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Volume 15, Number 16 The Source
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September 18, 2015
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Whole Child Snapshot: ASCD Measures Whole Child Success across the States, including Iowa
To be fully prepared for their futures, the nation's children need personalized support, safe environments, good health, and challenging learning opportunities. How well are we, as a nation, supporting the whole child?
ASCD's 50-state whole child snapshots begin to answer that question by featuring data that provide a more comprehensive picture of child performance and well-being.
Each snapshot also has initial ideas for how families, educators, and communities can make targeted and innovative improvements to  support the whole child and help students become productive adults and engaged citizens. ASCD is developing the snapshots annually to feature the most recently available data and to permit year-over-year comparisons.
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Teachers/Leaders of K-6 Literacy: Register Now for September 22 Fall Institute with Lester Laminack:
Writers ARE Readers!
Struggling to meet all the literacy demands of the Iowa Core K-6? Not sure if your students are always applying their new skills in their independent reading? Asking yourself, "What about writing?" Join us to learn with Lester Laminack how we can use what we know about reading to develop powerful writers.
About this Workshop: To be a good writer you must first be able to read deeply and understand author's intent. In this workshop, Lester Laminack will show you that the key to successful writing is harnessing the power of close reading. You will learn how your students can transfer what they know about reading structures and strategies into practices that will hone their writing skills and help them become more focused writers. A more focused writer is also a successful reader. Reading and writing are natural reciprocal relationships that you can use tomorrow in your classroom.
About This Author: Lester Laminack consults with schools all around the country. He is Professor Emeritus at Western Carolina University, where he has won both the Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching  Award, and the Botner Superior Teaching Award. Lester is an active member of the National Council of Teachers of English. He's the author of several notable books, including The Writing Teacher's Troubleshooting Guide, Bullying Hurts (both with Reba Wadsworth) and Kid-Tested Writing Lessons for Grades 3-6, with Leslie Bauman and Harvey "Smokey" Daniels.
Overview and Learning Objectives:
Writers approach a text with an eye for more than "what's the story here?" Writers look for structure and craft, intention and execution, voice, tone and mood. Writers notice bias and hyperbole, and honesty in content. Writers ARE readers.
Reading and writing are mutually supportive processes, though much of our instruction misses the bonus of that relationship. Efficient readers can be shown how to flip their insights about structure and strategies into more powerful writing. Learning to write using your reader knowledge has important implications for growing more informed and efficient writers and allowing students to grow as both readers and writers.
Across this day we will:
- Explore our accepted reader knowledge and dig in to the flip side of those insights in the work of a writer.
- Tap into a set of selected texts and examine the role of close reading in the development of a focused writer.
- Write a bit ourselves and play with structures and craft.
- Develop a list of text resources and practice using them DURING the workshop.
- Examine some of the typical plateaus/developmental pauses faced by a developing writer and think through the source of those plateaus and ways to nudge them forward.
Participants will receive a copy of:
 Writers ARE Readers: Use Reading Structures and Strategies to Nurture More Powerful Writers
Participants are asked to bring a favorite Read Aloud they use in their classroom: narrative, poetry, informational, opinion or persuasive for use during the workshop.
Who Should Attend: Classroom teachers of Grades K-6, administrators, curriculum coordinators, literacy specialists/coaches
Fee: Early bird special - Before September 17 the fee is $150 for Iowa ASCD members and $195 for nonmembers. After September 10, the fee is $195 for Iowa ASCD members and $240 for nonmembers. Participants may register on line at http://iowaascd.org/index.php/events/event-registration/ or contact Bridget Arrasmith with purchase order with list of participants and their e-mail addresses: 123 Drake University School of Education, 3206 University, Des Moines, IA 503011; bridget.arrasmith@drake.edu; or FAX 515.271.2233.
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Literacy: "What Reading Does for the Mind" by Anne E. Cunningham and Keith E. Stanovich
While not "an easy read," the article "What Reading Does for the Mind" should be read by all educators - and parents, emphasizing the importance of reading, reading, reading! Cunningham and Stanovich provide an analysis of the cognitive benefits of habitual reading. It is possible to outline the reciprocal influence of early reading acquisition and reading volume as determinants of later reading. "Habitual readers" demonstrate the "Matthew effect" - where the  "rich get richer" and the "poor get poorer" in the areas of vocabulary development, knowledge differences, decoding ability, verbal fluency, comprehension, verbal skills, spelling and more. What becomes apparent immediately is how lexically impoverished is most speech as compared to written language. With the exception of courtroom testimony, average frequency of words in all samples of oral speech is low - about 400 - 600 words. And yet the relative rarity of words in children's books is, in fact, greater than that in all of the adult conversation, except for courtroom testimony. "Indeed, the words used in children's books are considerably rarer than those in speech on prime-time adult television." The lesson learned: read! read! read! and your vocabulary will grow! grow! grow! Two crucial messages the researchers shared:
- "It is difficult to overstate the importance of getting children off to an early successful start in reading. We must ensure that students' decoding and word recognition abilities are progressing solidly. Those who read well are likely to read more, thus setting an upward spiral into motion."
- "We should provide all children, regardless of their achievement levels, with as many reading experiences as possible. Indeed, this becomes doubly imperative for precisely those children whose verbal abilities are most in need of bolstering, for it is the very act of reading tht can build those capacities. An encouraging message for teachers of low-achieving students is implicit here. We often despair of changing our students' abilities, but there is at least one partially malleable habit that will itself develop abilities - reading!"
Read the entire article here!Note: Anne E. Cunningham will be one of the presenters on the ASCD/Scholastic webinar on November 9. -
- Presenters: Donalyn Miller and Anne E. Cunningham
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Providers: ASCD and Scholastic
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Date: November 9 at 6:00 P.M. CT
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Be sure to check out all the webinars below. |
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Assessing What Matters Most: Rethinking Semester Exams
Iowa ASCD member Dr. Trent Grundmeyer, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership at Drake University  shares this abstract of a peer-reviewed article published in the American Secondary Education Journal and based on a study he conducted last spring.
Educators and parents alike often wonder what secondary students remember from class after the semester is over. This study examined that question by looking at test data for high school students who took the same semester final 77 days after they originally took the final to see what they remembered from the course. Students were tested in World Geography, Algebra II and Physical Science content areas. As part of the study, the question was raised in whether or not students who earned a B or C grade on the original semester test would score better than students who originally earned an A on the test. The rationale for this was that A students might have simply memorized and forgot the information on the test whereas B and C students truly learned the content on which they were assessed.
High school students were identified as potential retention study participants based on two selection criteria. First, their first semester overall course grade. Second, the recommendation of their first semester teacher (all different teachers) in World Geography, Algebra II, or Physical Science based on the likelihood of each student giving his or her best effort when asked to retake the test again. All students were sophomores or juniors in high school in a 9-12th grade high school of 520 students.
Two weeks before the scheduled testing, students were introduced to the study and invited to participate by the researcher. During this meeting, the students were made aware of the commitment to take the semester final again and incentives of pizza and pop for participating in the study. Participation was voluntary, so any student who chose not to participate in the study could be replaced by another participant. Students who agreed to participate were asked to sign a consent document before taking it home to have their parents sign and return.
The results from the study are informational for both school leaders and teachers alike regarding semester finals. On average, students scored 21% lower when retaking the same semester final 77 days after originally testing. By content area, Physical Science retention was best in this study with a total of four participants scoring 12.25% lower (on average) than their original score on the final. Next was Algebra II with four participants scoring 17.75% lower (on average) than their original score on the final. Five World Geography participants scored 23.4% lower (on average) than their original score on the final.
Figure 1
Subject Aggregate Chart (Percent Averages)
Since the researcher wondered if the students who earned a B or C grade on the original semester test would score better than students who originally earned an A on the test, the researcher compared test scores from students who originally got an A on the semester final to combined scores from students who originally got a B or C on the semester final. Overall, B and C students average a 5.4% lower score on the same semester finals compared to students who originally got an A on the final. The hypothesis was incorrect based on the data from this study.
When breaking down the scores for each subject area the researcher found that the biggest discrepancy in scores (based on averages) was in Algebra II. Students who had an A on the semester final had an average 25% score reduction compared to an average 34% score reduction for the B and C students. The discrepancy between A scores and B and C scores in Physical Science was 4.3% (9%-13.3%) difference with B and C students retaining more information on average than the A student. In World Geography, there was a 3% difference on average between the A scores and B and C student scores (21%-24%).
The data from this study suggest that semester finals may not either a) truly allow the students to demonstrate what they know and are able to recall, or b) students truly may not have learned the important concepts and skills in the first place and were not able to reproduce knowledge weeks after taking the original semester final just over two months later.
Prior research and the data from this study are aligned in regard to student retention. Teachers are spending too much classroom instructional time on surface level concepts and topics that are personally interesting to themselves or mandated through a national, state, or local curriculum. Although many concepts and topics have to be addressed, the most important concepts and skills should be taught, retaught, and reinforced. Based on the teachers feedback from this study, there was a direct correlation between the amount of time spent during classroom instruction on specific concepts and how the participants scored on the semester final on that same topic. For example, in science the teacher reported routinely asking students to graph data. Consequently, students scored higher on graphing than on other topics that were reinforced less often throughout the semester. In contrast, solving and graphing inequalities in Algebra II was a new concept introduced and given little classroom instructional time. Consequently, this concept was not retained well when analyzed on the semester test students took 77 days after the conclusion of the course.
Another strategy that should be given attention is that of using visual cues when instructing students about new terms or vocabular. Students who took the World Geography semester final retained key terms well overall. The teacher credited the instructional strategy used to show a visual cue (picture) to each key term as the reason they thought students retained these important terms. This was a new strategy used by the teacher since students scored lower on key vocabulary in prior years on semester exams. Clearly correlating a visual cue to key terms has benefit for the long-term retention of learning for students based on the data from this study.
It should not be left to chance that a student recalls these concepts and skills 77 days later on the same test. It should be expected that students retain this information because it was taught so well and reinforced so often that it is vetted in the child's memory. The results from this study reinforce prior research and best practices in instruction that truly ensure kids learned what was important.
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Curriculum Leads - Upcoming Dates of Importance
- When Iowa ASCD Board of Directors met with several new and veteran curriculum leads this summer, they expressed a need for a calendar of events and a monthly "nudg
 e" before things get away from them. Here are a few upcoming events. Please feel free to contact any Iowa ASCD board member, including Executive Director Lou Howell, for any needed assistance. (See list of directors with their email addresses in the right-hand column.) Double check with your superintendent to determine those items for which you are responsible.
- Administrative Team Meetings:
- Prepare for and participate in administrative team meetings
- Assure board reports are to the superintendent/designee by ____ of each month
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- Budgets:
- Review and update budget(s); share updates as appropriate
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- Review building action plans
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- Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
- Assessment: If fall testing with the Iowa Assessments, work with principals and counselors to assure complete preparation, including scheduling.
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- District Leadership Team
- Meet with DLT. Collect and share data from the most recent professional development. Use data to determine/adjust the next district/building-level professional development.
- Evaluation
- Begin evaluations of assigned staff members.
- Iowa ASCD
- Participate in Iowa ASCD Fall Institute
- Register for Iowa ASCD Fall Academy
- Read The Source for latest news and tips for instructional leadership
- Review function: Processes on Iowa ASCD webpage for curriculum leads: http://iowaascd.org/index.php/iowa-ascd-curriculum-leaders/
- Follow Iowa ASCD on Twitter @IowaASCD and Facebook.
- Mentoring
- Send reminder to mentors/teachers to have mentees complete on-line assessment and then analyze and share the data with mentors. Address all concerns.
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- Newsletter
- Place at least one article in district newsletter by the ______ of the month. Items might include the following: Data from district APR and C-Plan as well as description of professional development initiatives and others events in the district; if testing is in fall, share article addressing schedule, importance, and role of parents/guardians.
Professional Development
- Coordinate/Participate in professional development activities.
- Assure facilitation of professional development
- Publish agendas of professional development activities
- Aggregate/disaggregate/share evaluations of professional development
Walk-throughs
- Conduct building walk-throughs and share aggregated dataProfessional Development
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Fall Academy - November 16-17: Standards-Based Grading for School Leaders
Conference speaker Tammy Heflebower of Marzano Research Center shares practical steps and strategies for school and district leaders and their teams to guide educators, students and parents through the implementation process and become acquainted with opportunities and challenges that may arise during the transition to standards-based grading.
Standards-based grading gives students and parents useful feedback by clearly identifying what students need to know and what they still need to learn to achieve those goals. Teachers use proficiency scales to track and report students' progress on prioritized standards and report cards communicate what students have mastered, what they need to work on, and how quickly they are progressing.
During this workshop, participants will explore specific aspects of standards-based grading implementation, from identifying prioritized standards and composing proficiency scales to creating aligned assessments and revising report cards. School and District leaders will learn practical steps and strategies for guiding educators, students and parents through this work.
Outcomes and Goals - Explore concrete steps for implementing standards-based grading.
- Learn to recruit and build teams of educators to prioritize standards and write proficiency scales.
- Discover three kinds of assessments and learn how educators can use each type as an effective part of a standards-based grading system.
- Understand the unique grading challenges posed by exceptional learners and how to incorporate accommodations and modifications into grading practices.
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Create an action plan for revising report cards to more clearly communicate student progress and achievement.
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Formulate an implementation and communication plan to facilitate your school's transition to standards-based grading.
About the Presenter
Dr. Tammy Heflebower is a senior scholar at Marzano
Research. She is a highly sought-after school leader and consultant with vast experience in urban, rural, and suburban districts. Dr. Heflebower has served as a classroom teacher, building leader, district leader, regional professional development director, and national trainer. She has also been an adjunct professor of curriculum, instruction, and assessment at several universities. Registration Information: Iowa ASCD Fall Academy November 16th and 17th, 2015 Registration: 1:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. Conference: 11/16: 1:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. 11/17: 9:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. Drake University, Olmsted Center 2507 University Avenue Des Moines, Iowa Snacks and supper will be served on November 16 and a continental breakfast and lunch will be served on November 17.
Early Bird Rate: $275 for Iowa ASCD Members $320 for Non-Members
After 11/9: $320 for Iowa ASCD members
$365 for non-members
You may register by sending a purchase order or check with a list of names and their e-mail addresses to Bridget Arrasmith, School of Education, Room 123, Drake University, 3206 University Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50311 (FAX (515) 271-2233).
You may register on line at http://iowaascd.org/index.php/events/event-registration/
All participants will receive A School Leader's Guide to Standard-Based Grading by the Marzano Research Center.
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Q & A: Next Steps for ESEA "Conference Committee"
Both the U.S. House and Senate have passed bills (H.R.5 and S.1177, respectively) to overhaul the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, also known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)*. Despite significant progress made this year, the process isn't done yet. Here are some frequently asked questions and answers provided by ASCD to help you understand what's happening and what's next.
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What is the next step in the legislative process for H.R.5 and S.1177?
Remember "Schoolhouse Rock"? The House and Senate must agree on one bill before it can be sent to the president for his signature. But because the House and Senate versions of the ESEA bills are different, they must be reconciled into one identical bill, and that bill must be passed by both chambers.
2. How do two different bills become one?
The House and Senate will create a conference committee of members of both chambers who will meet to iron out the differences. But we haven't had many conference committees in recent years, and it's been 14 years since an ESEA bill went to conference, so everyone involved needs to brush up on their congressional and parliamentary procedures.
3. What is a conference committee?
A conference committee is a joint committee of select representatives and senators that is created to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions of passed bills to produce one final bill. Both chambers need to vote on (and pass) the bill before it is sent to the president for his signature and becomes a law.
4. Who will be on the conference committee?
Conference committees are usually composed of the senior members of the committees of jurisdiction, in this case the House and Senate education committees. House and Senate leaders will appoint the conferees from their respective chambers. We expect the conference committee managers to be Chairman Alexander (R-TN), Sen. Murray (D- WA), Chairman Kline (R-MN), and Rep. Scott (D-VA).
The number of House and Senate conferees does not have to be equal, but, at least in the House, it does have to reflect the party proportions. Because the Senate education committee has fewer members than its House counterpart, it's possible that all Senate education committee members may be appointed as conferees, but only a portion of the House education committee members would join them. Interestingly, six likely members of the conference committee participated in the NCLB conference committee 14 years ago: Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Mike Enzi (R-WY), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Pat Roberts (R-KS), and Johnny Isakson (R-GA) (as a Representative in 2001).
5. When will the conference committee start meeting and will meetings be open to the public?
The conference committee could start just as soon as conferees are named, most likely in September. At least one of their meetings must be open to the public, per House rules. But much of the work will be done by staff prior to the official start of the conference and in between private meetings of its members. The most difficult differences will be voted on by conferees. In fact, staff of the House and Senate education committees have already started their work, including the creation of a line-by-line comparison of the two bills to enable them to identify the differences to be reconciled. During the conference on NCLB in 2001, staff met daily during the August recess to identify differences and try to come to an agreement.
6. How long will it take for the conference committee to complete this work?
Conference committee negotiations can go on for several months, and the ESEA one could conceivably go into next year. The conference committee that created NCLB took over five months, start to finish, to create that bill and merge over 2,750 divergences. Given the vastly different approaches to some issues under H.R.5 and S.1177, we can expect a similar time frame. Senator Alexander is optimistic that this conference process will be completed by the end of this year. It's also important to note that the compromises usually consist of one chamber acceding to the already existing provisions of the other chamber's bill. Or, conferees may write new legislative language that is not currently in either the House - or Senate - passed bills in order to find an acceptable compromise, as occasionally happened during the NCLB conference.
7. Do all the members of the conference committee have to agree to the final version?
No, but a majority of House conferees AND a majority of Senate conferees must agree in order to approve the final bill. They do so by signing the Conference Report; then the bill goes directly to the floor of both houses for a final vote. No changes or amendments are allowed to be made at this point. It is a straight up or down vote.
8. What if the conference committee can't agree?
It is possible that the House and Senate won't reach an agreement, but let's hope it doesn't come to that after so much progress has been made. If no agreement is reached, however, there are a couple of different scenarios that could result. The most likely would be the end of the reauthorization process for this Congress, pushing reauthorization to early 2017, with a new Congress and a new president.
* The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was signed into law in 1965 by President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who believed that "full educational opportunity" should be "our first national goal." He invited his elementary teacher, Mrs. Loney, to join him in the signing.
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Dordt College Uses These 30 Books for Their Leadership Program - Available to Their Students 24/7!
Dordt College offers a Master's Program in Education  al Leadership. Dr. Timothy Van Soelen, professor of several leadership courses at the college, is using the books offered through Iowa ASCD's membership for the students in the program. All 44 of his students are becoming members of Iowa ASCD , enabling them to stay current with best practices in learning, teaching and leading. Iowa ASCD wishes them the best as they pursue their degrees in educational leadership.
All Iowa ASCD members also have access to these books 24/7 in 2015 and 2016. If you have forgotten your password to these resources, please contact Lou Howell at LouHowell@mediacombb.net. 
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Personalized Learning: How Strong Is Your Core?
James Rickabaugh has been a featured speaker the past three years at the Iowa Summer Institute, helping all of us better understand competency-based learning and the role of personalized learning in our students' success. His "honeycomb" emphasizes the importance of "the core," which  includes learner profiles, customized learning paths, and proficiency-based progress. Learner Profiles: Do you have comprehensive, data-rich learner profiles that convey a deep understanding of the learner and are used to plan customized learning environment and instructional strategies? Are your students' learning profiles dynamic? real-time? learner-owned? learner managed? Customized Learning Path: Do each of your learners follow a unique path based on their individual readiness, strengths, needs, and interests? or are they all on the same prescribed learning path of yesterday? Proficiency-Based Progress: Is seat time and credits still determining your students' progress - or have you progressed to sharing their progress based on demonstrated proficiency in compelling, agreed-upon standards? Be sure to revisit the resources Rickabaugh has shared with all of us at the Summer Institute (2015). |
Competency-Based Learning - A Few More Resources
- A documentary titled "Most Likely to Succeed is premiering at the 2015 Sundance Festival. This trailer discusses grades, and this short video clip highlights students creating innovative projects and authentic assessments. Chris Sturgis provides commentary on this documentary in this blog post.
- This article provides an overview of the information management tool called Slate, which provides data-driven support to teachers, powering them with the information to
 provide immediate supports to students in real-time. - Explore the use of digital badges - it's working in Pittsburg. The opportunity comes courtesy of Pittsburgh City of Learning, which is working with major community partners to provide more than a hundred different, mostly free, summer programs to about 5,000 learners. And digital badges play a big part.
- This report, First Ask, Then Listen: How to Get Your Students to Help You Teach Them Better, is a teacher guide which supports educators who are trying to learn how to build student agency, voice and choice.
- A Reflection on the Field of Competency Education by former presenter at the Iowa ASCD Summer Institute highlights where we have come from, accomplishments, and emerging issues in competency-based learning.
- Brian Stack, a high school principal, shares how his building supports teachers in the transition to a competency-based learning environment.
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Webinars for Your Learning
Iowa ASCD seeks to keep you informed about webinars for your learning and the learning of those with whom you work. Check out the following; many of these support the work in your collaborative time and definitely help with implementation of The Core!
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Title: Designing Lessons that Foster Deep Understanding of Complex Text
- Presenter: Kathy Glass
- Provider: ASCD
- Date: Tuesday, September 29, at 2:00 P.M. CDT
- Register Here
- Title: Seven Strengths for Reading Success
- Presenters: Pam Allyn, Ernest Morrell, and Donalyn Miller
- Providers: ASCD and Scholastic
- Date: October 27 at 3:00 P.M. CT
- Register Here
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- Presenters: Donalyn Miller and Anne E. Cunningham
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Providers: ASCD and Scholastic
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Date: November 9 at 6:00 P.M. CT
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- Presenters: Donalyn Miller and Kwame Alexander:
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Providers: ASCD and Scholastic
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Date: November 30 at 6:00 P.M. CT
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Check It Out!
Check out the following:
- Check out this article featuring Karen Mapp working with educators at the DE's symposium - and the role of the family in education. You may also access several resources of Karen Mapp on the IowaParents.org web site.
- Be sure to consider nominating a potential Presidential Scholar. Applications are due by October 15. The director of each state education agency has the ability to nominate up to 10 students, five male and five female, for consideration in the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program, which honors superior high school seniors. If you have an outstanding high school senior, consider a recommendation to Iowa Department of Education Director Ryan Wise by Oct. 15.
- Remember to renew your membership for 2015 - 2016. Beginning January 1, 2015, all Iowa ASCD members have access to 30 on-line books 24/7 for the entire year and next year, too!
- Consider an institutional membership for your building, district, or AEA. The fee is $25 per person when you enroll at least 20 people at one time. Great benefits! Contact Lou Howell for more information.
- Are you a student in a graduate program? If so, you may get a membership for three years for $45. Contact Lou Howell for more information.
- Are you a student in a pre-service program? If so, you may get a one-year membership for $15. Contact Lou Howell for more information.
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Iowa ASCD Receives ASCD Influence Grant
Iowa ASCD recently was awarded a $2,500 ASCD Influence Grant to build the advocacy and influence skills of our members. The selection committee commended "Iowa ASCD for continually developing new and creative strategies for deepening the advocacy skills and engagement of its members. In particular, the affiliate's  plans to provide graduate students with 15 clinical hours focused on advocacy is an innovative idea that will help to position Iowa ASCD as a respected leader on education policy issues and could serve as a model for other ASCD affiliates to consider. It should be noted that both Drake University and Iowa State University have agreed to allow for the 15 clinical hours focused on advocacy in their graduate programs. We encourage other colleges and universities to contact us if they would like to endorse this as well. If you would like to get more involved in leading the advocacy work in Iowa ASCD, please contact the Advocacy Directors - Dr. Susan Pecinovsky and Dr. Elaine Smith-Bright. |
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Where Are You on the River? (The Bridge Metaphor)
In a small town one weekend, a group of school staff went fishing together down at the river. Not long after they got there, a child came floating down the rapids calling for help. One of the group on the shore quickly dived in and pulled the child out. Minutes later another, then another, and then many more children were coming down the river.
Soon every one was diving in and dragging children to the shore and then jumping back in to save as many as they could. In the midst of all this frenzy, one of the group was seen walking away. Her colleagues were irate. How could she leave when there were so many children to save? After longs hours and to everyone's relief, the flow of children stopped, and the group could finally catch their breath. At that moment, their colleague came back. They turned on her and  angrily shouted, "How could you walk off when we needed everyone here to save the children?" She replied, "It occurred to me that someone ought to go upstream and find out why so many kids were falling into the river. What I found is that the old wooden bridge had several planks missing, and when some children tried to jump over the gap, they couldn't make it and fell through into the river. So I got some local folks and we fixed the bridge."
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 Stay current with learning! Follow Iowa ASCD on Twitter! We would like to follow you on Twitter as well. If you are willing to share your "Twitter Handle" with us, please leave your information on this site. |
 Iowa ASCD is the source for developing instructional leadership and translating research into daily practice. Serving more than 1500 educators - teachers, principals, superintendents, directors of curriculum, technology specialists, college professors, AEA staff - Iowa ASCD strives to develop the collaborative capacity to impact the learning of each and every student in Iowa. |
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Participate in a webinar by the Iowa Department of Education on September 22 to 