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High Expectations ~ An Essential Lever
High Expectations ~ An Essential Lever
According to the instructional core, one way to improve student learning at scale is to focus on the level of complexity of the content students must learn. This requires high expectations for all students; and at the heart of this is a belief that all students can reach those expectations with the appropriate support.
Task predicts performance. Regardless of the expectations written in the curriculum or the expectations the teacher has for students, the most important predictor of performance is what students are actually doing as they learn. Because of this, we apply the rigor/relevance framework to our planning of instruction and assessment. This framework is nestled inside the Understanding by Design (UbD) unit planning framework. Even as students return to school with unfinished learning, it is critical that we continue to hold high expectations while planning for the most appropriate supports for students to reach expectations. Read the article below (The One About High Expectations) for more information. Then read the section, Connecting the Dots.
Connecting the Dots: Content, Expectations, and Self-Efficacy
Connecting the Dots: Content, Expectations, and Self-Efficacy
There are several critical factors regarding the need to hold all students to grade level/course expectations.
It is our vision and mission to ensure that each and every student is prepared for life after NPS. This can only happen when each and every student is held to these expectations. Common expectations are aligned to our belief that all students can learn with the appropriate supports, accommodations, and modifications.
When students struggle to meet expectations, it is tempting to lower that expectation so that the student is successful. However, this perpetuates the learning gap as the student falls further and further behind.
The work we put in front of students communicates what we believe they can do. As noted in the graphic above, teacher beliefs impact actions, which impact student beliefs, actions, and outcomes. Simply stated, there is a direct connection between teacher expectations and student self-efficacy ~ and ultimately student success.
For these reasons, it is crucial that content is focused on engaging students in tasks that challenge them to meet grade level/course expectations. Principle 4 states, "Task predicts performance. What determines what students know and are able to do is not what the curriculum says they are supposed to do, or even what the teacher thinks he/she is asking students to do." This is why TASK is at the center of the instructional core.
It is also important to note that it is not sufficient to focus on challenging content alone. Principle 2 of the Instructional Core states, " If you change any single element of the instructional core, you have to change the other two to affect student learning." Consider the interaction between student, teacher, content, and task in relation to High Expectations (see Instructional Core). When designing challenging content, we must also focus on how students will engage with the content AS WELL AS instructional practice that supports students in meeting the challenge.
See Education Equity and the Necessity of Having High Expectations for more information.
Click below or navigate to these pages to dive deeper
Click below or navigate to these pages to dive deeper
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