While recently attending the fall IRA regional in Mobile, Alabama, I had the good fortune of meeting Sally Butzin, Executive Director of the Institute for School Innovation in Florida. The state of Florida has benchmarks at grade three, that if unmet by a child, result in that child's retention. The Institute’s Project Child is having significant success preventing such grade three retention. Only 1% of the students who had been in Project Child throughout the primary grades failed to pass the reading test and were held back, compared with 14% statewide in non Project Child classrooms. What makes these results even more impressive is that they included children with special needs. In 12 of the 15 schools reporting, not one Project Child participant was held back. That is a remarkable accomplishment.

Project Child is an innovative instructional model for elementary schools. It was developed at Florida State University and last year had 15,000 students in five states participating in the model. Project Child classrooms are not like traditional single-grade classrooms. Instead, a cluster of teachers form cross-grade teams, for example K–2, with each teacher selecting a core subject specialty. Students rotate among three classrooms, spending 60 to 90 minutes at various learning stations within each classroom while focusing on the core subject. Each of the classrooms has six learning stations:

• Computer – learning via instructional technology
• Teacher – small group lessons
• Textbook – written work
• Challenge – game-format learning
• Exploration – hands-on activities and projects
• Imagination – creative expression

Students stay with the same team of teachers for three years. The standard curriculum is covered, and teachers use basic texts and other learning resources. Learn more about Project Child and their findings on student performance, or email the staff at: staff@ifsi.org.

In a recent article, Washington Post educational reporter, Jay Mathews, recently cited Seven Ways in Which Politicians are Dumb About Schools. He has listened to and watched the political rhetoric and compiled his list of dumb thoughts based on his observations.

Here are what Mathews’ dubs as politicians’ dumb thoughts about schools:

• A good measure of school quality is average SAT scores.
• It is bad to have programs that encourage educators to teach to a test.
• It would be better if schools stopped promoting low-achieving students to the next grade.
• Lowering class size is always a good idea.
• It is education policy and not specific school success that matters.
• Schools need more money.
• Electing new leaders will help fix schools.

Three things have contributed to eliminating or shortening recess time in many schools:
the need to dedicate more time for academics, particularly reading and math; the lack of playground supervision; and the threat of lawsuits stemming from injuries. The U.S. Department of Education recently released a report stating that up to 30% of elementary school children receive 15 minutes or less of recess time a day. Now groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the PTA are advocating more unstructured playtime during a child’s day.

Those in support of more recess time believe that unstructured play promotes social skills and creativity. They say that when playtime is undirected, kids have an opportunity to practice conflict resolution, leadership, and negotiation skills.

In an attempt to mix exercise with academics, some principals have encouraged teachers to take stretching breaks between learning activities. But the recess advocates say that toe touching and arm extensions can’t replace the value of unstructured play.

Seems to me that little bodies filled with boundless energy were not meant to sit for hours at a time. Recess offers a change of pace and a greatly needed release from mental concentration. I don't know about you, but I sure am more productive if I get up and at least take a walk after taxing my brain for a few hours. Perhaps a mandatory office recess for some unstructured play wouldn’t be a bad idea in educational publishing companies as well.

The notion of differentiated instruction dates as far back as Confucius who is said to have recognized that people differ in their abilities. He advocated individually based instruction. Certainly differentiated instruction is not new to teachers in America, either. After all, the nation’s one-room schoolhouses survived on differentiated instruction.

Today, many believe that high-stakes tests are reinforcing one-size-fits-all instruction. They argue that the common teaching approach of preparing all students in a particular grade for passing a standardized test is counterproductive and will leave many children behind.

Despite the pressure to get all students performing at the same level as reinforced by mandated testing, educators everywhere are challenging the one-size-fits-all approach to instruction. They are bolstered by research as that of Tomlinson et al. (2003), which shows that instruction aimed at recognizing the varied abilities of kids yields positive results. There is also sufficient evidence to demonstrate that placing students into tracks based on ability has yielded few positive results and has led to lowered expectations.

A large part of our reason for creating Reading A–Z and our other websites was to provide teachers and parents with a huge array of research-based resources to answer the demands of differentiated instruction in today’s classrooms. Teachers need many tools in their toolbox and it is often too expensive to get all they need. But with ProQuest LearningPage’s online resources, teachers can select their needed materials and print the quantities they need at one low, annual subscription price.

Would you believe they are now saying that homework may not be so good for kids. Well, maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration. Nonetheless, according to Duke University professor, Harris Cooper—reportedly the nation’s foremost homework expert (bet you didn’t know there was such a thing)—other than perhaps for reading and a few basic skills, kids in elementary school do not benefit academically from doing all the homework that gets assigned to them (an average 78 minutes a night says an informal AOL poll). Cooper’s conclusions are based on the analysis of dozens of studies that have examined the relationship between homework and student academic performance. So the end result of these findings is that some people are now arguing against homework for kids. The one big exception is reading. So keep sending those Reading A–Z books home so kids can practice their reading skills. With Reading A–Z, you have a rich collection of books at 27 developmentally appropriate levels, dozens of genres, and hundreds of topics of interest for meaningful homework.

Two books you may want to read on this issue are The Homework Myth (Da Capo Press) and The Case Against Homework (Crown Publishing).