Now that the staff has had a year to work with PBL are there plans to support better self-paced learning so that students can move at an appropriately challenging pace?

This is a great question and it relates to one of our overarching goals for school improvement - differentiating instruction to meet the needs of all our students.  It is important to note that our transition to "PBL" did not somehow make it more difficult to differentiate.  In fact, the transition work will actually help to facilitate differentiation because we will have a much better sense of where students are in their learning and what they need to continue to grow.

One fundamental shift that teachers must make to challenge students at an appropriate level is to use assessments differently than they had in the past.  A good assessment should provide the teacher and the student with important data about where the student is in relation to a learning target or standard.  The teacher must then provide the student with actionable feedback that the student can use to continue to grow.

The work teachers assign should be challenging enough so that students struggle, receive descriptive feedback, and then revise and improve their work.  When we have evidence (gathered through assessments that may come before or during an instructional unit) that a student has met a learning target or mastered a concept, we must help students to exceed those learning targets (when appropriate) and/or introduce additional learning targets so that students continue to be challenged and progress in their learning.

Although I appreciate the philosophy behind PBL, I am concerned that my son will not be motivated to meet or exceed standards the first time because he knows that he will have the opportunity to redo assignments.

This is a great question and a very common one.  The concern is that if students are allowed to redo assignments they will simply "blow off" the work because they know they can "just" take the test again.  This is a concern that is also common with teachers who are beginning to make this change in their practice.

One of the major shifts in mindset that needs to happen in order to really understand the value of retakes is to be clear about the purpose of the assessment itself.  Teachers give assessments in order to gather evidence of student learning.  In order for an assessment (worksheet, quiz, project, test) to be viable it must provide the teacher and the student with useful information about what the student has learned and where he or she may have fallen short.  THIS INFORMATION MUST BE ACTIONABLE.  This is in contrast to a traditional system in which a teacher may give an assessment  after two weeks of instruction, assign a grade, and then move on to another topic.

Rather than thinking about assessments as marking the end of a block of learning, they should be viewed as an integral component of the learning process itself.  Students should have the opportunity to reflect on their performance while receiving quality descriptive feedback from the teacher.  At that point, students should be required to re-attempt the assignment (or a small portion of it) in order to demonstrate mastery of the material.  This cycle of struggle, reflection, and perseverance is really where the meaningful learning will take place.

In addition, students quickly learn that they will not be "off the hook" if they don't turn something in or if they do not put forth their best effort.  We expect that our students will turn in quality work and perform at high levels - even if it takes multiple attempts.  Not only does this foster a strong work ethic, it also helps to ensure a deeper level of understanding and promotes long term retention.

Another key component is having sound Redo and Retake policies.  I have included a blog post that I wrote on the topic back in September.  Anyone interested in the concept of redos and retakes should find it extremely helpful.

Redos and Retakes at YMS

At York Middle School, we believe it's important for students to make mistakes, to reflect on their failures, and to persevere to meet their goals (learning targets!).  Perseverance, in fact, is one of our school's core values.  We are striving to create a student culture that values hard-work and recognizes when students learn the most: When they make mistakes and when they persevere to do better.
Teachers have historically placed a high value on work-ethic and with good reason.  Intuitively, we have always known that learning improves when students persevere when faced with a challenge.

Now, we actually have the science to back up our intuitions.  The neuroscience that supports the research is fascinating.  We now know, irrefutably, that students actually get "smarter" by being allowed to fail and having the opportunity to make corrections.  The research couldn't be any more powerful.  Here is what we know to be true:

When students are given descriptive feedback on their failures, time to reflect in meaningful ways, and the opportunity to make corrections, learning WILL improve.  Period.  Having kids formally reflect on their academic setbacks is the single most powerful thing teachers can do to improve learning in their classrooms.

In order to encourage this new mindset, teachers have been working to create redo/retake policies within their teaching teams and classrooms.  Creating a formalized redo/retake policy is something new for most teachers.   A formalized policy helps students to prepare a plan of action if they do poorly on an assessment.  A good policy also helps teachers manage time and the workload that comes along with new and improved classroom practices.

Please follow the link below to read an outstanding article by Rick Wormeli called Redos and Retakes Done Right.  In this Educational Leadership article, Wormeli provides the philosophical argument for allowing redos in schools then goes on to offer practical strategies for implementation.  I'm proud to report that many of the practices he describes are now becoming increasingly common at YMS!

Redos and Retakes Done Right

Is it possible to consider using traditional grading with PBL? I believe it's important to keep traditional grading and A-F seems to work in other districts.

We are currently working very hard to improve our reporting tool so that it is more user-friendly and easy for parents to understand.  Our top priority for improving what we do will be the grade reporting system.  We recognize that our current system can be confusing and difficult to understand.

At this time we have no plans to revert back to a traditional grading system (assuming averaging on the 100-point scale).  This type of system is not compatible with a proficiency-based instructional model and would not be consistent with what we know to be sound grading and assessment practice.

I've included an article by Ken O'Connor and Rick Wormeli that provides some of the rationale for our approach to grading and assessment.  I hope you find it helpful.

Reporting Student Learning

The teachers and kids seem happy with what has worked at YMS this year surrounding PBL and Mastery Connect. With any new program there are bound to be areas that take a bit longer/more work to accomplish. What are 3 areas that are problematic and still being worked on to "meet the standard"? Thank you.

This is a great question. Thanks for asking it. We will continue to work to improve what we do.

Here some of our top priorities for improvement as we move forward.


1. The reporting tool and the report card. Top priority! MasteryConnect has not been able to meet our expectations so far. We have experienced too many technical glitches. They system is also difficult to understand and has proven confusing to parents. It's almost too much information. MasteryConnect does have some real strengths for internal use however (collaboration, teacher accountability, data tracking). We are working with the company to modify and streamline the portal so that it is more user friendly. We are also working on a more simple report card that is uncomplicated and easy to understand.

2. In terms of teaching and learning, our top priority is to improve the way in which we differentiate instruction and assessments to meet the needs of all of our students. Teachers will be working to develop more in-depth and consistent options for exceeding standards. We want to make sure that our high achieving students are challenged and pushed to excel when they demonstrate mastery of standards. For students who struggle, we will continue to improve interventions and protocols that are effective in helping them to progress in their learning. It's important to note, that this goal has absolutely nothing to do with PBL or our standards-based instructional model. In fact, the work we have done in recent years is already improving our ability to meet the needs at both ends of the spectrum. This will continue to be an important goal for school improvement and we are thrilled that this in an area in which we are already making great strides.

3. The third general area that we will be working to improve is the continued refinement of our practices and across-the-board consistency. We will be focusing on the areas of communication, the use of our scoring guides, the way we assess and provide feedback for HOWLs, and way in which we use our targeted learning time.

We greatly appreciate the thoughtful feedback and input we receive from parents. It really does help us to improve what we do everyday.

As a parent, I want PBL at YMS to be the best it can be. Are there any kinds of input from parents that might be of value to the teaching staff as they evaluate how to improve upon the pilot program?

This is a wonderful question.  It's great to hear that so many parents support our school.  Parent support and involvement is critical to a student's individual success as well as the success of any school.  Any feedback parents can provide to teachers is extremely helpful and very much appreciated.  

The more you talk with your children at home about what they are learning in school the more connected you will be as well.  Remember, try to shift the conversation from "getting work done" to what kids are learning.  That is a key shift in mindset that is critical in developing a deeper understanding of our instructional model. The key questions to ask as parents are, "what is my child expected to know and be able to do" and "what is the evidence demonstrating that they have accomplished that goal (or have not).  Teachers and students should be able to answer these questions with confidence.  

It's important to note that the only piece of what we are doing that is a "pilot" is our reporting tool, Masteryconnect. Our instructional model is based on current literature and a wide body of research in best practice.  

If students have the opportunity to keep trying until they meet a standard how can we differentiate between the ones who meet the standard right away and the ones who take multiple attempts?

Answer:

We do not, nor have we ever differentiated between students who meet standards quickly and ones who take more time.  Young adolescents simply do not develop at the same rate.  Nowhere in the K-12 landscape do we work with students with such wide ranges of development in all domains: cognitive, social, emotional, physical, the ability to think abstractly, etc... Adolescents simply do not develop at the same rate and they certainly do not learn at the same rate or in the same way.  When students have demonstrated they have met a standard or learning target, we report that they have done so based on the evidence (work samples) teachers have collected.  The criteria for meeting a standard remains the same regardless of how a student gets there or how long it takes them.  The following quote from Thomas Guskey helps to illustrate the concept:

“Is my purpose to select talent or develop it?…If your purpose as an educator is to select talent, then you must work to maximize the differences among students. In other words, on any measure of learning, you must try to achieve the greatest possible variation in students' scores …Unfortunately for students, the best means of maximizing differences in learning is poor teaching. Nothing does it better.  

If, on the other hand, your purpose as an educator is to develop talent, then you…clarify what you want students to learn and be able to do. Then you do everything possible to ensure that all students learn those things well. If you succeed, there should be little or no variation in measures of student learning. All students are likely to attain high scores on measures of achievement, and all might receive high grades".

-- Thomas R. Guskey, Education Leadership,
    ASCD, November 2011, Pages 16-21


When you look at the research on predictors of success we, find that perseverance, sometimes referred to as "grit" is a far better predictor of success than innate ability or even academic success.  It's growth mindset, tenacity and perseverance that have been shown to be the best predictors of success regardless of the field.  It is true in academia, the corporate world, sports, the military and so on.

This idea is further illustrated in this TED Talk by Angela Lee Duckwork:

The Key to Success? Grit.

With a proficiency-based diploma how will colleges be able to evaluate a student's grades?

Answer:

This is a common question and an appropriate concern for parents to have.  There is a misconception out there that colleges and universities will not know how to interpret a proficiency-based transcript.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  

We have spent a considerable amount of time consulting with admission officers at top tier schools around New England and they have been consistent in their responses to us.  Colleges and universities accept students from all over the world.  Students from public schools, private schools,  charter schools, home schoolers, international students, etc...  Admissions officers see a wide variety of transcript formats.  They see transcripts with and without class rank, GPA (weighted or unweighted), traditional letter grades and a variety of standards-based formats.  They consistently report that the transcript format is a non-issue.  The important piece is the school profile.  A well written school profile describes how admissions officers will interpret the wide variety of transcripts they review.  The following is an excerpt from an email sent to Dr. Dunn from Caroline Weaver, Admissions Officer at Harvard:

"In a nutshell, we have no preference in how schools choose to evaluate their students.  We have every single variety of evaluation possible represented in our applicant pool.  As long as your school profile is comprehensive and explains how students are evaluated, which classes they are eligible to take in what years etc... we have all the information we need.  We are far less concerned with GPA and rank than we are with rigor of the curriculum.  We simply want to see students challenging themselves and doing well in those challenging classes.  Nearly half the schools represented in our applicant pool have done away with class rank.  And with today's crazy weighting systems GPAs mean very little if we don't have the "key" (school profile).  

The bottom line is, we have 36,000+ applicants - 70-80% of whom are academically qualified to do the work at Harvard.  When we look at academics we are simply trying to decide whether or not a student will survive academically on our campus.  For the majority of students, the answers is "yes" and we move on from academic credentials very quickly.  I think you will find this sentiment repeated by many of our peer institutions." 

This is consistent with the feedback that we receive from the public and private colleges and universities that have connected with.  Although affirmations like this from top tier schools are reassuring, it's important to note that there have been no decisions made about what the transcript or diploma will look like at York High School.  This transition has far more to do with teaching and learning than it does with how we report.  There is much work to be done in regards to the instructional model before final decisions can be made about a transcript.  The school district will never adopt a transcript that puts our students at any disadvantage when applying to colleges.