Impacting Achievement
By Mary Ellen Bafumo

Have you been hearing the words "research-based" a lot lately? Educational research is making headlines, but most findings are not new. What's new? Today we know empirically what effective teachers know intuitively – which factors at the teaching level most impact student achievement.

Actually, factors at the school, teacher and student level all impact learning, but teachers are key to student achievement. According to Robert J. Marzano in his important book, What Works in Schools: Translating Research into Action (ASCD, 2003) the following three vital teacher factors make a measurable difference in achievement:

• instructional strategies
• classroom management
• classroom curriculum design

Instructional strategies
If you've ever been numbed by a talking head at an in-service, you can appreciate the critical nature of the processes used to convey learning. Marzano and his associates identified nine categories of instructional strategies that measurably affect student achievement:

• identifying similarities and differences
• summarizing and note-taking
• reinforcing effort and providing recognition
• homework and practice
• using graphics to convey content
• cooperative learning
• setting objectives and providing feedback
• generating and testing hypotheses
• questions, cues and advance organizers

How many of these strategies are you already using? How often do you use them? Can you focus on one or two and incorporate them on a daily basis?

Classroom management
Classroom learning requires social interaction, but there is an art to maintaining the required balance between useful levels of interaction and distracting activity. Here's what Marzano's research demonstrates about effective classroom management.

• There are established rules and procedures with consistent follow-up. Expectations around classroom behavior and activities are defined. There are consistently applied sanctions for non-compliance.
• Teacher-student relationships demonstrate a workable balance between dominance and cooperation on the part of the teacher. Teacher dominance is in the domain of responsibility for instructional preparation and delivery, while cooperation is guiding, supporting and being concerned about all students.

Classroom curriculum design
Not every teacher is a curriculum development expert, but every teacher can implement simple steps concerning classroom curriculum that can increase student learning.

• Clearly identify significant declarative and procedural knowledge on which students must focus – versus non-critical information.
• Present new content several times using different strategies to reach students with various learning styles.
• Identify the skills and processes that require mastery – students focus on these rather than trying to attain fluency in everything presented.
• Present content in identifiable categories – cluster content to make it easier to learn. "Conflict" is a category for clustering warfare from the American Revolution through Iraq in teaching history.
• Use problem-solving, decision-making and high level tasks to engage students and enhance understanding.

Create your own study group for professional development around these ideas. Focus on one of the three teacher categories at a time. Try to implement the new ideas. Keep a journal of experiences and share them in the study group. You'll see the difference in student achievement.

Mary Ellen Bafumo is Executive Director of Professional Development in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District.

February, 2005, Vol.35, No.5