Author Archives: stefhite

About stefhite

After a 10-year career in advertising and PR, I attend the University of Pennsylvania to get an MSEd in Elementary and Early Childhood Education. After teaching grades ranging from Kindergarten to 7th, I returned to UPenn to earn a Doctorate in Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum. Since then I have moved into educational administration. I now work as a consultant, supporting the work of schools, districts, associations, state boards of education, and private companies -- all to improve teaching and learning for students.

College degree = higher level skills

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According to PIAAC, 3/4 of US unemployed workers had either a high-school diploma or less; roughly 1/2 of those adults placed in the two lowest score levels for numeracy. Among unemployed college-educated adults, 13% scored in the two lowest levels.

The study is one of the first to show that a college degree confers core knowledge that adults without degrees are less likely to possess.

“This allows us for the first time to be able to compare what it is that someone knows with what sort of degree they have,” said Stephen Provasnik, a researcher for NCES and a technical advisor on PIAAC. “That allows us to make distinctions that we haven’t been able to make in the past. Economists have always used level of education as a proxy for the skills that one has. Now what PIAAC does is allows us to measure directly those skills, without having to use the education certification as a proxy.”

Read the article here.

Google Tools — New Templates

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Many of my colleagues are reluctant to use google docs, spreadsheets, or presentation slides because of perceived limitations — but they have improved steadily over the past few years. And now there are some great templates available to make collaborative work easier and more professional. Visit docs.google.com, sheets.google.com, or slides.google.com to check out what’s available.

The End of Average

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Reading The End of Average by Todd Rose, a fascinating book that argues that standards and standardized assessments are radically outdated.

“Contemporary pundits, politicians, and activists continually suggest that our educational system is broken, when in reality the opposite is true. Over the past century, we have perfected our educational system so that it runs like a well-oiled Taylorist machine, squeezing out every possible drop of efficiency in the service of the goal its architecture was originally designed to fulfill: efficiently ranking students in order to assign them to their proper place in society… (p. 56)

How can a society predicated on the conviction that individuals can only be evaluated in reference to the average ever create the conditions for understanding and harnessing individuality? (p. 58)

… but once you free yourself from averagarian thinking, what previously seemed impossible will start to become intuitive, and then obvious.” (p. 72)

Leading in Complex Times

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Spent the past three days overlooking Independence Hall in Philadelphia with an incredible group of leaders working on techniques to support change. What an appropriate site—a place where divergent thinkers gathered to imagine the possibility of self-governance.

The weather matched our agendas: on Monday, it snowed heavily, just as we were blanketed with new information and learning. On Tuesday, the snow gave way to torrential rain and high winds, as we wrestled to process techniques and approaches. For our final session today, the sun arrived and bathed our group with a warm glow, in time to send us out to do the important work of organizational and systemic change. 

Reflections on Teacher Leadership Summit

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Spent the weekend at the Teacher Leadership summit in NJ … intensive and thought-provoking sessions filled with meaningful conversation.

My reflections:

  • teacher leadership is a worthy goal that has potential to positively impact student learning experiences
  • it will be challenging to cultivate teacher leaders without significant collegial collaboration

My concerns:

  • leadership is a mindset, not a job description
  • law, regulations, and policy do not cultivate the necessary mindset

Follow TeachLeadNJ progress here.

Rethinking Teacher Leadership

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Just finished the first night at the NJ Teacher Leadership Summit. Setting the right tone immediately: to reimagine the role of teacher leadership, we must be willing to depart from traditional approaches. Tomorrow we’ll spend the day hosting conversations that matter in that middle ground between chaos and order and see what emerges. Follow along on the TeachLeadNJ blog.
Chaordic-path

 

Star Wars Guide to Professional Learning

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How can we resist professional learning based on Star Wars philosophy? My favorite is lesson 3, Collaborate and Connect:

“The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.” — Obi-Wan Kenobi

Read the rest of Star Wars-based PL on Learning Forward’s site here.

Great Resource from NY Public Library

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In my early days as a designer in NYC — long before I thought about becoming a teacher — I was a photo researcher for Doubleday publishing. I happily haunted the NY Public Library picture archives, searching for just the right image tucked away in the miles of shelves in their midtown location.

I’m thrilled to be able to access the digitized version of those musty shelves. This is a treasure trove of unique images, free to use with no restrictions, high-res downloads available. Check out the collection here, recently updated, now with over 180,000 public domain images.

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Under Pressure

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Vicke Abeles writes:

Expectations surrounding education have spun out of control. On top of a seven-hour school day, our kids march through hours of nightly homework, daily sports practices and band rehearsals, and weekend-consuming assignments and tournaments. Each activity is seen as a step on the ladder to a top college, an enviable job and a successful life…

Yet instead of empowering them to thrive, this drive for success is eroding children’s health and undermining their potential. Modern education is actually making them sick.

Nearly one in three teenagers told the American Psychological Association that stress drove them to sadness or depression — and their single biggest source of stress was school. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a vast majority of American teenagers get at least two hours less sleep each night than recommended — and research shows the more homework they do, the fewer hours they sleep. At the university level, 94 percent of college counseling directors in a survey from last year said they were seeing rising numbers of students with severe psychological problems.

Read the entire NY Times op-ed piece here.