Component
Eleven:
Improving Academic Achievement
The
program is designed to maximize the academic achievement of
students in the schools.
Introduction
Over
the years, there has been much written about improving the
academic achievement of students. From computer-assisted instruction
to cooperative learning procedures, educators have developed
numerous instructional strategies to increase the academic
performance of students.
Using
Classroom Assessment to Improve Academic Achievement
Guskey
(2003) advocates using assessment as a means to determine
how well a teacher has taught a specific concept or skill.
The assessment process can inform the teacher about what the
students have learned and which concepts and skills have to
be re-taught. In order to improve academic achievement, the
assessment process has to be an essential ingredient of the
overall instructional process. After a teacher teaches a specific
concept or skill, they need to take a reading or “dip
stick” to see if their students mastered the lessons’
instructional objectives.
Gandal and McGiffert (2003) discuss how an analysis of large-scale
tests can be a valuable aid in improving the academic achievement
of students. Using “assessment teams” to analyze
the latest achievement tests, the teams can identify strengths
and weaknesses in the curriculum as well as learning gaps.
What content domains did the students do well on? Which areas
of the curriculum did the students do poorly on? Are there
any areas of the curriculum in which the students could not
answer any of the test questions correctly? By conducting
a careful item analysis of recent large-scale test results,
teachers can revise the curriculum to address any specific
curriculum deficiencies. The SERVE website also provides substantive
information on assessment
issues. Both Guskey (2003) and Gandal and McGiffert (2003)
emphasize the importance of using assessment to improve academic
achievement. In the following section of this online resource
guide, Thompson (2003) describes eight other critical factors
to improve academic achievement.
Eight
Factors to Improve Academic Achievement
Thompson
(2003) discussed eight essential factors to create high-performing
school systems. Regardless of a school district’s ethnic
or demographic composition, these eight critical factors will
help to improve a school district’s academic achievement.
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A
school district must be standards-based. According to Thompson,
“Challenging and clearly understood standards define
what all students should know and be able to do at each
level.”
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Another essential element in improving the academic achievement
is the belief that each and every child can attain these
high standards. Whether stated in the school district’s
mission statement, policies, personnel contracts, or budget,
all elements in the school district should be focused upon
achieving these high academic standards.
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A
high-performing school district is also one that is nurturing
and supportive. From each and every classroom to the school
district’s central office, a high-performing school
system’s climate is characterized by respectful relationships.
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A
high-achieving school district holds its administrators
accountable for the successes and failures of all its schools.
The school district is continually monitoring and assessing
each school’s performance. If a particular school
is not performing well, then clear and intensive strategies
are applied to remedy the situation.
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Throughout the school year, the school district provides
high-quality professional development for all employees.
The professional development is guided by classroom performance
data and it is frequently directed at specific teacher weaknesses.
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All school system’s resources (personnel decisions,
ordering of instructional materials, etc.) are devoted to
quality instructional practices. Non-instructional burdens
are minimized at each school.
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A high-performing school district collects and analyzes
data effectively. The data analysis process should help
to improve instructional practices. By carefully reviewing
all available data, a school system ensures equitable allocations
of human, financial, and material resources.
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Lastly, Thompson recommends that a school district practice
“active, open, substantive, and clear two-way communications.”
The communications should be directed both within and outside
the school district (e.g., students’ families, community
representatives and all stakeholders).
Besides
examining these eight critical factors in improving academic
achievement, the following section of this online resource
guide discusses the relationship between class size and teacher
effectiveness.
Class
Size And Teacher Effectiveness
Class
size reduction is considered one of the latest strategies
promoted to achieve improved academic performance. In addition
to the studies cited below, useful documents on class size
issues may be obtained from the SERVE website at http://www.serve.org/Products/ProdPub.php.
In
the famous STAR (Student-Teacher Assessment Ratio) study in
Tennessee, it was clearly documented that by reducing the
student-teacher ratio in the early elementary grades, students
performed at higher levels when compared with those from larger
classes. Zahorik, Halbach, Ehrle, and Molnar (2003) went one
step further and analyzed classes with smaller student-teacher
ratios (15:1) and found there was a difference in teacher
effectiveness within these smaller classes. According to the
authors, there are three major factors that contribute to
better teacher effectiveness and, therefore, improved academic
performance in reduced sized classrooms.
These
factors are:
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Instructional
orientation—the type of content that the teachers
emphasized in their lessons and how it was taught.
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Management style—how the teacher disciplined their
students and organized their lessons.
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Individualization
focus—how much time and energy the teacher spent working
with individual students, providing one-on-one instruction.
By
instructional orientation the authors emphasized the need
for both academic and personal learning within the classroom.
However, the most effective teachers in the study emphasized
academic learning as the primary goal in their class with
personal learning taking secondary importance. These teachers
were explicit in their instruction to their students, modeled
the information they required their students to know, and
provided individual critiques of each student’s performance.
In the area of classroom management, the more effective teachers
maintained a highly structured and well-disciplined atmosphere.
The lessons were carefully prepared with specific objectives,
a logical structure, and a step-by-step progression. The teachers’
lessons were taught at a brisk pace with little time for misbehavior.
Individualization of instruction was another key feature of
teacher effectiveness. The researchers observed that teachers
of students with higher academic achievement were constantly
providing individual feedback to their students. They were
continually asking the students to clarify their comments
through extensive questioning.
In summary, Zahorik, Halbach, Ehrle, and Molnar offer three
worthwhile suggestions for improving teacher effectiveness
and, hence, improved student achievement. The researchers
found that effective teachers promote academic learning first
and foremost in their classrooms. These effective teachers
maintained well-organized classrooms with carefully planned
lessons. They also provided their students with a significant
amount of individualization of instruction to guide their
learning experiences.
As
previously discussed, Zahorik, Halbach, Ehrle, and Molnar
(2003) noted the relationship of class size and three other
significant factors that have contributed to improved academic
achievement. The next section of this online resource guide
outlines three other factors that have contributed to improved
academic achievement of Title I (economically disadvantaged)
students and highlights work on specific research-based strategies
for use in the classroom.
Lessons
from Title I To Improve Academic Achievement
Borman
(2003) identified three major features which improved the
academic achievement of Title I students. Although this paper
is directed at economically disadvantaged students (Title
I), his lessons appear to be relevant to many school districts.
Borman
conducted an extensive meta-analysis of several preschool,
early intervention programs. His findings clearly verified
the overall positive impact of preschool programs. “Preschool
interventions can help close the achievement gaps and can
have long-term impacts on students through middle school,
high school, and even into adulthood.”
Another
valuable lesson Borman discussed was the value of extending
learning into the summer. He reported that, during the summer
vacation, all students forget material and their learning
regresses. By establishing effective summer school programs,
the students’ academic achievement will frequently improve
and certainly not decline.
Borman
(2003) concludes his paper by describing the positive effect
of smaller student-teacher ratios. He cited the famous Tennessee
Student-Teacher Achievement Ratio Study (STAR). He argues
that smaller student-teacher ratios have a profound impact
on academic achievement.
In
addition, Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock (2001) identified
several research-based strategies that work in the classroom
in general. They discussed analyzing and applying the accumulated
research on teaching practices and selected nine important
general classroom strategies. The strategies are
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Identifying similarities and differences
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Summarizing and note taking
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Reinforcing effort and providing recognition
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Emphasizing homework and practice
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Providing nonlinguistic representations
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Practicing cooperative learning
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Setting objectives and providing feedback
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Generating and testing hypotheses
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Using cues, questions, and advance organizers
They
outline the research for each general strategy and suggest
specific steps that teachers can take in implementing the
particular strategy in the classroom.
The
next section of this online resource guide concentrates on
the area of literacy by detailing seven specific literacy
instructional strategies.
Seven
Literacy Strategies to Improve Academic Achievement
Fisher,
Frey, and Williams (2002) discussed seven specific literacy
instructional strategies to improve the academic achievement
of disadvantaged students in a San Diego, California, high
school. Using these seven literacy instructional techniques,
the academic achievement in this high school substantially
improved.
First,
the authors recommended using a Read-a-Loud approach in every
classroom to increase students’ reading fluency. All
teachers were told to spend at least five minutes each day
reading to their students.
Another
effective strategy was the use of K-W-L charts in every class.
In the beginning of the lesson, the teacher would ask the
students what they Knew about the topic.
Following a discussion about what the students knew, the teacher
would ask the students what they had Wanted
to learn about the topic of the lesson. Then, the teacher
would conclude the lesson by asking the students to review
what they had Learned from the lesson.
Graphic
organizers were another technique recommended by the authors
to help improve students’ academic achievement. Prior
to the actual teaching of the lesson, teachers should prepare
charts, matrices, and graphs to help their students see visual
representation of complex information. These graphic organizers
became useful teaching tools for the teachers and important
instructional aids for the students.
Vocabulary instruction was incorporated into each subject
matter class. Vocabulary instruction was no longer the sole
domain of the English teachers. For example, an algebra teacher
had his students keep a journal of any new vocabulary words
they had learned, such as variables, equations, and binominals.
A history teacher introduced several new vocabulary words
(e.g., emancipation, habeas corpus) prior to reading a primary
source document. A science teacher might define several new
scientific terms before having the students conduct an experiment
in class. A foreign language teacher would show the similarity
between an English word and a foreign language word.
The
teachers were also told to use Writing to Learn strategies
in their classes. Several of the teachers had their students
take one minute to reflect on a topic in the beginning of
their class. Then, the students were asked to write approximately
five minutes on this topic. Other teachers had their students
write what they had learned in their journals at the conclusion
of class.
The
teachers also taught their students structured note taking
as a significant literacy strategy. The students were told
to draw a vertical line about two inches from the left side
of the paper and write the main ideas and key words to the
left of the line. Then, the students were asked to write the
details to the right of the line. They were also asked to
write a brief summary of the lesson at the bottom of the page.
Reciprocal
teaching was another instructional strategy used to improve
the academic achievement of high school students. Working
in groups of four, the students were told to read a paragraph
and asked to explain the information to the rest of the class.
To facilitate the group presentations, the teacher had each
group follow a protocol: summarize, clarify, predict, and
explain. Rather than solely depending on each teacher to present
to the class, students were given opportunities to teach new
concepts and skills.
In summary, these seven literacy instructional strategies
helped to improve a poorly performing high school. Nevertheless,
these techniques appear to be worthwhile approaches to any
school striving to increase academic achievement. Readers
may also find information about Project
CRISS (CReating Independence through Student-owned Strategies)
to be helpful. This program provides students in grades 4–12
with reading, writing, and learning strategies across the
content areas.
Additional Resources
A
key issue with respect to improving academic achievement is
developing a solid grounding in the ways that students acquire
knowledge and learn. For instance, what does research tell
us about how experts learn? How is this different from non-experts?
What can be done to help teachers and schools assist students
in learning most effectively?
The
National Research Council (NRC) tackled this important issue
by convening a committee of experts who produced an initial
report and then an expanded version in 2000 called How
People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School.
The document concentrates on learners and learning, teachers
and teaching, and future directions for the science of learning
and provides many conclusions and recommendations for the
future in each of these areas. Three of the key findings are
particularly instructive to those attempting to improve academic
achievement.
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Students
come to the classroom with preconceptions about how the
world works. If their initial understanding is not engaged,
they may fail to grasp the new concepts and information
that are taught, or they may learn them for purposes of
a test but revert to their preconceptions outside the classroom.
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To develop competence in an area of inquiry, students must
(a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, (b) understand
facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework,
and (c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval
and application.
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A “metacognitive” approach to instruction can
help students learn to take control of their own learning
by defining learning goals and monitoring their progress
in achieving them.
Another
connected set of issues relates to how to determine what,
in fact, students actually know. In other words, has academic
achievement really improved in substantive and lasting ways?
The NRC produced a successor document to How People
Learn called Knowing
What Students Know: The Science and Design of Educational
Assessment. This report explains how expanding knowledge
in the scientific fields of human learning, educational measurement,
and technology can form the foundation and point to the principles
for designing and using these new and improved kinds of assessments
in schools. Numerous recommendations for research, policy,
and practice are suggested in the report. Those related to
assessment practice are outlined below.
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Developers of assessment instruments for classroom or large-scale
instruments should pay attention to all three elements of
the assessment triangle (cognition, observation, and interpretation)
and their coordination.
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Developers of educational curricula and classroom assessments
should create tools that will enable teachers to implement
high-quality instructional and assessment practices, consistent
with modern understanding of how students learn and how
learning can be measured.
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Large-scale assessments should sample the broad range of
competencies and forms of student understanding that research
shows are important aspects of student learning.
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Instruction in how students learn and how learning can be
assessed should be a major component of teacher preservice
and professional development programs.
References
Borman,
G. (2003). Lessons From Title I To Improve Academic Achievement.
Educational Leadership, 60, 49–53.
Bransford,
J. (2000). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience,
and School. National Research Council National Academies
Press, Washington, DC.
Fisher,
D., Frey, N., & Williams, D. (2002). Seven Literacy Strategies
To Improve Academic Achievement. Educational Leadership,
60, 70–74.
Gandal,
M., & McGiffert, L. (2003). Using Classroom Assessement
To Improve Academic Achievement. Educational Leadership,
60, 39–42.
Marzano,
R., Pickering, D., & Pollock, J. (2001). Classroom
Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing
Student Achievement. Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development. Alexandria, VA.
Pellegrino,
J., Chudowsky, N., & Glaser, R. (2001). Knowing What
Students Know: The Science and Design of Educational Assessment.
National Research Council National Academies Press, Washington,
DC.
Thompson,
S. (2003). Creating A High Performance School System. Phi
Delta Kappan, 84, 489–495.
Zahorik,
J., Halbach, A., Ehrle, K., & Molnar, A. (2003). Teaching
Practices For Smaller Classes. Educational Leadership,
61, 75–77.
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