Showing papers in "Educational Leadership in 2001"

Teaching to the Test

Abstract: American teachers are feeling enormous pressure these days to raise their students' scores on high-stakes tests. As a consequence, some teachers are providing classroom instruction that incorporates, as practice activities, the actual items on the high-stakes tests. Other teachers are giving practice exercises featuring "clone items"—items so similar to the test's actual items that it's tough to tell which is which. In either case, these teachers are teaching to the test.

When Older Students Can't Read.

Abstract: Since 1996, state and federal reading initiatives have focused on the problem of reading failure at kindergarten and the primary grades. The focus on early intervention is well-conceived, given the strong evidence that research-based instruction beginning in kindergarten significantly reduces the number of children who experience reading difficulty (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000).

Helping Standards Make the GRADE

Abstract: The issue of grading looms on the horizon for standards-based education. With standards and assessments now in place, educators face the daunting task of how best to grade and report student learning in terms of those standards. Most educators recognize the inadequacies of their current grading and reporting methods (Marzano, 2000). Few, however, have found alternatives that satisfy the diverse needs of students, parents, teachers, school administrators, and community members.

Ten Minutes a Day for Silent Reading.

Abstract: Classrooms in the United States have had sustained silent reading programs for more than 25 years. Proposed by Lyman Hunt at the University of Vermont in the 1960s, sustained silent reading programs became popular in the 1970s. I became interested in these programs in 1978 when I realized that many students couldn't tell me when they had last finished reading a book. They blamed their inability to finish a book on a lack of leisure time and on their belief that most books were boring.

Teaching for Character and Community.

Abstract: Two women stand on the bank of a swift river. The current carries a man, desperately struggling to stay afloat, toward them. Both women jump into the water and pull the man to safety. While the brave rescuers tend to the victim, the current carries toward them a second man, also desperate and screaming for help. Again the women jump into the river to the rescue. As they pull out the second victim, they spot a third man flailing about. One woman quickly jumps into the water to save the latest victim. She turns to see the other woman striding upstream. \"Why aren't you helping?\" she cries. \"I am,\" replies the other woman. \"I am going to see who is pushing them in.\