Teaching math classes at DC’s Eastern High, Kareem Farah realized a while ago the traditional mode of instruction — delivering lectures and hoping all students would advance at the same pace — wasn’t working for the diverse range of learning preferences he encountered among his students.
In the years since, he’s discovered a lot about what does work, developing a set of core principles along with his Eastern High School colleague, fellow math teacher Robert Barnett. Now, with The Modern Classrooms Project, the two want to share those ideas with other teachers.
The nonprofit launched over the summer with a stated mission to “redesign the learning experience so that all students, regardless of background, can truly learn.”
“What separates this from the majority of models out there is that it’s a really implementable strategy that facilitates student-centered classrooms that focus on building self-directed learners,” Farah said in an interview.
The approach is built around three key principles: blended instruction, self-paced structure and mastery-based assessment. What that means, in practice, is a classroom where videos and technology-assisted methods replace lectures and where each student moves at their own individual speed, advancing only once they’ve demonstrated mastery of a lesson.
“I know a lot of teachers have an appetite for this but just don’t know how to do it,” said Farah, who was selected last year by DC Public Schools to receive its 2018 Standing Ovation Award for Excellence in Classroom Innovation. “The goal of Modern Classrooms Project is to provide them with concrete skills to take those ideas and put them into practice.”
Before its official launch in August, the nonprofit led a summertime fellowship program training eight local teachers from different subject areas. The group is hoping to raise enough funds to support future cohorts.
The Modern Classrooms program is geared particularly toward teachers working in low-income communities, with students from a wide variety of backgrounds. Farah and Barnett have experience navigating this terrain from teaching at Eastern, a Capitol Hill public school where 100 percent of students are classified as “economically disadvantaged” according to US News & World Report.
“It was a joy meeting with former students who are back from college,” Farah tweeted on the last day of school before the winter break. “Our conversations affirm how important it is to cultivate self-directed learners. The most stable alumni are not the ones who picked up content the fastest, they are the kids who are resourceful and persistent.”
In vulnerable communities, the Modern Classrooms founders assert, there can be “pernicious consequences” from the disengagement that can result from the traditional teaching mode that doesn’t focus on creating those self-directed learners: “Students drop out, educators leave the profession, and graduates lack the skills they need for college and career.”
Technology is one instrument that can help lessen the achievement gap, Farah believes. But the “modern classroom” doesn’t mean teachers are absent and students stare at screens all day.
The nonprofit’s approach stems from Farah and Barnett’s experience using instructional videos rather than lectures, which they’ve found allows for more direct interaction with students. Farah has also made use of publicly displayed “pacing trackers” to remind students which lessons they’re working on.
“If technology is implemented well, it can make classrooms run more efficiently,” he said. “If used irresponsibly, it can lead to what I call a compliant disengaged class.”
The idea of pacing is also central, ensuring every student has demonstrated mastery of each lesson before moving on. Farah writes that his own students initially had “intense emotional reactions” to this approach, but ultimately it allows every student to learn “what it feels like to travel through a lesson and work through setbacks.”
A recent Eastern High grad, A’layzha Mitchell, said that this teaching style helped her develop into a more self-directed learner, building “time and self-management skills to ensure that once I attended college I could balance my schedule.”
In addition to teaching Probability and Statistics and International Baccalaureate Mathematics, Farah runs an after-school SAT program for students interested in applying to top-tier universities, according to his Modern Classrooms bio. The students take on a variety of projects. Last year, seniors in Farah’s IB Math Studies 2 class prepared final papers evaluating the impact of taxes on poverty, population density on crime and test scores on school enrollment. Statistics students developed Google Forms surveys on a favorite consumer product and analyzed the data generated after sharing the link with community members.
In a video created by the DC Public Education Fund to highlight Farah as one of its 2018 honorees, Eastern’s assistant principal describes students in his courses as enthusiastic about math, adding that many who didn’t like the subject before have sought out Farah as a teacher.
“I actually get kids coming to class more often than I think I ever have before,” Farah says in the video. “They know that when they walk in, they get to pick up where they left off. The stress level decreases. They’re no longer afraid that they’re not going to understand something and going to be put on the spot.”
As Farah works with Barnett — who’s currently teaching at Leysin American School, a boarding school in Switzerland — to share their techniques with other teachers, one of their key tasks is to fulfill their fundraising goals. Modern Classrooms has assembled an eight-member board of directors that includes Rod Nazemi, senior director of finance for Under Armour, and Muna Shami, director of research and evaluation for the Kennedy Center.
Within the next five years, Farah said he hopes to “scale this as much as possible,” spreading the Modern Classrooms model to local schools and beyond. Modern Classrooms is currently working in three local schools, according to Robert Barnett, the group’s chief operating officer. Modern Classrooms’ main base is Eastern High School, but it also has teachers working at Hardy Middle School in upper Georgetown and T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria.
Katie Pearce contributed to this report.
For those interested in learning more about Modern Classrooms, visit the group’s website at modernclassrooms.org or check out Farah’s Twitter feed at @kareemfarah23.
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