Teaching 2.0: Using Technology to Boost Student Engagement and Achievement

I recently was invited to speak at my school’s “Collaborative Inquiry Showcase” where teams of teachers show off some of their data-supported best practices / methods.

The talk was very successful. Several teachers have spoken to me since, having been inspired by some of the tech resources/tools I discussed. You can find the slides from the talk here. You’ll find that the videos won’t work (they don’t get passed with the power point file) and that some names/pictures have been removed to protect my co-workers’ and students’ privacy. If a security message comes up about macros in the power point, just allow them, I give you my personal assurance that the slides are malware free.

The most interesting results that came from my work are related to targeted data-driven teaching. A few days before a major unit test, using the clickers, I was able to identify a set of 21 students who were struggling and in need of major assistance before the exam. During the course of few days preceding the test, I found time to pull aside 10 of the 21 students outside of class and to tell them I’m worried about their pre-test scores and to suggest to them some places where they could receive extra support (my after school help sessions, mrkadin.com, etc). Because of time restrictions and so I could have a control group, 11 students did not get this “intervention.” Students who were pulled aside scored 31% higher on the final test on average than their pre-test scores vs. the class average of 15%. The average increase for students who didn’t receive an “intervention” was 23%. This goes to show the power of dedicating my time to the students who I have identified as needing it most.

Across the business world and in other spheres, using data to drive decision making is the obvious strategy. Seeing the current state of things, and responding to that state, makes clear sense. It’s outrageous how many teachers are teaching the same lessons from 20 years ago, to an entirely different brand of students, with an entirely different set of needs. Using the data about how my students were doing allowed to me to respond to the current state of my class; I was able speak to the students who needed it most. And that simple human interaction and expression of worry helped those students to improve their scores by higher than any other group. Also, when selecting the students who I had time to speak to, I tried to speak to more students of color and more male students in order to address the clear achievement gap. Below you can see how the gap shrank from pre to post assessment.

We need this type of data in every classroom, and at the school and district level. Student performance on pre-tests and post-test, achievement gaps, attendance and behavior data, and we need time set aside for teachers to analyze it. While state tests provide some insight (though culturally biased) into how our students are doing, there is an opportunity to track our students’ performance at a much more fine-grained timescale. I consider the development of these data-driven systems and practices more important than most other educational reform efforts. And there’s a lot of money to be made in doing it right…