TVAAS High Achieving Teacher Survey
William Blount High School
Each year when TVAAS reports are received, there are a number of WBHS teachers who
consistently show gain in the achievement of their students.
Since these teachers have had consistently strong results on TVAAS reporting in math,
English, and biology, we asked them about their teaching and their approach to
increasing student achievement. Basic, university, and honors classes were represented
in the data. The teachers were in the 80th percentile or above in Tennessee and all had
well above average effect scores.
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Average class size was 28, with the smallest class being 21 and the largest being
35.
These teachers expressed a high degree of sense of control over their students’
achievement. On a scale of 1-10 (1 being almost no control and 10 being total
control), they averaged 7.5 in the degree to which they felt they as teachers
influenced student achievement.
The teachers cited the following challenges they faced in helping students
succeed: apathy, lack of parental support, refusal to write, varying instruction
to fit different learning styles, cultural expectations against homework, negative
attitudes, inconsistent or below-par knowledge and ability developed in middle
school, absenteeism, and severe personal or family problems that impact their
schoolwork.
All teachers agreed that classroom management was a vital component to high
student achievement.
Buy in, teamwork, and a positive identity as a class has a huge impact on
students’ willingness to work hard to achieve.
If the teacher can’t keep the kids focused and on task, they don’t learn. The
successful teacher uses use proximity and lots of walking around and
interacting. This is not a job where doing lots of sitting down is going to be
effective. The teacher has to be up and among them, watching, encouraging,
coaching.
It is important to emphasize courtesy and respect— show it to students and
expect it in return. Make a real effort to communicate my belief in them and
encourage and reward effort and improvement.
Having meaningful learning tasks for students to do and teaching bell to bell is
of great importance. There should be no wasted minutes.
It is vital for the teacher to have clear expectations that are explained up front
and consistently enforced. Sometimes the teacher will have to fight some battles
up front, but that lets the students know that the class room management style
is designed for everyone’s benefit and that it will be fairly and consistently
applied.
It is important to give students attention and respect. In most cases, that is how
you win them over. If you win them over, they will work for you and learn.
Use firm and consistent discipline underpinned with respect and understanding
Aside from classroom management, the teachers surveyed identified the
following factors as crucial to their success in student achievement:
 Identifying the standards for students—writing them on the board, including
them on class work, giving students a copy to keep in their notebooks.
Explaining for students exactly what they were supposed to learn and why
that information is relevant to their lives and/or future learning.
 Constant assessment—being aware of which students are meeting the
standards and which are not, then being willing to re-teach in a different
way when necessary. Make sure they know the material before you move on.
 Competition between classes—keeping a running class average on quizzes
and tests and rewarding the class which achieves the highest scores.
 Require the students to teach the concept to the teacher. If they understand
it well enough to teach it, they know it.
 Numerous practice tests
 Open note test, review, then closed note test focusing on questions with the
same format and content as the Gateway or EOC.
 Teaching students how to take and use good notes.
 Projects that allow for hands-on application of standards.
 Pre-and post-tests for all units, and concept maps
 Knowing the students’ expected score before the course begins—several
teachers access TVAAS data from the restricted website and make note of
each student’s predicted score to allow for monitoring throughout the term.
Do not focus on students passing the test; focus on their achieving as much
as they are capable of learning.
 Being positive and confident, and communicate constant belief in students.
 Recognize and reward effort.
 Design engaging and relevant lessons.
 Use the text to optimum advantage; don’t feel obligated to plod through it in
order if it does not meet your goals. Be willing to create your own materials
when needed and don’t be tied too rigidly to the text.
 Tie the subject matter to real life or students’ interests.
 Use current events, youtube, or other media to tie your subject matter to the
real world.
 Use a team concept to unite the class in working toward a goal—everyone is
working to achieve the goal of doing as well as possible.
 Repetition, repetition, repetition.
 Continual review of previously learned basics
 3-4 days of review prior to the test
 Students must know you care and are willing to work hard to help them
achieve. They won’t focus on the goal and consider it important if you
present it as a meaningless hoop they have to jump through.
 High expectations. No wasted minutes.
 Incorporate different learning styles and intelligences into lessons when
possible, but keep the focus on the standards—various approaches don’t
mean anything if they don’t help students learn the material.
 Have high standards and stick to them.
According to the teachers surveyed, the following approaches were found to be
ineffective.
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Over-emphasis on literature, at the expense of writing and grammar
Allowing students to read aloud in class
Writing for its own sake
Inconsistent classroom management
Failure to develop rapport with students
Lessons that are predictable and un-engaging—answering questions at the ends
of chapters
Delayed or non-existent feedback
Ridicule, bullying, or being overly confrontational with students
Correcting students from across the room, embarrassing or belittling them in
front of peers
Failure to assess frequently enough; not using results from assessment to
inform teaching
Off-task behavior
Free days or downtime given as rewards
Reliance on worksheets or work that students consider to be “busy work”