I need help interpreting this

Parent Cafe
1

<p>I received this communication from my district school headquarters. Can anyone help me understand what it means?</p>

<p>"The faculty and staff of (your school) were welcomed back to the 2008-2009 school year with a professional development plan that specifically focuses on differentiation of instruction and assessment of student performance. What is differentiated instruction? In differentiated instruction, students’ needs drive instructional planning. This model of instruction requires teachers to tailor their instruction and adjust the curriculum to the needs of the students. It is a cyclical process of teaching, assessing, adjusting, and making accommodations. The most important step in differentiated instruction is determining what students already know. Meaningful pre- and post- assessments lead to successful differentiation by producing results that communicate students’ needs. </p>

<p>The Special Education Resource Center (SERC), a State … Department of Education facility based in (the county seat), was enlisted by school superintendent, Xxxxxx Yyyy. SERC will provide staff professional development and expertise on differentiated instruction by providing comprehensive training along with technical support. </p>

<p>Members of SERC will become familiar fixtures within the (your school) schools. They will visit classrooms, observe teaching that is taking place, and validate what is working. In addition, demonstrations of teaching strategies that can be used to address different student learning styles within a classroom will be presented to district members. They will offer feedback as needed to make this initiative successful.</p>

<p>Learning teams comprised of content area teachers, special area teachers, pupil service support staff and administrators will be created. These learning teams will be encouraged to communicate, collaborate, and visit other districts that are further along in the process of differentiated instruction. Learning teams will then share their observations of differentiation in action with the remainder of staff members. </p>

<p>Over the next three school years, faculty and staff will engage in on-going workshops and department meetings. Student work, CMT and CAPT results will be carefully analyzed in order to determine areas of students’ academic strengths and weaknesses. Staff will then develop a plan of instructional practice that will target weak areas. They will continually evaluate and assess the progress of all students. This information will assist in the revision and adjustment of instruction so that it incorporates the necessary materials and strategies that target different learning styles. It is important to understand that high expectations and standards will continue to be the norm for all students. This initiative is about evaluating the effects of instructional formats, grouping, pacing, learning goals, activities and resources that are being used and making modifications when data indicates that adjustments are necessary.</p>

<p>Principals will also play an enormous role in the implementation of this initiative. They will be responsible for planning supplemental professional development opportunities for their staff and over-seeing activities occurring in their designated buildings. They will need to consistently support and monitor their teachers in using collected data to make necessary changes to their instruction. </p>

<p>Why is this initiative important to (your school)? This training provides the teachers of (your school) with the knowledge, support and the additional strategies needed to make their instruction more meaningful and beneficial to all children that enter into their classrooms. More importantly, it takes into consideration multiple intelligences and what teachers can do to create a learning environment where success is within reach for every child."</p>

2

<p>I think it means that they are redoubling their efforts in the special ed area …</p>

<p>but don’t worry because high expectations and standards will continue to be the norm for all students. </p>

<p>But we don’t want to leave anyone behind.</p>

<p>What do you think?</p>

3

<p>I’m not sure what it all means but it reminds me of that commercial for IBM where the employees were playing buzz-word bingo. Our district is all about individualized instruction now, and differentiation is big. My kids have had a few teachers who split the kids into groups for different types of tasks - kids who needed extra help with vocabulary, for example, would work together, while kids who had mastered that would work on more complex story analysis. It looks like they are trying to move away from a teacher teaching the same thing to the whole class for the entire class period, and into providing separate learning experiences within one classroom.</p>

4

<p>I think it means your school district has had trouble with the CMT and CAPT scores for certain subgroups of students and either has been put on some sort of needs improvement lists or will soon be. They are redoubling their efforts to pull more kids into proficiency. I think it spells trouble for the district as a whole. If your kids are already above the state goals, I think they will get little attention from these specialists.</p>

5

<p>I agree. It sounds as though they’re trying a program to help bring up previously low test scores on required standardized test scores. In my opinion, these programs may help to bring up the scores on the lower end of the spectrum but for the rest of the kids, it’s stifling.</p>

6

<p>It ought to mean that kids who are ahead of the curve will get differentiation too, but I wouldn’t count on it!</p>

7

<p>I agree with the above posters. The key is the phrase creating an environment “where success is within reach for every student.” If your child is already a high achiever, it spells trouble. </p>

<p>The CMT reports in Connecticut now have an interesting feature. They allow a parent to see the child’s growth over a two year period, versus the average growth of students in the district. It was sad to see my children grew less than the average, although they still posted superior scores. They just weren’t challenged. The focus was to “grow” the less proficient, reflecting the attitude that those at the top are just going to do fine on their own.</p>

8

<p>I worked many years in a school district that implemented a program called-“Success for All”. The reason for the program was to help increase test scores on the ELA. Kids were grouped according the their reading levels. There were 4th graders grouped with 1st graders. It was terrible. Every teacher was assigned a reading group and the entire school participated in the program for the first hour and a half of the day. In my opinion, all these programs do is teach the kids how to attack one style of testing. Read the passage, answer the questions, and write a short response. It’s the same thing every single day and for some kids, it’s torture. It may help to increase test scores but it doesn’t increase thinking skills.</p>

9

<p>Why can’t educators write in plain English?</p>

10

<p>In our district, “differentiated instruction” is the way gifted students are provided for. By claiming differentiated instruction during virtually every elementary lesson, having a certain number of meetings with parents, the district captures the pot of money for gifted education. Color me cynical.</p>

11

<p>Generally, unless they provide more advanced classes for the advanced students, all it means is a “redistribution” of ignorance. The teachers will spend more time with the needy students and leave the less needy to fend for themselves (“It’s Ok, they can pass the test w/o much help”). We are lucky that our district has been able to have the advanced programs available since from K-12, but even at the high school level we heard complaints from S1 of too much time spent on training to pass the tests and not on actual education. It’s really bad for the average student so a lot of people take the private school route.</p>

12

<p>This may not apply, but when I hear ‘differentiated classrooms’ – in our district, this is code for ‘keeping kids of differing ability levels in the same class’ and making the teacher accomodate (ideally they all ‘help each other’ or something like that). </p>

<p>I was told by a middle school principal that this is the ‘wave of the future in education’ and --when I objected that my kid who was already bored in the high level classes might not benefit from mixed ability grouping—was told I did not ‘understand because I didn’t have an educational background.’ </p>

<p>Maybe that’s not the case in your district – but might be something to look out for. Maybe worth emailing an administrator–does this mean any reduction in higher-level classes? or something along those lines (if you wanted).</p>

13

<p>“It’s really bad for the average student so a lot of people take the private school route.”</p>

<p>You’re absolutely correct. I’d like to add that I felt that it was really bad for all of the students. It gave the kids on the lower end and false sense of success–they believed that they were good readers because everyone in their group was reading at the same low level. The kids on the upper end were bored out of their minds with the routine. The kids in the middle felt stuck–as if they would never get out of their level and move on to the “smart” groups. Often times, the families that were financially able sent their kids to private school after a year or so of the program.</p>

14

<p>Thank you for your many thoughtful responses. I’m not often baffled by adminstrator-speak, but this one did it. “It is a cyclical process of teaching, assessing, adjusting, and making accommodations.” Adjusting AND making accommodations? “This information will assist in the revision and adjustment of instruction so that it incorporates the necessary materials and strategies that target different learning styles.” Oh yes, that explains it.</p>

<p>Our district spends a lot of money on what used to be called “Special Ed.” In many (most?) cases there is a teacher assistant in each classroom to provide supplemental guidance. I guess one possibility is that the SERC program is designed to help teachers better deal with the special ed students in their classes – with an eye toward eliminating the teacher assistants. Another (mentioned by several posters) is that this program is help both the teacher and the assistant better able to educate these students.</p>

<p>nysmile & J’adoube - I don’t think there’s much risk of driving (more) smart kids out of our school system, because one-quarter of district 8th graders already choose private schools for their HS education.</p>

<p>Again, thank you for all the replies.</p>

15

<p>* really bad for the average student so a lot of people take the private school route."*</p>

<p>We found a school for my oldest with differentiated instruction and experiential learning, in mixed classrooms of three grades. It was great. This was a private school.</p>

<p>I attended a school district meeting last night and heard one teacher talk about the SPED students in her school. 78% of the students passed the state acheivement test. That is higher than the district average for ALL students.
Reducing the acheivement gap isn’t going to be about giving those with resources more.
Sorry.</p>

16

<p>Jolynne, I agree. It sounds like they’re planning on adding special ed kids in the regular classroom, and adding teacher training and student testing.</p>

<p>Is mainstreaming a bad word now? I didn’t see that word in the memo.</p>

17

<p>EMK - I didn’t mean to start a debate on Special Ed. I just wanted an interpretation of the district communication.</p>

18

<p>ok</p>

<p>This model of instruction requires teachers to tailor their instruction and adjust the curriculum to the needs of the students</p>

<p>students with IEPs need a individualized education plan- and this will be addressed not only in resource room, but in their regular classroom.</p>

<p>*SERC will provide staff professional development and expertise on differentiated instruction by providing comprehensive training along with technical support. *</p>

<p>Training and support will be provided by the state.</p>

<p>These learning teams will be encouraged to communicate, collaborate, and visit other districts that are further along in the process of differentiated instruction</p>

<p>We will be observing other schools where this is currently being done & share the information</p>

<p>This initiative is about evaluating the effects of instructional formats, grouping, pacing, learning goals, activities and resources that are being used and making modifications when data indicates that adjustments are necessary.</p>

<p>Lots of meetings and trainings to implement and discuss this new information</p>

<p>Seems like focus will be primarily looking to getting inclusion to work in the classroom for SPED students- but that differing learning styles will be addressed across the classroom.</p>

<p>this may help if you haven’t seen it.
[Multiple</a> Intelligences](<a href=“http://www.thomasarmstrong.com/multiple_intelligences.htm]Multiple”>http://www.thomasarmstrong.com/multiple_intelligences.htm)</p>

<p>[Special</a> Education Law Blog: Inclusion](<a href=“http://specialedlaw.blogs.com/home/inclusion/]Special”>http://specialedlaw.blogs.com/home/inclusion/)</p>

19

<p>I disagree with the negative interpretations above. Differentiation is about dealing with “kids of differing ability levels in the same class,” but if you think about it, there is no classroom in which all the kids have exactly the same ability levels. It’s not possible. Even if you have a school with ten different levels of academic tracking, the kids in each classroom are going to be mixed. Differentiation is what excellent teachers do anyway - they tune in to where each kid is and figure out what the kid needs to get to the next level, whether that’s a new insight, more practice, correcting a misconception, or whatever. The teachers also coordinate the work so that everyone masters all of the core material of the class, though some kids may go beyond the core material in different ways. This is a teaching challenge, so the teachers in your district are being trained in how to do it better.</p>

<p>I think a teacher who is skilled in differentiation can successfully manage a classroom in which the breadth of students’ abilities and backgrounds is greater than average, and kids will still learn a lot and be successful. So it could be that your district is looking to expand the classroom mix and they know that differentiation is the key to doing that well.</p>

<p>My kids go to a small public charter school that has non-tracking as one of its themes. All kids take the same classes (except Spanish, where they are tested into an appropriate level). This includes AP classes in the junior and senior years. The kids come from about 30 middle schools and have a huge range of academic backgrounds and abilities - really hitting all the extremes. Mixing these kids into the same classrooms involves trade-offs. My kids are academically talented and they would be in the high tracks if they went to our neighborhood school. But they get so much value out of being in the mixed classroom - I wish I could articulate better what it is, but I know it matters to them. They learn differently and in some ways they learn more.</p>

<p>I think the subject matter of some classes is more naturally differentiated. English seems like the easiest - though I’m sure the English teachers would not appreciate my saying that :-). Math is the hardest, because it’s cumulative and you really have to understand everything to go on. At my kids’ school, pretty much every assignment in every class comes with options - if you want to stretch, here’s where to aim; if you want to cover the basics, here’s what to do.</p>

<p>But differentiation doesn’t just mean providing different levels - there are ways to design assignments cleverly so they naturally stretch kids in different ways. For example, one of the culminating assignments of the freshman English class is to write and deliver a persuasive speech. They work on it for a couple of months - read and listen to famous speeches, brainstorm topics, learn about rhetoric, write many drafts, and finally deliver the speech before a large audience. Both of my kids commented that the kids who weren’t academically great often gave amazing speeches. This assignment was a leveler - not bringing everybody down to the same level, but bringing everybody up.</p>

20

<p>I’m with Calreader and disagree with the negative interpretations in the former posts. I see differentiation as a big positive. </p>

<p>I am a former elementary school teacher from way back. When I taught, it was completely INDIVIDUALIZED and every student worked at his or her own level and pace. There were many different “assignments” and not one for all, unless the task was open ended to allow for differing levels of work. Further, I happened to teach a multi grade class (grades 1, 2, 3 combined) which was the philosophy of the school (this was before I had my own children but my kids luckily went through this system as well). I am against giving every kid the same task and the same level of expectations and pace. As a parent, I loved the experience my kids had K-6 because not only was it multi age classrooms but each teacher allowed my kids to work at their own level which was accelerated and beyond their grade level. They allowed them to do in depth independent studies. As a third grader, my kid go to attend the sixth grade spelling level group. As a fourth grader, she was excempt from spelling and was allowed to do an independent study (supervised by the principal) writing her own musical script/songs (was 90 pages). As an aside, this same child is now a young senior in college who is writing and producing her own musical (thanks grade 3-4 teacher and elem principal). I could give numerous examples but it was great and I’m speaking of “gifted/advanced” learners and not special ed kids (speaking of my own now). By the way, our school district and our state have no gifted ed policies or programs and so differentiated curriculum really matters in such an instance for kids at the top, and not just at the bottom. </p>

<p>Then, my kids got to our grade 7/8 middle school and it wasn’t tracked (that in itself was OK) but the bad part was that there was NO differentiation and everyone was given the same work and my kids were getting bored as they had come into the middle school advanced and accelerated since their elem school allowed for that and then all of a sudden, everyone was expected to work on the same level. This was very problematic. The teachers were NOT differentiating in the classroom. We had to have many accomodations made for both our girls, be it several independent studies, along with taking classes in the high school and so on (I won’t bore you with the details). </p>

<p>It got better in high school with tracked classes and not as wide of a discrepancy of levels in the class. But still, even so, a teacher should try to differentiate in the classroom. But this is a bigger issue at schools or in grade levels that are not tracked. </p>

<p>So, when I read the first post, I was thinking, yay, that would be great if I were in a school district that had the teachers working on differentiating the curriculum in the classroom. I detest the “one size fits all” method of teaching. My entire career as a teacher was aimed at individualized instruction, which benefits kids at any end, or even middle, of the spectrum.</p>