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This placeholder will hold documents showing how I align lessons to state or Common Core standards.

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Resources and examples for writing clear, measurable learning objectives.

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Article on Effective Learning Objectives

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Article on Effective Learning Objectives

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This article from Vanderbilt University's Center for Teaching explains how to write effective learning objectives using Bloom’s Taxonomy. It summarizes the cognitive levels (remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create) and offers sample verbs and examples for each. The resource helps educators create measurable and specific goals that align with assessments and instructional strategies.

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Imagine What's Possible.

Whether you're looking to try something new, wanting to better connect with your students or need to develop your curriculum for hybrid or online environments, AdvancED's team of skilled practitioners is ready to support your next step.

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Connect with our dynamic community at AdvancED! If you have a compelling story or upcoming event you'd like to highlight or need design expertise for, we're here to support you. Our dedicated team is committed to amplifying your message and championing groundbreaking, research-driven innovations to elevate training and development initiatives.

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Supporting Discovery in Teaching and Learning Whether you teach in person, hybrid or online, AdvancED provides consulting and technological support to help you pursue pedagogical excellence at every career stage, design student-centric experiences that transform learning in any context, and innovate best practices that encourage discovery.

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Ongoing checks for understanding and engagement.

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End-of-unit tests, projects, or rubrics.

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A rubric assesses students’ understanding of fractions using visual models, explanations, and math vocabulary. This can be adapted for summative or formative use in upper elementary math lessons.

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This article from Edutopia shares 7 fast and reliable formative assessment strategies you can use at any grade level. From exit tickets to peer feedback, each idea helps check for understanding and inform instruction immediately. Great for daily use and teacher reflection.

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Formative assessment-discovering what students know while they're still in the process of learning it-can be tricky. Designing just the right assessment can feel high stakes-for teachers, not students-because we're using it to figure out what comes next. Are we ready to move on? Do our students need a different path into the concepts? Or, more likely, which students are ready to move on and which need a different path?

When it comes to figuring out what our students really know, we have to look at more than one kind of information. A single data point-no matter how well designed the quiz, presentation, or problem behind it-isn't enough information to help us plan the next step in our instruction.

Add to that the fact that different learning tasks are best measured in different ways, and we can see why we need a variety of formative assessment tools we can deploy quickly, seamlessly, and in a low-stakes way-all while not creating an unmanageable workload. That's why it's important to keep it simple: Formative assessments generally just need to be checked, not graded, as the point is to get a basic read on the progress of individuals, or the class as a whole.

7 Approaches to Formative Assessment

1. Entry and exit slips: Those marginal minutes at the beginning and end of class can provide some great opportunities to find out what kids remember. Start the class off with a quick question about the previous day's work while students are getting settled-you can ask differentiated questions written out on chart paper or projected on the board, for example.

A quick way to see the big picture if you use paper exit tickets is to sort the papers into three piles: Students got the point; they sort of got it; and they didn't get it. The size of the stacks is your clue about what to do next.

No matter the tool, the key to keeping students engaged in the process of just-walked-in or almost-out-the-door formative assessment is the questions. Ask students to write for one minute on the most meaningful thing they learned. You can try prompts like:

What are three things you learned, two things you're still curious about, and one thing you don't understand?

How would you have done things differently today, if you had the choice?

What I found interesting about this work was...

Right now I'm feeling...

Today was hard because...

Or skip the words completely and have students draw or circle emojis to represent their assessment of their understanding.

2. Low-stakes quizzes and polls: If you want to find out whether your students really know as much as you think they know, polls and quizzes created with Socrative or Quizlet or in-class games and tools like Quizalize, Kahoot, FlipQuiz, Gimkit, Plickers, and Flippity can help you get a better sense of how much they really understand. (Grading quizzes but assigning low point values is a great way to make sure students really try: The quizzes matter, but an individual low score can't kill a student's grade.) Kids in many classes are always logged in to these tools, so formative assessments can be done very quickly. Teachers can see each kid's response, and determine both individually and in aggregate how students are doing.

Because you can design the questions yourself, you determine the level of complexity. Ask questions at the bottom of Bloom's taxonomy and you'll get insight into what facts, vocabulary terms, or processes kids remember. Ask more complicated questions ("What advice do you think Katniss Everdeen would offer Scout Finch if the two of them were talking at the end of chapter 3?"), and you'll get more sophisticated insights.

3. Dipsticks: So-called alternative formative assessments are meant to be as easy and quick as checking the oil in your car, so they're sometimes referred to as dipsticks. These can be things like asking students to:

write a letter explaining a key idea to a friend,

draw a sketch to visually represent new knowledge, or

do a think, pair, share exercise with a partner.

Your own observations of students at work in class can provide valuable data as well, but they can be tricky to keep track of. Taking quick notes on a tablet or smartphone, or using a copy of your roster, is one approach. A focused observation form is more formal and can help you narrow your note-taking focus as you watch students work.

4. Interview assessments: If you want to dig a little deeper into students' understanding of content, try discussion-based assessment methods. Casual chats with students in the classroom can help them feel at ease even as you get a sense of what they know, and you may find that five-minute interview assessments work really well. Five minutes per student would take quite a bit of time, but you don't have to talk to every student about every project or lesson.

You can also shift some of this work to students using a peer-feedback process called TAG feedback (Tell your peer something they did well, Ask a thoughtful question, Give a positive suggestion). When you have students share the feedback they have for a peer, you gain insight into both students' learning.

For more introverted students-or for more private assessments-use Flipgrid, Explain Everything, or Seesaw to have students record their answers to prompts and demonstrate what they can do.

5. Methods that incorporate art: Consider using visual art or photography or videography as an assessment tool. Whether students draw, create a collage, or sculpt, you may find that the assessment helps them synthesize their learning. Or think beyond the visual and have kids act out their understanding of the content. They can create a dance to model cell mitosis or act out stories like Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" to explore the subtext.

6. Misconceptions and errors: Sometimes it's helpful to see if students understand why something is incorrect or why a concept is hard. Ask students to explain the " muddiest point" in the lesson-the place where things got confusing or particularly difficult or where they still lack clarity. Or do a misconception check: Present students with a common misunderstanding and ask them to apply previous knowledge to correct the mistake, or ask them to decide if a statement contains any mistakes at all, and then discuss their answers.

You can use sticky notes to get a quick insight into what areas your kids think they need to work on. Ask them to pick their own trouble spot from three or four areas where you think the class as a whole needs work, and write those areas in separate columns on a whiteboard. Have you students answer on a sticky note and then put the note in the correct column-you can see the results at a glance.

Several self-assessments let the teacher see what every kid thinks very quickly. For example, you can use colored stacking cups that allow kids to flag that they're all set (green cup), working through some confusion (yellow), or really confused and in need of help (red).

Similar strategies involve using participation cards for discussions (each student has three cards-"I agree," "I disagree," and "I don't know how to respond") and thumbs-up responses (instead of raising a hand, students hold a fist at their belly and put their thumb up when they're ready to contribute). Students can instead use six hand gestures to silently signal that they agree, disagree, have something to add, and more. All of these strategies give teachers an unobtrusive way to see what students are thinking.

No matter which tools you select, make time to do your own reflection to ensure that you're only assessing the content and not getting lost in the assessment fog. If a tool is too complicated, is not reliable or accessible, or takes up a disproportionate amount of time, it's OK to put it aside and try something different.

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7 Smart, Fast Ways to Do Formative Assessment

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Within these methods you'll find close to 40 tools and tricks for finding out what your students know while they're still learning.

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Techniques to motivate students during lessons.

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Ways to reach students with different needs.

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Summary of practical strategies to scaffold lessons for students with varying abilities, ensuring access and engagement for all learners.

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Video demonstrating effective cooperative group strategies to foster student collaboration and enhance peer learning.

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60 Second-Strategy: Cooperative Learning Roles

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Resources

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Resources

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A collection of tools and guides to support teaching fractions using UDL principles. Includes CAST’s math guidelines, an interactive lesson builder, a teaching video, digital manipulatives, fraction games, graphic organizers, and a quick-reference guide—all designed to promote access, engagement, and understanding for all learners.

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A practical module on best practices for IEP implementation. Covers educator roles, service delivery, family involvement, and legal requirements.

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Page 5: Implementing the IEP

Procedural Requirements Guidelines

Implement the special education services as written in the IEP

Ensure that parents are meaningfully involved in the IEP process

Adhere to required timelines

The purpose of the implementation stage of the IEP process is to deliver the services and supports outlined in a student's IEP. To ensure that these services and supports are implemented correctly, the school administrator should make sure that:

Parents are meaningfully involved in the IEP's implementation

School personnel understand their responsibilities and have the skills and training necessary to deliver the supports and services as outlined in the IEP (i.e., with fidelity)

The degree to which an intervention is implemented accurately, following the guidelines of its developers.

Legislation and Litigation

School leaders who do not adhere to these procedural guidelines can face serious consequences.

In Kay Williams v. Cabell County Board of Education (1996), a school principal was removed in part due to failures to exercise leadership responsibilities, ensure that teachers implemented the IEP, and cooperate with parents.

In Van Duyn v. Baker School District 5J (2007), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that a school district had denied FAPE when it provided only slightly more than half the number of hours of math instruction per week called for in a student's IEP. According to the court, even if an IEP meets the procedural and substantive requirements of the IDEA, a school may still violate a student's right to FAPE if a material or important part of the IEP was not implemented.

Engage Parents

The Supreme Court's decisions in Rowley (1982) and Endrew F. (2017) emphasized the importance of the collaboration between school personnel and a student's parents throughout the IEP process. These case decisions provide evidence that meaningfully involving parents in the IEP process is vigorously protected by the courts. For parents to be meaningfully involved in the implementation of the IEP, the school administrator needs to ensure that systems and processes are in place to:

Establish and maintain open lines of communication-Because parents are valuable resources, any information they share should be considered. For example, when a student is having difficulty at school, the parent can often offer insight and can be instrumental in identifying possible reasons and solutions.

Frequently inform the parents of their child's progress toward meeting her IEP goals and objectives.

Involve parents in any changes to their child's IEP.

Tip

About a week after the meeting and once implementation begins, it is a good idea to check with the parents to see if they have any questions.

Breanne Venios describes how her school facilitates parent communication (time: 1:24).

Transcript: Breanne Venios

Our school facilitates parents' communicating any changes in student progress or behavior by keeping the lines of communication open. We have teams here at our school so the parent knows exactly what teachers their child has. We encourage them to email if they have a concern. Some of our students actually have written in their IEP that the learning-support teacher will send daily updates. The regular ed teachers keep a running document of what had happened during that day, usually for behaviors, and then the parent is kept in the loop because they get a daily email, which I'm usually CCed on just so that we can all see what's going on and see what next steps we have to do. Our teams are highly encouraged to do team meetings throughout the year, not just when there is a concern. We try to be more proactive rather than reactive. We also do what we call circle of support meetings that some of our parents prefer to have quarterly meetings instead of just the yearly IEP meetings. Once per marking period, they would be able to just come in for a team meeting and get updates that way or talk about any concerns that they have. So we really try to keep our lines of communication open. Our teachers are also reaching out to the parents, because sometimes parents don't know how to reach out to our teachers.

Support School Personnel

For Your Information

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law, the purpose of which is to protect the privacy of a student's personally identifiable information (PII), such as educational records. To comply with FERPA, schools require a parent's or guardian's signature to release a student's educational record.

IDEA requires that school personnel begin to deliver the services outlined in the IEP as soon as possible. To guarantee there is no delay, the school administrator should make sure all individuals involved in implementation:

Have access to the IEP: Although they are confidential documents, IEPs should be shared (either in hard copy or electronically) with anyone responsible for the provision of services. This includes the special and general education teachers, related service providers, paraprofessionals, and other relevant school staff (e.g., administrative staff, bus drivers, substitute teachers). Although sometimes misconstrued as such, sharing a student's IEP with relevant parties is not a violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). However, because of confusion and misperceptions surrounding what is permissible and what is not, it's important that the school administrator remind those with access to the IEP that it is a confidential document and periodically meet with them to review their responsibilities regarding confidentiality.

Although school administrators might be tempted to provide a mere summary or overview of the IEP, it's important that everyone involved in the implementation of services and supports have the opportunity to read the document in its entirety. Similarly, merely providing access to the complete text of the IEP is not sufficient either. It is crucial to make sure that service providers fully understand the information contained in the IEP and the connections among its many components (e.g., PLAAFPs, goals, services).

Know their responsibilities for IEP implementation: To make certain that the IEP is implemented as intended-and thus to maximize the likelihood that the student will meet the outlined goals-every individual who provides services to the student must understand her or his responsibilities. These might involve providing specialized instruction for a specified portion of the day, providing accommodations, collecting and reporting progress monitoring data, or communicating a student's progress to her parents, among other tasks. If for whatever reason a member or members of the IEP team were unable to attend the IEP meeting, school administrators might want to consider establishing a process by which those parties can indicate that they have read the IEP and understand their individual responsibilities.

Are informed of the accommodations, modifications, and supports that must be provided to the student: Because students sometimes require different accommodations, modifications, and supports throughout the day, each service provider should be aware of those he is responsible for implementing. One way to do this is to use a form to record a student's IEP goals and the services and supports needed for the student to achieve those goals in different content areas. This form should be completed for each individual who will be implementing these supports. Following the meeting, it can be shared with relevant school personnel to help them understand their responsibilities to ensure the IEP is implemented as intended. Following is a form that school leaders can use to accomplish this.
IEP Implementation: School Personnel Responsibilities

Further, the school administrator is responsible for providing needed support for educators so that they can effectively deliver the services and supports outlined in the IEP. She can do so by 1) monitoring educators' professional development (PD) needs and providing training, and 2) creating structures and opportunities for collaboration.

IEP process

IEP content

Implementing IEPs with fidelity

Monitoring student progress and collecting data

Submitting progress reports

Inclusive practices

Evidence-based instructional practices

Instructional and testing accommodations

Modifications

Assistive technology

Evidence-based behavioral strategies

Behavioral implementation plans (BIPs)

Positive behavioral intervention and support (PBIS)

Providing effective PD and opportunities for educators to collaborate is a great starting point for helping to ensure that a student's IEP is implemented correctly. However, these activities do not guarantee that educators will implement the services and supports outlined in the IEP as intended. Further, these activities alone do not guarantee appropriate student progress. For this reason, it is critical that the school administrator have processes in place to monitor both implementation fidelity and student progress. The following page provides more information on how to accomplish these tasks. But first, Breanne Venios discusses access to IEPs at her school, the structures that have been put in place to provide PD, and ways to foster collaboration.

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Breanne Venios
Principal, Spring Cove Middle School
Roaring Spring, PA

Transcript: Breanne Venios - Access to IEPs

Access for IEPs at our school vary. Any learning-support teacher has access to the program that we use to generate the IEPs, so they have a login and password for that. The administrators have a login and password for that as well, so I can go in at any time and pull up any student's IEP. Our regular ed teachers read all of the IEPs and then they sign off that they've read and understood them. Our learning-support teachers make what we call a cheatsheet, so any of the specially designed instruction that they might need or the accommodations they make the child's name and then the things that the teacher has to implement. So if it's eliminating an answer choice or small-group testing, so that's a cheatsheet that the teachers are given so that they can make sure that they're implementing all of that. If we have a substitute teacher in, the teachers leave a note for them, if needed. For instance, if there is a child who needs frequent breaks and that is written in their IEP, obviously we need to let the substitute know that. If there is a child who has a crisis plan, we need to let the substitute know that so that they can obviously respond appropriately. We do give information, as needed, for our guests in the building, but other than that if a teacher needs to know anything further about the IEP they are able to come down. They are in a locked student file, but they can view the IEP when they need it, but they don't have the actual copy in their room.

Another way that we ensure all relevant staff know their responsibilities for IEP implementation is, at the beginning of the year, we do transitional meetings with our learning-support teacher and the regular ed teachers, because they do work very closely as a team. The 6th-grade teacher will talk about the students with the 7th-grade learning-support teacher and then that learning-support teacher will meet with a team of 7th-grade teachers so that way they can have a heads-up of any needs. If they have a student who has a specific behavioral plan or a crisis plan, they would know that from the beginning of the year. The 6th-grade teacher can give feedback to the 7th-grade teachers, and the 7th-grade teacher can give feedback to the 8th-grade teachers, because they know that student the best so they can better prepare the teachers. So we do transitional meetings in addition to the other things that we've done.

Transcript: Breanne Venios - Professional Development

We monitor PD multiple ways. We do have district-required professional development. Usually at the beginning of the year, we have a guest come and address the whole staff on anything from responding to crisis situations, trauma, or de-escalation techniques. We do that as a district, but one thing that I try to do as a building leader is just be in the know with my teachers. I attend all of the team meetings. I try to be in the classrooms as much as possible. I hear what they ask, I hear what they need, and I talk to my learning-support teachers a lot. So if they have concerns, they don't necessarily feel it's appropriate for them sometimes to address teachers, so they'll let me know and I can do that. And then if I hear the same concern over and over again, I know that that needs to be addressed as a staff, but I have conversations with the teams. I use data collection. I always say it has to be observable data. So if I see a concern through that, I can address it. We have at-risk meetings. If one of our students is not making progress, we bring that up at the at-risk meeting that we have every quarter, and we ask why that student's not making progress. And if I see a consistency there that might be something that the teachers aren't doing or implementing then I can address that and give them the professional development that they need.

But it always goes back to the student's progress. If they're not making progress, we have to find out why. So I use that and then I'll make our in-services. I did a whole year teaching the teachers about differentiated instruction whenever we went from homogeneous grouping to heterogeneously grouping. So I knew that that was something that they would need, so I made that our focus. So I try to take data, and I try to see what needs they need and make it relevant for them. If I have one or two teachers that may be struggling with implementing one of the accommodations or they're not understanding why something has to happen, I always sit down with them one-on-one and discuss that. It always starts with a discussion, and I explain the whys. If we are doing something and we don't know why then we need to make sure we know why. So maybe I pull up the IEP and I show them specifically what are the goals? What are we looking at? If they don't take our conversation and change from that then my job is to hold them accountable. It's not that we want to give them more work. It's not that we just want to implement something for no reason. It's what's best for the child.

Transcript: Breanne Venios - Collaborating

We have some structures in place to provide opportunities for educator collaboration such as team and content-area meetings. One day every other week, they meet as a 6th-grade team, a 7th-grade team, and then an 8th-grade team. And then on the opposite weeks, they meet with their content-area teachers. So math meets together, English together, and so on. During those meetings, there is a conversation of any student concerns and what we're doing to assist with student concerns, whether that be discussing some classroom management techniques or how are they doing in your class, what are you doing if they're struggling with this. So we have those conversations, and also, when possible, I like to give planning periods together with the co-teachers. So if our learning-support teacher is co-teaching with the English teacher, I try to give them a common plan. It doesn't always, unfortunately, work out that way, but that way it's more meaningful for them, because they can plan together. At the end of the day, we have what we call activity periods, so they use that time together to meet. So we have pockets within the day that they can get together and collaborate, but we definitely have set time for our team meetings and our content-area meetings.

For Your Information

There are several serious procedural errors that IEP teams should avoid when implementing the IEP. These include:

Failing to monitor a student's progress

Failing to implement the student's services and supports with fidelity

Failing to involve the student's parents

The last several pages of this module have included information about common errors related to the content on those pages. The handout below offers a combined list of these errors along with more detailed information about each.
IEP Process: Common Errors

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Implement the special education services as written in the IEP Ensure that parents are meaningfully involved in the IEP process Adhere to required timelines The purpose of the implementation stage of the IEP process is to deliver the services and supports outlined in a student's IEP.

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This official guide provides a comprehensive overview of the IEP process, including development, implementation, and legal requirements under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It's an essential resource for educators, parents, and administrators involved in special education.

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Strategies for working with colleagues.

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Can teacher collaboration really make a difference? Discover how planning, working, and teaching together can strengthen community and elevate student success.

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This resource offers a free SMART goals template tailored for educators, complete with examples and guidance to help you set Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound objectives.

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Templates for goal setting and tracking.

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Free SMART Goals Worksheet Template to Edit Online

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Edit your professional SMART Goals Worksheet Template online for free. Easily customizable for personal or business use. Create and achieve your goals today.

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(Helpful link with real-classroom advice.)

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New teachers—and experienced ones too—can find ideas here on how to stop disruptive behavior before it begins.