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Failing Schools

Each year the popular press here in Boston publishes many articles on the failure of our schools to help children. In Massachusetts we have implemented educational reforms that have included spending more money, creating pilot schools, creating charter schools and a host of innovations in the existing public and private schools. We have just added the MCAS exam, and annual assessment of student accomplishment that will measure public school effectiveness.

Nonetheless, year after year, the results have been depressingly similar. American children are becoming increasingly less able each year—and none of the new ideas are stopping the deterioration of academic skill in our public schools.

This would be a serious problem if it happened "only" to our poorest students. We could then blame poor parenting or poor nutrition, or we could make racist but disguised assumptions about the learning ability of "those kinds of kids."  

In fact, the problems are worst among the poorest students, because our educational organizations have the lowest expectations for them. The problem is not limited to poor students, or to black students or to Hispanic students, though that by itself would be a tragic indictment of our society. Poor academic performance permeates all socio-economic and racial groups in North America. Our best students are no longer the equal of the world's best students. Even after years of private education our best students are failing to compete with the best that the world has to offer. A recent study found our students to be 85th of the 158 members of the United Nations in literacy. 

Our schools struggle to change and find a new path to success, but the most innovative and daring new concepts seem to have some of the most disabling consequences. Instead of improvement, we see further decline. Exciting new equipment and wired classrooms are installed at great expense. Within several years the lack of change in student performance is clear and the new equipment is antique. 

 Having computers will not improve children's performance.  

A Developmental Solution

Dr. Jeff Howard is the founder of the Efficacy Institute and J. Howard and Associates, a training company that specializes in corporate training. Jeff first described the essential underlying problem of American Education in this way.  

The North American Model 

Innate Ability à Development 

At the heart of our beliefs about education and development is a model that drives our behavior. We expect throughout the educational process to grade (sort) students since we do not expect every student to excel. This model is simple and understandable to all of us since we each have experienced it.  

"Innate ability" is simply IQ. Under this model, you are born with all the "stuff" you will ever possess. The amount of that "stuff" will determine how far you can go in life. 

If you have a lot you are going to be very successful, moving to the highest reaches of our meritocracy. If you have a middling amount, then you are going to do middling well. Unfortunately, if you don't have very much of this "stuff" at birth, you are not going to do well in this culture. You are never going to be able to do as much as those with large helpings of the "right stuff." Our schools have the mission of measuring this “stuff” and sorting the children into the proper “bins.” 

The Coaching Model 

Confidence àEffort + Feedback à Development

In 1976-1980 a wholly different approach to education was implemented by a public elementary school in Great Falls, Montana. Rather than believing that only some students can learn to attain outstanding performances, this approach assumed that all children can perform at the highest levels. Rather than setting up a curriculum that sorted and selected children, this approach used practical tools to enable every child to excel.  

High Expectations and Powerful Tools

Starting in September of the first year all of the students and teachers began using an educational method called Precision Teaching (PT). The PT program began simultaneously in all grades of the pilot school—from first to sixth. When the Iowa Test was administered in the first year none of the students or teachers had been using PT for very long, but they had begun.  

The children who took the test the second year had a full year plus a month of exposure to PT and so on.  By the fourth year the pilot students had been in the program throughout their entire school experience.  

q       All pilot students took the test.

q       Learning disabled children did not take these examinations in the other district schools.

q        Pilot students labeled Special Needs scored higher than the traditionally educated kids did in the other schools. 

Outstanding Educational Outcomes for All

These graphic charts show the annual average percentile scores of the eight schools, aggregated together. The district average includes the pilot test scores. 

Please notice the dramatic change that occurred over the course of just four years. Students improved dramatically in every topic area. 

  

 

What is Missing From This Picture?

The intervention that created this dramatic impact might be expected to be all-encompassing and dramatic, requiring an intense and jarring change in the school environment. You might expect to hear that the entire school has been totally re-vamped and an intensive, multi-hour intervention begun.  

This was not the case! 

Twenty Minutes a Day

The school added twenty minutes of high performance practice by each student every day. Each student was building skill in exactly the area that he or she needed to develop because the program is highly individualized.  Each student was aiming to achieve fluency in each topic.   

Precision Teaching is the tool used to make this enormous change in educational outcomes.

What is Precision Teaching?

q       A technology directly drawn from behavioral science with a thirty year track record of outstanding educational outcomes.

q       A method for assuring that each student masters curricular materials.

q       A precise mix of challenge and risk for students.

q       A method for achieving the highest possible learning outcomes for every child.

q       “Smart Drill!”

q       A technique for assuring fluency and retention in every curricular area

q       An efficient and inexpensive way to create a marvelous school. 

How do you do it?

q       Direct measurement of student performance.

q       Simple and graphic feedback on learning.

q       A curriculum that aims for fluent performance, not merely correct performance.

q       Twenty minutes every day of intense practice with measurement.

q       Demonstrate high expectations for every student.

q       A thorough implementation and solid support for teachers throughout the first years of the project. 

q       A strong desire to be the best possible school for every child! 

Steps to Implementation in the School

q       Make an organizational commitment to the project.

q       Purchase curricular materials and individual kits.

q       Provide training to all teachers and coaching for implementation.

q       Plan to provide support and reinforcement to teachers for their efforts.

q       Support children and teachers with recognition for their efforts.

q       Monitor the progress and the charting efforts to build momentum. 

What the Teachers will do

q       Learn to use the Standard Practice Chart to recognize learning success and failure.

q       Set up charts on four important topics for each child in the class.

q       Teach the children to fill out charts and provides coaching and feedback.

q       Determine where each student should begin in the spectrum of material.

q       Share from a rich spectrum of practice sheets with all other classrooms.

q       Check all charts and provide positive feedback for achieving performance gains.

q       Provide coaching and ideas to help students who are not accelerating their performances.

What the students will do

q       Maintain a folder that contains current charts and practice worksheets.

q       Set a goal for the next several weeks.

q       “Keep score” every day by filling out charts in each topic.

q       Practice to reach the goal and keep growing to mastery.

q       Practice is in short bursts, with the goal of going as fast as possible.

q       Aim to achieve fluent performance levels on each step.

q       Go beyond accuracy to mastery.

Charting provides:

q       A navigational tool that helps to steer learning choices.

q       Sensitive feedback to support or modify curriculum decisions.

q       Reinforcement and information to the student.

q       Guidance in practice choices for each student.

q       An individually specific plan that provides achievable challenges.

LifeForce will provide:

q       Expertise in change motivation.

q       Pioneering experience in launching and maintaining Precision Teaching  implementations.

q       Ability to tailor the implementation to your needs and budget.

q       A willingness to partner in the success of your project.

q       Curricular and implementation specialists as needed.

q       Thorough knowledge of leading programs and recent developments.

q       A belief in the ability of every child to attain world class skill levels. 

Richard McManus can be contacted at LifeForce, Inc. at 781-749-7400.  To contact him via e-mail please click here.