Teacher Leadership: Standard 3

Standard: Teacher leaders will improve teaching and learning through the use of education research at the classroom, and school levels.

It is hard to imagine what my educator life was like before I started grad school. This program has really been huge driving force as I try new things in my classroom and share things with my co-workers. One of the biggest things that I have started to focus on the last year was the importance of research, and how I use research as an educator and leader in my building.

Before many of the courses I have taken with SPU, my previous principal would always give us articles to read before coming to staff meetings or PDs. Little did I know the depths these articles could serve or not really serve us at Horizon. One of my big understandings I walked away with was the importance of determining if an article is a primary or secondary source, AND if the studies about “best practices” we were reading about were really reliable and valid. During Applying Research in School Settings, we completed an article critique which was one eye opening experience for me personally. It allowed me to read an article in a very different way. A way that challenged me. I wasn’t reading this article to necessarily learn something and immediately apply it in my classroom…I was reading this article to make sure what it was telling me was actually supported by legit data and evidence. I think many people take an “Educational article” at face value and do not really look into the many depths they contain. Doing the article critiques, both one and two for this class taught me to cross reference sources. Analyze the data they supply and to question the researcher’s motives, samples, and ways they collected data. With looking at some studies with a fine-tooth comb, you really find out how some studies can be presented in a way that seems legit, but their sample size was much too small. The way they collected data could not be replicated in another setting if the study were to be redone, which is important. I loved that at the beginning of the course our professor asked us what we believed research was, and I really leaned towards the definition that Zora Neale Hurstor gives-research is a creative response to curiosity. “poking and prying with a purpose.”

With taking on that definition of research, I approached our Data Analysis project on the Northshore School District with a high curiosity. Working at school that is very poverty stricken, made the analysis of whether the percentage of Free and Reduced lunches a school has impacts their success on state testing high interest for me. I found this assignment rather thought provoking. Working at a school that has close to 90% of its students receive FRL and struggle with our students meeting or exceeding standards on the state assessments, allowed me to analyze schools that have much different demographics than my own. With reviewing the scatter plots for the Northshore School District schools for their FRL percentages in relation to student success, it was very apparent that the schools with less students receiving Free and Reduced lunch prices tend to have a higher percentage of students meeting or exceeding state standards on the state assessment. With Dr. Huber presenting the data in a scatter plot, it is easier for onlookers to see the relationship between the two variables. Obviously, with most studies and data, there is anomalies which trigger more questioning. When I was analyzing and looking at school’s demographics, I began to see the domino effect or contributing factors to the variables. When schools have higher FRL rates, it normally coincides with the type of families that are in the area-is the school mostly populated by white, middle class students or perhaps another race that unfortunately, stereotypically struggle to make ends meet. My school for example is populated with over 60% of our students being Hispanic/Latino, resulting in over half of our students receiving EL services. So, when it comes to state testing, our numbers do not look as well as other schools with more middle class, English speakers. I think with looking at Dr. Huber’s research, variables such as race and special services such as EL, is something that I would also look into as variables also contributing to state test results. I know these variables are kind of like nesting variables: poverty rates to school/class size, school/class size to race, race to special services, all contributing to end results of meeting our exceeding standards.  

With thinking about all these possible variables and their relationships and effects to state testing numbers, makes me question as an educator and school leader what can we do? Is there anything we can do for Title 1 schools to help close the achievement gap? We obviously cannot change the outside factors that affect our students but is there something educators and schools/districts can do to support them in any other way in the school environment?  Another big takeaway, is Dr. Huber’s Grade 11 Math scatter plot. The biggest anomaly of all the data that he presented. This visual representation showed us, that not only was FRL not a factor in the scoring of the state test, but that there is another issue educators need to look at: the area of high school math. What is causing juniors to struggle to meet standard in this area? Is this something that school districts need to look into as an issue beginning in the younger grades-is there a need for vertical alignment amongst elementary, middle and high school teachers?

The data analysis project and article critiques of a few studies has made me wonder how much teachers question variables in relation to state test scores. And if reading articles like those for class triggered plans to be put into place to make positive change with our teaching practices to better student success. I know with these three assignments alone, I have taken on a very different mindset. Questioning more of what not only can I do within my own classroom, but asking my co-workers and administrators what can we do as a building to try and get our kids to be more successful with higher rigor material. Some of the research has provided me with new ideas to bring to the table. Talking more about vertical alignment amongst grade levels with reading Gallaghers "The Writing Journey." The importance of including the skill or writing and written response on other content areas. Looking deeper at assignments we are assigning kids-are they meeting the common core standard-Education Trust's study was really eye opening. Identifying that 

"researchers found that only 38% of assignments teachers give to students aligned with grade level standard. 85% of assignments are basic recall and skill, while only 1% of assignments required students to think for longer periods of time, at a higher level-creating, evaluating, synthesizing." Are we allowing kids to reach higher levels of thinking instead of just a 15 minutes assignment of basic recall? These are not only questions I can take away with and work through my own classroom, but this research has now brought to my attention and issue that I can now bring to my building and leadership team-and begin to answer some of the questions I have as a building instead of just at an individual.

 References

Blanchard, M. R., LePrevost, C. E., Tolin, A. D., & Gutierrez, K. S. (2016). Investigating Technology-Enhanced Teacher Professional Development in Rural, High-Poverty Middle Schools. Educational Researcher ,45(3), 207-220.

Education Trust. (2015, September). Checking in: Do classroom assignments reflect today's higher standards? Retrieved from http://edtrust.org/wp content/uploads/2014/09/CheckingIn_TheEducationTrust_Sept20152.pdf

Gallagher, K. (2017).The Writing Journey. Educational Leadership,74(5), 24-29. Retrieved January 3, 2018, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb17/vol74/num05/The-Writing-Journey.aspx

Gallagher, K. (2017).The Writing Journey. Educational Leadership,74(5), 24-29. Retrieved January 3, 2018, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb17/vol74/num05/The-Writing-Journey.aspx (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Ravid, R. (2015). Practical Statistics for Educators. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

Dr. Huber’s scatterplots (source given by professor with no citation)