In addition to her PLC experience, Sharon has completed assessment training by Rick Stiggins, Steve Chappuis, Larry Ainsworth, and the Center for Performance Assessment (now the Leadership and Learning Center). She has presented a variety of assessment workshops at institutes and summits and for state departments of education. Sharon has also worked with school districts across the United States to determine their power standards and develop assessments. She has been a Comprehensive School Reform consultant to schools that have received grant funding to implement PLC as their whole-school reform model, and her customized PLC coaching academies have empowered school and district leadership teams across the United States.
Sharon has presented at state and national conferences sponsored by Learning Forward, National Association for Gifted Children, American Federation of Teachers, and California State University. She has been instrumental in facilitating professional development initiatives focused on standards-based learning and teaching, improved understanding and utilization of assessment data, interventions and differentiation that meet the needs of all learners, and strengthened efforts to ensure K–12 literacy.
Sharon earned a doctorate in educational leadership and policy studies from Loyola University Chicago.
To learn more about Sharon’s work, follow @DrKramer1 on Twitter.
Sarah Schuhl, MS, is a consultant specializing in PLC, common formative and summative assessments, school improvement, and mathematics. She has been a secondary mathematics teacher, high school instructional coach, and K–12 mathematics specialist for more than twenty years.
Sarah was instrumental in the creation of a PLC in the Centennial School District in Oregon, helping teachers make large gains in student achievement. She earned the Centennial School District Triple C Award in 2012.
In addition to her work in Oregon, Sarah has worked with other districts throughout the United States to implement PLCs and create common assessments. Her practical approach includes working with teachers and administrators to implement assessments for learning, analyze data, collectively respond to student learning, and map standards. She is a consultant and coach in many schools, including those targeted for school improvement.
Sarah also works with districts as a consultant and coach to implement the Common Core State Standards for mathematics or independent state mathematics standards for K–12. Her work includes short- and long-term professional development focused on implementing content standards, Standards for Mathematical Practice or state process standards, and assessment, including formative assessment and an understanding of current state assessment practices. Her book, Engage in the Mathematical Practices: Strategies to Build Numeracy and Literacy With K–5 Learners, focuses on strategies to use when designing lessons that develop the habits of mind in students necessary for them to effectively learn mathematics.
Previously, Sarah served as a member and chair of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) editorial panel for the journal Mathematics Teacher. Her work with the Oregon Department of Education includes designing mathematics assessment items, test specifications and blueprints, and rubrics for achievement-level descriptors. She has also contributed as a writer to a middle school mathematics series and an elementary mathematics intervention program.
Sarah earned a bachelor of science in mathematics from Eastern Oregon University and a master of science in mathematics education from Portland State University.
To book Sharon V. Kramer or Sarah Schuhl for professional development, contact [email protected].
Introduction
To aptly describe the state of education, one might paraphrase a familiar quote from the works of Charles Dickens (1859): it is the best of times and the worst of times (Eaker & Keating, 2011; Marzano, 2003). At this moment, the United States is experiencing the highest graduation rate in its history, according to data from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2016b). The high school graduation rate reached 82 percent in 2013–2014, the highest level since states adopted a uniform way of calculating graduation rates in 2010 (NCES, 2016b). More students than ever before are succeeding in rigorous curriculum, with Advanced Placement (AP) program participation at an all-time high (College Board, 2014). Perhaps even more important, there is evidence that students with low socioeconomic status have greater access to such opportunities. Schools are encouraging more students to participate in AP classes, making access to rigorous courses possible for all students who want to learn. From 2003 to 2013, the number of students who have taken AP courses nearly doubled, and the number of low-income students taking AP classes more than quadrupled from 58,489 to 275,864 (College Board, 2014). According to the College Board (2014), more students earned qualifying scores of 3, 4, or 5 than took exams in 2003.
In addition, the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) reports increases in student achievement in reading and mathematics from 1990 (Nation’s Report Card, 2015). Since 1990, NAEP has administered assessments to fourth- and eighth-grade students. In 2015, students had an average score in mathematics of 240 points at fourth grade and 282 points at eighth grade on scales of 0–500 points. Scores for both grades were higher than those from the earliest mathematics assessments in 1990 by 27 points at fourth grade and 20 points at eighth grade (Nation’s Report Card, 2015). Reading achievement levels have risen slowly since 1992 with increases in fourth grade of 6 points from 217 to 223 and at eighth grade an increase of 5 points from 260 to 265 (Nation’s Report Card, 2015). In addition, on the first NAEP Technology and Engineering Test, eighth-grade girls scored higher on average than eighth-grade boys (Zubrzycki, 2016), indicating the closing of the achievement gap for females.
The encouraging news continues with the improving results of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). This is an assessment administered to approximately four thousand students in sixty-three countries. The results indicate that U.S. students have improved their scores from 1995 to 2015 in fourth grade from 518 to 539 and in eighth grade from 492 to 518 (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement [IEA], 2015a). In addition, in 2015, on the fourth-grade science assessment, U.S. students scored an all-time high of 546, and in eighth grade a new high of 230 (IEA, 2015b).
So, with all of this good news, how is it also the worst of times? Unfortunately, although the trends on the NAEP show growth for U.S. students from the start of the assessment through 2015, in reality, fourth-grade mathematics reached a high in 2013 of 242 and dropped 2 points in 2015; eighth-grade mathematics scores reached a high in 2013 of 285 and dropped 3 points in 2015. Similarly, eighth-grade reading scores reached a high in 2013 of 268 and dropped 3 points in 2015. Only fourth-grade reading achieved a high in 2015, increasing by 1 point over the results in 2013 (Nation’s Report Card, 2015). Additionally, on the TIMSS assessments, fourth-grade mathematic dropped from a high of 541 in 2011 to 539 in 2015, while eighth-grade mathematics and fourth- and eighth-grade science showed growth in the same time period (IEA, 2015a, 2015b). The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), given to fifteen-year-olds, shows that U.S. students have declined in both mathematics and reading scores: from 483 in 2003 to 470 in 2015 for mathematics and 504 in 2003 to 497 in 2015 for reading (NCES, 2016c). Furthermore, although more students are graduating, according to state listings noting priority schools most in need of improvement, too many schools still do not meet needed growth targets or the equivalent of adequate yearly progress (AYP) defined by No Child Left Behind. Additionally, half of U.S. high school dropouts