Highlights from Our 2020-21 Program Evaluation
For the third straight school year, we partnered with university researchers to evaluate our impacts on both students and teachers. (See Year 1 and Year 2 findings.) This year's evaluation was the first to analyze our impacts during COVID, as well as our effects on teachers' long-term attitudes towards the profession.
Here are five key findings from this year’s evaluation.
1. Modern Classroom educators felt better able to differentiate instruction and work closely with students.
Halfway through the 2020-21 school year, a sample of MCP and non-MCP teachers were surveyed about their classroom practices. Results showed that Modern Classroom teachers felt significantly more capable than their peers of serving students across all levels of understanding (97% vs. 63%), and of working closely with their students during class (73% vs. 30%). See more findings below.
One teacher shared, “I teach general education, special ed, and accelerated learners, and Modern Classrooms has been highly impactful in a positive way for all three of these groups.” Many MCP teachers also felt they could support their students regardless of attendance. According to one, “Quarantined, sick, here, remote; I had students coming and going. They didn’t miss a beat.”
2. Modern Classroom educators felt better able to respond to instructional changes during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Not only did MCP teachers feel better prepared to teach students remotely compared to their non-MCP peers (97% vs. 82%), they also felt significantly more effective transitioning between in-person and remote instruction (88% vs. 56%). Despite the daily challenges of the pandemic, Modern Classroom teachers felt they could continue reaching students as well as they had in person. According to one,
“With this whole past year, it could have been a demoralizing year for teachers. When we kept switching formats, teachers were stressing out, and in a way I felt kind of guilty because I was able to think, ‘My students are good.’ We had a snow day and everyone logged in and off we went with our bell ringer. My students got just as much content as my previous classes. In a sense, it’s relief. Without this I wouldn’t have gotten through half as much as we did.”
3. Compared to their peers, students in Modern Classroom felt more engaged and more effective in their learning.
Modern Classroom students felt significantly more capable of teaching themselves new academic skills and content (74% vs. 66%), and felt that their teachers gave them the personal support and encouragement needed to learn challenging things.
One student shared, “I've never liked math because I always got frustrated but, in this class I can learn at my own pace and develop a deeper understanding of the material.”
4. Modern Classroom students show evidence of growth mindsets.
Students in Modern Classrooms believe they are capable of learning anything, more so than their non-MCP peers (72% vs. 66%), and they are confident that they can complete challenging assignments without giving up (78% vs. 71%). This may be due to students’ ability to take ownership of their learning and control the pace at which they tackle assignments. One student describes the experience this way:
“I like how it is self-paced so I can work on whatever I want and as fast or slow as I want. So while one person can be doing one thing I can be doing another. And if anyone is struggling the teacher is always available to answer questions and help us out.”
5. Both students and teachers experience stronger student-teachers relationships than their non-MCP peers.
Modern Classroom teachers feel more able than their peers to recognize students’ strengths and weaknesses (87% vs. 75%), and more capable of understanding what each student has and has not mastered (96% vs. 85%).
In turn, Modern Classroom students are more likely than their peers to feel that their teachers care about them as individuals (84% vs. 79%), and that they good personal relationships with their teachers (63% vs. 48%). In the wake of COVID-19, this human connection between students and teachers is more important than ever before.