Thanks to everyone for being so prepared for today’s 2-Week Prac Unit Planning Conferences.

I mentioned the BC Performance Standards several times in my meetings so I thought I’d post links to the resource here for easy reference.

What are the Performance Standards?

The BC Performance Standards have been developed for voluntary use in B.C. schools. They describe the professional judgments of a significant number of B.C. educators about standards and expectations for the following key areas of learning:

• Reading
• Writing
• Numeracy
• Social Responsibility
• Information and Communications Technology Integration
• Healthy Living (Draft) 

Why use the Performance Standards?

The BC Performance Standards are intended as a resource to support ongoing instruction and assessment. Teachers can use these standards to:

• monitor, evaluate, and report on individual student performance
• identify students who may benefit from intervention
• develop a profile of a class or group of students to support instructional decision-making
• prompt discussions with parents, students, and other teachers about student performance
• inform professional development activities
• collaboratively set goals for individuals, classes, or schools
• develop evidence for school growth plans
• provide models for designing performance tasks

How to use the Performance Standards?

Performance standards describe levels of achievement in key areas of learning. Performance standards answer the questions:

• How good is good enough?
• What does it look like when a student’s work has met the expectations at this grade level?

The BC Performance Standards describe and illustrate the following four levels of student performance in terms of prescribed learning outcomes:

NOT YET WITHIN EXPECTATIONS

• the work does not meet grade-level expectations
• there is little evidence of progress toward the relevant prescribed learning outcomes
• the situation needs intervention

MINIMALLY MEETS EXPECTATIONS

• the work may be inconsistent, but meets grade-level expectations at a minimal level
• there is evidence of progress toward relevant prescribed learning outcomes
• the student needs support in some areas

FULLY MEETS EXPECTATIONS

• the work meets grade-level expectations
• there is evidence that relevant prescribed learning outcomes have been accomplished

EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS

• the work exceeds grade-level expectations in significant ways
• the student may benefit from extra challenge

In fact, the Performance Standards include a variety of rubrics and exemplars for the assessment of student work.  Here’s an example of a simplified rubric, called a Quick Scale, from the Grade 8 Reading Performance Standards:

Don’t, ahem, reinvent the wheel!  Use these rubrics and save yourself some time and frustration (a good rubric is really hard to develop.)

See you on Wednesday.

– Lawrence