Today we’d like to introduce you to Karen Dubrule.
Karen, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Most of the success I’ve experienced in life I attribute to my parents. They are the perfect mentors for working hard to achieve the quality of life goals – for themselves, our family, and the community. They instilled a strong desire to “make a difference” in the lives of others. This belief system has served as the foundation of significant events in my life.
In 1973, I followed my high school sweetheart/aspiring veterinarian to Washington State University earning degrees in education and initiating my teaching career as an adjunct professor of educational statistics. Upon my husband’s graduation, we relocated to North County San Diego to be close to family, open a veterinary clinic, and start a family. This created my career shift from university instruction to teach at middle and elementary schools.
In subsequent years, I was recruited by school districts to serve as principal and assist with the opening of new middle schools in their growing communities. With the unexpected passing of my husband, I decided to pursue more extensive leadership roles in my career and community serving as superintendent of schools and executive/board positions with Rotary, the National Women’s Political Caucus, and the Boys and Girls Club. During that period, I was recruited to lead a consulting group which eventually led to initiating my own company in 2003.
During 35-plus years as a teacher, administrator, and consultant in numerous districts throughout the state, I observed an alarming disparity of educational practices. It was evident that the quality of students’ educational experience was dependent on teacher competence which varied dramatically within and between educational settings. Coupled with that inconsistency, there were no uniform academic standards. While the state provided recommended standards, most school districts established their own. Either of which was typically unknown by teachers. This transferred into classroom experiences driven by an open-ended array of teaching resources and decisions. As a likely consequence, the academic performance of U.S. students continues to decline as compared to other countries in Reading, Math and Science – ranking 20th, 38th and 24th respectively. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/on-the-world-stage-us-students-fall-behind/2016/12/05/610e1e10-b740-11e6-a677-b608fbb3aaf6_story.html
The underperformance of our country’s school systems has yet to be fully recognized and addressed. Though, a move in that direction took place in 2001 with the passing of “No Child Left Behind.” This Federal legislation, for the first time, required states to establish state standards (what students should know and be able to do at each grade) and measurements to determine the same. Schools and districts that were underperforming received grant funding to make improvements. To address this, the state conducted a rigorous selection process to identify educational entities qualified to assist struggling schools and districts. This launched extensive school and district improvement projects from the years 2003 to 2011, many led by my company. And, in an indirect but significant way, it prompted the development of Writing by Design.
Though school and district improvement endeavors involved comprehensive support, the most significant influence toward shaping student achievement gains was the prioritization of writing instruction. Through teacher training and implementation of consistent instructional practices, there was a predictable increase in student confidence and competence in all classes, even P.E. Recognition of the expansive need to provide schools with consistent, proven-effective writing instruction, prompted the development of Writing by Design.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
While passionate about promoting literacy, marketing writing curriculum is significantly challenged by large publishing company ownership of the curriculum and textbook market. Name recognition of these companies has become the default of school and district curriculum purchases. With state tests focused on “English Language Arts” (ELA), assessments of students’ writing skills are minimal. As such, the curriculum produced by large publishing companies focuses on reading with limited and fragmented attention to writing instruction.
Typically, schools and districts devote their limited curriculum funds to the purchase of expensive textbooks for ELA, Math, and Science. They, unfortunately, they trust that their ELA textbooks sufficiently address writing instruction.
The absence of effective writing instruction in our schools is a likely variable to these existing outcomes:
• Seventy percent of students in grades 4-12 are low-achieving writers.
• Every school day, more than 7,000 students drop out of high school.
• In San Diego, only 9 percent of English learners and 24 percent of special-needs students are on track to graduate.
• Statewide, 251 school districts reported deficiencies in educating English learners.
Please tell us about the company.
A State-approved company, Certified Education Consultants, Inc., is devoted to providing effective writing instruction to schools through Writing by Design®.
Writing by Design® is a K-8th-grade comprehensive curriculum for writing instruction, uniquely proven effective for all student demographics. Based on Six Traits of Writing, it provides prepared lessons aligned to all State’s Standards. Students who receive Writing by Design® instruction become highly proficient with college and career-ready writing genres – Narrative, Information, Opinion/Argument, Summary, and Literary Analysis.
It’s an accompaniment, Grading by Design™, provides quick and easy automated assessment and feedback of student progress, eliminating extensive teacher/parent time to grade student writing. Additional benefits:
•Prevents the practice of incorrect application of skills, student frustration, and complications to the learning ability
•Quickly identifies need and target areas for reteaching
•Strengthens capacity to develop student learning goals
•Develops writing confidence through timely positive feedback
•Requires students to analyze their work and demonstrate their level of understanding facilitating deeper thinking and understanding of concepts in comparison to teacher-only assessment.
The Writing by Design® website provides free resources – program orientation, demonstration lesson videos, and teaching tools. www.WritingbyDesignK8.com
Writing by Design® schools have experienced significant student cross-curricular achievement gains, outperforming other schools as measured by annual State tests.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I cherish this memory…I was getting my hair cut at a new salon. The hairstylist, who didn’t know me, shared that her son was finally starting to feel good about going to school. She said he was finally getting better grades and felt a lot more confident. When I asked her how that happened, she informed me that the school adopted a new program called Writing by Design.
Pricing:
- K-2, $395 | 3-8, $445 Grade level-aligned, each purchase is inclusive of the following:
• Writing by Design® Printed Teaching Manual [For Kindergarten, an additional manual for Letter and Sentence Formation includes lesson plans and reproducible worksheets for students to build letter formation skills, writing simple sentences using high-frequency words, and phonetic spelling.]
• Writing by Design® Online Teaching Manual for off-site planning and computer projection (Optional annual renewal after first year, $50) • Grading by Design™ Online Assessments, Grades 3-8
• Free password-protected access to supporting documents and teaching resources Each manual provides step-by-step comprehensive lesson plans for instruction of genre-specific writing aligned to state standards. Lessons are supported by
• Rubrics
• Model Papers
• Introductory Six Traits lessons
• Pictorials and lesson references to Six Traits and Genre Charts
• Reproducible student handouts and worksheets
• Common Core Standards alignment
• “No Excuse Spelling” K-8 and grade-specific word lists
• Revision and Editing tools and exercises
• Supportive lesson resources
• Differentiated teaching tips for ELL and students with special needs
• Writing strategies • Engaging beginnings and conclusions
• Figurative language definitions and examples
• Advanced Parts of Speech/Word Choice examples
• Academic language reference
• Authentic Assessments
• Lesson-specific recommended picture books
• Spanish-translated resources
Contact Info:
- Address: 855 S. Main Ave., Ste. K
Fallbrook, CA 92028 - Website: WritingbyDesignK8.com
- Phone: 888.847.9845 / 510.205.7230
- Email: kdubrule@educonsultants.net
- Facebook: Facebook pages: Writing by Design – https://www.facebook.com/WritingByDesignK8/ Grading by Design – https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=grading%20by%20design&epa=SEARCH_BOX
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