Mastery Learning Policy Analysis

Education is a long-term investment. We, as students, work hard to acquire knowledge and to hone our skills so that we may use them one day. The effort we put into a single assignment should be considered as both for that specific assignment and for our rounding as complete, educated individuals. And with this mindset, students should be motivated even more to put more effort and hard work into academics, with the goal of bettering themselves for the future and advancing their prospects as individuals. And with this hard work and effort will come progress, and this progress should be reflected in the grading—not necessarily on individual assignments, but on the student’s education as a

Teaching is not merely about methods used and material presented in the classroom, but about shaping students’ lives to help them construct a firm foundation for a successful future. I desire to teach my students basic life skills as well as challenge them to set and reach their highest goals.

It is important for my students to understand and value learning goals in the classroom. At the start of every chapter students will be supplied an outline of what they are going to encounter in the upcoming weeks.

In order to project how our students will perform with our use of Marzano Instructional Frameworks, we first review data from our previous years’ Smarter Balanced Assessment, grades 9-12 and Measurement of Progress, grades

Originally the Standard Based Assessment exam was used from 2012 to 2014 in order to evaluate the students’ proficiency on content-based material ( ). Just last year a new testing method, the Alaska Measures of Progress testing in the areas of mathematics, reading, and writing was adopted ( ). The shift from the Standard Base Assessment to the Alaska Measure of Progress was the Department of Education desire to have students prepared for secondary education or work placement expectations set for in the statement. The Alaska Measure of Progress exam are drastically different in questioning, scoring, achievement definitions, and score parameters then the preceding testing assessment ( ) This lack of comparison leaves the educators in a glitch as they try to educate their students in content-based material without having reliable proficiency testing results. As of this writing the educator will only have the snapshot of last year’s results to direct, guide, and implement their teaching strategies to facilitate the learning process in the classroom. However these test results scores are presently being debated in open forum to the public to set cutoff scores for the four categories in which the student will show proficiency ( ) . So without adequate guidance the teacher is hampered in their efforts to educate a diverse

Look at the standards that have already been taught. Find the assessment data where students are excelling in mastery. What is happening in that classroom? Could the teacher come and model a lesson in your classroom?

Successful teaching occurs when the teacher is able to select the most efficient method for reaching out to each student’s individual style of learning and inspire students to rise to their highest potential. While the responsibilities of a teacher are extensive (as one can serve as a teacher, a friend, a counselor, a disciplinarian, an entertainer, a facilitator), I believe that students should play a big part in shaping own education as well.

Two instructional leadership actions our principal has taken is to work side by side teachers to develop a school-wide reading goal in accordance with our Student Improvement Plan and to develop and implement a tutoring period we call Core for low achieving students. Jason works many hours during each week reviewing student grades and moving struggling students in and out of Core or moving struggling students from one teacher’s Core to another teacher’s

It bears mentioning that I care a great deal about excellence in instruction. My pedagogical stance is based in the power of the narrative. Whether I am teaching multivariate statistics, persuasion, research design or social and behavioral attributes of public health—I approach it as though I have a story to tell. I want students to learn, of course, but I also want them to be inspired to be their “best self”. I firmly believe that students are our most valued asset. If students believe the school to be their “home” and the people within the school

As educators, we are responsible for enlightening, motivating, engaging and teaching our students. Indeed, this responsibility

The mission statement “to foster in our students a belief in their individual strengths, a love of learning, and a respect for self and others, all in a safe, positive, and caring environment” encompasses the belief all students are teachable. The principal embodied this mission statement, with shift

In “A Simple Alternative to Grading”, Glenda Potts of The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges claims that the current grading system creates many issues and added stress for all parties involved (students and teachers). In addition to this, she claims that a contract grading system would be a preferable alternative and gives numerous reasons to support this. The author emphasizes how the current grading system is subjective, wasteful of time, and stress inducing for both students and teachers. Because the current grading system is holistic, the author claims that it often makes unfair comparisons between papers of completely incomparable content. There are a lot of viable alternatives, but the author focuses on contract grading because that is the system that she has experience with in her classroom. In the contract grading system, clear guidelines are set and must either be met or missed with no room for uncertainty. Potts explains that this makes grading quicker for teachers and makes expectations for assignments more understandable and clear cut for students. The author mentions a few issues that higher-performing students had with obtaining their previously easily-earned A’s, but was able to overcome these issues by explaining the function of the system to the students. The author finishes by proclaiming that grades should not be about a letter, but about learning and retention.

In month 12, finally at the finish line and accomplished all the goals since month 1 of the Mastery course through learning creativity, research, and logical reasoning. However, these skills still apply within this course. The three takeaways from this course that I learned was ethics and moral reasoning, copyrighting, and creating the experience map.

My measurements of success are found in each and every student I teach. One of the most rewarding experiences I have had while student teaching, was watching a child’s face light up at the pivotal moment when they grasp a new concept or master a new skill. In fact, those “aha” moments are my motivators which feed my desire to look for better ways to ensure all students experience those same “aha” moments. As an effective teacher, I am determined and dedicatef to the continual process of researching, implementing, collecting and analyzing data to ensure I am improving upon the curriculum, instructional strategies, and assessment used in my classroom. Learning is a never-ending process. The better skilled I become as a teacher, the better the learning experience I can provide for my students. Therefore, the more I actively research, implement, and reflect, the greater the opportunity for giving my students the education they deserve and hopefully, the inspiration to pursue their own lifelong love of learning.

determining if teaching was effective and to determine how appropriate modifications and adaptations can be made to improve future instruction (Dreyer, 2014:7).