One of the things I've been dying to see asI've built a Thinking Classroom in Mathematics this year is whether or not all the obvious benefits of the Building Thinking Classroom practices would translate into the currency of our educational time- test scores.
I teach in a very, very large U.S. school district, which means my students take not only the state-mandated end-of-grade standardized tests, but also district-wide standardized mid-terms and final exams in every subject each semester. These are tests that cover the standards the district prescribes for the first half and then full term, and they are tests that I can't see ahead of time. They are pretty important for the kids and for me. The results are used, in part, to determine what math course opportunities the students get for the following year, they count as a decent chunk of their final grade, and they're analyzed heavily by my school and district leaders to evaluate how I'm doing as a teacher, too. My students did really, really well on their first semester exams. Beyond-my-wildest-dreams well, to be honest. We just reached the second semester mid-terms, so I thought I'd provide another standardized test results update. Was the first semester final just a flash-in-the-pan? It wasn't. Though it wasn't quite as spectacular this time, either. As I learn new classes and contents, I set four tiers of goals to reach:
For the first semester final, we hit level 4. I've never seen anything like it outside of when I taught sections of exclusively gifted students. For the recent 2nd semester mid-term, we exceeded level 3, but didn't make it to level 4. I've taught for a long time, and I take standardized test scores very seriously, so I had a pretty good gauge of how a given group of students would do on these tests in my traditional, mimicking classroom. With this particular group of kids at this particular time, I think they would have exceeded level 2, but not reached level 3 under normal circumstances. That's a guess, of course, but a pretty educated one based on a lot of experience. So just like first semester, I believe Building A Thinking Classroom in Mathematics moved us up a level in my test score tiers. Pretty great! 
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About MeI'm an award-winning teacher in the Atlanta area with experience teaching at every level from elementary school to college. Categories
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