Helping Students Meet High Standards
Helping Students Meet High Standards The following is from the research of Ronald F. Ferguson and his work on the Tripod Project for School Improvement. Students invest more effort when one of two classroom conditions are met. The first is high help where the teacher communicates a love for the students, their questions and has a means of providing students with feedback and help when they get confused or make mistakes. The second desirable condition is high perfectionism. This occurs when the teacher pushes students to go beyond understanding. Ferguson’s research team found that when these two conditions are met all students thrive but particularly students in predominantly Black and Latino classrooms. From his research he concluded, “combining cheerful helpfulness with pressure for producing correct answers in an antiracist strategy for raising achievement and narrowing achievement gaps.” Teachers in high help-high expectation...