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Review the article, “Ten Big Effects of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)on Public Schools” in this week’s reading assignments. Choose two of the ten effects of NCLB, give your positive or negative impression of each, and briefly explain your reasoning.
 * Week 1**

1. Schools are spending more time on reading and math, sometimes at the expense of subjects not tested. I agree with this statement. At my school, extra tutorial time is given to students that need extra help with these two subjects. Sometimes, students are actually pulled out of other class periods to receive help in reading and math. These are seen as being the two most important subjects because of the emphasis placed on the testing.

2. Students are taking a lot more tests. It feels as though we are constantly giving benchmark tests and TAKS tests. There are so many more tests given these days than there was back when I was in school. The number of student assessments given has risen dramatically.

Our meeting takes place before a board meeting. There has not typically been much of an audience. However, this year the crowd was larger (20-30) because it was the same board meeting that we recognized the after school foreign language students. Will probably attempt to do something similar next year in order to increase the number of audience members. The only advertising we do is by posting the announcement of the hearing prior to the board meeting (included on agenda). We have a Q and A session, however, there were no questions asked at the last one. The SSI initiative at our school increases student success by holding mandatory tutoring for at-risk students. I don't know of any training we have had for effective data use. I believe it would be beneficial if we did have training, and if we had people on our campus we could turn to for help when we needed it.
 * Week 2**

Review the article, "How to Survive Data Overload," by R. S. Thomas in this week's readings. What do you think of the tool titled "Team Dialogue Guide: Moving From Data to Classroom Instructional Improvement" and the "Reflection Guide" included in the article? As the principal, how might you introduce these tools and use them with your teachers?
 * Week 3**

I like the Team Dialogue Guide because it shows teams the big picture through dialogue. It is a simple and organized way to analyze data. The Reflection Guide allows the group to reflect back on prior instruction to see if there were any things they could have done differently. Principals could use these tools with the teachers so they can see how to make improvements in the future.

If they are implemented effectively, teachers and students can get the data they need from formative assessment practices. According to Heritage, “In formative assessment, students are active participants with their teachers, sharing learning goals and understanding how their learning is progressing, what next steps they need to take, and how to take them.
 * Week 4**

Heritage, Margaret, "Formative Assessment: What do Teachers Need to Know and Do?" Phi Delta Kappa, pp. 140-145.

This information will affect my campus plan by helping me to stress the need for more professional development so that teachers will learn how to use assessments to bring students to a higher level of understanding.

Week 5 What should schools do when they get stuck? "Stuckness" typically happens when people feel like they are doing their best work and it's not paying off in visible evidence of improved student performance. Have you or has your school found itself in that position? What are some things that can be done at that point to gain forward momentum?

I have not personally worked on a campus that was academically unacceptable or low achieving. However, our high school was rated academically unacceptable 2 years ago. Our high school principal did a tremendous job of making necessary changes. He started mandatory after school tutoring and also made it a school rule that any student that had not passed all portions of the TAKS test could not participate in UIL activities during the school day. The very next year after being academically unacceptable as a campus, the high school was given a rating of Exemplary by TEA. That's a huge accomplishment over a one year period.