Schools and Systems

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1. On building high expectations for student achievement in mathematics and science into school and classroom culture and operations as a pathway to college and careers

The Commission believes that we must view every element of school’s design as a potential asset that can be brought to bear flexibly to improve instruction and foster positive adult–student relationships that increase student achievement, motivation, effort, confidence, and persistence—crucial for learning math and science and aspiring to higher education⁸¹. Motivation is often cited as teachers’ biggest problem, the source of student alienation and apathy, classroom management problems, and the lack of shared commitment between teachers and students. To ensure that reform reaches those students who are now far from performing at high levels in academically rigorous courses in math and science in middle and high school, schools must be designed to incorporate lessons from research on youth engagement, motivation, and factors that promote resiliency in youth living in high-poverty, high-risk environments.

The fundamental insight driving the Commission decision to include a focus on school design is that dramatically increasing the motivation of middle and high school students toward high achievement in science and math requires attention to the two primary tasks of adolescence: building competencies and forming an identity. Increasing student motivation and effort must address both of these tasks, which research tells us are interactive. School design for higher math and science achievement must first recognize that research on engagement has identified the counterintuitive finding that students who are academically struggling and those who are disconnected from school make more progress and are motivated to make more effort and to persist when they are engaged by caring teachers in more academically challenging course work⁸². Science and math content that is presented in ways that engage students in active, often cooperative work with interesting material is essential.

Research on resiliency also makes clear that factors can be built into schools to boost the ability of students to overcome challenges associated with poverty, family stresses, or neighborhood conditions and focus on educational achievement⁸³. These include caring relationships with adults who provide them with high expectations and demonstrate investment in their success, engaging activities where they have opportunities to practice skills and recover from errors, opportunities to make contributions to a group, and continuity of the adults in their lives who are committed to their success.

Traditional high schools, and many middle schools, have organizational characteristics—in their class schedules, number of students taught by each teacher each day, use of time, tracking of students into rigid ability groups, and other structures—that thwart rather than support resiliency⁸⁴. Small schools and small learning communities, teaming, and clustering are school design elements that foster the ability of teachers and other school staff to know students well and promote a culture of trust, effort, and achievement—all of which are essential to learning math and science at high levels.

School designs that produce more powerful learning environments focus the school’s assets on student learning and achieving the core mission. These assets include money, staff, time, size and schedules, calendar, data, performance targets and accountability measures, professional development, parent and community support, and student leadership. All need to be used effectively to increase motivation, expand the repertoire of instructional pedagogies and strategies used with different students, organize the school day and year, build in supports and opportunities that increase resiliency in students who experience failure and disconnection, and provide thoughtful opportunities for learning beyond schools. In reviewing each of these assets, schools should be asking how these components can be organized and blended to support learning science and math at academically rigorous levels.

At the classroom level, innovation is needed so that math and science learning can be accelerated, made richer and more motivating, and connected more closely to students’ lives. Classrooms will have to become energetic centers of math and science learning. Students and teachers need access to math and science instructional materials that are rigorous, rich in content, motivating, and clearly connected with the demands of further education, work, and family and community life. Math and science—but science especially because of its potential high interest to students—must be infused into other aspects of curriculum and school life.

Educators need expertise and support in using instructional techniques that address the learning needs of the diversity of American students at all grade levels. Schools must be designed to enable adults to assess students’ learning needs and strengths and develop customized approaches to instruction (what activity, at what intensity and over how long, toward what end) to bring all students to high levels. This is fundamentally a new kind of teaching and learning; it challenges teachers to possess and use a larger repertoire of instructional techniques, applied in alignment with the student’s needs and the demands of the course work. Teachers need tools, including technology, that support assessment of students and development of differentiated approaches to instruction⁸⁵. Schools must get better at meeting the learning needs of individual students, using methods that are more responsive and rigorous than those commonly employed today.

School systems need increased capacity for research and development and for implementing new school models that push the limits of practice.

Teachers need access to excellent curricular materials derived from research on learning and improved mechanisms for sharing and refining resources. Teachers need the ability to form professional communities where excellence, identified by the student learning outcomes achieved, is valued and a source of professional learning for other teachers. Schools need to give science and math teachers access to formative assessments that are aligned to the standards and curriculum that are the focus of student learning, and they need access to master teachers to inform practice improvements.

Curriculum and classroom experiences must also be designed intentionally to connect with and bolster the connections for girls and for students of color to STEM opportunities and career pathways⁸⁶. The Commission’s finding from focus groups and surveys conducted by Widmeyer Communications that African-American and Latino students (8th and 10th grade) have higher than average interest in math and science but also few interesting classes and limited knowledge about the level of mastery needed for college and careers suggests an important motivational base but also a critical task for schools⁸⁷ .

Cyberlearning and associated technologies will also be essential. Students need and deserve access to Web sites and learning systems that reflect the expertise and creativity of our society. Such systems would ideally enable independent learning, thus encouraging and rewarding endless exploration by students and multiplying the value of teachers’ time and expertise⁸⁸.