Monthly Archives: February 2011

Know Your Learning Target and Goal Setting

Posted on February 27, 2011 by

The March Educational Leadership has an article by Moss, Brookhart, and Long titled “Know Your Learning Target” that argues that students who know their learning goal are “empowered, self-regulating, motivated, and intentional learners.”  With a high quality learning target a … Continue reading →

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MET Project: A Suggestion for Further Research

Posted on February 24, 2011 by

Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) Project is an effort sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation aimed at determining ways to measure effective teaching fairly and consistently. The project is collecting oodles of video-taped classroom observations, student surveys, and … Continue reading →

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Measure What Matters

Posted on February 23, 2011 by

Great teaching is one of the inputs that will lead to student learning. In fact, it is one of the only inputs educators have control over. Because of this we invest time and money into providing high quality professional development … Continue reading →

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Leadership with Data

Posted on February 18, 2011 by

In a recent post on leadership I noted that research has identified five principal practices as having a significant effect on student achievement.  Among the behaviors “promoting and participating in teacher learning and development” has the greatest effect size.  So, … Continue reading →

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Data Analysis Principle #1: Enforce Comparison

Posted on February 17, 2011 by

Ten years ago I attended a seminar by Edward Tufte that described how to effectively display quantitative data. I recently ran across the notes from this seminar and was reminded of a few key points that are relevant to data in … Continue reading →

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Extended Time

Posted on February 16, 2011 by

By now you have heard that Barack Obama wants to extend the school year by increasing the 21st Cenutry Learning Community grants. This is not the first time Obama has argued the point that the school year is too short for … Continue reading →

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Predicting Student Performance Using NWEA (A tool for Illinois)

Posted on February 15, 2011 by

In the Fall I saw this presentation online about how Teach for America teachers in Illinois create student targets for growth.  Scenario 1 caught my eye because it was using NWEA MAP data.  My opinion was most tools available now … Continue reading →

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Behaviors of an Instructional Principal

Posted on February 14, 2011 by

Instructional leadership trumps transformational leadership.  In the article “The Impact of Leadership on Student Outcomes: An Analysis of the Differential Effects of Leadership Types” by Viviane Robinson, Claire Lloyd, and Kenneth Rowe they found five specific behaviors that impacted student … Continue reading →

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Instructional versus Transformational Leaders

Posted on February 13, 2011 by

Recent research has found that leadership can have a considerable impact on student achievement.  The research is specific about which behaviors matter most for student success.  Leaders that stay focused on student achievement and instructional strategies (instructional leaders) have far … Continue reading →

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