Homework as Gap-Widener

          In this article in Educational Researcher, Jessica McCrory Calarco (Indiana University/Bloomington) and Ilana Horn and Grace Chen (Vanderbilt University) say that in many schools, homework is a “status-reinforcing practice,” one of several that “stratify students’ opportunities for learning and bolster the ‘meritocratic’ narrative that higher-status groups succeed in school because of individual competence, effort, and responsibility.” And indeed, lower-SES students report spending less time on homework, more often hand it in late or incomplete, and receive more-frequent and harsher penalties, contributing to a widening achievement gap vis-à-vis more-advantaged students. 

          In their longitudinal ethnographic study, Calarco, Horn, and Chen were surprised to find that in elementary and middle schools, where teachers are more aware of students’ home situations, teachers don’t attribute homework difficulties to outside-of-school factors and structural inequalities. Rather, teachers tend to blame students who struggle with homework (and, in elementary schools, their parents). The researchers found that many teachers see homework through a lens of individual agency and a “myth of meritocracy – the idea that people who are responsible, motivated, and hard-working will be successful, regardless of the challenges they face.” 

          This belief system gives teachers justification for three practices that clearly widen pre-existing SES gaps: 

• Assigning homework that students are not able to complete independently; 
• Punishing students who don’t complete homework (many classes begin with students being      asked to get out their homework so it can be checked by the teacher); 
• Rewarding students who regularly meet homework expectations with praise, bonus points, and    “homework passes” that allow them to miss assignments without penalty. 

Step one to addressing this situation, say Calarco, Horn, and Chen, is for teachers to question the myth of meritocracy and recognize the structural inequalities affecting many students’ ability to successfully complete homework. Steps two, three, and four are assigning manageable homework; not treating homework as a proxy for individual responsibility, competence, and effort; and lowering the stakes for homework completion. 

          Some educators have gone further, making homework optional or ungraded. But “because homework is such a deeply entrenched part of the grammar of schooling,” say the authors, “and because homework can also serve other purposes – signaling school rigor or helping parents feel connected to the school – some families and educators may resist its elimination.” Schools that stop giving homework need to find other ways to fulfill these legitimate needs. 

          Even the radical step of eliminating homework doesn’t address the unequal advantages of students whose families have more time and resources to support their children’s learning. “The need for structural solutions to structural inequalities, however, should not discourage educators from taking steps in the short term to reduce the harm caused by status-reinforcing practices,” conclude the authors. “Schools and teachers alone may be unable to fix social inequalities, but they can avoid making them worse.” 

 “‘You Need to Be More Responsible’: The Myth of Meritocracy and Teachers’ Accounts of Homework Inequalities” by Jessica McCrory Calarco, Ilana Horn, and Grace Chen in Educational Researcher, November 2022 (Vol. 51, #8, pp. 515523); Calarco can be reached at jcalarco@indiana.edu, Horn at ilana.horn@vanderbilt.edu.

Please Note: This summary is reprinted with permission from issue #965 of The Marshall Memo, an excellent resource for educators.

Can Project-Based Learning Work in AP Courses?

        In this article in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Anna Rosefsky Saavedra (University of Southern California) and seven colleagues report on their study comparing students’ performance on two Advanced Placement exams (U.S. Government and Environmental Science) following traditional and project-based instruction. For teachers trying to implement an innovative project-based learning classroom, say the authors, “the AP context is particularly challenging because of the sheer amount of content covered in the course-specific AP curriculum frameworks and the looming end-of-year, high-stakes examination.” 

        The researchers looked at the exam results of students in five predominantly urban, low-income school districts around the U.S. What did they find? Students who learned through project-based learning did significantly better on AP exams than those with lecture-based instruction. This was true for students from both low- and high-income families. The researchers found that teachers using project-based learning focused their learning objectives on more-sophisticated thinking and communication skills, did less AP test prep and quick-turnaround assignments, and spent more time on student-centered activities like simulations and debates. 

        The authors have several caveats. First, shifting from traditional to project-based pedagogy is a “substantial change for teachers,” requiring high-quality, ongoing, job-embedded PD and coaching support. Second, the teachers using project-based learning in this study chose to participate, indicating that they were “early adopters” who were more motivated than those in the control group to try something new and/or were drawn to, or already knowledgeable about, project-based learning. Third, the schools in the study were philosophically aligned with project-based learning, offered many AP courses, and required open access enrollment in AP courses. Classrooms and schools without these favorable conditions might not get the positive results found in this study.

        Still, say the authors, “The traditional ‘transmission’ model of instruction, in which teachers transmit knowledge to students through lectures and assigned readings, may be suboptimal for supporting students’ ability to think and communicate in sophisticated ways, demonstrate creativity and innovation, and transfer their skills, knowledge, and attitudes to new contexts.” 

 “The Impact of Project-Based Learning on AP Exam Performance” by Anna Rosefsky Saavedra, Kari Lock Morgan, Ying Liu, Marshall Garland, Amie Rapaport, Alyssa Hu, Danial Hoepfner, and Shira Korn Haderlein in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, December 2022 (Vol. 44, # 4, pp. 638-666); Saavedra can be reached at asaavedr@usc.edu.

Please Note: This summary is reprinted with permission from issue #964 of The Marshall Memo, an excellent resource for educators.

Using Fermi Questions to Foster Community

        In this article in Mathematics Teacher: Learning & Teaching PK-12, Kathryn Lavin Brave and Jillian Miller (Baltimore County Public Schools) describe using Fermi questions to get students thinking about key mathematics standards while bolstering their social and emotional skills. Fermi questions were named after the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Enrico Fermi, who was known for his theoretical and practical contributions and for making reasonable estimates from limited data.

        Fermi questions are designed to get students working on a challenging problem “by making reasonable assumptions about the situation, not necessarily relying on definite knowledge for an exact answer” (Taggart et al, 2007). These questions are especially helpful, say Brave and Miller, as schools emerge from the pandemic, providing an opportunity to combine math problem-solving with building SEL skills, especially collaboration. Some examples:

        - How many times can you say the ABCs in 24 hours?

        - How many hairs are on your head? 

        - How many sticky notes would cover the chalkboard? 

        - How many pizza boxes would it take to cover our classroom floor? 

        - How much water is wasted by a leaky faucet in one day? 

        - How many cars drive by our school building in a day? 

        - How many plastic containers does the cafeteria throw away each week? 

Brave and Miller suggest this step-by-step plan for using a Fermi question in an upper-elementary classroom:

        - The teacher gives background information on Fermi and the role of estimation in solving problems.

        - Students are presented with a Fermi question that’s appropriate to their grade level and a mathematical skill or concept they’re learning.

        - Students are encouraged to make “wild estimates” on what the answer might be.

        - The teacher introduces the idea of “outliers” and the class discusses answers that seem too high or too low to be plausible.

        - Students discuss which estimates might be closer to the exact answer and why.

        - The class discusses a plan for finding the answer, dividing the Fermi question into a series of questions than might be used to get relevant data.

        - Students get into groups to find the answer; the teacher fields initial questions like, Can we use a ruler? Can we use a calculator?

        - The teacher circulates, guiding students with mathematical questions and prompts and highlighting interesting strategies and insights for the whole class.

        - The teacher points out SEL insights on self-regulation, sharing, self-awareness, patience, and persistence.

        - The teacher reminds students to evaluate their work and make mid-course corrections.

        - Finally, groups present their answers to the whole class for critique and discussion and share what they learned about social and emotional skills. 

 “Using Fermi Questions to Foster Community” by Kathryn Lavin Brave and Jillian Miller in Mathematics Teacher: Learning & Teaching PK-12, November 2022 (Vol. 115, #11, pp. 801-807)

Please Note: This summary is reprinted with permission from issue #964 of The Marshall Memo, an excellent resource for educators.

How One Elementary School Dramatically Improved Math Achievement

        In this American Educational Research Journal article, Elham Kazemi (University of Washington), Alison Fox Resnick (University of Colorado), and Lynsey Gibbons (University of Delaware) describe how the principal of a racially diverse, low-SES elementary school shifted math instruction from teacher-centered and procedure-focused to student-centered and emphasizing discussion, problem-solving, reasoning, and sense-making. Over three years, the school rose from “failing” status to being named as a School of Distinction by the state, with fourth and fifth graders outscoring the district and state (passing rates for fifth graders went from 20 to 79 percent) and no achievement differences among the school’s racial and socioeconomic student groups. 

        Kazemi, Resnick, and Gibbons studied this turnaround with a particular focus on how the principal worked with teachers and teacher teams. Their observations:

        • Teachers as learners – The principal was clear about her vision for an improved mathematics curriculum and classroom practices that needed to change, say the authors, but she also believed teachers “needed to be trusted and engaged as competent sensemakers in messy and experimental learning.” To encourage risk-taking, one of the principal’s mantras was, “You can’t look good and get better at the same time.” She knew it would take time for the pedagogical changes that needed to be made, with plenty of mistakes along the way.

        • Modeling risk-taking – As the principal worked shoulder to shoulder with teachers in grade-level meetings, math labs, and PD sessions, she shared their struggles implementing new materials and pedagogical practices, built collegiality and trust – and continued to communicate clear and high expectations. “I’m constantly shifting back and forth between pressure and support,” she said. “As I’m listening, I’m thinking all these things at once.” Because the principal sat in on so many teacher meetings, she was a keener observer of math teaching and learning when she visited classrooms.

        • Equity – One of the school’s goals was to close racial and economic achievement gaps, but the principal “resisted pervasive equity discourse,” say the authors – also the idea that black and brown students needed to “catch up” with their white and Asian peers. Instead, the principal “focused closely on students’ experiences and participation in classrooms” – and on all students’ opportunities after they graduated from the school. Bringing effective, rigorous instruction to every classroom was central to the principal’s equity philosophy. “It’s not fair,” she said, “that a child could have two different experiences because of the flip of a coin, you got this teacher and not that teacher.”

        • Student agency – “Our goal,” said the principal, “is to change kids’ outcomes in life by having them be thinkers, by having them be leaders of their own learning.” In classrooms, she watched for who was doing the intellectual heavy lifting – the teacher or the students. When a teacher said, “I wish you were in here five minutes ago when I was teaching,” the principal said that “teaching” was everything teachers were orchestrating that got kids talking to each other about their work and understanding math content and skills.

        • Teacher collaboration – The principal saw weekly 45-minute grade-level teams (during teachers’ common planning time) as the “unit of change,” the key “leverage point” for improving individual teachers’ effectiveness. The school’s math coach facilitated these meetings, guiding teachers as they talked about what had been most successful in their classrooms. The principal and coach watched for how well teachers were working together, and the principal reassigned teachers to different grade levels when team dynamics were not productive. Maximizing the potential of teams was also a key consideration when the school filled teaching vacancies.

        • Lesson study – Four to six times a year, each grade-level team, joined by special education and ELL teachers, participated in a full- or half-day “math lab” in which (facilitated by the math coach) they (a) unpacked new ideas about content, instruction, and student thinking; (b) collaboratively planned a short lesson; (c) taught the lesson in their classrooms; and (d) discussed their insights. The principal made a point of attending all teams’ math labs in the course of each year (24 in all), and saw these cycles as key to improving instructional planning and disrupting some teachers’ deficit ideas about what students were capable of doing mathematically.

        • Individual coaching – Every week, the principal and the math coach visited classrooms to gauge how teachers and students were making sense of the curriculum and provide feedback and support. The principal sat with students on the rug or checked in with them as they worked at their desks, asking about what they were learning and which problems they found easy and difficult. The principal and the coach followed up with teachers during and after visits, praising effective practices and problem-solving when students were struggling.

        • Teacher evaluation – The district’s system for evaluating teachers was incompatible with the principal’s desire to have conversations about teaching and learning throughout the year, setting goals and giving feedback from September through June. The principal also disagreed with the district’s practice of making each classroom visit evaluative. “I need to be spending my time with teachers learning and planning and reflecting and adjusting,” she said. She complied with the district’s requirements, but her main focus was on being in classrooms and team meetings every week, noticing how teachers were interpreting and implementing lesson plans, communicating with teacher teams about their insights and ideas, and fine-tuning teaching throughout the year.

        • Instructional leadership team – The ILT, consisting of the principal, assistant principal, and the math and literacy coaches, focused on how well teachers were implementing new practices, how successfully students were learning, and teacher interactions in grade-level teams. The leadership team made decisions about supporting individual teachers and teams and brainstormed ideas for the next round of math labs.

        • All-staff communication – The principal used e-mails, staff meetings, and schoolwide professional development sessions to deprivatize practice, spread effective ideas, and communicate a sense that “we are all learning this together.”

        • Storytelling – The principal encouraged teachers to tell her when lessons went especially well and send students to her (or the math coach) when they made a learning breakthrough. The principal often began staff meetings by sharing one or two of these stories, and frequently used metaphors to make important points: they were all in the same boat and needed to be rowing in the same direction; building a new mathematics system was fragile and vulnerable, like a house of cards; when sharing learning data that showed student progress, she stressed that students were on the road but had not yet arrived.

        • Buffering outside agendas – Once the school’s instructional vision was clear, the principal pushed back on district initiatives that would distract teachers from the path they were on. “Part of what I do,” she said, “which is my least favorite part of my job, is I say no all the time. ‘No, I’m sorry our teacher can’t go to that. No, I’m sorry, we can’t help you do that. No, I’m sorry, we can’t have another visit. No, we do not want that curriculum you bought because you think every elementary school needs it. No, I can’t even store it in my building because… that sends a message.’” 

 “Principal Leadership for Schoolwide Transformation of Elementary Mathematics Teaching: Why the Principal’s Conception of Teacher Learning Matters” by Elham Kazemi, Alison Fox Resnick, and Lynsey Gibbons in American Educational Research Journal, December 2022 (Vol. 59, #6, pp. 1051-1089); the authors can be reached at ekazemi@uw.edu, alison.resnick@colorado.edu and lgibbons@udel.edu.

Please Note: This summary is reprinted with permission from issue #964 of The Marshall Memo, an excellent resource for educators.

Amanda Gorman - An Ode We Owe

How can I ask you to do good

When we’ve barely withstood

Our greatest threats yet:

The depths of death, despair and disparity,

Atrocities across cities, towns & countries,

Lives lost, climactic costs.

Exhausted, angered, we are endangered,

Not because of our numbers,

But because of our numbness.

We’re strangers

To one another’s perils and pain,

Unaware that the welfare of the public

And the planet share a name–

–Equality

Doesn’t mean being the exact same,

But enacting a vast aim:

The good of the world to its highest capability.

The wise believe that our people without power

Leaves our planet without possibility.

Therefore, though poverty is a poor existence,

Complicity is a poorer excuse.

We must go the distance,

Though this battle is hard and huge,

Though this fight we did not choose,

For preserving the earth isn’t a battle too large

To win, but a blessing too large to lose.

This is the most pressing truth:

That Our people have only one planet to call home

And our planet has only one people to call its own.

We can either divide and be conquered by the few,

Or we can decide to conquer the future,

And say that today a new dawn we wrote,

Say that as long as we have humanity,

We will forever have hope.

Together, we won’t just be the generation

That tries but the generation that triumphs;

Let us see a legacy

Where tomorrow is not driven

By the human condition,

But by our human conviction.

And while hope alone can’t save us now,

With it we can brave the now,

Because our hardest change hinges

On our darkest challenges.

Thus may our crisis be our cry, our crossroad,

The oldest ode we owe each other.

We chime it, for the climate,

For our communities.

We shall respect and protect

Every part of this planet,

Hand it to every heart on this earth,

Until no one’s worth is rendered

By the race, gender, class, or identity

They were born. This morn let it be sworn

That we are one one human kin,

Grounded not just by the griefs

We bear, but by the good we begin.

To anyone out there:

I only ask that you care before it’s too late,

That you live aware and awake,

That you lead with love in hours of hate.

I challenge you to heed this call,

I dare you to shape our fate.

Above all, I dare you to do good

So that the world might be great.”

Amanda Gorman's Poem:“An Ode We Owe,” recited to the U.N. General Assembly Sept 19, 2022

Recommended Children's Books with Neurodiverse Characters

In this School Library Journal article, Allison Staley recommends 12 books featuring characters with dyslexia, autism, ADHD, dysgraphia, and anxiety: 

• The U-nique Lou Fox by Jodi Carmichael, grade 3-7
• A Perfect Mistake by Melanie Conklin, grade 3-7 
• When the Sky Falls by Phil Earle, grade 3-7 
• Flipping Forward Twisting Backward by Alma Fullerton, grade 3-7 
• It’s So Difficult by Raúl Guridi, grade 1-4 
• How to Find What You’re Not Looking For by Veera Hiranandani, grade 3-7 
• Honestly Elliott by Gillian McDunn, grade 4-7 
• A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll, grade 4-7 
• Brilliant Bea by Shaina Rudolph, preschool-grade 3 
• Ellen Outside the Lines by A.J. Sass, grade 4-7 
• A Walk in the Words by Hudson Talbott, grade 1-3 
• The View from the Very Best House in Town by Meera Trehan, grade 4-7

 “Great Minds Don’t Think Alike” by Allison Staley in School Library Journal, September 2022 (Vol. 68, #9, pp. 46-48)

Please Note: This summary is reprinted with permission from issue #952 of The Marshall Memo, an excellent resource for educators.

Respectfully Pushing Back on Parents' Attempts to Censor Literature

            In this article in English Journal, Sean Connors (University of Arkansas) and Roberta Seelinger Trites (Illinois State University) note recent challenges to controversial books, among them New Kid by Jerry Craft, Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, All Boys Aren’t Blue by George Johnson, Drama by Raina Telgemeier, and Maus by Art Spiegelman. Connors and Trites believe that most parents who object to these and other books are genuinely concerned for their children, and educators need to understand their concerns while also helping them understand why teachers want to use the books in their classrooms. Here are their suggested talking points: 

• The desire to shield young people from certain kinds of knowledge and content is based on an unrealistic understanding of innocence. Many adults believe that children are born pure, gradually gain knowledge, and eventually lose their innocence, say Connors and Trites, and parents see their job as preserving and protecting youthful innocence as long as possible. “But anyone who has taught school-aged children,” they say, “knows that children are typically so inquisitive that they are rarely innocent of knowledge about, for example, sex and sexuality.” Whether they live in cities, suburbs, or rural areas, children find out about that subject, and others, around the age of seven. Most parents will acknowledge that fact. 

• Paradoxically, many parents assume their children have a Rousseauian innocence while admitting that they, as children, did not. Upon reflection, adults remember when they first learned about topics like the Holocaust and economic injustice and heard homophobic slurs. “How many children are truly innocent by the time they leave middle school?” ask Connors and Trites. “And how many more have developed empathy and understanding because they witnessed (or read about) an injustice that stirred their social conscience?” 

• In every classroom, students are at different stages of maturation. When Connors taught eleventh-grade English, a parent said her child wasn’t old enough to read The Bluest Eye with the class. They arranged for an alternative book and writing assignment without denying the rest of the class the powerful experience of reading Toni Morrison’s novel.

• Arguments for protecting young people are often made with only one type of student in mind. Are those objecting to a particular book “thinking of African-American teenagers who have no choice but to attend underfunded and under-resourced schools?” ask Connors and Trites. “Or immigrant children whose parents live under the threat of deportation? Are they imagining children who have experienced physical or sexual abuse, or who are exposed to some form of addiction at home, or whose families struggle in poverty?” 

• Reading literature develops young people’s capacity for empathy and understanding. Research shows that people who read fiction on a regular basis are better able to understand and empathize with fellow humans and see the world from their perspective – abilities most parents want their children to possess. 

• Removing books that might make white, heterosexual students feel uncomfortable ignores the fact that LGBTQ parents and parents of color also have school-aged children. They too want their children to learn about their own histories and experiences. All students need books that provide “windows” and “mirrors” on their own experience and culture. “By engaging in this kind of perspective-taking,” say Connors and Trites, “students are better able to comprehend how other people understand and experience those historical events and social topics. Equally important, they are better prepared to make informed, conscious decisions as to whether they wish to reproduce discriminatory policies and practices that have been, or are, injurious to other people.”

“What Happens to Knowledge Deferred? Defending Books from Conservative White Censors” by Sean Connors and Roberta Seelinger Trites in English Journal, May 2022 (Vol. 111, #5, pp. 64-70); the authors can be reached at sconnors@uark.edu and seeling@ilstu.edu.

Please Note: This summary is reprinted with permission from issue #940 of The Marshall Memo, an excellent resource for educators.