Focusing on the similarities first one area in which they are similar deals with how they went about making sure that the focus is on student achievement.
Peer Response 1:
NCLB and ESSA are similar and different in ways. Focusing on the similarities first one area in which they are similar deals with how they went about making sure that the focus is on student achievement. Both legislations make sure that student achievement is at the forefront, especially as it relates to the states being responsible for holding the schools accountable. Another similarity is that both legislations require that the states do test their students in reading and math for 3rd-8th grades and also in high school as well. Also the test results had to be reported by both legislations and broken down by subgroup categories. The categories could be in areas like race, ethnicity, special education, poverty, and so on. Even though there were ways that the two were similar, they were some major differences between the two as well. NCLB had more federal input and persuasion as to how schools were operated. ESSA changed this and put more responsibility back on the state. “Importantly, under the Every Student Succeeds Act, Congress redefined the role of the federal government in elementary and secondary education, scaling back the federal role and enhancing the authority of the states and local school districts” (American College of Education, 2021). Also, the ESSA requires input from parents and families when it comes to creating state plans about the school and improvement areas. The NCLB legislation did not require this. Involving parents and families more in the school and the school improvement process was something that came about more through the ESSA. ESSA also incorporates the UDL or Universal Design of Learning that is used to teach in multiple ways to our diverse learners in the classroom. They incorporate more emphasis on teaching ELL learners. The ESSA legislation is all about preparing students for college and career readiness.
Something that I have seen over the years that has been increased is differentiation and student engagement in the learning. All students are required to be taught to the highest of standards and that work is happening. In concert with that, students are also getting small group instruction and getting work in their deficient areas to try and fill those gaps that have been created over the years. Having multiple ways to teach lessons and different engagement strategies for lessons is another shift that I see happening quite frequently. The same standard, skill, and lesson can be taught differently in two different classes taught by the same teacher because of data and the UDL. One class may need more modeling and structure, while another class may have more peer /group work or use technology into the lesson. It’s all about school achievement in the schools. We are constantly looking at data and the performance of students on informal, formal, and state assessments. Our job these days is to adjust our instruction based on the data and ensure that we are teaching in a way that all learners are benefitting. NCLB was seen to have left subgroups of students behind. ESSA was formulated to ensure that all students have high expectations of learning and that all students are learning in the best way that fits them. Learning today is not one size fits all.
I’m not as familiar with the NCLB as I started teaching as it was heading out the door but I do like how NCLB brought about looking at data and testing students to see where they stand on assessments. It started out as a good idea but it has led to way too much testing these days. I came into teaching at a time when students are constantly being tested. They have tests from the teacher, district, and state. There are paper and pencil tests as well as computer diagnostic testing from like three different programs. Then there is placement testing for other programs being put into the schools. A negative is the constant testing that is done on the kids. It seems to be never-ending. Then it seems as though all we cared about was teaching to a test and not teaching for the students to learn and experience new information. Instead of enjoying reading rich literature and having those in depth discussions, read this text and answer the question like this because you will see down the line in April or May. What is a positive is what we have learned to do with the data. This is where ESSA comes into play. With this data, teachers can learn how to differentiate the lessons and know what students to target as it relates to certain skills and standards. It makes our work purposeful and intentional. We have to consider all learners and realize that the lesson we taught to our first class may have to be modified ad not taught the same way in the next class. All stakeholders having access to the data and being involved in the school improvement process as well is a benefit. It makes everyone invested in what is happening in the schools and could lead to more collaboration and better working relationships.
References
American College of Education. ESSA and nclb. American College of Education. Module 1 Presentations (instructure.com)Peer
Peer Response 2:
The ESSA law was introduced in December 2015 as another way to ensure equal learning opportunities for each and every student. As ACE productions (2020) noted in the ESSA and NCLB video, NCLB did not achieve the goals it set out to which included an increase in equity, closed achievement gaps, and improvement in the quality of instruction for all learners. However, there were slight improvements in instructional methods and there was greater accountability for educators. The four major components of NCLB included “Accountability, flexibility related to funding, more parental choice, and research -based teaching methods” (ACE Productions, 2020). Tied into these included goal setting for schools to improve student performance, federal funding to improve individual needs of each school, parental decision-making of school choice for their child, and improvements in educator training and professional development to meet the needs of all students.
With the ESSA, decision-making became a task for local school districts and states rather than the federal government being the lead decision-makers. Different from the NCLB, the ESSA puts a greater focus on our students with disabilities and those who are English Language Learners. While NCLB also focused on improving instructional outcomes for learners, ESSA supports higher quality preschool initiatives in order to provide an earlier start to schooling especially for communities with a greater need for this (ACE Productions, 2020).
With the introduction of ESSA, I anticipate changes in the way that teachers are evaluated. Due to decision-making being at the hands of local districts and states, there is greater opportunity for teacher involvement in the decision making in determining the most valid and reliable evaluation options for us. Additionally, “Under ESSA, Title II funds can be used for new purposes, such as peer-led, ongoing professional development that is job-embedded and evidence-based” (Kragthorpe, 2016). With this in mind, there are additional supports in place for schools that have the greatest achievement gap including local agencies developing and supporting plans to increase learning outcomes.
Although I just began teaching as NCLB was ending, through research it seems that the most positive impact that NCLB had on schools was the structure that came with it. Having states set the standards supported schools in comparing the performance of their learners to others outside of their school. The information gathered through this helped target learning gaps and areas for future instruction. However, this also has a negative piece to consider which is that not all learners are able to demonstrate their skill through standardized assessments. As we’ve learned in pre-service teacher preparation programs as well as in the ACE Assessment Strategies course, multiple means of assessment are key when looking for the most realistic picture of a student’s performance. I expect with the ESSA though, that the discouraging of use of test results to determine teacher performance will have a positive impact on how educators view standardized assessments. Perhaps we will start to spend more time focusing on students as learners with strengths and challenges rather than obsessing over performance on state assessments and how to boost those scores.
References
ACE Production. (2020, October 20). Law & Policy. American College of Education. Retrieved October 1, 2021, from https://ace.instructure.com/courses/1770000/external_tools/118428.
Gofberg, Stacey E., “No child left behind: the impact on special education teachers at the secondary level” (2006). Theses and Dissertations. 857.
Kragthorpe, H. (2016, September 26). Six Ways ESSA Will Effect Your Classroom [web log]. Retrieved October 1, 2021, from https://e4e.org/blog-news/blog/six-ways-essa-will-affect-your-classroom.
Peer Response 3:
In 1985, I was lucky enough to be chosen to be a member of the United States Military Academy’s Corps of Cadets. The motto of the Corps is fairly well known, Duty, Honor Country. This very well-known phrase guides each of us in our personal actions and dealings as a Cadet. Less well known is a line from the Cadet Prayer, “Make us to choose the harder right over the easier wrong.” (Wheat, 1924) This is the true guide to ethical behavior. How do react to the everyday challenges and issues that I am faced with. How do I ensure that I am consistent in all my dealings and interactions? The teaching profession has a defined code of ethics. The challenge then is how do I follow that code, how do I maintain that behavior, in the face of so many demands, on time, from parents, and even from your own life. The reality is that doing the right thing becomes a habit. When I talk with my boys about it, I call it a ‘non-negotiable’. The decision to be ethical to “choose the harder right’ has to be made long before the challenge arises, that way you do not struggle with it at the point of stress. Hopefully, this has prepared you to face any ethical issues head on.
There is clearly a direct relationship between resource management and ethics. The finite nature of resources means that there will always need to be decisions about how resources are allocated and what factors go into that decision making. This makes it so important that school leadership is perceived as being firm, fair and consistent. This perception will serve a school leader well when the claims are made about inequitable resource distribution. This is when the school leader has to lean on his reputation and be able to stand against all accusations, confident he has done well. This is also made easier by always following guidelines for ethical behavior set out in both state and federal codes pertaining to teachers. The Feeney and Freeman article show a number of ethical dilemmas, and all are navigated by first reviewing the relevant Codes. (Feeney & Freeman, 2016) This is good advice to resolve all ethical issues.
In my professional life, in both military, law enforcement, teaching, and coaching, I have faced issues that required an ethical decision. Whether it has to do with military reports, making an arrest, or even playing one student over another, in each incident I tried to follow the harder right and do what was required. The reality is that if you have made the decision to do the harder right, if you are familiar with all relevant codes and policies, then these issues become routine, and are not memorable because they are not memorable, just a part of the everyday work.
References
Feeney, S., & Freeman, N. K. (2016). Ethical issues responsibilities and dilemmas. YC: Young Children, 71(1), 86-89. https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/mar2016/et…
Wheat, Clayton. (1924). The Cadet Prayer. https://www.west-point.org/academy/malo-wa/inspira…
Peer Response 4:
I try to always do what I believe is the right thing depending on the situation. Ethical conduct takes into account the various outcomes for everyone involved and strives to choose the action that leads to the best outcome for each person. In a school environment, ethical conduct often means doing what is best for the student. However, that can be muddied when doing what is best for one student can mean hurting other students, so decisions must be made very carefully and with much consideration. It is important to always consider the ethical implications of decisions, especially as a school leader, because of how many people those decisions can affect. As Marlatt and Korang (2020) noted, “Teacher educators engaged in professional ethics make choices in curriculum, instruction, and pedagogy based on their core values of the human experience and model those values for their students” (p. 500). All teachers, educators, and school leaders must not only consider how their actions affect students, but also how they are modeling their ethics and values for students.
Ethics, resource management, and leadership are inextricably linked together as leaders make decisions about how to use resources given to them. A recent ethical consideration has been using money given to schools for covid concerns. What is the best way to ethically use that money? Is it to provide PPE to faculty and staff? Is it to hire more custodial staff to lighten the load of custodians, or would it be better to provide temporary raises to the current staff? Should the money be spent on technology to allow students to complete schoolwork at home, or should it be spent on facilities to make the school building safer? These questions all require leaders to make ethical decisions that affect thousands of students, employees, and their families. When given any amount or type of resources to manage, a leader must work to act ethically and with integrity.
I feel like I am constantly making ethical decisions as a teacher. One ethical question I am still working through my answer to is determining whether a student has earned a credit. For example, my school offered credit recovery classes this past summer. As an English teacher, I co-taught with a science teacher to teach a 3 week course that would allow students to earn both their English 2 and biology credits. The classes were 3 hours a day for 12 days, and administration told us to teach using project-based learning. Working in groups, students completed 2 projects during those 12 days. I struggled with the idea of students earning 2 credits in just 12 days. There are multiple aspects to any ethical question: how much did the students learn during the school year? How much of their failing grade during the year was due to quarantining for covid? How much of their failing grade during the year was due to not turning in work as opposed to failing tests? Should I take their attendance during the school year into account? Students could also miss up to 5 days of summer school, effectively allowing them to make up 2 full credits in 1 week’s worth of classes. How is that fair to students who worked during the school year to earn those 2 credits? Is that teaching students that they can do nothing during the school year and just come to school a few days during the summer to earn their credits? Is it my position to decide whether or not that is fair? I ultimately decided to follow my administration’s requirements, and the majority of the 55 students did earn both credits, though some did not do even a minimal amount of work.
I still feel uneasy about my decision, but felt like my hands were tied by my school’s administration, as well as by my co-teacher who did not share the same qualms I did about the situation and had equal input on student grades. I do believe that there are aspects of ethics that are decided by position and constraints of that position; what is right in one situation may not be right in another. I was hired by my school and they set the parameters for earning a credit, therefore I am to follow their lead in questions regarding student learning. I have documentation of questions I had that were answered by assistant principals. I understand that there are far fewer questions when a student passes than when a student fails. I also understand the benefits of a high school diploma, and that not having one can greatly limit a person’s choices. Therefore, I believe that allowing those students to earn credit for the courses was the ethical decision.
Reference
Marlatt, R., & Korang, T. (2020). Prioritizing Ethics: Interdisciplinary Implementations of Principle-Based Ethics in Secondary Teacher Education. International Journal of Teaching & Learning in Higher Education, 32(3), 499–518.Peer Response 1:
NCLB and ESSA are similar and different in ways. Focusing on the similarities first one area in which they are similar deals with how they went about making sure that the focus is on student achievement. Both legislations make sure that student achievement is at the forefront, especially as it relates to the states being responsible for holding the schools accountable. Another similarity is that both legislations require that the states do test their students in reading and math for 3rd-8th grades and also in high school as well. Also the test results had to be reported by both legislations and broken down by subgroup categories. The categories could be in areas like race, ethnicity, special education, poverty, and so on. Even though there were ways that the two were similar, they were some major differences between the two as well. NCLB had more federal input and persuasion as to how schools were operated. ESSA changed this and put more responsibility back on the state. “Importantly, under the Every Student Succeeds Act, Congress redefined the role of the federal government in elementary and secondary education, scaling back the federal role and enhancing the authority of the states and local school districts” (American College of Education, 2021). Also, the ESSA requires input from parents and families when it comes to creating state plans about the school and improvement areas. The NCLB legislation did not require this. Involving parents and families more in the school and the school improvement process was something that came about more through the ESSA. ESSA also incorporates the UDL or Universal Design of Learning that is used to teach in multiple ways to our diverse learners in the classroom. They incorporate more emphasis on teaching ELL learners. The ESSA legislation is all about preparing students for college and career readiness.
Something that I have seen over the years that has been increased is differentiation and student engagement in the learning. All students are required to be taught to the highest of standards and that work is happening. In concert with that, students are also getting small group instruction and getting work in their deficient areas to try and fill those gaps that have been created over the years. Having multiple ways to teach lessons and different engagement strategies for lessons is another shift that I see happening quite frequently. The same standard, skill, and lesson can be taught differently in two different classes taught by the same teacher because of data and the UDL. One class may need more modeling and structure, while another class may have more peer /group work or use technology into the lesson. It’s all about school achievement in the schools. We are constantly looking at data and the performance of students on informal, formal, and state assessments. Our job these days is to adjust our instruction based on the data and ensure that we are teaching in a way that all learners are benefitting. NCLB was seen to have left subgroups of students behind. ESSA was formulated to ensure that all students have high expectations of learning and that all students are learning in the best way that fits them. Learning today is not one size fits all.
I’m not as familiar with the NCLB as I started teaching as it was heading out the door but I do like how NCLB brought about looking at data and testing students to see where they stand on assessments. It started out as a good idea but it has led to way too much testing these days. I came into teaching at a time when students are constantly being tested. They have tests from the teacher, district, and state. There are paper and pencil tests as well as computer diagnostic testing from like three different programs. Then there is placement testing for other programs being put into the schools. A negative is the constant testing that is done on the kids. It seems to be never-ending. Then it seems as though all we cared about was teaching to a test and not teaching for the students to learn and experience new information. Instead of enjoying reading rich literature and having those in depth discussions, read this text and answer the question like this because you will see down the line in April or May. What is a positive is what we have learned to do with the data. This is where ESSA comes into play. With this data, teachers can learn how to differentiate the lessons and know what students to target as it relates to certain skills and standards. It makes our work purposeful and intentional. We have to consider all learners and realize that the lesson we taught to our first class may have to be modified ad not taught the same way in the next class. All stakeholders having access to the data and being involved in the school improvement process as well is a benefit. It makes everyone invested in what is happening in the schools and could lead to more collaboration and better working relationships.
References
American College of Education. ESSA and nclb. American College of Education. Module 1 Presentations (instructure.com)Peer
Peer Response 2:
The ESSA law was introduced in December 2015 as another way to ensure equal learning opportunities for each and every student. As ACE productions (2020) noted in the ESSA and NCLB video, NCLB did not achieve the goals it set out to which included an increase in equity, closed achievement gaps, and improvement in the quality of instruction for all learners. However, there were slight improvements in instructional methods and there was greater accountability for educators. The four major components of NCLB included “Accountability, flexibility related to funding, more parental choice, and research -based teaching methods” (ACE Productions, 2020). Tied into these included goal setting for schools to improve student performance, federal funding to improve individual needs of each school, parental decision-making of school choice for their child, and improvements in educator training and professional development to meet the needs of all students.
With the ESSA, decision-making became a task for local school districts and states rather than the federal government being the lead decision-makers. Different from the NCLB, the ESSA puts a greater focus on our students with disabilities and those who are English Language Learners. While NCLB also focused on improving instructional outcomes for learners, ESSA supports higher quality preschool initiatives in order to provide an earlier start to schooling especially for communities with a greater need for this (ACE Productions, 2020).
With the introduction of ESSA, I anticipate changes in the way that teachers are evaluated. Due to decision-making being at the hands of local districts and states, there is greater opportunity for teacher involvement in the decision making in determining the most valid and reliable evaluation options for us. Additionally, “Under ESSA, Title II funds can be used for new purposes, such as peer-led, ongoing professional development that is job-embedded and evidence-based” (Kragthorpe, 2016). With this in mind, there are additional supports in place for schools that have the greatest achievement gap including local agencies developing and supporting plans to increase learning outcomes.
Although I just began teaching as NCLB was ending, through research it seems that the most positive impact that NCLB had on schools was the structure that came with it. Having states set the standards supported schools in comparing the performance of their learners to others outside of their school. The information gathered through this helped target learning gaps and areas for future instruction. However, this also has a negative piece to consider which is that not all learners are able to demonstrate their skill through standardized assessments. As we’ve learned in pre-service teacher preparation programs as well as in the ACE Assessment Strategies course, multiple means of assessment are key when looking for the most realistic picture of a student’s performance. I expect with the ESSA though, that the discouraging of use of test results to determine teacher performance will have a positive impact on how educators view standardized assessments. Perhaps we will start to spend more time focusing on students as learners with strengths and challenges rather than obsessing over performance on state assessments and how to boost those scores.
References
ACE Production. (2020, October 20). Law & Policy. American College of Education. Retrieved October 1, 2021, from https://ace.instructure.com/courses/1770000/external_tools/118428.
Gofberg, Stacey E., “No child left behind: the impact on special education teachers at the secondary level” (2006). Theses and Dissertations. 857.
Kragthorpe, H. (2016, September 26). Six Ways ESSA Will Effect Your Classroom [web log]. Retrieved October 1, 2021, from https://e4e.org/blog-news/blog/six-ways-essa-will-affect-your-classroom.
Peer Response 3:
In 1985, I was lucky enough to be chosen to be a member of the United States Military Academy’s Corps of Cadets. The motto of the Corps is fairly well known, Duty, Honor Country. This very well-known phrase guides each of us in our personal actions and dealings as a Cadet. Less well known is a line from the Cadet Prayer, “Make us to choose the harder right over the easier wrong.” (Wheat, 1924) This is the true guide to ethical behavior. How do react to the everyday challenges and issues that I am faced with. How do I ensure that I am consistent in all my dealings and interactions? The teaching profession has a defined code of ethics. The challenge then is how do I follow that code, how do I maintain that behavior, in the face of so many demands, on time, from parents, and even from your own life. The reality is that doing the right thing becomes a habit. When I talk with my boys about it, I call it a ‘non-negotiable’. The decision to be ethical to “choose the harder right’ has to be made long before the challenge arises, that way you do not struggle with it at the point of stress. Hopefully, this has prepared you to face any ethical issues head on.
There is clearly a direct relationship between resource management and ethics. The finite nature of resources means that there will always need to be decisions about how resources are allocated and what factors go into that decision making. This makes it so important that school leadership is perceived as being firm, fair and consistent. This perception will serve a school leader well when the claims are made about inequitable resource distribution. This is when the school leader has to lean on his reputation and be able to stand against all accusations, confident he has done well. This is also made easier by always following guidelines for ethical behavior set out in both state and federal codes pertaining to teachers. The Feeney and Freeman article show a number of ethical dilemmas, and all are navigated by first reviewing the relevant Codes. (Feeney & Freeman, 2016) This is good advice to resolve all ethical issues.
In my professional life, in both military, law enforcement, teaching, and coaching, I have faced issues that required an ethical decision. Whether it has to do with military reports, making an arrest, or even playing one student over another, in each incident I tried to follow the harder right and do what was required. The reality is that if you have made the decision to do the harder right, if you are familiar with all relevant codes and policies, then these issues become routine, and are not memorable because they are not memorable, just a part of the everyday work.
References
Feeney, S., & Freeman, N. K. (2016). Ethical issues responsibilities and dilemmas. YC: Young Children, 71(1), 86-89. https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/mar2016/et…
Wheat, Clayton. (1924). The Cadet Prayer. https://www.west-point.org/academy/malo-wa/inspira…
Peer Response 4:
I try to always do what I believe is the right thing depending on the situation. Ethical conduct takes into account the various outcomes for everyone involved and strives to choose the action that leads to the best outcome for each person. In a school environment, ethical conduct often means doing what is best for the student. However, that can be muddied when doing what is best for one student can mean hurting other students, so decisions must be made very carefully and with much consideration. It is important to always consider the ethical implications of decisions, especially as a school leader, because of how many people those decisions can affect. As Marlatt and Korang (2020) noted, “Teacher educators engaged in professional ethics make choices in curriculum, instruction, and pedagogy based on their core values of the human experience and model those values for their students” (p. 500). All teachers, educators, and school leaders must not only consider how their actions affect students, but also how they are modeling their ethics and values for students.
Ethics, resource management, and leadership are inextricably linked together as leaders make decisions about how to use resources given to them. A recent ethical consideration has been using money given to schools for covid concerns. What is the best way to ethically use that money? Is it to provide PPE to faculty and staff? Is it to hire more custodial staff to lighten the load of custodians, or would it be better to provide temporary raises to the current staff? Should the money be spent on technology to allow students to complete schoolwork at home, or should it be spent on facilities to make the school building safer? These questions all require leaders to make ethical decisions that affect thousands of students, employees, and their families. When given any amount or type of resources to manage, a leader must work to act ethically and with integrity.
I feel like I am constantly making ethical decisions as a teacher. One ethical question I am still working through my answer to is determining whether a student has earned a credit. For example, my school offered credit recovery classes this past summer. As an English teacher, I co-taught with a science teacher to teach a 3 week course that would allow students to earn both their English 2 and biology credits. The classes were 3 hours a day for 12 days, and administration told us to teach using project-based learning. Working in groups, students completed 2 projects during those 12 days. I struggled with the idea of students earning 2 credits in just 12 days. There are multiple aspects to any ethical question: how much did the students learn during the school year? How much of their failing grade during the year was due to quarantining for covid? How much of their failing grade during the year was due to not turning in work as opposed to failing tests? Should I take their attendance during the school year into account? Students could also miss up to 5 days of summer school, effectively allowing them to make up 2 full credits in 1 week’s worth of classes. How is that fair to students who worked during the school year to earn those 2 credits? Is that teaching students that they can do nothing during the school year and just come to school a few days during the summer to earn their credits? Is it my position to decide whether or not that is fair? I ultimately decided to follow my administration’s requirements, and the majority of the 55 students did earn both credits, though some did not do even a minimal amount of work.
I still feel uneasy about my decision, but felt like my hands were tied by my school’s administration, as well as by my co-teacher who did not share the same qualms I did about the situation and had equal input on student grades. I do believe that there are aspects of ethics that are decided by position and constraints of that position; what is right in one situation may not be right in another. I was hired by my school and they set the parameters for earning a credit, therefore I am to follow their lead in questions regarding student learning. I have documentation of questions I had that were answered by assistant principals. I understand that there are far fewer questions when a student passes than when a student fails. I also understand the benefits of a high school diploma, and that not having one can greatly limit a person’s choices. Therefore, I believe that allowing those students to earn credit for the courses was the ethical decision.
Reference
Marlatt, R., & Korang, T. (2020). Prioritizing Ethics: Interdisciplinary Implementations of Principle-Based Ethics in Secondary Teacher Education. International Journal of Teaching & Learning in Higher Education, 32(3), 499–518.Peer Response 1:
NCLB and ESSA are similar and different in ways. Focusing on the similarities first one area in which they are similar deals with how they went about making sure that the focus is on student achievement. Both legislations make sure that student achievement is at the forefront, especially as it relates to the states being responsible for holding the schools accountable. Another similarity is that both legislations require that the states do test their students in reading and math for 3rd-8th grades and also in high school as well. Also the test results had to be reported by both legislations and broken down by subgroup categories. The categories could be in areas like race, ethnicity, special education, poverty, and so on. Even though there were ways that the two were similar, they were some major differences between the two as well. NCLB had more federal input and persuasion as to how schools were operated. ESSA changed this and put more responsibility back on the state. “Importantly, under the Every Student Succeeds Act, Congress redefined the role of the federal government in elementary and secondary education, scaling back the federal role and enhancing the authority of the states and local school districts” (American College of Education, 2021). Also, the ESSA requires input from parents and families when it comes to creating state plans about the school and improvement areas. The NCLB legislation did not require this. Involving parents and families more in the school and the school improvement process was something that came about more through the ESSA. ESSA also incorporates the UDL or Universal Design of Learning that is used to teach in multiple ways to our diverse learners in the classroom. They incorporate more emphasis on teaching ELL learners. The ESSA legislation is all about preparing students for college and career readiness.
Something that I have seen over the years that has been increased is differentiation and student engagement in the learning. All students are required to be taught to the highest of standards and that work is happening. In concert with that, students are also getting small group instruction and getting work in their deficient areas to try and fill those gaps that have been created over the years. Having multiple ways to teach lessons and different engagement strategies for lessons is another shift that I see happening quite frequently. The same standard, skill, and lesson can be taught differently in two different classes taught by the same teacher because of data and the UDL. One class may need more modeling and structure, while another class may have more peer /group work or use technology into the lesson. It’s all about school achievement in the schools. We are constantly looking at data and the performance of students on informal, formal, and state assessments. Our job these days is to adjust our instruction based on the data and ensure that we are teaching in a way that all learners are benefitting. NCLB was seen to have left subgroups of students behind. ESSA was formulated to ensure that all students have high expectations of learning and that all students are learning in the best way that fits them. Learning today is not one size fits all.
I’m not as familiar with the NCLB as I started teaching as it was heading out the door but I do like how NCLB brought about looking at data and testing students to see where they stand on assessments. It started out as a good idea but it has led to way too much testing these days. I came into teaching at a time when students are constantly being tested. They have tests from the teacher, district, and state. There are paper and pencil tests as well as computer diagnostic testing from like three different programs. Then there is placement testing for other programs being put into the schools. A negative is the constant testing that is done on the kids. It seems to be never-ending. Then it seems as though all we cared about was teaching to a test and not teaching for the students to learn and experience new information. Instead of enjoying reading rich literature and having those in depth discussions, read this text and answer the question like this because you will see down the line in April or May. What is a positive is what we have learned to do with the data. This is where ESSA comes into play. With this data, teachers can learn how to differentiate the lessons and know what students to target as it relates to certain skills and standards. It makes our work purposeful and intentional. We have to consider all learners and realize that the lesson we taught to our first class may have to be modified ad not taught the same way in the next class. All stakeholders having access to the data and being involved in the school improvement process as well is a benefit. It makes everyone invested in what is happening in the schools and could lead to more collaboration and better working relationships.
References
American College of Education. ESSA and nclb. American College of Education. Module 1 Presentations (instructure.com)Peer
Peer Response 2:
The ESSA law was introduced in December 2015 as another way to ensure equal learning opportunities for each and every student. As ACE productions (2020) noted in the ESSA and NCLB video, NCLB did not achieve the goals it set out to which included an increase in equity, closed achievement gaps, and improvement in the quality of instruction for all learners. However, there were slight improvements in instructional methods and there was greater accountability for educators. The four major components of NCLB included “Accountability, flexibility related to funding, more parental choice, and research -based teaching methods” (ACE Productions, 2020). Tied into these included goal setting for schools to improve student performance, federal funding to improve individual needs of each school, parental decision-making of school choice for their child, and improvements in educator training and professional development to meet the needs of all students.
With the ESSA, decision-making became a task for local school districts and states rather than the federal government being the lead decision-makers. Different from the NCLB, the ESSA puts a greater focus on our students with disabilities and those who are English Language Learners. While NCLB also focused on improving instructional outcomes for learners, ESSA supports higher quality preschool initiatives in order to provide an earlier start to schooling especially for communities with a greater need for this (ACE Productions, 2020).
With the introduction of ESSA, I anticipate changes in the way that teachers are evaluated. Due to decision-making being at the hands of local districts and states, there is greater opportunity for teacher involvement in the decision making in determining the most valid and reliable evaluation options for us. Additionally, “Under ESSA, Title II funds can be used for new purposes, such as peer-led, ongoing professional development that is job-embedded and evidence-based” (Kragthorpe, 2016). With this in mind, there are additional supports in place for schools that have the greatest achievement gap including local agencies developing and supporting plans to increase learning outcomes.
Although I just began teaching as NCLB was ending, through research it seems that the most positive impact that NCLB had on schools was the structure that came with it. Having states set the standards supported schools in comparing the performance of their learners to others outside of their school. The information gathered through this helped target learning gaps and areas for future instruction. However, this also has a negative piece to consider which is that not all learners are able to demonstrate their skill through standardized assessments. As we’ve learned in pre-service teacher preparation programs as well as in the ACE Assessment Strategies course, multiple means of assessment are key when looking for the most realistic picture of a student’s performance. I expect with the ESSA though, that the discouraging of use of test results to determine teacher performance will have a positive impact on how educators view standardized assessments. Perhaps we will start to spend more time focusing on students as learners with strengths and challenges rather than obsessing over performance on state assessments and how to boost those scores.
References
ACE Production. (2020, October 20). Law & Policy. American College of Education. Retrieved October 1, 2021, from https://ace.instructure.com/courses/1770000/external_tools/118428.
Gofberg, Stacey E., “No child left behind: the impact on special education teachers at the secondary level” (2006). Theses and Dissertations. 857.
Kragthorpe, H. (2016, September 26). Six Ways ESSA Will Effect Your Classroom [web log]. Retrieved October 1, 2021, from https://e4e.org/blog-news/blog/six-ways-essa-will-affect-your-classroom.
Peer Response 3:
In 1985, I was lucky enough to be chosen to be a member of the United States Military Academy’s Corps of Cadets. The motto of the Corps is fairly well known, Duty, Honor Country. This very well-known phrase guides each of us in our personal actions and dealings as a Cadet. Less well known is a line from the Cadet Prayer, “Make us to choose the harder right over the easier wrong.” (Wheat, 1924) This is the true guide to ethical behavior. How do react to the everyday challenges and issues that I am faced with. How do I ensure that I am consistent in all my dealings and interactions? The teaching profession has a defined code of ethics. The challenge then is how do I follow that code, how do I maintain that behavior, in the face of so many demands, on time, from parents, and even from your own life. The reality is that doing the right thing becomes a habit. When I talk with my boys about it, I call it a ‘non-negotiable’. The decision to be ethical to “choose the harder right’ has to be made long before the challenge arises, that way you do not struggle with it at the point of stress. Hopefully, this has prepared you to face any ethical issues head on.
There is clearly a direct relationship between resource management and ethics. The finite nature of resources means that there will always need to be decisions about how resources are allocated and what factors go into that decision making. This makes it so important that school leadership is perceived as being firm, fair and consistent. This perception will serve a school leader well when the claims are made about inequitable resource distribution. This is when the school leader has to lean on his reputation and be able to stand against all accusations, confident he has done well. This is also made easier by always following guidelines for ethical behavior set out in both state and federal codes pertaining to teachers. The Feeney and Freeman article show a number of ethical dilemmas, and all are navigated by first reviewing the relevant Codes. (Feeney & Freeman, 2016) This is good advice to resolve all ethical issues.
In my professional life, in both military, law enforcement, teaching, and coaching, I have faced issues that required an ethical decision. Whether it has to do with military reports, making an arrest, or even playing one student over another, in each incident I tried to follow the harder right and do what was required. The reality is that if you have made the decision to do the harder right, if you are familiar with all relevant codes and policies, then these issues become routine, and are not memorable because they are not memorable, just a part of the everyday work.
References
Feeney, S., & Freeman, N. K. (2016). Ethical issues responsibilities and dilemmas. YC: Young Children, 71(1), 86-89. https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/mar2016/et…
Wheat, Clayton. (1924). The Cadet Prayer. https://www.west-point.org/academy/malo-wa/inspira…
Peer Response 4:
I try to always do what I believe is the right thing depending on the situation. Ethical conduct takes into account the various outcomes for everyone involved and strives to choose the action that leads to the best outcome for each person. In a school environment, ethical conduct often means doing what is best for the student. However, that can be muddied when doing what is best for one student can mean hurting other students, so decisions must be made very carefully and with much consideration. It is important to always consider the ethical implications of decisions, especially as a school leader, because of how many people those decisions can affect. As Marlatt and Korang (2020) noted, “Teacher educators engaged in professional ethics make choices in curriculum, instruction, and pedagogy based on their core values of the human experience and model those values for their students” (p. 500). All teachers, educators, and school leaders must not only consider how their actions affect students, but also how they are modeling their ethics and values for students.
Ethics, resource management, and leadership are inextricably linked together as leaders make decisions about how to use resources given to them. A recent ethical consideration has been using money given to schools for covid concerns. What is the best way to ethically use that money? Is it to provide PPE to faculty and staff? Is it to hire more custodial staff to lighten the load of custodians, or would it be better to provide temporary raises to the current staff? Should the money be spent on technology to allow students to complete schoolwork at home, or should it be spent on facilities to make the school building safer? These questions all require leaders to make ethical decisions that affect thousands of students, employees, and their families. When given any amount or type of resources to manage, a leader must work to act ethically and with integrity.
I feel like I am constantly making ethical decisions as a teacher. One ethical question I am still working through my answer to is determining whether a student has earned a credit. For example, my school offered credit recovery classes this past summer. As an English teacher, I co-taught with a science teacher to teach a 3 week course that would allow students to earn both their English 2 and biology credits. The classes were 3 hours a day for 12 days, and administration told us to teach using project-based learning. Working in groups, students completed 2 projects during those 12 days. I struggled with the idea of students earning 2 credits in just 12 days. There are multiple aspects to any ethical question: how much did the students learn during the school year? How much of their failing grade during the year was due to quarantining for covid? How much of their failing grade during the year was due to not turning in work as opposed to failing tests? Should I take their attendance during the school year into account? Students could also miss up to 5 days of summer school, effectively allowing them to make up 2 full credits in 1 week’s worth of classes. How is that fair to students who worked during the school year to earn those 2 credits? Is that teaching students that they can do nothing during the school year and just come to school a few days during the summer to earn their credits? Is it my position to decide whether or not that is fair? I ultimately decided to follow my administration’s requirements, and the majority of the 55 students did earn both credits, though some did not do even a minimal amount of work.
I still feel uneasy about my decision, but felt like my hands were tied by my school’s administration, as well as by my co-teacher who did not share the same qualms I did about the situation and had equal input on student grades. I do believe that there are aspects of ethics that are decided by position and constraints of that position; what is right in one situation may not be right in another. I was hired by my school and they set the parameters for earning a credit, therefore I am to follow their lead in questions regarding student learning. I have documentation of questions I had that were answered by assistant principals. I understand that there are far fewer questions when a student passes than when a student fails. I also understand the benefits of a high school diploma, and that not having one can greatly limit a person’s choices. Therefore, I believe that allowing those students to earn credit for the courses was the ethical decision.
Reference
Marlatt, R., & Korang, T. (2020). Prioritizing Ethics: Interdisciplinary Implementations of Principle-Based Ethics in Secondary Teacher Education. International Journal of Teaching & Learning in Higher Education, 32(3), 499–518.Peer Response 1:
NCLB and ESSA are similar and different in ways. Focusing on the similarities first one area in which they are similar deals with how they went about making sure that the focus is on student achievement. Both legislations make sure that student achievement is at the forefront, especially as it relates to the states being responsible for holding the schools accountable. Another similarity is that both legislations require that the states do test their students in reading and math for 3rd-8th grades and also in high school as well. Also the test results had to be reported by both legislations and broken down by subgroup categories. The categories could be in areas like race, ethnicity, special education, poverty, and so on. Even though there were ways that the two were similar, they were some major differences between the two as well. NCLB had more federal input and persuasion as to how schools were operated. ESSA changed this and put more responsibility back on the state. “Importantly, under the Every Student Succeeds Act, Congress redefined the role of the federal government in elementary and secondary education, scaling back the federal role and enhancing the authority of the states and local school districts” (American College of Education, 2021). Also, the ESSA requires input from parents and families when it comes to creating state plans about the school and improvement areas. The NCLB legislation did not require this. Involving parents and families more in the school and the school improvement process was something that came about more through the ESSA. ESSA also incorporates the UDL or Universal Design of Learning that is used to teach in multiple ways to our diverse learners in the classroom. They incorporate more emphasis on teaching ELL learners. The ESSA legislation is all about preparing students for college and career readiness.
Something that I have seen over the years that has been increased is differentiation and student engagement in the learning. All students are required to be taught to the highest of standards and that work is happening. In concert with that, students are also getting small group instruction and getting work in their deficient areas to try and fill those gaps that have been created over the years. Having multiple ways to teach lessons and different engagement strategies for lessons is another shift that I see happening quite frequently. The same standard, skill, and lesson can be taught differently in two different classes taught by the same teacher because of data and the UDL. One class may need more modeling and structure, while another class may have more peer /group work or use technology into the lesson. It’s all about school achievement in the schools. We are constantly looking at data and the performance of students on informal, formal, and state assessments. Our job these days is to adjust our instruction based on the data and ensure that we are teaching in a way that all learners are benefitting. NCLB was seen to have left subgroups of students behind. ESSA was formulated to ensure that all students have high expectations of learning and that all students are learning in the best way that fits them. Learning today is not one size fits all.
I’m not as familiar with the NCLB as I started teaching as it was heading out the door but I do like how NCLB brought about looking at data and testing students to see where they stand on assessments. It started out as a good idea but it has led to way too much testing these days. I came into teaching at a time when students are constantly being tested. They have tests from the teacher, district, and state. There are paper and pencil tests as well as computer diagnostic testing from like three different programs. Then there is placement testing for other programs being put into the schools. A negative is the constant testing that is done on the kids. It seems to be never-ending. Then it seems as though all we cared about was teaching to a test and not teaching for the students to learn and experience new information. Instead of enjoying reading rich literature and having those in depth discussions, read this text and answer the question like this because you will see down the line in April or May. What is a positive is what we have learned to do with the data. This is where ESSA comes into play. With this data, teachers can learn how to differentiate the lessons and know what students to target as it relates to certain skills and standards. It makes our work purposeful and intentional. We have to consider all learners and realize that the lesson we taught to our first class may have to be modified ad not taught the same way in the next class. All stakeholders having access to the data and being involved in the school improvement process as well is a benefit. It makes everyone invested in what is happening in the schools and could lead to more collaboration and better working relationships.
References
American College of Education. ESSA and nclb. American College of Education. Module 1 Presentations (instructure.com)Peer
Peer Response 2:
The ESSA law was introduced in December 2015 as another way to ensure equal learning opportunities for each and every student. As ACE productions (2020) noted in the ESSA and NCLB video, NCLB did not achieve the goals it set out to which included an increase in equity, closed achievement gaps, and improvement in the quality of instruction for all learners. However, there were slight improvements in instructional methods and there was greater accountability for educators. The four major components of NCLB included “Accountability, flexibility related to funding, more parental choice, and research -based teaching methods” (ACE Productions, 2020). Tied into these included goal setting for schools to improve student performance, federal funding to improve individual needs of each school, parental decision-making of school choice for their child, and improvements in educator training and professional development to meet the needs of all students.
With the ESSA, decision-making became a task for local school districts and states rather than the federal government being the lead decision-makers. Different from the NCLB, the ESSA puts a greater focus on our students with disabilities and those who are English Language Learners. While NCLB also focused on improving instructional outcomes for learners, ESSA supports higher quality preschool initiatives in order to provide an earlier start to schooling especially for communities with a greater need for this (ACE Productions, 2020).
With the introduction of ESSA, I anticipate changes in the way that teachers are evaluated. Due to decision-making being at the hands of local districts and states, there is greater opportunity for teacher involvement in the decision making in determining the most valid and reliable evaluation options for us. Additionally, “Under ESSA, Title II funds can be used for new purposes, such as peer-led, ongoing professional development that is job-embedded and evidence-based” (Kragthorpe, 2016). With this in mind, there are additional supports in place for schools that have the greatest achievement gap including local agencies developing and supporting plans to increase learning outcomes.
Although I just began teaching as NCLB was ending, through research it seems that the most positive impact that NCLB had on schools was the structure that came with it. Having states set the standards supported schools in comparing the performance of their learners to others outside of their school. The information gathered through this helped target learning gaps and areas for future instruction. However, this also has a negative piece to consider which is that not all learners are able to demonstrate their skill through standardized assessments. As we’ve learned in pre-service teacher preparation programs as well as in the ACE Assessment Strategies course, multiple means of assessment are key when looking for the most realistic picture of a student’s performance. I expect with the ESSA though, that the discouraging of use of test results to determine teacher performance will have a positive impact on how educators view standardized assessments. Perhaps we will start to spend more time focusing on students as learners with strengths and challenges rather than obsessing over performance on state assessments and how to boost those scores.
References
ACE Production. (2020, October 20). Law & Policy. American College of Education. Retrieved October 1, 2021, from https://ace.instructure.com/courses/1770000/external_tools/118428.
Gofberg, Stacey E., “No child left behind: the impact on special education teachers at the secondary level” (2006). Theses and Dissertations. 857.
Kragthorpe, H. (2016, September 26). Six Ways ESSA Will Effect Your Classroom [web log]. Retrieved October 1, 2021, from https://e4e.org/blog-news/blog/six-ways-essa-will-affect-your-classroom.
Peer Response 3:
In 1985, I was lucky enough to be chosen to be a member of the United States Military Academy’s Corps of Cadets. The motto of the Corps is fairly well known, Duty, Honor Country. This very well-known phrase guides each of us in our personal actions and dealings as a Cadet. Less well known is a line from the Cadet Prayer, “Make us to choose the harder right over the easier wrong.” (Wheat, 1924) This is the true guide to ethical behavior. How do react to the everyday challenges and issues that I am faced with. How do I ensure that I am consistent in all my dealings and interactions? The teaching profession has a defined code of ethics. The challenge then is how do I follow that code, how do I maintain that behavior, in the face of so many demands, on time, from parents, and even from your own life. The reality is that doing the right thing becomes a habit. When I talk with my boys about it, I call it a ‘non-negotiable’. The decision to be ethical to “choose the harder right’ has to be made long before the challenge arises, that way you do not struggle with it at the point of stress. Hopefully, this has prepared you to face any ethical issues head on.
There is clearly a direct relationship between resource management and ethics. The finite nature of resources means that there will always need to be decisions about how resources are allocated and what factors go into that decision making. This makes it so important that school leadership is perceived as being firm, fair and consistent. This perception will serve a school leader well when the claims are made about inequitable resource distribution. This is when the school leader has to lean on his reputation and be able to stand against all accusations, confident he has done well. This is also made easier by always following guidelines for ethical behavior set out in both state and federal codes pertaining to teachers. The Feeney and Freeman article show a number of ethical dilemmas, and all are navigated by first reviewing the relevant Codes. (Feeney & Freeman, 2016) This is good advice to resolve all ethical issues.
In my professional life, in both military, law enforcement, teaching, and coaching, I have faced issues that required an ethical decision. Whether it has to do with military reports, making an arrest, or even playing one student over another, in each incident I tried to follow the harder right and do what was required. The reality is that if you have made the decision to do the harder right, if you are familiar with all relevant codes and policies, then these issues become routine, and are not memorable because they are not memorable, just a part of the everyday work.
References
Feeney, S., & Freeman, N. K. (2016). Ethical issues responsibilities and dilemmas. YC: Young Children, 71(1), 86-89. https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/mar2016/et…
Wheat, Clayton. (1924). The Cadet Prayer. https://www.west-point.org/academy/malo-wa/inspira…
Peer Response 4:
I try to always do what I believe is the right thing depending on the situation. Ethical conduct takes into account the various outcomes for everyone involved and strives to choose the action that leads to the best outcome for each person. In a school environment, ethical conduct often means doing what is best for the student. However, that can be muddied when doing what is best for one student can mean hurting other students, so decisions must be made very carefully and with much consideration. It is important to always consider the ethical implications of decisions, especially as a school leader, because of how many people those decisions can affect. As Marlatt and Korang (2020) noted, “Teacher educators engaged in professional ethics make choices in curriculum, instruction, and pedagogy based on their core values of the human experience and model those values for their students” (p. 500). All teachers, educators, and school leaders must not only consider how their actions affect students, but also how they are modeling their ethics and values for students.
Ethics, resource management, and leadership are inextricably linked together as leaders make decisions about how to use resources given to them. A recent ethical consideration has been using money given to schools for covid concerns. What is the best way to ethically use that money? Is it to provide PPE to faculty and staff? Is it to hire more custodial staff to lighten the load of custodians, or would it be better to provide temporary raises to the current staff? Should the money be spent on technology to allow students to complete schoolwork at home, or should it be spent on facilities to make the school building safer? These questions all require leaders to make ethical decisions that affect thousands of students, employees, and their families. When given any amount or type of resources to manage, a leader must work to act ethically and with integrity.
I feel like I am constantly making ethical decisions as a teacher. One ethical question I am still working through my answer to is determining whether a student has earned a credit. For example, my school offered credit recovery classes this past summer. As an English teacher, I co-taught with a science teacher to teach a 3 week course that would allow students to earn both their English 2 and biology credits. The classes were 3 hours a day for 12 days, and administration told us to teach using project-based learning. Working in groups, students completed 2 projects during those 12 days. I struggled with the idea of students earning 2 credits in just 12 days. There are multiple aspects to any ethical question: how much did the students learn during the school year? How much of their failing grade during the year was due to quarantining for covid? How much of their failing grade during the year was due to not turning in work as opposed to failing tests? Should I take their attendance during the school year into account? Students could also miss up to 5 days of summer school, effectively allowing them to make up 2 full credits in 1 week’s worth of classes. How is that fair to students who worked during the school year to earn those 2 credits? Is that teaching students that they can do nothing during the school year and just come to school a few days during the summer to earn their credits? Is it my position to decide whether or not that is fair? I ultimately decided to follow my administration’s requirements, and the majority of the 55 students did earn both credits, though some did not do even a minimal amount of work.
I still feel uneasy about my decision, but felt like my hands were tied by my school’s administration, as well as by my co-teacher who did not share the same qualms I did about the situation and had equal input on student grades. I do believe that there are aspects of ethics that are decided by position and constraints of that position; what is right in one situation may not be right in another. I was hired by my school and they set the parameters for earning a credit, therefore I am to follow their lead in questions regarding student learning. I have documentation of questions I had that were answered by assistant principals. I understand that there are far fewer questions when a student passes than when a student fails. I also understand the benefits of a high school diploma, and that not having one can greatly limit a person’s choices. Therefore, I believe that allowing those students to earn credit for the courses was the ethical decision.
Reference
Marlatt, R., & Korang, T. (2020). Prioritizing Ethics: Interdisciplinary Implementations of Principle-Based Ethics in Secondary Teacher Education. International Journal of Teaching & Learning in Higher Education, 32(3), 499–518.Peer Response 1:
NCLB and ESSA are similar and different in ways. Focusing on the similarities first one area in which they are similar deals with how they went about making sure that the focus is on student achievement. Both legislations make sure that student achievement is at the forefront, especially as it relates to the states being responsible for holding the schools accountable. Another similarity is that both legislations require that the states do test their students in reading and math for 3rd-8th grades and also in high school as well. Also the test results had to be reported by both legislations and broken down by subgroup categories. The categories could be in areas like race, ethnicity, special education, poverty, and so on. Even though there were ways that the two were similar, they were some major differences between the two as well. NCLB had more federal input and persuasion as to how schools were operated. ESSA changed this and put more responsibility back on the state. “Importantly, under the Every Student Succeeds Act, Congress redefined the role of the federal government in elementary and secondary education, scaling back the federal role and enhancing the authority of the states and local school districts” (American College of Education, 2021). Also, the ESSA requires input from parents and families when it comes to creating state plans about the school and improvement areas. The NCLB legislation did not require this. Involving parents and families more in the school and the school improvement process was something that came about more through the ESSA. ESSA also incorporates the UDL or Universal Design of Learning that is used to teach in multiple ways to our diverse learners in the classroom. They incorporate more emphasis on teaching ELL learners. The ESSA legislation is all about preparing students for college and career readiness.
Something that I have seen over the years that has been increased is differentiation and student engagement in the learning. All students are required to be taught to the highest of standards and that work is happening. In concert with that, students are also getting small group instruction and getting work in their deficient areas to try and fill those gaps that have been created over the years. Having multiple ways to teach lessons and different engagement strategies for lessons is another shift that I see happening quite frequently. The same standard, skill, and lesson can be taught differently in two different classes taught by the same teacher because of data and the UDL. One class may need more modeling and structure, while another class may have more peer /group work or use technology into the lesson. It’s all about school achievement in the schools. We are constantly looking at data and the performance of students on informal, formal, and state assessments. Our job these days is to adjust our instruction based on the data and ensure that we are teaching in a way that all learners are benefitting. NCLB was seen to have left subgroups of students behind. ESSA was formulated to ensure that all students have high expectations of learning and that all students are learning in the best way that fits them. Learning today is not one size fits all.
I’m not as familiar with the NCLB as I started teaching as it was heading out the door but I do like how NCLB brought about looking at data and testing students to see where they stand on assessments. It started out as a good idea but it has led to way too much testing these days. I came into teaching at a time when students are constantly being tested. They have tests from the teacher, district, and state. There are paper and pencil tests as well as computer diagnostic testing from like three different programs. Then there is placement testing for other programs being put into the schools. A negative is the constant testing that is done on the kids. It seems to be never-ending. Then it seems as though all we cared about was teaching to a test and not teaching for the students to learn and experience new information. Instead of enjoying reading rich literature and having those in depth discussions, read this text and answer the question like this because you will see down the line in April or May. What is a positive is what we have learned to do with the data. This is where ESSA comes into play. With this data, teachers can learn how to differentiate the lessons and know what students to target as it relates to certain skills and standards. It makes our work purposeful and intentional. We have to consider all learners and realize that the lesson we taught to our first class may have to be modified ad not taught the same way in the next class. All stakeholders having access to the data and being involved in the school improvement process as well is a benefit. It makes everyone invested in what is happening in the schools and could lead to more collaboration and better working relationships.
References
American College of Education. ESSA and nclb. American College of Education. Module 1 Presentations (instructure.com)Peer
Peer Response 2:
The ESSA law was introduced in December 2015 as another way to ensure equal learning opportunities for each and every student. As ACE productions (2020) noted in the ESSA and NCLB video, NCLB did not achieve the goals it set out to which included an increase in equity, closed achievement gaps, and improvement in the quality of instruction for all learners. However, there were slight improvements in instructional methods and there was greater accountability for educators. The four major components of NCLB included “Accountability, flexibility related to funding, more parental choice, and research -based teaching methods” (ACE Productions, 2020). Tied into these included goal setting for schools to improve student performance, federal funding to improve individual needs of each school, parental decision-making of school choice for their child, and improvements in educator training and professional development to meet the needs of all students.
With the ESSA, decision-making became a task for local school districts and states rather than the federal government being the lead decision-makers. Different from the NCLB, the ESSA puts a greater focus on our students with disabilities and those who are English Language Learners. While NCLB also focused on improving instructional outcomes for learners, ESSA supports higher quality preschool initiatives in order to provide an earlier start to schooling especially for communities with a greater need for this (ACE Productions, 2020).
With the introduction of ESSA, I anticipate changes in the way that teachers are evaluated. Due to decision-making being at the hands of local districts and states, there is greater opportunity for teacher involvement in the decision making in determining the most valid and reliable evaluation options for us. Additionally, “Under ESSA, Title II funds can be used for new purposes, such as peer-led, ongoing professional development that is job-embedded and evidence-based” (Kragthorpe, 2016). With this in mind, there are additional supports in place for schools that have the greatest achievement gap including local agencies developing and supporting plans to increase learning outcomes.
Although I just began teaching as NCLB was ending, through research it seems that the most positive impact that NCLB had on schools was the structure that came with it. Having states set the standards supported schools in comparing the performance of their learners to others outside of their school. The information gathered through this helped target learning gaps and areas for future instruction. However, this also has a negative piece to consider which is that not all learners are able to demonstrate their skill through standardized assessments. As we’ve learned in pre-service teacher preparation programs as well as in the ACE Assessment Strategies course, multiple means of assessment are key when looking for the most realistic picture of a student’s performance. I expect with the ESSA though, that the discouraging of use of test results to determine teacher performance will have a positive impact on how educators view standardized assessments. Perhaps we will start to spend more time focusing on students as learners with strengths and challenges rather than obsessing over performance on state assessments and how to boost those scores.
References
ACE Production. (2020, October 20). Law & Policy. American College of Education. Retrieved October 1, 2021, from https://ace.instructure.com/courses/1770000/external_tools/118428.
Gofberg, Stacey E., “No child left behind: the impact on special education teachers at the secondary level” (2006). Theses and Dissertations. 857.
Kragthorpe, H. (2016, September 26). Six Ways ESSA Will Effect Your Classroom [web log]. Retrieved October 1, 2021, from https://e4e.org/blog-news/blog/six-ways-essa-will-affect-your-classroom.
Peer Response 3:
In 1985, I was lucky enough to be chosen to be a member of the United States Military Academy’s Corps of Cadets. The motto of the Corps is fairly well known, Duty, Honor Country. This very well-known phrase guides each of us in our personal actions and dealings as a Cadet. Less well known is a line from the Cadet Prayer, “Make us to choose the harder right over the easier wrong.” (Wheat, 1924) This is the true guide to ethical behavior. How do react to the everyday challenges and issues that I am faced with. How do I ensure that I am consistent in all my dealings and interactions? The teaching profession has a defined code of ethics. The challenge then is how do I follow that code, how do I maintain that behavior, in the face of so many demands, on time, from parents, and even from your own life. The reality is that doing the right thing becomes a habit. When I talk with my boys about it, I call it a ‘non-negotiable’. The decision to be ethical to “choose the harder right’ has to be made long before the challenge arises, that way you do not struggle with it at the point of stress. Hopefully, this has prepared you to face any ethical issues head on.
There is clearly a direct relationship between resource management and ethics. The finite nature of resources means that there will always need to be decisions about how resources are allocated and what factors go into that decision making. This makes it so important that school leadership is perceived as being firm, fair and consistent. This perception will serve a school leader well when the claims are made about inequitable resource distribution. This is when the school leader has to lean on his reputation and be able to stand against all accusations, confident he has done well. This is also made easier by always following guidelines for ethical behavior set out in both state and federal codes pertaining to teachers. The Feeney and Freeman article show a number of ethical dilemmas, and all are navigated by first reviewing the relevant Codes. (Feeney & Freeman, 2016) This is good advice to resolve all ethical issues.
In my professional life, in both military, law enforcement, teaching, and coaching, I have faced issues that required an ethical decision. Whether it has to do with military reports, making an arrest, or even playing one student over another, in each incident I tried to follow the harder right and do what was required. The reality is that if you have made the decision to do the harder right, if you are familiar with all relevant codes and policies, then these issues become routine, and are not memorable because they are not memorable, just a part of the everyday work.
References
Feeney, S., & Freeman, N. K. (2016). Ethical issues responsibilities and dilemmas. YC: Young Children, 71(1), 86-89. https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/mar2016/et…
Wheat, Clayton. (1924). The Cadet Prayer. https://www.west-point.org/academy/malo-wa/inspira…
Peer Response 4:
I try to always do what I believe is the right thing depending on the situation. Ethical conduct takes into account the various outcomes for everyone involved and strives to choose the action that leads to the best outcome for each person. In a school environment, ethical conduct often means doing what is best for the student. However, that can be muddied when doing what is best for one student can mean hurting other students, so decisions must be made very carefully and with much consideration. It is important to always consider the ethical implications of decisions, especially as a school leader, because of how many people those decisions can affect. As Marlatt and Korang (2020) noted, “Teacher educators engaged in professional ethics make choices in curriculum, instruction, and pedagogy based on their core values of the human experience and model those values for their students” (p. 500). All teachers, educators, and school leaders must not only consider how their actions affect students, but also how they are modeling their ethics and values for students.
Ethics, resource management, and leadership are inextricably linked together as leaders make decisions about how to use resources given to them. A recent ethical consideration has been using money given to schools for covid concerns. What is the best way to ethically use that money? Is it to provide PPE to faculty and staff? Is it to hire more custodial staff to lighten the load of custodians, or would it be better to provide temporary raises to the current staff? Should the money be spent on technology to allow students to complete schoolwork at home, or should it be spent on facilities to make the school building safer? These questions all require leaders to make ethical decisions that affect thousands of students, employees, and their families. When given any amount or type of resources to manage, a leader must work to act ethically and with integrity.
I feel like I am constantly making ethical decisions as a teacher. One ethical question I am still working through my answer to is determining whether a student has earned a credit. For example, my school offered credit recovery classes this past summer. As an English teacher, I co-taught with a science teacher to teach a 3 week course that would allow students to earn both their English 2 and biology credits. The classes were 3 hours a day for 12 days, and administration told us to teach using project-based learning. Working in groups, students completed 2 projects during those 12 days. I struggled with the idea of students earning 2 credits in just 12 days. There are multiple aspects to any ethical question: how much did the students learn during the school year? How much of their failing grade during the year was due to quarantining for covid? How much of their failing grade during the year was due to not turning in work as opposed to failing tests? Should I take their attendance during the school year into account? Students could also miss up to 5 days of summer school, effectively allowing them to make up 2 full credits in 1 week’s worth of classes. How is that fair to students who worked during the school year to earn those 2 credits? Is that teaching students that they can do nothing during the school year and just come to school a few days during the summer to earn their credits? Is it my position to decide whether or not that is fair? I ultimately decided to follow my administration’s requirements, and the majority of the 55 students did earn both credits, though some did not do even a minimal amount of work.
I still feel uneasy about my decision, but felt like my hands were tied by my school’s administration, as well as by my co-teacher who did not share the same qualms I did about the situation and had equal input on student grades. I do believe that there are aspects of ethics that are decided by position and constraints of that position; what is right in one situation may not be right in another. I was hired by my school and they set the parameters for earning a credit, therefore I am to follow their lead in questions regarding student learning. I have documentation of questions I had that were answered by assistant principals. I understand that there are far fewer questions when a student passes than when a student fails. I also understand the benefits of a high school diploma, and that not having one can greatly limit a person’s choices. Therefore, I believe that allowing those students to earn credit for the courses was the ethical decision.
Reference
Marlatt, R., & Korang, T. (2020). Prioritizing Ethics: Interdisciplinary Implementations of Principle-Based Ethics in Secondary Teacher Education. International Journal of Teaching & Learning in Higher Education, 32(3), 499–518.
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