Students and Standards

As part of a study of school behaviour, a task analysis was performed. The tasks were identified by the schools as things the school needed to do to improve. Flexibility and access to programs were the criteria used to assess the effect of the tasks. Another concern addressed by the chosen criteria, is the ability of the school to offer programs and curricula that are relevant to the students. "School" throughout this paper is viewed as the staff, parents, students, and community members, who were involved in developing the budget documents.

The budget documents for thirty randomly selected schools, operating under an administrative control model of school based management, were used for the task analysis. In the budget document the schools identified the results they wanted to achieve and the tasks they would undertake to achieve those results. The mix of school types and enrolment levels was similar to the district as a whole. Therefore, the schools were representative of the district.

The tasks identified for improving student achievement fell into four broad groups: program delivery, professional development, student skills, and school tasks. To describe school activities fully, tasks were often assigned to more than one category. Thus a teacher inservice on the science curriculum would be classified under professional development-curriculum and program delivery-curriculum.

Over two thirds of the schools identified tasks related to assessment strategies as a way to improve student performance. A few schools looked at different forms of assessment. Also, some schools intended to start measuring learning growth. However, the majority of the schools planned to implement school wide assessment standards and approaches. Further the school wide standards were generally based on Provincial curriculum expectations. When this is combined with the schools' commitment to curriculum alignment and continuity of instruction, clearly the schools intended to adhere closely to the Provincial curriculum as tested and to use consistent standards for assessment of student learning. This is reinforced when half of the schools directed professional development efforts toward increasing teacher knowledge of the provincial curriculum. Even when a category suggests flexibility such as "meeting individual student needs" and "goal setting", many of the tasks were related to setting goals for individual students based on the Provincial curriculum. Continuing the emphasis, the focus on the Provincial curriculum formed: the basis of expectations communicated to parents and students, centred school wide instructional themes, and was carried into extra-curricular activities. Each of these was mentioned by a third of the schools. In addition, more than half of the schools planned to upgrade curriculum resources. Finally, a quarter of the schools were going to administer practice exams; indicating that the motivation for the adherence to the Provincial curriculum was to improve the results on achievement tests;

Some of the tasks undertaken to improve program delivery were more general. Just over two thirds of the schools were going to improve instructional strategies or direct professional development toward program delivery. Another strategy was tutoring, often in the form of paired reading, chosen by half of the schools. Five schools were going to involve parents, students, and/or community members in program delivery. More conventionally, seven schools planned to increase the amount of homework.

The bulk of these professional development activities were designed to support program delivery, which would be expected to increase short term student achievement. However, program delivery and assessment skills provide a long term benefit to both the teacher and the students. It is interesting that some schools identified professional development activities for parents. Most of the schools that did this planned to involve the parents directly in program delivery.

These skills are of long term benefit to the students. While they will affect student achievement in the short run, they aren't directly related to acquiring knowledge of the curriculum. These are the core skills needed by a good student and a productive member of society. Study and organization, attendance, and testing, are the housekeeping skills. A student needs to know what to do, when to do it, and how to balance conflicting demands. Of course, students and staff need to attend, if learning is to take place. Tasks classified under attendance included increasing time on task as well as encouraging the physical presence of the students and staff. The analysis skills, critical thinking and problem solving, are part of the curriculum for most subjects. Over and above this some schools wanted the students to recognize and develop analytic skills. The schools expected that the students would apply the analytic skills to all subjects and expand their use to non-academic situations, the most notable being: conflict resolution, goal setting, and pro-social skills. Also, a third of the schools identified teaching pro-social skills and conflict resolution as tasks to improve the health and safety of students and staff.

Changing the school organization to achieve results was identified by 28 schools. Thirteen schools saw the need to make organizational changes to support student achievement. Generally, the organizational tasks supported other task such as, establishing a committee or blocking out time, to work out the scope and sequence of a curriculum for each grade (continuity and curriculum alignment).

Recognition of achievement and providing follow-up and feedback to suggestions was common to several categories. Overall, these types of tasks were identified by two thirds of the schools. Schools undertook these tasks to provide positive reinforcement for the behaviour and to identify valued behaviours to the school community.

It is quite clear from the tasks that improving student achievement is viewed as increasing the students' knowledge of the tested Provincial curriculum. Over 73% of the schools identified "continuity of instruction" and/or "curriculum alignment" as tasks. Including the schools that identified professional development activities related to the curriculum, brings the percentage of schools aligning what is taught with the tested Provincial curriculum to over 83%. This is good if the tested curriculum corresponds to the curriculum as a whole and if the tested curriculum is what students need to learn. Since everything in the curriculum can't be tested, only a subset of curriculum is tested. For example, in language arts, verbal and presentation skills are part of the curriculum, but aren't tested. Also, the curriculum may be written to allow flexibility regarding content, such as the Social 30 curriculum, but the exams assume knowledge of the "suggested" content. The curriculum is designed to develop the student's "skills, knowledge, and attitudes" with regard to a particular subject. These days it is common to invite stakeholder groups to participate in curriculum development to ensure that the curriculum meets the needs of the students and the community. The result is curriculum that concentrates on skills and attitudes and offers flexibility in content. Teaching the tested curriculum narrows the scope of the curriculum and the reduces the flexibility that was built in to meet individual student needs.

Further, the concentration on the tested curriculum is narrowing the educational experience available to students. Schools that tie, school wide themes and extra-curricular activities, to the curriculum reduce the scope of their programs. Casualties of this include art and music. Also, organizational changes can reduce optional programming. One junior high school is adding 50 minutes a week of instructional time to the core subjects, effectively eliminating options. Whether teaching science or drama is a better use of instructional time isn't the question; the question is whether the choice should be driven by Provincial standards or student needs and interest.

The other aspect of standards is accountability. This is why 80% of the schools were developing consistent standards and/or approaches for assessing students. If teachers develop more and varied techniques for assessing students, and can communicate what the student knows and what the student should learn next, this is effort is beneficial. Where the result of the effort is the ability to compare student performance using marks, it means meeting individual student needs have been sacrificed. The junior high mentioned above developed an assessment rubric for all students. Assignments were weighted at over 60% of the mark, "so that it is easy to do well". However, only the students that hand in the assignments do well. Those students who know the material, do well on the tests, but do not hand in assignments, fail. They fail because of the assessment rubric, not because of their knowledge of the curriculum. Changing the rubric does not address the problem; it only changes the students who are disadvantaged.

Teachers improving their knowledge of the curriculum and their ability to assess what curriculum expectations students are meeting can benefit the students. Goal setting and meeting student needs by developing individual education plans rely on a knowledge of the curriculum and student abilities. Unfortunately, only one of the schools indicated they would organize instruction to meet individual student needs. However, several schools have strategies, such as peer tutoring, for working with students who are below grade level. Also, the high school indicated it would ensure students would be placed in appropriate courses. But, it isn't only students who are having problems or are gifted that can benefit from individualized programming and schools. All students can benefit by individualizing instruction, since few of them are at the same place in the curriculum as their peers, in any or all subjects.

While there was some recognition that students are individuals, may be at different places in the curriculum and could benefit from varied instruction and assessment, schools were standardizing the material presented in the classroom based on the tested Provincial curriculum. Further, assessment strategies were standardized to be consistent with those used by the Province and to be comparable within the school. This is all well and good if you think that all students are the same and the only things worth teaching are those things that can be tested in a two hour exam. Those, who think that verbal, artistic, vocational, and citizenship skills, as well as curriculum content relevant to the students. are important, should be concerned. These and other valuable "skills, knowledge, and attitudes" are still part of the curriculum as it is written, but are disappearing from the curriculum as it is taught.

Bechtol, W. & Sorenson, J. (1993) Restructuring Schooling for Individual Students. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon

"Students and Standards"  was prepared for the National Conference "Canadian Childhood - past, present and future" October 29 - November 1, 1997