EDITORIAL - Duchesne County Schools Report Card Thinking inside the box By Steve Puro [email protected] It is newspaper policy only to publish letters to the editor, or comments to the paper, which have names attached. This policy protects the paper from libel and assures people cannot attack an individual, company or business through anonymity. Okay, but what if the comments made, could cost a person’s job? Since the recent article in the UB Standard regarding grading by the state of Duchesne School District Schools and the overall score for the district, I have been contacted by several people offering suggestions about fixing the low scores, but those people were unwilling to go on official record in the paper making a statement. Several of those making comments are teachers within the district, from various schools, and varied areas of focus as educators. They are afraid to speak their mind for fear of reprisal by the district in the form of letters written and placed in their personnel files. Is there a process for educators and teachers to offer their opinion and ideas on developing new educational strategies? So, rather than leave people out to dry in the hot sun, I have compiled what seem to be the leading suggestions for turning the ship around and improving “proficiency” scores on the new SAGE test, improving school scores for college readiness, and perhaps improving the overall happiness of students and faculty members. Block scheduling. There are those within the school district who believe this to be the panacea for all things academic. The modified block 5x5 schedule was implemented at the beginning of the present school year. Listening to teachers talk about the obstacles of the block schedule and how it impacts learning and test scores, I became curious and went “Googling.” Research over the past several decades doesn’t seem to help clear the air much. However, recent long term studies seem to indicate that schools who went from traditional seven period schedules to block schedules are now slowly moving back to traditional schedules to improve proficiency scores. (Note – these are studies from across the nation, not just in Utah) One study, from a university, indicated the students least prepared for college work mostly came from schools using a block schedule of some type. I did learn, however, that at the same time DCSD implemented the block schedule and moved school start times to roughly 8 a.m., a large study came out in the fall of 2014 as students returned to school, indicating that early start times, before 8:30 a.m., were detrimental to student performance and testing regardless of grade, background or locale. The studies all agree on this point. If you start school early, you are going to hurt student comprehension and proficiency test scores. One parent told me their student “rode hours on a bus to and from” a sports activity only to arrive home after midnight. They were hard to get out of bed the next day and had no energy for learning. Why would a district, which is struggling to find every point possible in proficiency scores choose a class schedule system and start times proven to reduce those very scores? College preparation scores. It is no secret I am personally a fan of the arts. Performing, visual, written, I support them all. But, there are educators in the district, who have witnessed the power of integrated arts in the classroom as a means of improving comprehension, retention and creative thinking. We aren’t talking about the “Mozart effect” here, which anecdotally improved math test scores through listening to Mozart music about 30 minutes prior to taking a test. These new studies, by large organizations and school districts across the country, are finding supportive data in the correlation between students who have had four or more years of arts exposure in school prior to their senior year. Those who have had such training, consistently score higher on ACT tests in all areas of measurement as opposed to those who had little or no exposure to the arts. More interestingly, the impact of the arts on scores wasn’t just for the top tier students. The arts had the same impact on “at risk” students, low income students, and those from less than fortunate backgrounds. Also, students who had shown no interest in advanced education, once introduced to extended experiences in the arts, were more prone to want to stay in school, graduate, and continue their education. These same students were less likely to skip school and their attitudes about being in school improved. It is interesting to note, that math, reading and critical thinking scores all went up because of inclusion in the arts. Performing arts seemed to have the most dramatic affect, but any arts core was effective, which is why there is now a Presidential initiative to increase arts as a core subject in schools with “at risk” students. While not any one of these discussion points will solve the proficiency skills problems overnight, it would seem the district should at least consider the body of research and look at all solutions, not just leaning more on the educators for better performance. New School Board members might take note. Some of the resources are listed below. Block schedule and college readiness onlineathens/stories/041505/new_20050415039.shtml virginia.edu/insideuva/2006/08/block_scheduling.html jefflindsay/Block.shtml Sleep needs for students and associated proficiency readiness psychologytoday/blog/child-sleep-zzzs/201209/can-later-start-times-affect-school-achievement theatlantic/education/archive/2014/08/surprise-students-arent-getting-enough-sleep/379020/ Arts and academic performance dc.etsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3815&context=etd pcah.gov/news/pcah-launches-turnaround-arts-initiative-help-improve-low-performing-schools sciencedaily/releases/2013/10/131022170624.htm I would invite educators, parents and all interested parties to begin here and do their own research into what the best choices are for raising student core proficiencies from the present basement level scores to scores indicating success in educating our children. Get involved. Parents can’t get a letter in their file.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 23:41:03 +0000
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