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Re: Is this OT?



John Clement is right when he posted (on Sept. 5), "While it may be
possible that such things as uniforms can defuse some problems, and
residential schools may enhance performance slightly, research based
curricula can have such a large effect that other factors pale by
comparison."

It works even in urban schools (ref. Rick Tarara's post on Sept. 5). Even
with boys who are ripe to become gang members.

Our Modeling Instruction Program has evidence. Two young teachers in our
program taught a highly successful integrated algebra and physics course to
9th grade Hispanic and black students in 2000-01 in an impoverished area of
urban Phoenix. They used Modeling Instruction, the only high school science
program designated exemplary by the U.S. Department of Education, and they
had the kids for 3 hours each day, all year long. Modeling Instruction and
extended daily time were the two most important factors in their success,
the teachers told me.

Their students, who tested into regular algebra, scored higher in the
district's end of year achievement test than the honors 9th grade class,
which was taught traditionally. On the Force Concept Inventory (FCI), at
the end of the year they scored as well as high school seniors in honors
physics courses that use Modeling Instruction. Their class average score
was BETTER than that of ASU students in calculus-based physics (63%) who
are taught traditionally.


These excellent results could be repeated in other impoverished urban
schools. Necessary school district support includes the following:
1) Provide a 3-hour daily block for 2 courses for the entire year: a
physics course that is team-taught, followed by an algebra course taught by
one teacher. Up to 30 students can be in the class.
2) Select disadvantaged students. Our teachers targetted serious-minded
Hispanic and black students whose parents had not gone to college and whose
incoming test scores showed that they should take regular algebra, as
opposed to honors algebra or geometry, the highest level course for 9th
graders.
3) Provide classroom technology: computers with MBL probes, or graphing
calculators with calculator-based rangers (CBRs) or calculator-based
laboratory systems (CBL-2's). (One computer lab station for every 3
students, or a minimum of one graphing calculator for every 2 students).


Our teachers started each unit with labs to show the NEED for math: math as
a language for the science that they did. The students studied density,
then motion (to introduce a linear mathematical model), Newton's laws, and,
in March and April they revisited motion (to introduce a quadratic model).
Geometry was included. "No distinction was made between math and science.
They complement each other, they're not two separate entities. You can't do
science without being proficient in the language of science, which is
math", said our teacher.

Our two teachers told me that Hispanic and black kids' lack of school
achievement is a family environment problem, not a cultural problem. Their
parents are getting by, surviving, without an education. There are no books
in the house, no quiet place to work at home, their parents can't help
them. "Put them in a good environment and they'll learn", he said. "The
extended time with them was important!" Also, the teachers made contact
with parents and enlisted their support.

Our teachers said that the kids felt special. They reminded students that
they were getting background knowledge that would prepare them for any
career, and that they were doing junior and senior level work. They had
high expectations of the kids.

The course included lots of dialogue; they forced kids to talk science.
They used a variety of methods: Socratic questioning, team presentations to
discuss and justify, circle whiteboarding.

When the students began the course, some weren't proficient in English. One
had come from Mexico only one month before entering the class; he spoke no
English. Several kids were bilingual; they helped him, and he had made
strides by the end of the year.

One student "was ripe to be a gang member". He scored 97% on the FCI
posttest and took junior-level math the next year, when he was a sophomore.

cheers,
Jane Jackson

Jane Jackson, Co-Director, Modeling Instruction Program
Box 871504, Dept.of Physics & Astronomy,ASU,Tempe,AZ 85287
480-965-8438/fax:965-7331 <http://modeling.asu.edu>
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is
our inability to understand the exponential function."
- Al Bartlett, Prof of Physics, Colorado State Univ