"Quality is not an act, it is a habit."
~ Aristotle
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Defining High Quality Work
The creation of student work that is of high quality is at the heart of what we do at Brighten Academy Charter School. This is no small thing. It is not accidental and is always the result of high intention and sincere effort. The team of educators at BACS strive to provide the intelligent direction to enable our students to skillfully execute the tasks we assign. To accomplish this, we work to instill in students a desire to create quality work and an ability to identify what "quality work" looks and sounds like. Our goal, in the end, is for our students to strive to produce work of high quality when no one else is looking. |
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At Brighten, we deeply engage in Core Practice 12, Planning for and Supporting High-Quality Student Work. We use this core practice to help us define and monitor quality and create a culture of excellence. As an EL school, we use the following three descriptors to help students understand and strive for quality work: complexity, craftsmanship, and authenticity:
• For us, high-quality work is complex and students should demonstrate critical or higher order thinking, as well as the ability to transfer knowledge and understanding.
• Second, quality work must demonstrate craftsmanship through accuracy and beauty in both conception and execution. Students endeavor to produce a product to attract attention and to force their audience to appreciate the effort.
• Finally, quality work must be, in some way, authentic. By authenticity, we mean that the student’s work should demonstrate original thinking, voice, or passion; it should demonstrate some connection to real-world issues, and maybe, most of all, it should have some purpose and audience beyond the bulletin board in the hallway or refrigerator door at home.
• For us, high-quality work is complex and students should demonstrate critical or higher order thinking, as well as the ability to transfer knowledge and understanding.
• Second, quality work must demonstrate craftsmanship through accuracy and beauty in both conception and execution. Students endeavor to produce a product to attract attention and to force their audience to appreciate the effort.
• Finally, quality work must be, in some way, authentic. By authenticity, we mean that the student’s work should demonstrate original thinking, voice, or passion; it should demonstrate some connection to real-world issues, and maybe, most of all, it should have some purpose and audience beyond the bulletin board in the hallway or refrigerator door at home.
Contextualizing Quality
The Formula - Fi/T(KSHF) = GROWTH
(Focused intensity, over time, multiplied by Kind, Specific Helpful Feedback, equals Growth.)
It is generally understood that the judgment on the quality of teaching must take account of evidence of pupils’ learning and growth over time. As we have grown as an EL network school, we have strategically focused our efforts on Designing Case Studies (Core Practice 6), Incorporating Fieldwork, Experts, and Service Learning (Core Practice 7), and Designing Projects and Products (Core Practice 8). As we have focused on these core practices, we have seen remarkable growth in all attributes of quality. We evaluate the students' growth in high quality work by analyzing student work samples through a collaborative process called a Quality Work Protocol (QWP). Since the spring of 2015, our faculty has been completing QWPs to review both the short and long-term tasks that students from each grade complete. The QWPs also provide us with a lens through which to view our own practices, as well as a springboard for us to use as we grow into the next year. The claims below tell the story of the growth of our students and their ability to create high-quality work.
(Focused intensity, over time, multiplied by Kind, Specific Helpful Feedback, equals Growth.)
It is generally understood that the judgment on the quality of teaching must take account of evidence of pupils’ learning and growth over time. As we have grown as an EL network school, we have strategically focused our efforts on Designing Case Studies (Core Practice 6), Incorporating Fieldwork, Experts, and Service Learning (Core Practice 7), and Designing Projects and Products (Core Practice 8). As we have focused on these core practices, we have seen remarkable growth in all attributes of quality. We evaluate the students' growth in high quality work by analyzing student work samples through a collaborative process called a Quality Work Protocol (QWP). Since the spring of 2015, our faculty has been completing QWPs to review both the short and long-term tasks that students from each grade complete. The QWPs also provide us with a lens through which to view our own practices, as well as a springboard for us to use as we grow into the next year. The claims below tell the story of the growth of our students and their ability to create high-quality work.
