Overview

Spring Lake Park is a public school district in the suburbs of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota that fosters personalized learning experiences and develops learners to be college and career ready. Through competency-based learning, learner profiles, learner maps and flexible learning environments, the district is working to ensure all learners feel valued, inspired and have a sense of belonging; resulting in readiness for their aspirations for success. 

Technology Tools Used for Assessment and Reporting

Grades K-6 primarily use LiFT Learning (in combination with Seesaw and Schoology) for documenting assessment and reporting. Secondary grades primarily use Schoology for documenting assessment and ongoing reporting, with final letter grades reported in Campus, the district Student Information System (SIS). 

Outcomes: What is assessed?

Spring Lake Park has a multi-layer competency framework that includes academic competencies, career and life competencies, learning progressions and supporting benchmarks. The framework is a blend of competencies that are assessed over time and grade-level benchmarks. It is also a blend of interdisciplinary and content-specific knowledge and skills. 

Academic Competencies, Progressions and Supporting Benchmarks

Each content area has 4-8 competencies that represent the most critical and enduring concepts from that discipline. Each competency is further defined by multiple criteria in a rubric spanning K-12, growing in complexity over time. In each competency rubric, for each criterion, performance descriptors are provided for each grade band (Kindergarten, Grades 1-2, Grades 3-4, Grades 5-6, Grades 7-8 and Grades 9-12). These rubrics also include a list of grade-level Minnesota benchmarks to show the connection between the competencies and state benchmarks. 

In addition to competencies, each content area has grade-level learning progressions that define the most essential pieces of learning for that grade in that content area. The idea is, without this essential knowledge, students would have gaps in learning that would impact the learner’s growth toward the competencies overtime.  Spring Lake Park’s Competency-Based Learning Framework explains, “unlike our more cognitively complex competencies, learning progression benchmarks reflect more foundational (typically depth of knowledge 1 and 2) knowledge and skills, but are aligned directly to specific Academic Competencies, demonstrating their interdependent relationship.”

Career and Life Competencies

The career and life competencies represent interdisciplinary competencies that support learners in school and beyond. They are also an integral part of how Spring Lake Park Schools aims to create and sustain a learner-centered environment. They include self-direction, collaboration, civic and cultural awareness, communication, creativity and innovation, digital citizenship, and wellness and critical thinking. These are skills that learners develop and demonstrate across content areas, subjects or courses. Similar to the academic competencies, each of the career and life competencies are further defined by multiple criteria. Performance on each criteria is described by grade bands K-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-10 and 11-12. 

What It Looks Like in Practice

Although academic competencies are content-specific, they are designed to be interdisciplinary in combination with the career and life competencies. Watch this video to see how the career and life competency, collaboration and an math academic competency, concepts and procedures with a focus on data analysis come together while learners in 3rd grade work in teams to build their own suspension bridge:

You can see more examples of the competencies in action across an entire day in 3rd grade here. 

Levels of Proficiency: How is Progress Marked? 

There are three different ways of approaching levels of proficiency within the Spring Lake Park competency framework. There are:

• 4 levels of proficiency for each grade band defined for academic competencies;

• 3 levels of proficiency for each grade band defined for career and life competencies; and

• A binary approach (demonstrated/not demonstrated) used for learning progressions (the grade-level benchmarks that accompany academic competencies). 

Levels of Proficiency for Academic Competencies: 

• Beginning

• In Progress

• Proficient

• Extending

From the Spring Lake Park Competency-Based Learning Framework regarding the distinction between proficient and extending: 

While some academic competency rubrics include an Extending performance level, our aim is to ensure all learners reach at least a level of Proficient. The following bullet points help frame up the relationship between Proficient and Extending, and the role they play in learning and teaching:

• The rubrics have been written to align with the state benchmarks at the proficiency level. (which is why our aim is to ensure all students reach this level) 

• Extending is designed to be student-led, such as making connections that are personal to them and interdisciplinary, rather than teacher-led. (The exception might be for some courses using Extending as an honors distinction)

• We anticipate that students may choose to go to extending when they are highly motivated or passionate about a topic or course and naturally seek out opportunities to connect more deeply to the concepts in that competency. 

Levels of Proficiency for Career and Life Competencies: 

• I’m Emerging: I’m just learning about it, 

• I’m Progressing: I’m working on it and can do it in familiar situations, and 

• I’m Consistent: I can usually do it on my own, in various situations.

Reporting: How is Progress Documented?

Collecting Evidence of Academic and Career & Life Competencies: 

All teachers, K-12, collect evidence on academic competencies, career and life competencies, and learning progressions with learners. A variety of tactics are used, including observational, formative, and summative assessment opportunities. Teachers assess a student’s evidence of each competency criterion based on the performance levels described in the district-wide rubrics and document that level in LiFT Learning for grades K-6 and Schoology Mastery for grades 7-12. 

Report Cards are generated at each reporting period for “point in time reporting.”  To determine a performance level for the Report Card, teachers are encouraged to look at the body of evidence for each student on each competency. This body of evidence includes various types of assessment, including performance assessment, and should only include evidence that was intended to assess student learning, not just practice (such as some homework assignments or early formative assessments). In Schoology Mastery, a decaying average is used to calculate multiple assessments on a competency to prioritize recent evidence and recommend a final score, though their professional judgement is used to ultimately determine a final score for the Report Card. 

For Grades K-6, in addition to individual competency scores, the Report Card shares whether students are “on track” in each content area. This is intended to support families in understanding whether their child’s progress on content areas is on track given the time of year and student’s grade level. For example, it might not make sense to expect a score of “proficient” at the beginning of the year depending on the level of practice a student has had in that particular competency. The rubrics are intended to show progress over time. Teachers are guided to think about what competencies students have had the opportunity to practice and fully demonstrate evidence of and which competencies should just be “in progress.” They are encouraged to then use that information to determine where students are in relation to the end-of-year goal of meeting proficiency on all competencies in the content area. For example, in the first trimester of English Language Arts, there may be 8 learning progressions and 4 competency criteria that have been the focus and for which students have had multiple opportunities to demonstrate proficiency. If one student has not “demonstrated” all of the learning progressions and is “beginning” on some of the competency criteria, they should have a mark of “needs attention” for ELA on the trimester 1 report card. 

7-12 Reporting: 

Using Schoology Mastery, where performance levels for each competency are suggested based on the trimester’s assessments, teachers translate performance levels on competencies into course grades at the secondary level. Extensive guidance is provided, asking educators to consider what students have had the opportunity to learn and demonstrate evidence of at this point in time so as not to penalize students with a lower grade on competencies that have not yet been in focus. 

Tracking Progressions: 

When a student demonstrates a learning progression (the grade-level benchmarks associated with academic competencies), a teacher marks that learning progression as “demonstrated.” The idea is that if the student can demonstrate it in a variety of assessment opportunities it will become a “solid” building block for future learning.  These are not shared on the formal Report Card but are shared with learners and families to use as a conversation tool and to support learners with next steps. 

Sharing with Families

Report cards are sent three times a year and regular communication with families is encouraged throughout the year. Each school has a personalized communication plan that includes family engagement experiences and conferences. 

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