Common Academic Core
In November 2005, the Education Trust released a paper entitled Gaining Traction, Gaining Ground. This paper featured the research findings of an extensive study that looked at how certain high schools are improving the performance of all children using similar initiatives. These “high-impact” schools, as the study refers to them, accomplish this improvement by making sure that all students have the same access to a common academic core. Specifically, these schools do the following:
· Have consistently higher expectations for all students, regardless of students’ prior academic performance; all principals, teachers, and counselors take responsibility for helping students succeed.
· Remove barriers to high-level course taking; students are encouraged to take on academic challenges. In average-impact schools, there are hurdles to gain access to the most challenging courses.
· Use assessment data for future planning, such as improving curriculum or making teacher assignments. Average-impact schools tend to use data primarily to measure past student performance.
The study goes on to say that when students with lower achievement scores are given the more rigorous curriculum, their performance actually increases. This goes against the notion that some students should be taught a different curriculum because they will fail with a more rigorous one. It isn’t enough to simply have a common, aligned core curriculum. That curriculum must be taught universally to all children, regardless of past performance. Students will learn the curriculum with appropriate supports.
KTLC Registration Now Open
Registration for the 2007 Kentucky Teaching and Learning Conference is now open. The 2007 Kentucky Teaching and Learning Conference will begin with an opening keynote address, reception, and drawing for a cruise on Wednesday evening, March 7. Workshops and concurrent sessions will be conducted Thursday, March 8, and Friday, March 9. There will be no Saturday sessions. This year's venue will again be the Kentucky International Convention Center in Louisville, Kentucky.
The Kentucky Teaching and Learning Conference provides a unique opportunity for administrators and educators to come and share the most current, relevant, research-based ideas and strategies around targeted topic areas for an appropriate audience of teachers, administrators, and other learners that can be implemented upon their return to districts to positively impact or support student learning using technology as a tool.
With the help of our KDE partners, great changes are in store for KTLC 2007. The theme for KTLC 2007 is Rigor, Relevance and Relationships: Three R's of a 21st Century Education. The focus will be to help schools and districts address rigor, relevance and relationships as they plan learning opportunities for all students.
Registration information can be found by going to KTLC Conference Registration.
Mathematics Coaching Program
The Kentucky Center for Mathematics (KCM) invites K-12 teachers to apply to join a growing cohort of mathematics coaches in Kentucky. It’s an exciting opportunity for teachers with at least three years of teaching experience. Read more about the coaching program at the KCM Coaching Program. Applications are due March 16.
Quotable Quotes
“It is difficult to dispute the proposition that students are likely to exert more energy and attend more carefully to tasks and assignments in which they are authentically engaged than in tasks where their engagement is less profound.”
Phillip Schlechty