The WOW School - The Design Qualities

Schlechty, Phillip C.:  Working on the Work, Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, 2002, pp.22-30.

Standard 1:  Patterns of Engagement:  Nearly all classes are highly engaged, and when they are not, teachers make every possible effort to redesign the pattern of activity in the classroom so that more students are authentically engaged.

• Are most students, most of the time, authentically engaged in the tasks they are assigned?
• Do teachers intentionally plan the work they provide to students in ways that reflect attention to building in those qualities that show the most promise of increasing authentic engagement?
• When the pattern of student engagement differs from that which teachers want or expect, do teachers analyze the work produced to discover what might account for the difficulty, or they instead seek first to explain away the lack of engagement as due to factors beyond their control?
• Do teachers commonly work together to analyze the characteristics of the work they are providing students?  Do they provide each other with assistance and advice regarding ways of making the work more engaging to students?
• Is there evidence that over time, the level of authentic engagement has increased and the amount of rebellion, retreatism, and passive compliance have decreased?

Standard 2:  Student Achievement:  Parents, teachers, the principal, and the board of education, as well as others who have a stake in the performance of schools, are satisfied with the level and type of learning that are occurring.

• Are there solid data on which to base judgments regarding student achievement?
• Are the data available sufficient to persuade those who need to be persuaded (parents, teachers, community leaders, state officials) that they have an accurate picture of the level of student achievement in the school?
• Are parents satisfied that their children are progressing as they believe the should progress and learning what they need to learn?
• Are those who "receive" students from the school satisfied that students from the school are learning what they need to learn to succeed in their environment?
• Do students who have attended the school believe that they have learned what they needed to learn while in attendance?  Do they have an overall favorable judgment of the quality of their experience in the school?

Standard 3:  Content and Substance.  Teachers and administrators have a clear, consistent, and shared understanding of what students are expected to know and to be able to do at various grade levels.  This understanding is consistent with such official statements of expectations as state standards and standards established by local boards.  Teachers and administrators also have a reasonable assessment of student interest in the topics suggested by these expectations and standards.

Engagement - How Students Respond to School Tasks

Schlechty, Phillip C.:  Working on the Work, Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco, 2002, p. 3.

"If students become engaged in the right 'stuff,' they are likely to learn what we want them to learn."

Authentic Engagement:  The task, activity, or work the student is assigned or encouraged to undertake is associated with a result or outcome that has clear meaning and relatively immediate value to the student.

• reading a book on a topic of personal interest to the student or getting access to information that the student needs to solve a problem of real interest to him or her.

Ritual Engagement:  The immediate end of the assigned work has little or no inherent meaning or direct value to the students, but the student associates it with extrinsic outcomes and results that are of value.

• reading a book in order to pass a test or to earn grades needed to be accepted at college.

Passive Compliance:  The student is willing to expend whatever effort is needed to avoid negative consequences, although he or she sees little meaning in the tasks assigned or the consequences of doing those tasks.

Retreatism:  The student is disengaged from the tasks, expends no energy in attempting to comply with the demands of the tasks, but does not act in ways that disrupt others and does not try to substitute other activities for the assigned task.

Rebellion:  The student summarily refuses to do the task assigned, acts in ways that disrupt others, or attempts to substitute tasks and activities which he or she is committed in lieu of those assigned or supported by the school and by the teacher.