What is Effective Education?
I have been in education for over 20 years and in that time I have seen about every program, teaching method, and educational policy come and go. For the first time in my career I can confidently say I know what works. Ten years ago you could go to conferences and bring home ideas that scattered across the whole educational spectrum. But not today. Everything I read, every conference I go to , and every educational expert I talk to, the message is clear, Do these four things and students will learn.
1) Teacher Clarity - Whether it is the Common Core, State Standards, or District Assessments, we are becoming crystal clear on what students need to know and be able to do. Districts all over the country are forming high functioning PLCs that work together to design rigorous curriculum.This is critical. The other attributes are ineffective if you don't have clear targets.
2) Formative Assessment - You must assess on a regular basis and keep track of where your students are compared to targets, I work with many teachers who present great lessons but fail to know or understand their effectiveness. When I talk with a teacher I ask them this: Which students learned the intended criteria and which students still need help? In almost every instance the teacher replies that they don't know. We have to know.
3) Feedback - Formative assessment is ineffective if nothing is done with the information. If we are clear on the targets and know where our students are compared to the target, we then need to give specific effective feedback to get them closer to the goal. We can't help students if we don't coach them during their journey.
4) Student self Assessment - I was lucky enough to attend the ACSD conference in Nashville this year where I got to hear one of my favorite presenters John Hattie talk about his research which has greatly impacted my work with teachers. His number one influence (See all of Hattie's List) is Student Self reported grades. Knowing where we are at as learners compared to the target and having a great road map to get there is essential.
This is me (on the left) with John Hattie (right) in Nashville.
I have learned a lot about student self assessment in the past few years. We struggled in our district to get students to be "successful" self assessors. What I found out is that in order to be good at self assessment it is critical to have something to self assess against. In other words if I don't have something to compare to I'm really just guessing. How can you get students to self assess accurately? Have them self assess right after taking a good formative assessment. If they are writing have them compare their writings to exemplars. If someone asked me right now to self assess on my abilities in calculus I might say "I think I'm pretty good" but after completing a formative assessment I would not only know that I'm bad at calculus but more importantly what specific skills I need to work on to get better.
What I consider the four critical attributes discussed above is the foundation of our activities at MyPATHS. It is critical to understand that when building these components into activities for students you must take into account the design qualities that will cause students to be engaged at high levels and complete the tasks. You can't just give students the same old boring paper and pencil assessments and assume they will learn. Put engaging work in front of students and they will commit to it and learn at high levels (See the Schlechty Center).
Every time Josh (who will be writing a post soon) and I talk about improving our designs he always comes back with something that gets closer to our vision. Underwater Adventure is a product Josh designed in Power Point that I am really excited about. It takes his engaging game concepts and adds the components of formative assessment, feedback, and self assessment.
Happy Fourth of July from Mike and Josh Enjoy!
Here is my favorite picture of my family from this summer
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