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Home > About CES > Results for Kids > CSRD Study
Academic Rigor in a Real World Setting:
Ohio Middle School
One CES CSRD middle school, which serves 330 students in a small Ohio city, continuously engages students in critical thinking and problem solving. During the 2000 – 2001 school year, as part of a school-wide initiative to involve all students in problem based learning, the sixth grade math teacher invited the manager of a local toy store to help her develop a real-life problem in which students worked as researchers and advertisers. The problem aimed to develop students’ ability to collect data, to graph results, and to interpret data in writing. Students carried out the following task:
Every year customers ask for gift suggestions for their hard-to-buy-for middle school students. The toy store is asking our help in making gift suggestions. You are to create a two-fold flyer that will include a picture of the gift, graphs to support your gift suggestion, and an essay to persuade the reader to purchase the gift. Remember to find out what other middle school students are interested in before making a suggestion.
Students surveyed their peers across the district to assess their desires and the amount of money that families typically spend on holiday purchases. They then selected toys that aligned with their peers’ interests and created fliers that the store displayed near the recommended toys. Through this task students collected, analyzed and reported on survey data using charts, graphs, and text – core mathematical and research tools. Students expressed excitement about providing a valuable service to the store and seeing their work displayed publicly. The teacher captured the motivational value of such in-depth and personalized learning experiences:
I could have taught charts and graphs a lot quicker, but the students are really getting into this [toy store project]. They feel there’s a sense of urgency and that it’s real life.
The toy store unit was not an isolated occurrence in this middle school. All teachers create tasks that solve real or simulated problems, build on students’ interests and characteristics, link to the community, and require written or oral presentations. The school’s CES Coach and the information specialist work closely with teachers to design problem based learning experiences. They help teachers who are comfortable with the approach refine their ideas and gather resources. They help teachers who are new to this approach brainstorm possible units and walk through the full process of planning and conducting a unit. Following the implementation of the units, the coach, the information specialist, and the teachers discuss how the units went, the quality of students’ responses, and what strategies teachers might use to strengthen the units in the future.
Rising Student Achievement on the Ohio Proficiency Test
Changes in teaching aimed at increasing academic rigor help us understand substantial increases in the two Ohio middle schools’ math and reading scores on the Ohio Proficiency Tests. These tests require students to demonstrate that they can think at higher levels and focus on big ideas. In 2001, the schools’ second year working with CES, the percentage of students passing the Math and Reading tests jumped dramatically. Between 1997 and 2000, the combined percentage of students passing the Math and Reading tests hovered around 40%. In contrast, almost 60% of students passed these tests in 2001, bringing these schools (which have historically been viewed as failing schools) in line with the overall state averages.
Page last updated: November 27, 2002
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