狠狠撸

Learning About Teaching …
From Teachers
Fundacio Jaume Bofill, Barcelona
Doug Lemov
April 30, 2015

Better training better teachers

Caution: This is a Scary Story

LA Unified School District has hundreds of
teachers who preside over remarkable successes,
year after year, often against incredible odds.
But…most are like Zenaida Tan, working in
obscurity. No one asks them their secrets. Most of
the time, no one even says, "Good job." Often even
their own colleagues and principals don't know
who they are.
Tan brims with effective ways to reach limited-
English students, handle discipline problems and
keep the kids engaged. "I do a lot of singing,
games," she said. "It doesn't look like a lesson."

But no one asks for her advice. She says her
fellow teachers at Morningside consider her strict,
even mean. She tends to keep to herself. "Nobody
tells me that I'm a strong teacher," she says.
That's OK by her, she adds. Year after year, she
watches her students make enormous progress
and feels a quiet sense of satisfaction.
By LAUSD's measure, Tan "meets standard
performance," as virtually all district teachers do --
evaluators' only other option is "below standard
performance."

On a recent evaluation, her principal checked off
all the appropriate boxes, Tan said -- then noted
that she had been late to pick up her students
from recess three times.
"I threw it away because I got upset," Tan said.
"Why don't you focus on my teaching?! Why don't
you focus on where my students are?“

The Power of Bright Spots: Here, too

For ExampleThere is no achievement
gap that some teacher,
somewhere has not closed.
We just need to find her and
study her.

We Don’t Know the Cure from the Placebo

Does it Matter? Yes, It Matters!

0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
PercentageofStudentsProficientonStateAssessment
Student Poverty Rate (% of Students FRPL Eligible)
2011 6th Grade Math Results -- All NYS School Systems

0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Zip code is destiny

0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Or Is It?

Some Examples of What We Learned

For Example
1. Efficiency Matters

Doing the Math on Doug’s Class
10
Occasions
per day
190
School
days
60
Minutes
per hour
7
Hours per
school
day
x ÷ ÷
If 1 Minute Saved Per Time Passing or Collecting…
10 minutes
per day
1900
minutes per
school year
32 hours
per year
4.5 days of
additional
instruction
It Would Save…

For Example
2. ‘I Taught It’ is not ‘They Learned It’

For Example
3. Engaged & Accountable Students

What Also Happens When You Study Teachers

Cultural Capital
Any non-financial social asset that
promotes an individual’s status
beyond their economic means.
When you have it, you are important

When we study teachers and honor
them, when we ask teachers to
participate in building the knowledge
base of the profession, we increase
their cultural capital and make the
profession higher status.
Cultural Capital

The Power of Shared Vocabulary

Measurement Precedes Innovation

It Starts with Data
? People will resist data at first.
? That won’t last if you use it well.
? Data is a management tool.
? Accountability and autonomy live together
It Starts with Data

More Effective Professional Development
? Embedded in school culture/operating systems
? By teachers more than “at” them.
? Sustained vs. “One-and-Done”
? Based on what high performing teachers do
? Solves “Real World” challenges for teachers
? For teachers at all skill levels, especially high
performers
? Supported by subject-specific guidance
? Practice + Planning + Content Knowledge
? Safe to struggle and learn

狠狠撸

Better training better teachers

More Related Content

Better training better teachers