A new way of approaching Accuplacer

If you're a high school senior, then you're likely aware of, or will soon be aware of, the Accuplacer test. The College Board administers the tests, usually given to seniors or incoming college freshman. The Accuplacer, in math, reading, or English, helps academic advisers and counselors place college freshmen in the appropriate courses.

Many students find out, after taking the Accuplacer exams, that they need (non-credit) remedial courses in college. It's to everyone's advantage if those students can instead take the classes in high school that help them to catch up, rather than in college. So more and more schools are now giving the Accuplacers in (high school) junior year, so that any remedial work can happen in 12th grade.

We've just entered the Accuplacer universe with a new set of six units of math instruction we're developing. The units will be administered in junior or senior year, and students can then do any necessary remedial work before they hit college.

Here's the cool part: these six units aren't a book. They aren't a PowerPoint. They're digital instruction that will be delivered via iTunes U, the Apple-developed curriculum program, downloadable right onto an iPhone or iPad. We're piloting them here in the state of Maine, and iTunes U will make them available free of charge to Maine teachers.

Using the digital technology, students will be be able to work through math problems and, depending on their answer, get directed on-screen to resources that help them tackle and resolve any particular issues.

We're developing this program in partnership with the Maine International Center for Digital Learning, through a grant funded by the Davis Family Foundation. As part of our development work, we recently conducted a focus group with Maine educators currently administering the Accuplacer (that photo was taken at our focus group session). Plans are to have a working pilot by this winter, make refinements to it in the spring, and have it available as instructional material for the 2011-2012 school year.

A day at Poland Spring (Academy)

For many years, Walch Education has been a fan and supporter of Poland Spring Academy (PSA). They're located in the town of Poland Spring, Maine, about 45 minutes or so northwest of Portland. Yes, that's the same town that gave rise to the "Poland Spring" brand of bottled water.

PSA is a small private school, focused on providing an individualized education to each member sof its student body. They offer many different programs to accommodate different lifestyles and educational requirements. They refer to it as "Individualized Learning At Its Best."

A couple of weeks ago, we accepted PSA's offer to visit the school and observe their graduation exercises. Upon arrival, we were greeted warmly by PSA parents, students, and staff, and we quickly felt at home. It was clear that this was a place where everybody was invested in the common purpose of supporting and nurturing students.

The graduation ceremony itself was highly inclusive, personalized, and student focused, and it reinforced our satisfaction at supporting this fine school through the years. In our business, we have the opportunity to see close at hand many hard working, dedicated educators and administrators. They work conscientiously all year long, often in very challenging circumstances. But year after year, in school after school, teachers do manage to inspire and educate their students, and prepare tomorrow's leaders. It's a delight for us to say that PSA’s staff ranks at the top of the list.

A Novice Teacher

What an eye opener it was. I was invited to a local middle school to teach seventh graders about Financial Literacy, Decision Making and Careers (courtesy of Junior Achievement). After 12 forty minute periods, I came away with even more respect for good teachers, a lot of appreciation for how sophisticated today’s teenagers are and an appreciation for the substance of many of the things educators say every day.

I prepared before each class, using the teacher’s guide I was given, sorting out and playing with the manipulatives and, at the beginning, writing my own personal “script”. I soon found out, however, that a script doesn't take you very far, esp. in a roomful of adolescents.

Some of the things I learned:

* There is no substitute for personal connection to and facility with the material. It allows you to respond to and interact with the ebb and flow of the classroom, bring the discussion back around to whatever your objective is and build on students’ curiosity even when it’s peripheral to the main topic

* Wow, do these kids need a hands-on, diverse, active, engaging approach! They are easily distracted and quite varied (intellectually, socially, knowledge-wise, etc). They are natural multi-taskers. Recently the head of Math for a large district in MD observed the following in an email to me: “The traditional class structure in which the teacher does most of the talking and the students just sit and listen and do practice problems for a whole class period (day in and day out) is not effective for a large number of students.” Boy, do I get it!

* Each class is a such a small part of a student’s day, and mind share, that it’s a real challenge to reach beyond the 4 walls and 40 minutes you share. I was humbled, and flattered, when I ran in to one of my students’ parents at a ball game. When I mentioned that her boy was in one of my classes she remarked that he had been talking about financial literacy around the dinner table and had been wondering where he was picking it up. What a great feeling. In a very small way, I can begin to appreciate what keeps so many of our great teachers coming back year after year.

My final observation is that this experience reinforced to me the wisdom of hiring teachers at Walch. At least half of our product development and partnership team has experience in the classroom- there's no substitute.

Reading the tea leaves on state standards

If you look at Texas, based on Friday's vote to approve a controversial new social studies curriculum, you'd conclude that states are reaffirming their right to make their own judgments and decisions, even when there is enormous pressure to do otherwise. But if you look at Massachusetts, you'd conclude that states (or at least this one) might be giving up some "local control."

That's one of the ways to interpret the news out of Massachusetts. The story there is that state education officials are looking seriously at a proposal to do away with standards in English and math (the "MCAS" exams) and replace them with standards developed across many states -- or perhaps even to-be-crafted national standards: http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/mcas/articles/2010/05/20/education_officials_may_scrap_mcas_test/

So is there a single way the wind is blowing, or are there multiple crosswinds? Perhaps the primary conclusion is that the standards issue is in flux and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Even in Texas, where the curriculum vote is binding for the next decade? Yes, even in Texas. If a new (i.e. Democrat) governor is elected in November, the curriculum issue could theoretically be brought up again before the state Board of Education.

And in Massachusetts, while some are already bemoaning what is seen as a possible retreat from rigorous state standards, it's clear that there are many potential outcomes, including multi-state standards, national standards, or some version of state standards cobbled together with them. Naturally, money is at the root of some of this: Massachusetts, like some other states, may have lost out on early Federal "Race to the Top" funding because of a perception that state officials didn't want to water down stringent local standards. Now, perhaps, that position is being rethought.

It's the educator in the classroom who faces the greatest challenge in the long run. She or he still has to teach those twenty-five-or-so students every day AND ensure that what is being taught meets the (sometimes rapidly changing) standards. It's just one of the reasons why our customized materials are striking such a chord with district decision-makers. Because we can develop and produce new content quickly, customized Walch programs can meet new standards and easily be re-fashioned if the standards alter.

On beyond books

It's easy to beat up on PowerPoint. We've all sat through more than our fair share of presentations featuring that ubiquitous Microsoft application, bullet after bullet, screen after screen. The New York Times even recently had an article about how PowerPoint has become an obessive time-devourer within the U.S. Army.

But one of the reasons PowerPoint is so universal is because sometimes it really does the trick. That was the case in a Maryland district that wanted to use a PowerPoint presentation to supplement their regular Algebra program. Working with the district, we developed 100 Lesson Starters for Algebra I, and it's now available in both a Maryland and a national version.

The "book" is a 100-slide PowerPoint program (it comes on a disc, easy to install, just insert it into a computer). Each slide has an image showing something students can identify with: a mall, a concert, a swim meet. And below each image is a basic Algebra problem that relates to that place or event. Teachers can use one or more of these screens every day to introduce Algebra in a more friendly format for students. [The speaker notes for each slide give suggestions for how to use the material, what student responses might be, and more.] Most students are familiar with PowerPoint -- they often use it themselves in class presentations. Makes sense to employ the same format to teach. We're not suggesting that PowerPoint can (or will) replace books or other educational media. But here's a case where it works well as a supplementary aid in the teacher's toolkit.

Turning the world upside down

Since 1927, Walch Education (known back then as J. Weston Walch) had published supplemental books, primarily for middle and high schools following a tried-and-true publishing process. Generate ideas internally for a number of book ideas, winnow them down (using any one of a number of filters), and then write and publish the books. And then hope/trust/pray that any market research done in advance was accurate, and that the books would appeal to teachers.

In the last few years, we've been quietly turning that world upside down. The costs and the risks are simply too high to continue tossing books towards schools and waiting for a response. Plus, educators have increasingly specific needs for the classroom, and increasingly demanding state and Federal standards to meet.

In states throughout America, we're now several years into a new system that starts with a novel premise: ask the educators what they need. We first talk to administrators and teachers in key districts and find out from them where there are holes to be plugged, skills that are not being taught or learned properly, standards -- and students -- that are slipping through the cracks. We then take those needs and build them into curricula that fit that particular state's standards and testing expectations. And we have them partner with us throughout the development process, reviewing and improving our materials.

The result: when we deliver a program to a given district, or school, or teacher, it has already been designed and vetted so that it successfully meets unique needs. Our operating mantra is "one size does not fit all." Students are unique, schools are unique, districts are unique, states are unique -- and they all deserve materials that teach uniquely. When we get feedback from teachers in the field, they tell us that our custom programs are unlike anything they've experienced before. For many of these teachers, it's the first time they've worked with materials that were designed with local input.

We think this is the direction all educational publishing is heading towards. And we're just excited to be one of the pioneers.

The Gift of Books in Portland, Maine

Portland (Maine) is our hometown -- Walch Education was founded back in 1927 by a Portland High teacher, J. Weston Walch. So whenever we can give back to this city that has nourished and supported us for so many years, it's an honor.

Recently, we contacted Portland's School Department (http://www.portlandschools.org/) to arrange donations of books from our warehouse. Given the state of school finances these days, we knew that our materials would be appreciated. The reality is, fewer and fewer teachers are able to make purchases on behalf of their classrooms.

Most recently, we haqve donated books to Peter McCormack at the West School, a school in Portland serving students with special needs. And we've donated books to Steve Nolan, principal of Lincoln Middle School. (The picture here shows McCormack, on the right, accepting books from John Spritz, Walch Education's Direcrtor of Marketing.) It's a great opportunity for us to connect to the schools around us and the extraordinary work they do day in and day out.