OSP Connected
August, 2018-Office for School Performance-Volume 21
Message from Dayle
Homework. We all have our own experiences and beliefs about homework. Some of us believe homework taught us responsibility, time management and discipline. For some of us we learned to cram, copy work from friends and count our points to ensure we had passing grades. But is the role of homework as we knew it as students the same for our students today?
In our district wide needs assessment over half our students say they can’t do the homework assigned. And for our Latino students over ⅔ of students report they can’t do their assigned work. When you read the comments of these 4000 students they say they don’t know how to do the work, have a job outside of school, have activities and sports, family commitments and some of them just say the work is meaningless- “busy work” and often not graded in a timely manner anyway. Sadly this is the same feedback we received in our 2016 Needs Assessment- it’s time for us to take action.
Here are ways to improve:
Make sure there is a purpose to your homework. Students should know what the expected learning outcome is of the work. If you find yourself thinking, “What should I assign as homework?” And it’s taking time to create something- give yourself permission to not assign it. No purpose? No homework!
Vary the type of homework you give. Homework can be practice: an opportunity to do something independently learned in class. Practicing a skill for fifteen minutes can be just as effective as an hour. Homework can be preparatory: observe, read, think, interview or create questions prior to a lesson to set the stage for learning. This homework allows you to assess what kids bring to the lesson already. Homework can be an extension: after a lesson or unit, extend the ideas, apply to new settings or audiences or problems. This can allow you to reach higher levels of rigor and allows for individualization.
Homework should be “do-able”. It shouldn’t require a printer, parents who have certain knowledge or time to assist, uninterrupted hours to sit at a kitchen table or supports who speaks English (or in my case Spanish). When assigning homework choose two or three representative students and think, “Do they have time to do this with their other classes?” ” “What language scaffolds, instructional resources and assistance do they need in order to be successful?” Then provide those things proactively or assign other homework and do the assignment you were considering in class instead.
Remember that the research around homework’s impact varies. We need new research regarding homework in the era of Siri and quick answers being at our students’ finger tips. Overall the meta-analyses say that some homework can be positive and improve students’ learning and academic success. However, too much homework can have the negative affect. How do we know what’s just right? Ask our kids! (And over half of our kids are saying they can’t do it.)
Everyone who teaches wants great things for their students. I believe that. We assign homework because we want ours students to be smart, disciplined and prepared for the rigors of life after graduation. The truth is our current practices aren’t creating these results. Our students are telling us the homework makes them feel incapable, stressed, frustrated and overwhelmed. We can do better. This year you have permission to try new things with homework. Challenge your PLC to think about the four points above and ensure quality homework is assigned if it is assigned at all!
HSD Focus 2017-2018
INSTRUCTION: Instructional Framework & Teacher Evaluation
HSD's instructional framework, based on the 5 Dimensions of Teaching & Learning, provides a structure to successfully implement high quality instructional practices for all students. As we begin the third year of our 5-year strategic plan, we will be focusing on Purpose, Engagement, Assessment and Classroom Environment & Culture. Now all licensed teachers will be evaluated with the 5D+ Rubric for Instructional Growth and Teacher Evaluation which will connect our instructional framework with the teacher evaluation tool. The + in the rubric relates to collaboration and communication which is an emphasis that we have as a district through our PLC work. This rubric is a growth oriented tool that helps educators understand what good teaching looks like.
Our priority in these areas continues to be rigor- knowing the DOK of the standard and teaching to it- and teaching language to ensure student engagement. Language is key to students' understanding and performance. Whether it is teaching CCSS Language standards or Academic Language or supporting your emerging bilinguals with language development, continue to get fired up about language this year! Consistently our lowest targets in SBAC in math and ELA are language use, grammar and vocabulary use, and our ever ELs continue to not perform as well as we know they can. Language scaffolds, support and direct teaching needs to occur in every classroom.
We are committed to staying focused on these two areas in classroom observations this year and supporting you with the skills you need to feel confident with language teaching, scaffolds and rigor to ensure student success.
Visit MyHSD to access "the why, the how and the what" of these dimensions.
Climate and Culture - Upping the Rigor Through Culturally Responsive Practices
According to Zaretta Hammond, culture is the way the that our brains make sense of the world, it is the software for the brain’s hardware. If we aren’t making content accessible to a student through what they already know they will be less likely to engage and retain that content. Think about a time that a teacher made content really meaningful for you? What did they do? It’s likely that they connected the content to your culture, or the way your brain makes sense of the world. Culture is much more than food and holidays, it’s the mental models we use to interpret information. Getting to know each of your students by name, strength, and need will help you understand their cultures, and how they learn best.
Here are some tips from AVID to make your classroom more culturally responsive for all students.
BUILDING STRONG RELATIONSHIPS: Becoming a Trauma Informed Educator
Between 1995 and 1997, Kaiser Permanente studied data from over 17,000 people in Southern California. During physical exams, participants that were surveyed regarding childhood experiences and current health status and behaviors. This groundbreaking study led to the identification of a list Adverse Childhood Experiences(ACES) that we have come to understand can actually change typical brain development and put the body under so much toxic stress that it can impact a person’s health and social-emotional well-being actually reducing a person’s lifespan by as much as 7 years. Examples of ACES include physical and sexual abuse, neglect, loss of a parent/caregiver due to death, abandonment, incarceration or divorce, and exposure to violence and substance use. A great overview of ACES comes from Bay Area pediatrician, Nadine Burke-Harris, in this TED Talk . Being trauma informed educator means that we focus on minimizing the impact of those traumatic events and avoid re-traumatizing a student by creating daily predictability, strong routine’s and rituals, and a warm and nurturing classroom climate and culture. The key to overcoming ACES is through resilience. Students become resilient by having at least one significant adult relationship in their life. Our students are only one caring adult away from being success story. Please be the one!
A good start would be to respond to the ACE's Survey in order to understand the impact of your own childhood experiences and how it supports the well-being and success of all students.
CAREER & COLLEGE READY: CTE
Several of our Career and Technical Education (CTE) Programs of Study receive Career Pathway Funding through ODE. The purpose of the Career Pathway Grant is to fund activities related to career and technical education programs of study that are pathways to high wage high demand jobs. Using Pathway funds and a Keiser Permanente Grant, Ramona Toth at Liberty High School planned and hosted a Health Science Summer Camp in June. Poynter Middle School students and current Liberty High School students learned more about the Health career field through site visits and hands on activities. This is just one of the Career and Technical Education (CTE) outreach programs focused on middle school students. In spring of 2018 with funding through Nike, we ran an after school CTE program, “Inspire the Future”, that exposed Brown Middle School students to CTE programming so students could get a head start on identifying courses that best reflect their career and college interests. As we move into the 2018-19 school year we will be focusing on programming like this for all of our middle school students; stay tuned for updates.
Board Goals of the Strategic Plan
The HSD strategic plan is a theory on a comprehensive system to support students. We continue to focus our services under community, culture and career. Based on research, data and feedback, we make investments on behalf of students. If we can prove our investments yield results, we will continue to invest. If not, we do differently. Here are the goals that we will continue to work on:
Community:
SMART Goal 1: By Spring 2019, 100% of secondary school admin, counselors, and grad coaches will be trained in using our student information system and data warehouse to identify who is known by name, strength, and need.
SMART Goal 2:By Spring 2019, increase by 10% the number of students participating in career-related internships.
Culture:
SMART Goal 1: By Spring 2019, offer professional development regarding trauma informed practices to all staff, with a goal of growing the skill set of 200 classified staff.
SMART Goal 2: From 2017-2018 to 2018-2019, we will see a 5% increase in the number of students of historically underserved groups “on track” in 9th grade, i.e. achieving at least 6 credits.
Career:
SMART Goal 1: Increase SBAC math scores by 3% overall and 5% for key groups in 2018-19 vs. 2017-18.
SMART Goal 2: From Fall 2018 to Spring 2019, we will see a 5% gain in the number of highly-effective instructional strategies in classrooms.
Update on Summer PD
Over 1,000 HSD staff members were involved in professional development throughout the summer! Of this number, around 400 staff attended the 2018 summit! Thank you to the staff, parents and students that shared their expertise! Check out the Summer Summit presentations and resources. Feel free to contact any of the facilitators with questions about their sessions.
Bond Update
As part of the HSD 2017 Bond approved by voters last November, we are very excited that 11 of our elementary schools have received new flexible classroom furniture this summer. All remaining elementary schools will receive this new flexible classroom furniture next summer, with the middle and high schools receiving their new furniture during the summer of 2020. Please check out the Bond website to keep yourself updated with all of the updates around the district. Updates such as high school fields, roofs, playgrounds parking lots, etc., etc.! Whenever possible post on social media pictures of any updates with the #hsdbond so that our community can see the wonderful supports that they have given our students.