Maintaining High Student Achievement While Increasing Student Growth

Sharyn Briscoe • Cahn Fellow 2019

Mary Lin Elementary School is known throughout our district as a top-tier school with consistently high student achievement. However, with a shift from focusing on achievement to focusing on growth, we recognized that while our students were achieving at high levels year after year, their levels of individual student growth were not on par with their achievement levels. Our project is about empowering teachers with the resources they need to not only ensure that their students achieve academically – but also that their students are growing throughout the year, regardless of their starting level of achievement. As we hold teachers accountable for individual student growth percentiles, we strive to improve pedagogy, increase teacher efficacy, and increase the effectiveness of classroom instruction for all students. By providing intentionally chosen professional development opportunities to help teachers plan for meaningful instructional experiences that engage learners according to their unique needs, we were able to focus on a few high-leverage areas to quickly see gains in student growth – using peer observations to strategically build upon teacher strengths and build collective awareness of best practices in academic ownership, allowing teachers the space to vulnerably attack their internal biases, and providing a roadmap for meaningful reflection that leads to a change in mindset.