Our vision is to provide students with the tools necessary to reach their potential, graduate from high school, and become college and career ready. This summer I reviewed our state testing results on the Pennsylvania System of Student Assessment (PSSA) with my principal and noticed a group of students who historically have been underachieving in spite of receiving Tier 2 or Tier 3 support through our Response to Intervention and Instruction reading program. This group of 10 students scored within 100 points of proficiency on this test in 3rd grade in English Language Arts (ELA). Half of this ethnically diverse group was also classified as economically disadvantaged. Our Child Study Team had received referrals for 80% of these students in the prior years, while 70% percent had received counseling interventions in the form of small groups. In this group, 2 students had IEP’s and one had a 504 plan for attention concerns. It became apparent that a group of our students could benefit from additional supports.
After reading the literature review from the University of Chicago on Teaching Adolescents to Become Learners – The Role of Noncognitive Factors in Shaping School Performance, I realized that not only did these students need academic supports but also support with academic behaviors, perseverance and positive academic mindsets to motivate them to persist at school work. “Research shows that students are more likely to improve academically through a multi-faceted approach including involvement from parents, teachers, belief in oneself, and structured skill building” (Brigman and Campbell, 2003). It became apparent to me that a multi-faceted system of support would be beneficial to provide these students with the tools to be successful. I reviewed all of their previous supports and interventions to determine if there were other factors that could be impeding their learning.
My multi-faceted system of support included meeting and surveying parents, teachers and the students to determine what each group perceived were the barriers to these student’s learning. I then created a group that was designed to target the barriers identified. The group focused on goal setting, the impact of learning styles, test-taking strategies, and provided tools for reducing test anxiety. My plan included mentoring these students and providing them with tools to improve their overall performance. The students created weekly goals to build upon smaller successes to increase their self-confidence and develop a positive mindset about school. Every week I checked in with their teachers to monitor their weekly progress. I met with each student individually, bi-monthly, starting in November to review his or her progress. The group began in January and we met in groups of 2 to 3 students. I met with two of them before school and the others during a computer time at the end of the day so they didn’t miss more instructional time.
For the past 2 years scores have decreased on the PSSA with the new focus on common core and increased rigor. The fourth grade test was longer and had a greater emphasis on writing informational prompts and text dependent analysis. One of my sessions focused on writing, but with the increased emphasis on this area more work should have been done in my group. Our school is going to focus on this discreet writing skill across all grade levels this upcoming year. These students also lacked the endurance to perform on this test. Many of these students had been referred to our Child Study Team due to lack of attention and focus, yet only two students were given small group accommodations for the test. In the future I will be introducing the concept of Growth Mindset to build in perseverance and grit.
In the end, 10% of the students I targeted scored in the proficient range on the PSSA, one student was 2 points from proficient and 50% increased their scores. In Pennsylvania the state looks at student growth over time through a system called PVAAS, Pennsylvania Value-Added Assessment System. Although I did not meet my goal of 40% of the students reaching proficiency, 50% showed growth over time. I would continue this multi-faceted system of intervention for students making some modifications in the group structure. I would also start earlier identifying and mentoring potential students after reviewing the data. This school year I am planning on introducing the “Growth Mindset” concept in my core curriculum, my parent homework workshop and through a parent book club. The more we work together as a team the better chance we have of our students being successful.