Williamsport Area High School in Williamsport, PA is a fairly large school district with a diverse mix of students from both urban and rural settings. I conducted a case study of this school where I examined the culture of the students and faculty. It was noted in that study that a proportion of the student body (those ranking in the lower two-thirds of their class) are not held to the same standards of academic honesty and personal ownership of academic work as the upper third of the population. In an effort not to leave those students behind, I am proposing that a new emphasis be placed on mastery learning at all levels.
Mastery learning in a competency–based curriculum requires that all students demonstrate a proficiency of material with a high success rate. This knowledge and skill base will also be demonstrated after initial learning of the concept in successive courses. It is through repeated exposure to and practice with a concept that students take complete ownership of their learning.
In order to accomplish this task a teacher leadership core group will be appointed to build a leadership team at the beginning of the academic year. This initial group of five teachers and administrators will use the POLCA functions of leadership to guide them in their group's success. The POLCA scheme is an acronym for the five functional stages of the leadership–followership group project: planning, organizing, leading, control, and assessment.
In terms of planning, the group will use its mission and goals as a framework by which to provide direction for the team's project. The mission of this team is to encourage all faculty to demand mastery learning by all students, regardless of academic standing or grade. Specific goals of the group are to study mastery learning concepts, provide inservice training to all teachers on mastery learning, affect the school board to adopt a mastery learning policy to be enacted at the school, and to instill a sense of mastery learning in the school environment – both by students and teachers.
This committee will perform most of its tasks in one academic year with assessment and continuous improvement subprojects to take place in successive years. An early task of the group will be to study similar initiatives at other schools, particularly those alternative school that have a reputation for demanding mastery learning from their students. One half of the team will survey other schools and conduct research into this topic to see how other schools have succeeded in similar initiatives and how researchers view this subject. They will report their findings to the team within nine weeks.
In the mean time, the remainder of the team will conduct a comprehensive survey of the school's culture using the Krovetz School Excellency and Resilience Analysis (Krovetz, 1999) and other similar indices. Specific questions regarding academic honesty and academic achievement will also be asked of both students and faculty.
A mastery learning policy including academic honesty policies, teacher roles, student roles, and supporting rationale will be drafted for presentation to the faculty. This policy will be distributed during the second marking period (second nine weeks) to all faculty, administrators, and student leaders for review and feedback.
A presentation team will be appointed to conduct an inservice program during the third marking period (third nine weeks) to apprise the faculty on the task they are undertaking and present to the faculty research findings on mastery learning. At that point in time the faculty will be asked to support the revised mastery learning policy to be presented to the school board for approval.
During the final nine weeks of the school year, students will receive information regarding a new mastery learning environment to be instituted the following school year.
The following school year the policy will be instituted and faculty will be expected to consistently implement its features. A follow up survey of faculty and students will be conducted at the end of each school year for at least two years in order to assess the impact of the policy.
Krovetz, M.L. (1999). Fostering resilience: Expecting all students to use their minds and hearts as well. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwing Press, Inc.
Composed for EDCI610
Lock Haven University of PA
Final 8.15.2000