multiple forms of the competency
extracurricular staff members, and peers school now exceed 90 percent. When
exams to minimize testing irregularities. join the support efforts to ensure that
we ask students why they do the
Their workload did not necessarily
there are participants, players, and audi- homework, we get one of two answers:
increase; it just shifted to activities that
were more important than grading end-
less homework.
ence members at events.
The tutorials are open to all stu-
dents. Some come to prepare for an
( 1) You have to either do it now or
do it later; or ( 2) It helps you pass the
competency. Students see the link
At HSHMC, students who score
upcoming competency; others want to
between the practice work and their
below 70 percent have two weeks after
learn more to earn a higher grade. For
eventual performance; this awareness is
the date of the competency to take care example, Justin earned a 92 percent on important for college, where homework
of matters on their own. At the end of
his “New Deal” competency, which was is likely to be assigned but not collected
the two-week period, students who
a multiple-choice test. Not wanting an
or graded.
still have an incomplete are assigned
A-, he attended several tutorials even
In addition, overall grade point aver-
lunchtime and after-school tutorials.
though he had already completed all the ages (GPAs) increased from 2. 89 to
3. 36. The biggest gains came from students living in poverty (whose average
When practice work is part of the overall grade,
GPA increased from 2. 26 to 3. 12) and
from students with disabilities (whose
students don’t take risks, and teachers don’t get
valuable glimpses into their understanding.
average GPA increased from 1. 30 to
3.02). Although gaps still exist, they’re
closing. Now, all students are performing better.
Although we see increased under-
standing in all the work students
The school lengthened the lunch period practice work. He retook the compe-
complete, state test scores are another
to accommodate the lunchtime tutorial, tency several weeks later and earned a
indicator of student success. The pass
in which students receive individualized 96 percent, and his final grade reflected rate for the high school exit exam, a
or small-group instruction. Teachers
his new knowledge.
high-stakes test administered in 10th
work the 20-minute tutorial period
grade, is now 92 percent in both math
twice each week and then have a long
It Works!
and English. In 2010, 45 percent
lunch ( 48 minutes) the other three days. Our competency system has refined
of 11th graders scored proficient or
This is a cost-neutral way to increase
our intervention efforts. In most high
advanced on the California standards
intervention time.
schools, Response to Intervention
test in English, compared with only
The after-school tutorials involve
(RTI) efforts are not well coordinated
12 percent in 2008. In terms of com-
lead teachers who are compensated for
and tend to focus on English and
parison, HSHMC outperformed similar
their time as well as paid peer tutors
math, to the exclusion of other content schools in the state by 11 percent.
and paraprofessionals. The after-school areas. With competencies serving as a
Comments from an independent audit
tutorial provides students with time to
curriculum-based tool for monitoring
organized by the administration noted
complete practice work to be eligible for progress, the teachers at HSHMC are
that the school “outperforms all [local]
retaking a competency.
able to determine which students need
schools in the percentage of students at
Students can attend tutorials with
additional instruction and on which
or above proficiency in English language
any teacher they choose. If they have
standards. Most RTI efforts, not to
arts and math.”
not cleared their incomplete within
mention most grading systems, typically
nine weeks, they lose the privilege of
miss some students who have gaps in
Ready for College and Beyond
participating in extracurricular activities. their knowledge. With competencies—
Although the state assessments are
One of the interesting side effects of this and the need for students to pass all of
important, we didn’t develop our grad-
policy has been the attention paid to the them—teachers quickly identify specific ing system to beat the test. Rather, we
weekly incomplete list, which is distrib- student needs, which they can address
hoped to provide students with habits
uted schoolwide. As students approach in a timely fashion.
they could take with them to college.
six or seven weeks on the list, coaches,
Homework completion rates at the
One indication that we are
