Instructional Practice
Standards
(IPS)

The Five High-Leverage Instructional Standards is an interwoven set of high-leverage principles of learning. They are not intended to act as curriculum; rather, they interact with curriculum and student standards in teachers’ classroom practice. The five standards are intended to reflect the practice of effective teaching in the classroom.

1. New Learning is Connected to Prior Learning and Experience

2. Learning Tasks Have High Cognitive Demand for Diverse Learners

3. Students Engage in Meaning-Making through Discourse and Other Strategies

4. Students Engage in Metacognitive Activity to Increase Understanding of and Responsibility for Their Own Learning 

5. Assessment is Integrated into Instruction

Included in this section are a variety of resources to give you a better understanding of the NEPF Instructional Practice Standards and Indicators.

Instructional Practice Standards Rubric

The Instructional Practice Standards Rubric outlines the Standards and Indicators, identifies mandatory and confirmatory pieces of evidence that can be used by educators and evaluators to demonstrate proof of practice, and a breakdown of the performance levels for each Standard and Indicator.

Another resource included in this section is the NEPF Instructional Practice Standards: Digital and Blended Learning Evidence and Examples-in-Practice document. The IPS Rubric provides guidance for educators and evaluators in the Descriptions/Notes column; however, this resource provides specific instructional practices that can be used/may be observed in a digital or blended learning environment as evidence for each of the aligned Standards and Indicators. This resource is merely a guide to help teachers identify some technology-based strategies they can use in their classes to support students and to help evaluators identify some strategies they may observe when they visit classrooms. It is, by no means, an exhaustive list and may change as technology tools and resources improve or are created to improve instructional practices.