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EVERYBODY HAS TO GET IT:
Extra Help and Support to "Meet Standards"
and Prevent Grade Retention
With growing numbers of students retained in grade in the name of 'standards,'
the need to develop extra help at the individual school level is urgent,
says educator writer/researcher Anne Wheelock.
You
can read a background/introduction to this article at CSTEEP.
Without question, the best strategy a school can use to foster achievement
and prevent either grade retention or "social promotion" is to
set out to remake itself into a school with "holding power," a
school that offers a rich grade-level curriculum in classrooms staffed by
teachers knowledgeable in the content and skilled in helping all students
understand that content. Schools with holding power further organize themselves
to foster positive teacher-student relationships and develop a strong motivational
climate that values achievement for all students. These practices all contribute
to developing a schoolwide "culture of high standards."
Schools that are developing a "culture of high standards" work
hard to make sure that every student receives the support needed to "meet
standards" for grade promotion. Educators in such schools do not wish
to pass unprepared students on to the next grade, but they also know that
grade retention undermines achievement and is a poor substitute for good
teaching and learning. As an alternative to either of these actions, such
schools offer every student effective help early and often during the school
year, before rather than after students fail. Moreover, they see academic
failure as evidence that they themselves have failed to provide students
with the support they need to do better work.
When schools assert that every student can learn, they take concrete steps
to saturate school life with opportunities to access the extra help they
need to succeed. The steps they take vary from school to school, but effective
approaches have several characteristics in common: They are offered early
and often as a normal part of the school routine; and they are often multi-faceted,
with supports for academic achievement made available in a variety of ways.
Above all, effective solutions are school-based solutions, designed and
"owned" by each individual school. Schools that help students
" meet standards" understand that the "quality response"
to low achievement is to "do it right" the first time around.
These schools anticipate that students will need extra help to achieve,
and they offer it as a regular part of the school day. In this commitment,
teachers take responsibility for the success of every student. This commitment
reflects Sizer's observation (1996:35) that "the new assumption, which
has emerged in the past fifteen years, is that if a kid does not get it
in the usual way, the school should try to help him to get it in another
way. Everybody has to get it. No one can be sorted out."
Schools that operate on the assumption that "everybody has to get it"
recognize that some students whose work lags behind acceptable standards
need multiple opportunities for extra help in order to succeed. For example,
Jon Bennett, principal of Bluffton-Harrison Middle School in Indiana, explains
that his school employed multiple approaches to increase the number of students
leaving eighth grade who were prepared to succeed in high school, a strategy
that, in its first year, reduced the number of students who could have failed
from 70 to 8. What's more, his school initiated efforts to reduce the numbers
of students at risk of failing before the crisis of non-promotion became
imminent. He reports:
We started early in the year giving these students the support
they needed. My assistant and I came in on weekends to help students during
Saturday School; we stayed after school to help kids who were struggling;
we set up an after-school tutoring porogram where students could receive
additional assistance, from the teachers (who received their regular hourly
rate of pay). Our school social worker met frequently with the "at
risk" kids to help them with study skills [and] went to homes weekly
to visit with parents to offer suggestions on study skills. If the parents
couldn't be reached at home he visited them at work.
We developed learning contracts with students who were failing classes to
help them develop a plan for improvement, and we regularly called home with
positive news for students who improved. We always followed up a postive
phone call with a letter to the parent. We met with failing students either
at grading time or mid-term time and explained that they needed to pass
their classes and offered any assistance they desired to help them pass.
Bluffton-Harrison's story illustrates the features of an approach that produces
success. First, a multi-faceted strategy attends to both academic and social
needs and provides support at the time of need, not after failure occurs.
Next, opportunities for second chances are part of the school culture, and
even up to the last grading period, students know they will be supported
in completing unfinished assignments. Third, support is intensely personal,
with teachers monitoring progress of vulnerable students so that no one
can fall between the cracks.
With these principles in mind, schools mix and match a variety of interventions
to fit the conditions, resources, and the needs of their students. While
supports take various forms -- sometimes in-school, sometimes out-of-school
-- these are not "add-ons" provided to "special" students.
Rather, "extra help" is a norm, a regular routine in the school's
culture, a "regularity" that supports the larger culture of high
standards and reflects the shared belief of school faculty that it is their
primary responsibility to see that every student meets standards. For example:
- At New York City's School for the Physical City, humanities teachers
persuaded all the school's teachers and support staff to contribute to making
audio tapes of chapters of the challenging novel that launched their unit
on the Great Depression so that under-prepared students could read along
to borrowed tapes. In addition, teachers offer "read aloud session"
three times a week, with a schedule of chapters to be read on each day posted
as an invitation to any student or teacher who wishes to attend (Cziko,
1996).
- At New York Prep, a middle school in East Harlem where fewer than
a quarter of students were at grade level in mathematics, the principal
established a math laboratory to give students in small groups three periods
a week of enrichment to supplement their regular course work, an action
resulting in dramatic gains in math achievement scores (Steinberg, 1996).
- Two U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon School finalists in Michigan
found different ways to provide extra help to students who needed it. At
Highlander Middle School in Howell, a peer tutoring program trains 50 eighth-grade
students to spend time after school to help students in the sixth and seventh
grades. "The older students volunteer their time, one-on-one, to help
a younger student whose grade may have slipped below a C in reading, writing
or math," principal Charles Kraeger reports. At the Mary Thompson Middle
School in Southfield, principal Michael Horn reports that the school's assurance
of transportation home is a key part of an after-school tutoring program
designed to help students improve their understanding in science (Ilka,
1997).
- South Hadley (Massachusetts) Middle School encourages every single
student -- whether in danger of failing or in need of help with organizational
or study skills -- to join a one-hour daily after-school homework help program.
As principal Richard Sawyer explains, ""Sometimes parents are
working two jobs, one in the day and one at night, and no one's able to
make sure they've done their homework. Or sometimes parents find they have
problems supervising, because they get into disagreements about which work
will be done, or how it will be done." The program is informal and
run like a "club." "Dues" are $12.00 a week for those
who can pay, with scholarships available. A teacher's aide confers with
"regular" teachers about specific students' needs and also offers
help to all students. The program is part of a schoolwide effort to offer
extra help to students, including one-to-one tutoring for students with
disabilities (Aguilar, 1997).
- At Morgan Village Middle School in Camden, New Jersey, the school's
"Peacemakers" program uses funds from the William Penn Foundation
to combine after-school homework help with skills-development in peer mediation
and conflict resolution. Project coordinator Tamika Davis explains that
the program aspires to be more than remedial in nature. She says, "We
help [students] think analytically. We want to prepare them for the world"
(Rohr, 1998).
- Ninth graders at Montclair (New Jersey) High School benefit from the
extra support provided by community volunteers trained as writing coaches
by professional writers who staff the school-community writing center. Coaches
provide on-the-spot help to any student working in the school's writing
lab, so that five adults may be available to support 25 students at any
given time. In addition, coaches ease teachers' work load, and allow teachers
to use the writing process to its fullest extent, by providing their time
to read early drafts of papers assigned in tandem with challenging readings
in the school's World Literature classes.
- In order to support every student in a challenging standards-based
college-preparatory math curriculum developed by the Interactive Mathematics
Project, Boston's Fenway Middle College High School enrolls all ninth graders
in an additional twice-weekly math course on "math topics" where
students review math operations and practice test-taking. Teacher Linda
Nathan explains, "Our purpose is to shore up the students' skills since
many, many still don't have mastery of basic math facts" like multiplication
of fractions and math properties. The school also schedules an intensive
writing skills workshop once a week and a regular after-school learning
center, and some students complete unfinished work in a school-based summer
school. Nathan reports, "Each year we are progressing a bit, becoming
better and better. Our inching up on SAT scores is evidence of that, as
is the number of students who go on in careers in math and science."
- At Baltimore's Canton Middle School, teachers make daily recordings
of each class's homework assignment. Then, when parents phone the school
in the evenings, they can hear from Mrs. R. that she expects her students
to turn in their final draft of their persuasive letter arguing for or against
the city's building a monument to slavery the next day; from Mr. K. that
the next day students will be quizzed on the data in their climatograms;
and from Ms. W. suggesting that parents ask their children to summarize
the plot of "The Autobiography of Ms. Jane Pittman." This effort
complements after-school tutoring for students who are paired with college
students studying for their own teacher certification.
- Willard Junior High School, in Berkeley, California, gives vulnerable
students the extra boost they need to succeed in grade-level heterogeneous
classes by offering extra (not pull-out) help in "jump start"
classes that introduce students to the content of the grade-level curriculum
before their regular classes tackle a new unit. For example, if the
grade-level curriculum calls for reading "Lord of the Flies,"
teachers will introduce vulnerable students to the novel's plot, characters,
and vocabular through a viewing and discussion of the movie prior to their
reading the book.
With the growing number of students retained in grade in the name of "standards,"
the need to develop extra help responses at the individual school level
is urgent. Such extra-help strategies must be offered in students' appropriate
grade level, not as "add ons" but within a school culture that
reflects schoolwide commitment to equal access to knowledge, a "press
for achievement," and research-based professional teaching practices
(Smith and Shepard, 1989; Oakes, 1989).
Moreover, while efforts to mandate summer school district wide or shuffle
failing eighth graders off to a separate "transitional" school
may be well-intentioned, such programs are likely to fall short of expectations.
Simply put, district-designed remedial programs let individual schools off
the hook for ensuring that every student succeeds. The knowledge that "there's
always the district summer school" or the belief that "the transition
school will 'fix' the kids" only tempts teachers to tolerate failure
within their school walls, allowing them to pass responsibility on to separate
remedial programs. Indeed, in practice, such programs represent less a second-chance
than a low-track, dead-end placement, the last step before dropping out.
In contrast, the examples offered by schools committed to ensuring that
every single student "meets standards" with their age-appropriate
peers illustrate that alternatives to either grade retention or "social
promotion" are within the reach of all schools willing to design and
implement them.
Pulling It All Together: The Talent Development Middle School
Success in creating and sustaining a strong school climate that both "holds"
students and motivates them to put forth the effort necessary to "meet
standards" depends on a variety of changes in schools' standard operating
procedures. Implementing such multi-faceted change benefits from a whole-school
change strategy and the guidance of a model grounded in applied research.
The Talent Development Middle School model is one that offers such direction
and support for schools seeking to create a school climate that nurtures
and challenges students at the same time.
The components of the Talent Development model evolve from research by the
Center for the Study of Students Placed at Risk (CRESPAR), co-directed by
staff at Howard University and the Johns Hopkins University. Everything
about Talent Development Schools' organization, curriculum, teaching, and
student support structure stems from the belief that schools must develop
talent, and that they can do this best in schools where every student
has access to an engaging standards-based curriculum in heterogeneous
classrooms, and where every student is in classrooms with caring teachers
and peers who are "rooting for them to do well, who are encouraging
them to give their best in the classroom, and who are doing everything in
their power to help them improve their skills and increase their understanding
(MacIver and Plank, 1996:1).
Central East Middle School in Philadelphia is one such school that has set
out to prove that every student can succeed in the middle grades by putting
a set of practices in place that complement one another and create a school
culture that encompasses both caring relationships and challenging learning
opportunities. The school fosters positive relationships by organizing students
and teachers into teams, with the same group of teachers remaining with
their students for three years through the middle grades. Teacher-student
advisories mean that every student has an advocate who knows him well in
the school. Further, classrooms are organized cooperatively through literacy
approaches that include student team reading and writing so that students
receive encouragement from one another.
Professional development is offered teachers as new, challenging curriculum
is phased in.
Thus, language arts teachers have received training in cooperative learning
and literacy skills in a multi-cultural literature-based curriculum; math
teachers received professional development in the Chicago Mathematics curriculum;
and science teachers have had access to professional development in new
NSF-supported science curricula materials. Teachers have also received professional
development to implement an advisory curriculum that guides students in
connecting their own aspirations with such personal decisions as high school
course selection.
Central East has also adopted a variety of ways to extend extra help to
students who need a boost to succeed in the heterogeneous standards-based
curriculum. For example, some students are assigned to two math classes,
providing them with a "double dose" of content and instruction
so that they can keep up with grade-level expectations. In addtion, the
school offers time for reteaching and development of study skills through
a homework club where teachers and peer tutors work one-on-one with students.
With some students pushed to attend by teachers and others attending on
their own, teachers observe better attentin to their work and say more are
getting their homework done.
The implementation of Talent Development Schools, like other whole-school
change schools, is complex, best realized over a period of several years.
Such change benefits from outside support, thoughtful and informed leadership,
and committed teachers at the school level. Change also benefits from a
supportive district context in which resources like Title 1 and professional
development funds are directed, not toward the haphazard "add ons"
that characterize "Christmas tree schools" (Bryk, 1993), but toward
the development of a coherent culture of high standards grounded in research-based
strategies designed to improve student achievement.
Ultimately, educators and policy-makers must take heed of the need for whole
school reform along the lines of the Talent Development Model to address
the problem of under-achievement. As Columbia University's Linda Darling-Hammond
and Beverly Falk note (1997:197) note, "Issues of how students meet
standards cannot be separated from issues of teching, assessment, school
organization, professional development, and funding." Improved achievement
begins and ends at the school level, but it also requires district support.
References
Aguilar, M. (1997). "Homework Help at Middle School," Daily Hampshire
Gazette, 28 November.
Bryk, A.S. et al. (1993). A view from the elementary schools: The
state of reform in Chicago. Chicago: Consortium on School Research.
Cziko, C. (1996). "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? Designing a Learning
Expedition on the Great Depression," pp. 77-88 in D. Udall and A. Mednick
(Eds.), Journeys Through Our Classrooms, Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.
Darling-Hammond, L. and Falk, B. (1997). "Using Standards and Assessments
to Support Student Learning," Phi Delta Kappan, 79(3), November: 190-199.
Ilka, D. (1997). "State Salutes 9 Innovative Schools in Oakland and
Macomb," Detroit News, 2 December.
Mac Iver, D. J. and Plank, S. B. (1996). The Talent Development Middle School.
Creating a Motivational Climate Conducive to Talent Development in the Middle
Schools: Implementation and Effects of Student Team Reading. Report No.
4. Baltimore/Washington, DC: Johns Hopkins University and Howard University,
Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk. September.
Oakes, J. (1989). "What Educational Indicators? The Case for Assessing
the School Context," Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 11(2),
Summer.
Rohr, M. (1998). "For many, homework is now schoolwork," Philadelphia
Inquirer, 8 February.
Sizer, T. R. (1996). Horace's Hope: What Works for the American High School.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Smith, M.L. and Shepard, L., Eds. (1989). Flunking Grades: Research and
Policies on Retention. New York: Falmer Press.
Steinberg, J. (1996). "Study Finds Secret of Successful Schools,"
New York Times, 8 November.
OTHER ANNE WHEELOCK WRITINGS on MiddleWeb
Standards-Based Reform: What Does It
Mean for the Middle Grades?
Crossing the Tracks: How "Untracking" Can Save America's Schools
Detracking Your School May Require Whole-School
Change
A Response to Anne Wheelock's "Everybody
Has To Get It"
Dear Anne,
I was exploring Middleweb and copied your article, "Everybody has to
get it." It is really great but harder to implement than you think.
The structure of the schedule has a lot to do with it.
Lynn Canady (who wrote "Block
Scheduling") has some solutions. He is about to publish a
book on middle school schedules. He sent me a couple of advance chapters,
and they inspired an idea of my own. I'm going to try this schedule at 7
and 8: It's a rotating a/b day with 4 blocks each. Three are core periods.
It cuts down the per-pupil ratio -- teachers will see only 65 kids each
day. This will help them get to do in-depth work because the periods will
be 80 minutes long.
Picture four extended blocks each day of 80 minutes. There is an alternating
A day and B day. There are five core teachers participating. On "A"
day, a student has a "core" subject: math, science and writing
and a "non-core"( PE., art, family life, consumer science, tech
ed, world language or music). On "B" day a student has ELA, social
studies and an interdisciplinary block in which the student will take for
one marking period either (1.) a challenge, (2.) a review, (3.) an "I-Search
Project" or (4.) a T.A.P. (teacher activity period) which is interdisciplinary
in nature and connected with a 'core' subject. The student chooses this
T.A.P. from a list of selections. In the past these have included selections
such as rocketry, city history, Junior Great Books or geometry. At the end
of the day for about 25 minutes, each student will also have advisor/advisee.
This creates longer blocks of time for instruction (80 minutes instead of
42-47), and it lowers the per-pupil ratio for me from 30 to 25 in core subjects.
It maintains the non-core per-pupil ratio at about 18. It allows teachers
to see 65 kids per day instead of 130. The only disadvantage is that if
a student is absent, he/she will have to wait one extra day to make contact
with those teachers because he will return on an A or B day.
I think it will work and people say they are ready for it. It will get kids
ready for block scheduling earlier, if in fact they will be getting into
that in high school. It won't be such an adjustment for them then, on top
of changing schools.
It's all gains except for the kids who are absent a lot and will have a
harder tiime to catch up. The teachers promise to help them. I have 94%
daily attendance so that should be an acceptable risk. We'll see!
Paula Hutton, Principal
Sullivan Middle School
150 Draper St.
Lowell, MA 01852
HuttonMele@aol.com
And then this follow-up message:
Dear Anne:
In response to your query, the Interdisciplinary block happens at different
times for different grade levels. However, if I needed the 5th and 6th to
participate in a whole school activity, they could easily tie in because
they both use flexible blocks scheduling at those grade levels. At grade
5, they are self contained with 4 core teachers except for special subjects.
At 6th, the core teachers are paired in two teams within the grade level:
math/science and language arts/ss, so the kids have two teachers for core
areas. Then they too have different teachers for special subjects.
I saw Dan French at Carnegie. He liked the schedule and made one recommendation
which was to make a large Humanities Block instead of ELA and SS, back to
back. It would lower the number of kids that one sees on day B. This period
would be 160 minutes. We both agreed that it would be too large a leap in
one year. i think the 8th grade team will tinker with this during the year
because they are already playing with that concept.
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