Nancy Swarat Discussion of Proficiency Practices NWMC 2014

The convincers Drivers test Learning to walk/ride a bike Holding students accountable for learning ALL of the content, not permission to ignore what has come before.

The Journey Trip to Taft High School – Designing a Proficiency-Based School Manual and training. Provided our team an opportunity to begin the process of transitioning our school to a proficiency practice school. “Know the why and how of your PB design” Plan for shift, COMMUNICATION with staff, students, parents and community.

Trip to Heppner High school – Make sure that ALL staff are on board – Use common language is all classes to help transition students and community – Focused learning targets No surprises for students – Accountability for students – Have a plan for RE-Assessment

BEC Proficiency conference – Communicate, Communicate, Communicate – Mark Springer Parent calls if students need to reassess. Set up a “mandatory” study time and reassessment time (It really just becomes more of a suggested time.) – Be prepared to keep working through the difficulties. Don’t stop when it gets hard, keep working and it gets better.

My attempts After Taft – Each concept assessed with 3 questions 2 correct = proficient 3 correct = mastery – I changed the scoring to be 3 points each and 1 for attempting – Reassessment was by concept Multiple papers to re test became an organizational nightmare Students didn’t pay enough attention to which concept that they needed to reassess, so I spent a great deal of time looking up their grades. – School wide we implemented “Intervention Fridays” Students are claimed for one of 3 sessions to come reassess/study – Students were grudgingly receptive to NO D’s

After BEC/ Mark Springer – I shifted to proficient by Unit, instead of by concept. – Parents were contacted and informed of the need to reassess and the time set up for study and for retaking the exam – Students had 2 weeks past the end of the semester to have all units proficient in order to receive credit for the class – Non proficient exam grades are input as.64 instead of 64, this “lies” to my grade program and causes the students to take being non proficient more seriously

Flipped Classroom concepts I began recording each classroom lesson and posting it in our grade program – This helped students who were absent and for those who may not have understood the first time through After each exam I record the solutions and it is also posted in the grade program. – Students access the video and go over their own mistakes, then come conference with me prior to being eligible for reassessment Some lessons are pre-recorded and students are assigned to watch them outside of class Students love making their own videos to explain stuff

Things to think about Is the whole school/district going Proficiency? How much support for the change do you have from your administration? Your staff? How and when are you going to differentiate and reassess? Are you willing to spend time before school and after school for reassessments?