January Sharing Session – Notable Notes
January 12, 2008
Maryland ASCD President Delores Alexander greeted the attendees and welcomed them to this second in the association’s three-event professional development series. This morning session began with a facilitated discussion on the association’s theme of Educating the Whole Child, followed by a conversation about closing achievement gaps. The two dozen participants represented multiple school districts (Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Howard County, Montgomery County, Prince Georges County), three higher education institutions (Johns Hopkins, Towson, and McDaniel), and parents. Professional roles ranged from teachers (all levels, some classroom and some specialists), pre-service teachers, assistant principals and principals, retired educators, teacher educators, parent trainer and parent involvement activist. The diversity of perspectives made the discussion rich for all of us!
The group learned more about ASCD’s developing role of bringing the influence of the membership to bear on behalf of educating the whole child, including a short review of ASCD’s annual Leadership for Effective Advocacy and Practice (LEAP) Institute that is training affiliate leaders and Emerging Leaders in the most effective means to bring our collective influence to bear in Congress and in our state legislatures. The group expressed interest in partnering with parents to help move the whole child agenda forward in Maryland. Parents want and need training to be full partners on School Improvement Teams as well as in other forms of advocacy for improving education. We agreed to share information about the Maryland Parent Teacher Association Night in Annapolis coming up February 11, 6 PM. An important aspect of advocacy for the whole child is sharing notable success stories. Barbara Gimperling of the Family Service Agency (Gaithersburg) and Rhonda Ulmer, parent organizer at Van Bokkelen Elementary School (Anne Arundel County), shared details of the truly transformative work that was done at Van Bokkelen, taking this Title I school from low performing to high performing in only a few years through parent empowerment as full partners with the educators. (Check out their MSA data trends at mdk12.org – they rock the house!) The crux of the turnaround was Rhonda’s participation in the intensive Parent Leadership Institute that has impacted several thousand parents in Maryland to date through its 100 trainees. At a cost of about $80,000 per cohort of 25 parents from different schools, participants take those skills to their own children’s schools and begin the process of transforming the school-parent partnership. The cost-effectiveness of this endeavor was apparent to all of us who heard Barbara and Rhonda share their story: Maryland spends $40 million dollars annually replacing teachers, and research has shown that a key contributor to teacher turnover is the overall climate in the school. Parent participation that results in the kind of positive transformation Van Bokkelen has experienced can save many times the cost of the Institute, in addition to contributing to dramatically improving student achievement. (One of the key facilitators of these training institutes is Dr. Ron Thomas, the Executive Director of MD ASCD.)
The group began our discussion about closing achievement gaps by identifying just a few of the gaps that exist beyond the school setting: gaps in quality of home environments, access to health care, neighborhood safety, and involvement with supportive, caring adults. (In fact, these are among the priorities of ASCD’s Whole Child initiative.) We discussed ways to identify and address root causes, integrate professional development for educators, ensure involvement of parents, provide mentoring and coaching for students, and design appropriate field experiences to prepare new educators to be effective in challenging settings. We described the need for schools to celebrate small successes, build collaboration into the fabric of schools, connect academic learning and the world beyond schools, and facilitate students’ ownership of their own success as learners. It was noted that there may be content gaps among all groups, parents and educators as well as students. Learning during early childhood must be addressed as part of the global effort to improve achievement and reduce gaps. All stakeholders need to be equipped to use assessment data appropriately to make instructional and other decisions. It will take a systemic approach, integrating content knowledge, a supportive belief system, and instructional leadership. Since there are different kinds and levels of achievement gaps, it will take different lengths of time to address them. Some can be addressed through effective “triage” in a single grade level, and others will take a coordinated approach across multiple years. Interventions need to be sustained for long enough to see results. It is important to be honest about how long it takes to turn around challenging schools, requiring multi-year commitments, staff changes to ensure collaboration and buy-in, and strong community connections. We identified important gaps among the adults that contribute to student achievement gaps: the passion gap, the caring gap, and – arguably the most significant – the commitment gap.
The Sharing Session participants ended by identifying a set of next steps:
Linda S. Adamson
Maryland ASCD President-Elect