RI Diploma System: Portfolio 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 the long-term success of a high school diploma system. Consequently, care must be taken to consider the wide range of knowledge and skills that a school community requires of all students when drafting expectations.

Things to Consider

The expectations committee should oversee the draft process to ensure that appropriate guidelines for developing the school's 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 accreditation process includes the development of a school's mission and Expectations for Student Learning. Schools are encouraged to use this process when drafting new, or revising existing, Expectations for Student Learning. If a school has not had a recent NEASC accreditation visit, it can go to the NEASC Web site at http://www.neasc.org/cpss/cpss.htm to order copies of their guidance publications.

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 their entirety, as their own. However, these examples provide a sense of the scope, inclusiveness, and measurability of well-written expectations.

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

This table can be used as your school begins to draft Expectations for Student Learning 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. A Rhode Island school that used the NEASC process adopted the expectations in this chart. Remember that expectations must be observable and measurable skills.

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

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 Web sites 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 another school's expectations in their entirety or in a modified form as their own. It is important that the expectations developed for your district/school match the specific expectations and requirements that you have for all students.

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 Web sites 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 another school's expectations in their entirety or in a modified form as their own. It is important that the expectations developed for your district/school match the specific expectations and requirements that you have for all students.

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 Web sites 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 another school's expectations in their entirety or in a modified form as their own. It is important that the expectations developed for your district/school match the specific expectations and requirements that you have for all students.

Action Plan for Setting Expectations for Student Learning

This is the action plan that Westerly High School used as it developed its Expectations for Student Learning, which the school refers to as its Proficiency Based Graduation Requirements (PBGR's). The action plan includes a timeline, a list of responsible persons, and resources needed for the various stages of the process. You may use it as one example or model as you develop your own school's 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.