MASSP News Center

By Steven M. Beyer
Associate Principal, Stevenson HS

Doing What We Do Best:
A Simple Straight Forward Approach to Improving Student Achievement

One of the great advantages of being a building administrator is that you see first hand the issues confronting public education. I see the Keep-It- Simple approach as the easiest, most straight forward way to improve student achievement. Most of the improvements that I am about to suggest are not only simple- many of my ideas cost very little new tax payer dollars. Some of my ideas do ask for a shifting of educational dollars- a change in paradigm to use an old, overused educational cliché.

Living in Southeastern Michigan we see first hand the impact that the changing auto industry has had on the people of this region. I would suggest that many of my ideas need to be applied to the auto industry as well. We know how to make cars in Metro Detroit and in education, we know how to educate students. Now, we have to put in place simple, common sense changes so the focus is on student achievement, just like the auto industry has to focus on only one task which is building high quality, fuel efficient cars that Americans want to buy.

Here are my simple, common sense ideas that can be instituted with little or no new educational dollars:
#1: All Schools should have a common grading scale for every assignment. The grading scale should be computed on the 4.0 scale so there is only a ten point difference between scores.

If a student doesn’t complete an assignment they are given a zero, like they should. The zero however, is in direct proportion to all the other grades a student has earned. Use of a 4.0 grading scale does mean that teachers have to weigh grades. The result is that student achievement is measured accurately and the value of every assignment is in direct proportion to all the others. “A pound of flesh” is not welded from a student for a zero. A zero is simply a zero, and is based on a ten point division, not a sixty point division which is far too common using a traditional one hundred point grading scale.

#2: No Extra Credit should be given in a class. Instead of extra credit, students who need support should be allowed to do multiple assessments in order to show mastery.
I believe that students should be allowed to do correctives and rewrites in order to earn another chance at retaking an assessment. Give the students a second, even a third chance to show they have mastered the material. Book reports, leaf collections, dioramas, posters, PowerPoint presentations should not be used as a substitute for having students show they have mastered key concepts of a class. I love to see dodecahedrons hanging from the ceiling of a Geometry class, but these items are no substitute for students knowing how to solve for sloop, or solve proofs.

#3: All high schools should give only the ACT test on the prescribed test day. No other MME supplemental tests should be given. Only juniors who are taking the test should report to school on that day.
If we make taking the ACT a requirement for graduation, schools can easily meet the 95% tested standard on the state wide testing day. All MME supplemental tests should be shifted to common statewide course-end final exams/secondary credit assessments for every subject listed in the Michigan Merit curriculum. The shift in paradigm hoped for here is that the data examined by public will change from MME test scores to how students scored on common final exams or assessments, and their ACT composite score.

#4: We should dedicate the half day of instruction that is associated with Parent-Teacher Conferences as fall testing day. Schools should give a nationally-normed test to every student at each high school grade level.
This gives schools data on how students are performing, and gives students practice taking a nationally-normed test. When students take the ACT test in the spring of their junior year the score they earn should reflect what they have learned in school. A simple approach would be:

• Ninth Graders take the Explore Test
• Tenth Graders take the Plan Test
• Eleventh Graders take an ACT Practice Test

Twelfth graders may opt out a test if they have made application to a post secondary school, community college, trade school, or the military. This idea would cost school districts, but resources could be easily shifted so we have direct data on each student’s individual performance on a nationally normed test. Any changes in the curriculum would be based on student testing data that support proposed changes.

#5: The quickest way to show measurable improvement in student learning is to have students write more often.
Students need to be writing at least one piece of writing in every class at least once a week. The writing should be scored for subject specific content, and on the six point ACT writing rubric. Student writing should be done so it is part of the natural flow of a class. Students need to be writing lab reports in Chemistry, not personal narratives. The focus of all writing should be like this article, in which the writer takes a position based on their own learning and experience. Students need to use writing to express in simple, straightforward terms of what they have learned.

#6: Students who fail a core class should start retaking this course immediately.
Students who fail a core class should begin the make-up process following the last regularly scheduled class of the day. If the student is involved in extra curricular activities-they will miss these events, because our common sense, simple approach as a school is that student achievement is our only focus.
What do you do about transportation for these students who have to stay beyond the regular school day? We will ask student and their parents to provide their own transportation. Our focus is on making sure that all students achieve, if transportation is a problem the easiest solution is to pass the class during the regular school day.

#7: High School should start at 8:50 a.m.
If districts run a tiered bus system the high school should be the late school and the elementary schools should be the early schools. In single run bus districts the same logic should prevail. All school should start near the nine o’clock hour. The benefit to this common sense approach is that on snowy mornings, the later starts gives more time for the roads to be cleared, thus limiting the number of snow days.

Research from Minnesota consistently shows that high school students need a minimum of nine hours of sleep. A later start to the school day makes getting the proper amount of sleep possible. Since the need for student sleep is an important factor in improving student achievement, districts should start evening events at 5:00 p.m. This would allow students to be home early enough in the evening to get a full nine hours of sleep.

Each of these ideas are simple, straightforward, pragmatic changes that can dramatically improve student achievement. May of these ideas require little or no money to implement. Some ideas involve subtle changes in the way the state uses assessment dollars to measure student achievement. Most of these ideas suggest changes using a common sense approach. These ideas are seeped in research data that show these approaches improve student achievement.

The Keep-it-Simple approach helps us as educators focus on what we are paid to do, and in fact what we do best–Educate Students!

Steven M. Beyer, February, 2008
Steven Beyer is Associate Principal at Stevenson High School in Sterling Heights, Michigan, a 2,125 student building grades 10-12. Stevenson High School is one of four high schools in Utica Community Schools