0 Scores, Scores, and More Scores: What Matters?

Posted by Atsumori. Category:

I found myself analyzing scores this evening: scores, scores, and more scores.  I was looking for trends trying to figure out what works and what doesn't.  I noticed that these factors matter:

• Student-teacher relationships: You know when a student and a teacher have a great relationship. You see it in the student's eyes, and hear it in the teacher's voice. As I looked at the scores, I noticed that students who had those relationships made greater growth.
• Time-on-Task: I noticed that students who got significant attention made gains. 
• Explicit Expectations. I noticed that students whose teachers had consistent, patterned expectations for performance made a lot of growth. 
• Class Ratios: Although science doesn't prove it, I notice it. Large classes make it impossible to give students the individual and small group attention needed to teach children well. Without added costs, we may be able to creatively restructure schools and staffing to create more optimal learning groups throughout the day.
• Instructional Expertise. Subject matter knowledge matters.  
• Explicit Teaching: You have to make time to teach specific skills, skills that are new and challenging. You have to approach these skills in a number of ways so that students see the information from many angles.
• Practice: Even if you teach all the standards and content, students won't master it without engaging, meaningful practice and application.
• Assessment: This doesn't mean lots of long, standardized tests, instead it means many check-ins with short quizzes, conversations, observations, and performance tasks that inform instruction.
• Planning and Problem Analysis: Make time to thoughtfully analyze learning problems, then try and test multiple strategies until you find the strategies that work best. 

Scores do not assess all that's important in schools. Scores are simply one indicator of performance, an indicator, at my level, that is related to essential skill development in reading, writing, and math. A focus on scores alone makes school a dull diet, but using scores as one piece of the school menu has the potential to invigorate the success we are able to bring to a child's education--success that connects with students' essential skills foundation.  

How do you assess scores?  What classroom actions and events have you found that boost students' scores as well as engagement, enthusiasm, and interest in learning.  Can we develop engaging, authentic, confident class communities and get good scores too? That's my goal this year--let's see what happens.

Tweet

Komentar →