What Works in Schools

What Works in Schools: Translating Research into Action by Robert Marzano c2003 ASCD

What Works in Schools uses 35 years of research to organize 3 level factors that impact student achievement: school-level, teacher-level, and student-level.

School-Level Factors
1. Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum (identify essential content, organize, sequence)
2. Challenging Goals and Effective Feedback (high expectations for all students; communicate learning goals; timely, descriptive feedback)
3. Parent and Community Involvement
4. Safe and Orderly Environment (school wide rules and procedures with consequences)
5. Collegiality and Professionalism (correlates to school climate and student achievement)

Teacher-Level Factors
6. Instructional Strategies
7. Classroom Management
8. Classroom Curriculum Design (sequencing and pacing of content – to facilitate construction of meaning)

Student-Level Factors
9. Home Environment (much stronger relationship with student achievement than do household income, occupation, and education)
10. Learned Intelligence and Background Knowledge
11. Student Motivation

It is very clear that the teacher is key to improving student achievement: “54 percentile point discrepancy in achievement gains between students with least effective teachers versus those with most effective teachers – 29 percentage points versus 83 percentage points respectively over three years” (p. 73). Administrators need to be the instructional leaders who respect and trust teachers as they facilitate implementation of the reforms. With data being the driving force to improving student achievement, administrators need to work with teachers to, as discussed in chapter 17: 1. Take pulse of school; 2. Identify and implement intervention; 3. Examine effect on achievement; 4. Move to next issue.

Marzano reminds us teachers need to see how the PD learned can be applicable to their subject disciplines if it is to make its way into classrooms. When I was a classroom teacher, I viewed my classroom as a “laboratory” where I conducted action research. I remember investigating the impact of using reading-to-learn and writing-to-learn strategies on student achievement and the affective. Two years ago, I was involved with a small group of teachers at my former school in a ministry project on Assessment for Learning, with culminated in a video being produced. The education officers provided monthly workshops after which one of them observed the class during implementation, followed by feedback. This repeated itself on a monthly basis and allowed for much growth and reflection. Through the process, my confidence grew as my assessment was now driving the instruction. Such learning became lasting in all my classes as I wrote learning goals on the chalkboard, co-constructed the success criteria with the class, provided descriptive feedback, and students self and peer assessed. The impact on student achievement was significant.

We are reminded: “If a school is willing to do all that it can at the school level and if all teachers in the school are at least competent in their profession, the school can have a tremendous impact on student achievement” (p. 75). It is focusing on teachers and their instructional practices that makes all the difference. Marzano’s 9 are: Identifying similarities and differences; summarizing and note taking; reinforcing effort and providing recognition; homework and practice; non-linguistic representations (mental images, pictures, graphic organizers, act out, physical models); cooperative learning; setting objectives and providing feedback; generating and testing hypotheses; questions/cues/advance organizers. Interesting data provided: “schools generally account for only 20 percent of the variance in student achievement and that student background characteristics account for the other 80 percent...the negative effects of these factors can be overcome” (p. 123, 125).

* The videos are available on the Ontario Ministry of Education web site: http://www.edugains.ca/newsite/aer2/aervideo/planningassessmentwithinstruction.html