Lea este articulo en español aquí.
The Accelerated Achievement Academy is doing something right.
According to Principal Scott Wilbur, teachers at AAA are not only looking at student data to guide their instruction, but they are “instructing as long as kids need, and also looking at innovative ways to have students become involved in what they’re thinking and how they’re thinking.”
Fifth through eighth graders at AAA have been closing the gap between their pre- and post-pandemic achievement scores. According to the school, its California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress English Language Arts scores rose 10 points; Math scores jumped 12 points.
“We’ve actually kind of been really successful closing some of the pandemic challenges, which is unique,” Wilbur told BenitoLink. “We have a couple of different things that we do together that make that happen.”
For one, the school uses the Professional Learning Community model which, according to the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, allows teachers to focus on learning rather than teaching, to work collaboratively, and to hold themselves accountable for results.
Wilbur said this model became especially important after the pandemic, as teachers had to change instructional methods to ensure student mastery and revisit concepts that were missed.
Since classrooms at AAA are self-contained—students stay with the same teacher and in the same classroom throughout the day—teachers are not limited to the 50-minute blocks that most single-subject middle schools are allotted for the day.
“Our schedule really moves with how well they’re learning,” Wilbur said. “We don’t transition with a bell; we transition with an epiphany. Do they get it? Do they know it? Is a light bulb clearly shown by the work they’re doing or how they’re doing it? And so that’s where we’re different.”
Fifth grade teacher Denise McNett said self-contained classrooms have enabled her to understand her students’ overall educational strengths and weaknesses, not just their abilities in a single subject.
“It just creates more of that bond, and I think that’s a huge part of what makes this school great,” she said.
Eighth grade teacher Laurie Forrest agreed, adding that the closer relationship with students has also helped guide her instruction.
“We know where they are academically, we know them by name and by need, and we can follow them and keep track of how they’re doing,” Forrest said.
She said teachers use daily assessments called exit tickets that are tied to their Eureka Math curriculum and project-based learning to keep track of students.
According to Buck Institute of Education, project-based learning allows students to “learn by actively engaging in real world and personally meaningful projects.”
McNett said her fifth graders are doing a classwide project, “How can we reduce trash?” where students are collecting their weekly trash to weigh and analyze recycling practices. Eighth graders are working on individual five-year plan projects.
“They actually choose a university in the UC system or the state university system they might want to go on to and they do research about it,” eighth grade teacher Dan Bailor said.
“After they have their college lined up, they look at what the requirements are to get into this college, and then they kind of backward plan.”
AAA students also lead their own conferences with teachers and parents.
“There’s some questions they answer, such as ‘What are two things you’re good at, and what are two things you want to improve at?’” Bailor said.
They also rate themselves on standards such as tardiness, behavior and participation, and provide a summary of how they think they are doing in school. He then shares his own ratings and summary of the student, and the two compare them.
“It’s really good to have the students say it themselves, because then it’s not coming from me—it’s coming from them,” he said.
Wilbur said the school’s “innovative ways” are what has helped close some of the pandemic challenges students have faced in the past two years.
“We look at it as, ‘by name, by need,’” he said. “We know every kid by name, and whatever they need, we’re gonna give it to them. I think a lot of programs are ‘I teach it this way,’ but if you didn’t get it, then we didn’t do our job.”
We need your help. Support local, nonprofit news! BenitoLink is a nonprofit news website that reports on San Benito County. Our team is committed to this community and providing essential, accurate information to our fellow residents. It is expensive to produce local news and community support is what keeps the news flowing. Please consider supporting BenitoLink, San Benito County’s public service, nonprofit news.