Four Characteristics of a Successful Student

I have been collecting a lot of data on which characteristics are related to higher test scores.  Some of them are surprising, but most of them are not.  (For those of you who are statistically or research minded, see my disclaimer at the bottom of this post)

1) Students who complete all notes before the day of the test do better on the test.

• Average test score(1) of students who completed all notes before the day of the test: 74%
• Average test score(1) of students who did not completed all notes before the day of the test: 63%

2) Students who complete all practice problems (assigned textbook problems) before the day of the test do better on the test.

• Average test score(1) of students who completed all practice problems before the day of the test: 77%
• Average test score(1) of students who did not completed all practice problems before the day of the test: 63%

3) Students who check and then correct their practice problems do better on the test:

• Average test score(2) of students who check and then correct practice problems: 76%
• Average test score(2) of students who check but don't correct practice problems: 65%
• Average test score(2) of students who don't check or correct practice problems: 66%

None of these have been suprising.  The next few may be interesting.

4) Successful students complete notes and practice problems for a section before moving onto the next section.

• Average test score(2) of students who complete notes and practice problems for a section before moving onto the next section: 75%
• Average test score(2) of students who complete all notes and then all practice problems: 66%
• Average test score(2) of students who follow some other sequence of work: 65%

The following don't show a significant difference in test scores:

• Amount of time that students spend outside of class on math
• Whether students did more practice problems, notes, or both during class.
• Whether students used my videos or used the textbook for notes.

Notes:
(1) Based on Chapters 2-9 of the 2012-2013 school years.  This data wast taken from my grade book.  The agerage test score for these tests is a 70%
(2) Based on Chapters 6 and 9 of the 2012-2013 school years.  These are the only chapters where this data was collected.  The average test score for these tests is a 71.5%

Statistical Disclaimer:
* These were all observational studies.  None of this research could show a cause and effect relationship.  Although I do encourage my students to do things that "successful students" do.

Overview of my Flipped Class

I have been doing a lot of data collection and data analysis this school year so I can see what works and what doesn't work.  "Data Driven Decisions" is a buzz word in my district.  In fact I think it is a buzz word in the entire Department of Defense.  Before I share my data, I want to explain some of the procedures, so you can see the context of my data.

Here is the activities that my high school Geometry students engage in:

• I have created videos that explain the content of each section.  Most are around 15 minutes.  These videos are similar to what I have taught in previous years to the entire class.  
• The thing that surprised me is it would take me around 45 to 60 minutes to get through this material with my class.  Much of the time was waiting for one or two students to finish their scrupulous notes.  (No wonder my students were bored!)
• Along with each section of notes are between 2 and 4 questions that are intended to be completed right after the notes.  
• But these aren't currently being used as I intended.  So I am thinking of doing something along the lines of a reflective summary.  Something similar to Crystal Kirch's WSQ idea.
• With each section there is a set of problems from the textbook that I call "Practice Problems."  Students are required to working on these problems until they are all correct.  When students complete a set of problems they are encouraged to check their answers in a packet located in the back of the room.  They are then encouraged to fix the problems they miss.
• With most chapters, students do a creative project.  These are almost always in a context outside of mathematics.

 Here are the classroom routines.

•  Students are encouraged to watch the videos at home and do the practice problems at school, but there is a lot of flexibility.  I tell the students that they should do their best to keep up with the recommended pace of the class.  If students want to watch notes during class, they can.  Our school has 1-1 student laptops and I have 7 student computers in my classroom.
• Each chapter has a first half quiz and a second half quiz.  Although I haven't used these quiz grades in my data analysis.  I have focused my data on what activities are related to higher test scores.
• All students take tests and quizzes on the same day, most take them at the same time.  If a student asks to take it later, I allow them to take it in the next day or two.
• If students don't pass the test, I request them to come to my room during seminar (a period of the day for students to work on school work and get help from teachers.)  We go over the test and then they retake it.
• If students still don't pass or they choose not to come see me during seminar, I don't hold them back.  I don't use a mastery system.
• They may correct their recent attempt, work with me on the material, and then retake the test at anytime.  This includes anytime during the year.

These are the basic elements.


Since I am describing my classroom routines, let me be honest and tell you what is working and what isn't working.  This is my first year flipping and I have made changes every few months.

What is working:

• Students are much more engaged during class.  This is my favorite part about this change.
• I am able to work one-on-one with many students.  Which I love!
• Students don't skip the hard math problems anymore.  I help them through it.  Individually, in groups, or their peers help them.
• Students are encouraged to go back and continue mastering past material instead of being told that they need to move on even though they failed.
• My students prefer the flipped model over their other math classes.  But there is a vocal minority who don't like it.
• In the traditional model, a few disruptive students would try to get the entire class off track.  Since students are working individually or in groups.  These students now only get their group off track, and it is much more manageable since I am walking around the room helping students.
• Many more opportunities to differentiate.  It is easier to adjust note taking requirements or practice problem requirements.  In fact, I can even skip entire sections that are necessary for certain students.
• Student copying work has almost become non-existent.  Which I knew was happening in past years, but I couldn't prove it.  Since the only deadline is the day of the test, students work at their own pace.

What isn't working:

• Since I was encouraging students to re-take tests.  I decided not to curve my test scores, which I have done in years past.  So the test score numbers are lower than they were in past years.  If I un-curve my test scores last year, my students (on average) are doing slightly worse than they did last year.  This is largely influenced by a group of lower students who score in the 30s and 40s on tests.  (extreme low values pull down the average).
• My lower achieving students are the ones who are struggling the most with this transition.  I have recently realized that this is because a semi-self paced requires students to be motivated to keep moving through material.  These students are less likely to ask me for help.
• I don't know what effect the un-curved test scores have had on my students emotionally.  I feel that some of my students who have less than positive opinions of our changes is simply because they have a lower grade in math than they are used to.
• Even though my class is flipped, my students still do the same types of activities they have done in years past.  Which is why my test scores are pretty similar to last year.  I am really inspired by people like Ramsey Musallam's Explore-Flip-Apply Model and I want to do higher order Bloom's Taxonomy work during class.  I think this is a direction I want to move my teaching.
• I feel that the "recommended pace" is a little fast for most of my students.  Many students don't finish their notes and practice problems by the day of the test.  I want to reduce the number of sections that we cover to ease up this pace a little bit.

  Overall analysis:

• I am glad that I flipped my class.  I can't go back.  I am working through my student's concerns and trying to adapt this to meet individual student needs.  In my mind the positive far outweigh the negative.
• In fact, I am planning on flipping my AP Statistics class next year.

If you have different opinions, please comment.  I welcome other teacher's perspective on what I do.  I am always looking for ways to improve my practice.