http://www.achievementfirst.org/ Latest news from Achievement First Chalkboard en http://www.achievementfirst.org/typo3conf/ext/tt_news/ext_icon.gif http://www.achievementfirst.org/ 18 16 Latest news from Achievement First Chalkboard TYPO3 - get.content.right http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Tue, 17 Jul 2012 10:49:00 -0500 Subscribe with My Yahoo!Subscribe with NewsGatorSubscribe with My AOLSubscribe with BloglinesSubscribe with NetvibesSubscribe with GoogleSubscribe with PageflakesSubscribe with PlusmoSubscribe with The Free DictionarySubscribe with Bitty BrowserSubscribe with Live.comSubscribe with Excite MIXSubscribe with WebwagSubscribe with Podcast ReadySubscribe with WikioSubscribe with Daily Rotation http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AchievementFirstLatestNews/~3/rInjVoOqnJE/ I once had a brief career in the culinary arts. Before 2002, I was a notoriously bad cook. I was... The Soul of a Chef, The Journey Toward Perfection, it’s clear that the kitchen staff there fanatically cares about the details that no one else cares about. They are obsessed with seemingly insignificant details. When cooking, the chefs there are always cleaning—sometimes four times a day—including scrubbing the oil off bottles. They do this to prevent oil from getting on their fingers and leaving oily fingerprints on plates pulled from a warmer. Most restaurants store their fish in random assortment. At the French Laundry, they pack their fish in ice in the same position the fish swim. The positioning avoids unnecessarily stressing the flesh of the fish. The attention to detail there is simply incredible. Ruhlman describes an interaction with one of the assistant chefs there: “One night during service, we left the kitchen for the office to talk. He was dressed for work and had helped prep but was not on (that night). On the way out, he stopped to wipe crumbs off a cutting board used by the cheese station to slice bread, and in the parking lot, he picked up a cigarette butt.” Ruhlman asked the man why he cleaned up in his free time. The assistant chef told him, “Is the guest going to notice the cigarette butt in the driveway? Consciously, no…but it’s all those unconscious things that make this a beautiful place.” Since I arrived at Achievement First three years ago, it has been one of my goals for all four of our middle schools to be among the “French Laundry of schools.” How do we foster a culture of excellence in our scholars like Chef Thomas Keller does at French Laundry? At the end of The Soul of a Chef, French Laundry Chef Thomas Keller explains where his perfectionist drive comes from. His explanation serves to explain what makes anyone strive to do his or her best. “In hindsight, I was very lucky to have been raised by my mother in such an ideal way as to allow me to understand the details of things. A lot of it is based on having to do certain chores around the house. You clean the bathroom, which was my job. There was only one way to do it. Everything had to shine. Everything had to be just perfect. Her definition of perfect. Which became my definition of perfect. To this day, no matter what I do, it’s kind of based on cleaning the bathroom.” “So, I’ve taken one (lesson) she taught me and compounded it into who and what I am. (I am always) paying attention to detail and making sure that it was done and done right.” In other words, Keller is a person who, at first, just wanted to please his mom. Yet, later on, that translated into him doing every simple task the right way, which in turn created a culture of excellence at the best restaurant in the United States. This short example, to me, exemplifies the power of teaching. The bar that we set for our kids—how we define “good enough”—has the potential to change their lives and the lives of others. If we define “perfect” in a certain way—structured around high expectations—who knows, one of our scholars may someday start the next French Laundry.  ]]> Chi Tschang News Home Tue, 17 Jul 2012 10:49:00 -0500 http://www.achievementfirst.org/chalkboard/post/article/from-cuisine-to-curriculum-building-a-culture-of-excellence/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AchievementFirstLatestNews/~3/qWTd5edfA-8/ Fifty-two Achievement First East New York Elementary School scholars recently took to the main... music video. Achievement First East New York Dance Teacher Meghan Carter, who coached the scholars in their dance performance, explains the dance program and this exciting event. 1. How does the dance program enhance scholars’ overall learning experience? Scholars take dance once a week as part of the music, art and dance curriculum. They are taught etiquette, choreography and technique as we study various styles of dance. They also learn about key figures in dance and about the origin of each genre we study. The dance class is an integral part of the rigorous day of academic learning at AF East New York Elementary. It gives the scholars a structured “wiggle break” and introduces the feeling and importance of regular physical activity that they can joyfully carry throughout their lives. Dance helps scholars stay alert, gives them the opportunity to exercise and enriches their knowledge of dance as a fine art. 2. Where do your scholars usually perform? This month, the scholars performed hip-hop routines during a Reach Circle. They also showcased their dancing abilities during our musical, “The Magic 3 Train,” which featured world dance and tap routines. Our scholars are very busy entertaining the Brooklyn community! 3. How did the scholars become involved in the festival? I work on a freelance basis for Superfly Presents, the company that produced the festival. The festival’s creator—Jonathan Mayers—learned of my work at Achievement First and loved that our scholars have a full art program in their school. He suggested the kids perform at the festival, and he asked me if I could choreograph the dance. They also decided that the scholars would perform on the main stage before major acts like The Roots and Hall and Oates and dance in The Great GoogaMooga music video! 4. How did your scholars prepare for their performance? We rehearsed the dance for three weeks until it was perfect.  Superfly Presents funded all of our preparations including costumes, transportation and vendor tickets for our scholars and their families to use at the festival! The scholars’ involvement in the festival was very special to me because the project was a collaborative effort between my sister and me. My sister, Laura G. Carter, was the awesome producer of the performance during the event. 5. What will be your most lasting memory of the performance? The scholars were so excited to be on stage in front of 40,000 people, with their families and teachers there to see their performance! I will always remember seeing the look on their faces when they saw the stage and the crowd for the first time. I also loved all of the high fives and hugs exchanged after the scholars came off the stage. They did an amazing job!        ]]> News Home Default Tue, 26 Jun 2012 08:58:00 -0500 http://www.achievementfirst.org/chalkboard/post/article/af-east-new-york-elementary-school-dancers-perform-at-the-great-googamooga/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AchievementFirstLatestNews/~3/y3hlqm2unQI/ Achievement First Amistad High School recently piloted an exciting flipped classroom program. AF... Blend My Learning. Here is an excerpt from the excellent post: "In a recent observation of a teacher using a flipped classroom design, I saw some of the most rigorous inquiry and discussions I have seen in any class and in any school. Free from the challenges of finding ways for scholars to successfully internalize basic content, the blended approach helped this teacher make room for a rigorous course that is truly preparing scholars for the rigors of college. This model has tremendous potential for our network and for our country." Please read more about the flipped classroom design at Blend My Learning.]]> Default News Home Wed, 06 Jun 2012 13:12:00 -0500 http://www.achievementfirst.org/chalkboard/post/article/af-amistad-high-school-pilots-successful-flipped-classroom-program/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AchievementFirstLatestNews/~3/I2MPOMbtklA/ In Connecticut, Achievement First’s 10th grade writing scores were ranked second in the state... th grade writing scores were ranked second in the state behind only Simsbury, with 100 percent of our scholars achieving proficiency and 92 percent achieving  at goal. On the New York eighth grade math test, scholars at both Achievement First Bushwick Middle and Achievement First Endeavor Middle outperformed their peers in Rye, NY, one of the wealthiest and highest-performing school districts in the state. Our student body is 98 percent African-American or Latino and 79 percent of our students receive free/reduced lunch. However, after several years at an Achievement First school, our students’ results in most subjects have topped those of districts like Greenwich, Westport, and Madison – some of Connecticut's most affluent towns. Since Achievement First students are selected by a blind lottery and the network has a higher percentage of poor and minority students than our host districts as a whole, the argument that poor, minority students cannot achieve seems clearly false. What does this mean for Achievement First? Our measure of success will never be to do just a little bit better or to compare ourselves only to other schools serving poor, minority students. Many schools and districts generate great applause and much back-slapping for raising student achievement from the 27th percentile nationally to the 32nd percentile nationally. While those gains are somewhat admirable (and rarely attained), Achievement First believes such gains are insufficient, for they do not fundamentally alter the life options of students. We are interested in taking students from the 27th percentile to the 72nd percentile and students at the 44th percentile to the 88th percentile. These are life-changing gains that put ALL students on the college-bound path and put some students on the path to go to our nation's most selective colleges and universities. We are not interested in reducing the achievement gap: we want to close it. Every Achievement First school is expected to raise student achievement to at least the state average within three years. Our internal “AF Report Card” sets goals that every student who has been at the school three or more years earn scores equal to (or better than) the scores in the wealthiest suburbs.  All Achievement First schools are also unapologetically college preparatory. In Greenwich, Westport, Scarsdale, and the Upper East Side, the question is not IF but WHERE the young people will go to college. Our society has changed, and we can no longer accept the fact that one-third to one-half of all youngsters will drop out of school. There was a time when those students would go on to take good, secure, blue-collar, factory jobs. These factory jobs are now in Guatemala, India, or Bangladesh. All Achievement First students know they can and will go to college. In order to cultivate a college focus, all Achievement First classrooms are named for colleges (instead of asking "Ms. Fernandez's class" to line up, AF teachers will ask "Tufts" to line up). Every AF student will be able to name the year that he or she will graduate from college, and at least one field trip a year for all K-12 students will be to a college campus.]]> Doug McCurry News Home Thu, 10 May 2012 10:30:00 -0500 http://www.achievementfirst.org/chalkboard/post/article/these-kids-can-learn/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AchievementFirstLatestNews/~3/qFFllFW19Js/ Now that we have focused on how we can shift our own behaviors to better use our prep periods,... 1. Don’t be a “Penelope”.  Who is Penelope? Good question. Penelope is a fictional teacher invented by the team at Amistad Academy Elementary School. She was invented during a role play illustrating how to have a difficult conversation with a colleague who wants to chat during an entire prep period. This can be a tricky situation, especially when you like the people you work with, so now Amistad Academy Elementary has language teachers can use when they find themselves interrupting precious work time. Teachers can say to each other, “I’m feeling really Penelope right now” when they want to come into a colleague’s room to chat. This gives a teacher the freedom to respond with something like, “I have to get these materials prepped, so can we talk later?” Does your school have common language that allows you to nicely say, “I really need to get some work done?” 2. Design a separate workspace. After surveying teachers about what would improve their lives, AF Brownsville Elementary wanted to create a social teacher area and then a separate workspace. Teachers can head to “Café Brown” – where they can do work, talk, eat and copy things. Kids are allowed in there. If teachers have serious work to do, they can head to “Hard Word Café” – where they work, eat and copy. Kids are not allowed to join. While Hard Word Café is not totally silent due the photocopier and teacher collaboration, teachers can enter and work without distraction. If your school doesn’t have space to do that, create an “office” in your supply closet or the back of someone’s classroom. No one can find you and you can grade papers quietly. Where in your building can you really maximize your prep periods? 3.Set your desk for success. Many of us sit down to finally start working (after the bathroom break, water refilling, and a breather), only to find that our hole puncher is missing, we don’t have our favorite grading pen, or the resources we need to write the unit plan are in the teacher resource room. We then have to jump up, race to another location to secure the materials and risk getting ambushed by someone else’s emergency or sucked into a fun conversation about what happened on Glee last night. Now, I’m not saying to just be an anti-social robot that ignores your colleagues, but I want you to be able to make the most of the limited “free” time that you have. Take time to stock your desk for your common prep period activities. Make sure your planning resources are nearby, your printer is hooked up and working and your student data is available. What materials do you need in your teacher workspace? None of these tricks in isolation will help you get more done at work, but if you train your brain to think, “protect the prep at all costs!” you may find that you are able to take a little less work home each evening.]]> News Home Maia Heyck-Merlin Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:29:00 -0500 http://www.achievementfirst.org/chalkboard/post/article/test-post/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AchievementFirstLatestNews/~3/Pt1ovC1gM3E/ This is the first in a series of monthly posts by AF’s Chief Talent Officer, Maia Heyck-Merlin. She... The Together Teacher: Plan Ahead, Get Organized, and Save Time! Part 1--Making the Most of That Prep Period: Emergencies, Procrastination and Distractions! Let’s describe what happens to most of our prep periods. You talk to one student right after class, race to the restroom, stop to fill your water bottle, pop into a colleague’s classroom for a “quick” chat, check your email and your favorite blog, and then—wait, the kids are back already?! How on earth did that happen? At the end of the day, you find yourself lugging a backpack of papers to grade or progress reports to write or parent phone calls to make. If you want to better maximize your limited free time, or maybe work less during evenings and weekends, read on to find tips that work!

1. Make it Bite-Sized. No one writes an entire unit plan during a prep period, so stop writing “unit plan” on your to-do list, avoiding it like the plague and checking your email. Instead, break down your to-do list into smaller pieces, a tactic used by teachers at AF Amistad High. Their teacher to-do lists have things like “Write Unit Three aims sequence,” “Create Unit Three scope and sequence,” and “Design Unit Three assessment.” That is work you can chew on in a 40 minute block. Take a look at your to-do list. Are there any tasks that you can shrink down to size?

2. Urgency, Not Emergency. Unpredictable events confront teachers every day. We tend to make everything an emergency to solve right now because we can be so helpful. . . Oh, that behavior issue?  Well, I’ll talk to the student after class. Does a colleague want to borrow some of your supplies? Pause, evaluate and ask yourself: does this need to happen right now? Is there a more efficient way to solve this problem? At AF Brownsville Elementary, they say, “We have urgency, but it’s not an emergency.” Maybe that challenging student gets a five-minute conversation, and then has to sit beside you and write an apology to her classmates while you grade papers, and then you can review the letter in the last five minutes. Are there any situations when you fall into this trap?

3. Batch Process. Nilda Velez, a teacher at AF Bushwick Middle School, has carefully planned out her preps so she tackles lesson planning work on Mondays and Tuesdays and handles departmental and coach responsibilities on Wednesdays and Thursdays. This way she is not bouncing around her prep period spending five minutes on this and five minutes on that, without completing anything. She picks one thing and focuses on it until it is done. Now that you have broken your to-do list into smaller pieces, can you divide them into categories and focus on one category in each prep period?

While none of these ideas will magically give you hours back in your busy day, each one will help you reclaim a few precious minutes, and that time adds up!]]> News Maia Heyck-Merlin Home Fri, 16 Mar 2012 12:03:00 -0500 http://www.achievementfirst.org/chalkboard/post/article/making-the-most-of-that-prep-period-emergencies-procrastination-and-distractions/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AchievementFirstLatestNews/~3/CgTQ9Ekj9PI/ Interview with Stephanie Blake, founding principal at AF Endeavor Elementary AF Endeavor... AF Endeavor Elementary                          
Opened: August 2011
Grades served: K-1 (growing to K-4)
Enrollment: 177 What inspired you to found an Achievement First school?
Having taught in the classrooms of public schools in various settings, I’ve seen many approaches to closing the achievement gap. When I came to AF, I realized that this experience was going to be different. I was instantly surrounded by like-minded people who believed that every child can and will meet high standards, succeed in our schools, go to college, and graduate from college. The AF Endeavor Elementary founding team is no exception. All 22 staff members have incredibly high expectations for scholar’s academic achievement and character development as well as a fire to close the achievement gap in NYC and across the country. What are you most excited about for the 2010-11 school year?
During my commitment meetings, over 40% of families shared that they were concerned about the confidence level of their scholars. One parent shared, “She just doesn’t believe that she CAN do it.” I am most excited about scholars having success at school and developing the confidence and knowledge that they can achieve anything that they want to accomplish. What is the biggest challenge you are anticipating? How can the network support you?
I think that we will face two huge challenges this year. First, our 1^st grade class is coming in significantly below grade level. Only one out of our 90 incoming 1^st graders is coming in reading at grade level. Despite where they are coming in, we know that we must push our scholars so that all 90 of them reach the proficiency benchmark for 1^st grade by the end of the year. While daunting, the AF Endeavor Elementary team knows that not only is it possible that we reach our goal…it is necessary if we want to put these scholars on the road to college. The second challenge that I think we will face this year is staying consistent with our school-wide management system. While the entire AF Endeavor team believes in our system and knows that it will build the character of each of our scholars, we also anticipate that we are going to need to build our skill in administering effective consequences so that scholars learn from their mistakes.   What is one idea you learned from another Achievement First school and are using at your school?
Last year, I worked at AF Brownsville Elementary as a principal-in-residence. Over the year, I developed incredibly close relationships with the leadership team and the staff. The AF Endeavor Elementary team and family steals at least one of their brilliant ideas every single day.]]> News Home Fri, 02 Mar 2012 13:18:00 -0600 http://www.achievementfirst.org/chalkboard/post/article/what-inspires-and-challenges-a-founding-af-principal/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AchievementFirstLatestNews/~3/56lKmtLPD4o/ There are two ways to react to the stark statistics about the achievement gap: despair and excuses,... There are two ways to react to the stark statistics about the achievement gap: despair and excuses, or hope and action. Unfortunately, until recently, many have chosen the former. In fact, most of the educational community relied on the most famous piece of educational research in history, James Coleman's famous 1966 report, to let themselves off the hook. Coleman found a correlation between socioeconomic status and student achievement: poor, minority kids did worse than affluent, white kids. The dominant educational paradigm became, therefore, that "those kids" can't learn. For years, politicians routinely make excuses for their city's low test scores, repeatedly saying that one just can't expect the scores in low-income communities to be as good as those in affluent – or even middle-class – ones. In one issue of Forbes magazine over a decade ago, the editor wrote that we cannot expect the sons and daughters of dishwashers and janitors to have the same academic achievement as the sons and daughters of doctors and lawyers because intelligence is "largely inherited." The good news for the country is that this line of thinking is coming under increasing assault, and Achievement First completely rejects this line of thinking. Instead of making excuses for why urban students can't learn, America must simply do a better job teaching urban students. Working on school reform issues for over a decade, the leaders of Achievement First have learned a great deal about how to close the achievement gap. Achievement First’s core beliefs inform our approach and suggest clear actions for us to take. The "top 10" beliefs are summarized below: 1."Those Kids" CAN Learn
2. Leadership Matters - Mightily
3. Teachers Are More Important Than Curricula ...
4. ... But Some Curricular Are Better Than Others
5. "Mere Mortals" Not "Superhumans"
6. An Unwavering Focus on Student Achievement
7. Interim Assessments and the Strategic Use of Data
8. One Hundred 1% Solutions
9. Serve ALL Urban Kids
10. Sweat the Small Stuff

Over the next few months, we will share more details about these lessons and the impact that they have had on our scholars, teachers and communities.]]> Doug McCurry News Home Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:39:00 -0600 http://www.achievementfirst.org/chalkboard/post/article/how-does-achievement-first-close-the-achievement-gap-what-have-we-learned-1/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AchievementFirstLatestNews/~3/8rVHQBkzX3w/ Interview with Jeremy Shedlosky, AF Hartford Academy Elementary Why did you choose Achievement First?
The people. There are a lot of place where I could do similar work but I get to collaborate and be challenged by the most intelligent, most passionate, and most downright hilarious people in the business at Achievement First. I couldn’t imagine doing this work anywhere else. What did you wish you knew when you started at AF?
Where it would take me.  It’s taken me from Brooklyn to Hartford (and back on several occasions).  My wife, Stephanie, and I met so many great friends through AF and are making more each day.  It’s been truly life changing. What’s your favorite thing about your job?
I get to learn and grow in my practice every day as I work to help other people do the same. I teach different groups throughout the week and I am still working at doing it better and better. Then I get to engage with teachers about their own learning and development for their students.                                                           What is your favorite hobby?
Stephanie and I enjoy traveling in our spare time. We’ve already booked our spring break trip to Jamaica and are in the process of planning our summer trip to Germany and Austria.                                    What superpower do you wish you had?
As a comic book junkie I take this question very seriously and after years of contemplation, I feel pretty confident in my answer. Telekinesis is by far the greatest super power. The ability to move objects with your mind trumps every other. You can levitate yourself and fly, bend light to become invisible, create electricity and fire with just a thought, and the possibilities are endless. The only thing missing would be to have a tail but that’s just silly, right? What have you learned in this role?
That’s a tough question. I feel like if you were to ask me tomorrow I might have a different answer because I learn something new each day. Today, it’s about balancing the importance of sticking to your original plan and seeing it through versus making necessary and swift changes to get to your goal. ]]> Home News Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.achievementfirst.org/chalkboard/post/article/a-day-in-the-life-of-an-academic-dean/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AchievementFirstLatestNews/~3/C6cBPjb1rns/ Have you heard the news? 100% of our seniors have been accepted into four-year colleges! Yeah, very... http://www.vimeo.com/24699723]]> Home Default Wed, 15 Jun 2011 17:06:00 -0500 http://www.achievementfirst.org/chalkboard/post/article/100-of-af-seniors-accepted-into-college/