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October, 2005
PD Prep for Denver, October
17, 2005
Help Schools Involve
Parents, October 11, 2005
The Morning News, October 4,
2005
PD Prep for Denver
October 17, 2005
(To print additional
training NTI training documents, click here!)
Professional
Development for teachers, tutors, and program managers is one of the most
important services you provide. As we work with states on their
professional development systems, we find many exciting strategies and
resources. We have compiled a wealth of them for you to consider.
The resources we will
share at the National Training Institute in Denver are in three parts:
-
Research: Cris
Smith from NCSALL will review implications from her study on How
Teachers Change—yes we now can be research-based.
-
Policy: A variety
of states will share the policy they developed to support the
professional development.
-
Practice: A
variety of states will share how they implement the policies regarding:
-
Practitioner
Standards to clarify what is expected of teachers and program
managers
-
Professional
Development Components
i.
Orientation training for teachers and program managers
ii.
Core training—things that everyone needs to know
iii.
Responsive training—responding to individual professional development
needs
iv.
Program Expansion—expanding to family literacy, workplace education,
distance learning and the like
-
Policy
decisions
i.
Content—What content needs to be in each component?
ii.
Access—How do you want practitioners to access the training?
iii.
Incentives—What incentives can you put in place to encourage
participation?
iv.
Fulfillment—What do you want participants to do as a result of
training and how will you measure it?
In
preparation
for these discussions, you might want to engage your staff and/or your
advisory committee members in reviewing the attached documents from
the AALPD—the organization of our professional developers. Based on the
research, they have proposed policy recommendations for you to consider in
expanding and enhancing your professional development system.
Your
discussion questions might include the following. For each recommendation,
1. Does
this recommendation jive with our thinking?
2. To
what extent does our PD system incorporate this recommendation?
3. If
it is not there, do we want to incorporate this recommendation into our PD
system?
4. What
information do we want to get about how other states are incorporating this
recommendation?
We look
forward to seeing you in Denver.
Keep up the good work.
Let me know when we can help.
Help Schools Involve Parents
October 11, 2005
In family literacy programs, we encourage parents to get involved with the
schools. It may be that the public school does not know how to involve the
parents, especially those of other cultures. This report gives schools some
strategies to support the parents getting involved. It might be resource
for your family literacy programs working with the local schools. Below is
the description. Attached is the article.
REACHING OUT TO DIVERSE FAMILIES
Family involvement in schools is often limited to a small group of parents
who seem to do everything. Culturally diverse families may not feel they fit
in at the school or have a different perspective on what it means to be
involved, so they are often left out of school activities. How can schools
move beyond a limited level of family involvement and encourage all families
to become more active in their children’s schools and education? A new
strategy brief from the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL)
helps answer this question. It discusses strategies helpful to schools that
want to broaden and deepen involvement beyond the traditional fundraising or
party-planning activities. Chris
Ferguson, author of the brief, says that research has indicated that
parents, regardless of their ethnicity, culture, or economic status are
interested in their children’s education. "They just may not know how to
help their children with school matters," she says, "or they may feel like
they don't have the knowledge or expertise to help their children with
school work." According to Ferguson, schools can help parents become more
comfortable playing a strong role in their children’s education. Schools
that are successful involving families are able to build on the cultural
values of families and foster communication with families. Successful
schools have also created an inviting environment for families and often
facilitate involvement by providing transportation, translators, and other
similar services. They can also help parents learn strategies to support
their children’s academic needs. "All schools can increase their parent and
family involvement," says Ferguson. "It just takes time and innovative
strategies to develop a strong, two-way relationship."
http://www.sedl.org/connections/resources/rb/rb5-diverse.pdf
The Morning News
Adult Education State Directors' National Training Institute
Denver, November 9-12, 2005
October 4, 2005
Are you
ready for 5 minutes of fame? You are doing some really exciting things in
your state that you need to share with your colleagues. Your venue is the
Morning News, co-hosted by Randy Whitfield (NC) and friends.
Remember all the useful tidbits of information you learned over the last few
years during the Morning News, not to mention the laughs? Now it's your turn
to share some knowledge with the rest of us! Do you have a really
interesting initiative going on in your state that you want to share? Have
you developed a new process or policy that has had significant impact?
Whatever it is, we would like to have you as a guest on the Morning News!
During breakfast on Thursday and Friday, our Co-hosts offer you five minutes
of fame to brag about your current initiatives or events. Here are the
steps:
Notify Randy Whitfield; whitfieldr@nccommunitycolleges.edu
1. Indicate your preference for Thursday or Friday morning (if you have
one). Randy will confirm your exact time before the Institute.
2. Provide an electronic copy of talking points that can be included in a
PowerPoint.
3. Provide more detailed printed copy for The State Directors Morning News,
which is a newspaper format of the morning presentations. This maximum
half-page information can give more details of the activities.
4. Provide the name of the State Director or other who will make the
presentation.
5. BE SURE TO LIMIT YOUR PRESENTATION TO FIVE MINUTES.
It is not Good Morning America, but it is not bad.
Keep up the good work. Let me know when we can help.
Two
Reports
September 30, 2005
I realize we teach adults but from time to time it is informative to look at
the public schools to see what is happening there. Here are two reports
from the Public Education Network that I thought might be of interest.
Public Education Network Weekly NewsBlast
"Public Involvement. Public Education. Public Benefit."
********************************************************
THE BIGGEST NEWS YOU DIDN'T HEAR LAST WEEK
After analyzing National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test data
from 25 states, three prominent education researchers have determined that
there is no consistent link between the pressure to score high on a
state-mandated exam and that state's student performance on the NAEP.
Sharon L. Nichols, the study's lead author, concluded: "A rapidly growing
body of research evidence on the harmful effects of high-stakes testing,
along with no reliable evidence of improved performance by students on NAEP
tests of achievement, suggests that we need a moratorium in public education
on the use of high-stakes testing."
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA092505.3A.stinson.2580a78.html
AS TEST SCORES JUMP, RALEIGH CREDITS INTEGRATION BY INCOME
Over the last decade, black and Hispanic students in Wake County (NC) have
made such dramatic strides in standardized reading and math tests that it
has caught the attention of education experts around the country. The main
reason for the students' dramatic improvement, say officials and parents in
the county, which includes Raleigh and its sprawling suburbs, is that the
district has made a concerted effort to integrate the schools economically.
Since 2000, school officials have used income as a prime factor in
assigning students to schools, with the goal of limiting the proportion of
low-income students in any school to no more than 40 percent. The effort is
the most ambitious in the country to create economically diverse public
schools, and it is the most successful, according to several independent
experts. In Wake County, only 40 percent of black students in grades three
through eight scored at grade level on state tests a decade ago. Last
spring, 80 percent did. Hispanic students have made similar strides.
Overall, 91 percent of students in those grades scored at grade level in the
spring, up from 79 percent 10 years ago. Some experts said the academic
results in Wake County were particularly significant because they bolstered
research that showed low-income students did best when they attended
middle-class schools. Some parents chafe at the length of their children's
bus rides or at what they see as social engineering, writes Alan Finder. But
the test results are hard to
dispute, proponents of economic integration say, as is the broad appeal of
the school district, which has been growing by 5,000 students a year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/25/education/25raleigh.html
Keep up the good work. Let me know when we can help.
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