Instructional System Resources

The Graduate Profile: A Focus on Outcomes

Summary  
According to the article, a graduate profile is a document that a school or district uses to specify the cognitive, personal and interpersonal competencies that students should have when they graduate. This article provides some general guidelines for creating a graduate profile. 

Kay, K. (2017, May 17). The graduate profile: A focus on outcomes.  Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/graduate-profile-focus-outcomes-ken-kay

Three Key Questions on Measuring Learning

Summary  
This article, written by researcher Jay McTighe in 2018, posits that educators, policy makers, parents, and others interested in improving the way we measure learning in today’s schools need to examine three essential questions related to student outcomes.

  • District and building leaders, subject area leads, and those involved in curriculum work might use this article as a springboard for conversations around the three key questions posed in the article:

    1. What matters in contemporary education?

    2. How should we assess the things that matter?

    3. How might assessments serve learning?

    How you answer the three questions posed in the article has significant consequences for educational measurement, instructional practices, and ultimately, student learning. It is suggested that the article is read using the Four A’s Text Protocol.

    Next steps may involve building and district level administrators, along with lead teachers, to use a district assessment inventory tool to help identify the assessments being used in-district, determine why they are being used, and to decide what data can be collected from their use.

    The Michigan Department of Education has a district assessment inventory tool that can be downloaded and edited.

  • Four A Text Protocol

    Michigan Department of Education District Assessment Inventory Toolkit

  • Instructional System Practice #2

    Instructional System Practice #6

McTighe, J. (2018). Three key questions on measuring learning. Educational Leadership, 75(5), 14-20.

Developing Grade-level Learning Progressions

Summary
“A learning progression is a carefully sequenced set of building blocks that students must master en route to mastering a more distant curricular aim. These building blocks consist of subskills and bodies of enabling knowledge” (Popham, 2007).

This resource from the Oregon Department of Education and Berkeley Evaluation and Assessment Research Center is designed to guide leaders and teachers in the development of learning progressions for all grade levels.

  • Learning Progressions may be developed after a particular standard has been unpacked.

    This resource provides step by step directions and a template for creating learning progressions. Collaborative teams might use this resource as a guidance template as they work to develop/refine learning progressions for specific grade levels and/or subject areas. This resource can be used in concert with Michigan’s K-12 academic standards.

  • Learning Progressions Directions Template

    ELED Task Card: Unpacking the Common Core State Standards

  • Instructional System Practices 2, 3, 4, 5

Learning Progression Directions and Template by the Oregon Department of Education and Berkeley Evaluation and Assessment Research Center is licensed under a CC BY 4.0.

Popham, W. J. (2007). The lowdown on learning progressions. Educational Leadership, 64(7), 83.

Understanding by Design® Template

Summary
Understanding by Design, is one example of a curriculum framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning. The Understanding by Design® framework (UbD™ framework) offers a planning process and structure to guide curriculum, assessment, and instruction. Its two key ideas are contained in the title: 1) focus on teaching and assessing for understanding and learning transfer, and 2) design curriculum “backward” from those ends.

Bowen, R. S.  (2017). Understanding by Design. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [04/27/23] from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/understanding-by-design/.

McTighe, J., & Wiggins, G. (2012). Understanding by design framework. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Universal Design for Learning
Step-by-Step Planner: Lesson Design Template

Summary
Universal Design for Learning, is one example of a curriculum framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. The UDL Guidelines found in the supporting resources can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment.

Instructional System Implementation of Practices Tools

Summary
Your district may be well on its way to implementing the practices within the Instructional System or you may be just starting out on your journey.

These tools mirror the documents found on the Implementation of Practices page for Readiness and Planning and Practices and Progress Continuum. The tools are downloadable and can be used for assessing where your district is within the Instructional System.

Essential Standards Selection: REAL Criteria and Vertical Alignment

Summary  
This resource articulates guiding questions that may be used to identify essential standards. The supporting resources provide more clarity around the guiding questions, outline a process for vertical alignment of selected essential standards, provide a protocol for hearing all voices when making decisions, and a facilitation guide for doing the work.

Adaptive Schools. (n.d.). Six-Position Straw Poll. Retrieved from Adaptive Schools Live Binder: https://rowman.com/WebDocs/Six-Position%20Straw%20Poll.pdf

Ainsworth, L. (2013). Prioritizing the Common Core Identifying Specific Standards to Emphasize the Most. Englewood, CO: Lead and Learn Press.

Many, T., & Horrell, T. (2014). Prioritizing the Standards Using R.E.A.L. Criteria. Texas Elementary Principals & Supervisors Association, 1-2.

Connecting Instructional System Research-Based Practices and a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum

Summary
This video{6:32} explains the connections between the Instructional System: Research-Based Practices and a guaranteed and viable curriculum.  

Dufour, R., Dufour, R., Eaker, R., & Many, T. (2010). Learning By Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work (2nd edition). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Hubbell, E. R., & Goodwin, B. (2019). Instructional models: Doing the right things right. McRel International. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED595141.pdf 

Marzano, R. J. (2013, May 23). Proficiency Scales for the Common Core. Retrieved from Marzano Research: https://vimeopro.com/solutiontree/marzano-research/video/113931850

Rankin County School District. (2023-2024). Pacing Guides. Retrieved from Rankin County School District: https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1689882861/rcsdms/knh6v0etjrhckgtnm70b/6thGradeYear-At-A-Glance23-24.pdf