Every
course at Park Hill South has identified a set of Essential Learning Outcomes
(ELOs) that each student should master. ELOs
have been identified by teachers as the most important big ideas or concepts within a course’s curriculum, and
may include one or more learning standards. "Mastery" of an ELO is defined as a
level of understanding that gives students the best opportunity to be
successful at the curriculum or experiences that follow that learning outcome.
For example, a student must master solving equations before graphing equations or
identify a theme within an essay before defending or opposing its
stance.
ELOs
are driven by Park Hill South’s Professional Learning Communities, or PLCs. These
communities are course-specific. For example, all world history teachers meet
together regularly to build consensus around their ELOs, which are deployed to
all students in the course.
Mastery
Park Hill South
believes mastery is not completed at the same time by each student. In fact, each
student’s life experiences (academic as well as social and emotional) facilitate his/her learning. Similar in that every student learned to
walk at a different age, each student will master ELOs at different times
within a course. Teachers partner with students
to facilitate the level of knowledge students shall master to be successful in
the next unit, course or grade level.
Four Levels
At Park Hill South, essential learning outcomes are written at four levels of understanding, Advanced, Proficient, Basic, and Below Basic. These levels are consistent with current outcome terminology found on standardized assessments to help students understand if they are meeting standards at a particular grade level by being proficient or above.
This example demonstrates four levels of an ELO that we would want every student to
master in this "walking" course. The four levels
are written in this manner to facilitate interventions for students at the
levels of Basic or Below Basic, as well as extensions for students Proficient
or above. Students (and teachers alike) clearly understand the depth of knowledge each learner has achieved to
determine appropriate interventions or extensions. Interventions that students and
teachers often use can be, but are not limited to; tutoring during tutorial time (35 minutes in the middle
of the day), utilizing homework helper after schools on Mondays and Thursday
from 2:45 – 4:00 pm, or goal setting, etc.
Grading in infinite campus
Some
of our
professional learning communities will mark ELOs in their
gradebook. Since the gradebook can only
communicate through numbers, each level is given a corresponding number; Advanced is 4,
Proficient is 3, Basic is 2, and Below Basic is 1. Inputting these scores as a
learning community facilitates the analysis of the data to make appropriate
educational decisions as professionals to improve teaching and learning.
The
purpose of this data tracking is not to assess percentages. For example, 3 out of 4 is a 75%, which is correlated
to a grade of C. However, proficiency is mastery in our case and 3 out of 4 is
positive; therefore, these ELO scores
are not incorporated into the overall grade of the student. They are worth 0% of the overall grade and
are noted as an excluded.
partnering
There is a clear benefit for parents and guardians being aware of these scores. This is why they are in Infinite Campus. If your student is showing a score of a 2 or
1, they should be partnering with their teacher to gain a better understanding
of the material. Remember, ELOs are the
big ideas of the curriculum, and proficiency (score of 3) is written at the
level of understanding for a student to be successful at what comes in the course or future courses.