As
educational leaders we want ALL students to leave our institutions having maximized
their potential to be successful in the future.
Particularly in these challenging times we must find ways to leverage
our available resources to the fullest extent in order to bolster student
learning. In the current era of
increasing public expectations, political uncertainty, shrinking budgets and increasing
workloads that impact all stakeholders, a growing number of secondary schools
are taking the proactive step to implement a new student intervention model
developed specifically to meet our current challenges with courage and hope for
the future without impacting educational budgets.
This
emerging, systematic, customized, data-driven remediation model has shown
promise for improving learning results among a wide spectrum of the student
population. The program has been
launched in a number of public secondary schools under various “brand names”. The more common identifiers are CORE/FLEX,
CORE/Choice and The Choice Program. The
cornerstone of this style of intervention is the opportunity to earn access to unstructured
time as a motivator for students to work toward proficient academic performance. In most schools this segment of time is known
as the “Choice Session”. This is
typically a 20 to 25 minute segment of time placed after second period, appearing
on the bell schedule between three and five days per week depending on the
school.
Schools
implementing the Choice Program collect data on student performance at
three-week intervals and use this information to support students in a variety
of ways. Students with one or more “D”
or “F” grades are assigned to mandatory remediation often called “CORE”. Students performing at or above standard (all
“A”, “B” and “C” grades) have earned the privilege to decide how they will use
each Choice Session. These students are
said to have “FLEX” or “Choice” Status.
At the end of each three-week period student achievement is evaluated
again and students are reassigned to CORE or Choice based on their current individual
academic standing.
Staff
in Choice Program buildings must be assigned clearly defined roles and
responsibilities in order to support the overall intervention structure and meet
individual student needs. Certificated
staff members are responsible for maintaining accurate information on student
progress, posting grades in a timely manner at transitions between data cycles
and assisting students attending the various support and enrichment
sessions. Classified staff members manage
the collection and organization of data while encouraging staff to meet various
deadlines. Administrators use student
performance data to assign students to CORE classes with intentionality,
monitor areas of campus open to Choice Students and balance equity of the
program among certificated teachers.
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Typically,
students are assigned to a CORE teacher with whom the student has earned a
below standard grade (or at least a teacher that instructs the same subject). Mandatory attendance is taken and monitored by
one of several electronic information support systems used by most schools
today. CORE teachers offer targeted
assistance to move students toward meeting standards. Students have the opportunity to make up
missing work, receive additional instruction, to preview upcoming lessons, to discuss
recent discipline/attendance missteps, to participate in one on one counseling
sessions and monitor academic progress. The
specific strategies used on a daily basis are applied at the discretion of the supervising
staff member in order to better meet the needs of the group. The directive nature of CORE helps avoid the difficulty
of accessing struggling students outside the normal school day.
Students
earning grades at or above 70% in all classes have earned Choice Status. Individuals in this category have the
opportunity to decide how they will use Choice Sessions to benefit their
learning. Choice Students have a variety
of options available to them designed to support enrichment; such as computer
labs, open library, AP seminars, content-specific learning labs, career
exploration, post high school program investigation and guided study halls. Students may also utilize common areas of the
campus to study, socialize and relax.
Students must remain on campus and stay in the session they choose for
the entire enrichment period. Attendance
for Choice Sessions is taken via sign in sheets in all locations with the
exception of the school commons. With
significant numbers of students motivated to earn Choice Status, it allows CORE
support groups to be small and manageable in size.
Many
schools today struggle with assisting cohorts of students that have challenges
beyond typical adolescent deficiencies in maturity, organizational skills or
work ethic that result in one or two grades below standard. When a student is experiencing limited
performance across a wide range of classes, more significant intervention is
required. In the Choice Program the idea
of Permanent CORE groups has evolved to facilitate improvement with these more
troubled students. In Permanent CORE
groups, students are assigned to a particular teacher voluntarily. Students served by this type of affiliation
stay with their teacher regardless of changes in achievement status as the academic
year unfolds. The perception being that
students experiencing significant “outside of school” challenges contributing
to multiple failing grades need the one on one relationship and interpersonal consistency
offered in this alternative setting. In
most cases, teachers working with a Permanent CORE group have also volunteered
for the position and find meeting this type of challenge rewarding.
Most
aspects of the Choice Program are tangible and measurable to all
stakeholders. Choice-Style intervention programs
can be described in words. Program goals
can be articulated. Various types of
interventions can be outlined. However,
it is difficult to communicate in written form how dynamic and adaptable Choice
Style response to intervention is when applied intentionally and professionally. In each new school where it is adopted the
program takes on a certain “life” as the data-driven nature of the process allows
for targeted modification to be implemented to impact students at regular
intervals over the entire academic year.
Institutions can review local capabilities and challenges to develop facets
of Choice Intervention playing to their strengths and mitigating weaknesses. The Choice Model is a relatively simple and
elegant foundation upon which schools may find ways to weave new support
structures designed to reach individual students, assist them in reaching their
potential, and reduce the impact of past challenges on current learning.
In
schools piloting the Choice Model significant gains have been made in reducing “D”
and “F” grades. Discipline referrals have
typically trended lower. Schools have
seen improved results with regard to the number of students taking and passing
AP National Board Exams and the vast majority of stakeholders seem pleased with
the program conceptually, logistically and in terms of overall performance.
Choice-Style
intervention is not an instant fix for the significant and varied challenges
faced by public education today.
However, institutions looking for a systematic, data-driven and
adaptable response to intervention that meets the needs of both the highly
capable and the progressing learner without additional program costs, may find
the Choice Program to be of value. In
challenging times we must not forget that our students need our support and
enrichment more than ever. We must offer
hope for today in order to meet the challenges of tomorrow.
Tod
Witzel is a Social Studies instructor at Enumclaw High School
with over 20 years of teaching experience.
Tod has recently authored a teacher field guide directed at assisting
staff in working through the process of developing, implementing and refining a
Choice-Style intervention model in a secondary school for the first time. Parties interested in further information may
contact the author directly via email at: studentsmaketherightchoice@comcast.net
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