There is a lot of pressure to raise student achievement in our public schools today. I advise stepping back and taking stock in what we do that is right for kids. Eliminate the non-essential and focus on the essential.
There is a magic moment we feel as teachers when we are able to help a student overcome a challenge and be successful, both in their behavior and their studies. Stop feeling that you have to reach everyone and do everything yourself and trust that you are capable to reach your students.
Provide Interventions
Our school has been very successful at using grade level teams to engage in problem solving brainstorming for solutions that will work with large blocks of children. The team must agree on a benchmark measuring tool to use in the process. One successful measure has been graphing. Then, the group will pre-test the children, and group them according to the test results, break the team up to work with the various groups individually, and intervene as necessary. The post test results will be significantly better than the pre test results. Typically, the students all rank proficient on the graphing and many much higher than that. State testing will no longer be a concern after this process.
It is very important to keep accelerated students challenged so that they are able to continue to raise their success levels and prevent them from getting bored in the classroom.
Response to Intervention
One way to raise achievement results in more challenging students is to use the broadened system of accommodations which I have established, which was designed to work in combination with what is now known as Response to Intervention (RTI). It began with a meeting among the students parents, administrators and teachers to discuss the specific concerns with the students and to cooperate in creating a workable plan which included accommodations that would support the advancement of the students accomplishments.
Accommodations are not modifications to the curriculum. Many teachers, even those in Special Education, are not clear about this point, and it is one of the reasons so many lower their expectations of struggling students. Accommodations help children access the curriculum without lowering the standards. Modifications are for children with severe disabilities who simply cannot do the work for cognitive reasons.
An example of an appropriate accommodation follows: There was a boy, well call him Richard, who had a very difficult time focusing on his work. He had been diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder) and was very bright. He drove the teacher crazy! Still, during our meeting we came up with accommodations to help him be successful.
It is essential to explain the plan to the child and get his agreement to participate, with clear consequences if he does not follow the plan. Explain that this plan is to help him be more successful in school. Most children will appreciate the care you show on their behalf.
The plan allowed that when Richard had trouble sitting still he could walk around the classroom quietly so long as he did not disturb the other students. His parents gave Richard a small hourglass to measure the length of these sessions. When the sand ran out, that was his cue that he could walk around the room quietly. He was also given a rubber ball to press during classroom instruction to help focus his energies.
His parents had some accommodations to support at home. They would make sure Richard had a list of things he had to do before he went to bed each night, including getting his homework in his backpack ready for pick up the next morning. Forgetting homework had been another problem.
A month later, we followed up to see what, if any progress had been made by Richard. The teacher was pleased to report that Richard was no longer a disturbance in her class and that he had made significant progress.
Use Student Data
It is critical to use data derived from both formative and summative testing to improve success in the classroom. This information should be used by administration to group students with similar needs so that teachers can work with these students together. It would not be possible to work with each student individually, so grouping students with similar concerns is more efficient.
Schools should allow teachers to work together to compare student achievement, such as writing samples, to establish inter-rater reliability for grading childrens work and to arrive at a definition of proficient writing. This method can be used for other curriculum subjects as well in order to establish a school that understands each level of proficiency.
Student Engagement
Students must be engaged and interested in the subject matter and presentation in order to learn to their greatest capacity. It is critical for us to teach our children to think at high levels of achievement. Schools that have required their teachers to understand the revised Blooms Taxonomy and align it with each standard and objective of the school have seen a significant increase in teacher understanding of the standards and how to teach them. I have done a lot with this. At McREL it was called Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum. There are a myriad of ideas that you can utilize with your teachers to raise student achievement. I highly recommend McRELs Classroom Instruction That Works for creative ideas and tips for establishing meaningful activities in the classroom to raise student achievement.
There is a magic moment we feel as teachers when we are able to help a student overcome a challenge and be successful, both in their behavior and their studies. Stop feeling that you have to reach everyone and do everything yourself and trust that you are capable to reach your students.
Provide Interventions
Our school has been very successful at using grade level teams to engage in problem solving brainstorming for solutions that will work with large blocks of children. The team must agree on a benchmark measuring tool to use in the process. One successful measure has been graphing. Then, the group will pre-test the children, and group them according to the test results, break the team up to work with the various groups individually, and intervene as necessary. The post test results will be significantly better than the pre test results. Typically, the students all rank proficient on the graphing and many much higher than that. State testing will no longer be a concern after this process.
It is very important to keep accelerated students challenged so that they are able to continue to raise their success levels and prevent them from getting bored in the classroom.
Response to Intervention
One way to raise achievement results in more challenging students is to use the broadened system of accommodations which I have established, which was designed to work in combination with what is now known as Response to Intervention (RTI). It began with a meeting among the students parents, administrators and teachers to discuss the specific concerns with the students and to cooperate in creating a workable plan which included accommodations that would support the advancement of the students accomplishments.
Accommodations are not modifications to the curriculum. Many teachers, even those in Special Education, are not clear about this point, and it is one of the reasons so many lower their expectations of struggling students. Accommodations help children access the curriculum without lowering the standards. Modifications are for children with severe disabilities who simply cannot do the work for cognitive reasons.
An example of an appropriate accommodation follows: There was a boy, well call him Richard, who had a very difficult time focusing on his work. He had been diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder) and was very bright. He drove the teacher crazy! Still, during our meeting we came up with accommodations to help him be successful.
It is essential to explain the plan to the child and get his agreement to participate, with clear consequences if he does not follow the plan. Explain that this plan is to help him be more successful in school. Most children will appreciate the care you show on their behalf.
The plan allowed that when Richard had trouble sitting still he could walk around the classroom quietly so long as he did not disturb the other students. His parents gave Richard a small hourglass to measure the length of these sessions. When the sand ran out, that was his cue that he could walk around the room quietly. He was also given a rubber ball to press during classroom instruction to help focus his energies.
His parents had some accommodations to support at home. They would make sure Richard had a list of things he had to do before he went to bed each night, including getting his homework in his backpack ready for pick up the next morning. Forgetting homework had been another problem.
A month later, we followed up to see what, if any progress had been made by Richard. The teacher was pleased to report that Richard was no longer a disturbance in her class and that he had made significant progress.
Use Student Data
It is critical to use data derived from both formative and summative testing to improve success in the classroom. This information should be used by administration to group students with similar needs so that teachers can work with these students together. It would not be possible to work with each student individually, so grouping students with similar concerns is more efficient.
Schools should allow teachers to work together to compare student achievement, such as writing samples, to establish inter-rater reliability for grading childrens work and to arrive at a definition of proficient writing. This method can be used for other curriculum subjects as well in order to establish a school that understands each level of proficiency.
Student Engagement
Students must be engaged and interested in the subject matter and presentation in order to learn to their greatest capacity. It is critical for us to teach our children to think at high levels of achievement. Schools that have required their teachers to understand the revised Blooms Taxonomy and align it with each standard and objective of the school have seen a significant increase in teacher understanding of the standards and how to teach them. I have done a lot with this. At McREL it was called Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum. There are a myriad of ideas that you can utilize with your teachers to raise student achievement. I highly recommend McRELs Classroom Instruction That Works for creative ideas and tips for establishing meaningful activities in the classroom to raise student achievement.
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