Inservice

June Inservice Days

Two River's Journey to Proficiency

Proficiency-based education (PBE) can feel overwhelming and yet another new initiative. However, PBE is something that has been with us for decades. This "new thing" is a collection of old practices intentionally brought under one umbrella.

Those practices include:

• Standards-based instruction
• High-quality performance assessment
• A focus on Essential Skills & Dispositions
• Standards-based reporting
• Interdisciplinary learning
• Student voice and choice (personalization & flexible pathways)
• Learning that is not "time or place-bound."

Getting to a proficiency-based system is more of a journey than an endpoint. Here are a few things I have observed in other schools that could help with your journey:

• Co-design and co-teach an interdisciplinary module. We have been working on proficiency-based learning for two years. Many of you have been using the backward design process. However, if you want to get at the heart of proficiency-based learning, you need to go interdisciplinary. Start small, design one module with a colleague from another discipline. See what you can come up with when each of you brings one performance indicator to the table. If you already do this, try working with a different discipline science and social studies, music, and math.

• Expand a set of verification criteria in collaboration with a special education teacher. Not every student will progress neatly across a four-point scale; some students may struggle to reach "emerging." Work with your special educator expand a verification scale by creating in-between levels for students or "shift" a scale so that students can work on levels lower than "emerging."

• Shift your thinking about assessment. We are quite used to giving tests of learning. Sometimes we use assessment for learning. In other words, we use assessments to learn more about our students, how they think, what they value, their strengths, and weaknesses. Consider adding another layer, assessment as learning. Ask students to apply their learning in new ways or use concepts and skills to learn something new while they complete the assessment.

• Tinker continually with your backward designed modules. These modules are the curricular (intellectual) glue that holds Proficiency-Based Education together. The more you force yourself to think with the end in mind, the more likely you are to develop the habits and dispositions of a proficiency-based designer.

• Unpack a learning target and verification criteria with your students. PBL will not take off until students understand and use the language of proficiency. Defining learning expectations early and often will prepare them for summative assessments. It gets everyone using the same vocabulary.
• Give feedback solely on your verification criteria. Managing the amount and frequency of feedback is an age-old problem for teachers. Try using the language of the verification criteria when you give feedback. Try limiting yourself only to the criteria you identified for that task or module. Focusing strictly on the intent of the verification criteria will force both you and your students to hone in on the learning that matters at that moment.
• Hold yourself accountable to the language of verification criteria. It is easy to fudge a grade when a student does not do what you expected. There have been plenty of times where I have thought, "well they should have done that" and graded base on what I meant they should do and not on what I said they should do. Try scoring strictly on the criteria you set, even if it means a student does better than you know they did. Adhering to the criteria will force you to develop your understanding of how you clearly and effectively communicate expectations.
• Teach students how to reflect on their growth based on the verification criteria. Have your students pull out the verification criteria for an assessment before they hand it in and mark where they think their work fits on the scale. Ask them if they are satisfied with where they are. Ask them to set a goal for improving their work. If you have exemplars, have them compare the models to their work. Ask them to make a plan for improving their learning.
• Design a module with an Essential Skill as the primary focus of the learning. We are all focused on the content we teach. However, in today's society, just knowing the content is not enough. Students need to develop an understanding of the soft-skills that make them successful. Challenge students to show evidence of collaboration, creativity, self-direction, or communication in the work they do. Document it with them, exhibit those examples, and celebrate them.
• Gather exemplars of student work and have students assess that work. Verification criteria will never fully define what quality work looks or sounds like. You need examples of student work at varying levels of proficiency so that students can see what the verification criteria looks like in real life.
• Exhibit student work with the assessment and the verification criteria. We hang student work all the time. Try also putting up the task you gave along with the-the verification criteria. Make your work public alongside the students. If you do not have a clear task or are embarrassed by the way it looks, or you have to take ten minutes to explain it, that might be a clue that you need to revise it.
• Ask students to write reflections about why a piece of work mattered. Systemic proficiency programs engage students and develop reflective learners. When you ask students to place value on their work, it gives them ownership over their work. I read several short essays by students at a recent student exhibition about why they decided to share a particular piece of work. I was struck by how thoughtful they were about their selection process.
• Create conditions where students have to assess their progress and set goals for improvement. The nexus between personalization and proficiency is helping students know what they don't know. If you ground your students with clear expectations for quality learning, it provides them with the foundational knowledge and language they need to set goals and track their progress.
• Talk with students about their goals. Make conversations about goal setting and progress a regular part of classroom discourse. Learning is not just about acquiring content. Make it a habit of asking students every day to check their goals in your class and to check in with them about their progress.

Every time I go to a conference, meeting, workshop, or just run into a colleague from another school, I hear about and see examples of teachers experimenting with approaches to proficiency. The work is invariably exciting and innovative, ideas like teacher statements, student curriculum consultants, or project-driven PLP's. What is more remarkable is that the teachers driving this change do not have any specialized training; they have just fixed their sights on their north star and stepped out onto the path.