When it comes time for you and your teacher colleagues to focus on getting good at creating and consistently using learning objectives and success criteria, you might discover that it’s not always as easy as it first seems. In this post, I’ll talk about two main challenges and ways to overcome them. I’ll also give you a few examples of what learning objectives and success criteria look like in the classroom, and things school leaders can do to support teachers using them.
In our recent work with schools across the country, each with their own unique contexts and specific improvement goals, my colleagues and I are seeing a common element emerge that has led to a lot of success. It’s when teachers and instructional leaders really focus on gaining clarity and shared understanding about what high-quality learning objectives and success criteria are, and then support teachers to use them consistently. I’ve seen firsthand how this can be a game changer for students, teachers, and school communities alike. And again, this is working for a variety of schools whose overarching improvement journeys are different from one another.
Two years into the job as chief student success officer within Jeffco Public Schools’ Division of Student Success (DSS), Matt Palaoro’s curiosity grew louder and louder. “I really wanted to understand where our division has been, where we’re at today, and where we want to go,” he said. He began to consider a division-wide program evaluation to ensure that their work was student centered and having its intended impact, and turned to McREL International to do an external evaluation of the programs and services offered through DSS, analyzing resource allocation and organizational effectiveness.
For several years, Wilson County Schools in Tennessee has partnered with McREL to increase principals’ instructional leadership knowledge and skills and increase teachers’ effective delivery of Tier 1 best first instruction, known in the district as “powerful core instruction,” to improve student learning and achievement.
The concept of a guaranteed and viable curriculum (GVC) has been around for a while, but its purpose remains significant: ensuring all students have access to high-quality instruction that aligns with curriculum, standards, and assessments. For many educators who are familiar with GVC, the conversation has shifted from aligning curriculum to a more pressing question: how do we move from structure to impact?
When I was an English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom teacher, I often thought about my use of assessments. Was I using them to judge learning and unintentionally pressure students or to help students learn more deeply? I always felt a strong pull toward using assessment to strengthen student learning.
Why is it a great time to be a teacher? Because we know more about how the process of learning works—what we call the science of learning—and the teaching strategies needed to lift all learners—what we call the science of teaching—than at any point in human history. For us here at McREL International, that’s incredibly exciting. It gives us hope that better days are ahead for all of us in education.
