Teachers from Collington Square watch intently as two of their coworkers navigate the "tight-rope" walk. (From left to right: Millie Scroggs, Nicole Humphreys, Marney Dorsey, Michael McGlaughlin, Wendell Alston, Karen Lancaster)

News from City Springs School (#08)

View the Field Trip Photo Album

City Springs Awards Students with Exciting Field Trips. Students at City Springs are regularly awarded for perfect attendance, scholarship, and leadership skills. On November 11, students from grades pre-K through five visited Port Discovery in Baltimore City.

In order to participate students had to complete all homework assignments from September through November 11. During the trip the students enjoyed arts and crafts, dress-up time, and educational activities such as learning about the calendar.

Shaw's Farm. On October 19 students from grades pre-K through five visited Shaw's Farm. The students, who were awarded for perfect attendance, picked pumpkins, ate lunch on the lawn by the barn, and went on a hay ride.

Medieval Times. Sixth, seventh, and eighth graders who exemplified good behavior for one month were treated to dinner and a show at Medieval Times on October 28th. Sixty students enjoyed an evening of merrymaking included spectacular demonstrations of horse riding and falconry, a magical play, and delicious food.

The Leadership Club. City Springs continues to recognize student leadership through its Leadership Club. At the end of each day teachers submit the names of students who have followed school rules and earned enough points during the day. The names are kept in one of three bags: one for pre-K - 2, another for 3 - 5, and a third for 6 - 8. Once a month a name is drawn from each bag. Winners receive prizes such as grab bags of school supplies and board games.

News from Collington Square School (#97)

Extended Day Program at Collington

Consistent with research indicating a strong correlation between increased instructional time and increased academic performance (particularly for disadvantaged populations) Collington Square has significantly expanded its extended day program this year.

For the past few years, Collington has used its restructuring funds to extend the school day by one half hour each day. In 2003-2004, this likely contributed to the significant increase in academic outcomes we achieved that year. However, during the last school year, BCP did not receive the funding necessary to run the extended day program until February – less than a month before statewide tests were given. With this loss of instructional time last year, Collington was able to maintain the gains made the year prior, but did not make any further gains.

This year, by operating Collington as a charter school, BCP and Principal Eason have increased control over the school’s finances. Accordingly, Collington was able to begin offering the additional half hour of instruction on the very first day school. In addition, for middle school students, school continues for another hour of instruction after that with school running until 4:15 everyday for those students (instead of 2:45). In December, this program was expanded to include first through fifth graders. Now, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, those students join the older students in staying until 4:15.

Combined, these programs will mean a total of 113 additional instructional hours for first through fifth graders and a whopping 225 additional hours for middle school students – that is the equivalent of about 7 additional weeks of school. BCP congratulates Collington on this great program and thanks Principal Eason and his staff for their hard work and commitment to the students of Collington Square!

Math Smack Down

On Wednesday, December 21st, Collington Square School will hold their first "Math Smack Down" of the 2005 -2006 school year. The Math Smack Downs began three years ago as way to motivate students to learn their math facts. The competitions, with their wrestling theme, provide a fun, educational way for students to compete as a math class against their fellow students.

When Millie Scroggs and Brenda Kahn, Curriculum Coordinators, first designed the activity, they struggled with how they could enable groups of differing abilities to compete against each other fairly. They came upon the idea of giving each group in the competition math facts that they should know based on their current math placement. Tailoring the items to each team's ability allows multi-grade levels, age groups, and ability groups to compete against each other.

From the beginning, Millie and Brenda also operated under the premise that no child should be eliminated from the competition. The students compete as a team. If a student gets an item incorrect, they simply move to the end of the line for another try. Also, in keeping with the idea of team work, students earn bonus points for good sportsmanship and for displaying team spirit.

The students are gearing up for the next competition and looking forward to seeing who will earn the right to proudly display the Math Smack Down belt.

News from Hampstead Hill Academy (#47)

New Hampstead Hill Website

Hampstead Hill Academy's New Website

Hampstead Hill's new website – www.HHA47.org – is now live. The site will include class pictures, school newsletters, press clippings, admissions and uniform policies, holiday and events calendars, activities in our neighborhood, and information on student performance. Special thanks to parent Mark Frascati for his expertise in making the website a reality.

Hampstead Hill’s Food for Life Program
Hampstead Hill's Food For Life Program is working with the Weinberg Foundation, Fusion Partnerships, Inc., and the Food Studies Institute to bring healthy eating habits and cooking to the school.

Middle school students are learning about good cooking habits including hygiene in the kitchen, choosing ingredients, and tasty recipes. Food Educator Ariel Demas runs the Food for Life Program and hopes to make it available to elementary grades in the future. Beginning in January 2006, Food for Life will sponsor monthly Community Dinners.

	Students line up to answer questions posed by Principal Matt Hornbeck in the latest Math Rumble.

Let's Get Ready to "Math Rumble"

"Let's get ready to rumble..." shouted the announcer as dance music boomed and the fans cheered. No, this isn't a professional wrestling event; it's the Hampstead Hill Math Rumble.

On Wednesday October 23rd Hampstead Hill held it's annual Math Rumble, a contest to help students improve their basic math skills. Approximately 280 students from grades 1-5 participated.

The "spelling-bee"-like contest was held in the Hamptead Hill auditorium. Each class ascended the stage to the uproarious applause of their fellow classmates. The excitement in the air was palpable as each student stepped forward to answer an addition or subtraction question.

All participants in the Math Rumble received a certificate and individual students who answered correctly in each round received a medal. Classrooms with the highest percentage of students answering correctly received a classroom banner.

Principal Matt Hornbeck asked the math questions. He was assisted by Tony Berry (the Math Rumble MC), Kathi Sexton and her daughter Tracy (Judges/timers), and Geri Swann and Nancy Dannenfelser, who helped with logistics and set-up. We are proud of every student who participated in the Math Rumble. Another Math Rumble is planned for Middle School students in the near future.

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Interview with Educational Psychologist/Researcher Barak Rosenshine

Barak Rosenshine is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois. He is an education psychologist, researcher, and expert on instructional methods. His research has contributed a great deal to understanding the effectiveness of various instructional methods. Mr. Rosenshine earned an undergraduate degree in psychology at the University of Chicago in 1957 and was awarded a Ph.D. in educational psychology from Stanford University in 1968. He was on the faculty at Temple University from 1966 to 1970, before joining the faculty at the University of Illinois.

The following interview was conducted via e-mail.

Q: Mr. Rosenshine, why does school reform in low income communities tend to result in a period of improvement followed by a plateau beyond which the schools cannot progress?

The research on improving reading in primary grades has always, always, shown that teachers and specific programs are able to raise scores in decoding fairly easily, but it is very difficult to raise scores in reading comprehension after a modest gain. It is also much easier to obtain gains in math computation and more difficult in math problem solving.

So if your question is: why is it so much harder to raise scores in reading comprehension than it is to raise scores in decoding, or if your question is : why is it so hard to raise scores in reading comprehension -- then I have a few answers.

I am interested in finding out why it is so hard to raise scores in reading comprehension. I am also interested in whether or not this is more of a problem for low-income schools and why.

One problem is turnover. It's hard to do much with 75 percent turnover. I read that kids from low-income families who have stayed in the same school, do quite well.

That is consistent with our experience - generally we find that students we have had since kindergarten tend to be on grade level. However, if a student from a low-income family manages to say in the same school, does he face any other problems?

One of the skills that all kids face is fluent reading so that the mind can focus on comprehension and not on decoding or word meaning. I believe the Direct Instruction program is outstanding in developing such fluency.

Another necessary skill has been called "reading to learn," that is, approaching a text as a source of knowledge and not as a series of words to be voiced. Many of the cognitive strategies, such as learning to ask questions about a text, have proven useful in teaching kids to read to learn.

Another necessary skill, which is a particularly important test-taking skill, is the ability to infer. If you look at the passages on standardized tests in reading and try to answer the questions, I think you'll find that your mind has to re-read and go through gyrations in order to answer these questions. When we studied two different tests eight years ago, we found that many of the passages didn't have topic sentences and that the questions were different from the types of questions that appear in typical reading books.

So I believe, and others need to check me out, that there is a difference between the types of passages and types of questions that often appear on standardized tests and the types of passages and questions that are typically read in 4th and 5th grade classes.

One possible solution then, is to focus on inference skills in the classroom. I found that questions that appear in the Junior Great Books series do focus on requiring inference. I would hope that others would study the standardized tests, identify the types of skills that are necessary to answer the questions, and attempt to teach these skills in the classroom. But teaching the inference process that is required to answer questions on the standardized test is very difficult. I would inquire to see what others have learned on this topic.

Can limited vocabulary have an impact?

Vocabulary is a major problem. I saw a table on vocabulary growth that showed vocabulary growing at a 40 degree angle -- across age -- for middle class kids and at a 25 degree angle for lower class kids.

How does the teacher affect student achievement in reading comprehension?

Some teachers are more skilled than others. Even within a highly-structured program, some teachers are more determined that their students will learn. I have always enjoyed visiting those teachers and watching their skilled performance.

What about the impact of extended day? This year BCP has expanded its extended day at Collington Square School.

The most highly acclaimed charter schools all have an extended day and Saturday and summer school. The manager of KIPP said that their kids spent 68% more time in school. The additional time for those schools is spent engaged in instruction and practice in reading and math.

I also recommend using national programs that have the best track record, such as Direct Instruction and Success for All because of the advantage of a school-wide program and their national experience.

BCP uses both Direct Instruction and Core Knowledge in our charter schools. What do you think of Core Knowledge?

I'm a long-term fan of Don Hirsch, beginning 18 or so years ago when I used some of his articles in my educational psychology classes. I have the highest regard for the Core Knowledge curriculum.

For more information on student achievement and instructional methods see the following articles:

• Rosenshine, B. (1996). Advances in Research on Instruction. In J.W. Lloyd, E.J. Kameanui, and D. Chard (Eds.) (1997) Issues in educating students with disabilities. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum: Pp. 197-221. <http://epaa.asu.edu/barak/barak.html>
• Rosenshine, B. (2002). Converging Findings on Classroom Instruction. In A. Molnar (Ed.) School Reform Proposals: The Research Evidence. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing: Pp. 9-9.30. <http://www.asu.edu/educ/epsl/EPRU/documents/EPRU%202002-101/Chapter%2009-Rosenshine-Final.pdf>
• Rosenshine, B. (2005). Helping Students from Low-Income Families. OQE Forum, 14, 19-20. <http://www.societyforqualityeducation.org/newsletter/sep05/sept05news.pdf>
• Farbman, D. & Kaplan, C. (2005). Time for a Change: The Promise of Extended-Time Schools for Promoting Student Achievement. Boston, MA: Massachusetts 2020. <http://www.mass2020.org/full_report.pdf>

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