1. Inquiry-Minded Schools
Yitzhak Ersoff

2. Lesson Sequence
Preview Text
Discussion
Conclusion

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

4. 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’?

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

6. 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?

7. 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

8. 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 . . .

9. Preview Text: First ParagraphD

10. 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.

11. 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?

12. 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)

13. 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.

14. 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., $$$))

15. 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

16. 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.”

17. 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 ”

18. 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