When a district or school switches to standards-based education, also known as mastery-based education, there can be pushback from students, teachers, and parents. Navigating this pushback and making a successful transition to standards-based grading was the focus of a recent Tech & Learning webinar. 

The talk was hosted by Dr. Kecia Ray and featured Sara Andrus, District Administrator with Sharon J11 Community Schools in Wisconsin, and Lisa Westman an author, speaker, and consultant who works with school districts to implement standards-based grading. The webinar also featured input from Kendell Hunter, product marketing manager for Otus, and a former classroom educator. 

Watch the full video of the webinar on-demand here. 

Key Takeaways  

Building a Rubric Based on Standards and Finding Meaningful Assessment 

Andrus said that Sharon J11 Community Schools started their discussion of standards-based, or mastery-based, grading by looking at what grades actually convey to educators and parents. “What does an A tell you about your kid? Does it tell you the skills the child has or doesn't have? Or does it just tell you that they were quiet in class,” she said.

Using state standards as a guide they built rubrics that students could be assessed against. “The rubric builds itself if you look at the standard,” Andrus said. Educators in the district then engaged in “calibration conversations,” Andrus said. “What are the standards telling us these kids should be able to do at this point? And if they can't do that, why not? And how can we help fill those gaps?” 

Westman said that sometimes when schools try and implement standards-based learning they don’t focus enough on calibrating their instruction and assessment, and focus too much on creating a standards-based report card. “A lot of time was spent on creating this report card. Not a lot of time was spent and helping teachers parents and students understand the shift,” she said. “Everyone wants to start with a report card, but really that's the end. So don't start with the report card. Start with the practices.”

More Chances to Succeed and No More Zeros 

One of the points of resistance among some educators’ in Andrus’ district was around the concept of re-dos. “So there was a big conversation around what's the point of a redo,” she said. “It's to show you've corrected your misunderstandings. Why wouldn't you get credit for that?” 

Re-dos are likely to be a topic requiring discussion when implementing mastery or standards-based learning. “Sometimes they may say, ‘Well, this thing only had two questions on it, so I don't want them to redo it,’” Andrus says. “I say great. Is there another way they could show you they know that now? Could you give them two different problems?” 

This process can be empowering to students and eliminate the stigma of zeros. “There are no zeros, so we don't have to argue about them anymore. We can put them on the shelf,” Andrus says. 

Separating Behavior and Grade 

Beyond questions around re-dos, a concern among educators is how student behavior plays into a standardized-based classroom. “What if the students are misbehaving, and I used to use the grades as an incentive, and then also if I don't grade it with an A,B, C, the students won't do it,” Westman says. 

Mastery-based educators, however, are able to overcome these challenges by focusing on standards and separating behavior from grades. For instance, Andrus’ district used daily learning targets to help keep kids on pace and become more involved in their own progress. 

While behavior can become more separated from grades, it shouldn’t be ignored in a standards-based classroom, Westman says. There should be behavioral learning goals, and educators should think of executive functioning and behavior skills as skills, she said. Instead of telling a parent that their child is talking too much and not concentrating, the conversation should be more skills-based. 

“Here's the expectation and here's where your child is at in relationship to this behavior expectation,” Westman says. “And then also thinking about as we dialogue with each other, how do we teach those skills and give students feedback on those skills?”  

Standards-Based Grading Doesn’t Necessarily Take More Time

Another common concern with standards-based grading is that it requires too much extra grading time. However, that does not have to be true. “In my mind, traditional work is a lot of backend work,” Andrus said. “In standards-based, you're doing a lot of work on the front end.” 

Establishing a clear rubric makes grading faster and there are tech tools to assist with this process in many topics. The rubric also cuts down on time debating with parents and students about grades. “It's hard to argue about, 'Why did I get this score?’ Or 'You didn't grade me fairly.' We aren't having those arguments anymore.” 

• Tech & Learning webinars

When schools shut down last year, districts scrambled to ensure every student had a device, but, in many cases, there was little time to create an informed plan to support effective implementation.

In this recent webinar moderated by Dr. Kecia Ray, attendees heard from education leaders about research-informed best practices to help district leaders prioritize and focus their resources on strategies that will bring the most impact in equitable digital learning environments. 

“The pandemic has exacerbated existing barriers and highlighted the inequities that exist in schools, especially in our lower income, most challenged communities,” said Ray. “There’s plenty of research out there to lean into to overcome the effects of Covid-19.”

The on-demand version of this webinar is available here 

Key Takeaways

Speaking Up. “The idea of evidence is important not only to take a look at where we did see changes in activities but also in terms of changes and beliefs and values,” said Julie A. Evans, CEO, Project Tomorrow, a national education nonprofit that produces the annual Speak Up education technology usage report. Project Tomorrow has surveyed more than 100,000 K-12 students, parents, and educators since the beginning of the pandemic and remote learning, and have gained valuable data to help shape learning. 

Among Project Tomorrow’s insights:

• Last year saw a dramatic increase in students being assigned digital learning devices. For example, there was an 80% increase in the number of Chromebooks given to students in upper elementary grades and middle school. 
• The use of digital classroom content grew as well, including a 23% increase in teachers reporting use of an online curriculum, and a 41% increase in teachers use of animations, movies, and videos to support learning. 
• The idea of teacher-student communication has changed, with an increased use of text messages, with more than two-thirds of middle and high school students reporting that they text with their teachers. 
• The amount of teachers who wanted to take some type of professional development course on how to teach online increased 120%, as many are still not comfortable with using it in instruction. 

“We also know that equity is beyond just digital access and so it's important to talk more about those equity considerations,” said Evans. “We also know that this new role of parents as co-teachers is something that the genie is not going to go back in the bottle on. So we need to think about how to continue to engage with the parents in these new roles that they've taken on during school closures or school interruptions, keep them informed and also keep them involved.”

Using Tech to Close Gaps. “The pandemic has been the first time we’ve done remote learning at scale, and we have a lot to learn from this experience, including looking at some of the inequities of the system,” said Barbara Means, Executive Director of Learning Sciences Research for Digital Promise. For example, having an internet connection might work fine for one student, but maybe not if there are three students in the same home sharing devices and access. Younger students are also especially vulnerable to learning loss versus older students, who are able to work more independently.

The support from school leaders while trying to implement technology is also critical, said Means. Having coaches and good models can also help teachers learn in a non-punitive and peer-supported way. “We have to be ready for the next interruption,” said Means. “I think we’re seeing some of ‘If we can just find the right product or solution, we’ll be okay.’ And that doesn’t work.” Means stressed that we’re dealing with a complex problem that is going to require planning, setting goals, implementing solutions and ‘the personal touch’ of the teacher, and then using data collected along the way to drive improvement.

Additional Project Tomorrow resources:

• 90 Days That Changed K-12 Teaching & Learning 
• 2020 Congressional Briefing: National Release of Speak Up 2019-20 data findings
• Equity in Educational Opportunities  
• The Impact of Remote E-Learning on K-12 Teachers’ Professional Learning Needs 

Lunch 'n Learn with Tech & Learning

We hope you can join us for these regular District Leadership Lunch ‘n Learn Roundtable series, hosted by Dr. Kecia Ray. In these events, districts from across the U.S. share their strategic plans, the challenges they are facing, and the creative solutions they are using to support students and teachers. Register for our upcoming events here. 

More from T&L: Lunch 'n Learn roundtable recaps

• Distance to Hybrid Learning: How to Drive Student Success
• Flipping Virtual Classrooms for More Impact
• T&L Webinars

At the start of the 2020-21 school year, many districts had plans to return fully in-person before December. Now, with cases surging across the country and full vaccination still months away, alternative plans have been deployed. Regardless of your district’s current trajectory, there are strategies that can be used to support a smooth transition across any modality

In the first of a three-part free series, Dr. Kecia Ray recently talked with educators about building a deeper understanding of how to move beyond crisis response and begin laying the foundations for the road ahead in education. From the best practices of teaching and learning flexibly to the professional development needed, the conversation offered lots of practical insight and personal stories.

The on-demand version of the webinar can be found here 

Key Takeaways

Opportunity moving forward. COVID has shown us that there can be an opportunity for growth, said Morgan Joseph, Director of Impact and Partner Marketing for BetterLesson. The pandemic has shown what is possible and that students can learn outside of schools under proper conditions. “We've also acknowledged that seat time doesn't necessarily equal learning time, and are finding different ways to address flexible learning models in which there is a synchronous learning,” said Joseph. “We've been talking about 21st-century instruction for probably a decade now, and this is maybe one of the first times we're at scale, addressing it and working through it head on.”

Front and center focus. In order to help students own their own learning, and to foster a student-centered learning environment, education leaders need to consider an approach that focuses on four main priorities: crafting a clear vision, developing an infrastructure that supports student-centered learning, providing the edtech tools and proper content, and offering the professional learning to support it all. 

“If we're trying to create a learning experience where there's synchronous asynchronous data, and a really robust culture, we need to do the same thing for our teachers and leaders,” said Joseph. “We're going to spend probably nine to 12 months in these new flexible learning arrangements, so how can we take some of these skills and apply them when we come back to whatever this future normal is. What does instructional coaching look like at scale in a virtual context, and how do we build the capacity of people who are going to be leading these instructional shifts to lead their others with PLCs and other other group learning experiences done in house.”

Growing the learning. “How do we use those lessons we learned from when we moved into remote learning now that we’ve pivoted into a hybrid situation?” asked Sancha K. Gray, Superintendent of Schools at Asbury Park School District in New Jersey, a high-poverty district of nearly 2,000 students, 99% of whom are students of color. The digital divide is a significant part of the challenge the district faces, and it’s layered, said Gray--first, it’s access, then usage, and ultimately, empowerment. “So we're still trying to grow the learning of not only our students, but also of our parents around what it means,” said Gray. “We're educating the students and the parents simultaneously.” 

The district has also created a synchronous and asynchronous platform for instruction to accommodate students restricted by access that features flexible activities and portfolios that meet state education requirements.

A phased approach. When remote learning started at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina, which serves nearly 141,000 students who come from 183 countries and speak about 197 languages, the first thing leaders did was to set guiding principles, said Brandy Nelson, Executive Director, Learning and Teaching, Secondary. “We asked, ‘What does instruction look like in a remote setting?’ but also ‘What are we going to give, what are we going to let go out, and what are we going to go deeper around?’” said Nelson.

The district approached these issues in three phases--first, determining what tools they were going to use; next, building out the curricula and resources to support that; and finally, shaping a path for remote learning going forward, including the inclusion of data-driven decision making. “We don't have all the answers,” said Nelson. “We certainly are doing some pretty significant engagement with our with our staff at the district office and also with principals and teachers and instructional leaders around what this all means while at the same time, honoring people's wellness, their health and safety”

Eye on the learning. In regard to assessing the student learning experience, Nelson said they kind of had to “burn it to the ground” and develop new measurements and methods of collecting feedback. One challenge has been not being able to use traditional tools and trying to determine what new learning looks like, and what engagement looks like in a remote learning environment, especially difficult when only interacting through a screen. “You can’t tell a kid’s learning through their eyeballs!” said Nelson.

SEL supports. In Asbury Park, social-emotional learning has been a point of emphasis because communities of color and poverty struggle and need coping strategies, said Gray. 

“We don't just layer on social and emotional learning as though it's just another thing we do,” she said. “It has become very entrenched in the delivery of instruction. We are continuing to provide yoga, mindfulness, and meditation in our virtual settings, and it's allowing the families that we serve to also have an opportunity to learn the strategies around how to deal with COVID fatigue, how to deal with isolation, and just how to deal with life.” Gray has also scheduled Sunday night meetings with the families of ELL students to provide extra SEL and remote learning support, and the district’s new report card integrates SEL skills as well.

Asbury Park is also providing SEL and additional PD for teachers in an effort to offer comprehensive and holistic support, and Gray is working hand-in-hand with the teacher’s union. “It’s not us against them, we’re all in this together,” Gray said.

Building coaching. In Charlotte-Mecklenburg, focus has been put on the written curriculum versus the talk curriculum, and how race, power, bias, and equity is handled in both areas, said Nelson. The district is providing PD to instructional coaches, teachers, and staff in regard to finding a common language, specifically around the remote learning experience, and building coherence across grade levels. The district has also been proactive in pursuing feedback from their coaches and involving them in PD. “They are on the front line, with respect to instruction, and so we want to continuously honor their capacity, celebrate and bring them into the fold by inviting them to really cool opportunities, so that they can extend their thinking and learning,” said Nelson.

One of the biggest trends in coaching is that people are discovering that it can be more effective and efficient in a virtual setting than in person, said Joseph. 

“Something we've seen from our perspective is that there's been this reinvestment in coaching instructional leaders,” she said. “What are the foundational skills that we need to give them to be able to help be force multipliers, and scale these new initiatives and instructional practices. A lot of that is around what are the best practices, how do we make sure they're skilled, and how do we build a professional learning community in which a lot of different perspectives are brought into the fold.”

Lunch 'n Learn with Tech & Learning

We hope you can join us for these regular District Leadership Lunch ‘n Learn Roundtable series, hosted by Dr. Kecia Ray. In this events, districts from across the U.S. share their strategic plans, the challenges they are facing, and the creative solutions they are using to support students and teachers. Register for our upcoming event here. 

More from T&L: Lunch 'n Learn roundtable recaps

• Research-Informed Practices for Blended Learning
• Social and Emotional Learning, Trauma, and This School Year
• T&L Webinars

App of the Day picks are selected from the top edtech tools reviewed by Common Sense Education, which helps educators find the best ed-tech tools, learn best practices for teaching with tech, and equip students with the skills they need to use technology safely and responsibly.

The Harry Potter Alliance

Fan site promotes real-world heroics with activism for social justice

Pros: It's an outstanding way to bring together kids who may otherwise feel isolated; they'll feel empowered by the community here.

Cons: Younger Harry Potter fans may feel left out of this high school and college-based organization.

Bottom Line: A fun, empowering community for Potter fans who want to talk Hogwarts and make the world a better place while they're at it.

Read more here.

By Common Sense Education

Guest post by Steven Baule, Superintendent at Muncie Community Schools, Indiana:

On my way home yesterday, I was listening to the news (a brief respite from the music of my formative years). Much of the focus was on the potential lifespan of the president and what information “was held back.” The Navy doctor didn’t seem to be giving the answers the reporters wanted. In a couple days, I will check the variety of new sources I touch base with and see how each has represented the physician’s remarks.

Former President Obama was recently interviewed by David Letterman and they discussed the potential problems with using social media as one’s primary news source. Facebook just announced they are going to focus more on meaningful social interactions instead of content. Fluther.com has an experiment using “pit bull dogs” based upon the remarks of Obama that Google and other search algorithms manipulate your results based on your previous results. It would be a great experiment to try with nearly any student or staff group. The discussion that results might be extremely enlightening. Google does provide some lesson plans on how to validate websites.

Wikipedia (the first result on my search for “pit bull dogs” ) has entries for Search Engine Manipulation Effect (SEME) and search engine manipulation AKA search engine optimization (SEO). A recent Guardian article discussed how Google is alleged to skew results to the “right.” Those looking for a scholarly take on SEME, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provide an example from India’s 2014 elections. It appears nearly every day that it becomes more essential for our students to learn how to sift through the information that appears on their various devices.

Discovery Education today debuted the newest addition to its family of digital services. STEM Connect is a web-based supplemental K-8 resource that allows educators to create engaging STEM lessons to strengthen students’ critical thinking skills.

STEM Connect is built on a 4Cs STEM skills framework that aims to help students develop the creative, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration skills needed for success beyond graduation.

Features include:

• Real-World Challenges – Inspired by the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges for Engineering and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
• Career Connections – STEM Connect provides students with opportunities to learn about diverse STEM careers in context
• Content Connection Activities - From math and literacy to the arts and health, the Content Connection activities ask students to apply appropriate grade-level skills
• Hands-On Activities – STEM Connect offers a variety of hands-on activities
• Global STEM Solution Seekers – In select units, students connect via GlobalLab, a global student laboratory, to share data and collaborate with others around the world.

In addition to STEM Connect, Discovery Education offers a variety of professional development services and digital resources to school systems that provide additional support in building vibrant cultures of STEM teaching and learning.

For more information, visit www.discoveryeducation.com.

SAS worked with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction to redesign the state’s school report card website. Integrating data from more than 2,600 public, charter and alternative schools in 100 counties, the site provides users with new information, analyses and capabilities.

The interactive website and mobile version provides information about school- and district-level data in several areas, including student performance and academic growth, school and student characteristics, and other details. The site offers several new features including information related to career and technical education. Users can see what courses are offered at a school and the number of industry-recognized credentials that have been earned by students.

A more robust analytical site is available which provides a wide variety of school, district and state-level data on performance, assessments, growth, teacher and principal credentials, graduation rates, attendance and other types of information.

Since its release last month, the NC Report Cards website has averaged more than 1600 visits per day.

• Little Bird Tales– Include images, audio narrative, and drawings to animate written stories.
• Storybird– Create digital books with a selection of characters and backgrounds created by professional artists.
• Toon Doo– Create books online with a selection of cartoon characters and backgrounds.
• My Storybook– Simple way to visualize a story with drawings, images, characters, and more.
• Storyjumper– Choose characters and backgrounds to visualize a written story. Not able to embed.
• BoomWriter– Create collaborative class storybooks. Features include peer editing and a voting process.
• Book Creator– iOS and Android app to create digital books and include images, audio, video, and more.
• Buncee– Web tool and iOS app to create digital storybooks with animations, stickers, images, and clipart.
• UTellStory– Create a digital story with photos, video, voice, music and words.
• StoryKit (iOS)– Children can draw, upload images, record their voice, and lay out the elements of the story (text boxes, images, paint, and sound clips). The application includes four public domain children’s books to rewrite and rearrange into a new story.
• StoryBots– create books on the iPad starring the child!

cross posted at teacherrebootcamp.com

Shelly Terrell is an education consultant, technology trainer, and author. Read more at teacherrebootcamp.com.

Educators have always wanted to go beyond the classroom walls and connect with people and information in faraway places. But it took legislation to get us there. Today, thanks to E-Rate funds and easy access to the Web, one can choose among various forms of online and blended learning and even virtual schools.

The early days of the Internet provided rudimentary tools. In 1993, Tech & Learning (T&L) ran an article called “Making Connections with Telecommunications.” This article noted that, “Students and teachers nationwide are using local bulletin board systems, commercial services, and education networks to communicate with peers, conduct sophisticated research, and solve problems of a global nature.”

Just two years later, the Web had emerged and T&L went online with techlearning.com. T&L also featured the Web in a cover story, “Surfing the Web,” and started a regular column called “The Online Connection.” Gil Dyrli’s first column, “Plunging into Cyberspace,” dealt with “content area indexes waiting for you on the Net.” He talked about being “on the World Wide Web” but also provided sites you could search with just text-based Internet services.

In October 1995, T&L provided a comprehensive guide to the Web with information on connecting, using browsers, curriculum resources, making sense of URLs, dissecting a Web page, online hot spots, and implications for schools. It ended with the following words: “The World Wide Web has the potential to change the nature of teaching and learning significantly. It’s time to get out on the Web and blaze new education trails to tomorrow.”

More schools found funds to take the plunge, but it was slow going. Wiring, contracts with Internet service providers, and equipment were all costly. In 1996, E-Rate passed as part of the Telecommunications Act and this, with its call for universal service, made all the difference. The act included two measures specifically for schools and libraries so they could purchase Internet access at a discount.

In the same year, the US Department of Education published its first long-range technology plan with four goals:

■ All teachers will have the training and support to help students learn using computers and the information superhighway.

■ All teachers and students will have modern multimedia computers in their classrooms.

■ Every classroom will be connected to the information superhighway.

■ Effective software and online learning resources will be an integral part of every school’s curriculum.

Bandwidth—the speed at which information is able to travel from its source to your computer—became the defining issue for access. The cable industry and telephone companies vied for dominance. And communities organized “NetDays” to wire schools for access to the Internet.

Once online, what did schools do? In September 1996, T&L’s cover asked, “What’s Out There on the Net?”

T&L’s “What Works” column pointed out that teachers joined online projects to encourage students to learn about current affairs, experience global communications, understand world cultures, and more. An article titled “On the (Virtual) Campaign Trail” showed how “With help from today’s technology, every student can debate the issues with faraway peers and politicians, gain a better understanding of the complex American electoral process, and take part in simulated elections.”

T&L provided words of caution too. In “Exploring the Internet Safely” we said, “The Internet, like an uncharted wilderness, promises vast resources and the space to create new communities. But now, parents and teachers are wondering whether lurking dangers outweigh potential benefits.” The article covered strategies for safe exploration, filtering software, Acceptable Use Policies, server solutions, safe-surf products, online watchdogs and guidance, and more.

In September 1997, T&L’s article on “Multimedia Makeover of the World Wide Web” said, “Multimedia is supercharging the Web and bringing dynamic teaching and learning opportunities to schools.” The article included sites with live cameras, intelligent agents, chat lines, phones on the Web, Web conferencing software, and sites with audio, video, 3-D, and virtual reality.

Web use took off.

Starting in 1998, techlearning.com included a regular feature called “Web Sightings” that highlighted the best of the Web in different content areas. Educators submitted their favorite sites for their peers to visit.

By 2000, many schools and districts wanted their own Web sites. So in August of that year T&L’s features included “Building a Content-rich School Web Page,” “Ten Tips for a Great School Site,” “The Web Builder’s Toolbox,” and “Web Building Guidelines from Kid Experts.”

In February 2001, Judy Salpeter wrote a roundup of all the Internet search tools that people were using. She says, “At the last minute I decided to throw in this brand-new tool called Google to see how it compared.” Who knew?

By July 2003, digital content included myriad Web sites, databases, streaming video, videoconferencing, software, and interactive games. The challenge for classroom teachers was how to find, evaluate, and steer students to the most appropriate content.

WebQuests, which started in 1995, were popular in 2003. These inquiry oriented activities, in which most or all of the information was drawn from the Web, focused on using information rather than looking for it. Teachers created paths through information and encouraged learners to think at the levels of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

By 2005, it looked like students were much more facile with technology than their teachers. In September, T&L asked, “Are digital-age students fundamentally different from the rest of us?”

In March 2009, T&L presented the largely untold story of how online learning was unfolding in America’s brick-and-mortar classrooms. And in 2010 we explained how to use Bring Your Own Tech (BYOT). More learning started happening online, which led to today’s reliance on all things digital.

Gwen Solomon was senior analyst at the US Department of Education, director of The Well Connected Educator, and is the author of several books on edtech, including Web 2.0: How-to for Educators. She has been a contributing editor for Tech & Learning since 1998.