WHATS THE NEXT PHASE FOR ELEVATING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT Taunton Public Schools

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WHATS THE NEXT PHASE FOR ELEVATING STUDENT
ACHIEVEMENT?Taunton Public Schools
Jon Saphier
Research for Better Teaching, Inc.
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Three Approaches to Whole School Improvement
2. Improve Teaching
3. Build Student Motivation
1. Use Data
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1. Use Data

• Clear learning targets
• Exemplars
• Criteria
• Common final and interim assessments
• Frequent data analysis
• Error analysis and design of re-teaching by teams

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Examples of Schools focused on Using Data

• Northstar Academy Newark, NJ
• Brazoport, TX District

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2. Improve Teaching

• Bring the Knowledge Base on Teaching itself to
• De-privatizing teaching
• Frequent knowledge-based observation and feedback
• School-wide study groups
• Inter-visitations
• lesson-study
• Personnel positions for improving instruction
  (coaches, lead teachers, staff developers)

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Examples of Schools focused on Improving Teaching

• Elmont Jr.-Sr. High School Nassau County, NY
• Hoover HS, San Diego, CA
• Broadacre Elementary School Montgomery County,
  MD
• District 2, NYC
• Jeremiah Burke High School Dorchester, MA

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3. Build Student Motivation

• Personalization
• Convey This is important, you can do it, I
  wont give up on you.
• Explicitly teaching effective effort
• Teach efficacy and aspiration
• Safety net interventions
• Extra time
• Extensive family contacts

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Examples of Schools Focused onBuilding Student
Motivation

• University Park Campus School Worcester, MA
• Roxbury Prep Boston, MA
• Granger High School Yakima, WA
• Jeremiah Burke High School Dorchester, MA

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ABILITY IS MALLEABLESmart is something you can
get
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BELIEF 1- ABILITY-BASED BELIEF
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ERRONEOUS ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT INTELLECTUAL ABILITY

• Its a thing
• Innate
• Fixed
• Unevenly distributed
• Deterministic
• Measurable

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Belief 2- Effort Based Ability
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THE BOTTOM LINE OF EFFORT BASED ABILITY
The ability to do something competently-
anything mathematics, race car driving, dancing,
public speakingis primarily determined by
effective effort and your belief that you can get
proficient at it. Smart is something you can
get. The bell curve of ability is wrong.
Even what we call intelligence is malleable.
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THE BOTTOM LINE OF EFFORT BASED ABILITY

• Our work as educators, in fact a major part for
  some kids, is
• 1) Convincing them they can grow their ability
  at academics.
• 2) Showing them how.
• 3) Motivating them to want to.

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OUTCOMES

• Look deeply and honestly at our own beliefs
  about students intellectual capacity.
• Learn some specific tools to change the internal
  beliefs of students who think they are innately
  unable to perform at high academic levels. (We
  begin to act our way into new beliefs.)

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INTELLIGENCE

• Forces converging to support the development in
  the U.S. of the
• concept of intelligence as a fixed, innate,
  measurable, unevenly
• distributed and deterministic entity 1890-1920

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ALFRED BINETFather of what became the
Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test

• Binet, speaking about the test of mental ability
  he created
• The scores are a practical device they do not
  buttress any theory of intellect. They do not
  define anything innate or permanent. We may not
  designate what they measure as intelligence or
  any other reified entity.
• The scale is a rough, empirical guide for
  identifying mildly retarded and learning disabled
  children who need special help. It is not a
  device for ranking normal children.

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ALFRED BINET

• Whatever the cause of difficulty in children
  identified for help, emphasis shall be placed
  upon improvement through special training. Low
  scores shall not be used to mark children as
  innately incapable.
• Intelligence is susceptible to development with
  practice and training and especially with
  appropriate methods of teaching we can augment a
  childs attention, his memory, his judgment
  helping him literally to become more intelligent
  than he was before.

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ALFRED BINET
Intelligence was not a fixed amount to Binet, or
a constant, or some Platonic, bounded essence.
Intelligence was educable. He advocated a
mental orthopedics that teaches children to
observe better, to listen better, to retain and
to judge better they gain self-confidence,
emulation, perseverance, the desire to succeed
and all the excellent feelings that accompany
action. They should especially be taught to will
with more intensity to will, this is indeed the
key to all education.
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IQ SCORES

• Average IQs in US have risen 9 points per
  generation since 1932
• Intelligence can be increased
• At most accounts for 25 of variability in grades

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IQ SCORES CONTINUED

• Geniuses got there by incredible work
• Children who believe smart is something you can
  get do significantly better
• Heritability says nothing about malleability

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JAPANESE HERITABILITY
Environment makes more difference than genetics.
A
HEIGHT
B
C
D
TIME
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RELATION BETWEEN PARENTS MEASURED INTELLIGENCE
AND THE CHILDS
Johnnys Parents
Johnnys Parents
.45
.70
Correlation of intelligence scores
Correlation of intelligence scores
Little Johnny Jones
Grown- up Johnny Jones
ADULTHOOD
CHILDHOOD
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Good Books on Intelligence

• S.J. Gould, The Mismeasure of Man
• D. Perkins, Outsmarting I.Q.
• S. Ceci, On Intelligence A Bioecological
  Treatise on Intellectual Development

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5 BELIEFS THAT LIBERATE OR LIMIT LEARNING
LIFE LIBERATING BELIEFS
LIFE LIMITING BELIEFS
Mistakes help one learn You are not supposed to
understand everything the first time around.
Care, perseverance, and craftmanship are what
count. Good Students solicit help and lots of
feedback on their work. Consistent effort and
effective strategies are the main determinants of
success Every one is capable of high achievement,
not just the fastest and most confident.
vs. vs. vs. vs. vs.
Mistakes are a sign of weakness Speed is what
counts. Faster is smarter. Good students can do
it by themselves. Inborn intelligence is the
main determinant of success Only the few bright
can achieve at a high level.
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3 KEY MESSAGES

• What were doing is important.
• You can do it.
• I wont give up on you, even if you give up on
  yourself.

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If you get the paper finished and handed in on
time, then you wont have to worry about my
hounding you for years and years to come.
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TENANCITY CONTINUUMWhere to take a stand?
Teach responsibility through consequences for
non-performance
Ensure success at any cost
Learn it or take the consequences Too
Tough Denies sufficient learning opportunities
and help
Chasing Too Soft Making kids dependent
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EFFECTIVE EFFORT
It is not enough just to try hard. By effort we
mean these six things
1. Time - An understanding of how much time it
takes to do the job well. 2. Focus - No TV or
other distractions concentrate only on the
work! 3. Strategies - Learn strategies to use
when you meet obstacles. If one approach isnt
working, keep trying different ways until you
find one that works.
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EFFECTIVE EFFORT cont.

• 4. Resourcefulness - Knowing where to go and whom
  to ask for help when youre really stuck.
• 5. Use of Feedback - Looking carefully at
  responses to your work so you know exactly what
  to fix.
• -They know exactly what to focus on to do well
  (what good work looks and sounds like) and where
  their performance is in relation to it
  (feedback).
• -They know how to improve (strategies and
  resourcefulness)
• 6. Commitment - Being determined to finish and
  do the very best work.

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WHO BELIEVE IN CHILDREN...
The Relentless Belief in Students
Capacity Perhaps the most important part of this
professional knowledge base stems from a belief
the belief that all children can learn to high
levels, and that it is within my capacity and
within my responsibility as a teacher to assure
that it happens. Thus my knowledge base includes
knowing how to carry out those beliefs in daily
teaching practice as I communicate expectations,
cultivate risk taking, and build a climate of
mutual support among students.
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The Relentless Belief in Students Capacity

• So, a bottom line for us must be that a school
  have within its operating policies and at the
  basis of the practice of all individuals who work
  within it this belief
• All children can learn at a high level. It is my
  responsibility to be relentless in my pursuit of
  getting them there, and to build instructional
  structures and classroom climate consistent with
  that belief.