The purpose of the Student Academic Progress standard is to monitor student learning and make informed planning decisions. The primary goal of this standard is to ensure that teachers are setting appropriate goals and learning targets, and providing students with the knowledge and tools needed to achieve the targets and goals. The central objective of the Student Academic Progress standard is to ensure that students are learning, and that their learning is being monitored.

 Goal Setting

Teachers use baseline data, Standards of Learning (SOLs), and curriculum framework to set goals for their students. Teachers are encouraged to include students in the goal setting process. When this takes place, students are more likely to feel a sense of ownership over their learning. Having student input when planning goals is valuable, no matter the age of the student. I worked with a student in my student teaching cooperating classroom, to complete a student-led goal setting sheet.

To view the aforementioned student-led goal setting worksheet, click here.

Assessing Assignments

Continuous assessments provide teachers with constant feedback. Teachers can use the feedback to develop interim targets and learning goals. I continually assess students during the units I teach. During math, I have students complete workbook pages and I check them on a daily basis to determine whether or not they are understanding the concepts. Sometimes, I walk around with a marker while the students are working and correct and guide, while other times I correct the worksheets after school or during my planning period. In this example of a formative assignment, I looked through the worksheets and noted that most of the students were struggling with  word problems. I made a note on a post-it to go over word problems the next day.

Record of Pupil Learning

Teachers can track academic success of their class by using records of pupil learning. These records show content mastery for the whole class (by providing the class average and range) pre and post unit. I pre-tested and post-tested throughout my student teaching.

To view a record of pupil learning from my Elections and Voting unit, click here.