So, I was having a conversation with another educator when the conversation turned to our respective schools. He told me that his school is performing extremely well on the state assessments and that year after year they keep outperforming the other high performing schools.
I asked him how much his school has grown over the last few years. His answer was interesting but not shocking.
He said that their scores have been stable and really high, therefore they didn’t have to worry about growth.
It is an interesting comment, but says a lot about the school. The current educational system, with state testing, has created an environment where success of a school or student is viewed as high achievement.
This narrative has to change and John Hattie has the answer.
“The fundamental purpose of schooling is to ensure that every student gains at least a year’s achievement growth for a year’s input.”
John Hattie
This implies that no matter where a student or school starts, and even those who start above average deserve a year’s growth. The school in question has excellent state test results, but is it getting a year’s worth of growth out of each student a year?
We need to look at John Hattie’s Progress to Proficiency Model to answer this question.
The Progress to Proficiency Model shows four quadrants:
- Cruising Schools – Schools that start above average in achievement but do not gain a year’s growth
- Unsatisfactory Schools – Schools that start below average in achievement but do not gain a year’s growth
- Growth Schools – Schools that start below average in achievement but gain more than a year’s progress
- Optimal Schools – Schools that start above average in achievement but gain a year’s progress
Too often educators dismiss the Growth Schools and favor Cruising Schools because of the veil of high achievement. By removing Cruising Schools from the narrative of being excellent schools, the view of what an excellent school looks like changes from being seen through a lens of high achievement (or above average) to a lens of high progress (regardless of where it starts). Thus, Optimal and Growth schools are excellent schools and Cruising Schools and Unsatisfactory Schools have room to improve.
Where does this educator’s school fall?
Where does your school fall?
Categories: Education Research