“The Implications of Standards”Please respond to the following:

• Evaluate the purpose of student performance standards and developmental standards. Propose how each performance standard can be strengthened to assist student learning.
• Evaluate the efficacy of the standards-based movement and examine how it has affected schools in general. Support your position by providing two examples from personal experience.

Peer Post

Expectations for instruction, assessment, and student work are called Performance Standards. These incorporate the content standards and they define the level of work that demonstrates achievement of the standards. Performance standards isolate and identify the skills needed to use the knowledge and skills in problem-solving, reasoning, communicating, and making connections with other information (Schlechty, 2009).Developmental standards are standards that teachers feel are important. These standards parents understand and can help enforce at home. The standard’s goal is to ensure students have the basic knowledge and work habit to pursue different task. For instance, a student being able to read well enough to comprehend the material given (Schlechty, 2009). My suggestion would be to gear all performance standards towards improving student’s performance. Some standards need to be reformed to fit the needs of the ever-changing curriculum and student abilities. Teamwork is the key to transforming issues in performance standards. For instance, a teacher not being able to reach one student should collaborate with another grade level teacher for some suggestions for strategies.

The standards-based movement has affected the way educators present a specific objective. Teachers are expected to teach according to standards and students are expected to learn these standards. For instance, a standards-based test is an assessment based on the outcome-based education or performance-based education philosophy. Evaluation is a key part of the standards-based movement. The first part is to set new, higher standards to be expected of every student. Then the curriculum must be aligned with the new standards. This has transformed the school in a negative direction. Teachers have limited flexibility to teach, and schools are more about passing end of year test rather than learning the necessary material needed. For example, standards are so important now that some items have been eliminated from the curriculum such as cursive writing. Evaluations have become the norm of the school curriculum. Its day 23 in the 2018-19 school year for my daughter, she has complained yesterday how she took a test in each subject. Which left me a little confused what could she have mastered in 22 days to receive an assessment in all subjects in 5th grade? A standard-based movement has eliminated real learning in schools.

Schlechty, P.C.  (2009). Leading for learning: How to transform schools into learning organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Discussion 2

“Theoretical Models” Please respond to the following:

• If you are currently working in a school district, briefly describe your school district and its current state in regard to transformation. Create a theory of action to support and sustain school transformation. If you are not currently working in a school district, create a theory of action to support and sustain school transformation in a school of your choice. 
• Predict two ways that the transformation model will affect schools and learning organizations in the future.

Peer Post

Willie L. Brown Middle School was supposed to be school of all schools, modern and innovative and a haven for many of the students who come from low-income, high poverty areas. The school provided Google Chromebooks to students, Apple TVs in every classroom, and an on-campus wellness center. The curriculum was going to be STEM-based and the district had hired a Morehouse, Harvard graduate to be the principal. The goal was to imitate some of the Bay Area’s top private schools. Unfortunately, this was not enough to prevent the school from spiraling out of control before opening day. Two months prior to the school opening the principal quit, teachers and staff were not adequately prepared to handle the students, and there was no clear leadership.

Some of the issues that the school needs to deal with include:

• Provide counselors to support students and teachers – teachers were unprepared to deal with some of the student’s behavioral problems, so it would be beneficial to have a counselor provide ways to work with them and a counselor can help students as well.
• Training for educators to teach them how to work with at risk students – teachers who have never worked at schools where most of the students live in high-poverty areas, which brings its own set of issues.
• Partner with the community – improving schools should be a shared responsibility between stakeholders.
• Review staff/teacher salaries – the school district has the highest resignation rates in California. The district should look into not only salaries, but also look at how to increase their leadership role.
• Predict two ways that the transformation model will affect schools and learning organizations in the future.

An important point to notice from the example above is that it is not enough to build a school and fill it with modern equipment because if it lacks internal structure it will fail. In this case the school district wanted to emulate private schools and create a thriving school environment. The transformation should provide give teachers more support and give them the structure they need to teach and manage their classes. The counselors should setup weekly class visitations to get a better look at the students and if possible reach out to parents. The principal should schedule quarterly teacher parent meetings or conference calls to provide updates on class and school activities and any changes to the curriculum. The second way that the transformation will affect schools should be the role of teachers. Teachers are often overlooked, even though they are the backbone of schools. After a transformation teacher should have more autonomy and there should be more collaboration with the principal and other teachers.