Education is a world with a whole lot of theories. Intuitive theories at that. I’m sure it’s like this in most professions. We are seeing an issue. We reason out what the problem seems to be. We determine what the solution to our supposed problem seems to be. And we implement.
The problem with that is problems often have multiple causes. Solutions are often biased. Results have a tendency to be counter intuitive. For example, a paper recently published suggested that the increase of homework might actually cause a decrease in independent thinking skills. This probably isn’t a conclusive study, but recognize the idea that if students aren’t demonstrating independent-thinking skills, prescribing a problem-for-problem course of study for them to do on their own might not be the best solution.
This leads me to a trial that I am running in my classroom for a semester. I have four sections of geometry. I am going to leave two as a “control group” (very imprecise usage, I’ll admit) that will run exactly the same as they did first semester. The other two will run “The 70-70 Trial.” This is one of those theories that has gotten tossed about our district many times. It seems intuitive. It seems like it addresses a persistent problem.
The theory goes like this: If you go into a test knowing that 70% of the students have 70% or more on all the formative assessments leading up to the summative assessment, then we know that the students are reasonably prepared to do well on the test. If you give a formative assessment, and you hit the 70-70 line or better, you move on with your unit, business as usual. If you miss the 70-70 line, you pause on the unit until enough of the class is ready to go.
This seems reasonable to some, and ridiculous to others. Our staff meetings have seen some pretty intense discussion over it. Proponents lean on the logic. How can a group of students with high scores on formative assessments struggle on summative assessments? Opponents speak to the time crunch. When do you decide to move on? You can’t just keep stopping and stopping forever? You’ll never get through the material. Both seem like logical points…
But, as far as I can tell, no one has tried it to see what would happen. So, I figured that I had two classes that really struggled their way through first semester. It became very hard to energize and motivate these students because of how difficult they found the material. Perhaps shaking up the classroom management and unit design will add a bit of a spark. These two classes will be the focus of the 70-70 trial. I will use this blog as a way to record my observations and entertain any ideas from people who are looking to give me ideas to help this idea work.
This starts one week from today. I don’t know if it will work. I have my guesses as to what I think will happen, but I am going to keep those to myself. I absolutely want to see this work because if it does, that means my students were successful. My chief area of concern is what to do when 61% of the students score 70% or better (for example). By the rules of the trial, I can’t go on. I need a reteach day, but over half the class finds themselves ready to move on. What do I do to extend the learning for those students, while supporting the learning for those who need some reteaching and another crack at the formative assessment?
These are the kinds of things I will be looking for help with. Thank you for being patient and willing to walk this path with me. I will look forward to hearing whatever ideas you have.
Mr. Shauver - Learner Educator 