I believe in measurable results and I work hard to make sure my students are both learning content and developing critical thinking skills. Over the course of my career, I have made it a point to never “teach to the test” or stop regular teaching to make room for test prep or “beat the test” practice. Yet my students always do well on standardized tests.

So here are some numbers I’d like to share with you:

In 2011-2012 I taught 6th and 8th grade Reading at Will Rogers Junior High School in the Tulsa Public School District, Oklahoma. My 180+ students averaged over 2 years of reading comprehension growth in one year, as measured by our testing software. Twenty-two of my 8th graders who had failed their 7th grade English Language Arts standardized state assessment passed or earned an advanced score on their 8th grade state assessment.

I spent the next five years in Texas public school, teaching at the KIPP Austin Academy of Arts & Letters. In Texas, all public school students take the STAAR Test (State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness) as a standardized way to measure their academic achievement over the course of the year in certain subjects. Over this time period, I taught three different subjects and was able to compare the scores my students earned with the scores of their counterparts in every Texas public school. (See column to the right.)