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�STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES (SLOS)

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Dr. Leslie B. Trimmer

LIU, Educational Consultant

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Session Goals

Develop an Understanding of Student Learning Objectives
Develop an Understanding of the Student Learning Objectives process
Following the overview, work in Elementary, Middle School, and High School groups to begin the process of developing Student Learning Objectives

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PDE’s Definition: A process to

document a measure of educator effectiveness based on student achievement of content standards.

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Student Learning Objective

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Student Learning Objective

Concept

It is important to keep in mind that the Student Learning Objective (SLO) is a process that allows educators to have a great deal of control and responsibility over their instructional practice and evaluations. In this process, teachers take responsibility for selecting the goals, setting performance indicators/targets, and selecting performance measures which will be used to determine their effectiveness with the students they are instructing in a specific grade level, course, or subject area. These SLOs are one part of the multiple measures that will be used to evaluate teachers and comprises 20% (for teachers with eligible PVAAS data) or 35% (for teachers without eligible PVAAS data) of a teacher’s final rating. Further clarification can be found on the PDE website, Educator Effectiveness Administrative Manual (http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/educator_effectiveness_project/20903).

Key Points for Trainers

Articulate that the student learning objectives are being used in emerging teacher effectiveness systems throughout the nation. They have become increasingly important as teacher effectiveness systems have begun linking student outcomes directly to specific educators, rather than in broad terms associated with school accountability systems.
Clarify that SLOs based on non-cognitive measures and used for school effectiveness systems (graduation rates, matriculation rates, AP course enrollment, suspensions, etc.) will be excluded from this SLO process and its usage within educator effectiveness systems.

Select non-cognitive measures are part of the Building Level Data.

Learning Activity

Take three minutes to think:

Write down two ways SLOs could positively influence your teaching.

Take two minutes to share:

Share “Round Robin” in your groups.

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�Who is required to develop a SLO?

EVERY EDUCATOR WHO PLANS, TEACHES, AND ASSESSES MUST DESIGN AN SLO�

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Is an educator required to write a SLO for every subject he/she teaches?

NO
THE SLO IN PA IS WRITTEN TO A SPECIFIC TEACHER AND SPECIFIC COURSE/CONTENT AREA FOR WHICH THE TEACHER PROVIDES INSTRUCTION

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May teachers work with others to create a SLO?

COLLABORATION DEVELOPMENT IF AN SLO IS ENCOURAGED (E.G., SIMILAR CONTENT AREAS, GRADE LEVELS, DISABILITY AREAS, INTERDISCIPLINARY GROUPS OF EDUCATORS).

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PDE’s Definition: A process to

document a measure of educator effectiveness based on student achievement of content standards.

*

Student Learning Objective

*

Student Learning Objective

Concept

It is important to keep in mind that the Student Learning Objective (SLO) is a process that allows educators to have a great deal of control and responsibility over their instructional practice and evaluations. In this process, teachers take responsibility for selecting the goals, setting performance indicators/targets, and selecting performance measures which will be used to determine their effectiveness with the students they are instructing in a specific grade level, course, or subject area. These SLOs are one part of the multiple measures that will be used to evaluate teachers and comprises 20% (for teachers with eligible PVAAS data) or 35% (for teachers without eligible PVAAS data) of a teacher’s final rating. Further clarification can be found on the PDE website, Educator Effectiveness Administrative Manual (http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/educator_effectiveness_project/20903).

Key Points for Trainers

Articulate that the student learning objectives are being used in emerging teacher effectiveness systems throughout the nation. They have become increasingly important as teacher effectiveness systems have begun linking student outcomes directly to specific educators, rather than in broad terms associated with school accountability systems.
Clarify that SLOs based on non-cognitive measures and used for school effectiveness systems (graduation rates, matriculation rates, AP course enrollment, suspensions, etc.) will be excluded from this SLO process and its usage within educator effectiveness systems.

Select non-cognitive measures are part of the Building Level Data.

Learning Activity

Take three minutes to think:

Write down two ways SLOs could positively influence your teaching.

Take two minutes to share:

Share “Round Robin” in your groups.

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THE SLO PROCESS CONTAINS THREE (3) PHASES:

DESIGN (ING): THINKING, CONCEPTUALIZING, ORGANIZING, DISCUSSING, RESEARCHING

BUILD (ING): SELECTING, DEVELOPING, SHARING, COMPLETING

REVIEW (ING): REFINING, CHECKING, UPDATING, EDITING, TESTING, FINALIZING

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Guiding Principles

SLOs should:

Represent student performance in a specific course/content area taught by the educator.
Align to a targeted set of content standards that represent the depth and breadth of the goal statement.
Contain results from only high-quality performance measures collected in an equitable, verifiable, and standardized manner.
Use metrics based on two time-bound events/data collection periods and/or summative performance with defined levels of achievement.
Include performance indicators linked to performance measures.

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Guiding Principles

Concept

Keep in mind that there are several guiding principles associated with the SLO process. These principles are key to the SLO process and ensure the development of high-quality, valid, and fair measures of teacher effectiveness through student performance outcomes based on standards.

Key Points for Trainers

The guiding principles are essential in developing a mental picture of the characteristics of the student learning objective.

a. Principle #1-Performance must be aligned to the standards with a specific course/content. Other types of performance, such as attendance, classroom behavior, time-on-task, cooperativeness, engagement, etc. are not part of the SLO process.

b. Principle #2-Goal statements articulate a controlling “big idea”; however, more granular content standards are necessary in order to develop/identify performance measures.

c. Principle #3-Performance measure quality is critical in producing results associated with the selected standards. Often, assessments are used for purposes the author did not design the tool to perform, thus creating a validity threat to those inferences about student learning. Furthermore, ensure that equitable opportunity for the student to demonstrate learning is provided within the administration and scoring of the performance measure.

d. Principle #4-Metrics have strengths and weaknesses.

Status [i.e., Mastery] metrics have absolute standards and are easily understood; however, they do not reflect changes (improvement) in student performance
Growth metrics are sensitive to changes in learning; however, they are more unstable and limited for high performing students

e. Principle #5-Performance indicators provide a clear expectation of performance on the identified assessment. Multiple indicators can often provide a more defensible evidence of student learning. Linking and weighting indicators can be helpful in some instances but add additional layers of complexity to the SLO process.

Learning Activity

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General Description

Contains demographic information about the educational setting

Articulates the course, grade(s), and students on which the SLO is based

Provides class size, frequency, and duration data

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Section 1: Classroom Context

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General Description

Contains a statement about the “enduring understanding” or “big idea”

Provides the specific PA standards used in developing SLOs and are the foundation of performance measures.

Articulates a rationale providing reasons why the Goal Statement and targeted standards address important learning.

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Section 2: SLO Goal

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General Description

Identifies all performance measures, including name, purpose, type, and metric
Articulates the administration and scoring details, including the reporting

Note: Section 3 is based upon high-quality performance measured aligned to the targeted content standards

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Section 3: Performance Measures

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General Description

Articulates targets the expected level of achievement for each Performance Measure

Includes all students in the identified SLO group

May include a focused student group

Affords opportunity to link indicators and/or weighting

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Section 4: Performance Indicators

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General Description

Identifies each level (Failing, Needs Improvement, Proficient, Distinguished) students are meeting the PI targets.

Reflects an “expectations continuum” established by the educator prior to the evaluation period and then examined at the end of the evaluation period.

Selects the overall SLO rating.

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Section 5: Teacher Expectations

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Training Resources

SAS is the PDE website (www.pdesas.org) containing:

Pennsylvania content standards and other helpful PDE developed material
a downloadable SLO training “packet”, including SLO Models
links to Research in Action’s training platform, Homeroom

Homeroom is RIA’s web-based learning platform (http://www.ria2001.org) containing:

on-line training materials, including the SLO Process Template
downloadable SLO training files, except the videos
links to the SAS portal

Training Resources

Concept

As noted previously, a significant number of resources are available on the above mentioned sites. Go to the SAS portal at http://www.pdesas.org for PA content standards and PDE developed material. Also on the SAS portal is a link to RIA’s Homeroom portal. Both sites provide trainings and participants with any information needed for the SLO process.

Note: the icons provided on the slide are hyper-linked.

Key Points for Trainers

Built to support teachers and principals.
Build template on-line, save, edit, print.
View training at a time that “fits” in to user’s schedule (resources are available online).

Learning Activity

Pause training and have audience go to the SAS Portal and locate (a) a content-specific curriculum framework, and (b) the SLO “Homeroom” webpage.

(New participants should register on the RIA website when the Login page appears.)

2. As preparation for the next slide, participants should click on the SLO box and the ALS box to gain familiarity with the visual presentation.

Note: These web resources will assist in completing templates in the Design module.

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Videos

Describe the procedures within each of the three phases (i.e., Design, Build, & Review)

Guides

Provide examples and information about a process

Templates

Assist in developing customized material

“Other Stuff”

Supplements the core training materials

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Tool Organization

Concept

As you work through the various training modules, several resources are available. All SLO training materials can be found at both the PDE’s SAS portal and Research in Action’s Homeroom learning platform. Go to http://www.pdesas.org. Once there you can login to the Homeroom learning portal.

Key Points for Trainers

Differentiate how tools are organized into four groups: videos, guides, templates, and “other stuff”.

a. Videos are PowerPoint, mp3, etc. that provide information in a visual format.

b. Guides have materials such as handouts, rules of thumb, model SLOs, etc. that reinforce content presented in the videos. They contain the details within each element of the process.

c. Templates are used to complete each phase of the process. They create a structure for creating learning objectives and performance measures. [Note: Performance measure templates are located within the Assessment Literacy Series found within the Homeroom learning portal].

During the Design Phase, teachers will complete Template #1 Goal Statement, Template #2 Targeted Content Standards, and Template #3 SLO Blueprint
During the Build Phase, teachers will complete Template #4 SLO Process Template and Template #5 Performance Task Framework
During the Review Phase, teachers will complete Template #6 SLO Coherency Rubric

d. “Other Stuff” is where additional materials, references, and information reside that may be helpful to the process.

Learning Activity

1. Have participants go to www.pdesas.org to review resources that are available on the SAS portal and the Homeroom learning portal.

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SLO DESIGN, BUILD, REVIEW: �USING PDE’S ONLINE TOOLS TO IMPLEMENT THE SLO PROCESS�SAS PORTAL: WWW.PDESAS.ORG�

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Navigate to the homeroom page: RIA Homeroom site.

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Log in and if not a user then register for the site: Pause until entire room is registered or with a partner:

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Home Page for information:

Open SLOs

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The SLO Box expands…………..

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Joining the SLO Professional Learning Community on SAS.

Go to the SAS home page(www.pdesas.org)

Log in with your user name and password.

If you do not have an account with SAS you will have to create one.

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Enter your information on the log in page and submit.

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Once you have successfully logged in and are at the SAS home page, go to Teacher Tools in the upper right corner.

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Click on Teacher Tools, this will provide you with various tools.

Locate the button labeled “My Communities.”

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This will open your membership to various Professional Learning Communities.

If you are not a member of the Student Learning Objectives PLC, type SLO in the search bar.

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Once a member of the SLO community you will have access to communication with all other members and a calendar of upcoming events.

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Along with posting questions to the entire community you have access to the Digital Repository, in which SLO training materials and supporting documents are located.

(This is located at the bottom of the SLO community page.)

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