Sherman ISD credits a daily 30-minute 'drafting' period for a 24-point jump in sixth-grade math at Piner

Sherman ISD says a scheduling change at Piner Middle School, where students are pulled into small groups for half an hour every day, has paid off on state tests, and the district has now spread it to all of its secondary campuses.

The approach is called "drafting." Teachers meet, look at several kinds of student data and decide which students need extra help on a particular skill and which are ready for harder material. Those students are then assigned, or drafted, into small groups built around that skill, the district explained in a post on its website Thursday, Oct. 22.

What the numbers show

Piner was the pilot campus and has used drafting for the past two school years. Over that stretch, the district says, STAAR results climbed, and in a single year the share of Piner sixth graders meeting grade level in math rose by 24 percentage points. The post does not give the starting or ending percentages.

Piner administrators have since been asked to present the method to other educators at the Region 10 Education Service Center.

How the period works

To make room for it, Piner set aside a 30-minute advisory block each day. Students who are drafted go to a specific teacher for instruction; everyone else works on IXL, an online program that adjusts its goals as each student progresses. Fridays are given over to campus clubs.

Principal Jeff Chancellor said the goal was to turn data into "instructional action" during a fixed time each day without overloading teachers. He said the groups change from week to week, and that his leadership team makes a point of rotating enrichment and intervention so every student gets drafted at some point.

The district says that mix is meant to keep the groups from carrying a stigma.

"Drafting allows teachers to intervene when students may not immediately grasp a concept and give them more support," Chancellor said.

Carolyn Bridges, who teaches eighth-grade English language arts and reading at Piner, said the system shows teachers which standards need more work and gives them more one-on-one time with students.

Drafting now runs at every Sherman ISD secondary campus under the district's multi-tiered system of supports, the framework it uses to catch academic, behavioral and social-emotional problems early. Elementary schools use rotating small-group instruction for the same purpose.

Sources

shermanisd.net