Course Overview

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Purpose of the Course	General Class Structure	Reading Assignments	Proficiency Probes
Class Session	Attendance	Grading	Miscellaneous Considerations

Purpose of the Course

The purpose of the course is to prepare each student with skills to collect precise and objective information concerning pupil performance and progress, and to make timely and appropriate instructional decisions based upon that information. Specifically, the course will consider:

The core of the course will be Precision Teaching, a highly standardized approach to the practical, objective, and quantitative evaluation of student performance and learning on a daily basis. I will also try to place those procedures into a broad context of other assessment concerns and issues teachers must face (e.g., the Washington Assessment of Student Learning) and qualitative ways of “cross-validating” the results of our quantitative assessments.

General Class Structure

The course will employ reading assignments, out-of-class preparation for a series of probes assessing the material and skills to be learned, brief class lectures over assigned material, class discussions, and class projects.

Reading Assignments

Most required and recommended reading materials can be downloaded from the class web site. Occasionally, links are provided to other web sites where materials can be obtained. A list of reading materials can be found by clicking on the Readings tab of the class web site. Specific weekly assignments are provided in the class Syllabus.

Proficiency Probes

A number of “probes” will be used to provide opportunities to practice and evaluate the skills taught in this class. Each probe is described in more detail in the class syllabus or probe page; and special materials required can be found on the materials page of this site.

Probe	Purpose	Description	Grading	Retake?
Say Facts	Evaluate fluency in basic terms and concepts.	Given a list of 300+ “facts”, the student will recite the responses to a randomly ordered set of printed stimuli.	Timed fluency; final recitation must be in presence of instructor.	Yes, until the student is satisfied with grade.
Write Facts	Ensure students keep up with material on a weekly basis.	Write the responses to 10 randomly sampled stimuli drawn from the “facts”.	Untimed accuracy. Completed in presence of instructor.	No, but see “maintenance” probe, below.
Fluency Probes	Ensure basic evaluation skills can be applied quickly and easily.	Basic skills (e.g., charting performances) assessed with representative materials.	Timed fluency; final assessment in presence of instructor.	Yes, until the student is satisfied with grade.
Other Special Probes	Evaluate ability to complete various tasks.	Take-home assignments.	Accuracy; untimed.	Yes, until the student is satisfied with grade.
Learner-Manager Project	Evaluate ability to manage of own learning.	Report of student’s progress in learning say/write facts.	Completeness; untimed. Completed out of class.	Yes, if time allows before the end of the quarter.
Teacher-Manager Project	Evaluate ability to facilitate another person’s learning.	Report of student’s attempt to assist another person in learning.	Completeness; untimed. Completed out of class.	Yes, if time allows before the end of the quarter.
Maintenance Probe	Evaluate retention of basic facts and concepts; afford opportunity to raise write-fact grades.	A sample of write-fact probes (10 facts for each section of material covered during the course).	Accuracy.	No. The maintenance probe may be taken only once.

Materials: Paper materials required for assignments can be found on the materials page of the class web site. If they do not already have one, students might find it helpful to acquire a simple stopwatch or other timing device. They can be found for as little as $9 in most stores selling watches.

Class Session

Each class session will be divided into the following periods (times are approximate).

Independent Study/Consultation (10 minutes): Working alone or in small groups on assigned materials, picking up materials, retrieving papers submitted earlier for grading, and submitting assigned work. The instructor will be available to conduct individual probes and answer questions.

Discussion (80 minutes): Class discussion of the material assigned for that week. The instructor might make a brief presentation of key concepts, but students should be sure to ask questions of specific interest to them.

Write-Fact Probe (15 minutes): Time to complete the write-fact probe(s) over the material assigned for that class session. If additional time is required, the instructor will be willing to remain after class. Any probe may also be taken during the independent study time. When the student is finished with the probe, they may being their break (see below).

Break: A brief break of circa 5 minutes. The instructor might lose track of time, so students should feel free to remind him of the need for breaks.

Lecture/Demonstration (45 minutes): A brief overview of the assignments for the coming week and demonstrations of the skills to be learned.

Attendance

Attendance at any given class or portion of a class is optional. Students will only be held responsible for completing all assignments by the end of the term and participating in at least some of the class discussions sessions.

Grading

Grading will be based on an adaptation of O.R. Lindsley's average performance product. Essentially, each assignment will be graded in terms of it’s ratio to the assignment’s performance aim, where “x1.0” (“times-one”) means that the performance aim was met; “divide by” grades mean that the aim was not met, and grades of greater than x1.0 mean that the aim was exceeded. The final grade will then be determined by multiplying all the assignment grades together and determining an average performance product. The main implication of this system is that all assignments must be completed, since multiplying any average for the other assignments by zero would result in a zero final grade.

The various assignments will contribute to the final grade in the following proportions:

25% Say Facts
25% All weekly Write Facts, combined
25% All other Special Probes, combined
25% Project Notebook (including both your learner-manager project and your teacher-manager project)

Details concerning grading standards and practices can be found in the grades section of the class web site.

Grading Privacy: In order to respect your wishes concerning the privacy of your grades, you will be asked to select one of the following options: (1) waiving your rights to privacy and sharing a “common” hand-back folder with the rest of the class; or (2) submitting your work in an envelop with your name on it, and having it returned in the same envelop. In order to both hand-in and retrieve work during the same class, you would need to have at least two envelops for the second option.

Miscellaneous Considerations

Missed Assignments and Special Probes only need to be completed prior to the end of the quarter. Formal timings and assessments outside class may be scheduled with the instructor.

Folders & Lists: The instructor will bring folders to class for hand-ins and hand-backs. A binder will also be brought containing samples of all class probes, in case students wish to work ahead of the class, make up missed probes, or raise the grade on a probe they are allowed to re-take.

Please-Bring Notes: If you need the instructor to bring something to the next class, write a note and place it in the "hand-in" folder, call the instructor at 543-4011, or (perhaps best) send him an email (owhite@u.washington.edu).

Last Reviewed/Updated: 11/29/2004 11:28 AM