Ch 9. Standards and Objectives

By Jon Mueller [Used with permission from the author]

Mueller, J. (2018) Authentic assessment toolbox. Retrieved from http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/index.htm

Before I can effectively teach or assess students, I need to determine what they should know and be able to do. In other words, I need a good set of standards. Or do I need goals? Or objectives? Standards, goals and objectives are all descriptions of what students should know and be able to do. So, how are they different? I distinguish standards from other statements of student performance primarily along two dimensions:

1) breadth of coverage and

2) feasibility of measurement and observation.

Breadth of Coverage

Starting at the top of the above diagram, the mission statement of schools or districts or states is typically the broadest statement of what students are intended to know and be able to do when they graduate. In roughly 50 words or less, mission statements attempt to communicate to all constituencies the purposes of education in that institution. An example of a mission statement might be:

"All students at Mueller School will become effective communicators, collaborators and problem-solvers."

Unfortunately, mission statements just make good wall-hangings in many schools or districts. That is a missed opportunity. A clearly written, purposeful statement can serve as an excellent starting point for curriculum development, instruction and assessment. Furthermore, a good mission statement can provide a useful guide against which progress can be compared to determine if it is following a consistent, productive path.

For example, if Mueller School adopted the above statement, it would design all curriculum in a manner to promote effective communication, collaboration and problem-solving. Disciplinary content would not be forgotten. Rather, a clear focus would develop around teaching students to communicate about mathematics, collaborate in the construction of new knowledge and solve problems specific to science, social studies, the fine arts, etc. As a teacher at that school I would always ask myself if the lesson I had planned or the curricular framework we developed would promote such knowledge and skills. Thus, a good mission statement would serve as a focal point to initiate development as well as a check for progress.

As stated above, mission statements are very brief, broad statements. To flesh them out further schools often identify a set of goals which more specifically, yet still broadly, define expectations for students. The goals also communicate the school's or district's focus for its educational plan.

Goals are typically subdivided further to identify standards. Whereas goals are often written broadly enough to cross grade levels and content areas, standards, particularly those that are content-based, tend to be specific to one or a few grade levels and one content area, and may be written at the level of a unit in curricular planning. However, many state and national K-12 standards are written with the graduating senior in mind. To provide guidance for prior grades, benchmark standards are written which describe what progress third or fifth or eighth graders should have made toward a particular standard.

Moving down the pyramid above, the statements of what students should know and be able to do become more narrow and, consequently, more numerous within a curriculum. The most specific and numerous is the objective. Objectives are typically written at the level of the lesson plan, with one or more objectives for each lesson.

Feasibility of Measurement

The four types of statements presented in the pyramid can also be differentiated by whether or not they are amenable to assessment. Goals and mission statements are typically written to share a broad vision, not to serve as benchmarks to be measured. Thus, their language does not usually make them amenable to assessment. On the other hand, standards and objectives are written with measurement in mind. Consequently, those statements need to describe student behavior that is observable.

So, why is there a section of this authentic assessment web site devoted to standards and not one on mission statements, goals or objectives? Although the term standard has been around the field of education for a long time, it has become more prominent in recent years as the authentic assessment movement has taken off. I believe it has become more prominent than the other statements of behavior in the movement for two reasons. First, like objectives, standards are amenable to assessment, a necessary requirement to guide task design. Second, the broader nature of standard versus objective is consistent with authentic assessment's emphasis on complex, integrative authentic tasks that typically span more than one class period, more than one topic and sometimes even more than one discipline.

Thus, good authentic assessment development begins with identifying a set of standards for your students. State and national efforts at standards-writing have typically focused on the content of the disciplines. But what about critical thinking skills, problem solving abilities, collaborative skills and personal development? These highly valued skills are not easily incorporated into content standards and, thus, are often omitted or given insufficient attention. Yet, the standards should capture what we most value and most want our students to learn. So, we should consider including these other skills in our standards. To do so, it may be helpful to distinguish content standards from other types. To see how, look at Types of Standards.

I distinguish between three types of standards:

• content standards

• process standards

• value standards

Note: As with many of the authentic assessment terms, there is not a consistent set of labels for the different types of standards. These are labels I find useful.

Content Standards

I define content standards as statements that describe what students should know or be able to do within the content of a specific discipline or at the intersection of two or more disciplines. Examples would include

• Students will classify objects along two dimensions.

• Describe effects of physical activity on the body.

• Present employment-related information in the target language.

Process Standards

I define process standards as statements that describe skills students should develop to enhance the process of learning. Process standards are not specific to a particular discipline, but are generic skills that are applicable to any discipline. Examples would include

• Students will set realistic goals for their performance.

• Seriously consider the ideas of others.

• Find and evaluate relevant information.

Value Standards

I define value standards as statements that describe attitudes teachers would like students to develop towards learning. Examples would include

• Students will value diversity of opinions or perspectives.

• Take responsible risks. (Costa & Kallick, 2020)

• Persist on challenging tasks.

• See more examples of value standards in these rubrics for habits of mind from Marzano, Pickering, and McTighe's excellent text, Assessing Student Outcomes: Performance Assessment Using the Dimensions of Learning Model (beginning on p. 100).

Is it a Content or a Process Standard?

Given the definitions listed above, the same standard could be either a content or a process standard. For example, the standard students will write a coherent essay would be a process standard in a history course because it is not describing content within the discipline of history. Rather, it describes a useful skill that historians should have along with those working in other disciplines. However, if the same standard were part of an English composition course, I would label it a content standard because students would be learning the content of that discipline. Yes, writing skills are useful in any discipline, but in the composition course it is being taught as content for the course.

This chart, developed by the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching at Iowa State University (2021), provides a good description of the difference between a Goal and an Objective:

References

Center for Excellent in Learning and Teaching at Iowa State University. (2021). Writing course goals/learning outcomes and and learning objectives. Retrieve from https://www.celt.iastate.edu/teaching/preparing-to-teach/tips-on-writing-course-goalslearning-outcomes-and-measureable-learning-objectives/

[Habits of Mind Kids]. (Mar. 9, 2020). Dr. Art Costa and Dr. Bena Kallick on taking responsible risks [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/p11LF7O5iB4

Mueller, J. (2018). Authentic assessment toolbox [Website]. Retrieved from http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/index.htm

Wiggins, Grant, and McTighe, Jay. (1998). Backward Design. In Understanding by Design (pp. 13-34). ASCD.