The SELF help Program

An interesting study is out from well-known educational researcher, Robert Marzano. As is often his custom, he has done a meta-analysis – that is a study of other/multiple studies (14 in this case).

The research looks at a simple and somewhat intuitive strategy to help students learn and improve their achievement (something we are all interested in). Marzano calls this strategy a “hidden gem” and it can be used by parents or schools. Essentially, Marzano says that if students track their own progress they perform better. Specifically, he suggests that there is an average 32 percentile point gain in achievement when students track their own progress. However, “tracking” in and of itself is not successful. To move from mediocre to great achievement the students need to track their achievement with the following criteria:

• Use rubrics instead of points
• Use graphic displays
• Focus on a single rather than multiple goals

I guess bottomline this works for student kinda’ like it works for me -- if I know what I am doing and tracking my progress -- I perform better.