Clear Success Criteria
Success criteria describe the qualities of what exemplary work, performances, or tangible demonstrations look like. Here is where teachers describe—in sufficient detail—what students will do to meet the intended learning outcomes; the two go hand in hand. Learning intentions describe what they will learn, while success criteria describe how they will show what they’ve learned. Teachers can communicate success criteria orally or through examples, demonstrations, simulations, rubrics, and checklists. The advantages to each method depend on the learning goals. Performance assessments lend themselves nicely to rubrics and demonstrations, while a written composition might use a rubric along with a handful of exemplars.
The critical aspect of establishing and communicating success criteria is that they be substantive rather than trivial (Brookhart, 2007). Establishing success criteria with students must be part of a larger process with the goal of student engagement throughout the assessment experience (Andrade, 2013). Co-constructing success criteria, goal setting for individual demonstrations of learning, self-assessment, and peer assessment are all examples of how to engage students directly through assessment. (We will explore this concept in depth in chapter 5, page 99.) To establish a culture of learning, teachers must provide a clear description of what that learning will look like by articulating clear, specific success criteria. Nothing screams learning like directly communicating this is what your learning will look like.
Learning Progressions
A learning progression is an intentional sequence of learning goals and success criteria that teachers form into a model to lead students from the simplest to the most sophisticated understandings. The truth is that most teachers teach with some kind of learning progression in mind, but it’s less common to articulate that progression to the students. It is equally rare for a teacher to use the students’ assessment evidence, which illustrates where each student is in understanding the planned instructional responses. Transparency at all stages leads to understanding and engagement. Also known as learning trajectories or construct maps, progressions of learning provide the necessary model of cognition that so many assessment systems and processes seem to lack by outlining typical development over time (Brown & Wilson, 2011). Whether teachers develop the progressions through a top-down or bottom-up process (Heritage, 2013), they are essential for showing students that there is a path to reach advanced or exemplary levels of understanding.
Teachers develop top-down progressions (starting with the end in mind and then backward-mapping the steps it would take for a learner to get to the standard) from what they know about learning within any discipline and from their background and a research base, which does not always exist in every subject. Teachers develop bottom-up progressions (observing learning as it happens and noting what comes first, second, third, and so on) more organically based on their collective experience in how students typically progress toward the most sophisticated level of understanding.
According to Margaret Heritage (2013), a “by-product of teacher-developed progressions is an associated deepening of teacher knowledge about learning in a domain, which can have considerable payoff for evidence gathering and use” (p. 189). This assessment payoff is why teachers should be hands-on when it comes to assessment design. The truth is that teachers likely use a hybrid approach to develop learning progressions, which considers what available research says about learning within a discipline and pairing it with teacher experience to formulate the most efficient and effective approach to instruction and assessment.
Quality, Learning-Centered Tasks
Establishing a culture of learning means teachers must elicit evidence through quality, learning-centered tasks. When teachers ask students to engage in activities that directly relate to the learning intentions, success criteria, and learning progressions, students feel respected and see the school experience as purposeful and coherent. Respectful tasks and activities meet students where they are, meaning that no matter their level readiness, they have a clear path to achieving the grade-level standard and beyond. Teachers have—or can at least envision—what it means to assign students busywork that is only loosely connected to the intended learning and progression. Activities should focus on essential understandings and create opportunities for each student to engage in his or her learning at a high level.
Accurate Interpretation
Teachers can establish a culture of learning through the interpretation phase of assessment as well. Interpreting assessment results—and the subsequent action—can spur the potential maneuvers necessary for students’ continued improvement. To keep learning at the center, teachers use strategies, practices, and processes that trigger a learning-focused response from students. The following components are essential in creating a culture of learning through accurate assessment interpretation: feedback, time to act, and expectations for feedback.
Feedback
The epicenter of a culture focused on learning is the practice of providing students with feedback that describes how their learning can continue. That said, feedback does not always create a culture of learning because not all feedback puts continual growth at the heart of its purpose. Grades, as an example, are technically a kind of feedback, but a letter grade does not include information about what comes next in the learning progression. Despite their current necessity for reporting achievement, grades (in whatever form or format they might be) are generally not effective feedback to improve learning. Also, confirmation or compliance feedback (in other words, did the student complete the task?) is typically void of any meaningful description of quality and how students might improve that quality. Providing these types of feedback is simply not enough.
Teachers who use assessment to create a culture of learning purposefully describe what students need to do to continue their learning trajectory. The research on feedback is relatively clear that symbols, such as grades, scores, or levels, have the potential to interfere with student willingness to keep learning (Butler, 1988; Wiliam, 2011). High-performing learners often check their grades; if these do not meet their expectations, sometimes they want to do more activities or find alternate ways to acquire more points to get a better grade. They miss the idea that improving quality or revising current work using the teacher’s comments is what will improve the grade. Some high-performing learners just settle for what they have, ignoring the feedback because the initial score indicates a level of satisfactory achievement. Struggling learners often give up and likewise ignore feedback because the initial score indicates a level of unsatisfactory achievement. This means the most favorable course of action, especially when building a culture of learning, is to provide feedback in lieu of a grade, score, or level; this allows both the teacher and student the optimal conditions under which to be instructionally agile while moving toward proficiency.
Time to Act
A culture focused on learning allows time to act on feedback. Providing effective feedback is essential. However, if students don’t get time to act on the feedback, the feedback is effectively useless and the message they receive is that growth is not a priority. This is easier said than done given the volume and nature of the standards and curriculum. This is something to understand but should not act as an excuse. The standards or the curriculum cannot interfere with learning, which means teachers must allot time, regardless of how scarce it may be, for students to absorb, reflect, and act on the feedback they receive. Intentionally prioritizing the learning goals that are the focus of this targeted feedback is the solution to this persistent dilemma.
Expectations for Feedback
In a culture of learning, students expect feedback and know its sole purpose is to guide their continual growth. Students don’t see feedback as criticism; rather, they recognize it as an opportunity to move to the next level. As well, teachers who actively work to create a culture of learning consistently expect that students use the feedback they receive. Teachers often complain that students don’t use their feedback. When we ask students if there is a specific routine that instructs