In last week’s blog, I wrote about our action-oriented approach. To be truly impactful, however, action must be informed by research - and we at MCP must continue to refine our approach based on what we learn from educators like you.

Kareem and I were statistics teachers, so we know the value of data-driven improvement. Today at MCP, we’ve got a whole team that collects, analyzes, and provides suggestions based on teacher and student data. That team brings to life our fourth core value: There’s always more to learn.

Here are some of the ways that we at MCP are learning from educators like you:

1. Surveys, surveys, surveys.

   If you’ve explored our online course recently, or follow us on social media, you’ve probably come across a few surveys. Throughout our courses, we ask educators about their backgrounds (to ensure that our course meets the needs of the diverse educators we serve), their experiences of our courses (to see where we can improve our offerings), and their suggestions for what we can do better (so we can do better!). And we don’t just ask to ask. We have a full-time staff member who combs through these responses regularly, and shares insights with the rest of our team. Many of the improvements we’ve made over the past few years have been thanks to survey responses from teachers like you.

2. Classroom visits. 

   There’s nothing like seeing Modern Classrooms in action. When we partner with schools and districts, we always try to come visit the classrooms of the educators we’ve trained - not only does this help us see the amazing things that these educators are doing, but it also helps us understand what additional supports both our partners and their educators need. On these visits, we also make it a point to speak with both the educators we visit and their students, which shows us how our model is truly being implemented, and received, on the ground. We always leave these visits feeling energized and inspired.

3. Academic research.

   We supplement what we hear and see from you with the latest academic research from experts worldwide. In 2020, we commissioned a comprehensive literature review on our model; since then, we’ve created teacher-friendly guides to the literature on blended, self-paced, mastery-based learning. And, every year to date, we’ve conduct our own rigorous program evaluations, where we contract with independent academic researchers to evaluate MCP’s impacts on teachers and students alike. This academic research is essential to us, because it helps us understand both what we’re doing well, and where we have continued room to improve.

Want to join us in learning more? Here’s our Director of Research & Continuous Improvement, Dr. Annie Cole, explaining the Teacher Research Toolkit that we’ve built so that you can learn more about your own Modern Classroom’s impacts.

Every interaction, critique, and discussion presents an opportunity to improve. We are humble and open-minded enough to learn from each student, teacher, and stakeholder we encounter. Rigorous evaluation and frequent reflection are central to everything we do.

If you share these values get started on the Free Online Course to begin implementing in your Modern Classroom.