Embedded Files
The MBLC is a community of schools all working to establish culturally responsive and sustaining mastery-based learning practices. This page is a place for schools to share resources and seek to learn from each other. Are you looking for a sample re-take/revision policy, a protocol for a PLC with teachers, a grading conversion chart, or any other resource? Browse the table below to find a resource from another MBLC school.
Do you have something to share with others? Use our online form to submit your school's resource to the library!
Protocol for Student Input | Lopez Island Public Schools
Implementation Step(s):
STEP ONE: Foster effective, ongoing collaboration between educators, students, and community members.
Description of Resources:
My project was the development of a Portrait of a Graduate/Shared Outcomes for K-12. We conducted focus groups with parents, community members, students, and staff with the same four questions about hopes and dreams for graduates, skills and attributes they will need, what the school is currently doing to teach those skills and attributes, ideas for how the school could be teaching the skills and attributes. The mastery based learning team participated in a protocol to analyze the focus group data and surface common themes and patterns. From there, we created the first draft of our Portrait of a Graduate.
We brought the draft to staff, and gave them time to think about and discuss ways that we give kids opportunities to practice and receive feedback on each element. We also brought the list to our new Lobo Voices student advisory team. They gave examples of these in their secondary school experience and also gave valuable feedback on what is missing from the list.
This link is to meeting notes for our new student advisory team.
Resource Link:
School: Lopez Island Public Schools
Contact Name: Martha Martin
Contact Email: mmartin@lopezislandschool.org
Level of Resource Completion: Fully in Use
Learning Outcomes / Success Criteria | Tumwater School District
Implementation Step(s):
STEP TWO: Create Shared Outcomes
Description of Resources:
My project was to create shared learning outcomes for our secondary schools in our district. This was no easy task, as this involved two middle schools and two high schools. Candidly, I am surprised we were able to complete our process over the course of the school year due the enormity of task. It was imperative to get as many teachers and administrators to see the value in crafting shared learning outcomes. I started by proposing this as a primary objective for our Lighthouse Committee, which has the sole purpose of implementing MBL in our schools.
The LC took up the challenge, and we began by using The Young Women's Leadership School of Manhattan's shared learning outcomes as our starting point. From there, we received feedback from staff, students, parents and community members. We took their feedback and made changes to the language, combined some outcomes, and changed others. Next, we scaled down the language of the descriptions in order to consolidate, shorten, and make the descriptions student friendly. We also changed some of the wording to align with our district's soon to be adopted portrait of a graduate. Lastly, we added iconography for each of the learning standards to provide a better entry point for students, parents and staff.
The link leads to a document that described the Tumwater process for designing Shared Outcomes, and that also includes the Shared Outcomes.
Resource Link:
School: Tumwater School District
Contact Name: Jason Roberts
Contact Email: Jason.Roberts@tumwater.k12.wa.us
Level of Resource Completion: Revised Draft
Shared Outcomes | Dishman Hills High School
Implementation Step(s):
STEP TWO: Craft Learning Outcomes, aligned to state standards and your school’s vision.
Description of Resources:
As part of my Impact Fellow work, I led students through a staged editing of the school wide outcomes that our staff had decided on for our schools portrait of a graduate. The primary artifact I created is the draft language of the outcomes. These provided clear breakdowns of the skills students want to have once they graduate from our program. They helped me meet my Impact Fellow goals by allowing students to be involved in their learning at the highest levels. The work deepened conversations about what choice students had in their day-to-day learning, and allowed them to really guide the direction of the building as a whole.
This work had a noticeable impact on teacher practice; several colleagues shared that the revised outcomes helped them reframe how they approached project and lesson planning, particularly in terms of anchoring assessments to the outcomes and allowing more student voice in what they created to show their own growth toward the shared outcome. In terms of implementation, I began by meeting with the school leadership team to get a jumping off point for shared outcomes. I then built a timeline of review with a student leadership panel; made of representatives of all grades and went into the conversations around the purpose of the work and what we needed by the end of our sessions. My advice to others who are opening systems up for student input is to be ready to implement changes along the way; the students once empowered to make change want to see their suggestions in action right away. This will help ensure the work feels relevant and leads to tangible shifts in the school that since directed by the students will be wholly supported.
Resource Link:
School: Dishman Hills High School
Contact Name: Gabriel Rose
Contact Email: jacob.fincher@wvsd.org
Level of Resource Completion: Revised Draft
Competency Cards | Gibson Ek High School
Implementation Step(s):
STEP THREE: Define success criteria for learning standards & competencies
Description of Resources:
These competency cards were designed to help students create their own personalized rubrics for independent projects. Students sort through the deck, pulling cards for the competencies they will use and demonstrate when working on their project. Once students select 4-7 cards - the competencies that they most want to work on and be assessed on - they begin to build their project rubric. Their advisors assist with this selection. We are sharing our cards and a template link so you can make your own cards.
Resource Link:
Competency Card Deck (Public view) and the template link (to make your own copies).
School: Gibson Ek High School
Contact Name: Tonja Reischl
Contact Email: reischlt@gibsonek.org
Level of Resource Completion: Fully in Use
Daily Learning Tracker | James A. Taylor High School
Implementation Step(s):
STEP THREE: Define success criteria for learning outcomes
Description of Resources:
Creating this daily learning tracker for students has helped: 1) teachers focus instruction and feedback and 2) motivate students to support each other, seek feedback, and revise their work as needed. More students are engaging productively because they clearly know what they need to do to succeed.
Resource Link: Daily Learning Tracker
School: James A Taylor High School
Contact Name: Ben Kersey
Contact Email: bkersey@northmasonschools.org
Level of Resource Completion: Early Draft- we have just started working on this.
Rubrics Co-designed with Middle School Students | Catalyst High School
Implementation Step(s):
STEP THREE: Define success criteria for learning standards & competencies
Description of Resources:
During my work with the Impact Fellows, I made a student facing, standard rubric for my school’s collaborative project based learning classes, both science and social studies, which were piloted in sixth grade. The linked presentation is an overview of the process in co-creating the rubrics, including examples of rubrics through all steps of the process, explanation of the process, and next steps. This year, just sixth grade went through this process–next year, all grade levels will go through a similar process. I will use this presentation in the fall to introduce the staff to the process of co-creating rubrics, share sixth grade’s experience, and the impact of the rubrics based on the survey I will give to students near the end of the school year. I want teachers to walk away with an understanding that when co-creating rubrics for outcomes or standards, the most important part is to gather input from students on the language and look-fors in the rubric. One way to ensure accessibility, relatability, and practicality of a rubric is to have students be a part of the design process. It is also important to remember that the design process is ongoing, and anything that is being designed collaboratively will go through many iterations. My advice when implementing this process is to have a clear timeline and steps in place so it feels manageable and applicable. It is also important to have a shared commitment to using the rubrics for feedback.
Resource Link:
School: Catalyst High School
Contact Name: Alex Pacifico
Contact Email: apacifico@catalystpublicschools.org
Level of Resource Completion: Fully in Use
Shared Outcomes (Schoolwide Competencies) | Innovation Heights Academy
Implementation Step(s):
Step Three: Define success criteria for learning standards & competencies
Description of Resources:
We created advanced competency rubrics to align with community-based demonstrations of learning such as internships, Worksite Learning, volunteering, etc. These rubrics are used as a guide when we make standard-specific rubrics for individual projects.
Resource Link:
School: Innovation Heights Academy
Contact Name: Kevin Takisaki and Stephanie Gallardo Lara
Contact Email:
Level of Resource Completion: Fully in Use
Slide Deck about Proficiency Scales and Rubrics | West Valley Mid-Level Campus
Implementation Step(s):
STEP THREE: Define success criteria for learning standards & competencies
Description of Resources:
Mastery Based Learning is all about demonstrating proficiency on standards. Students, teachers, and families need to have clarity about what is necessary in order to reach proficiency, as well as how to get there. For my Fellows project, I researched proficiency scales extensively, and led staff in professional development, guiding all teachers/teams in completing proficiency scales for their content. While I cannot share our scales publicly, due to some use of copyrighted material, I am sharing a slide deck with what I've learned, as well as resources and visuals that can help others embarking upon writing proficiency scales.
During my Fellows project, I also refined and supported Student-Led Conferences with a template for students to use, and a home-conference option. The second link contains a set of materials and examples for others wanting to start student-led conferences.
Resource Link:
School: West Valley School District
Contact Name: Jodi Scott
Contact Email: scottj@wvsd208.org
Level of Resource Completion: Fully in Use
Success Criteria for High School Science | Hudson's Bay High School
Implementation Step(s):
Step Three: Teachers across the school or district have collaborated to develop rigorous success criteria or shared rubrics for our learning outcomes. We use the success criteria to design units, lessons, assessments, and self-assessment tools for students.
Description of Resources:
As part of my Impact Fellow work, I redesigned my process for teaching NGSS Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) by having my students lead and develop student-friendly rubrics, specifically for SEP#2 Scientific Modeling. I did this after quietly timing the average time students spent on teacher-designed rubrics and I realized the students were barely looking at or using them (less than 30 sec on average). In terms of the student-friendly rubrics, first, I had my students develop rubrics for a yummy cookie. Specifically, the students were tasked with making a 2 point rubric with clearly defined criteria and characteristics of both an ok (proficient) cookie vs. yummy (advanced) cookie. They also sampled and assessed the cookies. This activity resulted in very student engagement and was good practice for the main event that came the next day: rubrics for scientific modeling. In this case, we repeated the exact same process and resulted a student-friendly and more usable rubric. Moreover, many students got primed to do their own scientific models later in the unit. The development of student-friendly rubrics for scientific modeling has clearly increased student engagement and understanding of the scientific modeling process.
Resource Link:
School: Hudson's Bay High School
Contact Name: Brian Caouette
Contact Email: brian.caouette@vansd.org
Level of Resource Completion: Fully in Use
Badge Books | Elma Elementary School
Implementation Step(s):
STEP 2: Craft learning outcomes aligned to state standards and school's vision
STEP 3: Define success criteria for learning outcomes
NEXT STEPS: Design re-teaching, re-assessment and support systems
NEXT STEPS Foster responsive, youth-centered school culture
Description of Resources:
This folder of elementary level Badge Books was shared during the November MBLC meeting. Each badge book provides single point rubrics for standards from all subject areas.
Resource Link: Google Folder of Badge Books
School: Elma Elementary School
Contact Name: Mark Keating, Executive Diector of Teaching & Learning
Contact Email: mkeating@eagles.edu
Level of Resource Completion: Fully in use
Shared Outcomes Early Design Steps | Summit Virtual Academy
Implementation Step(s):
Step Two: Establish Shared Outcomes
Next Steps: Foster responsive, youth-centered school culture
Description of Resources:
We started to craft our shared outcomes (Portrait of a Graduate) in August 2024. This slide deck shows the early stages and student input to give us our first draft of the portrait.
Resource Link:
School: Hudson's Bay High School
Contact Name: Becky Lee, Principal
Contact Email: rlee@nthurston.k12.wa.us
Level of Resource Completion: Revised Draft
Math Standards Tracker to Enable Personalized Learning | West Valley Innovation Center (Yakima)
Implementation Step(s):
Next Steps: Create opportunities for practice, feedback, and revision
Next Steps: Design re-teaching, reassessment, and support systems
Description of Resources:
The Ram Record is the tracker our students use to break down larger projects into smaller, more manageable pieces. It is designed to help students learn math at a pace that makes sense for them, going back to practice where more learning is needed, and going ahead when ready. It is called the Ram Record because we are the West Valley Rams. Included on the tracker are the students' standards, learning targets, and deliverables for their project - as well as real-life skills they are learning by completing the project. This is intended to make student learning clear, and to show how certain tasks are tied to learning objectives, which are ultimately tied to standards. I make Ram Records for math students each week (one example is provided here) and for the math co-teaching I do with other teachers (the example attached is for the Shark Tank project one of our teachers is doing). These can be used weekly, monthly, by project, or by unit.
Resource Link:
School: West Valley Innovation Center (Yakima)
Contact Name: Kendra Bourne
Contact Email: bournek@wvsd208.org
Level of Resource Completion: Fully in Use
Protocols that you use in student-led conferences, educator meetings, etc | Lind Ritzville School District
Implementation Step(s):
NEXT STEPS: Foster effective, ongoing collaboration between educators, students, and community members.
Description of Resources:
The Mastery-Based Learning (MBL) Collaborative Fellows Project at Lind-Ritzville Cooperative Schools aimed to address challenges related to traditional grading practices and provide students with opportunities to develop a deeper understanding of their learning. This initiative sought to bridge gaps in student engagement, equity, and educational outcomes, especially for marginalized learners.
The project identified key barriers, including traditional grading practices that penalize students based on compliance rather than mastery, implicit bias, and inconsistent implementation of equity practices. Additionally, students had limited opportunities to influence their learning environment, which hindered their engagement and ownership of the educational process.
Through a series of seminars, students were introduced to MBL's core concepts, focusing on equity and fairness. Pre-surveys indicated a lack of understanding among students regarding MBL, with most feeling unprepared to explain the difference between traditional grading and MBL. However, post-surveys revealed improved familiarity with MBL, increased confidence in explaining its principles, and a heightened awareness of the importance of setting learning goals. Although students felt more empowered to take ownership of their learning, there remains room to improve communication about MBL’s benefits and to further develop students' sense of agency in their education.
The findings suggest that future seminars should enhance clarity in communication, focus on reinforcing student voice, and offer more tools for goal-setting and tracking progress. Furthermore, involving parents and the community will be crucial for ensuring broader support and understanding of MBL. My advice is to customize the slide deck to fit your students. Plan additional time to carry out the project (half hour lunch sessions were insufficient. I believe lunch plus a class period would provide sufficient time for each session.)
This project offers valuable insights into how MBL can promote a more inclusive and equitable learning environment by addressing systemic issues in grading practices and engaging students as active participants in their learning journey.
Recommendations for Future Seminars:
Increase Clarity in Communication: Clearly define MBL concepts, especially proficiency scales and goal-setting strategies.
Empower Student Voice: Continue efforts to provide students with a stronger role in evaluating and shaping their learning.
Enhance Goal-Setting: Implement practical tools for setting and tracking learning goals.
Focus on Behavior-Free Grading: Reinforce the importance of grading based solely on mastery of content.
Resource Link:
School: Lind Ritzville School District
Contact Name: Don Vanderholm
Contact Email: dvanderholm@lrschools.org
Level of Resource Completion: Fully in Use
Protocols that you use in Student-led Conferences, Educator Meetings, etc. | GATES High School
Implementation Step(s):
NEXT STEPS: Create Opportunities for Practice, Feedback and Revision
Description of Resources:
This set of tools was originally shared at a workshop called "Ritualizing Reflection and Fostering a Feedback Culture" during the 2025 Spring Gathering. The folder contains a variety of tools designed by GATES High School to engage both teachers and students in self-reflection and peer feedback
Resource Link:
School: GATES High School
Contact Name: Angela Quiram & Val Jones
Contact Email: aquiram@fpschools.org
Level of Resource Completion: Fully in Use
Sample project-based unit (elementary) | Summit Virtual Academy
Implementation Step(s):
NEXT STEPS: Design or revise culturally responsive-sustaining units and projects
Description of Resources:
This is an example of how we took our clicking module science lessons and turned it into an experience for our students. There is evidence of student choice, clear learning outcomes, connection to student lives and the real world, rigor, and student identity. This is an example of using Gholdy Muhammed's five pursuits to center the student experience.
We created 10 plus units/projects like this one to provide learning experiences for our students that bring joy and ownership to learning. We will continue to provide these experiences for our students and gather student feedback and voice to elevate the units and put more meaningful learning in the student's hands.
Resource Link:
School: Summit Virtual Academy
Contact Name: Erin Zeitlin
Contact Email: ezeitlin@nthurston.k12.wa.us
Level of Resource Completion: Fully in Use
Self Advocacy Goal-Setting Sheet for Students | Rainier Valley Leadership Academy
Implementation Step(s):
NEXT STEPS: Foster effective, ongoing collaboration between educators, students, and community members.
Description of Resources:
Welcome to your 1-stop shop for unit learning.The Self Advocacy Learning Worksheet is a tool for scholars to use to track and deepen their understanding of classroom learning objectives. In the first section, scholars will be provided with a clearly stated unit purpose, the unit objective(s), and the lesson objective(s). The “Self Advocacy Learning Worksheet” will also help students have easy access to unit vocabulary, a KWL chart to track learning growth, and self-created examples of how to meet learning goals.
Resource Link:
School: Rainier Valley Leadership Academy
Contact Name: Levon White
Contact Email: levon.white@myrvla.org
Level of Resource Completion: Early Draft (we have just started working on this.
Unit Templates and Unit Creation Guidance | West Valley Mid Level Campus
Implementation Step(s):
NEXT STEPS: Design or revise culturally responsive-sustaining units and projects
Description of Resources:
The first resource is the "Project Planning Norms" I have developed that focus on needs for MBL strategies, but with a larger focus on the unique needs of my building, especially in order to account for our reliance on CTE frameworks and standards-based assessment. These norms are a bit of a focal point for the PD I am leading in June, and will have a big impact on how we coach current and new staff moving forward.
The final resource is one of a few staff tools I created. Originally inspired from the MBLC Unit Planning Template, I have tried creating tools that implement mastery-based practices, while also fitting the unique needs of the West Valley Innovation Center. This template specifically is meant to aid in backwards planning from CTE frameworks, and also integrate other practices such as co-teaching.
Resource Link:
School: West Valley Innovation Center (Yakima)
Contact Name: Brandon Austin
Contact Email: austinb@wvsd208.org
Level of Resource Completion: Revised Draft
Video of Student-Led Conferences | Bush Middle School
Implementation Step(s):
Next Steps: Foster effective, ongoing collaboration between educators, students, and community members. - Indicator 13: There are many opportunities for students at our school to join with teachers in creating class projects, reflecting on learning, building school culture, leading initiatives, and imagining new approaches.
Description of Resources:
Our school established Student-Led conferences. This video shows students engaging with their families in their conferences, and reflections from both students and staff regarding the advantages of SLCs. This video was made to be an example of SLCs to be used with both students and staff.
Resource Link:
School: Bush Middle School, Tumwater
Contact Name: Laura Chevalier
Contact Email: laura.chevalier@tumwater.k12.wa.us
Level of Resource Completion: Fully in Use
Educator Handbook | Dishman Hills High School
Implementation Step(s):
ALL Implemenation Steps
Description of Resources:
The materials I’ve developed—centered around our staff handbook, mentoring program, and mastery-based learning practices—are designed to create clarity, consistency, and alignment across our school. The handbook serves as a living document that unifies our school’s core values (belonging, self-discovery, personalized learning, and perseverance) with our daily practices, instructional systems, and student supports. It organizes information not just for compliance or communication, but for meaning-making—so that every staff member can see how their work contributes to the broader vision. This tool is especially useful for onboarding new staff, guiding professional learning communities, and reinforcing the why behind school-wide initiatives. I recommend reviewing and updating the handbook collaboratively with staff at the start of each year so it stays relevant and reflects evolving practices.
The mentoring program framework and self-monitoring tools support relationship-based intervention systems. Every teacher at our school mentors a small cohort of students, and the included templates provide structure for meaningful check-ins, data-informed coaching conversations, and connection to supports like attendance tracking, mental health referrals, and academic planning. These tools are most effective when mentors are trained in how to interpret and use student data (Panorama, SmartPass, LMS gradebooks) and when check-ins are integrated into the school schedule with protected time. Together, these materials promote coherence between classroom instruction, behavioral support, and student well-being—and offer a replicable model for schools looking to integrate core values into every layer of their work.
Resource Link:
School: Dishman Hills High School
Contact Name: Jake Fincher
Contact Email: jacob.fincher@wvsd.org
Level of Resource Completion: Revised Draft
Resources for Student Reflection | GATES High School
Implementation Step(s):
ALL Implementation Steps
Description of Resources:
For our Impact Fellows project, we focused on reflection and feedback cycles for students and staff. We have made some big changes along the way to increase our Mastery Based Learning status and continue to set goals for becoming even better. One area we have focused on extensively over the last two years, is in developing a system of Learning Journey Feedback Conversations between students and teachers. These happen mid-learning cycle and allow every student to meet with every teacher for a 1 on 1 meeting to discuss progress. These sessions have changed over time based on feedback from both students and teachers. The process of developing these conversations has led us to a deeper understanding of 1) how our MBL journey is truly a learning process for the adults, 2) how valuable constructive feedback is for students, and 3) how building time into a schedule for something like these seems impossible, but is doable.
AND
It is difficult to focus on one thing as we have made many shifts that naturally evolved as our project moved forward.
As a mastery-based learning school, we prioritized creating opportunities for students to give and receive feedback throughout each learning cycle. These feedback sessions were invaluable as we shifted our focus from traditional grading to a deeper emphasis on learning and the demonstration of knowledge. By centering our work around common rubrics and course planners that integrate Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education (CRSE) habits and behaviors, we laid the foundation for more equitable and meaningful instruction. Embedding our MBL practices into daily advisory was another key move—one that reinforced a shared sense of responsibility and collective efficacy among both teachers and students.
One of the most impactful shifts we made was transitioning from traditional progress reports to student-led progress reflections. After each feedback cycle, teachers were invited to reflect on the process and suggest ways to refine it. A consistent theme emerged: they found these sessions incredibly valuable, offering authentic insight into students’ perceptions of their learning experiences. This work was truly a partnership. As the principal, I provided vision, credibility, and purpose; my partner, who also serves as our instructional coach, brought that vision to life through hands-on implementation. Her deep involvement was essential to the project's success, and our collaboration exemplified how shared leadership can make complex instructional shifts both feasible and effective.
These shifts supported our efforts to build and pilot shared rubrics in the area of "Collaboration" and "Problem Solving". It's a tapestry.
Resource Link:
School: Franklin Pierce GATES High School
Contact Name: Angela Quiram and Valinda Jones
Contact Email:
vjones@fpschools.org,
aquiram@fpschools.org
Level of Resource Completion: Fully in Use
Shared Outcomes | Innovation Lab High School
Implementation Step(s):
ALL IMPLEMENTATION STEPS
Description of Resources:
As the focus of my Impact Fellow work, I led our efforts to revise our schoolwide competencies. The process involved collecting and then analyzing data, and then turning that data into competencies that utilized all of our learning over the last four years in the MBLC. I learned how to leverage AI tools to process data and support the creation of our updated competencies. The artifact is a web page that describes the process we used and explains some of our reasoning. The web page includes links to the documents used and the final competencies we created. This resource provides a roadmap for anyone else working toward a similar goal.
Resource Link:
School: Innovation Lab High School
Contact Name: Kirby Morgan
Contact Email: kmorgan@nsd.org
Level of Resource Completion: Revised Draft
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