1) What do we want students to learn?

2) How will we know if they've learned it?

3) What will we do if they didn't learn it?

4) What will we do if they already know it?

There are many similarites between the two. Both of them focus on planning, delivery, and measurement. When planning both start with selecting a standard and developing clear instruction that gets students thinking at various levels. There is also a connection between the two and their use of data. Having a clear measurement of what the students know is important to both.

High impact instruction elements and the Arkansas TESS Rubric both focus on the overall goal of student learning. Both state you must have clear, precise learning goals, using the students' prior knowledge to build on and gain a higher level of understanding, quality questions that provoke a higher level of thinking, and lessons that can be monitored and adjusted based on all students' learning needs.

The four PLC questions. Is there anything that I need to learn before I teach this lesson? Am I meeting the needs of all students? What questions might they ask ? What vocabulary might they be missing?

What is my overall learning goal for this lesson? What do I want my students to achieve or gain? What prior knowledge or understanding do my students possess before this lesson is taught? How will I know if my students are understanding the material or content? What can be brought in to take their understanding to a higher level of comprehension? What can I do to make sure I meet all of my students individual needs?

What do we want students to learn?

How will we know they learned it?

What will we do if the didn't learn it?

What will we do if they already know it?

1. What do my students know?

2. What connections are we trying to make?

3. How to my standards and material align?

4. How am I going to measure growth/understanding?

5. How does what I am teaching them apply to them today in the real world?

High impact instruction elements and the Arkansas TESS Rubric both focus on clear learning goals and objectives, putting an emphasis on questioning and discussion, having formative assessment and feedback, and the importance of engagement and active learning in the classroom. All of these things contribute to teacher and student success in the classroom.

What do I want students to learn? What materials do I need to have prepared? How will I know that all students are engaged? What DOK questioning do I need to have prepared to scaffold the learning and check for understanding? How will I know that the students have mastered the lesson?

Are the learning goals clear, measurable, and aligned to standards?

How will I measure whether students have met the learning goals?

Are my assessment criteria clear and aligned with instructional outcomes?

What higher-order questions will I pose to promote critical thinking?

How can I differentiate instruction based on my knowledge of my students?

What procedures, expectations, and norms will I establish to promote a safe and inclusive environment? 

How am I going to go about teaching the students (materials and activities)?

What depth of knowledge questions should I use for scaffolding learning?

How am I going to know they have mastered the skill?

High Impact Teachers relate to the TESS system in the following ways.

Set Clear Goals

1c: Setting Instructional Outcomes – Outcomes are clear, rigorous, and aligned to standards.

3a: Communicating with Students – Teacher clearly communicates instructional purpose and learning expectations.

Clearly define success criteria and use formative assessment to gauge student progress.

1f: Designing Student Assessments – Assessments align with instructional outcomes and are used to plan future instruction.

3d: Using Assessment in Instruction – Teacher uses assessment strategies to elicit evidence of student understanding and adjust instruction.

Engage Students and Develop Student Ownership in the learning process.

3c: Engaging Students in Learning – Learning tasks are rigorous and require student reasoning and problem solving.

3e: Demonstrating Flexibility and Responsiveness – Teacher adapts instruction to student interests and needs.

Differentiation and support to adapt lessons to all learners.

1b: Demonstrating Knowledge of Students – Teacher uses knowledge of students to plan differentiated instruction.

3b: Using Questioning and Discussion Techniques – Instruction includes scaffolding and supports to deepen understanding.

Teachers reflect on student data, instructional decisions, and outcomes.

4a: Reflecting on Teaching – Teacher accurately assesses lesson effectiveness and uses feedback to improve.

4e: Growing and Developing Professionally – Teacher seeks out opportunities to improve instructional practice.

Create and maintain a respectful and safe environment.

2a: Creating an Environment of Respect and Rapport – Students feel valued and respected.

2b: Establishing a Culture for Learning – Classroom culture supports high expectations and risk-taking in learning.

What do my students already know?

Does this lesson align with the standards?What materials or resources do I need?

How can I differentiate lessons?

How will I check for understanding and show what my students learned?

How will I respond to anything that does not go as planned?

What do I want students to learn?

How will I know if students have learned it?

How will I engage all students in meaningful learning?

What do I know about my students?

What materials, tools, and resources will support learning?

How will I structure the lesson for maximum impact?

How will I reflect and adjust?

What resources will I utilize to unlock prior knowledge & support those with limited schema?

What questions & discussions topics will I prepare to engage the students?

How will I assess their understanding & mastery?

High‑impact instruction directly aligns with Arkansas TESS Domains 1–3 because it demonstrates deep content and student knowledge, supports coherent lesson planning and purposeful questioning, and builds a respectful, engaging classroom culture through structured routines, cooperative learning, and responsive pacing.

• What do we want students to learn?

• How will we know if they have learned it?

• What will we do if they don't learn it?

• What will we do if they already know it?

• What misconceptions might my students have and how can I combat those?

• What scaffolds and supports do I need to have in place?

• Where will I provide time for purposeful reflection and discussion?

• How will I check for student understanding?

What are my learning targets and how do they align to standards?

What do my students already know and what do they need to know?

Which strategies and resources will best scaffold their learning?

How will I differentiate to meet all needs and challenge all learners?

What checks for understanding will I use?

How can I design engaging routines and assessments that build a respectful, growth‑minded classroom?

1. What are my learning objectives: What do I want students to learn?

2. How will I assess if students have reached mastery of desired learning?

3. What prior knowledge will be needed?

4. How will I need to differentiate learning?

5. How will I best engage my students?

6. What questions or misconceptions may my students have?

• What is the learning objective & standard?

• What prior knowledge do they already have?

• What activities will be needed to help students master the skill/objective?

• How will I know if they are successful?

• What are my next steps if they do not master the skill/concept?

*What is/are the learning objective(s) for this lesson?

*What prior knowledge do my students have/need?

*How will I know the students achieved the objectives?

*What differentiations do I need to make?

*How will I engage the students in the lesson?

*What resources/materials do I need to use?

*How will the lesson be structured?

*What assessments will I use and when?

*How and when will I reflect on the teaching practices?

What do they already know?

What is my plan if they don't get it?

How do I assess what they've learned?

What do I need to have in place to modify the lesson if necessary?

What activities will make the lesson more engaging?

F – Focus on Standards

What do my students need to learn?
What is the goal of the lesson?

O – Observe Student Needs

What do my students already know?
What gaps or strengths do they have?

C – Choose Strategies

What teaching methods and tools will I use?
How can I keep students engaged?

U – Use Assessments

How will I check for understanding?
What does success look like?

S – Support All Learners

How will I differentiate?
What feedback and support will help students grow and develop?

-What is our goal?

- What is our prior knowledge?

-Do I need any special materials?

-How will I engage all?

-What questions do I need to ask?

-How will I measure the outcome?

-How will I use the results to move students forward?

How do I make sure all my students are successful? How do I differentiate instruction - whether it be for those who already know it, need to know it, or don't understand it? How do I keep them engaged? How do I allow them to be part of the lesson?

How do we progress to the learning target?

How can we make this accessible to all students?

How do we extend student learning?

How do we accommodate students who are struggling?

When will we revisit the learning target?

How will we assess the learning target?

They also want to know how will they know if the students learned the material by the way of assessment.

They will think about their students and decide the best way to present the material, so that all students have opportunities for learning.

How do I present them in a way my students will understand?

What will success in understanding look like?

How will I build from previous learning to grow this new concept?

• What are the standards I'm addressing and the student outcomes that correspond with them?

• What will I use to assess these standards that will deliver the desired outcomes?

• What materials, activities, etc. will guide the students learning toward the assessment/outcome?

• What pre-requisite skills are needed?

• What strategies/learning methods are best to deliver the content to my students?

• How will I differentiate for lower, mid and higher level learners?

• How will I group students through each part of the lesson?

• What misconceptions do I foresee from my students and how will I address them?

• How will I display the criteria measurement clearly for my students?

• What high-level thinking questions could I ask during the lesson, activity, etc?

Both put an emphasis on teacher planning and delivery that carefully considers students' prior knowledge and common misconceptions as they pertain the objective, as well as designing assessments to gage mastery and giving immediate and supportive feedback along with tasks to move students toward their learning goal.

1) What is my learning objective?

2) What prior knowledge do the students have?

3) What are some common misconceptions and what can I do to counteract them?

4) Are my problems/questions progressing in degree of difficulty appropriate to the students' level of learning?

5) How will I assess mastery?

6) What activities will I assign to students who have met mastery? To those who have not?

The high impact instructional elements and the TESS rubric are very similar. Both focus on standards-based planning and instruction. Both require the teaching to be measurable, and both require feedback. Also, both use data to drive the unit forward, allowing students to pick up on what they've missed out on or hone in on a skill they're good at.

What is my essential standard, and how will I know if students have met the goal?

What do I do if students have not met the goal?

What do I do with the students who have met the goal while my others are catching up?

Will this lesson be engaging enough to keep my students focused and well-behaved? Will it take long enough to fill all the time?

The connections I made between the high impact instructional elements and the Arkansas TESS rubric descriptors for teachers was that they both hone in on the planning it takes to deliver high quality lessons that will produce accurate and sufficient data on students. This is a cyclical process.

What is my end goal with this lesson?

How will I know if my students were successful? How will it be shown?

What are some misconceptions I can anticipate? How can I make this lesson engaging for ALL my students? What are some scaffolds I can put into place if they're needed? What procedures do I need in place? How can I extend thinking skills?

Arkansas TESS Rubric: (a few examples)

Domain 1: Planning and Preparation, 1b knowledge of students (teacher reflection)

Domain 2: The Classroom Environment, 2b students are responsible (student reflection)

Domain 3: Instruction, 3c communication and reflection (both teacher and student reflect)

Domain 4: Professional Responsibilities, 4b students contribute to the monitoring of their achievement and growth (student reflection)

High Impact Instruction Elements:

Again, very similar to the Arkansas TESS Rubric. Just less detailed. However, very easily aligned. Specially, it is addressed the importance of a clear plan to ensure growth. Without reflection of student data, and knowledge of the students an instructor cannot successfully develop a clear plan to ensure growth.

Knowledge of the students is everything.

What is the student's current individual needs?

What is their present level of knowledge?

What is their individual goal?

What is the instructor's goal?

(Where are they, and where do they need to go?)

Question I always ask my students, other team instructors, and parents/guardians (they are a huge stake holder in growth)

What are the holes that need filled? What are the swiss cheese holes? Do we have a foundation, if not what is missing? All stakeholders are responsible of the reflection of needs. This empowers all and helps ensure growth.

The two are closely aligned in promoting effective teaching practices such as active student participation, setting clear goals for learning, and conducting ongoing checks for student understanding. Teachers need to ensure their lesson planning relies on data-driven decision making to create classrooms where students can take ownership of their learning. By using HII strategies, teachers naturally meet many of the expectations outlined in the TESS framework

What do I want students to understand by the end of the lesson, and how will I communicate that clearly?

What strategies can I use to keep all learners involved and thinking critically during the lesson?

How will I assess them for understanding along the way, and what steps will I take if students are struggling?

• focus on learning goal

• student assessment

• student questioning

• clear communication

What milestones do students need to meet along the way?

How will students show their understanding?

What interventions and extensions will I employ?

You have to know students’ interests, backgrounds, learning levels, and learning styles.

You have to have clear, rigorous, and measurable learning goals in your instruction, and you have to build positive relationships with student through creating a safe environment and making them feel valued and loved.

What does the student already know?

How can I differentiate for the different learning styles?

How will I actively engage students and keep them interested?

How will I assess the learning to know what they understood and are still struggling with?