Teaching to standards: experience shows that teaching with standards-aligned materials isn't enough to ensure that students meet expectations. Teachers also need professional development in planning and evaluation.

Now that California's standards-based educational system will soon be completed, our attention is returning to the classroom. What will teachers do differently to assure that their students meet the higher expectations of the standards?

California, perhaps more than any other state, has provided school leaders and teachers with a variety of resources for implementing standards. Diane Massell, a researcher in Philadelphia, has complimented our state for its efforts: "California published curriculum and program advisories, lists of educational materials (in addition to approved textbooks), model curriculum guides and task force reports to provide guidance while frameworks were being revised" (Massell, 1998).

Clearly, teachers in our state are in an enviable position. Unlike other states, we have approved curriculum products for use at the lower grades that are aligned with the standards. But recent experience in New Jersey suggests that teacher reliance on standards-based curriculum materials may be insufficient to reach the target: student work and test performances that meet standards.

The New Jersey study revealed some issues of importance to school leaders in California. Following extensive professional development in the use of standards-aligned curriculum activities in science, 27 teachers were asked to select one activity as the basis for a lesson plan. The teachers who volunteered for this exercise were asked to: 1) teach the lesson, 2) collect three samples of student work from the lesson and 3) write specific comments that explained where the evidence could be found that documented the achievement of the selected standard.

The New Jersey teachers were professional and trusting. They disclosed their plans, their student work samples and their comments about student work produced in their own classrooms. An analysis of the student work, the teachers' comments about the work samples and the lesson plans prepared from standards-based activities suggests that teachers struggle in their efforts to plan and implement standards-based lessons, even when those lessons use standards-aligned curriculum materials.

Principals and curriculum leaders may need to give some thought to how teachers are supported in their efforts to implement standards. Diane Massell is clear on this matter: "High-quality curriculum materials are necessary if not sufficient tools for implementing and achieving educational change. Indeed, the lack of quality, including the tendency of textbooks to cover so many topics in a superficial manner, was the initial impetus for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' groundbreaking effort in the 1980s to set academic content standards in K-12 mathematics."

Standards-based lesson planning

The teachers in the New Jersey study received extensive staff development in hands-on science activities and information about the New Jersey core curriculum content standards. The teachers did not receive instruction in how to plan differently for a standards-based classroom. What could have been done for these teachers to help them meet the standards?

A close look at the standards, the frameworks, teachers' lesson plans and student work provided some insights into effective standards-based lesson planning. Here are some of the components that were missing in the New Jersey professional development activity.

Selecting standards and indicators

When teachers use standards-aligned curriculum materials as the sole means of meeting the standards, they are not given the opportunity to consider deeply the higher expectations that the state frameworks describe for their students. Consider these frequently observed errors based on the analysis of lesson plans prepared by New Jersey teachers who were not provided with instruction in standards-based lesson planning:

1. Too many standards or indicators selected for one lesson.

2. The wrong standard was chosen in relation to the curriculum materials.

3. The standard or indicator selected was at the wrong grade level.

4. The standard or indicator selected was not matched to the concepts of the lesson.

5. Student activities and work products selected for a lesson did not elicit performances related to the chosen standard.

Apparently, expectations for student work must arise from close consideration of standards and indicators themselves. The New Jersey study tells us that the selection of a proper standard and indicator matched to the learning needs of students and the curriculum resources available is a challenging task with opportunity for error. Professional development programs need to stress the selection of proper standards and performance indicators.

Identifying learning expectations

Our California frameworks include teaching ideas, suggestions for finding instructional resources, vignettes of teaching episodes and teaching tips for teachers. While these ideas are helpful, it is the student learning expectations found in various locations within the frameworks that demand close inspection by teachers. These are the statements that explicitly describe what students are to know or be able to do to meet the standards.

The selected standard and indicator and the descriptive statements pertaining to the selected indicator are the critical state-provided inputs to the standards-based lesson. From these inputs, decisions about curriculum are made -- not visa versa.

Translating learning expectations

The translation of student learning expectations found within the frameworks into student performance descriptions is the most difficult and challenging component of the standards-based planning process. Teachers must be given the opportunity to meet this challenge collaboratively. Whether working in grade-level teams at the elementary level or within academic departments at the secondary level, team planning results in the best set of well-written, comprehensive student performance descriptions.

When completed, these statements constitute the intended learning outcome that the lesson holds for students. It is the target for student learning that meets the expectations of the standards. Student performance descriptions within the intended learning outcome are used to select curriculum resources and to enhance instructional activities provided by publishers. Teachers use student performance descriptions to select curriculum, prepare instructional tasks and evaluate student work samples. They form the keystone of the standards-based lesson plan.

Selecting curriculum resources

Student performances that meet standards will not come from continued reliance on worksheets, word searches, matching exercises and puzzle activities. It is up to teachers, working collaboratively, to supplement or enhance publishers' materials in order that students will be able to provide the performances and products that meet standards.

Evaluating student work products

The rewards of planning standards-based lessons go unrealized unless teachers, working collaboratively, have the opportunity to evaluate student work in relation to student performance descriptions. When teachers meet to decide which work samples submitted by their students are "good enough," they begin to truly understand how their students are performing in relation to the expectations of the standards. This needs to be a regularly scheduled event with a frequency of no less than once every two weeks.

Learning from New Jersey

New Jersey adopted core curriculum standards in 1996. Critical elements of the state's standards-based educational system were installed by 1998, including state resources for teachers (standards, frameworks and directories of test specifications). California educational leaders can profit from the challenges faced by several New Jersey teachers who volunteered to disclose their planning and teaching efforts following extensive professional development with standards-aligned curriculum materials.

Our teachers in California will need professional development in the planning of standards-based lessons and the evaluation of student work resulting from the lessons. Teaching with standards-aligned curriculum materials will help, but it won't be enough to assure standards-based performances from students.

STANDARDS IMPLEMENTATION: THE CHALLENGES

Following are the lesson planning and work evaluation errors in a study of standards implementation in two urban districts in New Jersey. Problems and challenges demonstrated by teachers who volunteered for the study included:

1. Standard selection

* The proper standard for the lesson was not selected.

* Too many standards were selected for one lesson.

* In some instances, no standards were stated at all.

* Performance indicators selected were from wrong grade-level ranges.

* Standard was stated but it was unrelated to stated objective of lesson.

* The indicators selected were not achievable through the selected learning activity.

2. Selecting and enhancing curriculum materials

* Selected learning activities did not address essential concepts of the standard.

* Learning activity called for student responses not described in a performance indicator of the selected standard.

* Teacher relied on printed worksheets that resulted in coloring, tracing, word searches and matching exercises not in keeping with the expectations of the standards.

3. Teacher appraisal of student work

* Teacher wrote general compliments about student work ("nice work" or "good") but did not specify where performance indicators had been met or not.

References

Massell, D. (1998). State Strategies for Building Local Capacity: Addressing the Needs of Standards-Based Reform. CPRE Policy Briefs. Univ. of Penn.

Mark R. O'Shea is director of the Institute for Field-Based Teacher Education at California State University, Monterey Bay. More information is available online at www.academicstandards.org.