The Fluency Factory - Coaching for Success

		Coaching for Success

Coaching for Success – Precision Teaching

By Richard McManus
Director of Beal Street Academy and the Fluency Factory

The Challenge for Schools

Every year the popular press here in Boston publishes many articles on the failure of our schools to help children. In Massachusetts we have implemented educational reforms that have included spending more money, creating pilot schools, creating charter schools and implementing a host of innovations in existing public and private schools. The most recent reform was the introduction of the MCAS exam, an annual assessment of student accomplishment that measures public school effectiveness. Other states are following suit. For example, Maine now uses SATs to track the progress made by high schools and their students.

Nonetheless, year after year the results have been depressingly similar. American children are falling further behind every year—and none of the new ideas are stopping the deterioration of academic skill in our public schools.

It is tempting to say that this problem “only” affects our poorest students. If that were the case, it would be a tragic indictment of our society. Still, it would allow many parents to believe that their own children are not at risk. Sadly, the US literacy problem is worst among our poorest students. But on top of that, poor academic performance permeates all socio-economic and racial groups in the United States. All children are at risk.

Our students are no longer the best in the world. According to US government statistics, US literacy ranks 20th in the world. Among OECD countries, some of our biggest competitors in the global markets, the United States ranks, at best, in the middle of the pack in a variety of literacy measures. (Source: OECD Report on Literacy in the Information Age; 1 MB PDF file.)

Our schools struggle to change and find a new path to success, but despite persistent attempts at innovation, we only see further decline. Exciting new equipment and wired classrooms are installed at great expense. But it’s always the same old story: Within several years the lack of improvement in student performance is clear and the new equipment is antique.

Computers alone will not improve children's performance!

The Fundamental Problem

Dr. Jeff Howard, founder of the Efficacy Institute and J. Howard and Associates, first described the essential problem underlying North American education as being the pervasive assumption that innate ability determines development:

North American Model: Innate ability determines development.

This model is at the heart of our society’s beliefs about education and development, driving the actions of teachers and administrators in the education system.

"Innate ability" is simply IQ. Under this model, you are born with all the "stuff" you will ever possess. The amount of that "stuff" will determine how far you can go in life. If you have a lot you are going to be very successful, moving to the highest reaches of our meritocracy. If you have a middling amount you are going to do middling well. Unfortunately, if you don't have very much of this "stuff" at birth, you are not going to do well in this culture. You are never going to be able to do as much as those with large helpings of the "right stuff." Our schools have the mission of measuring this “stuff” and sorting the children into the proper “bins.”

The North American model is simple and understandable to all of us because we have all experienced it. But it prevents our children from reaching their potential. Fortunately, we can do better!

The Solution: High Expectations and Powerful Tools

In 1976-1980 a wholly different approach to education was implemented by Sacajawea Elementary School in Great Falls, Montana. Rather than believing that only some students can learn to attain outstanding performances, this approach assumed that all children can perform at the highest levels. Rather than setting up a curriculum that sorted and selected children, this approach used practical tools to enable every child to excel:

Coaching Model: Confidence leads to effort and direction, which leads to development.

Starting in September of the first year all of the students and teachers at Sacajewea Elementary School began using an education approach called Precision Teaching (PT). The PT program began simultaneously in all grades of the pilot school—from first to fourth. When the Iowa Test was administered in the first year, none of the students or teachers had been using PT for very long, but they had begun.

The children who took the test the second year had a full year plus a month of exposure to PT, and so on. By the fourth year the pilot students had been in the program throughout their entire school experience. The Iowa Test provided a basis for comparing the pilot school with others in the district.

Result: Outstanding Educational Outcomes for All

The pilot school used Precision Teaching to teach all students, including the learning disabled. And test results showed that all students benefited.

The improvement in learning disabled students was nothing short of spectacular:

All pilot students, including learning disabled children, took the Iowa Test annually.

Learning disabled children in the other district schools did not take these exams.

Pilot students labeled ”special needs” scored higher than the traditionally educated kids in the other schools.

But PT improved the scores of all pilot students. The charts below show the annual average percentile scores of the eight schools, aggregated together. The school district average includes the pilot test scores.

Notice the dramatic change that occurred over the course of just four years. Students improved dramatically in every topic area.

Just Twenty Minutes a Day

The intervention that created this dramatic impact might be expected to be all-encompassing and dramatic, requiring an intense and jarring change in the school environment. You might expect to hear that the entire school has been totally revamped and an intensive, multi-hour intervention begun.

This was not the case!

The school added just twenty minutes of high performance practice by each student every day. Because the Precision Teaching program was highly individualized, each student built skill in exactly the areas that he or she needed to develop.

Precision Teaching was the tool used to make this enormous change in educational outcomes. And since conclusion of the Sacajawea pilot program, Precision Teaching has continued to provide those benefits in schools and learning centers all over the country. We at the Fluency Factory have had tremendous success using PT to improve the scholastic performance of over 200 children.

What is Precision Teaching?

A technology directly drawn from behavioral science with a thirty year track record of outstanding educational outcomes.

A method for assuring that each student masters curricular materials.

A precise mix of challenge and risk for students.

A method for achieving the highest possible learning outcomes for every child.

“Smart Drill!”

A technique for assuring fluency and retention in every curricular area.

An efficient and inexpensive way to create a marvelous school.

How do you do it?

Direct measurement of student performance.

Simple and graphic feedback on learning.

A curriculum that aims for fluent performance, not merely correct performance.

Twenty minutes a day of intense practice with measurement.

High expectations for every student.

A thorough implementation and solid support for teachers throughout the first years of the project.

A strong desire to be the best possible school for every child!

Steps to Implementation in the school:

Make an organizational commitment to the project.

Purchase curricular materials and individual kits.

Provide training for all teachers.

Provide coaching to all teachers during implementation.

Provide support, reinforcement and recognition to teachers for their efforts.

Support children by recognizing their efforts.

Build momentum by charting the progress of the program.

What the teachers will do:

Learn to use the Standard Practice Chart to recognize learning success and failure.

Set up charts on four important topics for each child in the class.

Teach the children to fill out charts; provide coaching and feedback.

Determine where each student should begin in the spectrum of material.

Share from a rich spectrum of practice sheets with all other classrooms.

Check all charts and provide positive feedback for achieving performance gains.

Provide coaching and ideas to help students who are not accelerating their performances.

What the students will do:

Maintain a folder that contains current charts and practice worksheets.

Set a goal for the next several weeks.

Grow to mastery by practicing every day. Practice is in short bursts, with the goal of going as fast as possible.

“Keep score” every day by filling out charts in each topic.

Aim to achieve fluent performance levels on each step.

Go beyond accuracy to mastery.

Charting provides:

A navigational tool that helps to steer learning choices.

Sensitive feedback to support or modify curriculum decisions.

Reinforcement and information to the student.

Guidance in practice choices for each student.

An individually specific plan that provides achievable challenges.

The Fluency Factory Consultants will provide:

A learning center that you can visit to see what it looks like to do Precision Teaching.

Expertise in change motivation.

Pioneering experience in launching and maintaining Precision Teaching implementations.

Ability to tailor the implementation to your needs and budget.

A willingness to partner in the success of your project.

Curricular and implementation specialists as needed.

Thorough knowledge of leading programs and recent developments.

A belief in the ability of every child to attain world class skill levels.

Richard McManus can be contacted at The Fluency Factory at 781-749-7400.