Author Archives for Jack States
June 30, 2020 12:10 pm
Published by Jack States
Remote forms of K-12 instruction have become increasingly prevalent as schools expand their use of educational technologies to allow for learning beyond that which takes place in brick and mortar classrooms. Remote instruction may offer a number of benefits, including reduced costs and increased student access to courses and instruction that would not be available otherwise. However, while research is limited, evidence to date suggests that fully remote instruction and virtual schools are not as effective as the face-to-face instruction that takes place in traditional schools, particularly for struggling students. Blended instructional models have shown more promise, particularly those that enable differentiated instruction through technologies such as intelligent tutoring. The success of remote instruction likely in part depends on a number of implementation factors, such as the degree to which equitable access to digital tools and resources is provided, whether and how students’ metacognitive skills that are essential for more independent, self-regulated learning are developed, the capacity of preparation and professional development to foster teachers’ technological pedagogical content knowledge, and the extent to which parents can engage in ways that allow them to effectively support their children’s learning at home.
Citation: Donley, J., Detrich, R., States, J., & Keyworth, (2020). Remote Learning Overview. Oakland, CA: The Wing Institute. https://www.winginstitute.org/effective-instruction-computers.
Link: https://www.winginstitute.org/effective-instruction-computers
June 30, 2020 12:07 pm
Published by Jack States
Research suggests that starting each year by teaching rules and procedures results in increased appropriate conduct and higher academic achievement. Both rules and procedures are proactive strategies that set expectations and instruct students on both appropriate and unacceptable ways to interact with peers and adults. Clearly stated, they define and operationalize acceptable behavior necessary to maintain an orderly and well-functioning school or classroom. To be effective, each precept must specify consequences, describing what happens when it are followed or is broken. Rules and procedures must be enforced consistently if they are to produce best results. When expectations are clearly stated and supported, they lend credibility to a teacher’s authority, reduce disruptive behavior that impedes learning, and enhance job satisfaction. Rules are constructed around broad classes of behavior (be safe, be responsible, be respectful) and apply in all settings. Procedures are guidance about what to do in a specific context. For example, elementary schools have procedures to guide students in how to enter the class in the morning (put backpack away, take a book, and read silently at desk).
Citation: Guinness, K., Detrich, R., Keyworth, R. & States, J. (2020). Overview of Rules and Procedures. Oakland, CA: The Wing Institute. https://www.winginstitute.org/classroom-rules-procedures.
Link: http://Guinness, K., Detrich, R., Keyworth, R. & States, J. (2020). Overview of Rules and Procedures. Oakland, CA: The Wing Institute. https://www.winginstitute.org/classroom-rules-procedures.
June 10, 2020 8:56 am
Published by Jack States
The Wing Institute has redesigned both the structure and content of its web site home page to increase readers’ ability to navigate the site and locate the information they are seeking. The new structure offers clear pathways for identifying and researching critical topics and effectively communicates what the Wing Institute’s web site has to offer. The home page content is driven by reader feedback derived from a wide range of sources, including Researchgate, Academia.edu., and Google Analytics. The new home page is organized around the following categories:
Why Students Succeed (Education Drivers)
Educational systems are incredibly complex, and it is easy get overwhelmed looking for information across many topics. The new homepage distills this search down to the three most critical education drivers: Quality Teachers, Quality Principals, and Explicit Instruction.
Why Education Practices Fail (Implementation)
Implementation is an essential, and too often overlooked, component of quality education programs. It is often mentioned as an afterthought and can be difficult to locate on education sites. The Wing homepage highlights its value and provides readers the opportunity to go directly to the latest research and practice strategies for effective implementation.
How are we doing (Systems Dashboard)
In this age of complexity and uncertainty, it is more critical than ever to identify and track relevant data that will help education stakeholders make informed decisions about school issues. The systems dashboard provides a continually updated analysis of what we are doing and how we are doing. The home page highlights five topic areas, which can be changed easily to reflect the most
Newsletter
The new homepage spotlights the Wing Institute Newsletter, which offers readers the latest research on important issues, along with original research from Wing Institute writers. It also provides easier access to past newsletters, which contain relevant research.
We hope you find these changes have improved your reading experience.
June 8, 2020 1:00 pm
Published by Jack States
The Wing Institute would like to announce the 2020-21 student research grant recipient, Karen Robbie. Karen is a Ph.D. candidate in Prevention and Intervention studies at the University of Maine and has been a classroom teacher of 23 years. Karen currently teaches and supervises pre-service teachers by providing students with the most current research and modeling of effective practices.
Her research project is titled: Using Peer Supports to Improve Positive-to-Negative Teacher/Student Interaction Ratios by Novice Teacher. Over time, novice teachers have the potential to impact a large number of individual students positively. But to maximize new teacher effectiveness, novice teachers need the necessary supports to develop practical classroom instruction skills to improve student outcomes and increase new teacher’s job satisfaction and promote a productive career. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention, using natural implementers, that can be used in schools regardless of their resource capacity.
June 8, 2020 11:51 am
Published by Jack States
The Global Implementation Society (GIS) promotes implementation practice, science, and policy through the development and integration of practical implementation, improvement, and scaling practices in human service settings to improve outcomes for children, families, individuals, and communities worldwide.
The Covid-19 outbreak has highlighted the significance and value of implementation knowledge and implementation capacity. To assist you during this difficult time, GIS has gathered some potential resources to help schools weather these challenging times.
The resources include;
Link: Global Implementation Society
June 8, 2020 11:18 am
Published by Jack States
WestEd is a nonprofit organization tasked with promoting excellence, achieve equity, and improve learning for children, youth, and adults. WestEd offers consulting and technical assistance, evaluation, policy, professional development, and research and development to support and improve education outcomes.
As the world rallies to respond to the current public health crisis, schools across the globe have closed their doors to stop the spread of the new coronavirus and its associated disease, COVID-19. Wested has developed and compiled resources to assist schools in responding to this crisis.
The resources include;
Distance & At-Home Learning
Early Childhood
English Learners
Health, Safety, & Well-Being
Online Professional Development
Resource Planning & Management
Science & Mathematics
Special Education
Link: Wested
May 29, 2020 11:09 am
Published by Jack States
The 2020 pandemic is unprecedented in living memory. This event necessitates schools adopting new technologies and teachers mastering new ways of delivering instruction. Education is engaged in a grand experiment, implementing new practices in fifty states with over 13,000 school districts. Change on this magnitude would be daunting even in normal times, and is particularly difficult in a decentralized system such as in the United States. What we know is there are bound to be many failures. Fortunately, the past 15 years have seen remarkable progress in the creation of a science of implementation to address such hurdles. This paper offers examples of failed practices in guiding schools to avoid making similar mistakes over the coming year.
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Citation: States, J., & Keyworth, R. (2020). Why Practices Fail. Oakland, CA: The Wing Institute. https://www.winginstitute.org/roadmap-overview
Link: https://www.winginstitute.org/roadmap-overview
May 29, 2020 11:05 am
Published by Jack States
The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in school closings for the remainder of the year in 48 of 50 states and a sharp turn toward remote instruction in order to finish the year as best as possible. Issues and concerns previously in the background, such as inequitable access to technology including internet access for online learning at home, are now front and center. Districts and states have been exploring creative ways to bridge the digital divide, such as delivering Wi-Fi hotspots and devices to children without technology and internet access, using public television, creating printed packets, and making creative use of the mobile and smartphones that most families in the United States now have.
Citations: Donley, J., Detrich, R., States, J., & Keyworth, (2020). Remote Learning Overview. Oakland, CA: The Wing Institute. https://www.winginstitute.org/effective-instruction-computers.
Link: https://www.winginstitute.org/effective-instruction-computers
May 12, 2020 10:52 am
Published by Jack States
Active Supervision Overview: Active supervision is a behavior management practice designed to teach and reinforce appropriate behavior and to prevent and reduce misconduct. To maximize situational awareness, the practice emphasizes constant scanning and moving around the classroom and other potential trouble spots for disruptive behavior, such as hallways, playground, and field trips. Active supervision enables teachers to more effectively deliver feedback to students. By frequently interacting with students, they increase opportunities to build positive relationships, provide encouraging feedback for appropriate behavior, and more swiftly and consistently respond to inappropriate behavior. Teachers should constantly scan the entire area looking for appropriate behavior, problem behavior, and dangerous activities, paying special attention to areas, activities, and groups where problems have occurred in the past. They can use this time to reinforce expectations by reminding students of rules and routines, prompt appropriate behavior, and deliver corrective consequences as needed.
Citation: Guinness, K., Detrich, R., Keyworth, R. & States, J. (2020). Overview of Supporting Appropriate Behavior. Oakland, CA: The Wing Institute. https://www.winginstitute.org/classroom-active-supervision
Link: https://www.winginstitute.org/classroom-active-supervision
April 21, 2020 3:25 pm
Published by Jack States
Fluency in education. Being fluent in something taught is essential if learning is readily accessible to the learner at a later date. How teachers measure student progress and define mastery rarely receives the attention it deserves. The distinguishing characteristic of mastery learning lies in both quick and accurate performance of a skill. The fluid combination of accuracy plus speed characterizes competent performance. To provide all students with retention, endurance, and application of instructional content, teachers must monitor performance with clear and universal measures and make decisions using standard data displays. The use of standard units of measurement and a standard graphical display are essential features of effective instruction. One such discovery, performance standards, has demonstrated that students can retain skills over significant amounts of time, perform at high rates with little performance decrement, and apply “element” skills to more sophisticated “compound” skills. It is essential teachers build fluency through providing students with adequate opportunities to practice lessons before moving on to the next topic. To sustain learning over time, instructors must monitor performance days, weeks, and even months after completion of a lesson. Unless continuous monitoring of past experiences occurs, prerequisite skills will be lost and unavailable to the student when needed in future lessons.
Citation: Kubina, R. M., & Morrison, R. S. (2000). Fluency in education. Behavior and Social Issues, 10(1), 83-99.
Link: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.5210/bsi.v10i0.133.pdf
Additional Fluency Research: Datchuk, S. M., & Hier, B. O. (2019). Fluency Practice: Techniques for Building Automaticity in Foundational Knowledge and Skills. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 51(6), 424-435.
Reading Fluency :
Samuels, S. J. (2006). Toward a Model of Reading Fluency.
Rasinski, T. V., Blachowicz, C. L., & Lems, K. (Eds.). (2012). Fluency instruction: Research-based best practices. Guilford Press.
Mathematics Fluency: Burns, M. K., Codding, R. S., Boice, C. H., & Lukito, G. (2010). Meta-analysis of acquisition and fluency math interventions with instructional and frustration level skills: Evidence for a skill-by-treatment interaction. School Psychology Review, 39(1), 69-83.
Singer-Dudek, J., & Greer, R. D. (2005). A long-term analysis of the relationship between fluency and the training and maintenance of complex math skills. The Psychological Record, 55(3), 361-376
Language Fluency: Housen, A., & Kuiken, F. (2009). Complexity, accuracy, and fluency in second language acquisition. Applied linguistics, 30(4), 461-473.
Writing Fluency: Alvis, A. V. (2019). Predictors of Elementary-aged Students’ Writing Fluency Growth in Response to a Performance Feedback Writing Intervention
