MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
And now we want to take a look at another issue that's making waves in the world of education. Teachers around the country are being told that they need to be tougher on students in the classroom - more scripted directions, less praise. It's a method called No-Nonsense Nurturing, and it is designed to help teachers with classroom management. WFAE's Lisa Worf in Charlotte is telling us how it works.
LISA WORF, BYLINE: First, drop the niceties and give specific instructions. Druid Hills Academy math teacher Jonnecia Alford has it down pat.
JONNECIA ALFORD: Your pencil is in your hand. Your voice is on the zero. If you have the problem correct, you're following along and checking off your answer.
WORF: Then Alford describes to her sixth-graders what their peers are doing.
ALFORD: Vonetia's looking at me. Denario put her pencils down - good indicator. Monica put hers down and she's looking at me.
WORF: No-Nonsense Nurturing is in part the brainchild of former principal Kristyn Klei Borrero. She's now CEO of the Center for Transformative Teacher Training, an education consulting company based in San Francisco. Klei Borrero says the foundation of the program isn't new. It just puts into practice what she's observed from high-performing teachers - keeping expectations high by only praising outstanding effort.
KRISTYN KLEI BORRERO: It notices students that are doing the right things, so it creates this positive momentum. But it also gives the students who might have missed the directions another way of hearing it without it being nagging and also seeing it in action.
WORF: The center has worked with more than 250 schools across the country since 2009. All of them have similar populations - students from low-income families, many of them black and Hispanic. Nine of those schools are in Charlotte. So is this helping students, or does it just bring more rules into the classroom? Barb Stengel, an education professor at Vanderbilt University, isn't sure. No-Nonsense Nurturing makes her uncomfortable.
BARB STENGEL: Maybe we are doing them a favor by teaching them codes of power. But maybe we are also participating in some kind of, I don't know, colonization, that we're simply teaching kids to look like me.
WORF: She worries there's too much emphasis on compliance, not engagement. But school leaders in Charlotte say No-Nonsense Nurturing gives their students the structure they need. They say they've noticed kids are more engaged since the district began using that approach. Teachers like Kelly McManus at Druid Hills Academy go through several weeks of training.
KELLY MCMANUS: I would say, students, please raise your hand on a level zero if you...
VANETIA HOWARD: Let me stop you.
MCMANUS: OK.
HOWARD: Please.
MCMANUS: OK.
HOWARD: You want them to do it. There's no opt-out.
MCMANUS: OK.
HOWARD: Drop the please.
MCMANUS: OK.
WORF: That last voice is her colleague and coach Vanetia Howard. After this one-on-one session, it's time to put what McManus has learned into action while still being coached. McManus wears an earbud. Howard stands in the back of the class. She whispers directions to McManus through a walkie-talkie.
HOWARD: Ask force complete sentences when respond.
MCMANUS: We're going to respond now in complete sentences.
WORF: McManus feels stressed but finds it valuable.
MCMANUS: I have never gotten so much feedback from a coach like that before. I mean intentional feedback where I can take it right back to my room and use it.
WORF: Her complaint - and you hear this a lot - is that she feels like a robot at times. Stengel, the Vanderbilt professor, sees how the scripted directions and narration help. But...
STENGEL: I just don't want these teachers - particularly if they're going to stay in the profession - to think that this is all there is to developing children toward autonomy and responsibility.
WORF: No-Nonsense Nurturing acknowledges this and encourages teachers to lay off that robotic voice over time. The hope is by then, students don't need it. For NPR News, I'm Lisa Worf in Charlotte.