Data-driven Instruction and the Benefits of Being a Nonprofit
(repost/edited 5.23.16)
I'm really starting to like the fact that, as a nonprofit, I do not have to follow the idiotic rules of running an adult education program funded by State and Federal dollars like I did in Los Alamos. So far, I'm the only one funding Live and Learn New Mexico!, with help from Mom and Dad (love you, miss you).
Since I don't have to report to anyone on how my program is meeting their standards, I can concentrate on learning and not have to deal with stupid political processes. (I report to my board of directors but that's not the same thing. They don't fund Live and Learn New Mexico! Transparency is key there. Just be open about what I do, and the board usually is okay with it.)
Having said that, however, there are many things I learned running the adult ed program at UNM-Los Alamos that I actually very much agree with.
One is that we should look at data to inform our instruction. I like looking at the data that comes automatically with Khan Academy. I get an email from them once a week, giving me the highlights of what my students have been working on. This week, I see that one student has taken Khan Academy by the horns, and she's spent quite a lot of time working on division and fractions.
Another student has done nothing but that's okay because this is his baby, not mine. He may have gotten what he needed from the one class he attended and just gone on to take the test. Or maybe he is working out of the workbook I gave him.
I do not assume that he is doing nothing just because he isn't doing work in my class. This student, I could tell, would probably pass the test with a little review, something he can get online without my help. Some people just need motivation, someone to give them a nudge.
If I had been running the program in Los Alamos, the pressure would be there to keep students in class, racking up hours, pre-testing them and post-testing them, just to get the hours needed for future funding. It wasn't about learning; it was about the number of bodies and how long you could trap them in a small room doing work that could be done anywhere else at more convenient times...and then proving that they learned something from the class.
I've got all the data I need to determine how things are going with my students and if they are learning. It is all built in to the tools and sites I use when teaching. The students have access to their own Khan Academy data and they like to look at their own progress. It's a motivator. On the plus side as a teacher, I don't have to generate reports; Khan Academy does it for me.
And all the while, as I work with the few students I have so far, I feel like we are building a community of learners, myself included, without sitting in a classroom all the time. We have just enough face time to have the important discussions about their learning and about the data. I think we are headed in the right direction.
On another note, I just got back from my 35th Los Alamos High School reunion and learned quite a bit about myself, mainly that I'm not a reunion person. I left Los Alamos this morning and didn't look back. Driving up the Turquoise Trail to Cedar Crest, I realized that I was headed home.
I'm really starting to like the fact that, as a nonprofit, I do not have to follow the idiotic rules of running an adult education program funded by State and Federal dollars like I did in Los Alamos. So far, I'm the only one funding Live and Learn New Mexico!, with help from Mom and Dad (love you, miss you).
Since I don't have to report to anyone on how my program is meeting their standards, I can concentrate on learning and not have to deal with stupid political processes. (I report to my board of directors but that's not the same thing. They don't fund Live and Learn New Mexico! Transparency is key there. Just be open about what I do, and the board usually is okay with it.)
Having said that, however, there are many things I learned running the adult ed program at UNM-Los Alamos that I actually very much agree with.
One is that we should look at data to inform our instruction. I like looking at the data that comes automatically with Khan Academy. I get an email from them once a week, giving me the highlights of what my students have been working on. This week, I see that one student has taken Khan Academy by the horns, and she's spent quite a lot of time working on division and fractions.
Another student has done nothing but that's okay because this is his baby, not mine. He may have gotten what he needed from the one class he attended and just gone on to take the test. Or maybe he is working out of the workbook I gave him.
I do not assume that he is doing nothing just because he isn't doing work in my class. This student, I could tell, would probably pass the test with a little review, something he can get online without my help. Some people just need motivation, someone to give them a nudge.
If I had been running the program in Los Alamos, the pressure would be there to keep students in class, racking up hours, pre-testing them and post-testing them, just to get the hours needed for future funding. It wasn't about learning; it was about the number of bodies and how long you could trap them in a small room doing work that could be done anywhere else at more convenient times...and then proving that they learned something from the class.
I've got all the data I need to determine how things are going with my students and if they are learning. It is all built in to the tools and sites I use when teaching. The students have access to their own Khan Academy data and they like to look at their own progress. It's a motivator. On the plus side as a teacher, I don't have to generate reports; Khan Academy does it for me.
And all the while, as I work with the few students I have so far, I feel like we are building a community of learners, myself included, without sitting in a classroom all the time. We have just enough face time to have the important discussions about their learning and about the data. I think we are headed in the right direction.
On another note, I just got back from my 35th Los Alamos High School reunion and learned quite a bit about myself, mainly that I'm not a reunion person. I left Los Alamos this morning and didn't look back. Driving up the Turquoise Trail to Cedar Crest, I realized that I was headed home.
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