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Leading Adolescents
to Mastery
The ABCl approach leaves no assignment undone,
no failure unchallenged, and no middle schooler unengaged.
Sue Kenkel, Steve Hoelscher, and Teri West
A Bendle Middle School
student celebrates
"No Incompletes."
O
n a crisp, sunny fall day at Bendle Middle School in
Burton, Michigan, in 2003, with the wind shuffling red
and gold leaves across the schoolyard, the students were
talking about the new ABCI grading policy: "I've never
gotten anything higher than a D in any class. How am I
going to get at least a C on every assignment?" "I heard Ms. Kenkel
talking about Saturday school! I'm not coming to school on the
weekends!"
Bendle was less than two months into the ABCI program. Under
this approach, students were required to achieve a C or higher on
every assignment. If a student's work was judged to be less than C
quality, that student received an I for Incomplete—and teachers gave
the student as much time and support as needed to complete the
work and get a higher grade.
Parent and student reaction to the policy was heating up. A typical
parent response came from the mother of 7th grader Conner.
Conner had developed some poor study habits and had barely
passed 6th grade. His mom, a single parent, worked the
night shift at the local manufacturing plant. One afternoon, she blew into the principal's office at Bendle and,
with fire in her eyes, shouted.
Look, don't you understand that it takes everything I have
just to get my kid up in the morning and get him here for
school? He was doing just fine before this ABCI stuff.
Isn't a D supposed to be passing? That's all he needs to
get. Just give him the Ds,
The season was about to change, and the culture of a
the school was changing drastically, too.
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Cracking Down on Complacency
\
Bendle Middle School has a student body
numbering 320; 97 percent of the students are
white, and close to 60 percent qualify for free or
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t
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33
Ths avsraqs mathsmatics SCQU stors for both itii and
8th oradsrs on thi National Sssfssmsnt of Educational Proorsss
ms hiohsr in 2003 than in all previous H4EP asssssmsnts.
ivn: Kcv Nulkmal Indkatois ojWdl-Bdn^, 2005
reduced-price lunch. Many of the
students live in rented two-bedroom
bungalows; many are being reared by a
single parent or another relative. Some
parents have not earned a high school
diploma themselves. Like all parents,
they want the best for their children
and do all they can to support them;
nonetheless, the home culture of many
Bendle students is one of low academic
expectations.
Bendle's teachers realized that the
school needed to make changes when
they reviewed final grades for the
2002-2003 school year. The data told
the story: 29 percent of final grades for
the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade classes were
Ds and Es. Staff members felt uncomfortable with these results and with
students repeatedly not turning in
homework. They believed that Bendle
students were just as intelligent as more
successful students, but that many of
them came to the "game" with limited
prior knowledge and support at home.
Faculty members knew that they
needed a new strategy to raise expectations and promote success among these
at-risk adolescents.
In summer 2003, using a Comprehensive School Refortn grant, Bendle
staff members participated in a workshop facilitated by one of this article's
authors, regional director of Michigan
Middle Start Steve Hoelscher. Middle
Start IS a comprehensive school
improvement program for middle
schools and for schools with middle
grades. ABCl is a two-year component
of Middle Start that schools can also
implement separately
After much discussion of how to
raise overall student achievement at
34
EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP/APRIL 2006
Bendle, Steve and his team of Middle
Start coaches recommended that the
school consider implementing the ABCI
approach, which they had seen spur
tremendous results. The teachers had
many objections, but no one could
refute the point raised by the following
question: "If an assignment is worth
doing, then why isn't it worth doing
well?"
Getting Teachers to "Aha!"
ABCI is borrowed and adapted from
mastery learning theory, which was
developed and promulgated by
Benjamin Bloom (1968, 1971). More
recently, the work of William Glasser
and the Quality Schools movement
(1990) has influenced the development
of ABCI. ABCI embraces Blooms
concept that given enough time and
quality instruction, all students can
leam. With this approach, teachers
insist that students complete every
assignment to high standards.
Schools that adopt ABCI receive
off-site training in implementing the
program throughout the school year,
including assistance with developing
planning and communications strategies, coming to a consensus on what
high-quality assignments look like, and
networking with other ABCI schools.
There is a financial cost to the program,
and carrying it through takes enormous
commitment and willingness to change.
The leadership team at Bendle made
the commitment that all teachers would
adopt ABCI; despite some doubts, all
staff members agreed to move forward
because of the irrefutable data showing
that the school's current methods were
not successful with many students.
Bendle staff members participated in
targeted training sessions that prepared
them to manage and implement the
ABCI program. Middle Start also
provided an instructional coach who
met weekly with the principal, the
instructional teams, the building leadership team, and individual staff
members.
But change can take time, and not all
teachers valued ABCI right away. One
veteran teacher came to the principal
with tears in her eyes and a stack of
papers a foot high. "I can't do this," she
said. "I've been up until midnight
almost every night this week. I've been
spending my weekends grading these
papers."
"What's different?" the principal
asked.
"It used to be that only 40-50
percent of my students did the work,
but now with this new policy, 90
percent of my classes are completing
their assignments," she replied. As she
spoke, this teacher had an "aha!"
moment. She suddenly rea]i2ed that
she needed to reflect on what her
students most needed to know and be
able to do, to look at the assignments
she was giving, and to ask herself
which ones were truly worth assigning.
To bring more teachers to such "aha!"
moments, throughout the 2003-2004
school year, the Middle Start coach
facilitated staff reflections and dialogues
that led teachers to analyze what they
had been expecting from students and
whether or not their expectations
addressed the essential learning and
skills that students needed to master. A
goal of ABCI is to make teachers more
thoughtful about the assignments they
give and more consistent with how
they grade those assignments both
within the classroom and across classes.
These reflection sessions also guided
teachers to look carefully at whether
their instructional practices and assessments were appropriate for young
adolescents—and to change practices
to draw adolescents more fully into
learning. Most teachers practiced the
"stand and deliver" mode of instruction
and used traditional forms of assessments, such as tests, worksheets, and
individually graded assignments. These
practices are not developmentally
appropriate for young adolescents, who
prefer active explorations, clear
purposes, and opportunities to try out
new concepts and skills in realistic
settings. Students this age are also
beginning to think about their position
and potential in the world. Because
middle schoo! is the point at which
many youth drop out, mentally if not
physically, it's crucial that schools
provide a curriculum that is socially
significant and relevant to young
adolescents.
Changing How Teachers Operate
From Examining Beliefs . . .
Bendle's reflection discussions required
teachers to examine their beliefs as well
as their practices. Teachers looked at
whether they believed that all middle
school students can leam, regardless of
home life, socioeconomic status, race,
gender, ability, or any other characteristics. They questioned what was
preventing many of Bendle's students
from achieving. In many cases, it came
down to a question of time and
support. One teacher reflected.
Do we believe that at a certain point in
time, the student should demonstrate
mastery of what he knows, so that if he
hasn't mastered it on that date, he either
fails or gets a below-average grade?
The teachers realized that defending
this practice was a way of sorting
students and keeping those with a
history of failure from succeeding. But
if they began to expect all students to
produce work that met high standards,
then students who were just getting by
or failing would be held accountable
for measuring up.
. . . To Changing Practice
During their first year implementing
ABCI, teachers at Bendle began to
revisit and reteach lessons that many
students clearly had not mastered. They
became more comfortable modifying
assignments to meet an individual
student at his or her skill level. Three
years into the approach, Bendle
to present their own positions on the
issue orally, in writing, or through a
PowerPoint presentation. The teacher
paired struggling readers with stronger
readers to read articles together out loud
and set up students to serve as peer
reviewers for those who needed assistance in writing.
Teachers have made their practice
public; Instructional teams are talking
to one another about instructional practices and intervention ideas. ABCI has
also spurred teachers to reflect together
on how they deliver lessons and assign
work. Because they know that students
Students' expectations for what they can
accomplish have increased dramatically.
teachers now use instructional practices
that engage young adolescents in the
learning process. They modify lessons
as necessary to meet the needs of all
students, not just the special education
students.
For example, in an 8th grade
language arts class studying capital
punishment, students were required to
read newspaper and magazine articles
covering both sides of the argument and
may have to redo an assignment several
times, teachers think more deeply about
how a given assignment aligns with
standards and what the grading rubric
should be for the assignment. Together,
teachers look at student work to
develop rubrics. As a result, teachers
give more project-based assignments
and fewer worksheets or busywork. The
focus is on quality assignments rather
than on rote learning.
AS5OC1AT1ON FOR SUPERVISION AND CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT
35
Accommodations
and Challenges
Bringing the ABCI approach to a middle
school presents significant challenges
and requires a leap of faith among
school staff members and administrators. One challenge for Bendle has been
the plethora of accommodations the
school has made to provide the
supports needed for all students to meet
the newly raised expectations. These
accommodations include an extended
school day; an extended school year; a
mandatory Saturday school; a homework club; tutoring; a "responsibility
room" (a room within the school used
as an alternative to suspension for
disruptive students); and changes to
extracurricular policies.
Drastic changes to a school culture
demand sensitive, perceptive leadership. Some teachers will try to continue
doing things the old way, so the principal needs to monitor whether these
teachers are reaching the goal of having
higher expectations and promoting
engaged teaming in their classrooms.
Look at grade distributions and lesson
plans. What kinds of work are teachers
assigning? What kinds of grades are
students receiving? How many students
are getting Incompletes? Discuss with
teachers how they are carrying out
change. The reality is that not everyone
in the school will buy into the new
system. Teachers who have been giving
students the same ditto sheets for years
and believe that it's too bad if a student
doesn't get it the first time are teachers
who won't make the change.
It takes time for students and parents
to realize that the schoo! is doing business differently Expect a huge learning
curve and a transition period, but
persist. ABCI coaches should guide and
support teachers who need to develop
new pedagogy. When a teacher shows
reluctance to set high expectations or
change instructional practice, that
teacher and the principal should have a
conference about why students need to
be held accountable for high-quality
work. Under the ABCI approach,
36
EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP/APRIL 2006
teachers who seem unwilling to put
effort into creating a climate consistent
with ABCl's philosophy are required to
develop a plan that shows how they can
ensure all students' success. After each
classroom assessment, the teacher
reviews students' work and progress
with the principal. The school administration may need to take disciplinary
action with teachers who remain
unwilling or unable to conform to the
new policies. The ABCI philosophy,
however, never recommends transferring a teacher who is not effectively
holding students to high standards.
The ABCI approach cannot succeed
without the involvement of everyone at
the school—teachers, support staff,
guidance counselors, parents, students.
These days, it is common at Bendle to
see students congratulating one another
on "no Incompletes" with high fives.
These adolescents are realizing a success
they have never experienced before.
Students frequently check their grades,
stay after school for extra assistance, and
celebrate when an assignment or project,
completed to quality standards, is raised
from an Incomplete to a letter grade.
Their expectations for what they can
accomplish have increased dramatically
Teachers who have implemented
ABCI in their classrooms have reported
a drop in principal referrals and other
discipline measures as well as increased
student engagement in classroom activities. Students are more engaged not
only because teachers hold them
For many students, the ABCI program
represents the first time in their education
when teachers haven't let them squeak by.
and administrators. To make the change
work at Bendle, we needed local businesses to provide tutors for the Saturday
school, students to help one another
after school or during lunch, teachers to
give extra time, and parents to drive
their students to school on Saturday
and support them during homework
time.
Seeing Positive Effects
Student Achievement and Beha\ior
Preliminary data indicate that adopting
the ABCI approach at Bendle may have
improved students' performance on
state assessments. In academic year
2004-2005, for the first time in three
years, Bendle made the adequate yearly
progress required by NCLB. Student
achievement scores on the Michigan
Educational Assessment Program
(MEAP) improved 11.7 percent in
reading, 5 percent in English language
arts, 2 percent in science, and 6 percent
in social studies.
accountable, but also because their
classrooms are more student-centered
places where instruction is interactive,
cooperative, and cross-disciplinary—
in short, appropriate for young
adolescents.
Student and Parent Reactions
Bendle students have given ABCI mixed
reviews. Most students like the policy,
particularly those who have traditionally
fallen behind. Eor many students, this
policy represents the first time in their
education when teachers haven't let
them squeak by Finally, teachers not
only expect these students to achieve at
a higher level but also provide the
support and guidance required to help
students do so. As one student said, "It's
so much better for me to stay after
school to get help with my work. It's
hectic at home, so I can't get much
done." On the other hand, students who
have traditionally received high grades,
even when they didn't complete all the
work, have been less likely to embrace
the new policy.
Parent involvement at Bendle has
increased. Parents now frequently call,
e-mail, and come in to check on student
grades, which are posted in the classroom weekly Parents have higher
expectations of what their children can
accomplish. As one parent said, "My
son has never achieved grades like this!
His report card is hanging on the
refrigerator!"
Doing Whatever It Takes
The National Forum to Accelerate
Middle-Grades Reform has said middle
schools should pro\ide an academically
excellent, developmentally appropriate,
and equitable education for all young
adolescents (1997). For middle schools
that believe this is a charge worth
accepting, the ABCI approach is an
excellent start to matching beliefs with
practice. The grading policy challenges
At Bendle Middle
School, all students
are expected to
achieve, whatever
it takes.
middle school students to meet higher
expectations; the training, structured
reflections, and coaching provide
teachers with essential supports and
structures so that they can nurture
achievement at high levels for all
students.
After three years of implementation,
ABCI has changed Bendle's school culture
from one in which students, parents, and
staff alike had become complacent and
accepting of failing grades to one in
which all students are expected to
achieve, whatever it takes. 13
References
Bloom, B. (1968). Learning for mastery.
Evaluation Comment, 1(2), 1-5.
Bloom, B. (1971). Mastery learning. New
York: Holt. Rlnehan & Winston.
Glasser, W. (1990). The qua/ity school. New
York: Perennial Library.
National Forum to Accelerate MiddleGrades Reform. (1997). Vision statement.
Available: www.mgforum.or^aboui
/vision, asp
Sue Kenkel is Principal of Davison Alternative Education Middle and High
School Programs in Davison, Michigan,
and former Principal of Bendie Middle
School; skenkei@davison.k12.mi.us.
Steve Hoelscher is Regional Director of
Michigan Middle Start: 248-249-3265;
stevehoel@sbcg!obal.net. Teri West is
Program Officer for middle school
improvement programs at the Academy
for Educational Development; 212-3674595; twest@aed.org.
For teachers navigating these years of emotional tumult, physical change, and
growing autonomy with their students can be both poignant and exasperating.
Here are some resources t h a t can help guide you through the tv^een times:
s
Naked Reading
Writing Through the Tween Years
Fair Isn't Always Equal
Uncovering What Tweens Need
to Become Lifelong Readers
Supporting Writers, Grades 3-6
Teri Lesesne
Bruce Morgan
Assessing and Grading In the
Differentiated Classroom
March 2006 «128 pp/paper4EL-04164 $16.00
2004 • 1 6 0 pp/p3per«EL-04064 $15.00
Rick Wormeli
March 2006 ^ 2 4 0 pp/paper»EL-0424« E23.00
Stenhouse Publishers • ( 8 0 0 ) 988-9812 •www.stenhouse.com4 P.O. Box 11020, Portlatid, ME 04104-7020
ASSOCIATION FOR SUPERVISION AND CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT
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