Success StoriesYour Improving Student Learning book and improvement concepts have done more for this district than any improvement initiative over the past 20 years! Thanks for everything. Jim Barentine, Superintendent Hi Lee, I teach General Chemistry, and my students really look forward to the quizzes. Each week they get excited about knowing more. ALL of my students are getting excited about concepts we haven’t even learned about yet. When they see a question on a concept hasn’t been covered, they ask questions and want to know more. It is a phenomenal experience. These are the kids that tend to start off the year with “I hate science, and I KNOW I will hate Chemistry.” NOW they are having fun and looking forward to learning. Thank you for sharing your strategies. I would be happy to share everything I have developed with anyone who would like to use it. Have a great Thanksgiving! Cristine Hellerstein
John Marshall
High School Oklahoma City -
Giving Students with learning disabilities a sense of accomplishment and academic competition through From LtoJ® process. Today I have a 70% mandatory grade level on all exams. If students don’t make a 70% on an exam, they must attend required tutoring and take the test over until a 70% is achieved. In addition, all exams test previously tested information. They are not allowed to forget information because that would only make their next exams grade lower. If students don’t achieve this level on all exams they are given a no credit on their report card until this expectation level is achieved. I also keep graphs and charts on student progress posted in my classroom. Students get a sense of accomplishment and academic competition with these visual reminders. My students are not accustomed to this approach to academics. Shelly Campbell Top of page Jenks, Oklahoma, Public Schools District's implementation of the From LtoJ® process. The Jenks Public Schools District has been on its Quality journey since 1995. Since that time, the focus has been on continuous improvement and exceeding our all time best! The district has a comprehensive Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment, and Professional Development Model in place. Since 1997 the district has used a systematic process for the development of a consistent, coherent district-wide curricula. The curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development are all integrally linked for support of a systems approach to teaching and learning. Dr. Lee Jenkins has been working with the teachers and administrators since 2001 in regard to the implementation and facilitation of the L to J process that is a component of our district-wide assessment practices. Because of Dr. Jenkins’ work with us, the district no longer gives students permission to forget! Beginning with mathematics in the 2004-2005 school year, the district implemented the L to J essential elements process. The same process was implemented for language arts/English during the 2005-2006 school year. The essential elements are based on the standards and objectives of the PK-12 district mathematics curriculum and the PK-12 district language arts/English curriculum. A district committee comprised of teachers, administrators, and parents developed both curricula. Every other week the students take a quiz compiled of randomly selected mathematics information and process items. During the alternating weeks, the students take a quiz based on language arts/English items. Seventy percent of the items are from the current grade level curricula and 30% are from the curricula of the two previous grade levels. This process eliminates the necessity to cram as well as increasing the opportunities for students to remember what they have learned. The students track their progress via a run chart. The teachers track individual student and class progress via run charts, histograms, and/or scattergrams. The process will continue to be implemented throughout the next four years to include science, social studies/history, art, music, physical education, reading/literature, and world language. Tracking student data has given students, teachers, and administrators the opportunity to review and analyze patterns and trends regarding student learning. It is evidence for teachers and administrators when a celebration is in order or when instruction needs to be modified for improved learning. It no longer matters if we have taught a concept or skill; what is paramount is whether or not the student has learned it! Diane M. Bosworth, Ed.D. Lee, Professionally, Dr. Jenkins, 2-3-06 I am writing this letter to you in thankfulness and testimony to the suggestion that you had given me at the New Mexico School Administrators Conference. You gave me the suggestion of posting our school- wide L to J data in front of everyone in our school, so we did and this is how we are doing at Valencia Elementary School. First our Social Studies and Science Goal Teams at our school came up with utilizing L to J for our assessment of both subject areas. After planning and the suggestion by Dr. Jenkins we have posted each grade level weekly quiz total and then posted a schoolwide quiz total each week for all to see. Our process for L to J quizzing our students weekly was a directive given to all our teachers by the teacher-led Goal Teams. So weekly on our school server, teachers post both science and social studies quiz classroom results in our L to J folder. I in turn post those results on a chart in the hallway so students can see the steady improvement they are making throughout the year. We also do a daily L to J question during morning announcements that come from our L to J essential facts in our school planners. So I give a quiz question everyday, and students have the opportunity to answer the question by turning in their name and class with the correct answer to my L to J bowl. So every morning I give the credit to the one who answered it correctly over the morning announcements and then give that day’s quiz question. This process has allowed for at least 200 quiz questions during our school year, which in turn gives the students the opportunity to hear the words or phases through many different modalities. The use of L to J is directed by my Goal Teams and it has turned out to be very successful over the last couple years. This is our first time tracking the overall school data and it seems to be taking off with the students. If you have any questions or comments about how L to J can work for you feel free to email me at tmorris@portalesschools.com. Thank you Dr. Jenkins for your continued support and help. Todd Morris Dr. Jenkins, I attended the L to J seminar in Greenville, South Carolina. I took back many ideas from your seminar. I noticed that my class was having a huge problem with attendance and tardies. Since October, we have been tracking them both. We graph them each morning. At the end of the month, I create an Excel graph with the data. I am happy to tell you that I now have much better attendance and tardies have greatly improved. January was a little hard because of the flu. But, overall it has worked! We're still tracking it and I hope we continue to see improvement! Thank you for wonderful ideas that I can actually use in my classroom. Melinda Hensley
This was my second time through the seminar and I noticed and learned a whole new set of concepts and ideas above what I learned the first time.I also felt good about reviewing what I had learned from the first time. I love that you “walk the walk” and use the techniques as you teach them. Thank you so much; I am a huge fan. I have plenty of “experience” after 26 years, I have had excellent mentors, I’ve self-analyzed what I do through the National Board Certification process, yet I have learned so much from this process that impacts my students’ learning as much, if not more than anything else. Thank you again. Lorraine Burke,
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