Domain 1: Purposeful Planning and Data

Domain 1 is reflective of the idea that purposeful planning and the use of data are the foundation of effective instruction. Domain 1 standards ensure our focus on data driven and measurable targets for student achievement. They outline the need to track outcomes and monitor the progress of every student's growth towards mastery and beyond. They hold us accountable for developing methods of tracking and communicating growth targets and progress for all students. They ensure a focus on well crafted assessments, both informal and formal, that monitor student progress against intended lesson outcomes. And they require a focus on ensuring that all students show adequate growth or meet or exceed grade level/subject standards or growth targets.

1.1 Sets Measurable Achievement Targets

Effective: Teacher uses multiple data sources to develop growth targets for all student’s achievement that are:

- Measurable;

- Aligned to content standards;

- Include benchmarks to help monitor learning and inform interventions throughout the year; AND

- Reflect high expectations for students of all levels.

What does this look like?

Targets are measurable, meaning they can be verified through student work on class assignments, projects, formal and informal assessments, state or local standardized assessments (NWEA, ILearn, IRead...), or other.
Targets are aligned to state standards and provide measurable and specific benchmarks to ensure students are progressing towards mastery of those standards.
Targets ensure students will master the standards and skills necessary for the grade level or subject area, and/or they provide that students are making adequate growth towards mastering those standards and skills.

Strategies for Obtaining an Effective rating:

Document outcomes intended for students for each lesson or unit.
Document alignment of outcomes with anticipated proficiency against mastery of standards in grade or subject areas.
Collaborate with administrator(s) and/or colleague(s) to set growth and/or achievement goals that target students who are not adequately prepared at the beginning of the year. These goals should support scaffolding the student towards mastery of standards in grade or subject areas.

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Highly Effective: a teacher fulfills the criteria for Effective and additionally:

The teacher effectively communicates growth targets to students.

As a result, students have high expectations for their own learning driven by teacher expectations for their success.

What does this look like?

The teacher has developed a system of communicating the anticipated targets for the group and/or individual students.
- This can be lesson embedded (sharing the targets at the beginning of a lesson or unit.
- Targets may also be posted in the classroom,
- Or for individual students, outlined in a student portfolio or data tracker.

Strategies for Obtaining a Highly Effective rating:

Post or shares targets in student friendly language for each lesson or unit.
Targets are revisited throughout lessons and units to ensure students are able to measure their progress against expected outcomes.

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Questions to Consider:

What key words in these targets do students need to know and/or learn?
How do the supporting targets for the lesson connect to the bigger or longer term targets?
Why should students care about this learning?
What should students be able to answer by the end of this lesson/unit/project?
How challenging is this for the students? Does it meet the rigor of the standard?
How can I activate prior knowledge?
How do students apply the content in multiple contexts to the rigor of the targets?
How will students lead their learning through understanding the targets?
Does the rigor of the planned activity(s) match the rigor of the targets?
How can I differentiate my learning targets for small group or individual interventions?
How are my students articulating their learning?
To what extent do my targets mirror state standards?
How often do students set goals personal based on the targets?

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Suggested Reading and Other Resources:

The Art and Science of Teaching: A Comprehensive Framework for Effective Instruction

Student Achievement Goal Setting: Using Data to Improve Teaching and Learning

1.2 Track Student Data And Analyze Progress

Effective: Teacher uses an effective data tracking system for:

- Recording student assessment/ progress data

- Analyzing student progress towards mastery and planning future lessons/units accordingly

- Maintaining a grading system aligned to student learning goals

- Uses frequent checks for understanding for additional data points.

What does this look like?

The teacher has a an system that ensures student assessment data and progress data is recorded and assessible.
- Examples:
  - Gradebook
  - Data Tracking Sheet
  - Student Portfolios
  - Other methods that keep consistent and well organized records of student progress.
The teacher uses the tracking system to frequently analyze student progress, and this analysis supports adjustments in daily lessons, interventions, and pacing.
The grading system is aligned with student learning goals supportive of tracking student progress against State Standards, grade level appropriate benchmarks, course objectives...
The data points collected in the tracking system are done in such a way to monitor student progress over time and is reflective of multiple data points.
- For example, a students overall gradebook or data tracker should reflect multiple data points that show progress over time. Data points may reflect exit tickets, in class work, projects, assessments, and other items that support the teacher's understanding of student progress.

Strategies for Obtaining an Effective rating:

Ensure you have a well organized data and grade tracking system.
Keep this system up to date and refer to it often.
Engage in conversations with colleagues and/or administration about your data on a frequent basis.
Ensure that the items you intend to collect data from adequately inform you on student progress towards meeting the targets. In other words, is the data directly connected to the standard or benchmark you are intending and is there a clear progression that supports monitoring student progress towards mastery of intended outcomes.
Use a variety of data points when you are able. Do not rely on one type of data to determine your students' progress.

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Highly Effective: Teacher fulfills the criteria for Effective and additionally:

- The teacher engages students in tracking their own data.

What does this look like?

The students should be able to easily access their own progress data, and they should be able to articulate what that data means.
- This will look very different at different grade levels and in different programs. In early grades, this may be students monitoring their progress against skill driven benchmarks (ex. math facts, sight words, reading levels). In later grades, this may be the student understands and uses the teacher's online grading system to monitor their progress. At all levels, students must understand what the data is telling them about their own progress, and they should have an understanding of steps they can take to continue with success shown or to improve where necessary.

Strategies for Obtaining a Highly Effective rating:

Develop a tracking system that incorporates short term and long term targets, and is easily accessible to students.
Teach students to use and understand the tracking system.

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Questions to Consider:

What information can I glean from reviewing standardized test data in gauging each student's overall learning and identify knowledge gaps?
What formative assessments can I use to provide immediate feedback on lessons and support planning for future lessons?
What pre assessments or individual assessments can I use to reveal each student’s needs prior to a unit of instruction or series of lessons?
How can I use formative and summative data to reflect on my teaching? Ex. If an entire class or high % of students does poorly, teachers may want to reexamine their teaching process to see if the student gap is the result of a failure to connect students with the material.
How can I use summative assessment to understand and/or catch learning roadblocks? For teachers, the most frequently-used measure of student learning is summative assessment: grades on individual assignments, essays, and exams. This data provides information about individual student proficiency and overall classroom performance, and can be particularly good for helping teachers to identify learning roadblocks or overall curriculum dysfunction.
How about that student who always does well in class, but who didn’t do so well on the standardized test? Possibly a nervous test-taker? Or it could simply be low motivation? Is the classwork aligned with the standardized assessment?
How can I engage students in understanding and using their own data?
How can I help student understand and set goals from standardized test results from previous years or from a previous assessment?
How assessable is my tracking system for students? Parents?

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Suggested Reading and Other Resources:

"Using Data to Improve Student Achievement" Educational Leadership (ASCD)

Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques for Your Classroom Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey

Need a tutorial on using the Harmony system (or whatever current system is being used)

1.3 Create Data and Objective Driven Lesson Plans And Assessments

Effective: Based on curricular objectives or unit plan, teacher plans daily lessons by:

- Utilizing prior assessment data

- Identifying lesson objectives that are aligned to state content standards.

- Matching instructional strategies as well as meaningful and relevant activities/assignments to the lesson objectives

- Designing formative assessments that measure progress towards mastery and inform instruction

What does this look like?

Having a solid plan for instruction is critical in to ensuring your lessons are well formulated to meet the needs of your students. Every teacher should have well developed lesson plans.
Lesson planning is often very individualized based on personal preference and the grade level, subject, or course you are teaching. Lesson plans do not have to be lengthy, but they should contain:
1. Specific and measurable targets for the day.
2. An outline of strategies and activities that move the students towards mastery of the target.
3. Student tasks that are well aligned with the lesson targets.
4. Assessments (formal and informal) that you will use to either gauge student progress within the lesson or in a summative manner at the end of the lesson.
It important to note that your lesson plans may refer to teacher resources that outline lessons for the day.

Strategies for Obtaining an Effective rating:

Have daily lesson plans available.
Document or be able to show how you are using assessment data to drive daily lesson planning.
- Example:
  - If you collect an exit ticket after Monday's lesson, and on Tuesday you have to alter your lesson based on that data, make a note of this in your plans and how you adjusted your instruction.
  - You utilize a pre assessment prior to a unit and set up your daily lesson progression based on that data.
  - Your informal assessment of student progress during the lesson required you to alter your plan for the day. Make a note of this.
Check your student tasks for rigor and alignment.

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Highly Effective: A teacher fulfills the criteria for Effective and additionally:

- Plans for a variety of differentiated instructional strategies, anticipating where these will be needed to enhance instruction

- Incorporates a variety of informal assessments/checks for understanding as well as summative assessments where necessary and uses all assessments to directly inform instruction

What does this look like?

Document how your assessments/checks for understanding help you identify groups or individual students who may need differentiated support.
Often there will be students who either lack the necessary prerequisite skills to be successful in a lesson, or students struggle with the presented material and need support. Your lesson should reflect how you intend to support students who need additional support.
- Examples:
  - You designate time in your lesson when those who are on level are working to pull students who need support into a smaller group setting for differentiated instruction and/or intervention.
  - You outline how you will scaffold for students who may have difficulty. Ex. In Math, you determine a group of students are unable to complete a task effectively due to lack of mastery of math facts. You elect to allow the students to use a multiplication chart or other resource to bypass this deficit and be able to complete the broader task that is aligned with the lesson target.
  - You structure collaboration to allow for students to support each other.
Conversely, you may have students who have already shown mastery of the targets for the lesson. You should document how you will differentiate for those students. Having them simply repeat the work is not in the best interest of their time or overall opportunity for excelling beyond benchmarks.
Document over time the various ways your are assessing student progress. For those checks that warrant a grade in the tracking system (see 1.2), you will have these documented. For more informal checks, or for those that will not go into a tracking system, document in your plans.
It is important to note that you may not use a variety of assessments/checks for understanding in an observed lesson. You should document this over time to share as an artifact.

Strategies for Obtaining a Highly Effective rating:

Ensure that you are documenting in your lesson plans areas where you are differentiating for students.
Ensure that you are documenting over time the variety of assessments/checks for understanding that you use for monitoring student progress.

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Questions to Consider:

Do your daily lesson plans effectively show:
- What you want student to know.
- How you will connect students to prior learning.
- How you will engage or "hook" the students.
- How you will present the lesson in a way that ensure progression towards mastery of the target.
- How the students can show you they know the material.
- What can the students do if they struggle to learn.
- What can students can do if they already know the material.

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1.4 Planning for Student Achievement

Effective: 80% of students in the teacher’s class or classes show adequate growth or meet or exceed grade level/subject standards or growth targets.

What does this look like?

It is important to note that this is not intended to be a proficiency rating, meaning that 80% of all students are at or above grade level/subject standards targets. Rather this is intended to be a growth oriented measure. It is expected that you can identify where students began, and have documented their progression. This progression should show adequate growth towards meeting or exceeding grade level/subject standards or targets.
- Growth would be determined "adequate" if the progress shows the student exceeds expectations, is proficient, or is on a trajectory from where they started to meet expectations given more time.
Tracking student progress using multiple measures, which may include, depending on grade level or subject area: curricular assessments (formal and informal), NWEA progress, ILearn or other state assessments, and other assessment data that indicates progress towards mastery of grade level/subject material.
- This will look very different at each grade level and in each subject area. However, this is already something we must do as teachers. Don't over complicate this. Use the data you already collect and utilize your own tracking system for monitoring the progress appropriately. Your subject may not translate to NWEA or ILearn or SAT data, but we all are monitoring progress in some way. That is a core element of what we do. Your primary responsibility in this area is to monitor growth and support students in making adequate growth against your measures. Simply put, help all students move towards success and proficiency.
Utilize measurable achievement targets (such as those outlined in 1.1), and use the documented progress of students (such as that outlined in 1.2), you will be able to identify how each student has progressed towards mastery and shown growth in that progression.

Strategies for Obtaining an Effective rating:

Ensure you have documented student proficiency at the beginning the school year, or at the beginning of each course or unit in a way that allows you to show through data collected throughout the year, course, or unit that students are "adequately" (defined above) growing towards mastery or exceeding expectations.
- Example:
  - A student begins a unit on fractions, but lacks the necessary prerequisite skills based on a pretest to engage with the new material that is intended to be presented in the unit. With differentiated supports and pacing the lessons to manage the student's skill gaps, the student shows increasing proficiency on meeting the unit targets. While the student is not "proficient" or at "mastery", they are showing growth that, given time and additional supports, will allow them to master the material.
  - A special education student is able to master or show growth towards their individual growth targets, and these skills gains are utilized to help the student better access grade level or course specific material.
  - A student who is unable to read on grade level shows significant progress throughout the school year. While they are not on level at the end of the year, the trajectory shows them reaching grade level over time.
  - A students NWEA growth measures are met or exceeded.
Document student progress throughout the school year, during the course you are teaching, and/or throughout each unit of instruction.
- See #2 above where it says "Don't over complicate this." Document what you document already. You are not creating something new here.
Collaborate with your collogues and administration around this data and the progression of students throughout the school year.

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Highly Effective: At least 90% of students in the teacher’s class or classes show adequate growth or meet or exceed grade level/subject standards or growth targets.

What does this look like?

Same as Effective.

Strategies for Obtaining a Highly Effective rating:

Same as Effective.

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Questions to Consider:

Does the data I collect adequately allow me to track student progress in each subject area I am responsible for teaching?
Is the data directly related to showing student progress in relation to proficiency of state standards or expected outcomes in each subject area?
Is my tracking system robust enough that I have multiple points of data to monitor student progress? (Too few data points do not allow for a clear picture of student progress.)
Am I using a variety of types of data points to monitor progress? (Monitoring students using only one type of assessment tool is not best practice. We should strive to allow students to display progress towards proficiency in a variety of ways.)

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Suggested Reading and Other Resources:

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