Twice as Many Students Meet State Standards

Key Accomplishments

The Power of Professional Development

According to the principal and teachers at Cochrane Collegiate Academy, a major reason for the growth in student performance is a signature strategy for classroom instruction and professional development called Interactive Learning. Interactive Learning is based upon the Learning-Focused professional-development program, which teachers at Cochrane first began using in the 2007-08 school year. By 2009-10, the educators at Cochrane had customized this approach into Interactive Learning, which involves their list of ten non-negotiable daily practices. These include

According to a recent study in the journal Science, methods like those used in Interactive Learning increased learning for all students and decreased the achievement gap between economically disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students in a large, introductory-level college biology class.

The Interactive Learning methods used at Cochrane have helped narrow their achievement gap from 17 points in 2007-08 to 11 points in 2010-11, making it less than half the 30-point achievement gap that exists throughout the state as a whole. In North Carolina in 2010-11, 82 percent of non-economically disadvantaged middle school students passed both the reading and math standards, compared with just 52 percent of economically disadvantaged students.

Goals to Work Toward

Cochrane still has progress to make as only 42 percent of economically disadvantaged students in grades 6-8 passed both the math and reading state standards in 2010-11. Nevertheless, this represents a 133 percent increase from 2007-08, when only 18 percent of economically disadvantaged students passed both tests. Once again, Cochrane shows a significantly higher growth rate than the state of North Carolina, where the increase for economically disadvantaged students was 63 percent, from 32 percent in 2007-08 to 52 percent in 2010-11.

Students who are not economically disadvantaged also demonstrated higher growth at Cochrane compared with the state. At Cochrane, this group increased 51 percent, from 35 percent in 2007-08 to 53 percent in 2010-11. Across North Carolina, this group increased 26 percent, from 65 percent to 82 percent.

Why Cochrane's Professional Development Works

The non-negotiable teaching strategies used at Cochrane are reinforced in a collaborative and supportive environment, with three weekly grade-level meetings for teachers. These include weekly "data meetings" during which they analyze student performance and background characteristics. By regularly reviewing student data from different classes and from different support specialists over time, teachers can better understand where students are coming from and address their needs.

Cochrane's Interactive Learning program demonstrates all of the professional development characteristics shown to promote student achievement. According to research by Stanford University professor Linda Darling-Hammond, empirical research supports professional development that is

Teaching quality is the strongest predictor of student achievement that schools can affect. The successes at Cochrane suggest that supporting teachers with effective professional development can increase student achievement and engagement.

For further information: