Thrust for Educational Leadership articles

Recent articles from Thrust for Educational Leadership

12 tips for breaking the student achievement barrier.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Are your students' measured achievement scores predicted by socio-economic status? We must break this barrier and negate gender and race as predictors of achievement. Here are some tried-and-true strategies for breaking that barrier and...

Tools for educating all students well.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... Dear Colleague: "Awash in a Sea of Standards." "Too Much Testing of the Wrong Kind; Too Little of the Right Kind." The titles of some recent reports on standards and assessment in U.S. schools say much about the flaws in the...

Are standards worth it?
May 1, 2000... It seems that in our profession, every year is the year of something. "This is the year of the critical thinker!" "This is the year of the self esteemer!" "This is the year of the site-based manager!" "This is the year of the...

6 steps to surviving standards.
May 1, 2000... A few basics every administrator should know and do To make it in our standards-based education system Do your palms get clammy and does your stomach churn just a bit when you hear the terms standards, assessment and accountability? Go no...

A streamlined future for assessment.(computerized testing in schools)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... COMPUTER-BASED TESTING WILL SOON OFFER MORE THAN MULTIPLE-CHOICE. Testing and assessment are prime candidates for technological innovation, as the pencil-and-paper, blue book and fill-in-the-blank models of testing are nearing the end of...

MAKING THE MOST OF THE High School Exit Exam.
May 1, 2000... Co-chairs of the HSEE panel outline details of the test, and suggest actions you should take now if your students are going to be successful. In California, system accountability has been defined more precisely with passage of SB 1X and...

Applying standards to teacher conduct.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... OUR EFFORTS TO ADDRESS STATE AND DISTRICT CONTENT STANDARDS ARE UNDERMINED IF WE CAN'T MENTOR TEACHERS TO ACCEPT A PROFESSIONAL STANDARD OF CONDUCT. In this issue, you can read all about content standards and their relevance to the work...

building bridges across our education system.
May 1, 2000... Aligning what students learn in high school with what they need to know for college will ensure smoother transitions. When I first arrived at the California State University system, I was amazed at how many of our incoming freshmen were...

curriculum calibration.
May 1, 2000... Dec. 31, 1999, 8 p.m., 240 minutes until Y2K. It is the last day of the month/year/century/millennium. In a dangerously tilting Tower of Pisa on our mahogany conference table stands a stack of 486 manila folders. Each is identified with a...

Looking for the lesson in the test.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2000... GOOD ASSESSMENT IS THE KEY TO GOOD INSTRUCTION. BUT DESPITE WHAT PUNDITS, POLICYMAKERS OR PARENTS MAY SAY, ASSESSMENT IS A TOOL, NOT THE GOAL. In the Middle of the Road In the middle of the road there was a stone there was a...

Finishing the Race.
May 1, 2000... Those who have been running the standards race must persevere and complete the journey toward excellence and equity for our students. Every marathon runner knows the feeling. At the starting gate, the crowds are cheering and you feel...

A ROADMAP FOR DELIVERING INSTRUCTION.
May 1, 2000... The standards push will become a public nightmare for students and educators if instructional practices don't change. Public educators face a huge challenge in the next few years. To comply with state content standards, we will need to...

from assessment to action: a cycle for success.
May 1, 2000... The Campbell USD's process for measuring progress and analyzing data helps ensure that every decision focuses on one goal -- student success. At the back-to-school meetings last fall, Campbell Union School District teachers and...