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What are the practical implications of creating a revision-based approach to teaching?

All teachers recognise the importance of revision in preparing students for tests and exams. But this book argues convincingly that it should be integral to teaching and learning from start to finish. It also argues that to achieve that, we need a revolution in schools.

Rating:

To set the tone, The Revision Revolution book begins with a candid admission – the draft was rejected by the publisher forcing a major rethink. The point being, resilience and rereading are key to the revision process. But the literal meaning of revision is ‘seeing again’. It might have been better to state this clearly from the outset and use it as a theme to connect the book’s wide-ranging content, the changes brought about by learning and new educational ideas in particular.

Much more than a study skills

What does become clear from the opening chapters is this is much more than a study skills handbook (the market is surely saturated with them anyway). The ‘revolution’ the book has in mind involves a root and branch culture change that leaves traditional approaches behind (no more late night cramming), embraces modern learning science, and embeds revision throughout the curriculum.

What this means in practical terms is a whole-school strategic approach with buy-in from all stakeholders, students especially: ‘If schools want to be more than exam factories, we need to ensure learning is meaningful, deep and transferable, and that comes from showing students not just what to revise but also how and why’.

As someone who has championed a more holistic approach to education that combines learning to learn with direct/explicit instruction, I heartily agree with this.

Avoiding false and conflicting advice

As the book further points out, another problem with leaving revision largely to students is not just that the more confident/privately supported tend to do best, but that there’s a ‘plethora of false and conflicting advice online’.

Rereading notes, underlining, and highlighting may be commonly used, but the research (I took that in good faith) shows that they’re amongst the least effective strategies. Sleep, relaxation, nourishment, and ‘little and often’ revision (spaced retrieval) will prepare students much better for exams. Likewise Cornell Notes and graphic organisers – both got a big thumbs up from me.

But what about the practical implications of a whole new, revision-based, approach to teaching?

Haven’t teachers had enough of educational revolutions on top of all the other issues they’re faced with? And don’t they do a lot of this stuff anyway? I must admit these questions revolved in my head as I turned the pages. But the more I read, the more I got the core argument: good teaching models the best strategies anyway, and effective revision means less stress for both teachers and students – a win-win for wellbeing.

A joined-up and inclusive approach

Some might find that the book gets a bit carried away by its ‘calling all comrades’ revolutionary fervour, but this didn’t bother me. I found the passion inspiring and much else to admire with the content.

What I liked in particular is the emphasis throughout on how empowering a joined-up and inclusive approach to revision can be. I’m not sure that students benefiting from this will necessarily be able to ‘challenge injustice’, but I can certainly see how it could close the achievement gap and promote ‘levelling up’. 

My minor ‘seeing again’ criticism aside, the book is also very well written and structured. It takes a step-by-step approach linked to a training timetable, and each chapter ends with a Quiz/Reflection/Summary section to consolidate its content.

It is also packed with useful tools and tips, and includes interesting anecdotes illustrating how challenges and mistakes in the real world have led to a better understanding of revision and learning in general. 

The book is aimed at the secondary sector but should be very useful for primary too. Those that are on board with the ‘powerful knowledge’ thinking behind it but who have yet to give full consideration to revision will find it an excellent resource, while sceptics might well want to revise their opinions.

Review by Steve Turnbull

Footnote: This review was commissioned by a leading educational magazine but not published unfortunately due to circumstances behind the writer’s control.

Related

Two announcements last month indicate potential ways forward. SUNY-Stony Brook will anchor The New York Climate Exchange, a brand-new, $700 million campus on Governors Island in New York. And, This Is Planet Ed, an initiative of the Aspen Institute, launched a Higher Ed Climate Action Task force, uniting university leaders and other stakeholders like Saladrigas, a climate activist, to make recommendations for action across the sector. (Full disclosure, I’m a senior advisor to This Is Planet Ed.)

John King, the new chancellor of the State University of New York system as well as the co-chair of This Is Planet Ed, just appointed the system’s first-ever chief sustainability officer and executive director of climate action at SUNY. The appointment reflects King’s belief that colleges and universities can’t afford to engage with climate solely on an intellectual level, or as a narrowly focused topic in the sciences; they must also walk the walk, by rapidly decarbonizing their own infrastructure.  

“It is my hope that more higher education systems will see SUNY’s efforts and recognize the potential for system-wide climate action, to reduce our emissions, prepare the clean workforce, advance equity and environmental justice, spur innovation, and empower the next generation to lead a sustainable future,” said King, a former secretary of education under President Barack Obama.

It’s quite a to-do list, but what does that look like on the ground? McInnis of Stony Brook has a vision. The New York Climate Exchange, she said, won’t put shovels to earth until 2025. But its leaders have already established a thriving matrix of partnerships among groups that don’t always naturally speak the same language — from fellow institutions like Georgia Tech, Pace University and Pratt Institute, to corporations like IBM, to environmental justice nonprofits like WE ACT in Harlem, to the New York State Iron Workers. Among other initiatives, the iron workers union will have input into a job-training program affiliated with the campus that will be readying the necessary workers to rip out thousands and thousands of oil- and natural gas-burning boilers, the better to convert New York City’s buildings to clean energy. In fact, green job trainees will, it’s planned, outnumber traditional students on the campus by 10 to 1. 

One day, McInnis said, elementary school students will arrive by electric ferry for field trips, observing “living laboratories” that model “new ways of building, powering, treating coastlines.” Four hundred thousand square feet of buildings will be powered by clean energy with backup battery storage. The campus will capture and reuse gray water, and keep 95% of the trash it generates out of landfills. It will be filled with undergrads, grad students and professors from Stony Brook and partner institutions, some visiting for a “domestic study abroad.” And one day, she said, the campus will welcome leaders from around the world. “With time we hope to host major convenings of groups of other people who want to talk about climate change and how cities need to respond,” McInnis told me. “We want to be a global convener for the important conversations we all need to have on the most critical issue of our time.” 

Every university president probably dreams of becoming a “global convener” in one way or another, and of winning $150 million in philanthropic funds to do so, as this initiative did. (The city will also contribute, but much of the projected $700 million price tag is still to be raised). But, it might seem a strange time for such boosterism, considering that enrollment in higher education is plummeting nationwide and is down 20 percent over the last decade at SUNY colleges and universities, half of which occurred during Covid. 

Bryan Alexander is a higher education futurist whose latest book, Universities on Fire, is all about colleges’ responses to the climate crisis. He sounds a note of muted optimism around the New York Climate Exchange vision. “On the one hand it’s very exciting to see the state commit so much funding,” he said. Yet, he added, “the idea of starting a new campus from scratch is interesting and also very risky.” Especially in New York State, which, he noted, already has quite a bit of aging higher ed infrastructure, like McInnis’s flood-prone dorms back on Long Island, which date to the 1960s and 1970s. 

Still, he said that universities have historically executed big cultural pivots by establishing greenfield campuses where new norms of collaboration, learning and knowledge production can be set forth. And when it comes to climate change, that’s exactly what’s required: “This is an all-hands-on-deck moment,” Alexander said. “This is a moment of civilizational transformation and we can’t be left out of it. Every aspect of academia gets to play a role.” 

That was a common sentiment at the first This Is Planet Ed Higher Ed Task Force listening session in early May, presided over by Kim Hunter Reed, the commissioner of higher education for Louisiana, and Mildred García, the president of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. Essentially two dueling messages emerged: It’s a really difficult time for higher education to take on a new, major, paradigm shift, what with funding crunches, political headwinds in red states, and post-Covid enrollment syndrome; and, there’s no choice but to act big and fast. 

Students are certainly contributing to that sense of urgency. A great deal of climate action at universities has been driven by student activism. And students today see climate as joined with other urgent struggles for justice. “As a low income person of color, I know a lot of communities like mine are directly impacted by climate change,” said Saladrigas. “It’s a lot of intersectional issues. And learning about climate change is inaccessible.” 

To Saladrigas, the political environment in Florida feels particularly discouraging to climate learning; she plans to transfer out of state as soon as she can. “If you don’t have resources,” she said, “you can’t allow for students to learn more about how to make a change.” 

The RNL National Conference is the premier event for higher education professionals to attend each summer, to connect with colleagues, to learn the latest trends in enrollment management and student success, and also to hear from nationally recognized keynote speakers. Over two and a half days, attendees will have the opportunity to learn from experts in our field and connect with other higher education professionals to bring home the very best ideas for their campus to be successful in the year ahead.

This year, RNL is adding a pre-conference event to assist you with expanding your leadership skills and to consider how to best care for yourself and your team. This is such an important topic in the work world today where the pressure to be successful is high, the demands on our time are constant and our teams are looking to us to not only lead them but also to care about their well-being and mental health.How can we best do this when we may already be stretched to our own limits?

Well, I believe the first step in leadership is to make the time to care for ourselves and to intentionally develop our skills in this area.

So, I invite you to join us a day early in Nashville on Monday, July 24^th for the first ever, Developing and Building Leadership Skills: How to Care for Yourself and Your Team pre-conference workshop. This is a topic that is a passion for me and I have had the privilege of helping build our agenda. Here is what you can expect:

• An opening keynote from Marjorie Hass, the President of the Council of Independent Colleges on the topic of Inspirational Leadership. Marjorie has a unique position in her work with colleges across the country to see what is needed in higher education leadership at this time. Her presentation will inspire you for your current and future leadership roles.

• My friend and colleague, Wendy Beckemeyer, Vice President for Enrollment Management at Cornell College, will share her perspective on how relationships can influence leadership. She will talk about how you can invest in yourself and members of your team for optimal performance and team cooperation. Wendy has also been a leader in the professional development space with her coordination of the Pay It Forward series and you will learn more about this innovative approach.

• The third session of the workshop, Mindfulness for Leaders, presented by Theresa Ricke-Kiely from the University of St. Thomas, will help you to consider how mindfulness is important not only for us to be healthy individuals but also for us to have a healthy team environment. I have heard Theresa speak before and this topic had so many relevant takeaways for me.I am excited for you to hear Theresa’s thoughts and research in this area.

In addition to listening to these presentations, you will have time for active discussion during the workshop, and then you will be able to continue these conversations over lunch with the new contacts you have made before the conference even kicks off. You will also be introduced to the basics of mindful meditation with a brief session I will lead (wearing my other hat as a certified yoga and meditation teacher). I’ll help you see that some simple breathwork can improve your sense of being calm and focused.One more benefit of arriving early to the incredible Gaylord Opryland Hotel: an afternoon free to relax at the spa, to play golf, to explore Nashville, or anything else that will promote your own self-care time. This is something you need and deserve.

To be the best leader you can be, you need inspiration, relationships within your community and the ability to be mindful and aware of what you and your team need to be successful. This workshop will support your efforts in these areas! It will also prepare you to soak up all of the excellent higher education knowledge that will be shared during the RNL National Conference.

Please be aware that advance registration is required for the workshop.You can see the full agenda, learn more and register here.

I look forward to seeing you in Nashville for the pre-conference workshop and to take part in the 130 sessions offered at the full event. This will be my 29^th annual conference since I joined RNL in the fall of 1993 and I know it will be the best yet!This pre-conference workshop is going to be the cherry on top of an incredible few days.I’ll see you there!

CI Intercambio, as it used to be known, merged with entertainment travel company Amaze Travel, and also acquired educational travel agency Trilha Educação. 

The acquisitions make CI Group “the largest educational travel company in Brazil”. 

“In the last 10 years, we have noticed an increase that has intensified with the pandemic that suggests the need for experience outside the classroom,” said CI’s director Victor Hugo Baseggio. 

“In an increasingly connected and digital world, the activities provided by Grupo CI generate real interactions and connections with the world and society, helping young people absorb the content taught in the classroom and on the internet, broadening horizons and visions about the subjects studied,” added Baseggio.

The merging of the three companies comes under a concept which CI is attempting to pioneer in Brazil – the idea of “edutainment”. 

“We have created a complete ecosystem of learning and experiences, where a child can have their first contact with the CI Group in a program with the school at the age of three for a day on the farm with Trilha Educação.

“Then at 11 years old they can do a first junior program to Canada with CI, followed by a graduation trip in primary or secondary School with Amaze, then return to CI to have a study/work experience in Ireland, and finish with a graduation ceremony and gala party at its college organised by Amaze. 

“This proposition is unique in Brazil and maybe even in the world,” Baseggio elaborated.

“We are preparing to triple numbers in the coming years”

Amaze Travel has a decade’s experience in creating travel experiences, especially for graduating K-12 students, as well as general experiences to Mexico and even Disneyworld. 

While Trilha Educação focuses more on national educational travel, they do also provide travel to US universities – in addition to trips to Silicon Valley. 

Both companies embedding into the CI Group is what has created, Baseggio said, their own spin on the idea of edutainment, with which they will continue to hinge operations on in 2023 and beyond. 

The concept, according to a report from India-based market analyst Mordor Intelligence, has seen exponential growth, and that segment of the sector will continue to do so – a prediction from Mordor says it will grow 17% per year for the next two years.

After tallying 50,000 students through CI Intercambio in 2022, the new CI Group is aiming even higher. 

“We are preparing to triple the number in the coming years,” the statement added.

Richard Lane, CEO at Mercia Primary Academy Trust, shares how his school is using CO2 monitors and Air Cleaning Units to manage ventilation for a healthier learning environment.  

What has the impact of using CO2 monitors been on managing ventilation in your school? 

Good ventilation helps children to concentrate and be more alert, as well as helping to lower the spread of illness. CO2 monitors help make us aware when ventilation is poor and when it is at a healthy level – this helps us identify when it is beneficial to have the windows open to let fresh air in, or close them to keep warm (and save energy). They’re simple and easy to use, cost-effective and there has been no real maintenance.  

How are you managing ventilation in your school? 

The CO2 monitors were effective in helping us identify issues with our ventilation levels, this allowed us to apply for DfE-funded air cleaning units (ACUs). They’ve been a game changer – they help control the spread of infection, helping keep our learners and teachers well. These now sit in the older classrooms and a mobile classroom. They’re placed out of the way and the floorspace they take is minimal with two per classroom. 

Any tips on using Air Cleaning Units (ACUs) in a classroom? 

• Measure the size of the classroom including the height – then work out its volume. Check the m³ of air the unit can process – then place the correct number of air cleaners per classroom. 
• We use approx. two per classroom – the secret is to keep them in areas where they are near children – but not near well-ventilated air. 
• See how the classroom is used – if a door is often open or has footfall keep the ACUs away from these areas. 

• The ACUs have a clear cleaning programme – read through documentation and make diary entries to tell you when to clean them (mine were once a year). 
• We leave them on throughout the school day – they clean the air for staff meetings etc. – power usage and running cost is very low. 
• Inform parents that they are being used – in our experience they have really valued and responded positively to this information. 

For more information about how you can get the most out of your CO2 monitors and ACUs, take a look at the DfE’s ventilation gov.uk page here.

Meet Xenia, a junior at Northwestern University, who leans into math and science, runs dutifully in her spare time and tends toward introversion. Now meet her fraternal twin, Madeleine, a double major in English and Philosophy at Johns Hopkins, who prefers reading and writing over sports and as a child was dubbed the school’s mayor by her father after he noticed her making the rounds in the cafeteria during a second-grade parent/child lunch. The girls get along, their personality differences allowing each to carve out an independent identity and buffering both from excessive rivalry. 

Another way these twins differ? When they were in high school, Xenia spurned all social media, the only girl in her grade, she thought, without Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Houseparty and all other social media sites on her phone. “I was never interested in it,” she told me. Madeleine, on the other hand, while not a devotee, relied on Snapchat to keep in touch with distant friends and used Instagram and other sites to stay on top of school gossip, fashion trends and entertainment news. “Interfacing with technology is Madeleine’s varsity sport,” her father said. 

Most adolescents would seem to follow Madeleine’s path. Almost all teenagers used smart phones in 2022, the Pew Research Center reported, and 53% of kids in cities acknowledged being online “almost constantly.” As for social media, most teenagers are all in: TikTok is now the most favored platform, used by 67% of 13-17 year olds, followed by Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook, whose popularity has declined dramatically. More and more research has shown that excessive use of social media undermines kids’ mental health. A British study of nearly 12,000 teenagers found that frequent social media use is associated with a lower sense of well-being, especially among girls who experienced cyberbullying or diminished sleep. Social psychologist and author Jean Twenge, who has explored the link between excessive screen use and deteriorating mental health, blames the former for triggering the latter, noting that rates of depression and suicide among teenagers have increased since smart phones became ubiquitous. 

Though far from a controlled lab experiment, twins who grew up in the same house and diverged over their phone use offer interesting insights into how Instagram and its ilk can amplify what’s already there. How the two have adapted their social media patterns during college also reveals how the wider environment can shape its use. 

In high school, Madeleine was the first to admit that she was easily distracted and bored, as well as quick to lose things, including the phone she relied on to stay in touch with friends. “I tend to leave my phone everywhere,” she told me. She wasn’t one to post pictures often, a habit that annoyed some of her friends, but she did check Instagram and Snapchat once or twice a day, she said, for up to an hour in total time. That was a far cry from many girls Madeleine knew, including some who tracked their accounts for six hours a day, she said. She liked the way big stories on Instagram or Snapchat sparked conversation and mentioned that a public spat on YouTube among dueling makeup artists preoccupied her entire grade. What Madeleine enjoyed most, though, was how these platforms allowed her to stay connected with the friends in Australia she met during a student exchange program. 

“Are you ready? Three. Two. One.”

Numbers flashed on John’s screen: “2 + 7. 5 + 10. 10 + 4.”

At the start of this school year, John, whose real name Chalkbeat is not using to protect his privacy, read at a first grade level and did second grade level math. It would be Przybyslawski’s job to get him caught up – fast.

School districts around the country are pushing to help students bounce back from the pandemic’s profound academic damage: expanding literacy tutoring in Detroit, cutting class sizes in New York City, and buying science-backed reading curriculums in districts across Colorado.

Chicago Public Schools has turned to academic interventionists — a cadre of hundreds mostly classroom teachers already on the district’s payroll, tapped this year to turbocharge the learning of struggling students one-on-one or in small groups.

These newly-minted catchup specialists are tackling three years of COVID fallout layered upon pre-pandemic learning gaps and traumas, at schools that experts and educators agree should have been staffing interventionists all along.

Research has backed Chicago’s intervention approach, and emerging data here and in other cities shows school districts are making headway. But experts say the effort is in its infancy: A recent study by nonprofit test maker NWEA found students are rebounding, but schools are likely a few years away from returning to pre-pandemic achievement, especially for younger learners.

Meanwhile, educators face their own version of Przybyslawski’s countdown.

Three, two, one.  Before children like John arrive in high school unprepared, lowering their odds of graduating, starting college or careers, and escaping poverty.

Three, two, one. Before districts like Chicago run out of federal COVID relief dollars.

Three, two, one. Before society at large moves on, and the energy required to remain in full-on recovery mode fades.

As Robin Lake, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, put it at an academic recovery event this past fall: “If we fail to act differently to catch students up, to ensure every student graduates with everything they need, we will have failed this generation and future generations of students.”

One school on Chicago’s West Side tackles academic recovery

Brunson Elementary is in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood, one of the hardest hit by COVID and by a surge in the city’s other epidemic: gun violence.

Of Brunson’s 400 students, almost 90% are Black, and almost all are poor. Almost 60% were chronically absent last year, meaning they missed roughly 20 or more days. This year, Brunson has deployed  “attendance heroes” — teachers, paraprofessionals, and cafeteria workers — who check in daily with truant students. But across the district, attendance and disruptive behaviors continue to interfere with learning.

“It’s heartbreaking what kids here carry on their backpacks that we can’t see,” principal Carol Wilson said.

Since the pandemic hit in 2020, Chicago Public Schools — like districts across the country — has seen drops in the portion of students meeting reading and math standards on a required state assessment. The district’s latest scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as “the nation’s report card,” showed nearly a decade of growth in math had been wiped out while reading results held fairly steady.

When Chicago schools tested students this past fall to gauge where they stood, two-thirds of John’s sixth grade peers districtwide did not hit grade-level benchmarks in reading. A third were flagged as needing urgent interventions. The picture was similar in math.

Przybyslawski used to teach a classroom of 25 students math and science. Now, her focus is on 15 or so struggling middle schoolers at Brunson.

She set out to create an orderly, efficient operation, using new digital platforms that constantly size up how students are progressing in mastering skills they should have learned in earlier grades — and dictate what they work on next.

In reading, the school piloted an artificial intelligence program that gave students passages to read back to it based on their level and flagged mistakes they made.

She wanted John to divide fractions along with his peers eventually. But in the meantime, Przybyslawski, who also supervises the school’s new team of three tutors, all Brunson grads, measured progress in small increments.

During that session in November, John hesitated briefly before answering 6 + 5.

He was stumped on 3 + 8.

But on the rest, he rattled off the correct answers before Przybyslawski had even finished reading them out.

“We got to the third row,” she told the boy when the minute-long assessment was up. “Very nice work!”

After students left, she logged in their results into Branching Minds, a new platform used for tracking interventions.

Wilson, the principal, and district officials lean on the technology to monitor the progress students are making. Soon, Wilson would also get a second round of standardized tests — administered around the middle of the school year — she hoped would tell her if the school’s efforts were paying off.

‘How can we reach more kids?’

In the bid to speed up students’ academic recovery, Chicago leaders have bet on an arsenal of strategies. They’ve expanded after-school programs, started an in-house tutor corps, and poured millions in teacher training and a new in-house lesson bank called Skyline.

They also tapped some 250 educators to serve as new academic coaches. There are more counselors, social workers, and other support staff.

All in all, the district earmarked $730 million in COVID recovery dollars this school year for its recovery efforts.

Academic interventions — by tutors, classroom teachers, or the new interventionists — are at the heart of the strategy. The district budgeted for at least one interventionist on each of its roughly 500 campuses, though not all schools used the money for such positions, and some schools combined the duties with existing positions. And it required all schools to use the same digital platform to track interventions that Przybyslawski is using.

Across the district this past fall, new interventionists chipped away at catching up tens of thousands of students. One math problem and one sounded-out word at time.

At Moos Elementary on Chicago’s West Side, where most of the 430 primarily Latino students enrolled needed intervention in the fall, Elizabeth Battaglia and the tutors she oversees could reach about 60 students across all grades — not nearly enough.

“How do we get students a lot of extra support with so few people?” she kept asking herself, even as she was encouraged by her students’ growth.

In reading, Battaglia tried a blitz tactic: 20 minutes each day over two weeks when stronger readers are paired with struggling peers to read passages to each other and help correct each other’s mistakes. It helped.

At Sadlowski Elementary on the Southeast Side, where most of the school’s 620 students were flagged as needing intensive help at the start of the year, Emily Gasca has 38 students on her caseload — some of them third and fourth graders reading at kindergarten level.

She enlisted fellow teachers to build interventions into daily classroom instruction, but some colleagues felt she was laying more work on already full plates.

Gasca tried to remind herself she was helping build from scratch a sort of academic safety net that the district has needed all along.

Even before COVID, many Chicago students made it to high school unable to read well. The pandemic just made it harder to look away.

To experts and educators such as Gasca, it’s clear that trauma and social-emotional challenges — that invisible load in students’ backpacks — complicate academic catchup. But struggling to keep up in the classroom is also a daily source of stress, eroding students’ confidence — baggage they carry back home.

Educators search for signs interventions are working

By February, John’s sessions with Przybyslawski were a well-worn routine.

“On your screen you will see a story to read,” Przybyslawski read off her screen to him one morning that month. “I would like you to read this story for me.”

“We’ll begin in three, two, one.”

John looked relaxed in a black face mask, hoodie, and Nikes as he read a passage about a family visit on a farm.  At the one-minute mark, a bell dinged, and Przybyslawski smiled broadly. John’s reading had been largely free of mistakes — a huge leap from the start of the school year when he struggled to make it through a sentence or two during those fleeting 60 seconds.

“Good job overall,” she said. “I’ll get your score in a few minutes.”

Przybyslawski’s students were making headway. But now, her caseload looked different.

A few students “graduated.” They still need added help, but should be able to get it in the classroom. A few left the school, part of the customary churn at a high-needs neighborhood campus. And some were no longer on Przybyslawski’s caseload after being identified as needing services for students with disabilities.

Around this same time, Wilson, the principal, had gotten the school’s midyear test results.

Students in all grades were showing solid growth except eighth graders, on that all-important cusp of high school, who were flagged across the district for making little midyear progress.

Wilson was encouraged. Still, these tests predicted that fewer than 10% of Brunson students would meet state standards this spring.

“We’ve seen kids make leaps and bounds but still remain below the benchmarks,” Wilson said. “We’re catching kids up constantly.”

Districtwide in the early grades, there were double-digit increases in students scoring at grade level. Overall, Chicago Public Schools’ scores were in line or better than other urban districts. But much work remained: In the second grade, for example, more than half of students remained one grade level below in math, and a quarter were still two grade levels below in both math and reading.

Paul Zavitkovsky, an expert on testing at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said standardized tests are a helpful snapshot of how students are doing, but he cautioned against relying on them to drive recovery efforts. Remediating one skill at a time based on test results must happen alongside engaging, grade-level instruction — a tough balance to strike, Zavitkovsky said.

Based on an analysis of results on a standardized test named STAR 360 many Chicago elementary schools are giving three times a year, Zavitkovsky found almost all schools made four months of gains in the first four months of the year in math — an encouraging return to a pre-pandemic pace of growth.

But, he said, “Average gains are not going to be enough.”

Dan Goldhaber, who leads the University of Washington’s Center for Education Data & Research, said it’s not clear how long schools can remain in full recovery mode, which requires resources and sustained effort.

When the COVID money runs dry, Chicago’s army of interventionists hired in recent years could land on the budgetary chopping block, leaving classroom teachers to pick up the difficult work of recovery.

Bogdana Chkoumbova, the district’s education chief, says the district is encouraged by testing, grading, and other data; it will cover interventionists at each school and grow the tutor corps next year.

That’s because there’s more work to be done, Chkoumbova recently told the school board. Data show 20% of students have gotten some intervention, and of those, only about a third are on track to meet their goals — an improvement over earlier in the year.

But, as district leaders have noted, a lot of intervention work is not captured by the data. At Brunson, a girl recently asked Przybyslawski for help with multiplication and division off the screens. The interventionist set up stacks of flashcards, quizzing her the old-fashioned way.

“Confidence!” she told the girl. “Just be confident.”

Behind them, in the back of Przybyslawski’s classroom, a bulletin board was covered with certificates of achievement.

One was John’s. It showed a figure looking over a wheat field, a mountain peak rising in the background.

“Congratulations!” the certificate read. “Your reading POWERS are getting stronger, and it’s time to celebrate your hard work.”

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at [email protected].  

Math anxiety is difficult to measure, and even children who enjoy timed drills may experience an elevated heart rate, an aspect of anxiety, as they race through a sheet of sums. Distinguishing productive adrenaline rush from detrimental anxiety isn’t easy. It’s also complicated to disentangle whether timed tests are making matters worse for children who already have math anxiety from other causes. There’s evidence for and against even within studies. 

Ideally, you would need to design a multi-year study — where some children were randomly given speed drills and others not, but were all taught the same way — and see what their math achievement and math anxiety levels were at the end of high school. That study doesn’t exist. 

What does exist are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of studies that document the stories of people who describe how much they hated timed tests. Interview excerpts like this one from a 1999 study of college students who were training to become math teachers are typical:

“If I am timed, I get nervous and forget everything. I do the ones I know, but then I get stressed that I’m not thinking fast enough and forget. I worry about finishing, and I can’t remember it even if I do know it. It is horrible. I get nervous just thinking about it.”

Others explained how they decided they weren’t a “math person” during these time-pressured moments and lost interest in the subject. 

First-person testimonials are sufficient evidence for some that timed tests are harmful. For others, subjective reflections like this, no matter how many and how emotionally compelling, still fall short of scientific proof. At the same time, we also don’t have compelling scientific evidence to prove that timed tests aren’t harming children. I think it remains unknown. 

Citation clash

Several math education experts questioned the Science of Math group’s scientific evidence on their second claim, that “timed tactics improve math performance.” One critic, Rachel Lambert, an associate professor in both special education and mathematics education at University of California Santa Barbara, had one of her classes analyze the group’s citations about timed tests, as an assignment on how to analyze education research. She showed me a spreadsheet of instances where the citations didn’t back their claims. In some cases, the studies contradicted their claims and found that students performed worse under timed conditions. “They’re calling themselves the Science of Math,” said Lambert. “But they’re not being careful in their citations.”

I found several of the citations confusing, too. Corey Peltier, an assistant professor of special education at the University of Oklahoma and one of the founders of the Science of Math group, explained that the primary purpose of the webpage and the article was to dispel the myth that timed tests and other timed activities cause anxiety. “We weren’t writing about how timing affects math performance,” he said via email. “Rather we were writing about whether timing causes math anxiety.”

Confusing citations or not, the more pressing question for math teachers and parents is whether there is evidence in favor of timed tests. The U.S. Department of Education seems to side with the Science of Math folks and against the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. A 2021 guide for teachers on how to assist elementary school students who struggle with math recommends regular timed activities – not necessarily tests – to help children build fluency with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The What Works Clearinghouse, a unit of the Department of Education that vets research, and an expert panel found 27 studies to back timed practice and called that a “strong” level of evidence.

Games vs. the stopwatch

These 27 studies suggest that timed activities – not in isolation, but in conjunction with larger interventions – help children learn math. In one 2013 study, struggling first graders received math tutoring three times a week and were split into two groups. One played untimed games to reinforce the lessons. The other was subjected to speed practice, where the children worked in groups to try to answer as many math flashcards correctly as possible within 60 seconds. Each time they were encouraged to “meet or beat” their previous score. After 16 weeks, the children in the speed practice group had much higher math achievement than the children who had played untimed games.

Children in the speed group answered more math facts correctly each day, the researchers found. The sheer volume of correct responses helped the children commit more math facts to long-term memory, according to Lynn Fuchs, who led the study. Cognitive scientists call that spaced retrieval practice, a proven way of building long-term memories, and children in the speed group got more of it. 

“That gives children an advantage as they progress through the math curriculum,” said Fuchs, a professor of education at Vanderbilt University. “A lot of kids will develop fluency on their own without any fluency building practice. But to say we can’t do that in classrooms is to deny the opportunity to develop fluency for a significant portion of children.”

Fuchs and other advocates question why timed practice is so controversial in math when it’s common in other fields. Musicians repeat scales by the rapid tick of a metronome and athletes do speed drills to build muscle memory. “In all walks of life, the strongest musicians, the most skillful athletes, they do drills and practice, drill and practice,” said Fuchs.

Opponents of timed tests also want children to automatically know that seven times eight is 56 instead of conceptually thinking it out each time (7+7+7+7+7+7+7+7), but they say that there are games and other less stressful ways to do it. Fuchs’s study is one of the few to directly test timed versus untimed conditions and we need more studies to replicate her findings before we can conclude that speed is considerably more effective and harmless to children.

Both sides of this debate are concerned with working memory, the ability to temporarily hold information in your head in order to process it, think and solve. One side worries that timed tests can produce so much anxiety that it overwhelms the working memory and prevents a child from learning. The other side wants to free up working memory to handle more complicated math problems by making basic arithmetic calculations automatic, and it believes the most effective road to automaticity is through speed drills. While the causes of math anxiety are debated and mysterious, many in the pro-drill camp suspect that children might feel less math anxiety if they became more proficient in the subject, which is something that drills might help accomplish.

Advice for math teachers

What can classroom teachers take away from this debate? I turned to a veteran researcher, Art Baroody, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who spent his career studying the best ways to teach counting, numbers and arithmetic concepts to young children.

He agrees that timed tests can be used effectively, but he is apprehensive about a blanket recommendation for teachers to use them. “Timed tests are an educational tool and like any tool can be used to good, no, or bad effect,” he said. “Unfortunately, the tool is often misused with poor or even devastating results. I have seen the damage timed tests can do to some children.”

Baroody thinks it’s critical that children first understand conceptually what addition and subtraction mean and develop number sense before they are given timed tests. Too often students are taught mathematical operations through rote memorization, like random numbers, he said, and arithmetic learned this way is easily forgotten, no matter how much it’s drilled.

But once a child understands the math, he believes that timed worksheets are beneficial. Baroody said that if he were teaching in an elementary school classroom, he would administer timed tests at least once a week, and even more often depending on the topic and how much children have learned.

Fuchs is even more circumspect in her advice to teachers on how to use timed tests effectively without harming children in the process. Not only should students first master concepts, they should have already demonstrated that they know the correct answers in an untimed setting. “You don’t want to give students a page full of problems and they’re kind of lost,” said Fuchs. 

Immediate feedback is important too. “When you make an error, your teacher or your partner can say, ‘Hey, let’s fix that’,” said Fuchs. “You want to stop a student when they make an error because what you’re trying to do is practice correct responses. You don’t want students to practice incorrect responses.”

Advocates of timed practice disagree about the details. Some say students should be given long lists of calculations so that no one can finish in time and slam their pencils down, which leaves slower children feeling bad about themselves. However, Fuchs favors flashcards because she fears the sight of a long list of problems overwhelms some children. This is an area that needs more research to guide teachers on best practices.

The Science of Math group concurs that not all timed practice is good, and says the research shows that timed activities or tests shouldn’t start until after a child can calculate accurately. They also say that teachers should never count these tests toward students’ grades; the tests should be low-stakes practice.

“Much like any instructional activity, if it is used inappropriately, it will yield minimal benefits and in some cases could be harmful,” said Peltier. Timing students on “a skill they don’t know – not only is this a waste of time, it also can be demoralizing and harmful. Imagine being timed to parallel park a car at the age of 16!” 

The Priorities Of Teaching For Change

contributed by Olivia Odileke

As an educator, you hold a position of immense responsibility in shaping the future of our society.

To truly make a difference, becoming ‘fearless’–a teacher who isn’t afraid to push boundaries and take risks–may be one path forward. In, ‘How a Good Teacher Becomes Great,’ we learned about some of the qualities that make a great teacher.

However, being ‘great’ may not be enough in the modern classroom. In the context of teaching, a great teacher (see 12 Rules Of Great Teachinng) may possess exceptional skills in areas such as lesson planning, classroom management, and student engagement. However, a fearless teacher takes these skills a step further by being willing to try new teaching methods, take on challenging students, and adapt to changing educational environments to achieve a kind of teaching that’s effective and sustainable.

See also Great Teachers Don’t Always Do What They’re Told

We need educators who are unafraid to challenge the status quo, who are willing to try new things, and who are passionate about providing the best education possible. In this article, we will discuss ten essential characteristics of a teacher for change and explain why these qualities are vital to success in the classroom.

In light of increasing pressure and seemingly reduced time and resources, being a fearless and teaching for change may seem like a monumental challenge but may also be a key strategy in thriving in the context of modern K-12 post-secondary education.

1. Embracing Change

A teacher for change understands that change is inevitable and necessary. They recognize that the needs of their students are constantly evolving and are willing to adapt their teaching methods to meet those needs. They are not afraid to challenge traditional approaches and are always looking for new and innovative ways to engage their students.

2. Adaptability

A teacher for change is willing to adapt to new instructional practices, technologies, and pedagogies. They understand that what worked in the past may not be effective today and are always seeking out new ways to improve their teaching.

More importantly, they understand that good teaching needs to be sustainable–joyful and creative or, if nothing else, something they enjoy doing on a daily basis.

See also How To Make Teaching More Sustainable

3. Resourcefulness

A teacher for change doesn’t focus on what resources they don’t have, but on what they do have. They are creative in finding solutions to problems and are willing to make the most of the resources available to them.

4. Partnership with Parents

A teacher for change understands the importance of partnering with parents from all backgrounds. They recognize that parents are a child’s first teachers and engage them in their child’s education as much as possible. They work to build positive relationships with parents and involve them in the educational process.

See also Strategies For Dealing With A Difficult Parent

5. Educating the Whole Child

A teacher for change seeks to educate the whole child, not just prepare them for a test. They understand that education is not just about academics, but also about social-emotional development, physical health, and creativity. They work to develop well-rounded individuals who are prepared for success in all areas of life.

6. Innovative Teaching

See also Disruptive Teaching

A teacher for change seeks innovative ways to make content real and relevant. They understand that students learn best when they are engaged and invested in the material. They incorporate technology, hands-on activities, and real-world experiences to bring the material to life.

7. Advocacy for Equity

A teacher for change is willing to ask tough questions of instructional leaders to ensure equity for students and teachers. They recognize that inequities exist in our education system and are committed to working to eliminate them. They advocate for all students to have access to high-quality education and for teachers to have the support and resources they need to be successful.

8. Sharing Best Practices

A teacher for change loves sharing best practices and they share student success with peers so everyone grows. They recognize that teaching is a collaborative process and are always looking for ways to improve their craft. They share their successes and challenges with colleagues, attend professional development opportunities, and participate in mentoring programs to support the growth of their peers.

9. Purposeful Work

A teacher for change knows why they teach and they have purpose in the work they do every day. They are passionate about their profession and believe that they can make a difference in the lives of their students. They are committed to their own personal and professional growth and are always looking for ways to improve their practice.

See also The Definition Of Good Work

10. Willingness to Fail

A teacher for change is willing to make mistakes and fail as they try new approaches. They understand that failure is a natural part of the learning process and are not afraid to take risks in their teaching. They learn from their failures and use those experiences to improve their practice.

Being a teacher for change takes courage, passion, and a commitment to excellence. By embracing change, seeking out new opportunities, and being willing to take risks, you can make a profound impact on the lives of your students. So be fearless in your approach to teaching, and inspire the next generation of learners to be fearless, too. 

Olivia Odileke is a Chief Engagement Officer and visionary leader at Kampus Insights Inc, who strives to inspire a fearless culture among educators. With her extensive experience as a Title 1 Teacher, Math Teacher, Science Teacher, Math Coach, and Instructional Coach, Olivia is dedicated to helping teachers create amazing lessons and empower students to reach their full potential. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering and a Master of Education in Instructional Technology.

She never showed off the gold medal she won — in fact, her family isn’t sure what became of it — but in interviews after her win, Bolden told reporters she had studied hard for the competition, saying she wanted to help her city win, and that her mother and father wanted her to win.

“When I felt nervous at the Hippodrome, it steadied me to think of these things,” she was quoted telling The Plain Dealer. “I just kind of gritted my teeth and made up my mind that I wouldn’t miss a word.”

It was only after Bolden died that her family realized her place in history. Going through a box of her belongings, Brown says, they found a newspaper clipping from The Plain Dealer relating the story of the Black mail carrier’s daughter who out-spelled hundreds of white kids.

After her stunning victory, Bolden was hailed by “a storm of applause” and congratulations from hundreds of people, including members of the team from New Orleans, according to Indiana’s South Bend Tribune.

Bolden’s story has only emerged in recent years

Cleveland hosted the spelling contest in June 1908, using it as a marquee event to kick off the National Education Association’s conference. The contest is recognized as the first nationwide spelling bee by Guinness World Records — which also notes Bolden’s role.

The famous Scripps National Spelling Bee, which began in 1925, held its finals this week. Bolden’s accomplishment drew renewed attention in 2021, when Zaila Avant-garde became the first African American to win the Scripps contest.

Bolden’s story then drew the interest of Babbel, the language-learning software company, which contacted Brown after researching his grandmother’s win.

“Her parents and friends helped her memorize words, and she read a newspaper each day to perfect her spelling,” said Malcolm Massey, a language expert at Babbel. “It’s a blueprint for today’s would-be Spelling Bee champions.”

The 1908 bee also became a magnet for racism

Marie Bolden knew prejudice well; in fact, it was one of the words contestants were asked to spell. Her spelling rivals included a team from New Orleans, a squad that nearly didn’t compete at all, as its segregationist leaders balked at the inclusion of a Black student.

New Orleans officials knew there was a chance that an integrated team might compete at the spelling bee. As NOLA.com has reported, when one school board member considered how the team might respond to such circumstances, he replied, “Go ahead and knock the n—– out.”

Of such sentiments, Brown says, “It’s like, holy crap, these are young kids. What are you doing?” He added, “It’s hard to fathom now, that people would be treated like that.”

After Bolden’s win, furious members of the school board of New Orleans voted to censure its superintendent, Warren Easton. As the Black newspaper The Seattle Republican reported, the board passed a resolution stating in part, “we deeply deplore and regret the unfortunate occurrence at Cleveland and the pitting of our children against a Negro.”

Weeks later, Black residents of New Orleans were set to host a spelling bee in Bolden’s honor, but the mayor ordered it canceled.

The treatment of Black people in the U.S. eventually prompted Bolden and her family to move to Canada, Brown said. That process started with his grandfather telling his father to fight for Canada in World War II, rather than for the U.S., “because they didn’t treat colored soldiers very well,” Brown said.

Brown, 68, currently lives just outside of Hamilton, Ontario. As for how his family now views Bolden, who died in 1981, Brown said his adult daughters, Jackie and Stacey, are “amazed at the strength of this great-grandmother of theirs.”

“I think there’s a great sense of pride in the fact that our family history is based on sacrifice and people being adventurous, and taking on a new life, and not letting things hold them back.”

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