Chapter 1 discusses how to plan instruction in a standards-based learning environment using proficiency scales. This chapter provides detailed guidance on how to understand the learning progressions within proficiency scales. It then discusses how teachers can use their proficiency scales to create and sequence cohesive lesson and unit plans to optimize student learning.
In chapter 2, teachers will then learn how to instruct their classes using proficiency scales. Special mention is made of instruction techniques to use when beginning content instruction, as students develop proficiency, and when students move past proficiency.
Chapter 3 outlines the crucial student practice of setting goals and tracking their own progress toward these goals. It provides strategies for how teachers can encourage, both implicitly and explicitly, goal-setting behaviors in their students and highlight goals that will best encourage student learning. Finally, this chapter contains ways for teachers and students to track progress both individually and classwide, as well as suggestions for celebrating success as they reach goals.
Chapter 4 thoroughly explains how to administer quality classroom assessments in a standards-based environment, and how to subsequently figure student grades. We present types of assessments and different scoring methods, as well as strategies for calculating summative scores using proficiency scales and dealing with unusual patterns of performance.
Special considerations for teaching exceptional students is the topic of chapter 5. This chapter provides guidance for using and modifying proficiency scales with exceptional learners, such as students with disabilities, English learners (ELs), and gifted learners. It also discusses how to link standards-based grading with special classes such as Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) classes.
Finally, chapter 6 delves into how to best communicate the standards-based system of grading to parents and other community members. It details how to approach parent-teacher conferences, including student-led conferences; how to convey proficiency scale grades on report cards; and how to convert standards-based grading methods to letter or percentage grades, when required. A list of frequently asked questions can be found in appendix A for additional information on implementation of standards-based learning practices.
While not a step-by-step guide, this book tries to provide the basic information most teachers can use as a starting point to adapt their instructional program to their specific needs. We will provide the overall framework, specifically advising where we think teachers must implement elements and suggesting places where they can adapt elements. In the end, you as the teacher must make the program your own. We hope we can provide the advice and benefit of our experience for your journey.
| 1 | Planning Instruction With Proficiency Scales |
When planning instruction within a standards-based learning environment, it is important for teachers to understand that the focus of instruction will evolve from a content-centered approach to one that develops student knowledge and abilities on the standards. Instead of forming the knowledge the student will need to acquire throughout the unit, the content is now the vehicle that drives student knowledge and skills development. Proficiency scales serve as a starting point to develop a plan that guides student growth on the standards.
This chapter provides teachers with a comprehensive understanding of how to create and use proficiency scales in a standards-based environment. It will explain how teachers can plan instruction by prioritizing standards, assessing students’ initial placement with a preassessment, and creating well-sequenced unit and lesson plans. This process is easily adapted to any instructional framework the teacher may be using.
Identifying Priority and Supporting Standards
Before discussing proficiency scales in detail, we should define the terms priority and supporting standards. Educators are tasked with teaching a large array of state standards, but a quick examination of these standards by an experienced teacher reveals that not all of these standards are of equal importance. Marzano (2003) has shown that there is insufficient instructional time in the K–12 years to bring all students to proficiency on every required state standard. Teachers must thus determine the priority of standards so that they can focus their instructional time on those standards identified as essential to a particular class or grade level. The remaining standards, which educators still teach but for which students may or may not reach proficiency, are identified as supporting standards.
In general, districts provide teachers tasked with implementing standards-based learning in their classrooms with lists of priority standards. If it is necessary to go through the process of identifying priority standards, more information about this process can be found in A School Leader’s Guide to Standards-Based Grading (Heflebower, Hoegh, & Warrick, 2014).
It is important to note that priority standards are the ones on which teachers focus instruction, assessment, and feedback in standards-based learning. Supporting standards are still taught, and may or may not be assessed, but the priority standards are the basis of assessing and reporting student performance. Thus, because teachers need proficiency scales for planning and delivering instruction, creating assessments, and reporting progress, we will create proficiency scales only for priority standards. Proficiency scales are usually not needed for supporting standards.
Understanding Proficiency Scales
Standards-based learning emerges from a teacher’s thorough understanding of the concept of proficiency scales (first created by Robert J. Marzano; for more information see Marzano, 2006). In essence, a proficiency scale defines a learning progression or set of learning goals for a specific topic, relative to a given standard. It shows teachers and students what proficiency looks like, what knowledge and skills students need to achieve proficiency, and how students might go beyond proficiency. See figure 1.1 for the generic form of a proficiency scale.
Source: © 2007 by Marzano & Associates; Marzano, 2010, p. 45.
Figure 1.1: Generic form of a proficiency scale.
Score 3.0 is the heart of the proficiency scale; it defines the target content that teachers expect all students to know and be able to do. When creating a proficiency scale, teachers place the standard or other statement of expectations at score 3.0. Score 2.0 describes simpler content—the foundational knowledge and skills that students will need to master before progressing to proficiency. This often includes vocabulary and basic facts. Score 4.0 provides students the opportunity to go above and beyond expectations by applying their knowledge in new situations or demonstrating understanding beyond what the teacher teaches in class. Score 1.0 and score 0.0 do not involve specific content. Score 1.0 indicates that a student can demonstrate some knowledge or skill with help from the teacher, but not independently. Score 0.0 means that, even with help, a student cannot show any understanding. Figure 1.2 depicts a sample proficiency scale as a teacher might use it in a classroom—with specific content for a certain topic and grade level.
Source: Adapted from Marzano, Norford, Finn, & Finn, 2017, p. 29.
Figure 1.2: Proficiency