How remote school reviews can still deliver value and impact in times of remote learning

Posted by Class Measures on Mar 3, 2021 2:46:25 PM

In conversation with Jo Cheadle: How remote school reviews can still deliver value and impact in times of remote learning.

We speak with Jo Cheadle, Vice President of Class Measures, as she shares her views and experiences of remote school reviewing. Jo reveals the new skills reviewers need to adopt, the benefits that schools can realise, how to avoid the pitfalls, how to assess the quality of learning taking place via remote review, and the importance of maintaining authenticity in order to conduct reviews that deliver impact.

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Topics: School Improvement, School review

Leveraging Instructional Coaching to support individualized staff growth plans, and impact instructional outcomes

Posted by Class Measures on Jan 19, 2021 3:19:47 PM

How Clover Park School District addressed the needs of their schools and leaders to prioritize the development of teachers to meet the needs of every student.

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Topics: School Improvement, Coaching

Understanding students’ specific learning styles

Posted by Liz Boyce on Jan 13, 2021 1:49:14 PM

When reading about different learning styles, I came across this study in the book, Special Populations in Gifted Education: Understanding Our Most Able Students From Diverse Backgrounds, edited by J.A. Castellano, A.D.Frazier. This study was fascinating to me as an educator and made me question how I plan lessons to maximize classroom learning and engagement.

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Topics: Schools & Early Years, Blog, School Improvement

Embracing remote methods in school observation cycles

Posted by Liz Boyce on Nov 18, 2020 1:52:48 PM

Schools are adapting quickly to embrace new approaches to observation cycles that improve their effectiveness, whilst also aligning with their current remote or hybrid delivery.

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Topics: Blog, School Improvement, Class Measures Highlight, Observation Cycles, Effective Learning Observation

Keeping teachers connected and collaborating during distance learning

Posted by Matthew Piwowarczyk on Nov 12, 2020 12:49:50 PM

“Teaching involves human connection, and I feel like that’s been taken away from me,” shared one teacher with The New York Times in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, educators, students, and parents alike have resiliently forged ahead to ensure learning continues despite the distance. They’ve mastered video conferences, learning management systems, and digital applications designed to make learning more interactive, but one thing remains a struggle: human connection.

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Topics: Blog, School Improvement

Why is Effective Learning Observation revolutionizing how schools assess and improve the quality of learning?

Posted by Class Measures on Nov 9, 2020 12:44:33 PM

The most common observational methods used in schools tend to focus on teaching rather than learning and so often fall short of measuring the impact of the teachers’ hard work. This article discusses the discipline of Effective Learning Observation (ELO), which is expanding in popularity and usage across the US as school leaders seek better ways to measure the quality of learning in their schools, and to inform more impactful improvement strategies.

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Topics: Blog, School Improvement

Addressing the Social Emotional Needs of the School Community

Posted by Class Measures on Oct 21, 2020 5:57:19 PM

As current school leaders, we have to be mindful of how we will create school cultures that will support the social emotional needs of our teachers and students and their families. Now more than ever, there is a need for people to share and understand as we seek to make sense of our world today. There is a need to begin emotional and psychological healing but that can only happen when we create safe spaces to share our anxieties and fears.

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Topics: Blog, School Improvement

Differentiating literacy across the content areas

Posted by Class Measures on Sep 17, 2020 3:35:32 PM

The varied ability across classrooms in the United States is, oftentimes, a daunting challenge for today’s teachers. Considering the limited time and resources available in which to meet all those needs, leaves the educator asking the question, how do I divide my time, resources and myself in order to effectively meet the needs of all my learners? This article will examine how teachers can leverage high impact, research based instructional literacy principles and strategies in order to achieve academic growth across all content areas.

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Topics: Blog, School Improvement

Differentiation for English Language Learners

Posted by Class Measures on Sep 10, 2020 6:05:37 PM

In today’s reality of standards-based instruction, it has become increasingly challenging to ensure that all students receive high quality and equitable access to a culturally relevant education. For English language learners (ELLs), the challenge is even greater. ELLs are faced with the task of acquiring content knowledge while learning a second language. As the number of ELLs throughout the United States continues to increase, it is critical that teachers, both mainstream and ELL specific, consider how best to enhance ELLs language proficiency in order to increase understanding of academic content. This article seeks to equip teachers with different ways to support and engage English language learners in the mainstream classroom.

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Topics: Blog, School Improvement

Differentiation acceleration - Identifying and adapting instruction to address learning loss

Posted by Class Measures on Sep 4, 2020 12:40:09 PM

As school begin to address the challenge of reopening schools, a greater concern of how to address learning loss created during remote instruction has taken center stage. Now, more than ever, administrators, teachers and families continue to question how best to meet the learning needs of their students, especially after losing more than a quarter of the 2019-2020 academic year to the current pandemic. One recent study, conducted by NWEA, predicts that students will experience a learning loss of 30% in reading and as much as 50% in math as a result of the pandemic. Left untamed, these types of academic setbacks could have significant negative implications for students who were previously preforming on grade level and even more disastrous for students who were already behind. This article hopes to discuss the how differentiation practices can be leveraged to address lost learning during pandemic remote instruction, while also highlighting procedural steps to effectively accelerate learning.

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Topics: Blog, School Improvement