The Glossary Part One: A-B

The following words are part of the CALI (Connecticut Accountability for Learing Initiative) glossary--I am offering my definitions:

Accountability--holding underpaid, overworked teachers of poor students responsible for the pathetic organization of multiple district initiatives and lack of proper curriculum, tools, and planning time which results in said students' failure to meet Annual Yearly Progress (see AYP).

AYP (Annual Yearly Progress)--what most predominately affluent, Caucasian school districts meet except in the areas of Special Education.

Adult Outcomes--the purposeful ignoring of parental or administrative influence with the indirect purpose of propigating the notion that our teachers are always to blame for the stupidity of low performing students. Often AO's will point to how Causcasian teachers are not "Culturally Relevant," and therefore incapable of teaching minority students.

Alignment--the degree to which lemming teachers do what the State of Connecticut Department of Education believes is in the best interest of students who they don't know, don't interact with, but really really really care about.

Annual Measurable Achievement Objectives--A nice sounding name to make you belive that the State which owns the highest achievement gap truly wants to educate English Language Learners

Assessment--A quiz or test that is not really all that important unless it has a modifiers like "Common Formative" or "Summative" preceding it. Also, not really important unless it connects with a specific, highly vague standard strand.

Benchmark Assessment--what underperforming schools administer to show the State that they are following CALI when the State sends CALI investigators to monitor CALI implementation.

Benchmark--The actual place that students are at, like four grade levels behind in their reading skills, when they arrive at a high school.

Best Practice--doing whatever CALI tells you to do, even if it does not work despite all of the meta-analysis done by the man-genius Robert Marzano.

Beyond the Blueprint--the techniques used by teachers and administrators that actually work but are too politically incorrect or not en vogue with whatever Columbia's school of education is currently preaching to admit to using. This might include, but is not limited to, shame and embarrassment, competition, or paternalism.

Big Idea--that all students are capable of learning to the same level. The Big Idea is that every student has the same capacity for learning if only we would differentiate for the one's that lack that capacity upon entering a teacher's classroom.

Blueprint for Reading Achievement--A map that tells shows us how all students can read at the collegiate level by the time they reach 18, or 20 if it takes that long. By giving students texts that they enjoy reading, the Magic Literary Critic will then fill in the gaps to help the "different" to make strong text-to-text connections.

Look for Part Two later!