Eric Kalenze, Author & Education Consultant Twitter - @erickalenze Email - [email protected] A Total Ed Case blog - erickalenze.wordpress.com The Swimming.

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Eric Kalenze, Author & Education ConsultantTwitter - @erickalenzeEmail - [email protected] Total Ed Case blog - erickalenze.wordpress.com

The Swimming Pool & the MarathonPrioritizing Cognitive & Character Development

Cognitive-Noncognitive Divide

Chapter Six, Education Is Upside-Down

Foundation: Queries, Observations

To teach or not to teach character?

HOW to teach character?CAN it be taught?WHICH character to teach?

Adult Diploma Program vs GED (General Educational Development) experience

Successful kids: What are they doing? What qualities do they possess?

Applied conclusions to classroom practice & messages where possible How (Schools Should Help) Children Succeed

Cognitive Hypothesis

US lagging in international educational comparisons, needs more college & career-ready students

Schools exist to build academic competency

Competencies not ambiguous, can be described by standards & measured by tests

Tests & standards adjusted; drive professional standing, schools structures & operations

Cognitive HypothesisVALID

The Condition of College & Career Readiness 2014, ACTThe Condition of Education. NCES, updated May 2015

Cognitive Hypothesis: Products, Actions

No Child Left Behind (NCLB): Testing, Review, Consequences

Common Core Standards

Revised Requirements in Teacher Evaluation (including, in places, Value-Added Modeling)

Restructured Course Sequencing

and so on.

The Noncognitive Hypothesis Pushes Back

Tough, a journalist, looks at what predicts kids success and, with well-supported case, counters prevailing cognitive hypothesis:

what matters most in a childs developmentis not how much information we can stuff into her brain. What matters, instead, is whether we are able to help her develop a very different set of qualities[we] sometimes think of them as character.

Noncognitive Hypothesis

Noncognitive HypothesisALSO VALID

Economist James Heckmans studies of GED earners: faring worse in post-educational institutions than HS grads

Psychologist Angela Duckworths work with grit, impulse control (via Walter Mischel, of marshmallow study fame): characteristics correlations with academic success

Apparent malleability of executive functions suggests that prioritizing their development may have cognitive payoffs (Evans & Schamberg, 2009, on working memory)

Soft skills openly desired by post-K-12 institutions (Harvards Savitz-Romer & Bouffard); colleges argue resilience can power struggling students through initial difficultiesesp among most recent students

Noncognitive Hypothesis: Products, Actions

Social-Emotional Learning prioritizeda required evaluation/review item in some states school review processes (from NYs SEDL requirements)

Explicit study of character/noncognitive skills growing

Students character/noncognitive capabilities monitored and graded (from KIPP charter)

Cognitive-Noncognitive DivideWhy Problematic

UncertaintyCan noncognitive/character traits be successfully taught?Ms Duckworth doesnt believe soat least not to extent that teachers/schools should be held accountablesee Educational Researcher essay (with David Yeager), May 2015

Opportunity Cost

Obscures Schoolings Mission, Potential, & Limitsits [Finnish, South Korean, & Polish students] perseverance, not their classroom algebra, that fits them for demanding jobs. Andrew Hacker

Cognitive-Noncognitive DivideWhy ProblematicA Quick Lesson in Over-Correction

How (Schools Should Help) Children Succeed

NOT AN EITHER-OR.Kids must grow academically and noncognitively.

arguments polarise [with points A and Z] because the most interesting thinking often happens at the extremes.

rather than reaching after certainties, maybe we could embrace the apparent chaosand seek to do both A and Z wholeheartedly and in full knowledge of the essential contradictions at work.

-David Didau, in What If Everything You Knew About Education Was Wrong?

How (Schools Should Help) Children Succeed

NOT AN EITHER-OR.Kids must grow academically and noncognitively.

Far From a New Idea: Classical education, W.T. Harriss windows of the soul. (Its aim is the man, not the specialist Robert Schwickerath, SJ, on Jesuit educational tradition in Catholic Encyclopedia, 1903)

Ideally, view as intertwinedleverage academic experiences to build noncognitive strength.

How (Schools Should Help) Children Succeed

Tacit Abilities, Math Beyond Algebra II (longitudinally suggested gatekeeper):

Able to understand, recall, employ, and appreciate value of fundamental procedures in solving problemsAble to see even most time- and frustration-intensive problems through to completionWilling to do what it takes to reach solutions and meet expectationsWilling to put aside matters of personal relevance/interest level to complete tasks

How (Schools Should Help) Children Succeed

How (Schools Should Help) Children Succeed

Quick Practical Recommendations:FOR STUDENTS

Adjust management & delivery policies, never compromise academic rigor/expectationsTHINK: Do policies mirror post-ed expectation?

Invest in getting kids to understand & care about present activities application to futures

AS LEADER

Reject, find alternatives to skills frame & terminology. Institutional virtues (?)

Avoid over-correcting spins: interrogate all evidence and, per Didau, embrace the apparent chaosin full knowledge of essential contradictionsQuestions, Discussion

Eric Kalenze

Education Is Upside-Down@[email protected]

Presentation References

Adams, Caralee J. "'Soft Skills' Pushed as Part of College Readiness."Education Week. N.p., 13 Nov. 2012. Web. 30 Aug. 2015. .Adelman, Clifford. Answers in the Tool Box: Academic Intensity, Attendance Patterns, and Bachelors Degree Attainment. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, 1999.Adelman, Clifford. The Toolbox Revisited: Paths to Degree Completion from High School through College. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, 2006.Blad, Evie. "Researchers: Measures of Traits Like 'Grit' Should Not Be Used for Accountability."Education Week. N.p., 13 May 2015. Web. 30 Aug. 2015. .Didau, David.What If Everything You Knew about Education Was Wrong?Bacyfelin, Carmarthen, Wales: Crown House, 2015. 102-04. Print.Duckworth, Angela L., and David Scott Yeager. "Measurement Matters: Assessing Personal Qualities Other Than Cognitive Ability for Educational Purposes."Educational Researcher44 (2015): 237-51.Educational Researcher. Sage Journals, May 2015. Web. 30 Aug. 2015. .Duckworth, Angela Lee and Seligman, Martin E.P. Self-Discipline Outdoes IQ in Predicting Academic Performance of Adolescents, Psychological Science 16, no. 12 (2005).Evans, Gary W., Pilyoung Kim, Albert H. Ting, Harris B. Tesher, and Dana Shannis. "Cumulative Risk, Maternal Responsiveness, and Allostatic Load among Young Adolescents."Developmental Psychology43.2 (2007): 341-51. Web.Hacker, Andrew. "Is Algebra Necessary?"The New York Times. The New York Times, 28 July 2012. Web. 30 Aug. 2015. .Heckman, James and Rubinstein, Yona. The Importance of Noncognitive Skills: Lessons from the GED Testing Program. American Economic Review 91, no. 2 (May 2001).Hefling, Kimberly. "Asian Nations Dominate International Test."Yahoo News. Yahoo, 3 Dec. 2013. Web. 30 Aug. 2015. ."How College and Career Ready Are the 2014 ACT-tested High School Graduates?"The Condition of College & Career Readiness 2014. ACT, Inc., 2014. Web. 30 Aug. 2015. .Huang, Mike. "Student Driver on (ice) Skid Pad Exercise."YouTube. YouTube, 24 Feb. 2013. Web. 30 Aug. 2015. .Kena, Grace, Lauren Musu-Gillette, Jennifer Robinson, Xiaolei Wang, Amy Rathbun, Jijun Zhang, Sidney Wilkinson-Flicker, Amy Barmer, and Erin Dunlop Velez. "The Condition of Education 2015."National Center for Education Statistics. Institute of Education Sciences, 28 May 2015. Web. 30 Aug. 2015. ."The Key to Success? Grit."Angela Lee Duckworth: The Key to Success? Grit. TED, 2013. Web. 30 Aug. 2015. .Kliebard, Herbert M. The Struggle for the American Curriculum, 1893-1958, 3rd ed. New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2004. (31-36) "Rising to the Challenge PowerPoint | Achieve."Rising to the Challenge PowerPoint | Achieve. Achieve, Inc., 2015. Web. 30 Aug. 2015. .Savitz-Romer, Mandy, and Suzanne M. Bouffard.Ready, Willing, and Able: A Developmental Approach to College Access and Success. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education, 2012. Print.Tough, Paul. How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2012.