Student-led Conferences for Proficiency Based Learning

Since its founding in the 1970s, U-32 High School has prided itself on its progressive, student-centered culture. Today we have a tremendous opportunity to continue this legacy. Proficiency-based learning allows us to scrutinize traditional practices. Over the past few years at U-32 we’ve updated our curriculum, our assessments, and our reporting systems. But a simple question remains: What will a teacher’s and student’s day look like under a non-time-based system?

Traditionally, students were required to attend class for a set number of hours, for a set number of days. But under the new proficiency-based system, time is no longer a constant; it’s a variable. Of course, the length of the school day and the school year haven’t changed. But within those parameters, how much time do we need to teach a subject, and how should that time be spent? Do some subjects require daily meetings, while others require longer, less-frequent ones? Will some classes benefit from meeting sometimes in smaller groups, and other times in larger ones? What about individual conferencing? Is all of a student’s time best spent meeting in whole-class settings?

My project will seek to answer the question of how we can creatively use our new freedom from time to best serve students. How can we free up teachers to work individually with students—for interventions, for enrichment, as content advisers, or as academic coaches? And how can we do so in ways that are sustainable for teachers and students, while preserving what worked about the traditional system?

Two years ago, I stumbled onto one solution: I began teaching four classes instead of five, with the fifth period devoted to individual conferences with students. This shift asked me to accept larger sections in exchange for greater individual attention and progress monitoring. The reports from students were overwhelmingly positive, so much so that this year my entire department adopted the model.

Next year I will conduct a broad review of our instructional practices. I will focus specifically on ways we can leverage our new freedom from the Carnegie Unit to prioritize individual instruction. I hope to study and fine-tune our existing conferencing model, with an eye toward expanding it beyond English classes. I also hope to investigate other promising instructional models that facilitate individualized and targeted learning. More broadly, I’ll conduct a needs assessment of staff, students, and parents around the areas of teaching practices, instructional systems, and our school day, with an eye toward redesigning our schedule and improving our practices to align with what works best for student learning.