Intensive Care Unit
Rationale - Problem Failure rates at the end of the fall 2013 semester: Number of Courses Failed Total number 1 2 3 4 5 or of students more 9th -12th 343 70 29 30 24 38 grade
Rationale - Problem In the prior seven years, our campus had tried a variety of late work policies, all with the rationale that strict late work policies deterred students from turning in late work and prepared them for college. These policies were made without data to support them, and even went against highly respected colleagues in the field of education, such as Rudy Payne, and how to serve students of poverty. What we were doing was not working, and we had to do something drastically different.
Literature Review Power of ICU by Danny Hill, Dr. Darin Jolly, and Dr. Jayson Nave “We chose ICU because it implies that if a student’s grade is sick, we will do everything we can to get them back to being a responsible, independent worker and learner.” “The ultimate goal is for the student to learn the material.”
Background ICU stands for Intensive Care Unit When a student fails to turn in work and accumulates zeros, they tend ● to fail the class. Teachers are often left wondering if the student didn’t complete the ● work because they did not understand, if they did not have the resources/materials, or if they just didn’t do it. On our campus, we changed our philosophy to be that grades should ● reflect mastery not behavior. And zeros are a behavior.
CCU Stands for Critical Care Unit The idea of the Critical Care Unit came about because students were ● accumulating so many assignments in ICU without an end in sight. Our A,B, C scheduled only allowed for students to attend ICU on A & B Days when they had Learning Communities. When administration was first approached with the idea of CCU after ● school on Fridays, it was determined that it would not work over concern of staffing the CCU since our entire staff of teachers have to be in Professional Development every Friday from 2pm - 4pm. Our solution to monitoring the CCU was to use of Aggie Mentors and ● Tutors, and then at 4pm, when Professional Development ends, the teacher who signed up for the week takes over.
About ICU/CCU ICU and CCU eliminated zeros in the gradebook and deductions for any ● late assignments. (For the 2016 - 2017 school year, a maximum grade deduction of 10% at the freshman level, 20% at the sophomore level, and no deduction at the junior/senior level) The ICU room is fully stocked with any materials that students could ● need to complete assignments. Computers are available for students who need them. ● Every content area is represented in ICU, students cannot use the ● excuse that they do not understand how to do something when a teacher can assist.
More About ICU/CCU ICU does not take the place of teacher tutorials. ● Aggie Mentors/Tutors help with the ICU and CCU ● ICU takes place during the school day, so the excuse of transportation, ● work, home responsibilities can never serve as an excuse not to attend ICU. A Monday morning ICU session has recently been added to ● accommodate students CCU takes place at the end of the day, Friday, when students who have ● not been assigned to CCU get to go home early. ICU/CCU does not punish students, but serves as an intervention that ● allows teachers to see the difference in behavior versus mastery/non-mastery
Procedures Step 1: When a student fails to turn in an assignment whether it be homework, a class assignment, or major assignment on time, they are given an ICU slip, and added to the ICU roster for the following day. Students can also be assigned for unsatisfactory work. Step 2: ICU takes place during lunch and Learning Communities Monday - Thursday giving students an hour and twenty minutes to complete assignments on the ICU list. Step 3: Assignments not completed during ICU are automatically put on the ICU list for the following day and students attend ICU missing their traditional lunch and Learning Community until zero assignments occur on the list.
Procedures Step 4: At the end of ICU on Thursday, any student who has an assignment still on the list is automatically assigned to CCU. Step 5: CCU takes place after school on Friday from 2pm until the student completes everything on the list Step 6: If the teacher in charge of CCU for Friday night closes CCU and the student still has an assignment on the list, the student must return to school the following day for Saturday School.
Data Analysis Semester Fall Spring Fall Spring Fall Spring Fall 2013 2014 2014 2015 2015 2016 2016 Failure Rate 39.4% 10.4% 13.1% 9.36% 17.3% 15.0% 10.2% (Without Blinn)
Conclusion The use of ICU and CCU combined dropped our failure rate by over ● 50%. Assignments and class grades now allow teachers to see when a ● student does not understand the material, and appropriate reteaching and or tutorials can take place. Grades reflect mastery of content not behavior. ● Students perform better on unit exams because they have had to do all ● the assignments intended to practice the content. Students are learning and grades reflect that learning ● Tier II and III interventions have been and continue to be created in a ● more effective manner since ruling out the behavior of not completing assignments
Limitations and Barriers A few teachers are not on board with the ICU system and do not use it ● appropriately (this hurts the process for everyone especially students) a few teachers argue that grades are inflated, instead of taking the ○ philosophy of mastery versus non-mastery a few teachers are not organized enough to manage assigning ICU ○ a few teachers believe that students should be punished with ○ grade penalties for not turning in an assignment on time Students will cheat or superficially complete an assignment to avoid ● ICU placement although when we catch it students are assigned to ICU again.
Limitations and Barriers Upperclassmen cannot always attend ICU Monday - Thursday because ● they are at Blinn in class When the ICU numbers are high and the ICU room is packed, it is a ● challenge to keep students on task ICU has been split into 3 rooms to help with overcrowding and ○ classroom management The daily organization is time consuming although we have worked out ● many of the issues: our google form and spreadsheet has been coded to process data ○ more efficiently a parent link phone call is sent of when a teacher puts an “M” in ○ the gradebook for an assignment alerting the parent that their child has been assigned to ICU a paraprofessional helps with the daily tasks required with ICU ○
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