Literacy critical for learning, leading, succeeding

By Denise Morgan, Deputy Superintendent

Literacy is a problem that affects us all. High rates of illiteracy can lead to lower self esteem in individuals, difficulties in finding work, and higher rates of poverty or crime. If a parent cannot read to their children, those children are also more likely to drop out of school. This is a problem that is critical to our local county and society as a whole. According to a U.S. Dept. of Education’s, 2009 National Assessment of Adult Literacy, Grimes County has an illiteracy rate of 20%. On average 19% of adults in Texas cannot read a newspaper. These percentages, along with the need to help our students be successful in life are reasons why literacy is a priority for our district.

To help address literacy concerns in NISD, we have partnered with Neuhaus Education Center to assist our teachers with understanding and developing their instructional strategies or reading approaches, phonics, spelling and writing, including handwriting. Although, Neuhaus was founded originally to assist dyslexic students, the approaches used to assist these readers have proven to help all struggling readers.

The instructional strategies are designed to help educators understand how to identify reading issues and address these areas of concern with students in whole group, small group, and individual sessions. The approach to reading intervention is multisensory and draws the students into the lessons. A typical lesson lasts 20-30 minutes. It begins with a new concept introduction, practice of the concept, phonic card deck, spelling, handwriting, writing and coding reading passages, then reading. Once the Neuhaus lesson is complete, teachers move to their English/Language Arts instruction using the district curriculum.

What seems to excite and engage students about these lessons is the multisensory development. Students use hand signals as gestures to learn phonics. It appears to look like a sign language lesson, engaging students in verbal as well as physical and visual cues. Students then take these phonics lessons to their reading passage. If they need to code words using the phonics codes they do so, then they read the passages. We find the students very involved in the reading lesson. Initially coding every word because it is “fun”, but once they learn the cues and develop the understanding they break away from coding. Fluency is increased and they begin to enjoy reading.

Although this approach to learning is not new, the training provided the to the teachers has helped them to identify reading difficulties better as well as refining their skills on teaching the
basics of beginning reading. The ultimate goal is to have 100% of our students reading at or
above grade level and enjoying it.

What's learning, leading, and succeeding?

By Scott Powers, Chief Learning Officer

I served as a judge recently in our school district's junior high National History Day competition, and while the projects we evaluated were all very good, I was most impressed by the work of students who were able to connect their learning to personal experiences. National History Day is a curricular program that involves students in inquiry, critical analysis, interpretation, and creativity - all elements of academic work that are important for student learning. Students operate within a theme to produce dramatic performances, exhibits, multimedia documentaries, websites, and research papers. For as long as I have been serving as a history fair judge, common among the best projects is the presence of personal relevance for students, whether it was through their own experience, that of a friend or family member, or something that had local meaning and, therefore, impacted the community. It was a local focus that helped earn high school student Diego Regalado a trip to the national competition last year, the second Navasota project to make it that far in recent years. Regalado's project focused on 1953 Navasota High School graduate Don "Archie" Barrett, whose work was instrumental in passage of the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 which made sweeping changes to the structure of the United States Military.

This year’s theme is Rights and Responsibilities in History. Students can choose a topic that allows them to explore their own interests, whether it’s science, politics, the arts, education - you name it. Inspiration can come from most any place: local history, books, or perhaps recent headlines, TV shows or even the latest Twitter feed. Students work through an experience that pulls together historical content, their own interests, and creativity in a meaningful and coherent way. They have choice and voice. This increases engagement which increases their learning. The students for whom it was personal found meaning in the work they were doing. They were invested in their projects. They were engaged. How do I know? They told me. They showed me. They were able to articulate and demonstrate what they learned right there on the spot.

There is much to be learned from the National History Day framework when thinking about how to design learning experiences throughout the year that engage students and facilitate deeper content learning. Learning platforms that incorporate inquiry-based, process-focused strategies, like the ones that comprise the NHD framework, have been shown to be effective in building deep content understanding, raising academic achievement, and encouraging student motivation to learn. Not only did Regalado learn a tremendous amount about Mr. Barrett, the United States government, and politics, he developed some life skills through a local, regional, state, and national process that required him to research, create, refine, and communicate a complex topic at a very high level. This year, Regalado shared his experience with other students by serving as a judge in the junior high school fair, helping new historians who are just getting started. Now that's learning, leading, and succeeding.

Preparing students to be 'life ready'

By Rory Gesch, Superintendent of Schools

There’s little argument that U.S. schools need to better prepare students for life after high school. Policymakers, educators, and business people all agree on the critical demand our nation faces to train students for a growing number of jobs in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) as well as other specialized careers.

Many districts are working to reinvent their career and technical education programs with increasingly sophisticated and academically rigorous curriculum that’s rooted in providing students with real-world experiences and a serious exploration of career opportunities. It’s a trend that signals a major paradigm shift in thinking from just 10 years ago, when the national mantra in education was all about graduating students to be ‘college ready.’  But with this insatiable need for engineers and scientists, plus the growing shortages in skilled technicians and industrial craftsman – many of us are forced to rethink how we educate our K-12 students for both college AND careers.

Here in Navasota we want our students to be ‘life ready.’ We realize our students must acquire increasingly complex skills for both 21st century jobs and post-secondary education ventures.  We know that career technical-education pathways need to be as rigorous and skill-intensive as traditional college-prep pathways because students must rely on both sets of skills to get to college and beyond. But students also need to be taught employability and social skills in a career context to help them successfully transition into a career path. In a whitepaper prepared by WIN Learning entitled, “Soft Skills – An Essential Ingredient For Career and College Readiness,” the authors noted that in our increasingly technological economy, academic skills alone are not sufficient to ensure success. Job seekers must be able to solve problems, write and speak well, evaluate information critically, and work with other people, including those from other cultures.  Employees need to know the importance of being on time, and showing appropriate professional attitudes and work habits.  According to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, this skill set, also known as soft skills, is “the ticket to economic upward mobility in the new economy.”

At the same time, college admissions counselors similarly look for this mastery of soft skills in students who apply for competitive placement in college programs. How students present themselves is an important characteristic of college essays as well as raw data for a deeper analysis of academic achievement.

So if soft skills are what college counselors and future employers are calling for, and they can’t be left for learning on the job, what are we as educators doing to help prepare our students?

This fall our district opened a new school of choice that incorporates a new technology-driven career readiness system that is spurring coalitions among local businesses, our career and technical education programs and middle and high school students. We are redefining our career and college readiness initiatives to meet the needs of our students and community and aligning them to meet the demands of Texas HB 5 and today’s global economy.

The program was first introduced in March when representatives from Navasota ISD, the City of Navasota and the Navasota/Grimes County Chamber of Commerce hosted a meeting with local stakeholders to discuss workforce development and ways to educate students and expose them to real world projects to help prepare them for local job opportunities. We also purchased the web-based WIN Learning Personalized Career Readiness System, a solution built on an ‘educonomy’ model that starts at the intersection between education and local and regional economies where data on job markets helps students understand employability, foundational and social skills within the context of future careers. This real-world focus helps determine the personalized selection of coursework and other experiences our students should take in middle and high school that will lead them to their desired careers, either directly after graduation or following further training and/or completing their college education.

The research-based career-driven model offers a three-pronged approach to prepare students for today’s global economic opportunities and challenges. With the data-rich career exploration system, WIN Strategic Compass, students can analyze current and projected labor market data to reveal career pathways. The program’s Initial Skills Review measures individual career readiness and skill development gaps. In September, we had our Career and Technology Education Program students complete the Initial Skills Review. This online assessment specifically measured our student’s skills in reading for information, applied mathematics and locating information to measure essential career readiness levels. The scores created a personalized profile of how prepared they are for a career path upon graduation. For example scoring at a Level 3 means a student is prepared for 30 percent of jobs in the workplace while scoring at a Level 5 and above they are prepared for 80 percent of jobs.

Additionally, as students identify their career interests and begin to understand what they need to get there, they build, layer upon layer, their plans for going from high school to two- or four-year colleges, training programs, or directly to work. Nowhere in the proposed Career Driven Education model does the intersection between personalized learning and career and college readiness manifest more than in Strategic Compass’s creation of Individual Career Plans based on each student’s embedded career exploration activities. These Plans define a student’s place in a workforce at a series of potential entry points—after high school, two- or four-year college, training and certification, and apprenticeships. What we expect is that as students study their Individual Career Plan based on their individual interests, they will become more engaged in school and more clearly see the relevance of their education.

In 2014, all our middle and high school students will begin using the Career Readiness and Soft Skills direct instruction course-ware to advance their basic workplace and college readiness skills. These programs offer direct, contextual instruction through applied academics for workplace skill mastery. The series offers four modules – conveying professionalism, communicating effectively, promoting teamwork and collaboration, and thinking critically and solving problems.  Each student begins the coursework with a bundled career readiness skills assessment.  They then continue with targeted instruction to build soft skills, and end with re-assessment to determine learning outcomes. The modules include practice activities and a capstone project to reinforce students’ learning.

It is with this new technology-driven framework in place that we feel confident in our preparedness to prepare our students for the 21st century workplace.

If we design it, they will come

By Scott Powers, Chief Learning Officer

While watching the movie, Field of Dreams, I could never quite put my finger on what the voice Ray Kinsella kept hearing meant when it said, “If you build it, they will come.” It was mysterious and alluded to something beyond immediate observation.

While it turned out the baseball field Kinsella (Kevin Costner) built represents second chances, it also represents the idea that baseball, in its essence, is aesthetically and substantively compelling, that its charm is inexplicable and has to be experienced.

The World Series Champion Boston Red Sox, featured in the movie when Kinsella dreams about and then attends a game at Fenway Park, have enjoyed record attendance at the historic park in recent years. Baseball, in general, as enjoyed high attendance, spurred by the designing of new ballparks intended to enhance the fan experience in terms of both aesthetics (vintage appeal) and substance (good baseball). While substance will always matter, teams recognize that the experience must also accommodate the needs and interests of the modern fan.

They must engage fans.

If baseball isn't your game, consider the video game industry. Market research shows video game sales rose to more than $1 billion in September, 27 percent higher than the same period last year. When I say video games, I mean complex games like, Civilization, which is one of the most popular strategy games of all time. Many of these games are extremely difficult to play yet engage millions of people, not only to play them but to pay for the right to do so. They have hundreds of variables, they challenge participants, and they reward persistence. They elicit learning. If they didn't, they wouldn't survive in the marketplace.

The games must engage players.

What's the point? Experience matters. It matters for engagement. It matters for learning.

I got to thinking about this after reviewing the first six week's attendance figures for our schools. The numbers across the district aren't bad. In fact, average attendance district-wide is above the state average. But at our junior high school, attendance the first six weeks is at 99 percent. That's a big number, and represents a two percentage point jump over last year. In fact, in looking at the previous five years, it's the highest number at this point in the school year by far. Attendance is critical for a number of reasons, not the least of which is its close relationship with student achievement. Attendance informs multiple measures of achievement including grade-point average and reading and math performance.

So what's happening at the junior high school?

Part of the answer may be in the instructional design approach teachers are taking to enhance student engagement. It's an approach that recognizes the importance of experience in drawing more students, more of the time into academic learning. It's an approach that allows students to become more active with content and more active with others in the learning environment, both of which are essential for facilitating long-term retention, comprehension, an application. While time devoted to instruction positively correlates with student learning, the organization of content and the level of engagement with content have even stronger connections to student achievement, especially when the goal is long-term learning rather than short term retention.

The challenge schools face, then, is similar to Kinsella's. He set out to design something that would attract others to a baseball experience. For schools, it's about engaging more students, more of the time in academic learning. It's about helping students achieve higher levels of learning; learning that is transferable, usable...in college or in the workforce. It's about experience.

By the way, I've been to Fenway Park. It's special. They designed a great ballpark. But I'm an Astros fan, and while the experience at Minute Maid Park is terrific, substance will always matter.

HB5 a Step in the Right Direction

By Dr. Denise Morgan, Deputy Superintendent

House Bill 5 brings a much needed change to education in Texas. As I have discussed with many of my colleagues over the years, we need more choice for students in high school. That is exactly what is now in store for the students of Texas. House Bill 5 brings a foundation education program of 16 credits, with an additional 8 credits in one or more endorsement areas chosen by the student. Although all graduation plans can lead to college, the endorsements can help also assist those who may choose not to attend post high school studies and find themselves needing to master productive skills prior to entering the workforce. 

As a parent of four children, I am very excited about the future. Although my goal for each is to enter college, they each have their own ideas about their futures. Single track graduation plans do not allow them to explore these varying dreams. My oldest finds himself exploring college with his own deep rooted desire to serve his country. Looking for ideas for the future, he wanted to explore options in high school to help decide on possible majors in college that also might lend themselves to military service. With the four by four graduation plan and athletics, he found he was able to take only a few electives, limiting his exploration. My second child, will get the benefit of choice as he moves through this new high school program. He can choose a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) program endorsement, pretty consistent with the current four by four education plan, or he can choose to take endorsements in general studies (exploring several areas), agriculture, business, the arts, and computers to name a few. 

As the two younger children move through elementary and junior high, we are likely to see many business partnerships emerging. These partnerships can help students to explore different fields to either continue their education post high school diploma or enter the workforce with the skills they need to be employable. 

With choice brings responsibility to the educators of Texas to help guide students as they explore options. To assist with this exploration, students will begin with interest inventories that lead to occupational options with their interests in mind. These can assist them in choosing or exploring different endorsements in high school. These endorsements will help lead them to a better foundation and understanding of what post high school diploma education is needed for them to reach their goals and dreams. 

Navasota ISD is exploring all endorsement areas and is focused on hiring quality teachers to respond to the areas of interest of our students. Course selection will be key in the upcoming years, as it will assist in the hiring of staff. As we move forward, students will be meeting with campus counselors to learn about the different endorsements available. Class meetings and parent information sessions will also allow us to share more details of the new graduation requirements.

As a community member, I encourage you to look up House Bill 5 and review first hand this exciting change. (Overview of HB5 and HB5 Resources)

Engagement is the Key to Learning

By Scott Powers, Chief Learning Officer

Two primary goals of schools are 1) to help students attain the knowledge and skills they need to be successful when they leave school and 2) to help students learn how to learn because the knowledge and skills required to be successful in the world change over time.

In recent years, Texas has emphasized, through its curriculum requirements, the need to prepare students for a changing and increasingly complex world by developing standards for college and career readiness (CCRS) and integrating these standards into the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), the foundational content knowledge and skills students should master to graduate. During the most recent legislative session, state lawmakers reinforced the importance of college and career readiness standards in K-12 education, making indicators of college and career readiness part of the state's accountability system for schools and districts.

This raises a couple of questions for schools and their communities. One, what exactly is college and career readiness? Two, what kinds of learning environments will help students achieve college and career readiness?

As for the first question, Texas was the first state to adopt college and career readiness standards. The standards were jointly created through a process that included public education, higher education, and business stakeholders. The state's college and career readiness standards represent a broad range of knowledge and skills that students need to succeed in entry-level college courses, as well as in a wide range of majors and careers, and they require more active student participation in the learning environment. While the CCRS are organized into the four distinct core content areas of English/language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies, there are elements that cut across all four disciplines. According to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, these cross-disciplinary components of the CCRS are tools that college instructors in all areas use to challenge, engage, and evaluate students in each specific subject area. The CCRS include, but are not limited to, such things as:

• developing problem analysis and problem solving skills, 
• developing an ability to engage in inquiry and dialogue, 
• developing the ability to self-monitor learning,
• working collaboratively to complete and master tasks, 
• and conducting research including identifying topics and questions to be investigated, evaluating sources of information, and designing and presenting effective products.

So now the second question: What kinds of learning environments will help students achieve college and career readiness? We know that school is often not very engaging for many students, particularly as they get into junior high and high school. Research strongly suggests that the longer students stay in school, the less engaged they become. We also know that student engagement positively correlates with grades, attendance, retention, graduation, employment, performance on standardized tests, and college and career readiness. The Texas legislature believes part the answer to this question is in addressing the problem of student engagement. In addition to making college and career readiness an indicator of student achievement in the accountability system, the state has also made student engagement a component of school district accountability. Navasota ISD also believes student engagement, the extent to which students actively participate in the learning process, is a key to achieving college and career readiness. So how do we engage students? We create opportunities for students to be more active in the learning environment through the very standards we are already required to use to help students attain the knowledge and skills they need to be successful when they leave school and that prepare them for college and careers (CCRS); more problem analysis and problem solving, more inquiry and dialogue, more interaction with others in the classroom, greater use of technology, and more emphasis on creatively demonstrating what is learned. With more than 80 percent of 21st century jobs requiring some post-secondary education, the risk is not in trying to engage students in more active learning. It's in not doing so.

Creating the Classrooms We Need

"Never have educators had such opportunities to think creatively about their practice as now," says educational consultant and speaker Diana Laufenberg. "Never has it been so incumbent upon educators to provide students with innovative and dynamic learning. In the age of information surplus, our schools hold immense potential for authentic and experience-based learning."

Laufenberg, who most recently taught in the inquiry-driven Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, will be the keynote speaker at this year's district convocation and will talk about how we can create the classrooms we need to serve today's students. Laufenberg will be a presenter at the district's first back-to-school learning symposium, a conference-style professional development series for faculty, staff, and parents to kick-off the 2013-14 school year Aug. 19-21. The three-day event will begin with a faculty and staff convocation Monday morning followed by two-and-a-half days of breakout sessions. Laufenberg has deep roots in experiential education - taking students from the classroom to the real world and back again. A 15-year teacher until 2012, Laufenberg most recently taught at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, an inquiry-driven, project-based high school focused on modern learning. Prior to her work in Philadelphia, she was an active member of the teaching community in Flagstaff, AZ where she was named Technology Teacher of the Year for Arizona and a member of the Governor's Master Teacher Corps. Diana was featured on TED.com for her “How to Learn? From Mistakes” presentation and recognized for earning National Board Certification.  Her publications include a featured piece on the New York Times Learning blog, co-authoring a chapter in an educational leadership book, an article in the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy and regular contributions to teachinghistory.org.

To learn more about Laufenberg, check out her blog. Check this blog soon for more information on the back-to-school symposium, including a session schedule for staff and parents and presenter information.

Learning, READING, Succeeding

The Navasota ISD Educational Learning Center is building a professional development library for Navasota ISD faculty and staff. There are currently more than 50 books, including titles about student engagement, the digital learner, project-based learning, leadership, classroom management, curriculum and instruction, and motivation. The library also manages a variety of instructional materials available for checkout including resources for Reader's Theater, Flocabulary, Action-Based Learning, American History, and more.

Checking about books and resources is as easy as contacting your campus RSVP coach to have the items delivered to you. For more information, contact Lisé McNally at 825-4279 or mcnallyl@navasotaisd.org.

Navasota ISD's favorite books »

What Students Say...

Navasota secondary students appear to be on the leading edge of national research findings that indicate teenage access to the Web "has increased substantially and mobile access to the Internet is pervasive."

While 80 percent of Navasota students report to having Internet access away from home compared to more than 90 percent nationally, the more than 60 percent of Navasota students who report owning a smartphone exceeds the 43 percent of teens nationally who report owning a smartphone. Moreover, teenagers increasingly prefer highly mobile access to the Web as opposed to less mobile devices like desktop computers and even laptops.

Also, Navasota students make a connection between access to Web-based technologies and engagement in school, with more than 80 percent of local students indicating that they believe Internet access is important to their educational success and that they would like to be able to use their own technologies for learning in school.

These findings are part of the 2012-13 Navasota ISD Climate Survey taken by staff, students, and parents. A technology access survey was also conducted in 2010. Results include more than 1,000 student respondents.

2012-13 Student Technology Access & Engagement Survey Results

Working on the Work

Navasota ISD principals and teachers "Designing Work
for Students" this spring.  

Navasota ISD teachers and principals participated in "Designing Work for Students" before spring break as part of the district's participation in the Standard Bearer School District Network. The Standard-Bearer School District Network is a national network of public school districts that use the Schlechty Center's System Capacity Standards to assess district and school-level capacity to support instructional innovation.  This week, teachers and principals studied ways to connect the curriculum to experiences that appeal to the various needs and interests of students. The goal is to increase student engagement in academic learning.

In February, a presentation was made to the Board of Trustees regarding progress on a two-year plan to upgrade the school district's technology infrastructure to support innovative instructional approaches. In the fall of 2013, a cohort of teachers at Navasota High School and Navasota Junior High School will collaborate with Engage2Learn to integrate some project-based learning (PBL) into the schools' instructional programs. There is considerable research that suggests that the protocols that characterize discovery approach learning or PBL models can help facilitate greater long-term comprehension and application, more opportunities for creativity, greater achievement motivation, enhanced bonding to school, and better scores on standardized tests. Click here to see Navasota students discuss their experiences with project-based learning in 2012.

Design & Discovery: A presentation to the NISD Board of Trustees