1. What is LtoJ®?
LtoJ®is a formative assessment system with regular data for students,
classrooms, and schools. Educators know precisely any day of the school
year, if students, individually and collectively are on target to meet end of
the year standards. Combined are the education initiatives of alignment,
standards-based assessment, increased student engagement, and item
analysis with the organizational initiatives of teamwork, building upon
intrinsic motivation and the power of positive leadership.
Some readers will immediately recognize this combination of initiatives as
quality in education, quality improvement or using 5 whys.
Unique to the LtoJ® process is taking away permission to forget, reducing
teacher paperwork, measuring student enthusiasm, and previewing
content yet to be taught.
Positive results build upon the intrinsic motivaton of educators as well as
students.
Lee Jenkins is the principal consultant and speaker with L to J consulting
group. Click to view a typical evaluation by seminar participants.
2. Formative Assessment
Formative assessments provide process data. How are we
doing? Does it look like we’ll meet end of year
expectations?
The formative LtoJ® process includes these steps:
1. Inform students in writing what they will learn for the
year (or course). See Example
2. Randomly select items from the end of the year
expectations for weekly non-graded quizzes. (The
recommended number of weekly questions is the square
root of the total concepts for the year).
3. Students graph their progress and know if they are on
target to learn the year’s content by the end of the year.
4. Student Assessment
Students own
their own
formative
assessment data;
it is not kept in a
teacher folder.
The next slide is
from high school
students in
advanced
physiology.
The age of the
student does not
matter; it is the
ownership of the
student
assessment that
counts.
6. Classroom Assessment
What normally passes for
“classroom assessment” is
not really assessment of
the classroom; it is a
collection of student
assessments. A grade
book, for example is not
classroom assessment; it is
a collection of student
assessments in one place.
This is best understood in The graph above is classroom assessment in that
athletics where we have it adds up the total for the class each
data for each athlete and assessment. This total can be items correct
data for the team. when assessing background knowledge or it can
be adding up rubric scores when assessing
. performance.
8. Standards Based Assessment
Standards-based assessment sounds wonderful; the
problem is that standards are not usually specific
enough for student assessment. The standards are the
foundation, but not enough. For example, a
reasonable standard is for students to know major
locations in South America.
Students need to know which locations. We spell this out
place by place. Are students being assessed against
the standards? Yes. But even more importantly, they
are being assessed against the essential content
derived from the standards.
9. In any organization, when things go
5 Whys awry, people have two choices:
blame people or blame the
system. If the same problem
occurs over and over, it is a
system problem and people
need to ask why, why, why, why,
and why some more until they
find out why.
The book Permission to Forget:
And Nine Root Causes of
America’s Frustration with
Education is an attempt to ask
why 5 times to discover what is
beneath the surface.
10. Standards for
Students
• Geographic
literacy
• Yikes!
10
11. Student
Engagement
The survey results at the
right are from the Iredell-
Statesville, NC School Impact On Student Engagement
District. Results were
28
compiled from a teacher 30
25
24
survey one year after the 20
initial LtoJ workshop.
Dots
14
15
10
The combination of the 5 2 2 1
elements described in the 0
first slide create this positive Level 0 Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5
impact upon student
engagement.
As John Maxwell, stated, 0=Just started, too soon to tell; 1=No impact; 3=Some
“People need a point for positive impact; 5=Strong positive impact
their head and a picture for
their heart.” This seems to
be one of the key insights for
http://johnmaxwellonleadership.com/
student engagement.
13. Intrinsic Motivation
Students are born with all the intrinsic motivation they need for life.
Almost all five year olds enter kindergarten with this intrinsic
motivation intact.
The issue for educators is NOT to motivate students, but to figure out
how to keep the motivation they bring with them to school. The
10,000 incentives students receive between kindergarten and grade
12 are not doing the trick.
In LtoJ seminars 1342 teachers were asked what grade they taught and
what percent of students loved school in their grade level. The
results, grade level by grade level, are on the next slide.
Educators should not be defensive when they see these results; they
are not causing this on purpose. It is basically relying upon extrinsic
motivation instead of protecting intrinsic motivation, that is causing
the decline.
14. Loss of Enthusiasm for School
100 95
Survey results from 1342 teachers attending LtoJ seminars
90 during 2009. Question was, "What grade level do you teach
90 and what percent of students love school at your grade level?
82
P L 80 76
74
e o
r v 70 65
c e
60 55
e 51
50 48 45
n S
t c 39 40
40 37
h
W o 30
h o
20
o l
10
0
K 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Grade Level
15. High Standards
High standards should pertain to high
expectations for what is learned, not high
standards for any particular method. In other
words, teachers state clearly the content to be
learned and the quality of projects to be
completed. Students have choices on
methods they employ to learn the curriculum.
There are multiple ways for a student to prove
they have met the high standards.
16. Quality in Education
For educators who know the work of Dr. W. Edwards Deming
the term quality in education has a particular meaning.
The history of the word quality has to do with comparing it
to quantity. In manufacturing it is not, how many you
made (quantity), but does your product work over a long
period of time (quality).
The education work for quantity is “cover.” The quality word
is “learn.” It doesn’t really matter if the curriculum is
“covered.” “Can the students prove knowledge several
years later?” is the measure of quality.
The theory behind LtoJ® seminars comes from the work of W.
Edwards Deming. This theory is not about better
teaching, but better leadership of the learning.
17. Quality Improvement
Quality improvement is getting better. It is not about meeting
arbitrary goals, but about always doing better than in the
past.
The psychology for student engagement is significant.
Suppose a class of students know 53% of the year’s content
and they are challenged to know 60%. In fact, after the
next assessment they know 58%. Instead of being
encouraged by achieving their all-time-best, they are
discouraged by not meeting the goal. Dr. Deming called
these arbitrary goals as “pulling numbers out of the air.”
The next slide shows a school goal. It is set as improving over
last year.
18. Education Speaker
A typical evaluation from Lee Jenkins’ seminars.
On a 1-5 scale, 50 participants
Clear information: 4.94
Prepared speaker 4.94
Materials 4.82
Overall evaluation 4.96
Recommend to Others 4.9
19. Alignment
The most important alignment is alignment with each other.
Of course, using state standards is a guide, but educators
must align with each other. This means there are no
duplicates on essential content from grade level to grade
level.
How is alignment done now? The students are
questioned, “You had this last year, right?” And what do
the students say? “We never saw that!” The adults need
to be in charge of alignment. Now, we say, “I have the list
of key concepts from the past three years in my hand. I’ll
provide a copy to everybody. If you see something you do
not remember, talk to me. However, we are beginning on
the content for this year’s essential learnings day one of the
school year.”
20. Teamwork
The true measure of a leader is getting people to work
hard together!
John Maxwell, Talent is Never Enough, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, TN, 2007
When implementing LtoJ, it is not uncommon for a classroom of students to
praise the success of a lower performing student. Why? It is because when
the total correct items or the total rubric scores are added up, everybody
counts. When a star is placed on the wall for every student over 80%
correct, there is no team and lower performing students are normally
discouraged, not encouraged. However, when the lower performing student
moves from 1 correct to 2 correct and this one question puts the classroom over
the top, everyone feels a part of the team. The next slide is a graph of a classroom
with an all-time-best by only one question!
21.
22. Students complete item analysis
for both individuals and the class
as a whole.
Individual Classroom
23. Extrinsic Motivation
It’s not working. On the average students are given
five incentives a day. In elementary school this
includes stickers, pencils, popcorn parties, and
more recess time. In secondary schools incentives
are typically grades, movies, and food.
Five incentives a day times 180 days times 13 years
equals 11,700 incentives American kids receive
between kindergarten and graduation.
If extrinsic motivation worked, almost all Americans
would be happy with their education system.
24. Leadership in Education
“Leadership in influence; nothing more, nothing
less,” writes John Maxwell in The 21 Irrefutable
Laws of Leadership.
The LtoJ® process is primarily designed to increase
the influence teachers and administrators have on
the lives of their students. For example, if 80% of
students kept their kindergarten level of
enthusiasm for learning, instead of the current
40%, what a powerful influence that would be on
the next generation of adults.
25. The “L” is for the
beginning of the
school year.
25
26. The “Bell” is for the Middle of the Year
Kindergarten
27. J Curve
For some unknown reason if too
many students are
successful, educators are accused of
grade inflation instead of being
congratulated for success with
students. The notion that the bell-
curve is the goal never has made
sense, but it is not enough to be
against the bell-curve. The goal is
to create the “J” curve. The bell is
for the middle of the school year.
28. Title I
Successful implementation of LtoJ® in Title I
schools has been very rewarding. For
example, the graph on next slide from Paradise
Valley Unified’s eleven Title I schools shows a
dramatic increase on Arizona state exams. It is a
composite graph of all reading, all writing, all
math, and all grade levels. When a process is
introduced that students and teachers love AND
the test scores increase, everybody wins.
29. Paradise Valley Title I AIMS Composite Graph
71.50%
70.10%
69.50% UCL 69.45%
67.50%
66.60%
65.50%
CL 64.48%
64.40%
64.20%
63.50%
62.70%
Percent Meet or Exceed Standards
61.50%
59.50% LCL 59.51%
57.50%
55.50%
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
30. Permission to
Forget®
Beginning in first grade spelling
American students are taught
how to cram and earn a positive
grade. Even though teachers
don’t tell the students they have
“permission to forget,” students
soon realize they don’t have to
know these words on Monday.
The process of cram, earn a
grade, and forget is then
transferred over to chapter tests.
Can you imaging what education
would be like if we never gave
credit for crammed learning, but
only for what was in long-term
memory? It is possible to take Note that the 5th grade math LtoJ® quiz
away “Permission to Forget” has two 4th questions and one 3rd
today.
question. At all grades in all subjects
students are expected to remember prior
year’s content.
31. Reducing Teacher Paperwork
Teachers find almost no correlation between the hours they
spend grading papers and student learning, according to
questionnaires provided to 1342 teachers. Time is not well-
spent.
The recommendation is for teachers to grade 20% of the
papers and 80% of the time randomly sample 5 papers per
class, conduct an item analysis and teach to the errors.
The structure is the same as for the football coach: 4
practices, 1 game, 4 practices, 1 game, etc.
For teachers it is practice with item analysis 4 times, then
grade, practice 4 times with item analysis, grade, etc.
For manufacturers the aim is better quality products at less
cost. For educators the aim is better learning in less time.
32. Measuring Student Enthusiasm
It may well be that the most important information
needed for success in education is student
enthusiasm for learning. If students merely
retained their kindergarten level of enthusiasm
when they entered high school, think about the
possibilities.
The process is (1) asking students, on a regular
basis, their attitude toward the subject being taught
and (2) listening to student suggestions for
improvement. A possible scale for student
feedback is hate, dislike, OK, like, love.
33.
34. Previewing Content
The synonym for LtoJ® is review-preview.
Students are continually reviewed on prior
content and are continually introduced to
content that may not be taught for several more
months. The preview lessons are 30-45 seconds
long followed by an estimate of when in the
school year the particular content will be taught.
Students love being introduced to content that
will not be fully explained for several months.
36. School Goal is To Outperform Last Year
January school-wide total gives
hope that students will
outperform prior year’s best
score and meet goal.
37. No Permission to Forget
The Lexington, NE weekly
LtoJ® math quizzes have
seven questions randomly
selected from the current
year expectations, two
randomly selected from
the prior year’s standards
and one question from two
years prior.
This practice allows
teachers to start much
earlier teaching the
current year’s content and
review is continuous all
year.
38. Results
Maple Glen Elementary School, north of Indianapolis in the Westfield
Washington School District administered the same exam to students in
the spring and the following fall when they returned for the next
grade. They wanted to know if the LtoJ® increased retention over the
summer. Their results are:
• 1st grade- 94%
• 2nd grade- 86%
• 3rd grade- 88%
• 4th grade- 89
Most often results are reported as state exam results. Click on the
links for results from Title I schools and high school biology.
Title I
Biology
39.
40. High School Biology, Jenks, OK
Percent Proficiency of Sub-Groups on the ACE/EOI Biology Exam
2003-2010 Jenks Public Schools
Regular Education FAY
2003 HS
(Full Academic
Year)** 2004 HS
100% 2005 HS
Female 90% American Indian** 2006 HS
80% 2007 HS
70%
2007 FA
60%
2008 FA
50%
Male** 40%
Asian 2009 FA
30% 2010 FA
20%
10% HS High School
0% FA Freshman Academy
(In 2007 Biology was
English Language transferred from grade
African American**
Learners** 10 to grade 9)
Data points towards
the outside indicate a
Special Education Hispanic** higher level of success
for that subgroup.
** All-Time-Best
Free/Reduced
White**
Lunch**
41. Any Day of the
Year!
The students in this classroom
answered 40% of the
questions on an end-of-the-
year LtoJ quiz. It was on the
51st day of the school year.
The students calculated they
had used 28% of the school
year.
It is quite motivating for
students to know they are
ahead in their learning – by
12% in this example.
