Ashford 4: - Week 3 – Assignment
Education 675: Change Leadership for Differentiated Education Envmnt.
Instructor: Bobby Lowe
4/29/2013
EDU675: Change Leadership for
Differentiation is classroom practice that looks eyeball to eyeball with the reality that kids differ, and the most effective teachers do whatever it takes to hook the whole range of kids on learning.‐Tomlinson (2001). Students can take different roads to the same destination.”
Accountability Depends on Appropriate Measurement States, districts, buildings, and classrooms are accountable for the learning growth for all students. The most meaningful measure is not the percentage of students demonstrating a minimal level of proficiency, but rather the number of students who demonstrate an agreed upon amount of growth, over a specified period of time, as a result of their educational placement. Gifted learners have been found to experience 18 - 21 months of academic growth in 12 months when provided appropriately differentiated curriculum and instruction.
Gifted Student Growth Cannot Be Measured on Many Assessments, Current measures are commonly criterion referenced to grade-level standards, resulting in an inability for gifted learners to demonstrate knowledge above grade level for the baseline or later measurements. Measures constructed using a vertical scale of continuous progress over multiple grade levels are needed to assess growth for individual students. Elementary gifted students were shown to know 40-50% of the grade-level curriculum on the first day of school. Computer adaptive accountability systems may be able to address a greater range of student performance. Above grade or off-level testing can be effective in demonstrating higher level performance or the appropriateness of above-grade placement for instruction. Achievement assessments that are standardized, norm referenced, and have high enough ceilings can give good information about what gifted students
References: Tomlinson, C. A., (2001). How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms. (2nd Ed.) Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Tomlinson, C. A., & Allan, S. D., (2000). Leadership for differentiating schools and classrooms. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Bloom, B. S. (1968). Learning for mastery. Evaluation Comment, 1(2), 1–12. Bloom, B. S. (1971a). Mastery learning. In J. H. Block (Ed.),Mastery learning: Theory and practice (pp. 47–63). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Bloom, B. S. (1971b). Individual differences in school achievement: A vanishing point? Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappan International. http://nagc.org/index.aspx?id=4450 http://www.gifted.uconn.edu/nrcgt/reports/rm93106/rm93106.pdf http://www.nagc.org/index.aspx?id=6296. http://www.nagc.org/administratortoolbox.aspx.