Programmed classroom instruction

An integrated computer-based method of classroom educational management for remotely managing the instruction by teachers of students in classrooms and monitoring the performances thereof, comprising the steps of:

• developing a management team collectively responsible for and actively participating in the educational management of a plurality of classrooms, said management team comprising an onsite education manager defined as a managing teacher located locally on site in a respective one of said classrooms, and a remote management group located remote from said classrooms and maintaining oversight of said managing teachers and student performance, said remote managers at least comprising school administrators;
• establishing within a computer system individual sequential instruction periods and progress periods which are established by said school administrators wherein each said progress period comprises a plurality of said instruction periods, and a plurality of said progress periods define an academic year;
• analyzing subject matter of each of a plurality of academic courses of study for each said classroom and subsequently breaking down the totality of knowledge of each said subject matter that teachers are expected to teach and the students for each said classroom are expected to learn, into discretely defined behavioral performances that are suitable as teaching and learning objectives for said teacher and students and are objectively recognizable by said teacher as being learned or not yet learned by each said student, said analyzing step being performed by members of said remote management group;
• storing the plurality of discretely defined behavioral performances for each said academic course of study into at least a first computerized database system of a computer system as a dataset which said first computerized database system organizes the plurality of discretely defined behavioral performances on the basis of subject matter as well as levels of difficulty;
• for each specified instruction period of each said classroom, designating by said computer system one or more of the discretely defined behavioral performances which are stored in said dataset of the first computerized database system as learning objectives of a teaching and learning plan that are to be taught by the teacher and studied by the students of said classroom during said specified instruction period;
• automatically generating a preview report with said computer system to show the learning objectives of said teaching and learning plan designated for said specified instruction period;
• automatically communicating said preview report by said computer system to said management team including said school administrators and said parents of the students in said classroom prior to initiation of instruction to permit continual oversight of the educational process by said school administrators and said parents;
• initiating teaching of said learning objectives of said lesson plan during said specified instruction period wherein said teacher accesses said first computerized database system which guides said teaching of said learning objectives of said lesson plan;
• through the end of said specified instruction period, evaluating by said managing teacher the actual onsite performance of said students for each said learning objective of said teaching and learning plan, and said managing teacher accessing said first computerized database system and entering status data into said first computerized database system wherein said status data is entered for each said teacher and student and for each said learning objective of said teaching and learning plan;
• said status data of said first computerized database system comprising fixed first, second and third status identifiers respectively indicating teaching and learning not yet begun, teaching begun but learning objective not learned, and teaching complete and learning objective learned, each said learning objective having said first status identifier initially associated therewith prior to initiating of said teaching step, and said method including the step of processing said status data with said first computerized database system and changing the status data with said first computerized database system from the first status identifier to the second status identifier as a part of the teaching step for each said student and for each said learning objective of said teaching and learning plan to indicate that teaching has begun;
• and
• generating an evaluation report by said computer system at the end of said specified instruction period indicating the status data for each of the learning objectives for the teacher and each of said students to indicate the onsite performance during said specified instruction period.

An integrated method of computer-based classroom educational management for managing the teaching by teachers and instruction of students in classrooms and monitoring the performance thereof, comprising the steps of:

• developing a management team collectively responsible for and actively participating in the educational management of a plurality of classrooms, said management team comprising an onsite education manager defined by a managing teacher located locally on site in a respective one of said classrooms, and a remote management group located remote from said classrooms and maintaining oversight of said managing teacher and student performance, said remote managers at least comprising school administrators;
• establishing sequential instruction periods and progress periods which are established by said school administrators wherein each said progress period comprises a plurality of said instruction periods, and a plurality of said progress periods define an academic year;
• analyzing subject matter of each of a plurality of academic courses of study for each said classroom and subsequently breaking down the totality of knowledge of each said subject matter that the teachers are expected to teach and the students for each said classroom are expected to learn into discretely defined behavioral performances that are suitable as learning objectives for said teachers and students and are objectively recognizable as being learned or not yet learned by each said student, said analyzing step being performed in cooperation by members of said remote management group;
• storing the plurality of discretely defined behavioral performances for each said academic course of study into at least a first computerized database system of a computer system as a dataset which organizes the plurality of discretely defined behavioral performances on the basis of subject matter as well as levels of difficulty;
• said dataset allowing for the storage in said first computerized database system of any one of fixed first, second and third identifiers for each of the behavioral performances, said first, second and third identifiers respectively indicating instruction not yet begun, teaching begun but learning objective not actually learned, and teaching complete and learning objective actually learned, said dataset initially having said first identifier associated with each of said behavioral performances being stored in said first computerized database system prior to initiating of teaching of any of said behavioral performances;
• for each specified instruction period of each said classroom, designating by said computer system one or more of the discretely defined behavioral performances which are stored in said dataset of the first computerized database system as teaching and learning objectives of a teaching and learning plan that are to be taught by the teacher and learned by the students of said classroom during said specified instruction period;
• after said designating of said teaching and learning objectives of said teaching and learning plan for a said specified instruction period and at the beginning of teaching of said teaching and learning objectives, changing the status data with said first computerized database system by replacing the initial first identifier with, the second identifier in said first computerized database system for each said teacher and student and for each said teaching and learning objective of said lesson plan to indicate that teaching and learning has begun;
• after said designating, automatically generating a preview report by said computer system showing the teaching and learning objectives of said teaching and learning plan designated for said specified instruction period;
• automatically communicating said preview report by said computer system to said management team including school administrators and said parents of the students in said classroom prior to initiation of instruction to permit continual oversight of the educational process by said school administrators and said parents;
• initiating teaching of said teaching and learning objectives of said lesson plan for said specified instruction period wherein said teacher accesses said first computerized database system which guides said teaching of said learning objectives of said lesson plan;
• through the end of said specified instruction period, evaluating by said managing teacher the actual onsite performance of said teacher and students for each said teaching and learning objective of said teaching and learning plan and said managing teacher accessing said first computerized database system and entering status data into said first computerized database system wherein said status data is entered for each said teacher and student and for each said teaching and learning objective of said teaching and learning plan indicating whether said teacher and student have completed actual teaching and learning or the student has not yet actually learned each of said teaching and learning objectives of said teaching and learning plan, said entering step including the step of automatically processing said status data with said first computerized database system and changing the status data with said first computerized database system by replacing the second, identifier with the third identifier for each said teacher and student and for each said teaching and learning objective of said teaching and learning plan that has been taught and learned by that teacher and student;
• automatically processing said status data and generating an evaluation report by said computer system at the end of said specified instruction period indicating the status data for each of the learning objectives for each of said teachers and students to indicate the onsite performance of said teachers and students during said specified instruction period by showing either the second or else third status identifier for each of the teaching and learning objectives of the preview report;
• automatically communicating a said evaluation report by said computer system to said management team at the end of said specified instruction period including communicating a said evaluation report to said school administrators and respectively to each of said parents of said students to provide notice of the onsite performance of the teacher and the students during the specified instruction period;
• and
• repeating the steps for each successive one of said instruction periods to provide said management team and said parents with a said preview report and a said evaluation report at the beginning and end of each of said instruction periods.

A computer implemented method to equip distant school administrators to remotely establish, monitor and assure the annual production of learning, over a school year by one or multiple classrooms each comprising teacher and student participants, the method comprising the steps of:

• developing an academic plan by employment of a computer system comprising a computerized primary classroom database system and a computerized secondary remote database system, and imposing remote from the classroom with said remote database system a detailed, unambiguous annual assignment of classroom learning production for the production of learning by the classroom;
• remotely standardizing, regulating and overseeing the expected results, procedural sequences and schedule of the classroom learning production, said classroom learning production being implemented by a computer-based learning production process implemented by said primary classroom database system and said secondary remote database system;
• remotely measuring the classroom learning production by recording individual teaching and learning objectives by said primary classroom database system and measuring cumulative teaching and learning progress and teaching and learning results in:
• the classroom by said secondary remote database system which automatically receives and processes data received from said primary classroom database system;
• integrating a system of real-time recording and tracking of learning and teaching production in the classroom into the learning production process by recording and tracking teaching and learning with said primary classroom database system;
• automatically and remotely adjusting the progress of teaching, to variations in the progress of learning;
• and
• remotely tracking and assimilating learning production throughout the school year in one or multiple classrooms by said secondary remote database system;
• said step of remotely measuring the classroom learning production by measuring teaching and learning progress and teaching and learning results in the classroom being remotely accomplished by the additional steps of:
• management employing a measurement structure in said primary classroom database system and said secondary remote database system with features sensitive to the condition that:
• (1) classroom learning production is the terminal result of an extended cooperative joint process of teacher and student that can be termed “teaching and learning”;
• (2) measurement incorporates identification of this cooperative process, as well as the individual contribution of the teacher and student participants, as well as the final result of the individual and combined effort of the teacher and student participants;
• (3) the defining features of performance measures are sufficiently clear and distinct to assure high measurement reliability;
• (4) the units of measurement are suitable to sensitively detect the small changes of progress which may occur in brief classroom intervals;
• (5) the units of measurement are suitable to aggregate across many observations;
• and (6) the measures are recorded in said primary classroom database system and received and processed by said secondary remote database system, the measures comprising a three term nominal measurement scale of three categories which are stored as data in said primary classroom database system as teaching and learning state scores and automatically transferred to said secondary remote database system and processed to permit automatic and remote adjusting of the progress of teaching, said measures comprising categories A, B and C respectively defined by states “0”, “1” or “2” wherein:
• category A corresponds to said state “0” which equals “teaching (instruction) and learning not begun” which is the state existing when the classroom is in session but neither said state 1 nor said state 2 exist;
• category B corresponds to said state “1” which equals “teaching (instruction) and learning begun” which is the measured state existing when the classroom is in session, the teacher has introduced the required learning performance objective to a specific student but state “2” does not exist for the particular objective;
• and category C corresponds to state “2” which equals “teaching (instruction) and learning complete” which is the measured state existing when the classroom is in session, the teacher has introduced a required learning performance objective to a specific student and the teacher concludes teaching and that student demonstrates complete performance of the learning performance objective.