With regard to high school reading comprehension, I would be less inclined to use a scripted program than to use techniques that can be applied in many different high school subjects. Examples of activities that can be integrated into your current curriculum without the cost of purchasing a separate program include the following:

1) Summaries - In social studies and science classes, require students to write brief summaries of 1-2 page textbook passages. These summaries need not be formal essays. It is sufficient to have them write the “main idea” and then “three or more supporting details.” This is also an excellent way to get better value out of time devoted to SSR—Sustained Silent Reading— at the high school level.

2) Similarities and differences - this is particularly helpful when students are reading accounts of historical events or scientific observations.

3) Graphic organizers - to demonstrate student understanding of complex literary structures, including novels, plays, and poems, students can use graphic organizers (See Marzano & Pickering) to illustrate the patterns of events, settings, and characters.

4) Inferences - When students review a graph in a math, science, physical education, or social studies class, students should write a 3-4 sentence explanation that elaborates on the meaning of the graph and the relationship among the variables.

5) Compare and contrast - In art classes, students can compare and contrast different artistic styles or the characteristics of different artistic media.

6) Strategies and rules - In PE and technology classes, students can describe which strategies work are most effective for various athletic and electronic games.

This is a start. The key is that when students do more writing, with editing and rewriting, their performance improves in every academic subject. A recent Education Week report indicated that 63% of high school students never complete a research paper requiring footnotes and bibliographies. This failure to challenge students to think, research, and write is directly associated with the failures of students in college and technical school.

For very recent information on the value of writing for ALL students, see Dr. Mel Levine's new book, The Myth of Laziness. I have also addressed this in my books, The Daily Disciplines of Leadership and The Leader's Guide to Standards.

Parents of teens may think that their days of influence are almost over. As the parent of a couple of teenagers, I know that I feel that way, too, on some days. Nevertheless, parents remain the most important influence in the lives of their children. By their daily lives and models, not just their words, parents are more important than peers, teachers, television, and culture.

When it comes to academic help for teens, parents can be particularly frustrated. “I can't help my kid write a term paper and I certainly can't help with chemistry or algebra!” That's probably true, and even if you could, you should not provide that sort of assistance. But there are two important things that parents can do. First, they can insist that their teens keep an assignment notebook and calendar, and parents can check this every day. Personal organization is one of the most important factors that distinguishes successful high school students. Second, parents can insist that their children engage in regular writing. Writing—particularly nonfiction writing with editing and rewriting—is strongly associated with improved student achievement in every other academic area, including math, science, and social studies. Here are three things parents can do to improve student writing:

1) Thank you notes. That's right—old-fashioned, handwritten thank you notes. Sending thank you notes is not just good manners, but will distinguish your children from the vast majority who never take the time to extend this simple courtesy.

2) Family history. The next time you visit grandparents or other older relatives, ask your teens to take some time to interview them, asking them about their parents and grandparents and the times they remember. The World War II generation is vanishing, and if you are lucky enough to have relatives who experienced that era, have your teens write about it. It may rekindle an interest in history and, at the very least, will renew relationships in your family. You probably have family members who remember the Civil Rights movement or the Vietnam era. Have your teens write about those memories. This will be more compelling than anything they have heard in class or read in a textbook.

3) Advice to new students. Ask your teens to write to a younger sibling or family friend of elementary school or middle school age. Give them advice on what is required for success in high school. Their definition of “success” should include not only academic success, but safety, social relationships, and other things that they wish they had known before they entered high school.

Finally, there are things that parents can do to help the entire school. If your school doesn't have a newspaper, help to start one. I volunteer in one of my children's school every week and we publish a newspaper full of student writing, including news stories, sports news, editorials, cartoons, puzzles, advice columns, and anything else that interests the students. The students run the show, editing, writing, and distributing the newspaper. The newspaper staff includes learning-disabled students who have made important contributions and work with other colleagues on the newspaper staff to express their opinions and contribute to the paper in meaningful ways.

I get this question a lot and we've tried to make a lot of research that is precisely on point to this. The three test sources are:

1) Darling-Hammond, Linda, The Right to Learn, Jossey-Bass, 1997— in the first 100 pages there are dozens of citations about this point precisely—linking authentic performance assessment, including writing, to higher multiple choice state test scores.

2) Reeves, D.B., "Standards are not enough" in the December 2000 NASSP Bulletin (lead article). This is the evidence that I've used in my keynotes, but some people need to see it in an academic journal. The issue editor for that one was Robert Marzano.

3) Marzano, Robert, and others. In Classroom Strategies that Work, almost all of the dependent variables were multiple choice test scores, yet none of the nine strategies were classical multiple choice test prep. Of those most related to our writing work, the note-taking, similarities and differences, and graphic organizers are all directly related to the writing processes that we advocate.

Of course, I always close the statement of evidence with this: Is the evidence perfect? Of course not—no research ever is, in education or, for that matter in evidence. But consider this—if we are wrong, and students do a lot of extra literacy and writing and it turned out that they didn't really need to do so, what is the risk—overly literate students? If we are right, and students do need this but we fail to provide it, what is the risk? Long-term deprivation of basic skills that have dramatic negative consequences in all disciplines. So—I think the evidence is pretty good. But even if it were not so good, the risk of our being wrong is very low, and the risk of our being right (and people failing to heed the evidence) is extremely high.

Hope this helps. I'm happy to participate in conference calls with clients who want to discuss this more. I also encourage them to conduct their own case studies and action research to test these hypotheses. See if the students who do a great deal more literacy in science, for example, wind up with lower science scores. See if students who write summaries of each sub-chapter in a social studies book are irreparably damaged. The real issue is whether these strategies are more dangerous for student learning than the strategies that they are using now. They do not need a set of perfect research to suggest that change is needed.

I agree that the culture of many communities requires letter grades, but at the very least we can make them accurate and effective, criteria which few report cards meet today (see the work of Guskey, Stiggins, O'Connor, and Marzano, as well as my own work, on this point). For example, one of the worst practices is the use of the arithmetic mean, or average, so simply translating "exemplary" into an A and "not meeting" into an F and then averaging the results pretty much defeats the purpose of effective grading practice. In one school, for example, there were six student assessments each quarter. An "assessment" might be a lab, paper, project, etc. Their system was:
                       4 "exemplary" and 2 "proficient" = A
                       4 "proficient" and 2 "progressing" = B
                       3 "proficient" = C
                       No D's allowed.

Anything less than C work resulted in the "IP" - "In Progress" - and students were given two weeks to achieve at least C level work; otherwise, they received a failing grade. Notice that the emphasis in this system is on quality of work, not speed of work. The consequence for turning in work that was below standard was not a zero or an F, but rather the requirement that the student respect teacher feedback and submits the work again. Conversely, the reward for getting work done well the first time might well be the completion of a class before the end of the semester. A growing number of schools are giving students incentives to "get it right the first time" by working hard, respecting teachers, and learning the material. The reward? No finals, early finishes to class, and what students crave -- freedom of choice.

First, I would not be bound by the "three" rule - I've had students revise work as much as nine times - they had to learn that I was serious about quality work and that I would not "give" them a D for work that was not satisfactory. In general, I won't accept work below "B" level work, which leaves me exposed to two complaints -- students work harder than in any other class, and I have grade inflation. My response is that when students are working harder for higher a grade, that's not grade inflation, but "performance inflation."

Neither retention nor social promotions are effective. The only reasonable response to poor student performance is IMMEDIATE intervention that is decisive and effective. This requires frequent assessment, RADICAL changes in schedule where appropriate (180 minutes of literacy per day is not unusual in schools that are making dramatic improvements), appropriate use of free time (home rooms, study halls, academic advisories, and lunch) to give students freedom of choice on how to use that time only when they have earned it. "The price of freedom is proficiency."

Thanks very much for your very thoughtful question. First, I want to express my complete agreement with your staff. We ALL agree that responsibility and citizenship is a good idea. Kids SHOULD have appropriate consequences for failure to do homework, complete projects, and doing badly on tests. The only question is how BEST to encourage responsibility and citizenship and what the appropriate consequences should be.

This is very important - we are not starting with the perspective of "I'm right and the teachers are wrong." We're starting with the perspective that you, your staff, and I all love kids, care about them, and want them to grow up with a good sense of responsibility and citizenship.

Now that we are starting from common ground, let's ask some questions:

1) Are our present practices leading students to improve their rates of homework completion and classroom success? If so, then let's just check the data - what was the percentage of failures five years ago? Three years ago? Last year? If our strategies are effective, I would expect that the failures - particularly failures due to the failure to complete homework, are declining significantly. But that's not, in fact, what I see around the country. The typical grading practices - zeroes for missing work, refusing to take late work, refusing to allow students to resubmit work, use of the average - are not providing improved performance. In fact, teachers complain to me all the time that students are not completing work, that they are disengaged and non-responsive. In other words, if our goal is improved citizenship and responsibility, what we are doing now apparently is not working very well.

2) What alternatives have we tried? In almost every school, I find wide variation in teacher grading practices. There are some teachers who, quietly and almost anonymously, have been experimenting with different practices. Before you consider anything I have to say, conduct a "treasure hunt" by analyzing those classes where failure rates have declined and achievement has improved. Look in different departments around the district where success is high - drivers education, music, computer programming? What do those areas have in common that we can learn from? One thing that I know is true in all three is that when you make a mistake, it doesn't lead to failure, but rather to listening to teacher feedback, respecting teacher feedback, improving performance, and ultimately passing the assessment.

3) What will be our criteria for decision? Can we at least agree that even if people are skeptical, we'll let the evidence be our guide? I've worked in very remote parts of Africa where people did not believe that vaccinations were effective. They didn't want to see my studies or hear a lecture on western medicine. But they were willing to look at children who lived or avoided horrible life-long disabilities because they didn't get polio (it's still rampant in parts of the developing world). The evidence, not my beliefs or their beliefs, ultimately allowed for more vaccinations. So in our schools, can we agree that even if we're not sure, we'll at least try some experiments, and then let the evidence decide? I think that teachers are smart - they care about kids and love them. But they are skeptical because they don't like to see another "hot idea" come and go. So, let's take our time, try it out, but let's also have the intellectual integrity to let the evidence and not personal feelings, decide.

4) Can we agree on some fundamental boundaries? Even if we disagree on policy, can we agree on values such as fairness? Can we agree that grading practices should not be based upon subjective appraisals that can be influenced by gender, race, economic status, or parent activism? Can we agree that the central purpose of feedback, including grades, is the improvement of student achievement?

5) What's in it for the teachers? Can we agree that if we can improve policies that will reduce our failure rate, that we would have happier, more engaged, and better behaved students? Can we agree that if we have fewer students repeating grades and courses, we'll have fewer angry and bored students?

6) What's in it for the school and community? Can we agree that if we have fewer students repeating math and English, that ultimately we'll have more opportunities for art, music, technology, service learning, and other things that both students and teachers find engaging and worthwhile?

Once we have settled these questions, let's try some experiments. I'm not saying I have all the answers, but perhaps different teachers would try different things. Some might just eliminate the zero. Some might stop the average. Others might try a "menu" system such as I use, where the consequence for missing work of blowing a test is selecting other items from the menu. Others might experiment with rewards for work that is on time or early rather than punishment for work that is late.

In other words, I'm not asking you to use MY system, but rather that you use your good judgment and the thoughtful good will of your colleagues to: a) admit that what we are doing now could be improved and b) experiment with different ideas that improve achievement and reduce failures and c) agree that the final school-wide decision will be based on evidence and not personal prejudices.

As a math teacher myself, I understand the quandary. We want students to know the math and also to understand the context of the problem. I used to tell my students, whether they were in elementary school or graduate school, “Mathematics is about describing the universe using numbers, symbols, and words, and we're going to use all three of those this year.” I tried to make it clear that this is about communication—not just about calculation—and it sounds as if your math teachers have similar feelings.

Now to the grading issue. I love your idea of distinguishing between academic content and “listening and following directions” but we would all acknowledge that on a test and in life, students must do BOTH—it's not an either/or proposition. Therefore, the report card is a great idea and the math teacher who insists that students label their problems has a good idea. I don't even mind if they take points off—BUT BUT BUT—those deductions should be in PENCIL, and the student should, prior to turning work in, conduct a self-assessment. In some cases, I have seen a checklist by the teacher's desk and in other cases (including all of my classes) there was a checklist on top of the test that the student had to complete. It included things such as “Name on paper” and could also include “Labels on each answer.” If a student still fails to label the answer correctly, the appropriate response is not a failing grade, but the requirement that the student do it again—that's why the deduction is in pencil. The lesson I want them to learn is not “I'm a failure in math” but rather “I'd better label my answers or it's a lot of extra work so I might as well do it right the first time.” When the student answers the problem correctly, the deduction can be removed. It's the BEHAVIOR of labeling the problem that I want to reinforce, and my experience suggests that in some cases, it takes more than one-trial learning for that to take place.

Pre and post tests should contain items that are parallel - that is, similar in format and difficulty - but not identical. In math, that's pretty straight-forward - keep the item format nearly identical, but change the numbers. Writing is more tricky, because as your colleague notes, student performance is a combination of writing and their knowledge of the prompt. One way to maximize the impact of writing (and minimize the impact of student knowledge of the prompt content) is to increase the number of prompts - perhaps giving students a choice of three prompts for both the pre- and post- test. When students have choice, they have better engagement. Moreover, when teachers are looking at essays with different prompts and content, they are more likely to focus exclusively on the matter at hand - writing - not the student's knowledge of content from the prompt. There are a number of resources on improved classroom assessment, and I would particularly consider the work of Tom Guskey, Jane Bailey, Bob Marzano (see especially his new book on Classroom Assessment and Grading That Work), and Rick Stiggins. One of my books, Making Standards Work (3rd edition) might be useful to you as well, particularly on the issue of creating assessments that are engaging for students. I'm also publishing new book on assessment this fall that will chapters by Marzano, Stiggins, Guskey, and several other leaders in the field.

I do want to caution that when we try to make classroom assessments too perfect, we make some unfortunate trade-offs. For example, you get higher statistical reliability with more items, but I've seen students and teachers get crushed by 80-item 2-hour tests because a professor told them they need to be "reliable and valid." But a psychometrically perfect assessment that alienates kids and teachers and is so long that the results are not delivered to the students in a timely way is simply a waste of time. Better to do mini-assessments - 12 or 15 items - that may not have the statistical perfection of 80 items, but where students get same-day or next-day feedback, and teachers use the data in real time to improve instruction. You might get more "perfect" assessments by purchasing them from test companies, but then you're simply paying for the professional development of the employees of test companies instead of using those resources to help teachers design and evaluate god assessments. When teachers create the assessments collaboratively and score them together in a fair and consistent manner, they not only gain the value of accurate and timely feedback for students, but they also are much more likely to have alignment between instruction, curriculum, standards, and assessment. Teachers will also be emotionally and professional engaged in assessment rather than having assessment staked on to the top of an already overflowing plate.

Thanks very much for your thoughtful and heart-felt message. We both agree on the need to instill discipline and work ethic in students. I also know that we both are seeking the most effective way to do this. I'm not an ivory-tower theoretician. I'm a teacher and parent genuinely seeking the best way to motivate and engage students to achieve higher levels of performance and personal responsibility. I wish that my 8th grade son, the youngest of four, had teachers as thoughtful and committed as you.

So, let's see if we can find some common ground. For example, we both agree that we should not "give credit for no work" - so how about the use of the zero on a four-point scale rather than on the 100-point scale. This would convey the same message about the penalty for no work that we both agree is important, while not inflating the value of the D - truly awful work - in comparison to no work.

How about a menu system in which the penalty for not submitting work on time is simply more work? When they fail to submit work, the "punishment" is not a zero, but actually doing work - and not copying from their peers who submitted work on time, but selecting different work from the assignment menu.

How about a reward system for submitting work on time? In my classes, I used to provide 50 points for the first draft and 50 points for the final draft. But in the unlikely event that someone submitted a pluperfect essay on the first submission, I wrote "100 points - no rewrite necessary." Word quickly spread that the way to "get over" in my class was to do it right the first time.

I'm genuinely seeking solutions here, and I do not have the conceit that I have solved this very vexing dilemma. Thanks for taking the time to engage this very challenging issue.