RI Diploma System: Exhibition Toolkit Step 1 Action 2

Schools should not underestimate the value of a high quality process for drafting, reviewing, and adopting school-wide Expectations for Student Learning. A carefully designed process will not only generate a high-quality product but will also engender staff, faculty, and community buy-in that is critical for long term success. Consequently, care must be taken to consider the wide range of knowledge, skills, and values that a school community wants/expects for all students when drafting expectations.

Things to Consider

The expectations committee should oversee the draft process to ensure that appropriate guidelines for developing school expectations are followed. While adherence to appropriate guidelines is necessary, it is not sufficient for the creation of appropriate, relevant, and fair Expectations for Student Learning; the committee must also take responsibility for making sure that the process is inclusive of all members of the school community. The NEASC website at http://neasc.org/cpss/cpss.htm contains guidance for developing a mission and expectations. Schools are encouraged to use this process.

Tools

Observable and Measurable Expectations for Student Learning

This is a small sampling of Expectations for Student Learning that have been adopted by different Rhode Island high schools. It is critical for each school to go through its own drafting process; it is neither helpful nor appropriate for schools to adopt any of these examples, in its entirety, as their own. However, these examples offer a feel for the general scope, inclusiveness, and measurability of well-written expectations.

Strategy for Developing and Setting Expectations for Student Learning: Ponaganset High School

This is a review table that can be used as your school begins to organize draft Expectations for Student Learning and attempts to align them with appropriate national, state, and/or local standards. Draft expectations should also be mapped to courses and content areas within the school curriculum. The expectations in this chart are examples of adopted expectations from a Rhode Island school that used the NEASC process. Remember that expectations must be observable and measurable skills.

This is both a sample chart and a blank chart for you to use. Put your draft expectations in the first column, and then list across the columns the source of standards or other areas against which expectations will be aligned. Under each standards heading list the appropriate standard(s) with which each expectation can be aligned.

Strategies for Setting Expectations for Student Learning: NEASC

Schools that have not had a NEASC accreditation visit since 2003 may find it necessary to review and revise their learner outcomes/expectations in accordance with the 2005 Standards for Accreditation guidelines. Visit http://neasc.org/cpss/cpss.htm for a copy of the standards and the NEASC Guide for Developing a Mission and Expectations for Student Learning.

Expectations for Student Learning: Cranston High School East

This is an example of Cranston High School East's Expectations for Student Learning. For more examples, visit other Rhode Island high school websites and/or contact schools directly for information about their experience in setting expectations. Remember that your school needs to develop Expectations for Student Learning that are appropriate for your district/school and community. Schools should not adopt these expectations, either in their entirety or in a modified form, as their own.

Expectations for Student Learning: Westerly High School

This is an example of Westerly High School's Expectations for Student Learning. For more examples, visit other Rhode Island high school websites and/or contact them directly for information about their experience in setting expectations. Remember that your school must develop Expectations for Student Learning that are appropriate for your district/school and community. Schools should not adopt these expectations, in their entirety or in a modified form, as their own.

Expectations for Student Learning: Ponaganset High School

This is an example of Ponaganset High School's Expectations for Student Learning. For more examples, visit other Rhode Island high school websites and/or contact schools directly for information about their experience in setting expectations. Remember that your school must develop Expectations for Student Learning that are appropriate for your district, school, and community. Schools should not adopt these expectations, in their entirety or in a modified form, as their own.

Action Plan for Setting Expectations for Student Learning: Westerly High School

This is the action plan that Westerly High School used to develop school Expectations for Student Learning (which they refer to as their PBGRs). The action plan includes a timeline, responsible persons, and resources needed for the various stages of the process. You may use it as one example as you develop your own Expectations for Student Learning.

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Westerly High School Setting Expectations

In September 2004 a committee was formed to review and revise Westerly High School's mission and expectations for student learning in order to meet the new high school regulation requirement for graduation by proficiency. The group consisted of representatives from the core academic departments and an administrator. The committee members reviewed the essential documents to determine what Westerly High School students should know and be able to do in order to graduate. Those documents included Rhode Island's grade span expectations (GSEs) for ELA and math, the New Standards, the Rhode Island Common Core of Learning, and the national standards for each academic area. Once a draft was complete, the expectations for student learning (or proficiency based graduation requirements) and the learner outcomes were shared with and adopted by the faculty. Teachers then began to create school wide rubrics for all of the learner outcomes during two professional development days in November.

In order to be able to accurately measure our students' proficiency in our seventy-two learner outcomes, we had to apprentice our faculty in the art of writing analytical rubrics. Teachers reviewed and discussed the essential elements of school-wide rubrics and were provided a template for writing them. They were then assigned to one of twenty-four clusters that were responsible for writing three rubrics each. The clusters were designed around the content and skill expertise of each teacher. The learner outcomes were then assigned to the clusters based on that expertise. It was important to provide these clusters with the appropriate materials including the GSEs, a copy of the New Standards and the RI Common Core of Learning, the national standards in the six core areas, the guidelines for writing analytical rubrics that were discussed in the morning session, and the official school-wide rubric template in both paper and electronic form. The school's instructional coordinator was readily available to each group throughout the day to answer questions and to monitor progress. By the end of the day, one draft rubric had been created for each learner outcome.

A voluntary committee of teachers was then formed to review each rubric. This committee continually works to improve, correct, and revise the rubrics. Spelling and grammatical errors are addressed. Rubrics based on grade span expectations are analyzed to insure proper alignment with the criteria included within the GSEs themselves. Teacher concerns regarding the applicability of the rubrics in the classroom are addressed. This work will continue until all usability issues are addressed and corrected.