a cutting edge system to personalize education in the bridger alternative program with dr. mike...
TRANSCRIPT
A Cutting Edge System to Personalize Education in
the Bridger Alternative Program
with Dr. Mike Ruyle & Tami O’Neill
Today’s Objectives…
•The Bridger Story–2009 - Cash Crisis – Time of Scarcity–Administrative & Staff Reduction–Move Programs to Save $
•Current Situation•Moving Forward
Bridger Alternative Program
• Leading Indicators
–Culture Was One of Enabling, Low Achievement, and Not Collaborative
–Effective Teaching in Every Classroom - Not Reality
–Curriculum Not Guaranteed or Viable
• Lagging Indicators
–Implemented a Competency-Based System
–Used Affinity Charts and Community Meetings
–More Classroom Observations, Move People
–Use Common Core and Establish Priority Standards
Marzano Research Lab: Percentile Gain for Specific Instructional Strategies
John Hattie, Visible Learning, Effect Size on Student Learning
Balanced Leadership
•McRel, 2004
•21 Leadership Practices
•2nd Order Change–Characteristics
•Lindsay High School
The IssueThere are “forces at work now for which there are no precedents…New technologies are revolutionizing the nature of work everywhere… What is certain is that in the next 50 to 100 years, our children will need to confront challenges that are unique in human history”
Ken Robinson
Inevitable:Mass Customized
Learning in the Age of Empowerment“The world is changing… No, excuse us, it’s not changing, it’s already changed! We have left the Industrial Age and mass production, and seen our way into, and maybe past, the Information Age and mass customization”
“Except for education, of course… which remains stuck in the assembly line approach to education which presupposes that all eight-year olds are ready to learn the same thing, the same way, in the same amount of time…Everybody is mass customizing. Everybody. Pandora allows me to customize my radio station; Yahoo allows me to customize my news page; Starbucks allows me to have a venti decaf with a little room; my iPad and Google allow me to go anywhere in the world while sipping that venti decaf.”
“Education cannot sit in this customized world as an island, embracing the Industrial Age, and expect to survive.”
Charles Schwan & Beatrice McGarvey
(2012, p. xii)
“Students have been locked down by the concept of seat-time and locked out of the
technological revolution that has transformed nearly
every sector of American society,
except for education.”Jim Shelton, Assistant Deputy,Secretary of Education
Attempts at Reform…
•“Major efforts with serious additional dollars have difficulty penetrating classroom practice…systems in Seattle, Chicago, and Milwaukee focused on many of the seemingly right things such as literacy and math, used obvious choice strategies such as concentration on assessment for learning data, invested heavily in professional development, and focused on larger change…We see “standards-based” systemwide reform that sounds as if it should work.
But…
Studied Standards-Based Systems
Rich DeLorenzo
Lindsay High School$10 Million
Where We’ve Been
•“It is a moral imperative that we do a better job of preparing kids… Allowing students to “D” their way through school is simply not good enough
-November 2010
Performance-Based Instruction, Assessment, and Reporting is our Focus
•2010 – Researched PMM•2011 – Implement PMM•2012 – Year 2•2013 – Year 3
What PBS Looks Like• Students Earn Credit Based On Proficiency To Standards
• “This approach to schooling requires much more of students—both in terms of academic performance and their ownership of the learning process…”
• Low-level, just-get-by achievement is no longer sufficient for advancement.
• Proficiency is the new bar for every student.
Performance Based: Focus less on teachers and more on learners.
What is a Performance Based learning environment?
What is a traditional learning environment?
Learners are partners in their own learning
Learners learn at their own pace
Learners track their own progress
Learners learn from one another andthe teacher
Learners develop a shared vision andleadership with their teacher
Learners are always looking for waysto improve
Movement is based on performance
Classrooms are teacher directed
All students learn everything all together
Only the teachers know the students grades
Students only learn from the teacher
The teacher makes the rules and tells the students how the classroom will run
The teacher tells the student how to improve
Movement is based on time
2008-09• 134 Students Accessed• 33 Graduates (25%)• 46 Returned The Following Year (34%)• 48 Dropped Out (36%)• 7 Transferred To Another School (5%)• 64% of students who enrolled in the Bridger
Program either graduated or stayed in school
2009-10• 104 Students Accessed• 32 Graduates (31%) • 33 Returned the Following Year (32%) • 39 Drops (37%)
– 10 Dropped Out And Earned a GED (10%)– 11 Dropouts
• 63% of students who enrolled in the Bridger Program either graduated or stayed in school
2012-13• 229 Students Accessed Bridger Services• Drops• 59 Drops• 13 - Transferred to other schools/records requested• 1 – Returned FT to BHS• 3 – Treatment
(1 returned to BAP)• 1 - Youth Challenge • 4 - Online School/Homeschool • 28 – GED
Earned - 21 (3 GEDs Earned from MYC)Actively Attending - 7
• 9 – Drop Outs (4%)(3 Attending GED Currently)
• 96% of BAP students graduate, remain in school, or are actively pursuing educational goals.
–1 student from 2012 graduating class earned diploma in summer of 2012.–3 students from previous graduating classes earned GED in 2013.
CRT Data 07/08 08/09 09/10 10-11 11-12 12-13
# Students 12 15 21 14
Reading 64% 61% 44% 62% 64% 86%
Math 27% 27% 22% 17% 25% 29%
Science 23% 8% 11% 23% 14% 36% Writing NA 20% 11% 26% 27% NA
ACT Data• 17.1 avg for 16 students in 2012
– Year 1 of implementation
• 19.1 avg for 18 students in 2013
Analysis of the fall disciplinary logs shows that while BHS has seen a 55% increase in suspensions and expulsions this fall compared to last fall, Bridger has witnessed a 59% decrease in suspensions or expulsions in the same comparison.
“As educators, we have a choice: Do what’s easy or do what’s right.”
-Rich DeLorenzo, RISC Cofounder
Critical Piece• Innovation
– Rarely Impacts Students In The Classroom• Rubber Hits The Road• Flywheel Made All The Difference
Results So Far• Increase in:
– Student Engagement– Academic Optimism– Transformational Leadership
What the Students Are Saying
•I think teachers in the regular classes like traditional school better because it’s easier for them to have kids just follow them and do what they say, but that doesn’t push kids to be better. They don’t have to connect with kids and work with them individually as much. They just have to teach something once and then give homework. But here, they teach in a way that fits me better. This is awesome! •In the regular high school, I was just in the middle of a big herd of people, and we were moved along like cows. In performance-based, I get to choose my own path and move that way. It’s so much more interesting and motivating, and I want to be done early so I can move on with life. And now I will be done early with a higher skill level.
• Instead of busy work, worksheets, and assignments, in performance-based you get to show you are capable of doing skills, and after you show that you have it down, you can move on. Then all the other things get better because you know it more. I’m doing so much better, and that just makes me try harder. I LOVE being successful at school!
• This is not as easy as people think. It’s actually harder, but I’m doing better in school now than I ever have. It all makes more sense to me, and I feel good when I see myself moving and getting things done. We are getting a better education here. All the other kids are getting cheated. Too bad for them!
Practical Issues of Innovation
Clearly defined learning targets
Feedback and Performance Scales
Skill-based Instruction & Relevant Content
Flexible Assessments/Demonstrations of Learning
Continuous Improvement
The FLYWHEEL Effect
Picture a huge, heavy flywheel. It’s a massive, metal disk mounted horizontally on an axle. It's about 100 feet in diameter, 10 feet thick, and it weighs about 25 tons. That
flywheel is your company [SCHOOL]. Your job is to get that flywheel to move as fast as possible, because momentum—mass times velocity—is what will generate superior
results over time.Right now, the flywheel is at a standstill. To get it moving, you make a tremendous
effort. You push with all your might, and finally you get the flywheel to inch forward. After...sustained effort, you get the flywheel to complete one entire turn. You keep
pushing, and the flywheel begins to move a bit faster. It takes a lot of work, but at last the flywheel makes a second rotation. You keep pushing steadily. It makes three turns, four turns, five, six. With each turn, it moves faster, and then—at some point, you can’t say exactly when—you break through. The momentum of the heavy wheel kicks in your favor. It spins faster and faster, with its own weight propelling it. You aren't pushing
any harder, but the flywheel is accelerating, its momentum building, its speed increasing. (Jim Collins)
