Community Training and Assistance Center

October 2011

Dear Friends:
Increased awareness of how much good teaching matters has led to a national momentum to find new ways to evaluate teaching. In many places, new approaches now require connecting student growth to teacher performance, and much debate centers on whether to include statewide student test scores as part of the equation. Within that debate, a key question arises: how do you provide equity to teachers when not all subjects or grades are tested?

One proven strategy that's gaining attention is to include - for tested and non-tested subjects - a Student Learning Objectives (SLO) component.

Pioneered by CTAC, SLOs are exactly what they sound like - carefully planned goals for what students will learn over a given time period. Far from routine, SLOs introduce a very precise process intended to evoke critical, evidence-based thought about a teacher's students. The process leads to objectives that can be reliably measured to indicate student growth.

SLOs are developed by teachers, using baseline student demographic and performance data and selecting learning content aligned with district or state standards. The teacher establishes student growth targets and identifies how growth will be assessed (i.e., using state, local or commercial tests). With these steps approved by the principal, the teacher then employs differentiated teaching strategies to reach all students. At the end of the specified interval, the teacher provides evidence to the principal of the degree to which students attained their growth targets. The level of student growth indicates the effectiveness of the teacher's instruction.

But SLOs are more than a means of evaluating teachers. They are designed to both strengthen teaching and improve student learning. When implementing SLOs, teachers and administrators engage in a collaborative process that helps teachers analyze their own practice and adjust instructional strategies to better meet student needs. The process also helps tailor professional development to teachers' needs.

This advantage - that SLOs encompass both accountability and support - helps explain why a number of school districts and states are adopting or considering their use in teacher evaluation systems. Policymakers are recognizing that SLOs can address the "non-tested" problem, providing a measure of teacher effectiveness analogous to that provided by "value added" calculations done by using state scores in tested subjects. But the fact that SLOs also constitute an instructional improvement process - driven by teachers themselves - is causing decision makers to move toward incorporating them as an across-the-board reform strategy, involving tested as well as non-tested grades and subjects.

This momentum is spotlighting CTAC's findings from our work in Denver and, more recently, in Charlotte-Mecklenburg, that demonstrate a positive, statistically significant relationship between the quality of SLOs and increased student achievement. Our findings also show that SLOs add key strengths to an evaluation system, including fairness and scientific rigor. Charlotte-Mecklenburg's use of SLOs as part of the district's reform efforts factored into their winning the 2011 Broad Prize.

Also, CTAC, at their request, provides assistance to both the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Congress on how SLOs can connect student growth to teacher performance.

If you would like assistance in examining and including Student Learning Objectives as part of your teacher evaluation system, please contact CTAC at (617) 423-1444.
Best Regards,
William J. Slotnik, Executive Director

Community Training and Assistance Center (CTAC)

CTAC builds district, state and community capacity by providing technical assistance, conducting research and evaluation, and informing public policy. CTAC's major education initiatives focus on performance-based compensation, teacher and administrator evaluation, teacher preparation and development, school turnaround and district improvement, state-to-district assistance, and union-management collaboration. CTAC also provides assistance to community development organizations, heath and human service agencies, grassroots initiatives, and other institutions working, individually or collectively, to address root causes of poverty. For more information, please visit www.ctacusa.com.