Scholar Work is a Reflection of Teacher Practice: How to Improve Outcomes Fast

In most schools across America, scholar work is seen as a reflection of kids and their ability to master concepts. At Success Academy, the inverse is true: scholar work reflects the adults and their ability to achieve mastery. Scholar work directly represents the teacher’s level of intellectual demand and ability to get results.

For many teachers, using scholar work in this way is a shift. You may have heard something like, “Kayla just doesn’t understand,” or “This concept is just too hard for second grade,” or “Steven has an IEP.” These are excuses and rarely what is holding kids back from mastery; most often, the teacher was not effective in their instruction.

Looking at scholar work forces us to hold the mirror to our own practice and identify how we, as adults, must improve. Through studying work daily, we can pinpoint the instructional moves that led to those results and make strategic decisions about changing our practice to improve student outcomes.

When analyzing scholar work, there are five key qualities we can learn about a teacher’s practice and efficacy:

What instructional changes will you make to improve student outcomes today? Please share your ideas with us at [email protected]!