Program helps schools analyze quality of instruction.
By Michelle Logsdon/Special to The Malibu Times
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) is in a crisis-millions of dollars in budget cuts have led to layoffs and slashing of programs-but you wouldn’t know it by visiting the classrooms at Webster Elementary School. Children are smiling and working hard and teachers are actively participating in the education of their students.
On Feb. 13, a team of 16 parents, teachers and district staff willingly volunteered their entire day to observe several classrooms at Webster to see how the recently introduced district-wide Principles of Learning are being implemented. The results were encouraging.
“It makes me feel good as a parent to see how things are going,” said team member Kevin Montgomery, Webster PTA’s co-president. “I observed in one classroom one of the principles called Clear Expectations was spelled out on the board so students could refer to it easily.”
Superintendent John Deasy introduced the nine Principles of Learning last year. SMMUSD was one of 10 small districts in the country chosen to be an affiliate for the Principles of Learning program through the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute of Learning.
According to the Institute’s Web site, the principles are theoretical statements “designed to help educators analyze the quality of instruction and opportunities for learning that they offer to students.” The nine Principles of Learning are: Accountable Talk, Clear Expectations, Fair and Credible Evaluations, Learning as Apprenticeship, Organizing for Effort, Recognition of Accomplishment, Socializing Intelligence, Self-Management of Learning and Academic Rigor in a Thinking Curriculum.
At Webster, Principal Phil Cott chose three of the principles to focus on this past year. During the walkthrough, team members were asked to look for Accountable Talk, Clear Expectations and Academic Rigor in a Thinking Curriculum.
Accountable Talk, in which students discuss freely among themselves a chosen topic respecting each other’s opinions, was easily recognized in Ms. Winokur’s fourth/fifth grade class. The students were reading about tennis legend Arthur Ashe and actively participating in class discussion about his life and his contributions to the sport of tennis.
The walkthrough team members said they garnered their most valuable information by asking the students questions about their teacher and their studies. In Mr. Dluka’s third grade class, Kendra White described her Black History Month biography on Muhammad Ali to Malibu High School Assistant Principal John Davis. She had highlighted paragraph after paragraph on her Internet research pages and readily told him, “After he went to the Olympics he went to order a burger and a woman told him ‘We don’t serve coloreds,’ and he took his medal and threw it in the lake because that was the country he was suppose to represent.”
The biography project was a clear indication of Academic Rigor in a Thinking Curriculum. The work is challenging, clearly organized and requires original thought by the students.
Although the walkthrough made some students nervous they understood what was happening and why. “If something bad is going on in the class they can try and improve it-they can know what’s going on,” said Nicole Hindin.
“Maybe they will try and figure out a better way to teach us some things,” Rachel Vlansey added.
Superintendent Deasy briefly stopped by to see how the day’s events were taking shape. He said he is trying to visit each school site during its walkthrough. So far he’s observed definite progress in following the principles. “The implementation is far ahead of what I would have ever imagined we’d be able to accomplish. It is having a clear, measurable improved effect on instruction- it’s amazing.”
At the end of the day, after debriefing with the team, Cott said the comments were positive and he had a good idea of what to do next. “I heard some themes. The idea of Clear Expectations is very physical-you can see it happening. The other areas were somewhat harder to see so next time we will focus on those and make them more visible.”
Cott will prepare a summary report for the community on this walkthrough and plans to hold another one before the end of the school year.
The walkthrough team at Webster included parents Cricket Blake, Sandy Thacker, Tom Sorce, Mary Tafi, Kevin Montgomery and Lisa Toledo. Toledo and Montgomery are also co-presidents of Webster’s PTA. Several teachers participated, including Jen Lynch, Erica Ross and Joan Kaczorowski. Team members from outside the Webster campus were Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School Principal Chi Kim and teacher Ken Harris; the SMMUSD Director of Personnel Rick Bagley, the district’s Literacy Coach Cindy Kratzer; Juan Cabrillo Elementary School Principal Pat Cairns and Malibu High School Assistant Principal John Davis.