I have received some questions, some accusations, and heard much passion from teachers in our district in regard to a new CollegeBoard curriculum called SpringBoard. I have shared your concerns and this is what I know thus far.
Each department head as well as principals and APC's have been given information about SpringBoard by Mr. Eric Bergholm, General Director, Advanced Academic Access.
SpringBoard is CollegeBoard's replacement for Pacesetter and was instituted as a pilot program in some of Hillsborough County Schools. It is my understanding that Mr. Bergholm would like to have SpringBoard in all Hillsborough County middle and high schools by next school year.
The learning schedule was written by our teachers for their colleagues to use and after they attended the training for SpringBoard they may have been overly enthusiastic about the schedule they created. Right now out of 180 teaching days about 175 days are planned. We are going to re-vamp this schedule which will give creativity and flexibility back to teachers. The schedule can be anywhere from 60 to 180 days of Springboard curriculum. What we will most likely end up with is 90 days. It is not intended for every day.
Trainings will be held in June, July and August and I have been told both privately and publicly at tonight’s school board meeting that teachers will be compensated for attending the trainings.
The short of the story is that teachers were involved in the adoption and planning phase and lessons have been learned and mistakes will be corrected.
Please continue to share your concerns. They are being heard.
IMPORTANT NEWS
Web Links
Tell me what you think
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
29 comments:
I don't care how it is spun, I completely disagree with this. I am a teacher. I am educated. I am certified. I know what I am doing. My curriculum is relevant, rigorous, and inspiring for my students. I am insulted. I have been perfecting my craft for years, and now I am to throw out at least half of it because other people "know better". I will NOT do this. I am moving to another county when I am certain this is being imposed on my high school. Every single teacher that DOES actually know about this is in total opposition to this approach.
Teachers who earn "excellent" on the evaluations and who have proven themselves should not be subjected to this. Not to mention, students will revolt or at least have a negative reaction to these prefabricated, one-size-fits-all lesson plans.
If Elia is concerned with the "inadequacies" of the teachers, then SpringBoard should be an alternative offered to the teachers that have consistently poor evaluations or have proven to be unprofessional.
This is another massive change, much like the 6/7 plan, that the teachers of Hillsborough County are being blindsided with.
This is NOT best for our students... I speak for them and the myriad of other educators who feel the very same way...
April,
How can the school board think that one size fits all lesson plans are appropriate. For years the district has been preaching the need for multiple lesson plans to bridge the needs of different students. What about students with special needs who are mainstream? Students with 504 plans? This is a diaster! And what teachers particpated in this? The same mystery teachers who were contacted in advance regarding their opinion on the 6/7 plan? There was no email asking teachers to participate, no letters in our mailbox, no mention from our department heads or principles that there was an opportunity for us to participate. How are we suppose to believe that teachers were "involved" when we have been blindsided again. Why even keep teachers around when you could now higher a monkey to disperse these prepacked lessons! I WILL NOT do this in my classroom. I would come down to the school board meetings to share my feelings and opinions with all but what would be the point? No one cares... no one will listen...and I will be fed the same line of bull from the district. The school board is just making teaching more attrative to the bad teachers and horrifying to the good teachers. Something must be done April! Help us!
The superintendent wants a student to go from Leto to Gaither, or Plant to Freedom, or Hillsborough to Plant City, Riverview to Bloomingdale, or School A to School B and NOT MISS A BEAT, assignment, quiz, test, or page.
While this may be a management/logistical goal, it makes for a rather vanilla educational experience. It also pulls the rug out from under CHOICE.
If everything is the same, what is the motivation for excellence?
I consider MORE than curriculum when evaluating a school, so does the "Southern Accreditation Committee". Having gone through multiple evaluations, I suspect this can trip us up.
I strive to be above average.
Why compel us to be mediocre unless that is all you think we are capable of?
Well, we were finally told about SpringBoard at my school, and let me tell you I loved the "spin" we were fed. I did the research; I know what this really is. Although several teachers who hadn't heard bought into the loaded catch phrases like, “We have found all the good stuff"... “We are using what is the best-done in this county"... "This is to make your lives better"...
My questions are the same offered up by other bloggers:
What are the "good things" that are put into SpringBoard?
Who decides?
How much money did the SB/district receive for selling out on our students'/children’s' educations?
Was this done for convenience, so kids can transfer freely?
Was it done to ensure we all are mediocre together?
Have we found out through hard anecdotal evidence and dense research and comparative statistics that this "thing" really is best and works?
What about student’s reactions?
What about teacher retention?
What teachers got together to "okay" this and "create" this product?
When did you ask us?
How will a teacher manage 3+ preps with this? I have three preps, as do most of the teachers at my school.
The questions are endless...
The funniest thing of all is that my principal and department head couldn't answer any of these questions... I just know that the tester schools were a bit of a disaster and that we are now working to make it "better". If that is the case, then why the green light?
Too many questions… no real answers in sight…
I believe this violates the teacher contract... how will Elia and the board spin it to make it seem as if it does not?
We must categorize this as either "textbook" or "supplement". If it is a "textbook", it must go through the rigorous textbook adoption process as cited in our contract. If it is a "supplement", then it is a tool that teachers have the OPTION of using entirely or not at all!
Which is it?
I await your answer.
I await many answers from someone about this.
I am a veteran eighth grade teacher in St. Charles, IL. I happened to google Springboard and Issues, and your website came up. As a teacher who was forced to implement Springboard, I have to say that our district is finally admitting the mistake they made regarding this mediocre (to say the least) curriculum. I would urge your district to seriously reconsider the waste of time and money this curriculum leads to. I feel horrible for the long-term consequences this program may lead to for our children. After one year of following the curriculum closely, we "treaked" the curriculum to match our needs, but we found that our needs are definitely not met with Springboard. The craft of writing is simply not taught, and it pathetically lacks reading and teaching reading comprehension. People must not be taken in with the fact that the College Board is its author. Springboard definitely doesn't promote what are best practices.
These links take you to what real teachers think of SpringBoard because they are already doing it, and there are many flaws:
http://www.susanohanian.org/show_atrocities.html?id=7486
http://www.susanohanian.org/show_nclb_stories.html?id=305
As I read about this proposal, I am forced to recall the Smaller Learning Communities concept which was introduced rather suddenly into the high schools (as a result of grant money) and then fizzled out just as quickly. They never got "buy in" from teachers before forcing it down their throats and the poor outcome was a reflection. The absence of collaboration with teachers and other invested parties is once again evident in this endeavor. I see much resistance and litle success on the horizon for Springboard, as educators are reminded (once again) of the lack of respect the school board has for teacher input and feedback.
Teacher from St. Charles, IL, do you have articles, research, press releases, etc. that discuss the dismal success for SpringBoard?
How long have you used it? Is your district discontinuing the use? How does it align with your contract? What do parents and teachers have to say? I really want to hear from you.
I questioned its effectiveness at a meeting in the past month, out of sincere concern and misgivings, and someone from the higher ups declared that it was clear that I want to do as little as possible for these children. I think that these scare tactics prove that this isn't the best idea. Great things are easy to put out into the open and have real dialogue. Sinking to personal attacks of a complete stranger constitutes even further misgivings.
Like other teachers here, I found this site by googling Springboard. My county implemented it 3 years ago and it is a disaster. There is no research or thought behind this program. It is a strange and inadequate hodgepodge of projects - it has no continuity or sense to it. Basically it is consists of a newspring workbook (which has been delivered up to 2 months late each year to our schools), followed by a draconian force-fed schedule of "diagnotics" which are laughable. The program is a real nightmare.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/article441210.ece
Look at all of these negative comments about SpringBoard. It is very clear that MOST educators and others are against it. It is insulting to educators who strive to stay on the cutting edge and already teach the way SpringBoard pretends to teach. Shame on Ms. Elia for doing this without consulting with the professionals in a real way, without having real, long-term research. She is running this district's morale and its children into the ground. Kids aren't excited about this, and they hate the 6/7. Neither is best for them!!!!!!! I am ashamed.
As one of the teachers who "created" the learning schedule for this year's implemmentaiton of Springboard in Hillsborough County, let me assure you that we did not create the schedule. We were given printed calendars and suggested "Pathways" and instructed to fit the Pathway into the calendar. We were told to leave NO days for individual choice of lessons. We were allowed to leave a few days each quarter to "Reloop and Reteach" concepts.
Our district had a very strong curriculum for the high school English classes. I felt that I sent my students to college prepared to be successful. In fact, several of my previous students have become English teachers in this district. The students I as sending away to college this year have no idea what "Beowulf" is or who Chaucer was. They don't know what a Romantic poem is or why the Victorians wrote the way they did. They do, however, know how to identify camera angles in popular movies, how to identify critical perspectives, and a great deal about the Congo.
The Springboard curriculum in English works well with my "regular" level students who were struggling with the more literary curriculum. My "honors" level students are being disadvantaged by a curriculum that does not provide them with a common basis of knowledge shared by other students across the nation.
I am a teacher in Dekalb County, Georgia. We are going through our own Springboard nightmare of constant meaningless assessments that the students despise. How can we make this go away? I am somewhat comforted to know that others feel the same and I will share your comments with my coworkers in Georgia. Springbored!!!
As a math teacher, I am uncomfortable with being asked to implement a new curriculum with just 4 days of training about a month prior to the beginning of school. Especially a curriculum that will attract interested observers like ants to a sugar bowl. None of my questions are being answered.
This is being touted as a way to get more low income students into Advanced Placement classes. Is the curriculum as designed "research based"? In 2006 the DOE awarded a $1 Million grant to the City of Birmingham Board of Educations.
The release suggests that the grant was intended to do exactly what we want to do in Hillsborough County with Springboard.
PR AWARD # : S330C060090
AWARD AMOUNT: $921, 082
Grantee: City of Birmingham Board of Education (AL)
Contact: Elaine N. Hill
Phone Number: 205-231-7641
The Tapping Academic Potential (TAP) project will increase the successful participation of students attending 8 high-poverty high schools in pre-AP and AP courses in English, mathematics, science, and social studies. TAP activities will include: 1) professional development to strengthen teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogy; 2) the implementation of the College Board’s SpringBoard curriculum in English and mathematics; 3) outreach and educational programs for parents on college planning and preparation, as well as the importance of rigorous academic courses; and 4) student mentoring and tutoring provided by volunteers from Links, Inc., Alpha Phi Alpha, and 100 Black Men
What were the results of that project?
I quote from the DOE web site
"The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, calls for the use of "scientifically based research" as the foundation for many education programs and for classroom instruction."
I searched the IES Clearinghouse "What works" site for relevant material on Springboard.
The results: Your search - springboard - did not match any documents.
No pages were found containing "springboard".
Hillsborough County about 20 years ago had a reputation as one of the strongest research based districts in the nation. The out of state comments about Springboard are uniformly negative. Have we really researched this program and know that it is the best thing for our children.
Questions to ask:
Did the students at the test sites achieve higher scores on the county tests? the FCAT? If the curriculum promotes critical thinking and higher order reasoning, it should have generated a significant improvement on our rather straight forward county mathematics tests.
Euclid,
A workshop has been scheduled for Tuesday, June 3, 2008, 9:30am - 11:30am, ROSSAC, staff conference room.
I will ask these and other questions raised by teachers at the workshop.
April
I don't know if people are still reading these, but I just finished my 1st year teaching in an inner-city school that is in danger of being shut down by the state (we haven't made AYP yet...) This problem resulted in our powers-that-be implementing Springboard. Some of the ideas are decent, the literature is TERRIBLE, and there are few of the 4,000 teachers in my district who like the curriculum. I taught in Virginia for 5 years before I moved to Indianapolis and am so glad to see that it isn't me being a literature snob or elitist teacher, but that there are others who agree that Springboard is terrible. Apparently (from what I've been told by Asst Supt) this curriculum is the answer to bad teachers. Funny, I thought the answer shouldn't be to the detriment of the students.
SpringBoard is another quick fix that is being forced on many school districts. Our high school is going to use it next year for 180 day curriculum. The school district sent the Dept. Head and a first year teacher to check out the curriculum at another school district. Instead of sending a veteran master teacher with the Dept. Head, they sent a puppet who wouldn't buck the system. Our Super of Instruction is crazy about SpringBoard -- Why? What is he getting from it? Our junior high has been forced to teach it for two years, however the school that uses it as the curriculum scores lower on the standardized test than the school that supplements by force. My school, the school that supplements, received moneys for doing so well and increasing ELL and SPED scores. I guarantee that our school didn't get those scores through teaching a load of SpringBoard. The other school that is SpringBoard driven has been on AYP for three years.
SpringBoard is based on a group oriented workshop -- How are students supposed to be prepared for an AP exam by doing group work? What is going to happen when they are singled out to take their AP test all by themselves?
I am in springboard training right now an I am really disgusted, depressed and disgruntled by all of this. I went to school and received a wonderful education from a fantastic school-- I learned HOW to teach my subject-- and I LOVE doing it-- now I am being told what to teach and how to teach it. The school board could hire high school graduates to regurgitate this information== clearly you do not need a degree to do this. This is absolutely horrible. This is NOT the kind of teaching that a NBCT does and I am so disappointed that I am now being "FORCED" to teach this way. I am not the only NBCT in this district who is looking in Pasco and Pinellas for a job. How sad. Someone must benefit from this monitarily-- it certainly won't be our students.
I am a junior in high school...i use to love english before this whole springboard "experience". i actually was inspired to be a teacher after i finished high school but now im rethinking the idea. Springboard is one of the most irritating things i've ever been through in school all the assements there really pointless! my teacher tells us this is preparing us for college? Well if this is what im going to be doing in college then maybe i dont wanna go there either. Im really tired of the one fits all yada yada...
I am a parent of a middle school student and a high school student in the Hillsborough County Public School system. The quality of education for both of my children has degraded noticeably this year. The difference is particularly obvious when I compare what my middle school child is doing now compared with his sibling just three years earlier. The Springboard curriculum seems to be a major source of the lower quality education. My husband and I are avid supporters of public education. Nonetheless, Springboard and other newly implemented programs have us seriously considering moving our honor students to private schools. Would love to hear if other parents feel this same way.
I am sorry but this curriculum is nothing like university life. I know this, because i have been there. Obviously the Hillsborough County School Board has not. Springboard is ridiculous. It has wasted a great course of education. You people need to go back to school. Next time, think about the kids before you make up a new curriculum having NOTHING to do with preparing my child for college.
My two sons are in AP and Honors classes. I googled "Springboard" tonight to try and find current research that supports the effectiveness of the curriculum. I can't find any other than on the Springboard website. My 8th grader watched a series of movies last week about heroes. This week he's writing an essay. I teach elementary school. Our kids do real world writing, use writer's notebooks, free writing, etc. This curriculum is not fun or challenging to them. They dread it every day. Where did our district find the research to support this?
SpringBoard is a compromise of generally strong curricular ideas, but that compromise leads to a curriculum that is ideal for no single student. Whie better than a "bad" curriculum, the cost invested in SpringBoard might be better spent improving teacher recruitment and development--development with a vision and buy-in, not simply a la carte pick-and-choose traditional PD.
SpringBoard is a very mediocre curriculum. It is not terrible. It is not nearly as good as you'd expect, and I wonder what the long-term effects of yet another well-intended program will be, especially when it is ushered in with minimal planning, vision, and general alignment with school and district goals.
Springboard is an utter abomination!
It does nothing to measure knowledge or skill sets. Due to its critical thinking touchy feely design, it serves as no form of measure and robs children of a real education. It also dismantles good teaching. It can in NO way prepare anyone for college.
Push to remove it and save tax payer funds...bring back the original focused curriculum.
l'idГ©e Brillante [url=http://runfr.com]prix cialis 5[/url] http://runfr.com commentaires cialis prix de cialis en pharmacie viagra forum
c'est exact [url=http://runfr.com/acheter-cialis]prix cialis 5[/url] http://runfr.com/cialis cialis au canada cialis 20 acheter cialis sur internet
[url=http://tinyurl.com/getvpn][b]Click here to get VPN service![/b][/url]
[b]Anonymous surfing[/b]
Using our service you'll be fully anonymous in the Internet. Hide your IP address, and nobody will know that strange visitor from Germany ( Great Britain, Estonia and so ), is you.
[b]Full access to network[/b]
You can use any services, access any sites and use any software with us. BitTorrent, Skype, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Pocker .. we have no restrictions.
[b]Traffic protection[/b]
Don't worry, from this moment all you data will be protected using 256 bit Blowfish encryption algorithm. Nobody can access your internet data.
[b]Wide variety of countries[/b]
You can choose one of over twenty high speed servers located in different parts of the world, from South America coast to islands in Indian Ocean.
Related keywords:
anonymous surfing review
proxy server vpn
anonymous secure surfing
proxy vpn
anonymous vpn free
internet explorer vpn
vpn dial up
ssl vpn
Traffic protection
anonymous surfing freeware
anonymous surfing software
vtunnel
anonymous surfing vpn
best anonymous browser
surf the web anonymous
best anonymous surfing
anonymizer anonymous surfing review
firefox anonymous surfing
Virtual Private Networks
Free Vpn Client Software
anonymous surfing software
[url=http://dasbmw.ru] anonymous surfing software[/url]
[url=http://seobraincenter.ru] anonymous proxy[/url]
[url=http://carlwebster.com/members/Alexander-Pwnz.aspx]Buy Cheap Zoloft[/url]
We have been using this curriculum for several years and it does not work. If you use it as a supplement, it can be beneficial. As a stand alone curriculum, it lacks the rigor and skills that students need. We are "forced" to use it because it is part of a grant. What a waste of money and a disservice to our students!
Does anyone know if districts are getting kickbacks for using SpringBoard?
Post a Comment