First, we reviewed research on this idea. Lessons from Privilege provided an excellent starting point (). Powell notes that glory of the private school is taking the third rate student and “the making him/her second rate.” He maintains that personalizing education for each student is the answer and class size is a key component. Other research supports Powell’s claims. Diana ) points out: Organizing schools by encourages a coordinated, cross-disciplinary approach to instruction. Within a unit, teachers share a group of students in common rather than a discipline. They take collective responsibility for their students’ success, and they work together to unify instruction and allow students the opportunity to exercise skills and knowledge across subjects. (P. 521–526) Second we took a closer look at our ninth grade house to determine which practices were most effective for students. Ninth grade teams have been in existence at NFA since 1988. It was important to carefully examine which of the original concepts were still useful; what needed to be priority for change; and most important, what positive components we could replicate in a tenth grade unit. The ninth grade teachers and their house principal provided insights and experiential anecdotes on successes and failures. It was clear that the pros far out weighed the cons, and we gained a better sense of what could be done with a unit of 80 students rather than an entire class of 560 students. Then we started to paint a picture of what we wanted the tenth grade unit to look like. We asked ourselves questions: What are the criteria for student selection? Who the recommendations? Who determines acceptance? do we set the bar for student achievement? How do we get the parents to buy in so there is a consistent message at home and at school? What kinds of interventions are we prepared to make for students who fall below expectations? How will teachers be selected to teach within the unit? We decided to give the first three questions priority. We felt that we had to clearly define the types of students who would be included in the program before we could begin to recruit teachers. We determined that the criteria for identifying students include: Students who struggled freshman year, but should be doing better according to their Connecticut Mastery scores (CMT) from eighth grade and Educational Records Bureau (ERB) performance scores from ninth grade. Students who have an apparent weakness in one or more subject areas.
First, we reviewed research on this idea. Lessons from Privilege provided an excellent starting point (). Powell notes that “the glory of the private school is taking the third rate student and making him/her second rate.” He maintains that personalizing education for each student is the answer and class size is a key component. Other research supports Powell’s claims. Diana ) points out: Organizing schools by encourages a coordinated, cross-disciplinary approach to instruction. Within a unit, teachers share a group of students in common rather than a discipline. They take collective responsibility for their students’ success, and they work together to unify instruction and allow students the opportunity to exercise skills and knowledge across subjects. (P. 521–526) Second we took a closer look at our ninth grade house to determine which practices were most effective for students. Ninth grade teams have been in existence at NFA since 1988. It was important to carefully examine which of the original concepts were still useful; what needed to be priority for change; and most important, what positive components we could replicate in a tenth grade unit. The ninth grade teachers and their house principal provided insights and experiential anecdotes on successes and failures. It was clear that the pros far out weighed the cons, and we gained a better sense of what could be done with a unit of 80 students rather than an entire class of 560 students. Then we started to paint a picture of what we wanted the tenth grade unit to look like. We asked ourselves questions: What are the criteria for student selection? Who the recommendations? Who determines acceptance? do we set the bar for student achievement? How do we get the parents to buy in so there is a consistent message at home and at school? What kinds of interventions are we prepared to make for students who fall below expectations? How will teachers be selected to teach within the unit? We decided to give the first three questions priority. We felt that we had to clearly define the types of students who would be included in the program before we could begin to recruit teachers. We determined that the criteria for identifying students include: Students who struggled freshman year, but should be doing better according to their Connecticut Mastery scores (CMT) from eighth grade and Educational Records Bureau (ERB) performance scores from ninth grade. Students who have an apparent weakness in one or more subject areas.
Chapter-10-EDU-564-ebook.docx