TVAAS High Achieving Teacher Survey

WilliamBlountHigh School

Each year when TVAAS reports are received, there are a number of WBHS teachers who consistently show gain in the achievement of their students.

Since these teachers have had consistently strong results on TVAAS reporting in math, English, and biology, we asked them about their teaching and their approach to increasing student achievement. Basic, university, and honors classes were represented in the data. The teachers were in the 80th percentile or above in Tennessee and all had well above average effect scores.

  • Average class size was 28, with the smallest class being 21 and the largest being 35.
  • These teachers expressed a high degree of sense of control over their students’ achievement. On a scale of 1-10 (1 being almost no control and 10 being total control), they averaged 7.5 in the degree to which they felt they as teachers influenced student achievement.
  • The teachers cited the following challenges they faced in helping students succeed: apathy, lack of parental support, refusal to write, varying instruction to fit different learning styles, cultural expectations against homework, negative attitudes, inconsistent or below-par knowledge and ability developed in middle school, absenteeism, and severe personal or family problems that impact their schoolwork.
  • All teachers agreed that classroom management was a vital component to high student achievement.
  • Buy in, teamwork, and a positive identity as a class has a huge impact on students’ willingness to work hard to achieve.
  • If the teacher can’t keep the kids focused and on task, they don’t learn. The successful teacher uses use proximity and lots of walking around and interacting. This is not a job where doing lots of sitting down is going to be effective. The teacher has to be up and among them, watching, encouraging, coaching.
  • It is important toemphasize courtesy and respect— show it to students and expect it in return. Make a real effort to communicate my belief in them and encourage and reward effort and improvement.
  • Having meaningful learning tasks for students to do and teaching bell to bell is of great importance. There should be no wasted minutes.
  • It is vital for the teacher to have clear expectations that are explained up front and consistently enforced. Sometimes the teacher will have to fight some battles up front, but that lets the students know that the class room management style is designed for everyone’s benefit and that it will be fairly and consistently applied.
  • It is important to give students attention and respect. In most cases, that is how you win them over. If you win them over, they will work for you and learn.
  • Use firm and consistent discipline underpinned with respect and understanding

Aside from classroom management, the teachers surveyed identified the following factors as crucial to their success in student achievement:

  • Identifying the standards for students—writing them on the board, including them on class work, giving students a copy to keep in their notebooks. Explaining for students exactly what they were supposed to learn and why that information is relevant to their lives and/or future learning.
  • Constant assessment—being aware of which students are meeting the standards and which are not, then being willing to re-teach in a different way when necessary. Make sure they know the material before you move on.
  • Competition between classes—keeping a running class average on quizzes and tests and rewarding the class which achieves the highest scores.
  • Require the students to teach the concept to the teacher. If they understand it well enough to teach it, they know it.
  • Numerous practice tests
  • Open note test, review, then closed note test focusing on questions with the same format and content as the Gateway or EOC.
  • Teaching students how to take and use good notes.
  • Projects that allow for hands-on application of standards.
  • Pre-and post-tests for all units, and concept maps
  • Knowing the students’ expected score before the course begins—several teachers access TVAAS data from the restricted website and make note of each student’s predicted score to allow for monitoring throughout the term. Do not focus on students passing the test; focus on their achieving as much as they are capable of learning.
  • Being positive and confident, and communicate constant belief in students.
  • Recognize and reward effort.
  • Design engaging and relevant lessons.
  • Use the text to optimum advantage; don’t feel obligated to plod through it in order if it does not meet your goals. Be willing to create your own materials when needed and don’t be tied too rigidly to the text.
  • Tie the subject matter to real life or students’ interests.
  • Use current events, youtube, or other media to tie your subject matter to the real world.
  • Use a team concept to unite the class in working toward a goal—everyone is working to achieve the goal of doing as well as possible.
  • Repetition, repetition, repetition.
  • Continual review of previously learned basics
  • 3-4 days of review prior to the test
  • Students must know you care and are willing to work hard to help them achieve. They won’t focus on the goal and consider it important if you present it as a meaningless hoop they have to jump through.
  • High expectations. No wasted minutes.
  • Incorporate different learning styles and intelligences into lessons when possible, but keep the focus on the standards—various approaches don’t mean anything if they don’t help students learn the material.
  • Have high standards and stick to them.

According to the teachers surveyed, the following approaches were found to be ineffective.

  • Over-emphasis on literature, at the expense of writing and grammar
  • Allowing students to read aloud in class
  • Writing for its own sake
  • Inconsistent classroom management
  • Failure to develop rapport with students
  • Lessons that are predictable and un-engaging—answering questions at the ends of chapters
  • Delayed or non-existent feedback
  • Ridicule, bullying, or being overly confrontational with students
  • Correcting students from across the room, embarrassing or belittling them in front of peers
  • Failure to assess frequently enough; not using results from assessment to inform teaching
  • Off-task behavior
  • Free days or downtime given as rewards
  • Reliance on worksheets or work that students consider to be “busy work”