Teaching with Fidelity

Right now I'm analyzing some achievement data, and noticed a discrepancy between what I thought the data would tell me and what it actually did tell me. I started racking my brain to think of why the numbers didn't turn out quite the way I thought they would, and then I remembered the particular year in question was the first year of a new textbook adoption, and as anyone who analyzes data knows (say it with me, everyone) "first year implementations always show a decrease in performance."

I remembered a conversation I had with an administrator that same year, who said that we should see gains in achievement as long as we implement the new program with fidelity.

Now here's where I'm going to get on the soapbox. Seeing the implementation of programs that have attributed to major gains in performance, and as the creator of professional development programs, I absolutely agree. We definitely want the teacher that is guiding and providing instruction to be upholding rigorous demands. We know that's what is right to make a difference in our students' lives.

But, shouldn't we just be teaching with fidelity? Why are we saying that we need to uphold the fidelity of a particular program when maybe more importantly, we need to uphold the fidelity of rigorous instruction? Our world is changing, and with that change brings the need of a creative class, moving away from the agrarian and factory model that most of school has been based on.

Obviously, "teaching with fidelity" has room for interpretation. The definition of fidelity even suggests that by using this phrase, there is an exact formula for teaching, when in fact, we need to consider the needs of our students in order to personalize learning. Fidelity doesn't mean working hard. Teaching with fidelity is about having high expectations for our students, challenging and pushing them, not allowing failure or even second best. It's about changing the lesson plans every year because no two groups of students are the same. It's about personalizing learning for every student, making the curriculum relevant to today's (and tomorrow's world) and making assessments authentic. It's about no two end products looking alike.

Let's make a fidelity scale. It might look like this:

I would say first and foremost, there are many, many more indicators that belong on this scale. School and learning are not about one single thing. The idea of learning encompasses everything from relationships to curriculum to assessment to strategies to delivery. As a teacher, I have thought about all the "things they didn't tell us in college," like the parent meetings, paperwork, curriculum writing, grading, mini counseling sessions, and so on. Similar to this, learning, a legitimate deep understanding, encompasses a collection of essentials that have to come together for one outcome. This outcome is that information is not only retained, but is used to analyze other ideas, considered critically from an alternate point of view, or used as a foundation to build an entirely new idea.

Teaching like this, in the upper end of Bloom's scale, encompassing real and relevant learning opportunities, using multiple resources and teaching students to consider the validity of resources, presenting information to authentic audiences, and creating, is teaching with fidelity. Take a look at the above scale. Additionally, consider how your students are thinking critically, if they're creating original works, and how you are personalizing the education of all your students. Where does your teaching fall on the fidelity scale?

Our world is changing. Information is growing. We have to raise kids up in a different way than we did in the past. Teaching kids to function in reading, writing, and math is no longer the end goal. Teaching them a skill set of persuasion, analysis, synthesis, evaluative decision making, collaborative teamwork, and problem solving is just the beginning for today's generation. We have to teach with fidelity to make a difference for our kids.

Think about it - what does fidelity encompass? How can we, as a whole, change so that we are teaching with fidelity? How can we measure it? This is what we need to consider when we're planning for our next year. This is how we can ensure that our students are truly learning and engaging rather than simply jumping through the hoops of school. This is what we need to do to teach with fidelity.