{"id":4027,"date":"2016-07-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-21T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/blog\/cw_post\/the-young-womens-leadership-school-of-astoria\/"},"modified":"2024-04-08T10:54:03","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T14:54:03","slug":"the-young-womens-leadership-school-of-astoria","status":"publish","type":"cw_post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/the-young-womens-leadership-school-of-astoria\/","title":{"rendered":"The Young Women\u2019s Leadership School of Astoria"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"TYWLSA1\"
Seniors at The Young Women\u2019s Leadership School of Astoria (known as \u201cTwills\u201d). Some of their school-wide outcomes are on display behind them.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is the third post of my Mastering Mastery-Based Learning in NYC tour. Start with the first post on NYC Big Takeaways<\/a>\u00a0and the second on\u00a0NYC\u2019s Mastery Collaborative<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The classrooms are buzzing at The Young Women\u2019s Leadership School in Astoria (TYWLS)<\/a>. It\u2019s one of those schools that brings tears \u2013 tears of joy as students feel cared for, respected, supported, and challenged throughout their learning. It feels as if students and teachers alike are in what athletes refer to as the \u201cflow state\u201d or the \u201czone.\u201d Everywhere you look is deep concentration, deep learning, and deep satisfaction.<\/p>\n

TYWLS is using mastery-based learning to break out of many of the organizational structures that bind, and one could argue constrain, our education system. Thanks to Dr. Allison Persad<\/a>, principal; Caitlin Stanton<\/a>, arts teacher; Christy Kingham<\/a>, ELA teacher;\u200b\u00a0Scott Melcher<\/a>, social studies; Katherine Tansey, math teacher; and Greg\u00a0Zimdahl<\/a> for sharing their insights and wisdom.<\/p>\n

The Power of Performance Levels<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Young Women\u2019s Leadership School of Astoria<\/a>, serving 600 students in grades 6-12, is ten years old. Watch the film to hear from the young women of TYWLS<\/a> directly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Young Women\u2019s Leadership School is focused on skills such as Argue, Be Precise, Collaborate, Communicate, Conclude, Discern, Innovate, Investigate, and Plan. These skills are the primary organizing structure for the school. ELA teacher Christy Kingham was the first to explain the TYWLS strategy. \u201cWe began to integrate project-based learning and performance tasks at the same time as we came to mastery-based learning,\u201d she said. \u201cWe stay focused on helping students build skills, as those can be transferred into other domains. Content in each of the disciplines is very important, as that is what students use to engage in projects and performance tasks. However, we separate skills from content because of the importance of transferrable skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TYWLSA3\"
A spiraled rubric for the skill of collaboration.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All teachers use the same rubrics for each of the ten skills that indicate performance levels 6-12. In some cases, such as ELA, they are organized around bands 9-10 and 11-12 rather than grade levels as indicated by the Common Core ELA standards. TYWLS refers to these as spiraled rubrics<\/em> that are organized and vertically aligned so that students can see their skill development over different performance levels. Thus, an eighth grade student can meet the eighth grade performance level, or they can exceed by meeting the ninth grade performance level. When they enter ninth grade, if they have developed any additional skills, they are now meeting the ninth grade performance level and can strive to meet the tenth grade level. One teacher explained, \u201cSpiraled rubrics allow you to batch by skills, not just age. We can work strategically to help students move from one performance level to the next.\u201d<\/p>\n

The TYWLS commitment to personalizing instruction is reflected in the design of the rubric. The Not Yet category on the rubric is left blank, with descriptions for only the meet or exceed categories. Kingham explained, \u201cThere are a million reasons why a student is not meeting a learning target or what they could be doing on the way to meeting it. We leave it blanks so that teachers can give individual attention and feedback.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benefits of Skills-Focus<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

There are several other benefits from this focus on skills and schoolwide spiraled rubrics. First, the skills-based learning targets aren\u2019t just for grading students. They become \u201cteaching points\u201d that help teachers become more intentional in their instruction and in preparing for helping students in the places they are most likely to struggle. Second, it lends itself easily to interdisciplinary learning. \u201cWe all can access the learning targets across the school,\u201d drama teacher Caitlin Stanton explained. \u201cIt makes it easy to figure out ways to create joint targets. For example, in science, students are formulating an argument and defending it with evidence, as are students in a social studies or English class. Shared targets create shared language and expectations and push students to truly transfer these 21st century skills.\u201d<\/p>\n

The skills-focus also offers teachers flexibility in content as well as opportunity for substantial voice and choice. As one teacher put it, \u201cThe content choices can be externally driven by state policy or internally by the interests of students. The content lives in the evidence that students create to demonstrate their learning.\u201d Teachers draw on content in terms of what they think will engage students and offers opportunity for exploring issues and building skills. Of course, in New York, teachers are also cognizant that they have to cover the content as required by the Regents exams. History teacher Greg Zimdahl explained, \u201cIn my US History course, I use a project entitled \u2018Becoming American,\u2019 which uses six different genres to explore immigration with students making presentations to an audience. We are folding in all the content they need to cover for the Regents and students will be able to co-design projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

The number of learning targets is also kept at very manageable numbers. TYWLS largely annualizes learning targets, which range from nine to fifteen per year. There have been concerns that using standards as the primary organizing structure in any school (and especially in competency-based schools) creates too much granularity if teachers are assessing for every standard.<\/p>\n

Benefits for Students<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"TYWLSA2\"
Expectations for every step of learning are made explicit at TYWLS-Astoria through conversation in class and creative, clear visuals around the school.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It makes a difference for students to have a sharp focus on such a powerful set of skills. For starters, interdisciplinary courses are going to have more depth, especially when driven by fascinating essential questions. Second, reflecting on and building a small set of skills gives students confidence. As Greg Zimdahl explained, \u201cTest anxiety can go away when students are confident they have the skill. So many exams are about content and trying to remember all the content. We remind students that if you forget the facts, you still have the skill.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students can also build up evidence of meeting targets in one class and submit to a teacher of another class. This is particularly important when students are coming from behind and have performance levels significantly lower than grade levels. Teachers can see each other\u2019s learning targets and enter information on students\u2019 progress in JumpRope<\/a>, their grading information system.<\/p>\n

A conversation with Rodyna, Misbah, and Naimah, students who range from eighth to twelfth grade, illuminated the value of the mastery-based grading practices. Misbah explained, \u201cMastery-based grading makes the relationship between the student and teachers more intimate. It becomes a two-way relationship rather than a one-way relationship where the teachers just give you the grades. I can talk about my struggles with my teacher in a very clear way that is focused on specific skills and specific performance tasks. I know what I need to do in order to get the grade I want.\u201d Rodyna added, \u201cThe mastery-based grading helps me understand what I need to learn or do differently. In the old way, when I got a number, I wouldn\u2019t know what to do differently. With the learning targets, I can make better choices and revise things.\u201d<\/p>\n

All three young women chimed in when we talked about how grades reflect them as learners. \u201cA number can\u2019t represent a person. An average doesn\u2019t reflect who you are. Mastery-based learning shows how we are doing in our learning.\u201d Misbah also pointed out that \u201cthe numbers can get in the way. I just wanted to get higher and higher numbers. I wasn\u2019t very interested in building my skills. It was the easy way out. It\u2019s harder this way, to really make sure you are learning, and it is better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beneficial Schoolwide Practices<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The spiraling rubrics for skills require two schoolwide practices, not usually found in traditional schools, that can help drive toward mastery-based learning. First, ongoing calibration is particularly important for teachers to credential the different performance levels of each skill consistently. Second, given the flexibility in content, TYWLS is beginning a process of curriculum mapping to look at what content is being covered in each grade. Teachers are beginning to capture the overall curriculum, including topics, essential questions, performance tasks, and the evidence of learning submitted by students. Kingham said, \u201cWe are trying to capture the overall student learning experience so that we can become more intentional.\u201d This is an important practice for several reasons: to avoid unintentional duplication, to seek out opportunities to build upon and connect with interdisciplinary curriculum, and to ensure enough breadth.<\/p>\n

As TYWLS continues to fine-tune their processes, the teachers are also building confidence. Kingham reflects, \u201cMastery-based learning help to put to rest the anxiety we feel about how we can know what our students know.\u201d Relying on processes that allow superintendents, principals, teachers, and parents to have confidence that teachers know what students know is one of the cornerstones of embedding accountability into our schools rather than depending on policy to drive it.<\/p>\n

Insights and Inquiry: Of course, when students have choice within their performance tasks, there will also be differentiation about the background knowledge (content) that each student brings to the classroom. It\u2019s important for skill-focused schools to keep an eye on the content that is being used \u2013 not covered, but <\/em>used \u2013 in the classroom. I can also imagine students beginning to map out the content they are familiar with so they have a growing understanding of the background knowledge they have learned from their life experiences as well as in school.<\/em><\/p>\n

Simultaneous Skill Building and Preparing for the Regents <\/strong><\/h3>\n

Wherever I went in NYC, all schools said the same thing. The global history Regents exam is considered a barrier to mastery-based learning. One teacher explained, \u201cYou get students in ninth grade and you have two years to flood them with content regardless of what their skills are.\u201d TYWLS\u2019s skill of \u201cBe Precise\u201d is one of the ways they help students build a skill and come to terms with the idea that they are going to have to remember a lot of facts. Stanton noted, \u201cDiscern is also a powerful skill for preparing for the Regents. Students need to be able to read text and make meaning from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students\u2019 reading skills are important in this process. Zimdahl explained, \u201cWe have had to build our ability to support literacy across the curriculum using guided text and close reading.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can get a glimpse at how this all comes together by looking at Zimdahl<\/a>\u2019s<\/u> course on The Story of American Freedom<\/a> for eleventh graders. At the end of the course overview, Zimdahl explains that he\u2019s designed for three purposes: to engage in a study of America\u2019s past, to prepare you for college-level work, and to prepare for the American History and Government Regents. However, note that the goals of the course are for students to become skilled, lifelong learners. If you go to unit one on the colonies<\/a>, you can see how he organizes units so that they are \u201casynchronous\u201d (i.e., students have flexibility about pace with the understanding that every student needs to be planning for what it will take to complete the course). There is also a performance tracker for students that lists the performance tasks in each unit and an example of a rubric that shows the three categories of Not Yet (open for teachers to provide feedback to students), Meeting, and Exceeding across four skills: collaborate, conclude, discern, and plan. Again, given the spiraled design of the rubrics, Meeting equals eleventh grade and Exceeding means students are demonstrating at the expectations for twelfth graders.<\/p>\n

Intensives for Deeper Learning<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Twice a year for two full weeks, cross-disciplinary teams of teachers create intensives for students to take a deeper dive into project-based learning. Students get to do things they might not otherwise (given the constraints of school schedules) while also earning one elective credit. Students get to choose among all the intensives, although teachers will encourage students weak in an academic area to focus on something that will allow them to build their skills.<\/p>\n

The intensives, like the classes, are organized around essential questions, performance tasks, and assessments of the ten skills. For example, the essential questions driving the intensive Citizen Food 2.0<\/a> are:<\/p>\n