middle School was also featured on NBC’s Today show in a segment highlighting the programs and services that are contributing to middle-level success.

Be sure to check out NASSP’s resources for middle-level schools and its MetLife Foundation-NASSP Breakthrough Schools program. The April 2011 issue of ASCD’s Educational Leadership magazine focuses on “The Transition Years,” looking at students moving from early childhood into elementary school, through the middle grades—perhaps the ultimate transition years—and then into 9th grade.

How do your school and community create learning opportunities that really engage and challenge students and move them to the next level in their academic experience?

Ready and Able: A Q&A with Jay Mathews

March 29th, 2011

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The demands of meeting all district, state, and national requirements often seem to leave no time for preparing students for anything else. Yet teaching solely to the test will leave students ill-equipped for college, careers, and citizenship. Recorded live at ASCD’s Annual Conference on March 28, this special edition of the Whole Child Podcast features an engaging conversation about powerfully preparing young people for the demands of the future.

You’ll hear a conversation between Molly McCloskey, managing director of Whole Child Programs at ASCD and host of the Whole Child Podcast, and Jay Mathews, education columnist for The Washington Post and author, about what it means to be college- and career-ready and the value of citizenship skills. Mathews answered questions from session attendees on a range of topics including the importance of teacher-student relationships, KIPP charter schools, and the responsibility of education journalists. He also shared his five characteristics of great schools:

  1. Have high expectations of every child.
  2. Dedicate more time to instruction.
  3. Take academic achievement and assessment seriously.
  4. Create a team spirit.
  5. Have great leadership.

What are your reactions to Mathews’s viewpoint? What do you think is critical to preparing young people for the complex futures that lie ahead?

Download a conversation on this topic with staff and a student from Quest Early College High School, winner of the 2011 Vision in Action: The ASCD Whole Child Award.

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