Raising Student Achievement by Raising Expectations
by Dr. Carol Peck
With less than half of Arizona’s public high school graduates qualifying academically to enroll in public universities, it’s time to raise the bar in student achievement across the state.
According to Dr. Carol Peck, president/CEO of Rodel Charitable Foundation, a critical component for raising student achievement is to raise expectations.
“When we challenge and encourage our students to try harder, take tougher courses and achieve higher grades, they will generally rise to the occasion,” comments Dr. Peck. “The key is to provide them with confidence-building support and the skills they need to succeed.”
Raising student achievement may require parents and teachers to adjust how they interact with perceived low achieving children compared to those identified as brighter or better academic performers.
During her seminars, consistent with research by Sam Kerman, Brophy and others, Dr. Peck encourages teachers, parents and anyone who works with kids to be more aware of natural human biases and to practice the following behaviors with all kids, regardless of their perceived place on the high/low achievement scale.
- Equal opportunity to respond – Perceived high achievers are generally given more opportunity to respond to questions or contribute in the classroom and at home. It’s the adult’s role to draw perceived low achievers out and engage them in the discussion, giving them the same number of opportunities to participate.
- Latency - We tend to provide high achieving students more time to respond to questions. Allow all kids ample time to formulate their answers. Some children are shy, uncertain or simply take longer to process information.
- Delving, rephrasing and giving clues – To elicit answers, star performers are frequently provided with more encouragement, information and clues to help them get the answer right. Perceived high achievers are generally given more positive reinforcement along the way. This happens most frequently in classrooms where teachers are afraid of spending more time with perceived low achievers because it might embarrass them or bore the rest of the class.
- One-on-one attention and guidance – Individualized attention can be a powerful, confidence-building support to student academic success. Often the adult feels that they’ve given an inordinate amount of individual attention to the child who needs frequent disciplinary action, when in fact the majority of the attention has been reprimanding. Positive support and guidance needs to be provided to all children.
- Praise for learning performance – As humans we thrive on positive reinforcement. Dr. Peck is often asked whether it is possible to provide too much praise. She states that, “It is not a concern as long as the praise is personalized, sincere, and based on performance.” Providing consistent and ongoing praise for academic performance encourages students to work harder and strive for higher achievement. Recognize and appreciate achievement at all levels. Each step toward better performance is positive and should be celebrated.
Parents, teachers and other role models are encouraged to plant the seeds for high achievement as early as possible. Taking kids of any age to tour a community college, university or career and technical education campus has the potential to ignite excitement. It also removes mental barriers, helping students to better envision an academic future that includes postsecondary education. Once that door is open, it allows for proactive conversations about what it takes to achieve their long-term academic goals.