2006 Education Trust National Conference

This presentation describes activities supported by grants from the U.S. Department of Education and the National Science Foundation. The session will demonstrate how one district used grant-funded, data-driven changes to effect large scale policy changes, especially in improving pre-service teacher preparation programs; increasing teacher retention; increasing teacher success in high-needs schools; and building strong partnerships with institutions of higher education (both two and four year), public school systems, and the business community.

Teaching underachieving children of poverty presents a daunting challenge for educators, schools and districts. A recent synthesis of 18 state and national studies on high-poverty/high-performing schools clearly documents that with appropriate school and classroom intervention dramatic achievement gain for these students will occur. This session will provide participants with compelling research, program and policy recommendations, and effective classroom strategies. K-12 high-achieving schools with significant populations of low SES students will be featured.

Session1.pdf

“Co-investigation” is a reflective problem-solving model that Teach for America teachers use to focus their professional development. The approach uses student achievement data as the lens through which to examine teacher performance; it calls for teachers and observers to collaborate in order to develop theories rooted in observational data and bolstered by the teacher’s emerging understandings about the reasons behind their current actions. The session will include video examples of the approach in practice and an opportunity to engage in a sample co-investigation.

This presentation describes how critical elements, such as innovative courses, parent teacher collaboration, resource identification, and effective teachers, raise student achievement in math and reading. Participants will learn about the reading program, science-math course, parent involvement, textbook selection and resources, and the effect of highly qualified teachers in raising student achievement. All students benefit from the incorporation of these elements, as indicated by our high scores on state standardized tests.

Session5.ppt

This session will highlight a model for middle school mathematics improvement developed through a collaboration between Texas Instruments and the Richardson Independent School District. The model includes eight research-based components designed to function as a system in order to eliminate the achievement gap between African American and Hispanic and white students. The results of the project will be shared and a discussion about systemic rather than curriculum reform will be facilitated.

Session7.ppt

In 2004-05, Illinois School District U-46, a large suburban district located just outside of Chicago, realized dramatic improvement in English Language Learner (ELL) achievement across its elementary schools.

Does professional development in your school or district need a boost? Do you need strategies to empower and retain teachers? Our Math Works model can help. This presentation will summarize the teacher-to-teacher model of math professional development that was created and implemented in the Baltimore City Public School System. Learn how this teacher-centered, standards-based model can be implemented and modified to fit your professional development needs.

This session brings together a University of California (UC) researcher and two UC directors of college prep programs to discuss the algebra crisis in California schools. They argue that algebra is a major stepping stone for students interested in going to college and discuss how students who enroll in and successfully complete algebra by ninth grade are better prepared to take the higher-level mathematics courses required for college admission.

This presentation will outline how a community can take charge of its own educational destiny. Through grass roots organizing, the community can be educated. Then, as educated consumers, the community can elect new representatives to the Board of Education. Finally, the community can then expect its elected leaders to make the appropriate and necessary changes for educational reform. All reform is driven by the use of data and the development and use of rigorous curriculum to meet the needs of all students.

A new school, a military population, and a success story—an older school, a stable population, and another success story. This presentation will highlight the beliefs of two different but deeply committed staffs marching to the beat of the same drummer. Data analysis drives instruction in Newport News, Virginia, and sets the foundation for the building of a strong professional learning community within each school.

The state of Massachusetts offers a clear example of what public schools can accomplish with committed and sustained leadership and an unrelenting focus on setting rigorous standards and providing support to help students meet those standards. More students are passing the state’s high school exam each year, and the gaps between African-American and Latino high school students and their white peers are narrowing. In this plenary address, longtime Education Commissioner David P.

Deep in the heart of rural chicken country, East Millsboro Elementary School enrolls about 700 students, more than half of whom qualify for free and reduced-price meals. Thirty percent of East Millsboro’s students are African-American and more than 10 percent are Latino, part of a fast-growing Latino community. East Millsboro consistently posts some of the highest proficiency rates in the state—more than 95 percent of East Millsboro students meet state reading and math standards. East Millsboro’s African-American students outscore all students in the rest of Delaware.

What are the instructional strategies that successful schools use to reduce the achievement gap? What if every school district shared their best instructional practices with every other district and if every educator had a source to identify instructional strategies for teaching the district’s lowest performing? Several school districts are now part of a national webbased network to share scope and sequence, lesson plans, resources, and assessments to aid all school districts in improving teaching.

Session25.ppt

With the support of Battelle for Kids, Westerville Schools, a suburban Ohio district serving 14,000 students of increasing diversity has been analyzing value-added effects from third to tenth grade and across subgroups in mathematics and reading. We are using value-added data to determine if students have equitable opportunities to access effective teachers and programs. In our highest poverty schools, we found that a Literacy Collaborative Model has accelerated growth in reading.

This panel brings together community leaders, a researcher, and a Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) School Board member who have forged a strategic alliance to bridge the education gap in Los Angeles public schools. A University of California researcher discusses how equity-focused research can be used to promote systemic school reform.

A new value-added teacher preparation assessment model is being piloted in Louisiana to examine the effectiveness of teacher preparation programs in preparing new teachers whose fourth to ninth-grade students demonstrate gains in achievement in English/language arts and mathematics. The model was initially piloted in ten schools districts during 2003-04 and 2004-05 and recently piloted in all 68 school districts during 2005-06. State plans to use the data to improve the quality of all public and private universities will be discussed.

Session31.ppt

This workshop will introduce participants to Dispelling the Myth Online, an interactive database that allows users to mine school-level achievement and demographic data in almost every state. With Dispelling the Myth, users can identify higher-achieving and high-improving schools serving higher proportions of poor and minority students in their communities. Space is limited and seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Presenters:
Education Trust Staff

Cyber Café