In Service

Sometimes, one needs a bit of a fire lit beneath them in order to stop procrastinating. It’s been an exciting week of blogging in our home, thanks to the inspiration of my daughter, Laura. And I figured since everyone else has gotten on the ball with this little challenge of hers, I should probably do [...]

[Read more]

One of the districts that I’ve been working with for less than a year has built a variety of grade-level common formative assessments that they plan to begin using this fall. Getting to this point has been a long, winding road. Uphill. Both ways. In the dark. Through several feet of snow. Without proper footwear. And in the [...]

[Read more]

Many of the school districts that I am working with this year have identified vocabulary development as an area in need of attention. Instructional practices are lagging behind what current research suggests might work best to help our students build deeper understandings about words.
Digging into this issue quickly leads most teachers to the realization that [...]

[Read more]

As I discussed in previous entries, classroom data can be the most powerful data that teachers gather and discuss collaboratively. Using classroom data to inform instruction can pay off in incredible ways…..but which data might teachers consider gathering?
Supposing that teachers have already deconstructed historical state assessment data, teachers might begin by revisiting those performance indicators [...]

[Read more]

As a coordinator for curriculum and staff development, I have the good fortune of working with many data-savvy administrators and teachers. Eager to uncover what the New York State Assessments truly demanded of students, and more importantly, determined to develop a common, deeply aligned curriculum that would produce results, this very group of educators challenged [...]

[Read more]

Students and teachers in New York State spend a good portion of their school year sharpening their skills and knowledge in preparation for the English Language Arts Assessements in grades 3-8 and the Regents Examination, offered in grade 11. Ironically, if you were to ask many teachers to predict what was going to be on [...]

[Read more]