Designing Effective Assignments

If schools fail to create assignments and assessments that are not aligned with grade-level standards, students may appear to be performing well, but they are not learning or completing work on which they will be tested or expected to master in a school year. 

Despite a data-driven approach to school improvement, most typical schools cannot break away to consistently higher academic growth and proficiency levels. Mining their students’ test score data, these schools are almost always confronted by the uncomfortable truth that many of their students are slipping further and further behind or are now multiple years below grade level. Unfortunately, this often leads to the Cycle of Low Achievement. This cycle locks many schools into an achievement rut, unable to close learning gaps or recover from learning loss. To break this cycle, schools need to focus on creating grade-level assignments.

Exemplary Schools use a system for consistently planning and assigning lesson instruction and assessments that reflect high expectations and grade-level appropriate work. Designing Effective Instruction provides educators with a roadmap for generating assignments and assessments from grade-level standards that integrate content, literacy, and thinking skills. In addition, you will learn how to differentiate grade-level assignments so that all students can succeed while maintaining high expectations.