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I think this is kinda like changing the approach for grades. having strict curriculum hoops to jump through can be stressful and not a once size fits all approach. identifying students learning styles and strengths could be a really valuable asset to teaching and making a rubric for identifying these skills can be a hard one to make tangible. Using common sense and teaching common sense i think could go far

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Providing Teachers With Feedback That Fosters Growth

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Providing teachers with feedback should encourage them and ultimately lead to stronger classroom performance.

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Slow and stedy wins the race. its better to go at your own slow pace and get an actual understanding of the material instead of just being able to present yourself as someone who has some understanding.

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A desire for fairness and uniformity in grading prompted one district to make a big change.

Districts across the country have made strides toward grading reform, often landing on some version of standards-based grading. Naysayers claim it's just a trend in education, proponents say it's an innovation, but both are left with the question: How do we actually implement a new system and make meaningful changes?

It's simple-you've got to start with the root of the problem. Dive into grade books, and it won't take you long to uncover the discrepancies among teachers who teach the exact same course. Grading is uniformly an inconsistent practice, which can be radically different from teacher to teacher.

For example, we easily uncovered grade book inequities such as a student in teacher A's class performing identically to a student in teacher B's class on tests measuring standards. However, the students' grades differed from a C to an A because of how categories were weighted and how the points were arbitrarily assigned. When you cannot stand by grading practices such as these, you can begin the process of justifying the Herculean task of altering them.

Fargo Public Schools in North Dakota set out to find a practical model and implement it. The district established a strategic plan with an initiative to create a guaranteed and viable curriculum that is both comprehensive and equitable.

Transitioning to Evidence-Based Grading

1. Professional learning community (PLC) teams agreed on which state standards were essential and what their course-enduring skills were.

2. Points and percentages were removed and replaced with a four-point scale using common proficiency scales to report student progress.

3. Volunteer teacher groups piloted the process early to provide a model for others.

4. PLC teams were repurposed to improve collective efficacy and calibrate common assessments to unify grading.

5. Strategic expert personnel were used to guide the implementation process for teachers in addition to the district centering their professional development to support understanding.

6. Teachers were given more time to collaborate by altering the daily instructional schedule to allow for PLCs to meet more frequently. Teachers were also given curriculum release days to meet with their PLC teams for an entire workday to create proficiency scales and common assessments.

Starting in 2019, we found success in switching to an evidence-based model. Evidence-based grading uses a body of evidence to determine student learning toward a set of skills and standards while increasing student agency and efficacy. To embark on this paradigm shift, the following action steps were followed:

A yearly timeline was also established for implementation and to ensure an easier transition, beginning with sixth grade in fall 2021. Grades seven and eight followed in the subsequent years. All secondary courses will be fully implemented by fall 2025; however, because of the success with early adopters, some high schools in the district are at nearly 75 percent implementation, well ahead of the timeline.

The Role of Traditional Letter Grades

To facilitate the transition and adapt to new mental frameworks, traditional letter grades (A, B, C, D, F) remained at the high school level and for all credit-bearing courses at any level. This allows for grade point averages to still be reported, making college and scholarship applications an unchanged process. However, grade books have evolved to encompass student proficiency scores, categorizing them based on the enduring skills for each course.

To achieve an A in any course by the end of the semester, students are required to attain a proficiency level of 3 (proficient) across all enduring skills in the course. Conversely, a proficiency level of 2 (partially proficient) or 1 (developing) in any of the enduring skills will lower the letter grade.

In middle school, a few courses such as algebra and geometry still use traditional grading because they receive high school credit. But largely, middle school students do not receive letter grades. Eligibility for things that require a certain GPA is based on proficiency scores.

This grading system ensures that a student's performance is holistically evaluated, using a body of evidence to account for their proficiency across all enduring skills in the course.

Changes Beyond Grading

The results have transcended simply changing the grading system. The transition caused a shift in mental models for educators around instructional practices, curriculum, and assessments, with one 27-year-veteran teacher reporting that shifting to this model has "made me a better teacher, period."

The hyper-alignment of standards with proficiency scales and specific success criteria needed to reach proficiency has greatly improved communication with students. Students are now active participants in their learning instead of merely recipients. The discussions between teachers and students evolved from "How can I get three points back?" to "What do I need to learn to show proficiency on this assessment?"

This clarity enables students to understand exactly what they need to know (content) and how they need to showcase that knowledge (through a skill). For example, students in a science class recognized that their comprehension of genetics would be reflected in their ability to analyze and interpret data. Meanwhile, in social studies, students would convey the involvement of the U.S. in World War I through the skill of argumentation.

A few years in, we're reaping the rewards. Courses have increased their rigor by introducing standards they've traditionally never taught in previous years. Students are gaining a more holistic skill base by practicing argumentation skills in multiple classes. They are learning what it means to build a line of reasoning as a writer, as a scientist, and as a historian, revealing the success of a cross-curricular approach.

Now our PLC groups are functioning beyond the cyclical planning stage. For the first time, they are analyzing student data to drive and inform their instruction while determining the effectiveness of their assessments. With teachers being more intentional with alignment and using data to drive decisions, they meet the needs of each student, closing learning gaps. Suddenly, grading reform is no longer an initiative in education, but a remarkable and necessary innovation.

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Making the Switch to Evidence-Based Grading

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After noting vast discrepancies in grading using a traditional model, one district started transitioning to evidence-based grading.

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I think this could be a great one to talk about. being graded on showing evidence of understanding concepts of a subject instead of grading things as binary right or wrong.

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Administration & Leadership

For school administrators, it's tempting to rush into new initiatives, but setting a slower pace offers many benefits.

Michael Villegas / Ikon Images

In our fast-paced world, where speed and instant results often steal the spotlight, there's a quiet but profound virtue that often goes unnoticed-the courage to go slow. This is particularly relevant when we embark on the journey of developing or refining instructional strategies, especially those that are entirely unfamiliar to us. The question then is, how do we develop and sustain a new habit?

The answer may seem counterintuitive, but instead of rushing to implement, we need to slow down. We need to pay attention to the importance of patience in the process of habit formation and the significant role that educational leadership plays in modeling the value of taking it slow and steady. This journey is guided by the timeless metaphor of the tortoise and the hare.

The Habit-Formation Challenge

Impatience for quick results creeps in when we set out to establish new habits or make positive changes in our lives. We want to see dramatic shifts overnight, much like the hare in the famous fable. The research on this approach is sobering. One study found that habit formation can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days to take hold.

When was the last time we allowed a professional learning community to focus slow and steady for three months on one or two strategies to improve? Barak Rosenshine shares that the degree to which teachers spend time in guided practice and checking for understanding to ensure high levels of success for students is the greatest difference between highly effective and less effective teachers. Do we take the time to focus on sustained practice in these areas? Or is it on to the next thing?

The uptake of a habit often depends on the difficulty of a new habit we are attempting to form and the current habits we have surrounding the new habit. For instance, if we are adding vegetables into our lunch versus removing meat from our diet, the time for the latter will take longer.

Akin to a minor change to our lunch, adding a new probing question into our approach for checking for understanding will likely take less time than a whole new approach to asking questions in class. Leaders can assist in this process by encouraging staff to name the degree of change when we embark on a new approach. Is this a slight adjustment or a significant move in our practice?

Additionally, leaders need to narrate the importance of leeway in habit formation. The good news about the long runway with habit formation is that this time frame for acquiring and consolidating new habits accounts for errors in the process. In other words, we can mess up every once in a while.

Habit formation is a process that requires patience and persistence. It's about the gradual accumulation of small victories that eventually lead to significant changes. So how do we go slow and steady?

The Power of Leadership

Educational leaders play a pivotal role in setting the tone for how staff approaches new habit formation.

Leaders who emphasize and model the importance of patience in learning something new, consistency in the routine of new practices, and the appreciation and respect of forgetting or messing up a new practice create a space where staff feel supported and encouraged to start and progress toward a new habit. Educational leaders can use the following strategies to ensure that their staff is on the right path:

Lead by example: Leaders who embody patience and persistence set a powerful example for their teams. When leaders take the time to develop their own habits deliberately and publicly, they demonstrate that success is not about rushing but about steady progress. This means they name the degree of change, discuss when they forgot or created errors, and share how they have stayed small and focused over a series of weeks.

Foster degree changes: Educational leaders who encourage getting better at current practices illustrate that not everything is about starting something brand-new, but rather can be about improvement. As Rosenshine shared, the difference between the most effective teachers and the less effective teachers is about the degree to which they implement and inspect particular, well-known practices.

When educational leaders say that they are refining their practice, they demonstrate this aspect of habit development (e.g., improving their use of protocols to elicit more feedback from staff).

Provide support: Leaders who champion the importance of going slow but starting offer support and guidance to those under their leadership by modeling, providing time, and checking in with individuals and teams on progress. They recognize that everyone has their own pace and tailor their approach accordingly, fostering an environment where individuals feel valued and motivated.

The Tortoise's Lesson: Patience in Practice

To truly embrace the courage to go slow in habit development, consider the following steps.

1. Start, shelter, and subtract habits. Understand that habit formation takes time and requires testing, reflecting, and adapting. Set systems that focus you and your team and organization on the implementation and impact on a few key practices. Make sure to protect those few practices by eliminating other initiatives or practices.

2. Push consistency over intensity. Focus on maintaining consistent effort rather than pushing for rapid, unsustainable changes. It's the slow and steady progress that leads to lasting habits. This occurs because the enduring habits that are selected are implemented every day and reflected upon routinely.

3. Embrace small wins. Celebrate each small victory along the way. These moments of success, no matter how minor, are the building blocks of lasting change.

4. Seek support. Surround yourself with individuals who support your journey and value the importance of patience. Lean on their encouragement during challenging times.

The Strength in Going Slow

In a world that often glorifies speed, it takes courage to embrace the wisdom of going slow. As we develop habits, patience becomes our greatest ally. Leadership that models the significance of taking it slow and steady further empowers individuals to navigate this journey with resilience and determination.

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It's tempting for school leaders to rush into new things, but they shouldn't overlook the importance of patience in education.

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Middle and high school teachers can create an environment that supports inclusion and gives students space to make mistakes as they learn.

Think about it: the isolation of the pandemic, rising tensions at home, conflicts over mask mandates and debates and fights over whether they should be implemented, sickness and/or fear of sickness and death, racist incidents in the news, and increased bullying attacks on Muslims in the wake of the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Students have returned to school in a charged environment, and many of them are struggling to process the events of the past year. As a teacher, you can help by ensuring that your classroom is a safe space designed to meet students' academic and emotional needs.

Safe spaces are environments where students feel the freedom to make mistakes without lasting judgment or ridicule and where they can engage in critical, honest, civil, and challenging discussions about sensitive topics. As an educator, you want your students to feel comfortable approaching difficult subjects in your classroom.

How You Can Cultivate a Safe Learning Environment

Crafting (or revising) your syllabus: Include a statement of diversity that indicates your intent to foster a diverse learning environment; this will help set the tone right away. You can choose a diverse reading list with authors of different ethnicities and plan to invite a wide range of professionals from different backgrounds into your classroom; this normalizes the idea that we can learn from people who don't look like us (or who do look like us in some instances).

Remember to incorporate projects in your syllabus that celebrate different identities and cultures, encouraging students to embrace differences. In any case, consider granting extensions. Many students are experiencing emotional exhaustion and would benefit from extra compassion and understanding from you to help them process their grief surrounding current events in the media.

Setting up your classroom and discussion procedures: When setting up your classroom, make sure that it reflects the diverse learning environment you championed in the syllabus: Choose images that show a wide range of ethnicities in different roles; showcase Asian astronauts, Black doctors, and Latino professionals, for example, and don't rely on stereotypical imagery when you hang posters on your walls. Include differently abled people in classroom presentations and, if you can, invite a leader with a disability in your community to visit your classroom.

Consider alternatives to classroom discussions, such as online discussion groups, where students don't feel singled out and have a measure of anonymity to express their opinions. You may not even need to moderate this discourse or can do so in a limited capacity.

Show respect: Pronounce your students' names correctly-it's one of the many strategies to help students feel at home at school. It may seem like a tiny step, but when you know how to pronounce your students' names, it makes them feel included. This models the importance of correct pronunciation and inclusion. Don't be afraid to ask your students more than once to pronounce their names for you. HowToPronounce is a great tool for educators to use when working to learn to pronounce students' names correctly.

Respect also means not relying on students to do the emotional labor of reacting to current events in class discussions. Your Black, Latino, and Asian students don't have to be representatives of their race. Your Muslim students don't have to be representatives of their religion. Don't put them on the spot. They are students who might be struggling to understand and process traumatic events. Asking them to react to events in the media can be retraumatizing and insensitive. Listen to them instead.

If a student tells you they are being bullied, listen to them and intervene by confronting the bully privately. Then, follow up with addressing the matter with the class by talking about bullying and discrimination. Work together to establish classroom rules for the entire class.

Teach micro-affirmations to validate your students: Micro-affirmations start with active listening. In order to establish yourself as a safe sounding board for your students, maintain eye contact with them and show them body language that indicates you are engaged with them, such as nodding. Summarize what the student is telling you. Ask questions to make sure that you understand, and then affirm their experience by using a validating statement such as "I appreciate that this might be frustrating for you." You can use these statements to guide them toward developing a productive stance on their experience.

Remember, however, that micro-affirmations can be used in any interaction, not just in instances when your students are struggling with an issue. They also work when students are sharing positive experiences; they help create a sense of trust and belonging.

Even if you don't agree with what the student is telling you, you can affirm their experience, validate their emotions, and offer to help them find productive solutions.Don't treat subjects like bullying and racism as if they are taboo. Instead, work to dismantle these behaviors in your classroom by directly and openly confronting them when they occur.This might mean confronting your own biases (and working to correct them) or raising the student's issue to school administration, if necessary. Help break the cycle by taking these subjects seriously and doing the work to protect your students. Follow through: Do not back down on these issues-you are carrying a responsibility for keeping students safe.

Creating a safe space for students doesn't have to be difficult. It can be something you build into each day's activities. Simply going in with the mindset that you are offering a diverse and enriching atmosphere is a good start.

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Cultivating the Classroom as a Safe Space

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Middle and high school teachers can create an environment that supports inclusion and gives students space to make mistakes as they learn.

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There's a lot more that goes into learning than what's in the curriculum. Decades of research going back to psychologists like Piaget and Maslow show that a safe environment is essential for student success. Creating a welcoming, inclusive space where students feel free to express themselves in service to their academic goals begins with how students are treated by teachers and peers-in interactions big and small.

Good teachers already know that "building the right kind of climate and culture is crucial to a successful classroom," writes Jal Mehta, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Fortunately there are "ample opportunities for this kind of integration."

When schools and teachers focus on honing complex skills like tone of voice and co-regulation, while generating connection and belonging between children, they help deliver the "physiological and psychological conditions for productive learning," note researchers Linda Darling-Hammond and Channa M. Cook-Harvey in a 2018 report. "Without secure relationships and supports for development, student engagement and learning are undermined."

We examined the research and combed through our archives to see how teachers keep their classrooms safe, open, and inviting learning spaces focused on collaboration, effective communication, and strong two-way relationships between students and teachers. Read on to see an assortment of ways teachers create these conditions in their classrooms.

3. Sit with Students: Teachers should circulate in the classroom, of course, but it's also important to occasionally sit beside them. "We might ask a strategic question, inquire about the group's project, or simply listen," writes Rebecca Alber, who instructs preservice teachers at UCLA's Graduate School of Education. It can be a uniquely powerful way to build connection, empathy, and ultimately trust.

4. Check In Daily: Each day at Rhode Island's Highlander Charter School begins with a morning meeting to help get students centered, connected to teachers and peers, and ready to learn. Former high school teacher Ronen Habib began class with a brief gratitude circle, a warm-up game, and a moment of mindful breathing. Such exercises build emotional intelligence skills such as self-awareness and self-management, says teacher Aukeem Ballard, and give students space to quiet down and reflect before learning.

8. Develop Your Tone of Voice: Using your voice to manage a classroom is a powerful tool-and it can take years to get right. A tone that's too strict or demanding can cause students, especially older ones, to disengage; too soft and you'll invite them to test boundaries. The best mix is somewhere in the middle, writes middle school teacher Kristine Napper. "Neither high expectations nor kind hearts can do the job alone," says Napper. Instead, aim for a warm demander tone that "focuses on building strong relationships with students, then draws on that wellspring of trust to hold students to high standards of deep engagement with course content," Napper writes.

9. Confront Language: Holding students accountable for the ways they talk and joke about topics like gender identity, body image, and race are key parts of building safe classroom communities and schools. "You can interrupt negative events when they happen in school-homophobic remarks, transphobic remarks, racist remarks-because when those things are not interrupted, that can be interpreted as teachers 'giving permission,'" says Dr. Joseph Kosciw, director of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network Research Institute. "But it's also about creating an environment that embraces difference and diversity-and teaching an inclusive curriculum so kids connect to their learning." In the classroom, says educational consultant Becky Cohn-Vargas, consider introducing students to the concept of identity safety and invite them to help "formulate norms for respect, acceptance, and inclusion."

10. Make Time for Reflection: Research shows that giving students opportunities to reflect on the goals, relationships, and interests most important to them can boost achievement. Try regular low-stakes writing exercises like journal jots or quick writes, Alber suggests, with prompts such as: "What is your life's motto and why?" Also, make time for academic reflection, writes educator Andrew Miller, by asking straightforward questions about what students learned and what they think they need to learn more about.

12. Occasionally, Go Deeper: Quick check-ins like Roses and Thorns and cold opens allow students to express themselves before learning starts. But when time allows, a slightly more elaborate check-in can give students space to share more deeply and explore whether they're feeling supported in their learning, getting enough sleep, or feeling overwhelmed.

13. Be Trauma-Informed: Examining the impact on students of factors such as racism, poverty, and community violence comes with many misconceptions, writes Matthew Portell, executive principal at Fall-Hamilton Elementary in Nashville. A big one is that it's not teachers' jobs to be therapists. But being a trauma-informed educator doesn't mean that teachers need to "do the work of professional therapists," Portell argues. Instead, it's about taking a trauma-informed lens to how you approach all children. Research shows, for example, that building strong, nurturing relationships fosters a feeling of belonging that's important for all students-but for students who've experienced trauma, it's "absolutely imperative for healing," says Portell.

14. Don't Forget the Shy Kids: Shy or introverted students may be less likely to raise their hands in class-but they need opportunities to contribute in meaningful ways, writes special education expert Rachel Fuhrman. In lieu of cold calls, she practices warm calls, where she lets the student know ahead of time she'll be calling on them, and often lets students present at the front of the room in pairs. Also consider a modified Think-Pair-Share activity that gives students time to write down their thoughts instead of silent thinking time.

16. Audit Books and Classroom Materials: Review your classroom and lessons for blind spots, suggests elementary teacher Talya Edlund, especially in light of research indicating that up to 80 percent of characters in childrens' books are White. Include posters and wall art featuring people from a variety of cultural backgrounds and identities, and expose students to books and materials that address frequently overlooked stigmas around incarceration, body size, and homelessness, for example.

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16 Tips for Creating a Safe Place to Learn

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These teacher-tested strategies help students feel respected and connected in class-and primed for learning.

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A once-shy student is now a teacher working to make sure all students, even those who are quiet by nature, feel productive and included.

Bob Daemmrich / Alamy Stock Photo

Educational technology can help encourage quiet students to become active participants in the classroom, says Stacey Roshan, math teacher and director of innovation and educational technology in Potomac, Maryland. Being called on in class was stressful and intimidating for Roshan throughout her education, she writes in a recent piece on reaching quiet kids in class for EdSurge. "I could never pay full attention because I always felt on alert," Roshan says. "I was scared to be called on. I didn't want to be put on the spot." She recalls teachers frequently calling only on those who were first to raise their hands.

Her experience made her more sensitive to the needs of methodical thinkers and shy kids and informed her approach to facilitating class discussions. Roshan concluded that educational technology is a valuable tool "to engage students, inform individual and group instruction, differentiate lessons, document work, and empower students to direct their own learning."

Does it give each child a chance to participate, even if they are not the first to answer?

"Does it engage every learner in the room, and require them all to actively participate and respond to each question, form an opinion, and submit an answer?"

Does it allow for students to share openly, without risk of exposure of their mistakes to other students?

Is it efficient and effective for teachers to target not only class needs, but individual student needs?

Does it vary the way students can respond to a question? Some students like oral discussion while others prefer written replies.

But creating safe spaces for all students, she says, requires vetting technology for the classroom. Over many years, Roshan developed the following questions to assess whether educational technology is appropriate and useful which she uses as a rubric when deciding whether to adopt a technology solution:

Frequent, well-planned use of the tools that meet her high standards makes them feel second-nature to the students. Roshan recommends Flipgrid which allows students to create and post videos in response to questions from both the teacher and other students-a less stressful scenario for a shy student than speaking to a whole class. EdPuzzle also passes her test: It's a flipped classroom tool that enables students to interact with each other through video questions.

An inclusive classroom environment requires a culture shift from "first is best," where the teacher calls on the first student to raise her hand, to one where all students feel safe and comfortable participating.

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A Litmus Test for Making Tech More Inclusive

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A once-shy student is now a teacher working to make sure all students, even those who are quiet by nature, feel productive and included.