Inquiry-Minded Schools Yitzhak Ersoff

Lesson Sequence Preview Text Discussion Conclusion

Inquiry-Minded Schools Preview Text: 1. Title Title Inquiry-Minded Schools Opening Doors for Accountability What does it mean?

Preview Text: 2. Short Description The authors have studied schools that are successfully using an ongoing inquiry cycle to improve student learning. They describe that process here – a process that builds the capacity to improve as the school’s knowledge base increases. What type of schools did the authors study? How are the schools trying to improve student learning? What is an ‘ongoing inquiry cycle’?

Preview Text: 3. Headings Page 79 Introduction (not marked) Page 80 Monarch School Valley Middle School Page 81 Uncas School

Preview Text: 3. Headings Page 82 What’s Missing from Accountability Systems; Four Current Approaches Can you find them? Page 83 Combining Internal and External Accountability Through Inquiry The Mindset and Activities of Inquiry-Minded Schools What else is in this section?

Preview Text: 3. Headings Page 84 The Challenges of Institutionalizing Inquiry What else? Page 85 Challenges of the Inquiry Cycle for Policy Makers Page 86 Conclusion

We’ll just do the first paragraph . . . Preview Text What else could you read to help you preview the text? First paragraph and last paragraph We’ll just do the first paragraph . . .

Preview Text: First Paragraph D

Preview Text: First Paragraph Demands for greater productivity and increased accountability in America’s public schools are loud and ubiquitous. Reform and restructuring efforts have addressed almost every aspect of schooling, and state and federal policy makers are increasingly setting standards and specifying criteria for assessment that schools must meet.

Preview Text: First Paragraph . . . a series of questions . . . have become central . . . How can schools help all students meet high standards? Who sets those standards? How is student progress best assessed? Who should do the assessing – the state, the district, the school? What is the relationship between the external mandates and student achievement?

Preview Text: Let’s Summarize What We Know Inquiry-Minded / Inquiry Cycle A process for school improvement Mixes ‘internal’ and ‘external’ Accountability responsibility for student learning Specific examples (the schools) Something is wrong with the ‘accountability’ approach How to do it (and challenges)

Discussion: Do You Remember the Questions? How can schools help all students meet high standards? Who sets those standards? How is student progress best assessed? Who should do the assessing – the state, the district, the school? What is the relationship between the external mandates and student achievement? Let’s change the order.

First Question: What is the relationship between the external mandates and student achievement? What does this mean? In US, standards and assessment criteria are ‘external’ (i.e., they come from outside the school). Policy makers (i.e., government): Set standards, and Specify assessment criteria that schools must meet Government demands: Productivity (i.e., schools must meet the standards), and Accountability. (i.e., bad schools close, good schools get more students (i.e., $$$))

Discussion: What works? (Discuss later; explain now.) Accountability / Feedback High student achievement comes from: High standards Assessment Incentives or consequences Inquiry-Minded Approach Schools should: Take ‘ownership’ of internal and external standards Analyze results from state assessments Create and maintain standards Try to improve instruction OR

Discussion Monarch School (page 80) “. . . members of the group examine reports from state testing [and] notice gaps between the high percentage of students who passed and the lower percentage of those who mastered all the objectives. . . . The standard for passing means meeting minimum expectations. . . . [The school is not] reaching every child.”

Discussion 2. Valley Middle School “Maria (5th-grade teacher): . . . I am asking my student to do things they are not tested on – never have been tested on. . . . I’d like to assess how well they do these things. But they aren’t things you can measure on a paper-and-pencil test. . . . I just want to be sure that the tests get at what we are asking the students to do. . . .”

Discussion: What works? Accountability / Feedback High student achievement comes from: High standards Assessment Incentives or consequences Inquiry-Minded Approach Schools should: Take ‘ownership’ of internal and external standards Analyze results from state assessments Create and maintain standards Try to improve instruction OR