While teaching high school math in Washington, D.C., Robert Barnett faced a common classroom dilemma: how to best instruct students who learn at different paces.
Barnett, alongside another math teacher in his school, Kareem Farah, started self-producing video lessons that could be watched during class time so students could learn at their own speed. This method allowed Barnett and Farah to address questions individually or in small groups. The results were effective and in 2018, Barnett and Farah left full-time teaching to launch the Modern Classrooms Project (MCP), which focuses on digitizing lessons and administering mastery-based learning in the classroom.
“We lead a movement of educators in implementing a self-paced, mastery-based instructional model that leverages technology to foster human connection, authentic learning, and social-emotional growth,” MCP wrote on its website.
As schools are beginning to move away from the traditional one-size-fits-all teaching method, organizations like MCP are offering resources and training to educators so they can let students control the pace of their learning and progress by demonstrating mastery. MCP says it has partnered with more than 250 schools and districts across the country.
Three leaders familiar with the MCP program shared their experiences during a recent webinar moderated by Barnett, who is the chief product officer for the organization. Here are some takeaways from the discussion.
What is mastery-based learning?
Also known as competency-based education, mastery-based learning requires the teacher to determine learning outcomes on a given unit and create assessments that, if completed correctly, prove a student has mastery of the subject. Students who do not pass the assessment are given a new one created by their teacher to address missed concepts.
How is the Modern Classrooms approach implemented in the classroom?
The first step is to digitize lessons and avoid having most of class time spent with teachers lecturing students. Educators record themselves and have students watch the videos during class, allowing learners to stop, start, or move ahead as much as they need. Kids then assess what they’ve learned by completing an activity developed by the teacher that proves true understanding of a unit.
Instructors should administer mastery-based assessments as a way to track each student’s individual progress, Barnett noted during the webinar. MCP also provides resources to teachers interested in the program. For example, those who have been successful with this instructional approach can become mentors, providing feedback on lesson plans and answering questions from new teachers.
MCP’s growth has been organic, making it unique, said Deborah Gist, a former superintendent in Tulsa, Okla., and education commissioner in Rhode Island.
In Tulsa, implementation of the MCP instructional approach “wasn’t top-down,” Gist said during the webinar. “Teachers heard about it by word of mouth. They saw the difference that it was making, not only for colleagues that they had, but also for the students of those colleagues, and it took off because it works.”
What’s the role of technology in an MCP classroom?
The MCP program has teachers record all their lessons for students to watch at their own pace. However, this has created a misconception that computers are replacing teachers, Barnett said.
In reality, he said, “MCP is making teaching more human by spending time sitting down with learners.”
What are the benefits of a mastery-based instructional approach?
Leaders at MCP believe that students working at their own paces will develop a sense of efficacy and autonomy in their education, which could lead to reduced student absenteeism.
The Center for Research and Reform in Education (CRRE) at Johns Hopkins University surveyed 55 teachers and 1,929 students throughout the 2019-20 school year, in both classrooms that implemented MCP’s model and those that did not. The study took place in the mid-Atlantic region across three public middle schools, six public high schools and one public charter school.
Eighty-three percent of Modern Classrooms students said they could catch up on the class material if they missed class, compared to 70 percent of non-Modern Classrooms students. Additionally, Modern Classrooms students’ enjoyment of learning increased by eight points from the beginning of the school year to midway through the year, the study found.
Another problem MCP can potentially address is improving teacher burnout and shortages by bettering teacher-student relationships, said Michael Brown, former CEO of the education nonprofit CityYear during the webinar.
According to the MCP and CRRE survey, 84 percent of teachers who adopted MCP’s program felt they were able to work closely with each student compared to 26 percent who did not implement the program.
“[MCP] leans into the authentic teacher-student relationship in teaching,” said Brown.
How can this type of instructional approach help teachers through today’s political climate?
Barnett said “any teacher anywhere” can use a mastery-based instructional model, regardless of what’s happening at the federal or state level.
“Certainly, when I was teaching in D.C. public schools, there was always controversy about what was happening and what was being taught,” he said. “And there’s always controversy. For me as a teacher, what really mattered was every day, can I go in and teach a lesson that meets every learner’s needs?”
What else do people need to know about the Modern Classrooms Project?
While MCP has a free course for educators on how to implement this type of instruction, Gist urged school and district leaders not to mandate it.
“Make it doable, make it available,” she said. “But think of it as a high-impact, cost-effective investment in the capacity of our teachers and the success of our students—not as a top-down program, but something that they can grab onto, that can be practical and proven like starting this week.”
