STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES
It’s well known that the most critical school variable for student learning is effective teaching. Research underscoring just how much good teaching matters has led to a national momentum to find new ways to evaluate teaching. As new approaches incorporate multiple measures of effectiveness, much debate continues over including statewide student test scores as part of the equation. There is also controversy over how evaluation results are being used—not only to tailor professional development but also to make decisions about hiring, firing, teaching assignments and, in some cases, compensation.
Especially when the stakes are high, there is great urgency to ensure that new teacher evaluation systems are rigorous, transparent, and fair. But how do you provide equity to teachers if a component of the evaluation is based on state test scores, and not all subjects or grades are tested?
One proven strategy is to include—for both tested and non-tested subjects—a “student learning objectives” (SLO) component.
What are SLOs?
SLOs are exactly what they sound like—carefully planned goals for what a student will learn over a given time period. Far from routine, SLOs introduce a very precise process intended to evoke critical, evidence-based thought about a teacher’s students. The process leads to objectives that can be reliably measured for student growth.
Teachers set the objectives, using three key steps:
- Review the data available about their students early in the
year, including prior year performances and
any pre-tests administered; - Set a designated number of objectives (usually two: classroom-wide and targeted); and
- Identify appropriate measurements.
Within this process, teachers must:
- Ensure appropriate learning content (e.g., aligned to standards; taught in an apt sequence); and
- Plan to use instructional strategies matched to the subject matter (e.g., science teaching uses inquiry and experiential methods) and attuned to student needs (e.g., English learners need exposure to essential vocabulary prior to a lesson).
At the end of the time period, SLO-provided evidence of student growth, validated by the principal, leads to teachers’ performance ratings.
Why are SLOs gaining policy attention?
SLOs are more than a means of evaluating teachers. They are designed to both strengthen teaching and improve student learning. When implementing SLOs, teachers and administrators engage in a collaborative process that helps teachers analyze their practice and adjust instructional strategies to better meet student needs. The process also helps tailor professional development to teachers’ needs.
This advantage—that SLOs encompass both accountability and support—helps explain why a number of school districts and states are adopting or considering their use in teacher evaluation systems. Policymakers are recognizing that SLOs can address the “non-tested” problem. But because SLOs also constitute an instructional improvement process—driven by teachers themselves—decision makers are moving toward incorporating them as an across-the-board reform strategy, involving tested as well as non-tested grades and subjects.
CTAC’s pioneering SLO findings
The concept of using SLOs to gauge teacher effectiveness emerged from Denver’s compensation system reform. CTAC conducted a four-year comprehensive study of that reform and provided technical assistance on its use of SLOs. The science and practice of the SLO process is being further refined in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. There CTAC is the project evaluator and technical assistance provider for the five-year Leadership for Educators Advanced Performance initiative, which is supported by a federal Teacher Incentive Fund grant and is anchored in SLOs. Charlotte’s use of SLOs factored into their winning the 2011 Broad Prize.
Among our very promising findings has been a strong correlation between targeted objectives and student performance on statewide tests.
- In Denver, students whose teachers crafted high quality SLOs showed more than a year's worth of gain on the Colorado Student Assessment Program and the Iowa Test of Basic Skills during each year of the study at all three school levels.
- In Charlotte-Mecklenburg, during the first phase of implementation, we found another strong correlation between the targeted objective and student achievement on the North Carolina End of Grade Tests, as well as performance by pilot schools that exceeded that of the match schools.
Our studies also led us to conclude that the SLO process adds key strengths to an evaluation system, including:
- Providing a mode for differentiating teacher effectiveness;
- Establishing a vehicle for improving teaching based on data on student performance and growth;
- Bringing more science to the art of teaching;
- Linking teacher effectiveness to principal effectiveness;
- Connecting evaluation directly to student learning, while respecting teacher professionalism; and
- Enabling teachers and principals to become more systematic and strategic in their instructional decisions to improve the quality of the outcome.
For more information see:
- Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s SLO Guide, developed as the framework for crafting student learning objectives; and
- CTAC’s Teacher Compensation Brief on Student Learning Objectives, for an analysis of the underpinnings of student learning objectives.
If you would like assistance in examining and including SLOs as part of your teacher evaluation system, please contact CTAC at (617) 423-1444.