Is Your Middle School Ready for Standards-Based Reform?

Is Your Middle School Ready
for Standards-Based Reform?

ASSESSING INTERIM INDICATORS

[Prepared by Anne Wheelock, based on her book "Safe To Be Smart"]

One of the tenets of standards-based reform policies is that "only outcomes matter." While that may be the case from the perspective of politicians and policymakers, evaluators know that examining "context indicators" and using formative assessments are often more helpful in stimulating changes in teaching and learning.

Students and teachers either languish or thrive on thedaily life of schools. They will "meet standards" only if all aspects of school cultures support better student work, caring relationships that nurture positive beliefs about effort, and a collegial professional climate that fosters teachers' capacity to effectively help students do better work.

You can assess your school's capacity to support standards-based reform using indicators that reflect your attention to:

* The routines, processes, and learning opportunities that encourage all students to create high quality work;

* The relationships, structures, and beliefs that foster a motivational climate;

* The collegial norms that support professional practices oriented to teaching for high quality work.

The [draft] checklist below allows you to describe the capacity of your own school's culture for ensuring that all students create high quality work. The checklist assumes that no single practice indicates a culture for quality student work but that the presence of a cluster of practices is critical. The following key indicates "nonexistent," "beginning," "growing," and "well developed" levels of practice:

1 = Not in evidence or evident in only a few classes;

2 = Beginning to become evident in a few classes in all grades;

3 = Established in all classes in at least one grade and gaining ground and at least in experimental stages in others;

4 = The way we do things around here.

TEACHING AND LEARNING IS FOCUSED
ON HIGH QUALITY STUDENT WORK
(and the resources to improve it)

A. Teachers have used a process of curriculum mapping
to redesign curriculum for greater interdisciplinary
coherence and to prevent overlaps, repetition,
and fragmentation of content.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

B. Assignments reflect research on authentic pedagogy,
so that students:
-- Create new knowledge, not simply find facts;
-- Engage in sustained inquiry on a topic;
-- Produce work that has "currency" with
audiences outside the school, not just to satisfy teachers.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

C. Teachers work with the librarian to map collections
and other resources to identify resource gaps that must
be filled to match the real curriculum and allow students
to produce high quality work.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

D. Students have rubrics for major assignments that
describe the qualities of different levels of
accomplishment, including application of basic and
higher order skills.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

E. Students have examined and discussed samples of
work that represent "excellent" and "good" work.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

F. Students themselves have designed rubrics for
major assignments, based on opportunities to study
their own work and samples of work that reflect
standards of excellence.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

G. Parents understand rubrics used for assignments.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

H. Students have a chance to hear others critique their
work during the work process.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

I. Teacher provide students with direct feedback
on their work-in-progress.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

J. Students have time and opportunities for revision of
their work so that finished work "meets standards" of
the rubrics.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

K. Students have the opportunity to consider their own work
habits and processes through structured self-reflection.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

L. Students synthesize their best work
through an exit activity required for graduation.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

M. Students lead parent-teacher conferences that
focus on their work in relation to rubrics and their
self-assessment of their work habits.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

N. Students know their work will be viewed in
public in a variety of ways, including:

-- Students work is put to use in the "real world;"
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

-- Student work that "meets standards"
is publicly displayed outside and inside the school;
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

-- Student work is reviewed and critiqued by adults
from outside the school.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

-- Other
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

RELATIONSHIPS AND STRUCTURES
SUPPORT STUDENT MOTIVATION

A. Teachers' professional behavior reflects concern for
each student as an individual.

-- Teachers address every student by name.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

-- Teachers do not refer to students by label,
either to students or parents, or among themselves.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

-- Teachers monitor racism and sexism in their
language and assumptions.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

-- Teachers take extra steps to learn more about
students lives and ways in which individual
students learn best.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

-- Other:
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

B. School structures and routines promote consistent,
personalized relationships between teachers and
students and promote "rigorous caring."

-- Large schools are divided into heterogeneously-
grouped schools-within-schools of 300-400 students.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

-- Schools are divided into teacher teams;
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

-- Teachers follow the same students through all grades.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

-- Teachers teach humanities and math/science blocks
to reduce the number of students they must know well.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

-- Teacher advisories generate discussions with students
about beliefs about intelligence, persistence, and ability,
and broaden students' awareness of educational programs
that will help them realize their aspirations for the future.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

C. Beliefs and routines value effort, persistence,
help-seeking, and risk-taking;

-- Teachers reflect together on their beliefs about ability
in relation to research on teacher and student
beliefs and student motivation.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

-- Teachers reinforce the value of learning from mistakes
by refusing to tolerate ridicule of mistakes among students.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

-- Teachers inform students about theories of
multiple intelligences.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

-- Teachers tell students explicitly that they have
a right to ask for help from anyone and that they
have the duty to assist anyone who asks for help.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

-- Parent are informed about research on student motivation.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

-- Student grading practices allow students second
chances to bring work "up to standard," and reflect
quality of work, not effort.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

D. A diversified curriculum and instructional program
ensures that every student has opportunities to learn
for understanding and avoids "curriculum casualties."

-- Heterogeneous grouping promotes equal access
to high quality, grade-level curriculum and instruction.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

-- Curriculum broadens student learning to allow them
access to the world beyond what they already know.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

-- Students "see themselves" in curriculum materials.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

-- Curriculum and instruction engage multiple intelligences.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

E. Challenges that stretch students beyond traditional
expectations and emphasize participation and inclusiveness.

-- All students are included in academic competitions.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

-- Teachers give whole classes challenging problems and
puzzles that require months to solve.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

-- Teachers use student study groups to help students
rise to new challenges while avoiding associating
academic success with specific racial groups.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

F. Schools as a whole are organized to offer extra time and
concrete support for student through extra-help opportunities
available to all.

-- Extra time and support is built into every school day
so that students who fall behind can get help when they
need it in relation to specific assignments.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

-- Students who are overage for grade get extra help so
they can catch up with their age-peers.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

G. Counseling and mentoring match students
with resources that make clear what they must do
to achieve their aspirations.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

A COLLEGIAL CLIMATE
SUPPORTS PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

A. Principals lead teachers in regular whole-faculty
conversations about beliefs and expectations
related to all students' learning and their relation
to school practices.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

B. Principals link schools to outside resources and
coaches who can help guide schools toward new practice.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

C. Teachers have regular time to meet for whole
faculty study groups on professional practice.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

D. Teachers have regular time to discuss student
work in relation to standards developed by the
national professional associations.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

E. Teachers review student work on a regular basis
to reevaluate and reset standards for excellence as
made concrete in revised rubrics and exemplars.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

F. Teachers collectively take responsibility for improving
students' academic work and share strategies for
ensuring that the work of each teacher is the best it can
possibly be.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

G. Teachers visit and observe each others' classes to
observe teaching.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

H. Teacher leaders are encouraged to share resources
and introduce new ideas to others to improve
professional practice.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

I. Teachers new to the school have opportunities for a
school-specific orientation and mentoring from
experienced teachers.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

J. School-based professional development is tied to
using new materials and specific curriculum based
on standards developed by the professional associations.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

K. School-based professional development is tied to
implementing a coherent instructional program designed
to focus on student work.
1 / 2 / 3 / 4

SCHOOL POLICIES, PRACTICES, AND SCHOOL CULTURE
ARE ALL ORIENTED TO QUALITY WHEN:

(Y = "Yes;" N = "No;" DK = "Don't know and need to find out")

A. Student attendance rates, by race and grade, are increasing.
Y / N / DK

B. Student grade promotion rates, by race and grade, are increasing.
Y / N / DK

C. The percentage of students overage for grade when they leave
eighth grade, by race, is declining.
Y / N / DK

D. Student suspension rates, by race and grade, are dropping.
Y / N / DK

E. The percentage of students leaving eighth grade and enrolling in a
ninth-grade program that is focused on an end result of their
enrolling in post-secondary education is increasing for all student
groups.
Y / N / DK

Developed from: Wheelock, A. (1998). Safe To Be Smart: Building a Culture for Standards-Based Reform in the Middle Grades. Columbus, OH: National Middle School Association.

AEW:3/99