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Transcript: Taking Center Stage—Act II Webcast (April 8, 2008)

This is the transcript of the TCSII Webcast which can be viewed from http://pubs.cde.ca.gov/tcsii/prolearningtoolkit.aspx.

 

Introduction

Rozlynn: Hello and welcome to the kick-off of the Taking Center Stage—Act II Road Show Webcast. Fifty-six county offices of education from around the state are participating in today's Webcast which is being transmitted from the Sacramento County Office of Education.

My name is Rozlynn Worrall, and I am the administrator for the Middle and High School Improvement Office of the California Department of Education. It is my pleasure to be here today to facilitate this Webcast.

Our State Superintendent of Instruction, Jack O'Connell, would also like to welcome you and to say a little bit about Taking Center Stage—Act II Web portal and today's professional learning experience.

Jack O’Connell Welcome Video

Jack O’Connell: Greetings! It’s really my great pleasure to welcome you to today’s Taking Center Stage—Act II professional learning experience.

This is the first in a series of professional learning opportunities that’s really designed by the Middle and High School Improvement Office of the California Department of Education to help us close the achievement gap in California’s middle grades.

Now, as most of you may know, the California Department of Education recently launched our new and highly innovative Web-based resource for California’s middle grades educators and partners. Taking Center Stage—Act II,  which will be known as TCSII, is subtitled Ensuring Success and Closing the Achievement Gap for All of California’s Middle Grades Students.

Now, TCSII is based on 12 interrelated recommendations for middle grades improvement. We’ve developed these foundational recommendations with the help of our California Middle Grades Alliance partners. Today, you’ll explore even more about these recommendations and how they address the connections between academic excellence, developmental responsiveness, social equity, and the organizational structures and processes needed to support effective middle grades practices.

Today’s event includes both presentations and small group experiences. Now, first, you will hear from two renowned experts. My friend, Russlynn Ali, who is the executive director of the nonprofit organization Education Trust-West. And she is going to talk about achievement gap data and how it really pertains to students in our middle grades. Next, you will hear about differentiated instruction from Dr. Debbie Silver, who really is a great award-winning educator with 30 years experience as a classroom teacher and author.

Now, following these presentations, you will be able to participate in the Taking Center Stage—Act II Road Show that’s designed for teams and professional learning communities. As district and site leadership teams, you will be taking the strategies you learn today back to your school communities to help your colleagues understand and fully implement the 12 TCSII recommendations through guided school-site professional learning. Now, your participation in this professional learning event signals your commitment to success for all middle grades students. And, I really want to commend you as change agents for continuous improvement.

We are looking at a tough budget year. But we must invest in our impressionable middle grades students or we will be shortchanging the future of our great state. Whether we have an abundant or lean budget, the TCSII Web portal is free. You can access it 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Now, TCSII, along with the Road Show CD that each trained team will receive, will have everything that you need for on-site professional learning experiences that will move your school from fair to good and from good to great. This is a renewable, dynamic Web resource that can be used with beginning teachers and administrators and with veteran teachers and administrators as you continuously improve your practices and continue to meet the needs of your young adolescents.

I would like to sincerely express my appreciation to the county offices of education and the Curriculum and Instruction Steering Secondary Subcommittee of the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association, for working with the California Department of Education to host and facilitate today’s event. Again, thank you for taking your time today to truly help our schools prepare our young adolescents to be productive citizens and leaders for tomorrow.

            Rozlynn: Thank you, Superintendent. Before I introduce our first speaker today, I’d like to take a few minutes to tell you about the format of today's Webcast. Each of our presenters will have approximately 45 minutes for their presentation. During that time, you are welcome to send in questions via the chat function of the Webcast. And directly after their 45-minute presentation, there will be a five-minute break where you can get up and stretch and relax a little bit; and we will compile those questions. And then, we will come back to you promptly after five minutes and our speakers will answer as many of those questions as best they can within the ten minutes that they have after that. Any questions left unanswered will be answered and posted on the Web site soon after the Webcast, maybe a couple of days afterwards. So we are looking forward to today's Webcast which will also be archived and on the TCSII Web portal very shortly after the Webcast.

            We are pleased today to have two nationally renowned speakers with us today. Russlynn Ali will take you through a visual tour of achievement gap data and impress upon you the need for a high impact middle grades education for all of our students. Debbie Silver, author and veteran educator, will focus on the effect of differentiating classroom instruction for all of our students and to meet the diverse needs of our learners.

Russlynn Ali Presentation

Our first presenter is Russlynn Ali. She is the executive director of the nonprofit organization Education Trust-West. Russlynn's presentation today is “Our Mission is Possible; and The Time is Now.” This will be posted on the Education West Trust [sic] Web site for you to view after today’s presentation. Welcome, Russlynn.

Russlynn: Good morning. Thank you so much.

Rozlynn: It’s very nice to have you here. And we need a little bit of help here because we have a different presentation up. How do we get Russlynn’s presentation up here?

Russlynn: It is amazing that we’re here today to really focus on middle schools. Middle schools are taking center stage in our reform and school transformation efforts and what an important task . . . as we'll talk about as soon as we resolve some of these technical difficulties.

And, as you know all too well, we are making great gains in our middle and elementary schools statewide. Achievement is up for all groups of kids. In fact, at the elementary grades, we are doing much better than in our secondary years. And by the time—as we’ll now see—students get to high school, early gains often get lost.

So what I'd like to do for you today is paint a portrait of what's happening to students as they journey throughout our middle grades and, most importantly, what we know about what it takes to ensure that all young students from the sixth through the eighth grades can achieve at the highest levels and be ready for the new demands and new rigor of our nation and our state's high schools.

So let's take a look at really where we are now. As Superintendent O'Connell said, our biggest challenge—our biggest challenge—is closing the achievement gap. It is the most important crisis facing our public schools. We have to make headway on this challenge for moral reasons, for demographic reasons, and, certainly, for economic reasons.

But, when we talk about the achievement gap, we really are talking about twin gaps in California—both the gap separating our state’s young people from their peers in almost every state in the nation and the gap within our own borders separating our students of color and their low-income peers from more advantaged groups of students. Now, the truth is, we will never get to that first gap between California and all our other states without attending to the second.

So let's take a look at that first gap—California versus every other state. As we see overall in mathematics, we are very near the bottom doing better only than eighth graders in West Virginia, Hawaii, New Mexico, Alabama, and Mississippi. Now many . . . when we see these NAEP data (the National Assessment of Educational Progress) . . . as you know, it’s the only assessment we can use to compare California's young people to their peers elsewhere.

Many people . . . when they see these average numbers, they say, “Well, of course, Russlynn, well of course. . . because, you see, we have so many more Latinos, so many more low-income students.” Let me say at the outset, if I share nothing with you today, I hope that it is this take away: that it is not the color of students, it is not how much money their parents make that guides student achievement. It's what schools do—what schools do matter very, very much. And what we as educators do can make all of the difference.

Now, so these eighth grade numbers, well, that’s all our kids. What about certain groups of kids? Well, let's compare our Latino eighth graders to their Latino peers everywhere else and there you'll see Latino eighth graders in California are doing better only than Utah, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Alabama again.

Well, what about our black young people? Doing a little bit better than a few other states—doing better than blacks and African American young people in Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Alabama, Michigan, Nebraska.

But, if it was just our demographics, then our white students, we would expect—one of our top performing subgroups—to be doing much better than their white peers nationwide. We see, though, a very different picture where our white students, while they have a higher average scale score on the National Assessment of Education Progress, they are still performing well below their peers elsewhere. All of those states that are Latino and African American peers are doing a little bit better than our white students are too; and add to that white students in Idaho, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky only—that's where our white students are outperforming their peers. So the achievement gap facing California as a whole, relative to almost every other state in the nation, is huge.

Now, let's go deeper and take a look at our young people in California. Now, Jack O'Connell and the staff of the state chief revealed some incredibly powerful data just a few months ago. It really puts to notion that myth that achievement gaps are about socioeconomic status only—that race, if you will, is almost just a correlating factor, right? If you’re low achieving, then you’re most likely to be poor. And, far too often, we conflate race and poverty in public education and when we talk about, for example, finance reform. But the truth is non-poor African American, non-poor middle-class Latino students are still in California performing below the level and right at the level of white students in California who are poor. This is true in grades two through eleven.

Here we’re looking at English language arts. And here we’re looking at mathematics where middle-class African American and Latino young people are performing worse than white students that are poor. And this is true in grades two through eleven. So it’s about race and poverty. Very tough questions especially for educators often to contend with . . . especially in the middle grades when young people are dealing with so many of life’s challenges.

Now, we've seen some improvement over time in California but not enough.

And achievement gaps are not narrowing. That’s English . . . . Here’s math . . . . where we’re seeing, again, steady improvement for all groups of kids, but achievement gaps are not closing. When we talk about closing the achievement gap, we are talking about improving every group of students. But we’ve got to accelerate those kids furthest behind.

Now, let's go deep into middle schools. Red is where we do not want to be—that’s below and far below basic on our California Standards Test. Yellow is basic. Green, our goal for all students—that’s proficient.

Here you’re looking at sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. Now, long before No Child Left Behind, back in the days of the Public School Accountability Act, we were waxing eloquent about how our goal for all students was indeed proficiency. You see we have a long way to go as of the most recent data sets.

Now, underneath those averages that I just showed you, we see very big achievement gaps. Let's look for a moment at reading. Again, we’re doing better in the sixth grade and almost any place else but here you see very wide achievement gaps separating our African American and Latino students from their white and Asian counterparts.

The same is true when we cut those data by socioeconomic status. As we matriculate into seventh grade, we see similar patterns but here, too—wide achievement gaps especially between Asian and white students that are performing at grade level and their Latino and African American counterparts? Same patterns when we cut that data by socioeconomic status.

Now, as you have a chance after this Webcast to begin to study these numbers and look a little deeper, contact our offices. Let's talk about why these patterns persist.

What we’re going to spend most of our time talking about today is what we can do to ameliorate these achievement gaps. I’m going to go fast as we take a look at these patterns because what you've seen at sixth grade and what you’ve seen at seventh grade, unfortunately, gets worse at eighth grade and ninth grade. And, by high school, again, early gains get lost quickly.

Now, by seventh grade, what do these numbers mean when it comes to grade level—a year’s worth of learning? We can use the norm-referenced but standards-aligned CAT6 to tell us a very disturbing story in California. And, that is, that African American and Latino seventh graders are reading at about the level of their white third grade peers. That means, by the time students get to your doors at middle school, they are already four years—four years, if not more, years—worth of learning behind their peers.

The same is true for low-income seventh graders. They are performing at about the level of non-poor third graders—four years worth of learning. And later this morning, you are going to hear from Debbie, who’s going to talk to you about differentiated instruction. Because you know and I know and we know that that is key—capacity building so that educators know what to do when students are coming to you at the secondary level so far behind.

We’re going to talk about some places that are doing that very well and see their achievement gaps begin to close as a result. Eighth grade—you see those patterns getting a little bit bigger on the red (the below basic) especially for Latino and African American students where just over a quarter—just over a fourth—of Latino and African American eighth graders are performing at grade level statewide. Same is true for low-income young people—well less than one in five, if they are poor—are performing at grade level in reading. And, you see by ninth grade, that red begins to even get bigger.

            Now, ninth grade is showing you here because we’ve got to get students. That's the new charge for middle schools, right?—making sure that they are high school ready with a new definition of high schools. California has finally marched with 30 other states. We are now the thirty-first in the American Diploma Project Network. That means we are going to align our high school exit requirements to match the new demands of college, career, and civic participation.

Your job at middle schools is key—is key—to make sure that students are ready to embark on a very new high school journey. You see from data like this that, at the ninth grade especially, we have a long way to go for our African American and Latino young people. Same is true for our low-income young people.

Now, let’s look deeply at math, too. You see there's—more red, especially at the sixth grade. We were doing better in English than we are in mathematics . . . equally wide achievement gaps where a full 72 percent of our state’s Asian students at the sixth grade in mathematics are performing proficient.

Now, bear in mind, you'll see through these patterns a new kind of achievement gap growing—one between white and Asian students, with Asian students, especially in mathematics on top. But we’ve got to be very careful when we make assumptions behind those patterns. Because when we unpack Asian data and look behind those averages, we see very wide achievement gaps within the Asian community depending on when students came to this country and depending on region—Hmong, Cambodia, Laos—usually at the bottom of the achievement gap between their Korean, Chinese, and Japanese counterparts. And those gaps are wide. So let’s not clump all Asians together when we say they are fast becoming our highest performing subgroup.

Looking at the data by socioeconomic status—similar patterns. By seventh grade, you see similar patterns. Only about a quarter of our state’s (a little more than one in four of our state’s) Latino young people are proficient in seventh grade mathematics. A little over one in five of our African American young people at the seventh grade performing at grade level in mathematics.

Why is the seventh grade important, so important, in mathematics? You know this better than I do. If we’re serious about algebra in the eighth grade, they have to have much more fundamental understanding of the deeper level mathematics concepts for them to be ready.

Socioeconomic status—cutting that data by . . . you see very similar patterns where over half of our state’s non-poor students are proficient compared to only about one in four of our students that are poor.

Now, eighth grade general math—there ought to be a big asterisk here under general math, right? Because our goal for all students is algebra in the eighth grade . . . has been—has been—since about 1996, 1997. Recently, it just became a real high school graduation requirement in the last three years. The state board is always contending with waivers for students that still haven't been able to master algebra; but, yet, it’s a middle school charge. We see far too many students still, especially if they are African American or Latino, enrolled in general mathematics at the eighth grade. And look at these data patterns where over half of them in general math are really not where we want them to be—if they are African American, are below or far below where they ought to be, to be ready for the demands of high school. And just under half of all Latinos students are below and far below basic.

Cutting that data by socioeconomic status, you see very similar patterns in the gap. Now, Algebra I for our students that are getting algebra in the eighth grade that are . . . . Now we can't tell statewide patterns to a really accurate extent about who’s getting algebra in the eighth grade and who’s getting general math and what classes those students took before and what classes they'll take when they get through high school. You know why?

That's because we haven't made the kind of investment at the state level on a comprehensive data system that is both student-level and teacher-level so that we can study classroom performance, so that we can study programs that work. So folks like me can get up on Webcasts like this and tell you for sure what we know that’s working in California classrooms.

This year, in this dire fiscal times, we have a new kind of opportunity to make sure that we actually make good on policymaker promise—that is now turning into rhetoric because we've heard the promises year after year after year after year—that, finally, we are going to invest in a data system worthy of the sixth largest economy in the world so it just doesn’t become the eighth, and the tenth, and the twelfth and continue to lose its economic standing. Let’s push at both the local and state levels to make sure we get much better data.

What we know for sure, though—because we have some good data . . . more than we’ve ever had before . . .  we got a long way to go—what we know for sure is that the expectations of high school are much more rigorous than they were before. I’m going to say that, always, college and work readiness is the goal of K-12 now as it should be.

So we've got to get much deeper into what works at the middle school level—what works to get students truly mastering algebra in the eighth grade. Because patterns like what these data show, the kids that are getting it are failing it. And patterns . . .  as our team at the Education Trust-West spends over half of our time in schools and districts every day that are working to transform themselves into those that are truly college and work ready. What we see in every district that we are in—and these are forward-thinking districts—the common intervention of choice, especially in algebra, is what?—to repeat the course over and over and over again. We’re seeing high school transcripts that date back from middle school where students are taking six courses of algebra. Sometimes they’re called different names; but they’re, sort of, kind of, algebra and still not mastering it.

Debbie will come to talk to us about differentiated instruction—how we’re going to cure that. Because interventions of doing the same thing over and over again—taking the same course over and over again—aren’t what’s in the best interest of our students.

In a few moments, we'll talk about what we’re learning from some of the high performing middle schools (especially in algebra)—of what they’re doing that’s working so well to change these patterns. But I'm going to try to get through the sobering data because the truth . . . where these data are likely breaking your heart as much as they break ours at the Education Trust-West everyday . . . the inspiration—the hope—is what high performing, high minority, high poverty schools are doing up and down the state to figure out how to change these patterns.

Now, the trends are persisting over time. At the eighth grade, we’re seeing some improvement, though, especially since 2003. That is the very good news for all groups of kids. We want to see more for our Latino and African American students if we are serious about closing the achievement gap. But we are seeing a steady improvement over time. In math, that improvement doesn't appear to be as consistent longitudinally as we’re seeing in English; but still some progress in the eighth grade.

Now, of course, you know as well as I do, these gaps begin before students ever get to kindergarten. There is much new research about school readiness—that children need to know their alphabet; they need to know some basic elements of reading and, yes, mathematics before they get to kindergarten; and that there are wide achievement gaps separating low-income three-year-olds and low-income five-year-olds—big huge vocabulary gaps, big gaps on knowing their colors, big gaps on knowing their alphabet.

The problem, though, is rather than taking these kids that already come to our doors with less to begin with and giving them more of what research tells us makes a difference, we do the opposite at every level, K-12. We take the kids who need the most and we turn around and give them less of everything that we know makes a difference. We organize our systems—whether that system is a classroom, a school, a district, or even our state. We organize them in a way that actually don’t ameliorate the achievement gap. They exacerbate the achievement gap. Gaps don’t leave once students enter our doors—leave our schools either.

Now, just for a real moment, let me show you some national adult literacy survey. Go with me. Just—at what we were asking—what this study asked, for folks over 16, over 18 to do. If they were proficient, they could compute and compare the cost per ounce of food items. If they were below basic, they could just barely add the amounts on a bank deposit slip. What we’re talking about is quantitative literacy. Look what we saw. Where . . . if you were African American or Latino as an adult, nearly . . . and just about half of you—half of you—were below basic in quantitative literacy.

What made the biggest difference?—Advanced degree, college education. Now, I know my “higher ed” friends that might be watching will look at these numbers and go “eh.” But we still only have about a third—less than a third—of adults proficient with a college degree, right? We’ve got a long way to go.

And what do we know is the gatekeeper? Algebra. Bob Moses’ stuff from back in the day, right? . . . not too long ago . . . . Algebra is a civil right. I say “back in the day” because, as we’re learning from the new economic research, it’s actually geometry that’s the gatekeeper course—because, in order to earn a job sufficient to support a family in the blue-collar workforce, adults are going to need to know geometry. It doesn't have to be this way. These patterns—the achievement gap—is not inevitable. It is not. What schools do, matter.

Let's just take a look at some of those high poverty middle schools that are scoring in the top third of our state . . . that have the highest populations of Latino and African American young people; of ELL (English language learners); of low- income students; and that are performing in the top third of all schools statewide—not just schools that look like them—all schools statewide. Hill Middle in Long Beach, Thompson Middle in Murietta Valley, Oakland Charter in Oakland Unified with an API of 896.

What about those middle schools that have the smallest gaps between Latino and white young people? Pioneer that has a six-point gap. Not the norm that we see. The hundreds of API points separate groups of students from one another within schools.

So what are they doing? Let me show you just a little bit at Hill Middle (just a snapshot of their data) where they are outperforming for every group of kids—not just their district, but the state as a whole . . . where you see consistent growth over time, where kids are moving from the sixth to the eighth grade and in droves, that paces much higher than the state as a whole.

Take a look just at Kipp, now the highest performing middle school in San Francisco Unified. Look what they’re doing at every grade level—outpacing San Francisco Unified, outpacing San Francisco County, outpacing California as a whole for every group of kids.

Now, what Kipp is also showing us . . . because, you know, this focus on accountability I’m hearing so much in the field that says it’s only about reading and math. And I understand that oftentimes the focus on reading and math—given how little time (instructional time) we have during the course of the school day, and school year, and school week , , , oftentimes, a focus on, for example, science gets lost (not to mention arts and PE).

But Kipp is showing us that it doesn't have to be that way. That high performing can mean high performing across all disciplines. In science, Kipp students are outpacing all groups of kids in their district, in their county, in their state.

What are they doing that’s working so well? What's Hill doing? We’re talking traditional public schools . . . we’re talking some charter schools. Our chore is to get into those high performing classrooms and schools, find out what they are doing, and see what lessons can be learned.

Now, we know from whole districts that there are very big differences in the performance of the same groups of kids. Take a look at some district comparisons nationally using the NAEP (the National Assessment of Education Progress) and a study called the Trial Urban District Assessment. Look at Los Angeles. This is ranked in terms of performance across these other urban districts. My friends in L.A. . . .  we'll be there in a few weeks. Let's talk about these numbers: LAUSD versus New York City for low-income black kids—low-income African American young people. They’re not different in New York than they are in Los Angeles.

The bottom line is at every level of education. What we do matters a lot at middle schools—that crucial juncture, that crucial transition. Finally, there's acknowledgment from state leaders that you've known all along; and that is, what you do matters almost most of all.

So, what do we know about these gap-closing schools? There are six powerful lessons, six powerful takeaways. Now, before we get into them . . . some real context. What you have chosen to do as educators has the power to transform—more than almost any other field—the lives of children. In this era of economic . . . increasing economic despair, we’re finding a new kind of focus on public education.

Why? Because, as we look at America’s standing relative to almost every other country developed and developing that participates in these international studies, we’re realizing that America is losing its ground in the middle grades. Our fifteen-year-olds—looking at that piece of study—have a problem-solving capacity compared to their peers in Latvia—that in most other nations, both in problem solving and mathematics, they are far outpacing America’s kids.

We talked about the achievement gap especially at the eighth grade between California and every other state. But—as we’re wrestling in our global economy to regain our standing—to focus on what we as educators do has the power—holds the key—to transforming whole communities, to transforming neighborhoods, to transforming families. It matters most of all.

And what teachers know in these high poverty, high minority, high poverty environments that we are studying, is that they hold the key—that they’re doing it everyday. They’re doing it many times despite the system, not because of the system. What do they do most of all? They focus on what they can do. They focus on what they can change rather than on what they can't.

Now, some schools and districts—those that aren't so high performing and high improving—oftentimes, they focus . . .  they’re caught up in correlations:

• The percentage of babies born at low birth weight;
• The percentage of children born to single moms;
• The percentage of their kids and families receiving government assistance;
• Education levels of the mothers.

You know, it goes and on and on and on and on. That's not to say that each of these correlations doesn't make your work more challenging. But they don't focus endlessly on those correlations. They don't focus on what they can't do. They focus on what they can.

We hear things like this from those high performing, high poverty principals. They say, "Yeah, we get it. Our kids live in dire circumstances. No student in America should face what so many of ours do everyday. They are poor. They are hungry. There aren't books in their homes. They live in crime-ridden neighborhoods. They have severe health challenges and issues that impact their lives when they come into our classrooms. But we can't dwell on that,” high performing educators say, “because we can't change it.” So, when they come into our doors, we dwell on that which is going to move our students in terms of their academic achievement. They don't leave anything about teaching and learning to chance.

Now, an awful lot of our teachers—even brand new ones (those just coming out of our schools of ed)—are often left to figure out on their own what to teach and what constitutes "good enough" student work. The result of that system is one that doesn't expect very much from most students; and expects much less from some such types of students than others.

Now, my colleague says that this is where the achievement gap lives—in the quality of the expectations of our assignments that we ask students to do. We are going to go through these quickly because there's not enough time to really dig deep into what constitutes a good assignment. Fortunately, our leaders at the state level are working on overcoming this obstacle.

On these Web portals, you’re going to be able to see good assignments—anchor assignments—at every grade level in the core subjects especially. Oftentimes, we'll see high quality assignments like the one that I'm showing you now: a seventh grade writing assignment that asks students to read an important essay and critically analyze the impact on society today, for example.

On the other hand, we see assignments like this that I am showing you now—where both of these assignments, believe it or not, were regular education kids. This wasn't special ed; this wasn’t ELL kids. We’re asking kids in preparation for the CST in writing to do things like fill in blanks about what a neat expression is or what their best friend’s name is. Who’s going to do better on the assessment in writing?—likely, the kids that have been asked to write. Standards alone can't get us there.

Couple of other assignments . . . sixth grade—you know, we like to call this science meets multiple intelligences. It’s as if Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences have run amuck. It’s as if visual learners by definition are black and brown in some schools. And, in some communities, we’re creating a 3-D creature in a shoebox. The assignment might look like this—with very little explanation as how—or an assignment . . .  that I should read Shakespeare because that's what our standards tell us, that’s what our frameworks tell us, that’s what our blueprints tell us, that’s what our rubrics tell us.

What are we asking kids to do with the Shakespeare assignment?—to do a visual. What do we get?—things like this. If you can't see it, it's a heart with an “x” through it that talks about Montague and says “no family love.”

Compared to an assignment like this—where students are reading the Odyssey and asked to do deep thought. Some assignments that ask students to read the Odyssey . . . because in this era of standards, everybody’s reading the Odyssey . . . we’ll ask students to draw pictures of each adventure. We can put them at the high school level and schools call classes college prep. But you know and I know a label is just a label.

So what do high performing schools and districts do? They have very clear goals for what students should learn at their grade levels—not just taking what the state has done. Using the state as a guide, they provide teachers with a common curriculum and assignments. They have a regular vehicle to assure common marking of those standards—discussion about them. Some people call them power standards. Some people call them very important standards. You know—most educators have known this for a long time. Our state leaders need to develop the acumen, too. And, you hear the rhetoric. Perhaps we have too many standards. Perhaps we have to go deeper and richer, clearer, more specific, deeper, fewer.

We know that educators across the state are already doing that. And, they are taking somewhat of a risk that they’re guessing right based on what those assessments do tell us, right? But we know that they’re also developing formative assessments. They’re not waiting for what so many educators call those “autopsy tests” at the end of the year—course assessments from the state. They’re developing formative assessments based on what they know matters and they’re judging student learning over time. They’re acting immediately on those results. They’re getting those results of these formative assessments into the hands of educators, supplemental instruction providers, and, yes, parents. They set their goals high.

Now, I'm going to race through this part. But let's be clear—college and work readiness is the goal of our high schools, is the goal of our K-12 system. Parents are clear. They want to go to college. They want their kids to go to college. Kids are clear. They want to go to college. Now, parents in California—minority parents—expect their kids to at least go to a four-year college . . . every group. And that's good because only with the credential does the wage gap finally close. Some college, in other words, is not enough.

Even in jobs that we don’t expect . . . automotive apprenticeship programs are requiring students to know physics—to get force hydraulics and friction—because cars are made differently today than they used to be. What is a construction academy if it's not based on plane geometry? And, in almost every apprenticeship program that . . . we’ve learned . . . that we’ve studied . . .  . that actually get young people on a meaningful career track that will actually offer them benefits, they have to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in the English language.

Culinary arts is the new big thing in California—Proposition 1-D. That’s where our new money is coming from. I’ve talked to a number of central district office folks almost everywhere in the state where they say that SB 70 money is going to culinary arts . . . not a bad thing if we are using it as a pathway to rigor. Because, if we are using it as an occupational sort of destination, we might not be doing it right. The culinary arts academies are actually requiring ACTs, SATs. They are giving credit if you scored above a three plus on an AP assessment and they’re requiring remediation if kids don't know basic skills. The culinary arts Web site—it’s not folks in a kitchen . . . the picture we see . . . . It’s young people using a calculator and doing computations in mathematics.

Ready for work means ready for college. Yet, by the end, only about 14 percent of our state’s Latino ninth graders and only about 15 percent of our state’s African Americans ninth graders are going to graduate with the courses that our four-year universities and colleges require for admission. And we know ready for work is ready for college. We are talking about a new basic here.

Now, at the ninth grade, most kids (or an increasing percentage of them) are on track. But—as new research from the U.C. is showing us—by the time they get to the twelfth grade, very few are on track. So, how does it happen? In part, it’s the decisions adults make.

Let me show you, real quickly, two counselors, same school. How are counselors divided at this high school?—based on alphabet so they were distributed equitably. But look how many kids in counselor B were actually college ready and got access to the courses versus counselor A. Was it equitable?

And, as we talk to counselors up and down high schools in California, what do they tell us? A lot of their determinations are based on middle school recommendations—middle school recommendations. What you do has an enormous consequence for what happens to students after they leave our middle schools. Bottom line—our choices affect their chances.

Now, in order to be on track, it's no surprise anymore—Algebra I, Algebra I, Algebra I. At the middle school level, to really be on track, we can look at the high school exit exam and realize the sooner students took algebra, the more likely they were to pass the high school exit exam. That’s no surprise to you middle school educators. Why? This is no surprise either. If they take middle school [sic] early, they go on to higher ed at higher rates. They get big gains even for low-achieving students. And all signs—all signs—according to national research, point to the benefit of algebra in the middle grades. Now, it's not just about the course, though. It's about that rich curriculum throughout. And it’s a rich curriculum not just in algebra, but in all types of classes.

Now, we don't have time to go deep into what we mean by rich curriculum; but you know. And, as we’re looking at the international studies—back to those—what we’re seeing is that in those countries that are higher performing than ours, all of the system from grade one to what we could call grade eight—they are going deeper into the mathematical concepts at an earlier age and building on those concepts over time. They don't do what we so often do in America and right here in California—that spiraling, where we touch on a few standards every year, every year, every year—without ensuring a deeper understanding of them along the way.

Now, one of our favorite courses . . .  as we dig deep into these transcripts

 . . .  will shock your conscience of what we are actually offering students, especially at the high school level—things like “algebra art” that are truly being counted as algebra; courses like “newcomer math” at the high school level that kids are staying in, not just for a transition period, but for two and three years; “home rest” at the high school level.

Take a look at your high school. As we know, right? . . . . We’ve got to talk articulation amongst the grade levels. Middle schools and high schools gotta know—align their expectations to one another. Take a look at what we’re offering at some of these high schools in California and ask yourself, “Could we justify this to parents?” Or, “If the press motivates us, could we justify them to an editorial board?”

Setting goals is important. We have to make it a piece of accountability. I’m not going to go deep here. Let's be clear that, even with the changes to our API system, it will take an enormously long time for students in California to be proficient. Taking a look at one school and its achievement gaps . . . . Even with the new changes to API, gaps are growing at every grade level and schools are still getting rewarded and kids won’t be proficient at this particular middle school if they’re Latino until 2038. Okay? Got to make it the centerpiece of accountability or else it’s rhetoric.

So, we've heard a lot about a growth model. A growth model is terribly important to control for the challenges that the students bring into your classroom. How much learning ought to be done over a year’s work so that you can get credit for improving student scores over time? But those gross targets have to be rigorous and ambitious.

Now, high performing schools (you know this) are obsessive about time, especially instructional time. First, they know how much time they have left. They look at their master schedule. They dig deep in them.

Let me show you very quickly what we’re learning from some when we take away all of those things that take out of instructional learning for kids. Schools are left with not nearly enough time—18 eight-hour days per subject per year, right? Now, the state ed code requires over 64,000 minutes at the high school level. When we dig deep into master schedules, we’re finding about 51,000 minutes that students are getting. Students that are coming in to you—especially those that are coming in to you far below—need more time in order to catch up and you need more time with them.

Now, that's not all. They don't make big guesses. They go deep with their study of how much time they have. There's a drive towards block scheduling. Do the math. Sometimes—not always, not always, but sometimes—even with a block schedule you actually get less time per course than you might with a six-period day. You got to do the math.

Now, principals are important . . . ever present . . . . we know—the focus of research is clear—instructional leadership matters hugely. But principals are not the only leaders in the school. High performing schools . . . those . . . teachers regularly observe other teachers. They have time to plan and work collaboratively. New teachers get generous and careful support. Teachers take on many other leadership tasks at the school. Teachers in high performing, high poverty, high minority schools are leaders, too. Now, good schools know how much teachers matter; and they act on that knowledge. They build the will to monitor teacher talent in new ways.

Value-added—you’ve heard a lot about this. Controlling for prior student performance, what teachers make the biggest gains with what groups of kids? Because, as value-added research is showing us across the board, the power of the teacher matters most. It's the difference—as this study showed us—between remedial placement and talented and gifted placement.

Now, we can't be serious about closing the achievement gap while we let the teacher-quality gap continue to persist and grow. Nationally, about 30 percent of seventh and eighth grade teachers assigned to teach math or science don't have the subject matter knowledge to do so. In California, most intern teachers work in our lowest performing schools. Today, sixth graders who attended a low-achieving school have had a 41 percent chance of being taught by an under-qualified teacher according to the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning. They have about a quarter chance—one in four—of having more than one. Their peers, though, in the highest achieving schools have had only about one in five chance of having an under-prepared teacher and only a two percent chance of having more than one.

And, the teacher quality gap is about money. It's not just about those proxies or credentials—those years of experience and higher education degrees. Those proxies translate into how much we’re spending on what we know matters most—our teachers. In our lowest performing, highest minority schools versus our  . . . I’m sorry . . . I mean our lowest minority and highest performing schools. . . .  

Let’s take a look at two in Los Angeles Unified. I’m picking on my friends in L.A. here again. Palms Middle, Daniel Middle—they have very different API

Scores. Go with me to the bottom of this graph. And most would say, well . . .  Daniel Webster’s API is about 600, which is a high performing relative to middle schools across the state. So I’m giving my L.A. friends some credit there, too. But they would say this 100-point gap is based on those kids. Look at the kids. They’re poor. They’re black. They’re brown. What that assumption does is ignore an incredibly important underlying factor—and that’s that the average teacher at Webster Middle gets paid about $8,800 less every year than his counterpart or her counterpart at Palms Middle. If Webster spent as much as Palms did on its teachers, Webster’s school budget—school budget—would increase by over $450,000 every year—over $460,000 every year. Unrealized funds spent on what we know matters most—the teacher.

Now, if we had the creativity to change these patterns, the achievement gap could close. Five years running on having an effective teacher using a value-added model of what’s effective and the achievement gap can wipe out.

To go to the remaining distance, though, requires strong leadership. School leadership will help, so could improving working conditions and extra pay and reducing student load. But we've also got to address the hierarchy in our profession that says . . .  that judges the eliteness of a teacher not by how well she improves student achievement, but rather on how elite the kids are that she is teaching. We have to flip that paradigm and restore honor to those doing our most important work with our most challenging kids.

Now, lastly, in this era of tough budget times, we've got to make sense of the “adequacy versus the efficiency” debate, right? Those folks that say, “Oh, spend what you have more wisely. Spend it more efficiently.” And they say sometimes, “Spend it more efficiently before you get more money.” And those folks that say, “Oh, we can't do anything until we get more money.” It is both, ladies and gentlemen. We have to spend what we have more wisely; and we need more to get the job before us—the new challenge of educating all students to extraordinarily high levels—done.

Now, of course, more money will help. But just like the “get down to the facts” research showed us not too long ago (remember that $1.7 trillion figure that was all over the newspaper). Underneath that study said $1.7 trillion spent in the exact same way we are spending it is likely not to lead to the kind of results we want to see. When we look deeply at that urban district comparison over time, we realize that districts that are performing better than L.A. are spending actually less money than L.A., even when we do cost adjustments like this graph does. And districts performing worse than L.A. are actually spending more than L.A. More money spent more wisely is key.

And, while we’re waiting for new money to come down the pipe for newer resources to get targeted, we've got to work on closing the funding gaps between what we spend—whether it be on teachers or schools or interventions in our lowest performing, highest minority, and high poverty schools compared to our highest performing, lowest minority and lowest poverty schools. Of course, more money will help. But how much, again, depends entirely on how it is spent.

Thank you for your time this morning. I look forward to answering your questions.

Rozlynn: Thank you, Russlynn. As always, your graphic data is so compelling; and you’re so passionate about closing the achievement gap. It’s been wonderful having you here and I know that our educators have some questions for you. So we’re going to take a five-minute break now. If you haven't already sent in your questions, please do so now, and we will be back in five minutes.

Five-Minute Break

Rozlynn: Welcome back, everybody. We have had our five-minute little stretch break here. And as we were waiting, we had lots and lots of questions come in from you. Russlynn is going to take about 10 minutes now to go through some of these questions. And, again, I’ll just let you know that, if she is unable to answer some of these questions because of time, the answers will be posted on the TCSII Web portal. So I'm going to turn it over to Russlynn and thank you again.

Russlynn: Thank you, Roz. Let me say this—we won’t be able to answer all these questions. I am presently surprised at the kind of feedback that you’re getting in real time. This is quite phenomenal and your interest and your willingness to go deep and probe deep and ask more is always so inspiring. It’s the lifelong learner in all of us. So I thank you for this.

What we don't have time to do, we will (as Roz indicated) . . . we’ll get the answers on the Web site. You can always call our office and any of our staff would be delighted to help you at 510-465-6444. You can also access . . . I understand, at least some of the questions have been, “Where can I find this data show?” You'll be able to access it on our Web site at www.edtrustwest.org.

So, let’s try to tackle some of these. Let's do in order of the data show. A lot of questions on NAEP . . . on are the NAEP standards . . . essentially these questions seem to fall into two big buckets. One is, “Are the NAEP standards aligned to which state standards?” And the other is, “Since our standards are so rigorous, should we take NAEP very seriously? How does our performance on the CST’s map with that on NAEP?”

So, in answer to the first question, NAEP is not aligned to . . . specifically to any one state’s standard. That's why it's the assessment we can use to measure student performance across states. It does, though, answer the question based on a long time research . . .  and experts from across the country . . . what students—no matter where your Zip Code is, no matter in which state you reside—what ought they know and be able to do at minimum in reading and mathematics.

Now, I think most experts would say that California standards are actually quite a bit more rigorous. You would expect, then, to see California’s performance on our CST and NAEP not to look so identical. But the truth is, when we unpack California performance on NAEP at the fourth and eighth grade level, (we can't dig deep at the state level NAEP at the twelfth grade level), we see very similar patterns, both in terms of overall achievement compared to our California standards tests as well as on the achievement gaps that separate groups of students from their peers.

So, NAEP is an important assessment. But it's also important to remember that no one assessment is a panacea. No one assessment is going to tell us everything that we need to know about student performance. What we use these assessments for is for a snapshot—whether it be the California Standards Test or the National Assessment on Educational Progress or the CAT-6 or the CELDT test or the RICA. It is really trying to extrapolate patterns about what's happening to whole groups of students. And these . . . each assessment, in and of itself, becomes a thermometer for us to understand where the problems are and to then do something about what the data say.

We also had many questions particularly about KIPP. But the questions about the KIPP example that we gave seemed to focus almost exclusively on time. What they say is, “Well, KIPP schools—as we understand it—those kids are in school from 7:30 to 5:30. And certainly, I think, by and large, it’s safe to say across those KIPP schools that we’ve studied they do have a longer school day. And, as we talk and dig deep with the principal—especially at KIPP S.F. Bay—she will often point to the fact that she has much more time to both highlight the courses that often get lost in this era of accountability—arts, music, gym—but also to make sure that interventions are consistent throughout the school day and targeted.

Now, you don't have to be a KIPP, though, to add more time to your school day or your school week or your school year. Now, I have talked to superintendents up and down the state that say, “I know that, Russlynn, but my hands are cuffed at the bargaining table,” they'll say. They’ll say that, “I can't just unilaterally decide to extend the school day or the school year or the school week.” And perhaps the key is unilaterally, right?

There are two signatories to that bargaining agreement. We all can point to what is perceived somehow as the pillars of collective bargaining and use that to prevent what we know is right for our kids. Students that are coming in behind need more time, and you need more time with them.

There are also, though, those leaders up and down the state that—notwithstanding what the collective bargaining agreements say—they are figuring out ways that don't violate any of the bargaining agreements but that still get kids in the school day for longer. For lower performing kids, they might, for example, stagger teacher workday. And, you can do that. Some schools require a waiver, some just a consensus—to say that, “We’re going to be in school longer.” Some teachers might come in at 7:00 and leave at 1:00. Some teachers might come in at 10:00 and stay until 4:00. Point is—their workload, their course load, the time they spend is still the same. But the day for the students could be longer.

Districts are doing this with interventions. That zero period, shadow classes—districts are doing this, especially unified districts at the middle school to high school transition where mandatory summer school for students that are far behind or even just a focus on algebra readiness.

We've got to, though, ladies and gentlemen, build the kind of civic and political will that will both ensure that teachers are paid more for working more but will also ensure that students get what they mostly need—which is more time in front of and with our most effective educators.

There are other questions about algebra and tracking. There are many questions that will ask about algebra programs and say something like “A large percentage of students are not developmentally ready for such abstract thinking.” Okay, I want to unpack that . . .  probably more than we have time to do here.

But, what we know . . . Bill Schmidt, for example, has done some amazing research and . . . really looking at the countries and the curriculum in the countries that are performing better than America [six] kids are. He's finding what those educators high performing, high poverty schools know now—and that is, that access and who gets what course of study when, matters terribly. And the truth is, when it comes to both getting the access to the rigor of a course called algebra and getting the access to the best instructors to teach algebra—if you are poor, if you are low- income, your parents are low-income, if your parents don't have a college education, if you are black, if you are brown, if you are Hmong, if you are from Cambodia—chances are you’re not going to get access to that course in the first place.

Now, we've talked all morning about the notion that course alone is not enough. We’ve got to go much deeper and make sure we’re driving the instruction. But access is huge, And what we see in eighth grade (though the CSTs are starting to matter) what really is still bearing the biggest difference in terms of who gets access to algebra is teacher and guidance counselor recommendation—teacher recommendation at the middle school and guidance counselor recommendation at the high school. So access is terribly important.

It’s also, as we touched on briefly, about how you deliver that instruction. And our standards have some algebraic function dating all the way back to the early, early elementary grades. It's how deep we go in them—whether students understand the building blocks of numeracy and quantitative literacy. So, that by the time they get into algebra, they are academically ready.

And to . . .  specifically to the questioner’s question about developmentally ready (and how the belief that so many students are not developmentally ready for algebra) . . . . Oftentimes, when we talk to those leaders, teacher-leaders, and administrative-leaders that bear ultimate authority over who gets algebra when they have confused developmentally ready with academically ready. They say, “If you are not academically ready (quote, unquote) by middle school, then you’re not going to get it.” Well, the truth is—we are realizing the low performance persists throughout high school. And you are never going to get it.

There are other questions, many of them about this notion of intervening in algebra. And why is it that the common intervention of choice is taking those courses over and over and over again. It’s because it’s what we've always done, right?

But we have to do more. We have to dig deep, figure out what our students are struggling with almost before they get into the algebra class. That's why that mandatory middle school transition is terribly important for students that aren’t on track (but that ought to be) to take algebra in the ninth grade and to truly understand what works best. This brings me back to our lack of data.

Unfortunately, we had many questions . . . “Well, what is the intervention program that works?” We know a little bit more in reading with Read 180 and the like. But we don't know very much about exactly what intervention program works—exactly with what group of kids—because we don't have the data system on the state level to tell us. You have them at the local level. You could do these kinds of analysis with your programs, with your teachers, with your students to figure out which programs work best.

And our next speaker, Debbie Silver, will dig deep into differentiated instruction because what we are hearing (from especially beginning teachers up and down the state) is, “Help me with the kids that I have in front of me.” Debbie will show us how to do that.

I think we are running out of time. I'm sorry we didn't get to more questions. We will answer them and, as we always say, we want to be your partners in this work. Call our office. Call me. We can struggle through finding many of the answers to that we don’t know together. Thank you.

Rozlynn: Thank you so much, Russlynn. You did a wonderful job with our kick-off today for Taking Center Stage—Act II. And, you really helped us to set the stage for closing the achievement gap. We know in the state (after your talk) and we know in our hearts that we really do need to make some significant changes on the culture and the infrastructure of our schools if we are going to make a difference for our students. So thank you again very much.

Dr. Debbie Silver Presentation

Okay, our next speaker is Debbie Silver. She is well known to many middle grades educators across the nation. She’s an expert in differentiating instruction and has written a book called Drumming to the Beat of a Different Marcher: Finding the Rhythm for Teaching a Differentiated Classroom.

The title of her presentation today is Going Outside the Lines to Differentiate Instruction for Middle Level Learners. Welcome, Debbie. We are so pleased to have you with us today.

Debbie:  It's great to be here and you might be picking up a little bit of an accent. I'm from Boston. Okay, that's a lie. I'm from Texas. I’ve taught 30 years in the state of Louisiana and I know what you’re thinking, “God she looks so young.” Okay, you weren’t thinking that. But I am a teacher and mainly I’ve taught middle school and this is my passion. I appreciate what Russlynn had to tell us and the statistics are absolutely overwhelming. And what I want to do is talk about some ways—some more anecdotal ways—to go in and bridge that achievement gap.

And I've always considered myself kind of the poster child for differentiated instruction because I was that kid who didn't respond well to traditional education. I grew up in Fort Worth, Texas. And, when I started school, I had every intention of being a wonderful student. And I walked into my first grade (because I’m old and we didn’t have kindergarten) and there she was—my first grade teacher, Mrs. Castleberry.

Now, I don’t know if you all know Mrs. Castleberry but let me just describe her. She was Nazi teacher. She had the helmet hair. She had the little boots. She was ready for bear and we walked into the first grade classroom. And, guys, I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I am intuitive. And I figured there was going to be a problem because this woman . . . . We were six years old. It's our first day of school.

She has our desks lined up so linear, so pristine, so sequential that she had the desk legs so that they met the linoleum lines going both ways. So, if you got your desk out of line then you can somehow make sure that you got it . . . she had tape marks so you could get it back where it needed to be. And, I know my math teachers are out there thinking, “And her point would be . . . . “

And, actually, I will defend to the death a teacher’s right to teach in their own style. Because, you know, I think it's important that we figure out who we are before we can figure out who we are with kids. So, that is a legitimate learning style. And you guys that are familiar with Anthony Gregory know that’s its called concrete sequential. Actually, I just thought of it as anal retentive. But that’s me. But I knew there was going to be a problem.

But it was not just the configuring of the room. What I saw was (when I watched Mrs. Castleberry watch us walk in the room) was a differentiation that started in my first experience. Because what I saw her do was look at us, evaluate us, and you could tell by looking at her face who she liked, who was going to be successful in that room.

And I will tell you it was the perfect kids. And I want to be very clear when I describe perfect kids what I'm talking about here. I'm not talking about smart because . . . you mentioned how Howard Gardner, Russ . . . has popularized the notion, “It's not about how smart are you, it’s how are you smart?” I've always believed that. I think all kids have gifts. I think they open them at different times. But I think they all have gifts. Like most of you as teachers, I know that all kids can do something and that we all have strengths. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about who we have traditionally valued. And Russ alluded to this some in her presentation. Those are the perfect kids that look like we want them to look. They’re bright. They’re shiny. They’re clean. They’re compliant. And teachers used to love them.

I mean, what's not to love? They show on the first day, “Oh Mrs. Castleberry, fill us with knowledge!” And Mrs, Castleberry . . . , “Please, come, sit at my feet, and learn, my children.” I'm not that way. And here I was. I was trying to impress her. So I had skills. I had brothers. And I said, “Mrs. Castleberry, listen to this.” And I felt this disconnect. But the thing is, when I walked in her room, I realized that, you know, I could tell you who was going to be prom queen and who was going to be prom king the day we graduated. And I knew it wasn’t Deb. And I was relegated to the back row.

And those kids that sit in the front row . . . . And you teachers have different words for them. Some of you call them the “teacher-pleasers.” I used to call them the “suck-ups.” As a teacher, sometimes I called them the “Stepford-kids.” But, as a child . . . . and, not to genderize, but they were mainly girls. And as girls in this period of time, they wore these big bows in their hair which matched their little bows on their little skirts and their little bows on their little shoes. And I called them the “bow heads.” So, when I discuss a bow head today, you know who I’m talking about.

And, guys, let’s be honest. Those kids still come to us. They come to me on the first day of middle school and say, “Oh, Mrs. Silver, can we have a syllabus of what we'll be doing the rest of the year?” I’m like, “You guys are lucky that I got here with my underwear on, okay?” All right, like you all haven't had that dream.

The thing is, guys, they’re all important. They all have needs. They all have styles. And, what I want to talk about is the going outside the line. So that’s the presentation of this. And, I want to discuss today . . . hang on one second. I’m trying to figure out which button to push. That’s not it. Hang on one second. I’m not hitting the right button . . .  somebody. Thanks, Russlynn. She’s my little helper here. I’m way outside the lines. Ah, there we go.

And let me explain a little bit about what this means. Alright, this little girl is

 . . . is supposed to be, sort of, like me. I remember our first assignment and Mrs. Castleberry said, “Boys and girls, I want you to color a picture of an apple.” And she passed out this ditto—oh, now I may have some young ones in the audience that probably have no recollection of what a ditto master is. So, if you veteran teachers in the audience would just kind of explain that to them . . . . But, do you all remember dittos? Do you guys remember dittos? Do you remember the teacher passed them out, and the first thing you did was . . . . You know, we all smelled it. Then for the rest of the day, whoa! . . . I think it was why we were so well behaved. We were stoned.

But, anyway, the thing is . . . she passed us out this outline master and she said . . . . I think she said, “Boys and girls, color your apple.” But, guys, all my life I’ve been told that I marched to the beat of a different drummer. And I used to think, “You say that like it's a bad thing.” That's why my first book is called Marching to the Beat of Different a Drummer. Because, as Russlynn said, we’ve got to do a better job figuring out who our cliental is, who our audience is.

But the point is maybe I don't want to hear what other people hear. But all I heard was, “Mrs. Castleberry has teacher business to do. Color your apples. Do not bother me.” So I laid out my array of my jumbo crayons and I picked my favorite two colors—which are blue and green. And I began trying to get some wax to stay on this outline.

Now, when we do talk about different string theories, we know that all of us talking about modalities we know about kinesthetic-tactile learners. I’m not one. Howard Gardner described that as a bodily kinesthetic learner. I don’t have large motor control. I don’t have fine motor control. But I was doing my best. And I took my crayons and I start putting some color—some wax—on this picture.

And, all of a sudden, one of the bow heads did what bow heads always do. She has her little apple done complete with highlights and she begins to look around and monitor everyone else in the room. And she looks back at me trying to get all this wax to stay on my apple—or on the page—and she said, “Hey, you’re not doing that right.”

Well, now I was brought up with three brothers. So I gave what I thought was a socially appropriate response. And I said, “Shut up.” Well, that got Mrs. Castleberry’s attention. So here she came. And she is klek-klek-klek coming over there. She heard noise. ”What is going on?” And this bow head (who shall remain nameless) said, “Go look at her paper.”

And she clomps-clomps over there in her little boots. And she looks down at me. And I’m just coloring the best I can. And, y’all, this is a very tall woman and very mean look on her face. And she’s glaring at me. So I’m coloring and I’m looking at her. And I’m coloring and I’m looking at her. And then I noticed everybody’s looking at me and looking at her.

And, you know, when I tell that story, people usually go, “Deb, you must have felt so intimidated. You must have felt so embarrassed.” I said, “Not at all. In fact I was excited.” And all you classroom teachers out there know exactly what was going on in my mind. I was the only teacher . . . I was the only student in that room that had captured Mrs. Castleburry’s attention. She was focused on me. And I loved that.

And, you know, to back up . . . what Russlynn was telling us earlier, I think what we have to do is talk to bureaucrats, to talk to policymakers, and say what we need is more time in the classroom. And I’m talking about teacher-directed instruction with kids. I am talking about taking away some of the periphery that we’re doing—some of the red tape, the bureaucratic kinds of things.

Let us be attentive to our students. I think it is one of the single greatest gifts we can give them is our undivided, focused attention. In fact, when I rule the world, teachers are going to teach an hour; then they’re going to plan an hour. Then they’re going to teach an hour; then they’re going to plan an hour. And I know that you don’t have that right now. And sometimes people say, “But, Deb, you know, how do I do all that you’re asking us to do? And all that we’re being asked to do in my limited time? Maybe you forgot what it’s like to be in the classroom.”

Guys, I haven’t forgotten. At one time, as a middle school teacher, I taught over 200 kids a day. I’m a science teacher. I do hands-on, performance-based science. And, you know, it never failed that sometimes I would have that little kid . . . . And I know you guys get stretched. Do you ever get stretched so thin you think about mid-day, “You know, I’m not going to stretch any thinner”? And here comes that little student. “Miss Pace?” And my name used to be Miss Pace. So I had a starter marriage. “Miss Pace, I really need to talk to you. I’ve got a problem.” I’m like, “Honey, I just need a moment of adult time, okay? That’s why I’m in this bathroom stall. Now, shut the door and let me finish my sandwich.”

I understand, guys. I understand about the demands. But what I’m telling you is this—when we give kids our undivided attention and when we focus and we constantly raise the bar, I think it's the greatest gift that we can give kids. And some people are amazed sometimes when the example I use for this is a high school coach. Now, I now live back in Texas. I grew up in Texas. I taught 30 years in Louisiana and I’m now back in Texas. And, for those of you who are not familiar with our state, football is a religion. So I'm going to use football as an example.

You want talk about differentiated instruction. You know, a lot of our high school coaches have always gotten this right because they walk in and they’re talking with their high school boys and ready to go onto the practice field. They put a play on the board. And they say, “You know, I want you all to check out the X’s and O’s. Write this in your playbook.” And after they introduce the lesson, did they stop and say, “Memorize that and if I call for this play on Friday night, I’d you to run it”? No, not in any way. That wouldn’t work at all.

So what do they do? They break it down. And, guys, they don’t break it down into these pre-tracked groups. They know their kids and the kids know they know them. So, when they start doing their flexible grouping, it goes something like this—“I need you guys over here pitching the ball. I want you guys over here with the coach. And I want you guys over here running tires.”

And the kids don't come up and say, “Coach, I’d really rather be in that group.” Because coach says, “Well, people in hell want ice water but they don’t get it, now, do they?” They go and they do what coach asks them to do and why?—because coach pays attention to them, because he's walking by and he's giving them some feedback. And he’s watching. Have you ever known a coach that use stars or stickers or blows smoke up their dress?

No, it is that rigor that Russlynn was talking about. It is that expectation. And let me tell you what that gives kids. That gives them a feeling of power. And out of all the things I’m going to talk about today, this is, I think, the most imperative.

We all have talked about Bandura. And we all know that Albert Bandura gave us the concept of self-efficacy. And guys, that’s what I see failing. And Russlynn alluded to a lot of it. We have kids now that have been targeted. We have kids that come to us with a belief of learned helplessness. And I call it the cycle of failure—I can’t so I won’t, so I quit, so I fails, so I can’t, so I won’t.

And I think of this as a self-fulfilling, self-perpetuating prophecy. It is our obligation—our moral duty as teachers—to go in and help undo that. And the only way that’s going to happen is for kids to believe that their effort, that their direction, their focus will make a difference in their lives.

Now, I'm not talking about this cheaply held self-esteem stuff that we were doing in the seventies because, as a teacher, I would get these ridiculous exercises for eighth graders. They'd hand me an ink pad and have all the eighth graders put their thumb prints on ink pads. And then we'd put them on white paper and we would hold up the paper and we would chant, "I am thumb-body.” Okay, guys, that's lame. That is so lame.

What is it that works is when students are able to achieve that to which they could previously not achieve. You change their belief system about themselves. And Bandura . . . .I've got more on my Web site and more in your handout . . . but what he has proven is it is the single greatest key to give kids. It’s a belief system.

Now, the way that we do that is not dumbing down the curriculum in any way, shape, or form. It’s like the accessibility that Russlynn talked about. It’s about saying, “Yes, this is difficult, but I'm going to bridge for you.” Remember scaffolding? “I'm going to scaffold this, and I’m going to make you see that there is something you can do that you previously could not do.”

I kind of likened it to this. As audience members, I want you guys to think of something that you wanted to do in the last couple of years—something you really wanted to do, something you wanted to strive for. And maybe some of your friends said, “Oh yeah, you can do that.” Or maybe some said, “No, no way.” But, whatever, you went for it. And you had to work, you had to stretch, you had to push. But, when you got it, how did you feel? Did you feel like this—dut-duta-dah, dut-duta-duta-dah!? That's what I want for all kids.

My anecdotal research (which is my classroom experience) and as a college professor has taught me is that that is the greatest gift we can give kids because there is a carry-over effect. There is a carry-over effect from stretching kids and showing them what they can do through their own effort.

And I'm going now to Lev Vygotsky who gave us this idea of “zone of proximal development. And the reason I am so in favor of differentiated instruction (which by the way, guys, you know, boiled down we’re talking about variety) . . . . we’re talking about those purposeful practices—those successful things that teachers have always done. But, according to Carolyn Tomlinson, no we’re are using it in a little more intentional—a little more purposeful—way. But what it means is that we’ve got to pay attention.

Where are those kids when they come to us?—not where they ought to be, where we wish they were. Where are they? And look at those essential ideas from the state and say, “This is what is absolutely imperative that they know and be able to do. Here is where they are. I’m going to start scaffolding so that they can make steps towards that.” The zone of proximal development says it cannot be too easy; it cannot be too hard. Both of those are chiefly held.

And, you know, one of the things that bothers me . . .  I think we've gone off and left a lot of kids at the higher end of the spectrum. Because, basically, what No Child Left Behind has said is we devalue those kids because their scores, their gains, aren’t going to make that much difference in your, in your AYP. So we’ve kind of left those kids on their own. And that scares me. You see, I think those kids need to also be challenged and raise the bar.

I was working with a group of teachers and we were particularly trying to target disenfranchised learners (and, guys, that can be your high level and your low level). You know, they come from all areas. But we talked about going in and doing some reform-based kinds of teaching—going outside the lines. Mrs. Castleberry was not interested in any of that. I'm sure she didn't know about Vygotsky and I’m sure she didn’t care about Bandura.

What she wanted was what everybody knows that I’m talking about. What we used to expect in our schools. That big “C” word that I hate. It’s called “compliance.” And she picked up my paper and she said, “Boys and girls, look at this. Look at Deborah’s paper.” She said, “First of all, has anyone ever seen an apple that is blue and green? I don’t think so. But, more importantly, Mrs. Castleberry said to color in the apple. And look what Deborah did. She went what? That’s exactly right—outside the lines.” She crumpled up my paper and she tossed it in the trash.

Now, you know, I was a very assertive little girl. And,  watched way too many cartoons. Daffy Duck is my hero. But she threw my paper in the trash. I got up out of my seat. I couldn’t believe she did that. And I looked in the trash can. And I looked up at her. And I said, “Of course, you know this means war.” Yeah, she didn't think that was too funny either.

But here is the thing, guys—what a prophetic statement that was. Because . . .  even coming from parents who valued school, having the older brother (y’all may know my older brother; his name is Mr. Perfect) . . . all that ahead of me, I wasn’t prepared. Because what we learned was the only thing Mrs. Castleberry valued (and indeed a lot of our modern western cultural is kind of a phenomenon) . . . .

We tell kids for years, “Unless you are a good reader, you’re not very smart.” And I have a reading disability. I didn't know that until I got to school. But Mrs. Castleberry put us into three reading groups. And those of you that remember these three reading groups, this was your group for life. There was no mobility. There was no transition. That was your group. And we all knew who you were. You know, I knew I wanted to be in that top group because my brother had been a red bird. And the red birds got the bright shiny books. And they got all the cool stuff to do. So I wanted to be a red bird. But, when she read out the list of red birds, I wasn't in the red bird group. So I thought I'll be a blue bird ‘cause blue birds were told, “If you study really hard, some day you might be a red bird.” But I didn't make blue bird either. I was in the other group—the buzzards. A lot of you know who the buzzards are (and I'm being facetious). That wasn’t the real name.

But I’m talking about the same group that Russlynn spent a lot of time talking about—the kids that are told, “You’re not very smart so you do drill and kill.” And I remember sitting there doing worksheet after worksheet after worksheet. And I’d look over and I'd say, “Hey, why can't we do cool stuff like the red birds?” And you know what I was told? “Because you didn't earn it; because you don't deserve it. Until you learn to do this mind numbing drill and kill, I will not reward you with that kind of education, with that kind of instructional strategy.” Guys, that's the opposite. The kids who most need that are the kids who need us to go outside the lines and reach them to figure out a way to connect with their worlds.

At Louisiana Tech, when I taught, we brought in 30 science teachers. We’re talking about disenfranchised kids now. And we said, “Let's do things that will actually go in and engage the learners. That's a good starting point. Let’s make sure we engage everybody.” And I was talking about, “Let’s use cooperative-learning . . . “ and a lot of things that you found on the Web site for Taking Center Stage. I was talking about some of the different strategies that we’ll use. And I kept hearing this voice, “That won’t work. I tried that in 1952. It didn’t work then. It’s not going to work now.” And I thought, “Who is talking?” Well, guys, we all know who that teacher is.

 I'm going to give her a name now. This is the antithesis to everybody sitting here today, but this is Mrs. Rodenna Cullsmucker. Well, she was a Gunch before she married. And she’s an egalitarian. She hates everybody. But there is always that negative naysayer out there that says, “It’s all about the kids. The kids aren’t motivated. The kids won’t do anything. I shouldn’t even try. I'm going to look at Russlynn's statistics, but you know what? There’s nothing I can do.”

I beg you. I implore you. Russlynn was talking about teachers going and observing other teachers. I implore you to go look at your colleagues. And, guys, those teachers that are in the lounge making all those negative comments and always bringing everyone down—go to their classrooms. And those people who want to tell you, “Kids aren’t motivated. They can’t learn.” Go sit and tell me how well you'd be motivated in there.

Let me be Mrs. Cullsmucker now introducing an eighth grade science lesson and let's see how motivated you would be, alright?

“Goods morning, students. Today we’re going to start a new unit on the compressibility of molecules. This one’s just going to snap your drawers. No talking! Now, in order to get you motivated and excited, I’d like you to take out your science books. Look up here at the board where I've written 40 words. Today in class, you will copy each word. You'll write the re-spelling and the complete definition; skip lines; leave margins. Do not bother me. I'll be doing teacher-business.”

Now, how many of you are motivated? That would be no one. So we are talking to teachers and we are saying, “You know, let’s get out there. Let's find some things because a lot of those kids—who are disenfranchised, who are outside the lines—are bodily kinesthetic. They are not good readers. We are going to have to bring them through another door while maintaining rigor, but at least it’s a start.”

So I said, “So why don't you start by bringing something like a Cartesian diver?” Most of you guys have seen this before. It’s just water and an eye dropper and you give it to kids. And you say, “Can you make the dropper go to the bottom?” And after experimentation, a lot of them will learn that if they squeeze it, it sinks; and if they release it, it floats.

Now, I know a lot of you teachers in California are under a lot of stress right now with all the standards and stuff; so you might want to make one of these just for yourself. So when you’re having a bad day—“Am I a good teacher? Oh thank you! Do I look like I’m losing weight? Oh, you’re so sweet. You’re my best friend. The other teachers don’t understand me.” I’m kidding.

But here’s the thing, guys—don't you think all of your learners would be more likely to be engaged in the lesson if you started out with something that they can hold, touch, see, feel? Put them in groups rather than starting with the vocabulary. You see, I'm not saying that you don't use vocabulary, you don't use direct instruction. Of course, you do.

But a lot of times, guys, what we have to change is just the order in which we do it.  You know, elementary teachers call it the ABC method—activity before content. And what I'm saying is . . . in learning cycle . . . and I talk some about that

. . . and you’ll have in your handout. But let's get their attention first.

When you talk about constructivism in college (and scaffolding)—that’s what that was all about. Students need something known to which to attach new learning. Otherwise, it’s superfluous. It’s an exercise in futility. So let's start with something they can do.

Well, here’s the good news. Three weeks into this course . . . and one of the things we did was . . . this is a very special program. We provided them with materials, time . . . and then I was the resource. And teachers were to go back and try these things then and we had to document, collect data. Is it working?

Mrs. Cullsmucker never bothered to ask me to come in for a visit. So I said, “Mrs. Cullsmucker, you are required to have me come in as a visitor because you went through the training. So I need to know when you want me to come.”

She said, “I don't want you to come. I don't want you in my room.”

And I said, “Why?”

And most of you know it was because she didn't want to try anything new. She didn't want to be challenged. She didn't want anybody to just go in there and ask her to do something different.

I said, “Well, you know, I'm being paid. You’re being paid. I have to come to your room.“

She said, “Why don't you come Friday and I'll use a toy.” I'll use a toy. I have no idea what this woman is talking about. We had three weeks of intensive kinds of the hands-on stuff that we did, and I don't know what she's talking about. But I thought, “You know what, I'll try. You know, maybe I’ve made a little bit of a headway in here.” So I walk in the room, and she's got this up on her desk. And I thought, “Oh, praise be! We are learning.” But, guys, some teachers really don't get it; and Mrs. Cullsmucker is one of them.

She said, “Students today in class we have a special guest, Dr. Deborah Silver here from Louisiana Tech. Woo! Wooptie Doo! Now, I was going to give you 40 words in class today; but Dr. Silver says I can’t do that. You'll have those for homework. Thank her. However, she wanted me to show you this. This is the Car-tes-ian diver—Car-tes-ian diver—named after Rene Descartes. I’d like a half-page summery of his life in your notebook for tomorrow—‘A’ if you do it; ‘F’ if you don’t. Eyes this way—I’ll do this one time. I'm going to squeeze it and down–eyes this way, this way—I’m going to squeeze it and down it goes. I release it and up it goes. Do not touch this. This is teacher-business. But I’ve got worksheets for the rest of the period.

I’m like, “No!”

And she said, “What do you mean, ‘no’? I used the toy.” Grrrrrr.

It’s not about the toy. And you guys, that’s my point here. With differentiated instruction, we have all kinds of components. We don't have time to go into those today. But you know what they are—flexible grouping . . . you know, all different kinds of anchor activities, contract learning. All of those components are there. But those are not what we’re looking for.

I’m going to tell you what differentiated instruction is—it's a mind set and it's a lot what Russlynn talked about. It is the belief system among teachers that we know our subject matter inside and out and we are compelled to do that—that we know our subject matter so well we can come at it in a myriad of ways and that we get to know who our kids are as individuals.

And we do everything we can to match those essential ideas with their experiential and their background academic knowledge and developmental levels. And we’re in there giving it every opportunity. It’s about teachers who know when kids know even if it’s outside the lines. It's like Russlynn said about the developmental ability to do algebra. It may not show up on a test. It may be some observations that we’ve watched some interactions that those kids have. It may be extending that Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development. You know, I would love to have a day when middle school teachers no longer went into panic when the teacher key said, “Answers may vary.”

She said, “Well you just think you’re so smart” Guys, I don't think I'm so smart. As a matter of fact, if we had videos of my first few years of teaching, I wouldn’t be here. I’d be in jail. But the thing is, I am what I ask every teacher to be. I am a reflective practitioner. I think about what I'm doing. And, you know—with all the mandates and everything that comes down from Sacramento, Washington D.C., I don't care, Mount Sinai—you as teachers know your kids better than anybody else. And you know what they need to know. And that's what it is. You get in there and make that difference. I hear teachers say, “Well, I've been doing this for four years. It doesn't work.” I’m thinking, “Are you stupid?” You know, we have a saying in Texas—“If the horse is dead, dismount.” Make it happen.

She said, “Well, you just think you’re so smart. Why don’t you come teach my class?” I said, “I’d love to teach your class. When shall I come?” She said, “Why don’t you come seventh period?” Class from hell! Now we’ve all had that class. Every child hand-picked from Lucifer himself.

But here’s the thing, guys. It doesn’t matter. It’s like Russlynn said, “You’ve got who you’ve got.” It’s not like the parents are keeping all the good ones home. You get who you have. And what I know because I'm a veteran teacher and I know about this last hour. And, people are telling me, “Oh, these kids are old. You know, they’ve got moustache and beards. And the boys are old, too.”

The thing is, I know this is my disfranchised and my hardest group. And I also know about eighth graders and, guys, this is . . . what really bothers me is a lot of people are out there teaching in middle school that don't understand the developmental needs of eighth grade kids or seventh or sixth or whatever your configuration is. I tell people all the time. If kids running into walls, forgetting their pencils, looking up halfway through your class saying, “Why are they all writing?”—if that bothers you—you don’t need to teach in the middle school. But I know these kids. And I know when I walk in I'm going to be getting the traditional eighth grade slump. We’re all familiar with it. It’s in their contract. They must do this.

But, you know, I also believe that a lot of us micromanage a little bit too much. I tell . . . when I train new teachers, you need to develop selective hearing and selective vision. Fight the battles carefully. I know if I walk into a group of eighth grade kids with something kinda interesting looking, most of the time I am going to engage their attention.

And I say, “Good afternoon, eighth graders. My name is Dr. Debbie Silver. I am here today from Louisiana Tech University.” And from the back row—all of you all who teach eighth grade know what happens—there is a little kid back there going, “Good afternoon, eighth graders. My name is Dr. Debbie Silver. I am here today from Louisiana Tech University.” Now, I can get all caught up in that little kid that’s mocking me; or I can do what I do pretty well and that’s engage my learners. “Students I’d like you to meet Bubba. Bubba is my trained diver. He’ll do anything I tell him to on command. If I say sink, he’ll sink. If I say float, he’ll float. He’ll pretty much do whatever I tell him to do.”

Now let me tell you what I know about eighth graders. Even those little guys sitting on the back row making fart noises under their arms are going to engage because one of two things is about to happen. Either, I’m going to show them something way cool or I’m going to make a total fool of myself. And both of those are worthy of an eighth grader’s attention.

“Hey, tech lady, you can make him sink?”

 “Yes, I can.”

“Alright, do it!”

“So you really, really want to see this?” Now eighth graders’ “whatever”—which to me says, “Please, share with us. We want to learn. Well, it's really how you look at it. But the thing is, guys, I got them where I want them.

Now, Russlynn talked a lot about rigor and about raising the bar. She's absolutely right. You know, this “read the chapter and fill in the study guide” is not making it. We go back to Piaget who talked not only about developmental, operational, concrete—those kinds of stages. He also said we need to use discrepant events. We need to shake up cognitive dissonance so that kids have a reason to learn something new. So I do that.

“Students, this is my magic wand. If I tell Bubba to sink, he’ll sink. If I tell him to float, he’ll float. Bubba, sink. Bubba, float.” And they’re like “Whoa!” Then I hand everybody—every group—one of these. And let me tell you who usually gets it a lot of the times. It is my ELL, my disenfranchised, my “outside-the-lines” thinker. They grab a hold of this and they go absolutely crazy. It is that higher order thinking. “Look, she’s compressing the air bubble, look. There goes the liquid up there. Blah, blah, blah.” But they’re off and they’re running. I’m like, “Yes!” and then, this is where I get a little poetic revenge on the bow heads.

“Dr. Silver, you forgot something.”

“Well, I’m sorry, Tiffany Rene. What did I forget?”

“You were supposed to give us a wand.”

“Oh, the wand! Here ya go! Knock yourself out.”

And I’ve got . . . now, I’m talking about the straight A student, guys . . .  going to college . . . sitting there going, “Bubba sink. Bubba sink. Ours is broken.” I literally had a guy that had given me nothing. He’s watching this little ordeal and he came storming up there.

“Tiffany Rene! She is jerking you around. It’s not the wand. Squeeze it! That’s all she’s doing! SQUEEEEZE it!” It’s not about how smart are you. It’s how are you smart.

Okay, real quickly—one of the ways that we can figure that out, ya’ll . . . . There are so many ways to come in to differentiated instruction with entry points. But, one of them that I like (and this is one I developed and you all are welcome to use it), it’s called Essential Eight. And, on Essential Eight, you kind of get an idea of where the kids’ strengths are—what they’re able to do and do well.

And, as we go through this, I'm going to show you just . . . . this is a real good. It’s a step off point for me . . . to show you how some of these things can be brought in to capture those kids who maybe don't read quite so well, who maybe don't read the chapter, answer the questions, read the chapter, answer the questions. . . . because that's kind of what they used to sound like to me. So, get your kids to fill this out, and then let’s look at how this works.

Some of these . . . the first one says, “How many of you could recite a poem from memory?” Now, when I ask teachers, you know, what intelligence is that, a lot of times they’re a little bit confused because I didn’t say, “You are a voracious reader, that you are above the grade level, and that you have good decoding skills,” . . . because, guys, I think we’ve missed the point here.

There are some kids out there who are not good readers; but they are, indeed, verbally and linguistically gifted. I'm talking about your class clowns. A lot of you all have kids that really, you know, take your words and use them against you. Well, they may be a lot of things. They may be annoying. They may be disruptive. But let me tell you what they’re not. They’re not dumb. And we need to know . . . one of the things that I ask teachers to do when you’re getting ready to differentiate instruction is take a five-by-eight note card and write about every child things that you have to know. One of those essentials is their language [sic] of English proficiency. The other is what’s their reading level—not what you heard it was; not what you wish it was; what is it?

And, when you are making your lesson plans, guys, you don't make it for the class. You’re looking at cards. These are kids. These represent people in your room. And, when you’re looking at a kid that reads at the second grade level, you’re going to realize you cannot make the same assignment to that kid that you’re asking for the kid who’s college bound and reading at another level. We have got to go in and offer some support—still raising the bar, still challenging.

There are some indicators of verbal linguistic (and you’ll have these in your handout). And also you’ll have access to this. But I want to show you this. The verbal linguistic is one that we that need to pay attention to because, when we talk about differentiating content, one third of differentiation (if you will look at these components listed by Carolyn Tomlinson). . . . All of these have to do with language acquisition. All of these have to do with reading.

So, if you really want to start using DI and you want to make a difference for kids, then we’re going to have to get more creative about narrative. We’re going to have to find other ways. And, you know, with all of the technology we have now, you can have your stronger readers make little iPodcasts so that the child that is not that articulate . . .  not reading that well . . .  not is only seeing the words when you assign a chapter or a passage of narrative. . . . they’re hearing it. There, reading buddies is another one . . . . myriad of ways that effective teachers now are bridging that gap.

You see, here's the dichotomy that I see—who are the only kinds of readers who like to read?—Right, good readers. Now, what is the only way to become a better reader?—To read. You see how the chasm grows because kids who do not believe they are good readers—who do not have that confidence—are getting further and further behind. My belief is that when kids have a reason to read they will. They will figure it out. And then we start raising the bar for them as we move along.

The second one . . . I don't know if any of y’all had time to do this. But this is kind of interesting. Figure out this number sequence and tell the logic behind it—64, 1, 49, 4, 36, 9, 25. I'll bet somebody in your group just said it. It's 16 and some of y’all are going, “Now what?”  

But, guys, here is the thing about that . . . that isn’t as much about numbers (it is a little bit) as it is about pattern recognition. And, as we’re talking about math (and Russlynn mentioned this a lot), what scares me is . . .  and just let me explain for those of you who didn’t figure it out yet . . . that is a pattern of 8 times 8, 1 times 1, 7 times 7, 2 times 2, 6 times 6, 5 times 5, and the only one left is 4 times 4.

But it’s pattern recognition and this is where I beg to differ with Howard Gardner because he talks about this as being number smart. But when you look at these indicators, you will notice that about half of those have nothing to do with numbers.

t has to do . . .  and this is getting into algebra, y’all—this is theoretical, analytical, logical thinking. These are kids that can solve puzzles. These are kids that can read a mystery novel and know what the end of it is before it is written out for them. These are kids who can do a myriad of tasks, but a lot of times—computationally—they’re not that strong. So what do we do? We say, “Sit in the low group and write these facts. Sit in the low group and do this mind numbing drill-and-kill.” And we teach them to absolutely hate math.

Now, let me show you how to use math to help you.  Let’s say you’re going for low-level knowledge—Bloom’s Taxonomy. And you want a different tool for that kid that is very logical-analytical. And I actually got this off the Web. I’ve made this up but how about making an equation. On this we’ll do science words. So what I did was—I made a little clue: 93 equals number of M M from the E to the S. and hint is: NO always stands for “number of.” So I want you to think of a science fact that you learned—fifth grade or below—just like the show. And it will fit this pattern. So you’re going through your mind, and some of you already have it. Some of you all yelled it out right away. But I bet somebody in your group said, “Oh, I know! It’s 93 equals number of million miles from the Earth to the sun.” Okay, that is a very strong recall of basic knowledge.

But let me show you another way that you can do this. And what I’m going to do now is . . .  I’m going to give all of the audience, “the test.” You will have 30 seconds to do “the test.” Every decision about the rest of your life will be based on how well you do on “the test.” I want you to relax. I want you to enjoy the process. And here we go—“the test.”

Alright, I’m going to stop. I know I’m making you crazy. Some of you are saying, “Debbie, be quiet. I can’t think!” Well, of course, you can’t. But, guys—and some of y’all love this kind of stuff. Some of y’all hate this kind of stuff. Well, don’t you think we have kids that do the same thing? Just for purposes of time . . . I want to show you . . . these are some of the answers, alright? The answers to some that I’ve done . . . . All of those would be a review of some basic concepts. Guys, you can use this in any subject—anything that has both numerals and words. You can use this as a review. But what is more powerful than you doing these? How about letting your kids do it?

How about that kid that says, “Been there, done that? Got the t-shirt. I’m already done.”? Instead of saying, “Sit quietly,” say, “Go make some of those facts-sense so we can review other people. See if you can challenge me. See if you can stump me.”

But one of the reasons I wanted to do that . . . . And you saw how I was doing it with the pressure on the test. And, guys, I don’t know how we’re going to get away from this with our standardized test. But let me say that when you look at differentiated content . . . . Oh, I’m sorry. Let me give you a really good Web site—very quick. This is . . . this will link kids to why they need to study math and science. These are vignettes. It’s called “The Future’s Channel.” And it’s on that Web site. And you can send kids to the computer and they can say, “Well, I don’t need to learn math. I’m going to be a musician.” And they’ll see a vignette from a very famous drummer who talks about the importance of math with music . . . and all kinds of ways to relate culinary arts and others. But “The Future’s Channel” is very helpful.

But, when you’re differentiating process . . . I just have time to talk about the last one. But this is something you can do with no additional funding—with no additional resources. And I think it’s one of the most important things—vary the time that you give students for their knowledge acquisition and mastery.

And I’m just going to say this—I think it is criminal to time any child who is a non-mastery learner. With what we know about brain development, about the MRI scans, about kids whose amygdala actually shuts off connections between cognitive transfer and emotions—it is silly to put this kind of pressure on them. One of the things we have got to do is make better use of our time. And for those kids who are non-mastery learners, we’ve got to say, “Come see me later. Bring that back to me later. Meet me at lunch,” or give them less. But we have got to take that time element off of those kids.

Conversely, for the higher-order learners, time is your friend. They’ve mastered it. They don’t see a challenge. Then, you start to challenge them to go against time. That builds those facts into automaticity so that it just comes without them having to think about it.

Okay, very quickly . . . one more—on your sheet—within 20 seconds, name six traits. This has to do with the science. But, guys, we have research out there now. Some of y’all have read the book Last Child in the Woods . . . getting a lot of press . . . now about kids who no longer relate to nature. We have research that says a lot of middle school boys, in particular, do better when they have a teacher that relates their subject matter to the outdoors—or bring those kinds of examples in. Just wanted to point out these are some of your indicators. And, you guys may know who I’m talking about those kids that just turn off when they walk into the classroom. But you take them outside . . .  they come alive. And they have a lot of knowledge.

These are four awesome programs that are out there and available to you. They’re linked to my Web site. They have their own Web sites. But they’re Project Learning Tree, Project Wild, Project Wild Aquatic, Project Wet. And I know California has some that you’ve developed just for your indigenous area and that’s good, too.

But what it does—and y’all I’m not just talking about science teachers here—I’m talking about all of us. Math, social studies, music, fine arts—those all can be related to outdoor activities or at least examples of nature in the classroom. It is one way to add variety to your class without doing anything else—go to one of these trainings. But, for those of you that say, “Well, I don’t have time to go to a training right now.”

Let me give you . . . one of . . . I think the most flexible tool that I can give you. It’s called “BARFs and NOT BARFs.” And this . . .  (in case you are wondering) BARF doesn’t mean anything. It’s just a word I use when I want sixth graders to pay attention. But it goes back to Marzano’s belief that we need to teach by example and non-example. And a naturalist that has that intelligence, y’all . . . that is how they learn. These are what it is. These are what it isn’t. And in our zest to cover the curriculum, sometimes we’re not spending enough time on what it isn’t.

So here’s a quick example. The teacher is getting ready to assess. Let’s say I want to use flexible grouping and I need to know where the kids are. Now, guys, watch me. This is not a good assessment. “Did everybody learn last year about the parts of speech?” Okay, that’s not good assessment. But, if I give something like this little BARF activity . . . and I know a lot of you are going, “Oh I know what it is.” You know . . . . “speedily,” “gracefully,” “twice,” and “finally”—those are all what? Yes, they are. They’re adverbs.

Okay, now, you also had to go to the bottom now and see if you can apply that. So which of these are BARFs? And I would have you and your group just yell those out. And I bet somebody said “scholarly.” And I think you’ll find that you will find it impossible to use “scholarly” in a correct English sentence as an adverb. It is an adjective. But most people go, “Oh, whoa, that’s one of those discrepant events because you learned about the “l-y.” That is not an adverb. But these are. Okay, I’ve got my BARFs up here and I’m trying to separate—to differentiate—what kids need in align with adverbs. Very quickly—I can say these kids look like they pretty much got it. These kids have no clue. Start over . . . same thing . . . .

Here’s the social studies teacher. Instead of saying, “Last year, did you study about . . . ?” Just give them a BARF. Rhode Island, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York are BARFs. Texas, Maine, California, Nebraska are not BARFs. Now, we are not talking about New England coastal states because Maine is a New England coastal state. And I know some of you really got this very quickly but those BARFs are the 13 original colonies. Then I’d ask the kids, “Pick at the bottom which of these would be BARFS?” And they would tell me this.

One more very quickly . . . this summer, I was working in Alaska with a group of teachers and this was actually a three-day differentiated instruction. So we actually did a lot of the activities. And one of the groups of presenters got up and put this on the board. They were all trying to stump each other. And we were all like, “Whoa! That . . . whoa, how did you all do that?” And they were giggling and laughing. They were so proud of themselves. And finally they told us, “Well, a BARF is land-locked, okay. It has no coast.”

And then they went on and gave other examples . . . these. And we were all going, “Well, how did y’all know that? How were you able to come up with that in your group?” And one of the teachers said, “There’s an Internet connect—a high speed Internet connection—in here and I had a computer.” Well, immediately all the other teachers—now y’all, these are teachers—said, “That’s not . . . fair.” And I said, “What’s not fair about it? That they used the resources at their fingertips? That they were able to go outside the lines?” And, y’all, I’m telling you when you do these with kids and let the kids make up the BARFs for you, they’ll be asking, “Can I use the next level book. Can I use the Internet? Can I use resources?”—absolutely phenomenal.

Bodily kinesthetic is, of course, what we talked about. And I’m a big believer in teaching and learning being two sides of the same coin. Very quickly—just wanted to show you an “outside the line” assessment called “differentiated assessment.” And, by the way guys, if you’re familiar with alternative assessment, you already know one-third of differentiated instruction because all that is is alternative assessment.

Teacher in Rustin (Louisiana) High School came in and said, “These are assessment goals for cell division.” Where did she get them? She got them from the state standards from the state of Louisiana. Now, guys, I taught in Louisiana, and I taught science. And, personally, I think you can have a quality life without knowing all those things about cell division. But, that’s the state. So, taking those standards, she went in and she gave the kids an opportunity to do what we call “flexible grouping.” She said, “You guys can self select into groups and you have a choice about how you’re going to demonstrate your knowledge.”

Russlynn said it has to have rigor. So it can’t just be, “Do a play. Sing a song.” Her rigor said, “Look at my model.” And the rubric that she presented, if you’ll notice, follows the goals exactly. So, they can’t say, “Well, we didn’t know we had to know about all the organelles. We didn’t know we had to talk about interface.” “Yes, you did.” And for y’all that don’t teach cell division, you might want to use her second page—well, I skipped, sorry—might want to use her second page, which actually can be used for any of these.

And the oral presentation . . . part two . . . the Teaching Method . . . and then part three . . . the Oral Presentation. And let me just share that some kids came in . . . . These are the leftover kids. I was actually in the room for this. These are the kids that nobody picked to be in their group. They came up with their own plan. And they walked in wearing cowboy hats and kerchiefs. And I know you guys think we all dress like that, but we don’t. And African American kids in Texas never dress like that. But they had their little stuff on and . . . . other kids were kinda just rolling their eyes and being really rude. And I thought, “Oh, please, please, let them do a good job.”

They had their jam box and I thought, “Well, it’ll be a rap.” And, guys, I didn’t know how they knew to do this. I don’t know who taught them. I didn’t even know kids knew about this. But I saw one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen. The lowest of the low-level learners in that room—they stood up and performed Square Dance Mitosis. I don’t know how they even knew it. But they wrote a complete square dance with the callers, “Swing those chromosomes around. Mitochondria coming down. Ya, ya!” It was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. I was crying, I was laughing so hard.

Their teacher was sitting there checking off the rubric. And when they finished, they got a spontaneous standing ovation from their class. They walked out and said, “Yeah, we know that. We know that cell division. We know mitosis.” And Miss Lee, their teacher, said, “Deb, what do you think the chances are that for the rest of their lives they will remember the steps of cell division?” I said, “Hmmmm, pretty good.” But, more importantly, guys—for one brief shining moment—those kids were stars. They did it. I think there is a carry-over effect with that.

Here’s just a list of different ways that students can demonstrate their understanding. Again, it’s alternative assessment. And I want to give you this Web site. This is something I found recently on the Web—Applying Assessment Strategies in Psychology. And, guys—for those of us who want rigor, who want to use the eye in Bloom’s Taxonomy—this is one of the best things I have seen. These folks actually took it and went to the next level beyond evaluation to create and produce. So you might want to look that one up. It really gives you the words to strategies. It’s absolutely amazing.

Books that I’ve authored and co-authored—Drumming to a Beat,  Because You Teach (which is staff development), and Middle School Matters. But, if I were to recommend one book for you guys on differentiated instruction, this would be it—written by my very close friend, Rick Wormeli, called, Differentiating: From Planning to Practicing Grades Six to Twelve. Just released, absolutely phenomenal—takes you from conception all the way to assessment. Rick is an amazing talent.

On your Web site for Taking Center Stage, this book was mentioned. Another one of my favorites—Integrating Differentiated Instruction & Understanding by Design. So you’ve got the backwards design (which is looking for the rigor), your outcomes, your essential ideas—combined with the DI of Tomlinson. And it is absolutely fantastic. And I have been to your Web site. There are examples. There are ideas. There are vignettes, videos. Guys, if you haven’t yet explored Taking Center Stage—Act II, please do that. Your state is giving you incredible resources.

There are other intelligences—visual-spatial, people smart, self smart. We don’t have time for those today . . . music smart. And, guys, in middle school, a lot of our kids learn a lot better with the music on than with the music off.

But I’m going to wrap this up and tell you that . . .  actually, that’s something else . . . that I am going to invite you to my Web site. It is Debbiesilver.com. And, if you know my secret password, you can actually login and download any of about 30 handouts I have on various subjects for teachers. The secret password is “iamateacher.” And there are no caps; there are no spaces.

I also have a place for you to e-mail me. And I’ll be glad to answer your e-mail. I answer everything. Just don’t start your e-mail with this sentence: “Deb, I’m sorry to bother you, but . . . .” You are not bothering me, guys. This is my passion. This is my joy. And, if I can share with you, I will be happy to do that. So follow that and if you forget—excuse me—if you forget the login password, just e-mail me and I’ll send it to you.

But I’m going to close with what I think is the perfect metaphor for what we’ve talked about today. Some of you all may or may not recognize this. This is the tissue that used to come inside the old ditto master. And I made me a rocket out of it, because I’m a science teacher. And, guys, what I understand is—we got an air current in here. I wonder if we could cut that off real quick. What I understand is that in rocket science for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Okay, I’m not sure if this is going to work with air blowing, but we’ll try. There we go. Okay—and I know—like you know—if you want a rocket to go up, where do you light it? You light it at the bottom. Well, guys, here’s the thing—I’m really a little bit tired of everybody out in the world thinking that they’re an expert on education because they went to school. The thing is—the people most qualified to make decisions about what’s going on at the middle level in California—you’re sitting here. Take your power back.

People say, “Well, it’s not rocket science.” Oh no, it’s not rocket science. It’s a lot harder than rocket science. See, I can predict what a rocket will do. But I don’t know about kids, y’all,  because it’s two things—it’s heart and art. And, what I’m encouraging you today . . .  it’s like what Russlynn said, “Go inside yourself.” Be willing to go outside the lines. And maybe light your rocket in a way that here to for it has not been lit.

Now, you’re going to have a lot of people complaining, “Oh, that’s not going to work. Hey wait—the whole system is going to crash and burn. You can’t do it that way. In my day, we did it this way. We like compliant kids.” I’m telling you that there’s nothing more powerful than a human soul on fire. Go in after those kids with all the power you have and you won’t crash and burn. You’ll go straight—oh, god—up! We had an air current.

Sorry about that. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Rozlynn: Thank you, Debbie.

Debbie:  Tell them it worked in rehearsal.

Rozlynn: That was wonderful. It really worked in rehearsal. It went straight up but there was an air current here today. We appreciate you coming and sharing your humor with us. I don’t think there was anyone out there who didn’t crack a smile at least once. And they certainly knew you were a middle school teacher.

And I think that you've demonstrated today that, really, we can't have one size fits all and that we really need to differentiate our instruction—not so much the curriculum, the instruction. We keep the curriculum rigorous and we differentiate the instruction. So, thank you so much.

I know that our audience has some questions for you. So what we’re going to do right now is we’re going to take a five-minute break. And we’ll be back in five minutes.

Five-Minute Break

Debbie: Wow, thank you for your questions, guys. We did have . . . from Sonoma County . . . and asked for the demonstration of the rocket with it working. So, we’re going to go with this one more time. Alright, I’m lighting my rocket at the wrong end. I’m going outside the lines, believing that there’s nothing more powerful than a human soul on fire.

When people say, “You’ve got to do 80 hours on professional development on the textbook. We have to follow the standards.” I’m saying that I think, if we teach outside the lines and going after kids, we won’t crash and burn. We’ll have no place to go but straight . . . yay! I love it when a plan comes together.

Alright, a couple of just clarifications here—my presentation, my PowerPoint—will be on the portal site as will . . . here comes our ash again. . . as will . . . . I understand that some of you all could not read the site that had the psychology and the new Bloom’s Taxonomy. So that will also be on the portal site. I want you to have access to that. Russlynn’s and my presentations will be available to you. The PowerPoint . . . . Also, I think we’ve made available a handout for those of you who want it that is a little more detailed. Some of the little things that I did up here will also be available. So, that is there. Also, you can e-mail me. But, however you want to do that, we want you to have the information that you want.

So, a lot of you are saying, “You know, she’s using science, but I’d like for ELL. I’d like for math.” And I do have a lot of those kinds of examples. If you will e-mail me, I’ll be glad to get those to you. Because of our limited time, I always lapse back into science because that’s my background, of course.

But, let me just say that the book that I recommended by Rick Wormeli has a myriad of examples in every subject area. That’s why I’m so fond of his book because he will walk you through it. And, somebody said, “Well, Deb, we’d like to look at like a differentiated lesson.” And, I’m thinking maybe you were talking about a tiered assignment. And, again, you know . . . minimal time here. I would love to go through . . . walk you through that. But any specific questions that you have, you can address to me. You can look at the two books that I recommended, Rick Wormeli’s and Integrating Backwards Design with Differentiated Instruction for some of those answers.

But, guys, one of the best places to do this is go on the Web and Google it because what I’m finding on the Web are teachers who are as the most resourceful people in the world (as we all know), are willing to share. So, if you will go in and Google whatever concept you’re trying to teach to whomever you’re trying to teach it and put in some parameter words like “differentiated instruction” or “tiered assignment” or “flexible grouping.” What you’re going to find is so many things that your problem is not going to be is not figuring out what to do—it’s going to be what to leave out. But it’s all there. It’s just a matter of, you know, focusing—getting the time.

Another thing somebody said, “But, Deb, we are required to have 80 professional development hours on the book itself.”  Guys, the book can be a resource. You know, when they say “the book,” I don’t think they meant word by word, verbatim narrative. I think they’re saying probably . . . you know . . . correct me if I’m wrong . . . but I’m thinking what they’re saying the essential ideas as presented—maybe the scope and sequence as presented in the book.

Creative teachers, you have always been able to find a way to do whatever it is you need to do with whomever your kids are. And, I know that you can do this. Give yourself permission to go outside the lines. Let me say this—I think that anybody who can demonstrate to our administrators that “Yes, I am approaching essential ideas. Yes, I am moving kids from point here to point here, and this is how I do it,” I really think you’re going to find little argument in the way that you choose to do that.

I know that of you all as middle school teachers are a little bit crazy ‘cause we are. You jump off your table. You wear costumes. You roller skate in your room. That’s terrific. If that works for you, you do that. And, if you’re meeting those essential ideas . . . . But let’s remember, too y’all—all kids aren’t turned on by that. And, some of you who are quiet and passionate, linear and sequential—you also are fulfilling that need. You’ve got to figure out who you are and make that work within your talents, your strengths, your comfort zone. So, you know, I’m just giving you permission to do that.

People are asking me for good entry points for a lot of different subject areas. And, again, you know, use the Web, write to me personally, read Rick’s book, go to your conferences, go to the California state conferences in whatever your subject area is. I’ve worked with your science people. I’ve worked with your middle level and I’m telling you they are some of the finest in the country available to you. So get there.

Somebody says, “Deb, with us doing more emphasis on ELA and math, what do you believe will happen with less instruction to the . . . in the science thing?” Of course, as a middle school person, you know I’m really big on the teaming. And what I believe is every one of us represents our own discipline when we come in as a team. And that is our job is to sell it to the rest of the team. You know, we have to make sure we in covering my essential ideas in science and your essential ideas in language arts and the core and encore subjects.

But, my belief is this (and you know probably I didn’t say it well enough) but my passion about science is because what I see is . . . and it can be language arts, math, whatever, art, music. When a child becomes passionate about their learning and their belief system starts changing, I think there’s a carryover effect. And, if we as teachers are meeting together and affirming that and stretching ourselves with the kids (and that means sometime play in a team), then I think it works for the benefit of the kids.

One more—“How do you feel about technology as a tool to help differentiate teaching and learning?” I think it’s absolutely the most incredible thing that has happened to teaching in the last 50 years.  Those of you who don’t go to the CUE conferences here in California, you need to plan to do that. I’ve worked with CUE. I’m a huge fan. They really will work with you—from being a novice to being an expert—on how you can improve this.

I’ve talked a little bit about iPodcasts which can help. We have things at our fingertips now that will free you—the teacher—from so much direct instruction and allow you to have the kids to do a  little more independent, small group. And, yes, I think technology is really going to be the key for doing this if we want it to happen.

I think that’s all we have time for. So thank you for letting me come to your wonderful state again. And we’re going to turn it back to Rozlynn.

Rozlynn: Okay, well, thank you very much. I’d like to have you here while I just read this one comment that came in from Riverside County. It says, “Thank you for an inspiring presentation. Our participants really enjoyed it. And, we’ll take your inspirational message back.” So thank you so much. It was wonderful.

Debbie: Thanks, guys! Appreciate it.

Rozlynn: Thank you very much and I appreciate Debbie’s reference to Taking Center Stage—Act II. Many of the resources that Debbie talked about—the research study—you will find in the Taking Center Stage—Act II Web portal. The TCSII recommendations—there are 12 of them—each one of them focuses on a different area of middle grades education.

Time seemed to be a recurring theme through both of Debbie and Ruslynn’s talks today. There is a recommendation in Taking Center Stage and a whole chapter dedicated to time and how people are using time.

I would like this opportunity to thank both Debbie and Russlynn again. And, I know that Debbie provided you with a wealth of ideas and strategies to take back to your school sites. And, I know that many of you are going to want to do that tomorrow. But, more importantly, it is that you go back to your school site with a passion to mobilize your entire professional learning community to make the kinds of changes that you need to make to close the achievement gap and ensure success for all of our middle grades students.

This afternoon, you are going to have an opportunity to be working with your county office of education facilitators. And, they are going to be sharing with you what is called The Road Show CD. It has four professional learning modules on there that will take you deep inside the TCSII Web portal and will show you how to use it within your professional learning communities.

I want to thank Russlynn and Debbie again and thank the Secondary Subcommittee of the CISC—superintendents association. And I would like to take a minute here and also thank the Sacramento County Office of Education for producing this Webcast today and all of our county facilitators . . .  and thank all of you for being with us today. And, please, if you haven’t done so already, get into the act!

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