Rural school profile: Magazine School District in Magazine, Arkansas

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Abner Oakes

The view from Mount Magazine, which is about 12 miles east of the town of Magazine

During the course of my career, I’ve worked a great deal in very rural school districts, and one that I visited quite a bit over several years of work is Magazine School District in Magazine, Arkansas. A town of about 800 people, Magazine is about 45 miles southwest of Fort Smith, which sits on the border with Oklahoma and is nestled between curves of the Arkansas River. When working with my friends in Magazine, I’d stay at the Hampton Inn in Fort Smith and make that hour-long drive each morning up to Magazine, the sun coming up in my face as I headed east.

I learned a lot about school improvement during the time that I spent working with the teachers and administrators in Magazine, particularly school improvement in a small district that did not have all the resources as larger districts but still wanted the best for their kids. It was a life-changing experience for me, to work that closely with a group of committed, thoughtful educators, and I’ve had the good chance to stay in touch with a few folks from the district. Recently I reached out to Randy Bryan, the principal of the high school in Magazine, to ask him about the place, their continued hard work, the kids in the school district, and their accomplishments. Here are my questions and what Randy had to say.

Talk about Magazine schools and about Magazine the town? The number of kids that you serve? Grade levels?

Magazine School District is made up of two campuses, elementary and high school. Elementary is grades K-6, high school 7-12. Each has about 270 students. We’re a rural community with little industry; most people work about 10 miles away in Booneville, and many people work in Fort Smith. The town’s had a history of poverty, low graduation rates, and lack of academic success for many years. With the closing of multiple factories in neighboring communities, many of our middle class families moved to find jobs, and this pushed the district’s free and reduced lunch population to an all-time high last year of 75%. Nonetheless, our academic and extracurricular activity success has climbed with each passing year.

Magazine’s 2012 state champion boys’ track and field team

How has the school (and maybe the town) changed in the last ten years?

The school has expanded and improved its facilities – new library and new academic and athletic buildings – and we’ve improved our curriculum and kept our expectations high, no matter the changes in population. Here’s just a few examples of what our students have achieved:

I think that this academic success also spreads to other aspects of student life in Magazine:

  • Two years in a row, our students earned the Arkansas All-Sports Award, given by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
  • We had a state championship in football in 2010
  • In track and field we were state champs in 2012, runners-up in 2010 and 2011
  • In the past two years nine Magazine athletes have gone on to compete at the college level; this year one of our ex-students, a college freshman, was named #1 runner at the Oklahoma State Cowboy Jamboree

(Readers might also be interested in this Sports Illustrated piece that highlighted the success of football at Magazine and the town’s new Hmong population that is helping achieve that success.)

What are your greatest challenges – the greatest challenges for Magazine schools?

Principal Randy Bryan chowing down at the high school’s advisory picnic

Three things, I think: (1) Making education relevant to our student population, since most of our students grow up never seeing various careers in action. (2) Changing the cycle for kids that grow up in government subsidized situations. (3) Lastly, finding ways to facilitate transition from high school success to a successful career.

And what has worked well as you and your colleagues have met these challenges? Where might there still be some work to do?

We have a great staff that buys into teaching our students and communicates well with the community and parents.

Yes, we have a certain population of kids who do not want to be in school, who do not want to go to work, and who do not want job training or preparation for the military or college, but we believe very strongly that every student can be a productive and successful member of society and it’s our responsibility to unlock the potential of each student. It takes developing relationships with our students, which is not always easy.

What do you see for Magazine schools as you look down the road – what is on the horizon and how is Magazine preparing for that?

As hard economic times have pressed the nation, it’s also trickled down to our community. With families moving to find work, we have fewer students, fewer students mean less state money, and less state money means fewer teachers and resources. Our teachers must be passionate about our students – about their success – and be willing to wear many hats for us to continue towards that success.

Tell me how Magazine’s approaching the use of technology in the classrooms, which is a big issue in many districts across the country.

Mount Magazine from the high school’s athletic fields

Our school board is a wonderful bunch. They listen, study, and make informed decisions. We have interactive whiteboards in every classroom; staff also use ELMOs, laptops, interactive clickers, and iPads; and students bring their smartphones, tablets, and laptops to the classroom, all utilized at the discretion of the staff. As conservative as we are in some ways, we have tried to be progressive with respect to technology.

Lastly, someone comes to spend the day at the high school. When that visitor emerges from his day there, what will he tell people about what he saw, what he heard, what the teachers and kids are like, etc.?

That visitor might say: “Wow! This is nothing like when I attended school. The atmosphere is much more inviting; teachers are much more enthusiastic; they cover so much during the day (our foreign exchange students tell us this all the time); and you guys read so much!” In addition, people will not see students roaming the hallways or in the athletic facilities during the school day; we place a high priority on utilization of instructional time.

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Starting Early in West Virginia: The Common Core and Early Childhood Education

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Abner Oakes

My latest article for ASCD on the Common Core, which you can also see here. And sign up for this particular ASCD newsletter here.

In West Virginia, there has been a commitment to early childhood education for many years, with universal prekindergarten throughout the state and a set of pre-kindergarten standards since 2004.

“This commitment to early childhood education is what brought me to the state department of education,” noted Clayton Burch, the executive director of the Office of Early Learning at the West Virginia Department of Education. It is the state’s vigorous commitment to the Common Core State Standards (which are called West Virginia’s Next Generation Content Standards and Objectives in that state) and their effect on early childhood education in West Virginia, that continue to challenge and invigorate Burch, as he and early childhood educators in that state ensure that pre-kindergarten students are well prepared for the rigors of kindergarten and beyond.

West Virginia was an early adopter and promoter of the Common Core State Standards and saw the need to align all grade levels with these standards. Back in 2010, with a draft of the state’s Next Generation Content Standards and Objectives in their hands, Burch and other stakeholders from across the state met to review and revise the state’s early learning standards for preschool. They began a discussion about how to have early childhood educators focus more on the domains that students need to master – even what is expected of those students later on in kindergarten and first grades – and not to focus so much on the individual standards or objectives.

“It is a challenge,” stated Burch, “as we’ve always looked at just individual grade level standards. But we began to ask ourselves and our pre-K teachers: ‘Just what does it look like for five- and six-year-olds to be ready for school?'”

West Virginia developed a comprehensive crosswalk between its own early learning standards and the Common Core. The state trained district-level personnel to bring that crosswalk back to their particular districts and work with their teachers on alignment. Joan Adkins, the pre-kindergarten manager at Cabell County Schools in Huntington, WV, was one of those people. In Cabell County, Adkins oversees about 730 pre-kindergarten students in 47 classrooms, some of which are in the district’s elementary schools and some of which are in childcare centers

“Our pre-K teachers always knew that they were setting the groundwork for what happens in kindergarten,” says Adkins, “but when we showed them the standards crosswalk, they saw how their standards were a part of the whole process. You could see the light bulb go off when we were doing the training. Everybody is now looking at the whole child versus an individual skill, with all teachers on the same page.”

The conversation between pre-kindergarten teachers and their colleagues at other grade levels has been aided by state department–developed tool kits, to ensure both that teachers understand one another’s curricula and standards and that there is ongoing dialogue about this vertical alignment. “I can help my teachers better understand how they’re supporting the kindergarten standards,” states Adkins.

Additionally, robust assessment information is available to stakeholders, thanks to the statewide assessment for pre-kindergarten that was developed in partnership with Rutgers University’s National Institute for Early Education Research, led by Steve Barnett. “The assessment system is an ongoing formative assessment tool that teachers use, with three statewide benchmark assessments during the year – snapshots on the progress of growth and development,” says Burch. “Since we also work with our state’s department of health and human resources, stakeholders receive student reports not only related to the standards but also of health status.”

Burch reiterates this focus on the whole child, as practiced in districts such as Cabell: “In West Virginia we’re looking beyond the cognitive skills, with an additional emphasis on health, creativity, social and emotional development. We value the entire child and their families.”

With the crosswalk, the state’s Next Generation Content Standards and Objectives, and data from the pre-kindergarten assessment – see the state’s Teach 21 website for more information – the conversation has now broadened, with teacher leadership institutes sponsored by the department of education in the summer that bring together teacher and administrator teams from all of the state’s districts to look at alignment and assessment from pre-kindergarten through 3rd grade.

“We’re now preparing to pilot a pre-K through 3rd grade assessment,” says Burch. The assessment links to the Common Core State Standards and the upcoming Smarter Balanced assessment, with students working to apply these standards and show deep understanding of them.

“Our teachers have also developed what we’re calling a progression document, with the kindergarten pilot of that tool underway,” continues Burch, “so that we can really understand how each grade level’s standards fit in a comprehensive framework of our Next Generation Content Standards and Objectives. That pre-K assessment report, for example, gives our kindergarten teachers an idea of what they can do to continue that growth. It gives them a much bigger picture.” And that picture will continue to broaden, as the state’s summer leadership institutes address more and more grade levels, growing the standards-related work that the state began with pre-kindergarten up through the various grade bands and connecting their work

“The Common Core State Standards,” says Adkins, “have added new layers that we need to think about.”

“It’s not just about an individual child getting a skill set,” Burch emphasizes, “but about a child growing in our system.”

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Revise Back to School Night

Posted on September 20, 2012 by Abner Oakes

Back to School Night last week, and it felt the same as those other Back to School Nights the last seven years: Very unsatisfying. As I think is typical in other school systems, parents got the schedule of their child and spent ten minutes in each classroom, listening to teachers delineate homework policy, talk about their background, and describe units and topics to be studied over the course of the year. Some teachers were more organized then others. One rooted around in her desk for a few minutes, looking for some lost sheet of paper. Not a good start to our very short time in her classroom.

Back to School Night is unsatisfying to me on several levels. Given the brief time in each class, you’d think that teachers would limit the amount of information to present and allow for quick questions, but too many of them were in the middle of their PowerPoint slides when the announcement came over the PA asking parents to move to the next class. It was also unsatisfying in the same way that certain trainings or presentations I have attended are unsatisfying: Several teachers felt the need to read each slide, even though we could read obviously, and many slides had the same info on them that was on handouts, as if we could not refer to those.

Now, since several of the teachers structured their presentation in the same manner, no doubt there was a common procedure for that evening that they and the school administration had agreed on, and I appreciate that planning and the consistency. But the event was all so rushed, it created more questions for me than answers, and it got me thinking about my kid and his day at school: Yes, he does not have ten minute classes, but does some of the same happen for him? Are there times when he might feel as I did the other night – harried, brimming with PowerPoint info, with little chance to ask questions or discuss ideas?

When I asked a fellow parent what she got from the other night, she said nothing about the content that was presented but talked about the feel of each classroom, the personality of the teachers, the atmosphere that was created for parents and how that might translate to students. That too is what I most appreciated: Teachers who took the time to step away from the PowerPoint slides and talk about the kind of culture that they engender in their classroom, the kind of learner they hope to develop. There was not enough of that, not enough conversation about class culture and expectations for students. Too much about the trees. Not enough about the forest.

Pam Conway, a friend, fellow K-12 consultant , and long-time former principal in Columbia Public Schools in Missouri had some of the same thoughts about Back to School Night, stating that she likes to “see teachers practice good instruction with parents so that I feel confident they do the same with children.”

Pam continued: “The same things kids look for at the beginning of a new year are the same things I value: What type of relationship does the teacher plan to develop with students and parents? What will the classroom climate be like? Will students have an opportunity for voice and choice? What will make the class relevant, engaging, exciting? And what is the teacher truly passionate about?

“During these kinds of events,” Pam finished, “teachers need to send the message that ‘less is more,’ that ‘depth outweighs breadth,’ to assure parents that children will not fall victim to a rushed, crowded, shallow curriculum and analogous instruction. First impressions set the stage for the rest of the year.”

Yes, Pam, depth, not breadth. So, revise Back to School Night. No more PowerPoint decks. Refer people to the handouts if they have questions about policies and procedures. Have teachers talk about their hopes for their students – and for parents! – and what they, as teachers, plan to learn during the coming year. What’s one really big takeaway that each teacher can tell parents about her classroom and what it’s like for kids? And then take questions and discuss, as much as ten minutes can allow. That’s a Back to School Night that just might be more satisfying.

I got the above image here.

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The Lakeland Way

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Abner Oakes

And here’s my third article on the Common Core for ASCD. You can also see the article here and sign up here to get ASCD’s Common Core-focused newsletter. Enjoy!

At Lakeland Joint School District 272, in Rathdrum, Idaho, teachers, staff, and district administrators work and interact with one another in a manner that they call the Lakeland Way. It is marked by several important qualities – it’s transparent, results-oriented, and kid-focused – but most of all, it is collaborative and highly democratic, including everyone’s voice in the process. It is how the district has worked on initiatives in the past, and, as might be expected, it is how the district is tackling the work surrounding the Common Core State Standards.

Lakeland and its Way are led by the district’s leader, Dr. Mary Ann Ranells, who came to Lakeland four years ago, after three years at the state education department. Located in northern Idaho, just five miles from the Washington State border, Lakeland has 4300 students. There are six elementary schools, all of which are school-wide Title I, two junior high schools, two high schools, and one alternative school. All 11 schools have consistently made Adequate Yearly Progress.

The district’s work on helping students achieve college and career readiness actually began four years ago, when Ranells first arrived.

“Back then, my leadership team and I noticed that our student writing was not where we wanted it to be,” she says, “and we wanted to be sure that we involved every single teacher in the school district to help improve it.” To do that, each grade level and subject area team created writing prompts that they gave their students. Ranells then had all Lakeland teachers gather at one of the high schools, with student writing in hand, where they trained on the scoring of the writing and then did just that – scored it.

“The state had a writing assessment,” Ranells recalls, “but only for a few grade levels. We wanted more information than a few grade levels. And we learned so many lessons through this work, given all of the conversations that we had, not only about our kids and their writing but also about us as an organization and issues related to curriculum alignment.”

The district’s work with writing, which epitomized the Lakeland Way, would soon serve the district well, as it prepared to implement the Common Core State Standards.

Ranells and her leadership team had been reading about the Common Core State Standards because the Idaho state legislature had adopted them on January 24, 2011, and provided districts across the state with a timeline for implementation. “We wanted to approach this very logically,” says Ranells, “using some of the processes that we had learned from the writing work.”

In January 2012, all Lakeland staff members came together again at one of the high schools. “We took those Common Core standards documents,” continues Ranells, “and I had each grade level and subject area team use three different colored highlighters to classify the standards in three ways: what teachers felt that they taught already; what they taught but not perhaps as rigorously as the new standards suggested; and what they did not address at all.”

Teams then took back that information and developed a gap analysis that they presented and discussed during meetings with Ranells. “We had the most amazing discussions,” she says. “What happened was this excitement and some anxiety, as teachers asked themselves: How do we map this out to ensure that by the spring of 2015 we and our kids will be ready?”

In their conversations, Ranells and the teacher teams highlighted the complexity of the skills and knowledge inherent in the standards and the need to dive more deeply into content, particularly as it relates to application and argumentation. “The expectations certainly appear higher than before,” says Ranells. “As they analyzed the language of the framework, the teachers also felt that how they teach and how they assess would have to change to include more hands-on, student interactions and performance measures.”

The next step in this district’s work with the Common Core State Standards is due to the generosity and forward thinking of the Boise-based J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation, which provided grant funding to 15 Idaho districts so that they could put their Common Core-related work directly into Schoolnet‘s instructional management system. In Lakeland this past June, 70 teachers were trained on the system. They will sit down with the Common Core State Standards and reconfigure their instructional calendar to reflect the new standards and the district’s current three areas of instructional focus: problem solving, reading comprehension, and writing.

“We will ask teachers to think about what should be taught and learned per quarter,” states Ranells, “and then develop benchmark assessments to reflect that content and our focus areas. We know that this will all change as the teachers teach, as it should – but we have a process in place for this work and will rely on that process to help us with those changes.”

In the Lakeland Way, these 70 teachers are still responsible for sharing this work with their peers, who will inevitably make suggestions and adjustments. But as Ranells found out with the district’s work on writing, an inclusive, democratic process will make this work stick. “Credit for what we’ve done goes to everyone in the district,” she says. “Our team – administrators and staff – are the ones responsible for this success. I’m just lucky enough to be a part of it.”

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Whiteboards and helping students get organized

Posted on September 2, 2012 by Abner Oakes

Last year, I visited a school that had teachers do something that I thought, at that time, was a little too Stepford Wives-ish: At the front of each classroom in that building, the whiteboard was configured in the same way, with the homework assignment outlined in one corner of the board, the agenda for that class period shared in another, the Do Now written out somewhere else, that same configuration from classroom to classroom. I remembered bristling at this practice, thinking about teacher individuality and how the whiteboard can be symbolically important in sharing with kids that individuality.

Well, I’m over that. My mind is changed, and it changed the other night when listening to the principal at my son’s middle school talk about kids and their class schedules. Teachers might have two or three class preps, she said, but middle school students have as many as seven, as they move from different class to different class, re-booting themselves for math and then English and then science, all of which might have different routines and procedures.

I’ve not yet visited my son’s school and his classes – he’d be horror-stricken if I ask – but I’m imagining that some things are just not the same from classroom to classroom. The basket one teacher uses to collect homework vs. the colored folders used by another or the class jobs that one teacher has, which may not be followed in other classrooms. There will be different routines and procedures from one classroom to the other, and these differences don’t always bode well for middle school students struggling with their executive functioning skills. Like our son.

So, forget my initial hesitancy about the practice of consistent whiteboard configuration from classroom to classroom. Make it happen across the school, to help middle school students – heck, any level student – with organizational issues. The homework assignment written out in the same corner from classroom to classroom, the agenda and the objective for the day’s lesson in the same place, no matter if it’s English or social studies. Give students some modicum of consistency from classroom to classroom, all in the hopes of strengthening their organizational muscles.

I got the whiteboard image from this page.

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Tech in the classroom – looking ahead to this school year

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Abner Oakes

I asked two of my favorite elementary school teacher peeps, Jennie Lopez and Claire Vincent, 5th grade teachers at Westbrook ES in Bethesda, MD, to think about this coming school year and technologies that they want to implement in the classroom, etc. Here are my questions and what they had to say. Enjoy.

1. What technologies are at the top of your list to use in the classroom this coming year and why?

JL: After experimenting with Twitter toward the end of last year, and figuring out good ways to use it with students, that’s going to be a bigger part this year. One of the main reasons for that is that it’s one of the social media avenues that is accessible through school computers (not all social media sites are – and rightfully so I think), and so the class and I can get to it throughout the day. It’s also short and sweet – doesn’t take too much time to incorporate. I’ve toyed around with the idea of a class blog – maybe having one student write up a quick paragraph about our day near dismissal, and seeing how our ideas grow from there. Both the Twitter and blog ideas came to me after attending a parent meeting during which a parent told teachers something along the lines of, “In an ideal world, parents would receive a detailed report of how their child was doing after each school day.” This parent understood that was impossible, but it got me thinking that I might be able to communicate more than I am right now. I’m also hoping it creates communication between students and parents, beyond the typical “How was your day?” “Good.” “What did you do?” “Nothing.”

CV: I’m looking forward to making use of our class Twitter account. The 5th grade team has made it a job in our classrooms for kids to create tweets throughout the day. I like the idea of parents being able to follow along (hopefully in real time) with what happens in our classroom.

I’m also very excited about the new laptop carts that our school received this summer. The younger grades now have three computers in every classroom, one for the teacher and two for the kids, and the older grades have laptops that we can use in our classroom. Since typing is a skill of the 21st century, I always try to get every published piece typed, but with only one lab that can be hard. Also with wireless in the building, I’m excited at the prospect of more time on computers in general – for research, creating presentations, etc.

2. What technologies seem to be a bust, even though there’s a lot of education-related chatter about them? How come they seem to be a bust, to you?

JL: I’m almost embarrassed to say it, but I’m underwhelmed by Promethean boards, which are all the rage around here. They’re often used as glorified white boards or for PowerPoints. I’d love to come across an elementary teacher who uses them in more interactive ways – which is certainly something they’re designed for, but as of right now, I’m honestly not itching for one of my own.

3. What sort of support are you getting from the school and/or the district when it comes to implementing new technologies? What more might you like?

JL: Bringing more technology into the classroom is something I became more and more interested in towards the later part of last year, and so I’m honestly not sure of everything that’s available to me through the system. I know that my principal, parents, and the greater system encourage using new and/or “real world” technologies in the classroom. I also know the district offers trainings over the summer for Promethean boards and offers a site where you can upload lessons from the curriculum you’ve translated to the Promethean software. That way, any teacher can browse depending on the grade level/unit and may not need to re-create the wheel. From just getting my feet wet this year, it sounds like one of the keys is going to have to be writing grants to obtain funds, so that will be new territory for me. Honestly, one thing that might help the most is a way to communicate with other teachers who are starting to bring these new elements into their classrooms. Teachers are all about grabbing great ideas from colleagues.

CV: The district has a site for accessing Promethean flip-charts, which is great because you don’t have to re-invent the wheel. We’re also lucky to have a parent who’s also an employee in the district’s technology office and is assigned to our school. He comes in for trainings and will even do things one-on-one with teachers if we need it.

I’d love to see more technology in our school. The district could also share information about grants that are available. I know that a nearby elementary school got tablets and Promethean boards through grants and volunteering to pilot new technologies. Somehow our school’s ended up in the dark ages, it feels.

4. What side of education technology seems to be the most exciting for improving teaching and learning – social media apps, for example, or new reading tools, like the Kindle?

JL: I’ve definitely noticed students mentioning Kindles, and other e-readers. Lots of students asked me if they could bring theirs to school last year. I like the idea of anything I can put directly in a student’s hand – Kindles, iPads/tablets, that kind of thing. It seems to me that would make the most impact – everyone has their own device, there’s no waiting for a turn for it. Just thinking about the prevalence of those two devices out in the world makes me think they might be here to stay, at least longer than some others.

CV: I love social media apps, not necessarily because of student interaction, but because it brings my super-excited parent community even more into the classroom. Not all parents are able to come in to volunteer, but tweeting allows them to keep tabs on what’s happening. Jennie also had the idea to start a class blog, where each day one student writes a summary of the day and posts it, a preview of the answer to the what-happened-at-school-today question.

5. What’s your sniff test for a new technology – that is, what is the main thing it has to do/provide before you’ll even think of it?

JL: It has to work for me personally, outside of school. That’s how I do a lot of my initial research. I try these technologies/sites/apps out for myself and see whether I think they’re worthwhile in my life, or even if they’re just plain fun. If there’s something I don’t see as beneficial to me, but a lot of my peers or others around me are utilizing it, I might experiment with that as well. My ultimate goal is to help my students become technologically literate. I know the technologies around them will be changing, but I want them to get used to keeping up with that. And if what I’m showing them isn’t actually being used out in the world, then they’ll see right through it.

CV: I want it to be intuitive. Our district has more than one version of the Promethean technology for no apparent reason other than one looks more kid-like, the other more professional. The professional version appeals to me because it’s straightforward and I can figure things out with little training. I also like tools that are for the kids. The Promethean and ELMO are great, but what does it do for my kids other than update an overhead projector?

6. Smart phones in the classroom: Whatcha think?

CV: I’m not sure this really applies to our grade level. I don’t love 5th graders with a cell phone to begin with (maybe when I have a 5th grader I’ll feel differently – get with the times, Old Lady Vincent!), but as of right now even the students who do have a phone don’t typically have a smart phone.

As for the older grades, I can hear teacher fears: “They’ll be on Facebook, they’ll text, etc.” What about passing notes? In middle school my friend and I had a notebook for the express purpose of passing notes. One of us wrote in it, typically during a class, and passed it to the other in the hall. We didn’t have many classes together but spent serious time engaging in extensive note writing, like a pen pal. Teachers can’t stop a kid from not paying attention – and a teacher who uses smartphones with a purpose is going to have engaged students who might also multi-task with some texting and Facebooking.

7. What will never change, in your opinion, no matter what technology gets thrown at it?

JL: Kids. Now that I’ve been at this for seven plus years, I see that what’s happening around children changes all the time, but at their core, fifth graders are fifth graders (so are kindergarteners, third graders, etc.). And I always love setting a kid up with a good book on tape.

CV: Teachers’ passion. I think that even with the ability to do schooling completely online, you can’t take the teacher out of the equation. Kids need a teacher, whether it’s their parent doing homeschooling, some 20-something-year-old at our school, or an instructor engaging them via the internet. True teachers get into teaching because they want to impact kids, and they’ll still be interested in teaching even if the face of the classroom changes. If you told me the only way I could be a teacher was to do it virtually, as with Skype, for example, I’d still want to be a teacher – but you’d have to give me more training first.

I got the Twitter image here.

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