The Utah State Office of Education has created a frequently asked questions document for SLOs. It answers questions from “What is an SLO?” to other common business rules.
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Featured Resources
- Introduction to Student Learning Objectives | July 2013
- Scoring Student Learning Objectives | November 2014
- Student Learning Objectives: Considerations for Teachers of CTE Courses | October 2014
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The Utah State Office of Education created this guidebook, which provides educators with an overview of SLOs. It describes the components of an SLO and the SLO cycle, and provides tools to help educators write SLOs.
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The South Dakota Department of Education has compiled responses to some frequently asked questions regarding SLOs. The questions range from the basics, such as “What is an SLO?” to questions about the assessments used in SLOs.
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The Rhode Island Department of Education has created a guidance document that illustrates the “evolution” of an SLO through feedback, reflection, and revision. It includes sample SLOs, the feedback provided by the evaluator, and the final revisions made based on the evaluator’s feedback. The samples show teachers how reflection and revision can elevate the quality of an SLO; for evaluators it illustrates the kind of specific, descriptive feedback they should provide teachers during the SLO approval process.
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The Rhode Island Department of Education has created guidance on how to set targets during the SLO process. It defines terms, delineate different types of targets, and provide insight to help guide educators’ decision making. It is designed to support teachers, administrators, and district leaders as they continue to strengthen the SLO process in their varied contexts.
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This guidance document from the Rhode Island Department of Education provides an overview of the core elements of student learning objectives and the steps for writing an SLO. The document outlines what teachers need prior to writing an SLO, including connecting with colleagues, understanding the SLO process, gathering the necessary resources, and reviewing the prior year’s SLOs.
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This guidance document from the State of New Jersey Department of Education provides tips on assessing SGO quality, adjusting SGOs, and tailoring professional learning for future SGO development. The document also provides four suggested strategies for the SGO assessment process, including convening an administrative team, choosing a rubric, conducting a norm-setting process, and scoring SGOS on a 1–4 scale.
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This document from the Maryland State Department of Education provides guidance on scoring individual SLOs for teachers. This guidance is for evaluators and provides a description for the three SLO scoring categories: full attainment, partial attainment, and insufficient attainment.
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The Kentucky Department of Education created this guidance document to help teachers in unique settings or roles write student growth goals. It provides guidance for the following roles and settings: interventionists (including behavior interventionists), teachers who work in credit recovery, and teachers using competency-based instruction.
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The Kentucky Department of Education created this guidance document to help teachers of English learners write student growth goals. It provides guidance on writing goals for the following contexts: structured English immersion, co-teaching, collaboration/push-in, pull-out EL/resource, content-based EL instruction, and sheltered English instruction.
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The Kentucky Department of Education created this guidance document to help teachers of special education write student growth goals. It discusses how to write student growth goals in the following contexts: regular classrooms with co-teaching, multiple grade levels, a resource room or separate class, and for functional skills.
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The Kentucky Department of Education developed this guidebook, which contains goals that have been annotated with questions and comments that would guide a principal and teacher through a conversation about the goals. The goals are to be used as a teaching tool to aid in the development of the student growth goal-writing process. The conversations are focused on enduring learning, assessments, and proficiency/growth targets.
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The Illinois State Board of Education created this guidebook to describe the SLO process and provide resources for incorporating SLOs into a comprehensive performance evaluation plan. It provides an overview of implementation and outlines the SLO process.
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This guidance document from the Connecticut State Department of Education includes what school nurses should specify in SLOs. The guide includes three sample SLOs.
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This guidance document from the Connecticut State Department of Education includes what speech pathologists should specify in SLOs. The guide includes five sample SLOs.
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Connecticut – Student and Educator Support Specialists Guidance Document: Special Education Teachers
This guidance document covers what special education teachers should specify in SLOs and includes five sample SLOs.
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This guidance document from the Connecticut State Department of Education covers what school social workers should specify in SLOs and includes three sample SLOs.
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This guidance document from the Connecticut State Department of Education covers what school psychologists should specify in SLOs and includes three sample SLOs.
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This guidance document from the Connecticut State Department of Education covers what mathematics and ELA coaches should specify in SLOs and includes four sample SLOs.
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This guidance document from the Connecticut State Department of Education covers what library media specialists need to specify in SLOs and includes three sample SLOs: for kindergarten, sixth grade, and high school.
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This Connecticut State Department of Education document provides guidance for writing SLOs for TESOL teachers, tutors, TESOL instructional coaches, bilingual teachers, and teachers of world languages. The guide includes three sample SLOs.
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This guidance document from the Connecticut State Department of Education includes what counselors need to specify in SLOs. This document also includes three sample SLOs for counselors.
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This Colorado Department of Education guidebook highlights possible approaches for districts to consider when developing their approaches to selecting measures of student learning in educator evaluation. One approach outlined in the guidebook is the use of SLOs.
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This Georgia Department of Education guidance document highlights the roles and responsibilities within the SLO process for the state agency, local education agencies (LEAs), evaluators, and teachers. For example, one responsibility for LEAs is to determine which assessments can be utilized in SLOs. Teachers have the responsibility of administering pretests and posttests per the guidelines of LEAs and the school.
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This Georgia Department of Education guidance document on SLOs for charter schools includes guidance on who is responsible for the development of SLOs and whether charter schools are required to use the local education agency targets for SLO implementation.
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The Georgia Department of Education’s guidance document on SLOs for students using the Georgia Alternate Assessment (GAA) includes a bulleted list of considerations and guidance, such as a rubric. The document also includes sample SLO statements for students assessed with the GAA.
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This Georgia Department of Education document answers common questions about SLOs for special education teachers, including “Can students with IEPs have the same accommodations during SLO assessment administration?” and “Which SLO implementation procedures for special education teachers are [local education agency] determined?”
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The Georgia Department of Education addresses common questions about creating SLOs for prekindergarten. This document includes answers to questions about how prekindergarten teachers implement SLOs if they do not use assessments and whether prekindergarten teachers use numeric or letter descriptors to report SLO data.
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This Georgia Department of Education document answers common questions, such as how students are assigned to teachers for an SLO in a coteaching situation and how to know if SLO assessments are rigorous.
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This manual from the Georgia Department of Education discusses essential SLO components, SMART criteria, and assessment development. It also addresses implementation expectations, including assessment expectations, data analysis, and the SLO attainment rubric.
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The Washington, D.C., Office of the State Superintendent of Education developed a guidebook that provides an in-depth look at the overall SLO process. The guidebook provides a policy context of SLOs, breaks down the components of an SLO, and outlines the SLO process.
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The South Dakota Department of Education created a guidebook on student learning objectives (SLOs) for teachers. The guidebook introduces what SLOs are, the benefits of SLOs, and potential implementation challenges. This resource outlines the SLO process, including development, approval, ongoing communication, and the summative conference. The guidebook provides guidance on prioritizing learning content, establishing accurate baselines, determining assessment selection, and writing quality SLOs. The appendix also includes additional resources for writing SLOs.
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The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education created a guidebook for teachers on student learning objectives (SLOs). It explains what an SLO is, its importance, and the challenges of implementing SLOs. The guidebook provides guidance on the SLO process for teachers and districts, and how it fits into the overall evaluation system. The appendix also includes a template for writing and checklists for approving an SLO.
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The Minnesota Department of Education created a guidebook for teachers on student learning goals. It provides guidance on how to write a student learning goal and an overview of the student learning goal process. This handbook includes templates for completing the goal as well.
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The Pennsylvania Department of Education created a user’s guide to guide teachers and evaluators in the development of student learning objectives. The guide provides an overview of the three phases of the process: design, build, and review. Each phase includes training, tools, and resources.
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In Pennsylvania, teachers can write a student learning objective (SLO) on individualized education program (IEP) progress.
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The Pennsylvania Department of Education developed a frequently asked questions document on student growth measures. It includes several questions focused on student learning objectives (SLOs), such as how to write an SLO for five or fewer students and other business rules pertaining to SLOs.
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This guidebook from the Connecticut State Department of Education provides an overview of student learning objectives (SLOs) and describes the SLO process step by step. It discusses the essential components of an SLO and walks teachers through the process of writing an SLO.
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The Connecticut State Department of Education created this guidebook for the state’s model teacher evaluation system, Connecticut’s System for Educator Evaluation and Development (SEED). The guidebook provides an overview and details of the various components of the state’s evaluation system and discusses student learning objectives (SLOs) beginning on page 25. It provides an overview of SLOs and describes the four phases for the state’s SLO process: reviewing data, setting two SLOs, monitoring student progress, and assessing student outcomes relative to SLOs.
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The State of New Jersey Department of Education created a guidebook to help teachers understand and create Student Growth Objectives (SGOs). This guidebook introduces SGOs and walks through the step-by-step process for developing them. It also includes forms for setting, assessing, and scoring SGOs.
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This guidebook from the Rhode Island Department of Education provides an overview of using baseline data and information to set SLO targets. This guide defines baseline data and explains how to use it to set growth targets.
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The Rhode Island Department of Education developed this guide to assist teachers and administrators with selecting and developing high-quality assessments at the secondary level. This guide provides
- Information on specific assessments appropriate for the 6–12 grade span
- Purpose of the assessments, advantages and disadvantages of the assessments
- Considerations for a comprehensive assessment system such as daily classroom assessments, local and district developed assessments, and state assessments when applicable
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This guide from the Rhode Island Department of Education is intended to assist teachers and school administrators in understanding the critical role that assessments play in the classroom. This guide provides information on specific assessments appropriate for the 3–5 grade span, purpose of the assessments, advantages and disadvantages of the assessments, considerations for a comprehensive assessment system that include daily classroom assessments, local and district developed assessments, and state assessments when applicable.
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This is “how-to” guide from the Rhode Island Department of Education provides guidance on selecting and developing quality assessments in primary classrooms. The guide provides information on specific assessments appropriate for the K–2 grade span, the purpose of the assessments, advantages and disadvantages of the assessments, considerations for a comprehensive assessment system that include daily classroom assessments, local and district developed assessments, and state assessments when applicable.
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The Ohio Department of Education developed additional guidance on developing SLOs for teachers of world languages. This guidance provides a link to new world language standards and potential assessments when developing world language SLOs. This document provides answers to some common questions on developing world language SLOs.
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This guidebook from the Arizona Department of Education outlines the process for developing SLOs. It provides guidance and details for each step, including determining students’ level of preparedness, choosing quality assessments, setting SLOs, monitoring progress and refining instruction, and reviewing results. The guidebook includes several templates to complete and approve SLOs.
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In Harrison School District Two in Colorado, teachers develop one performance growth goal focused on student achievement, a second on teacher practice, and a third of their choosing. This guidebook outlines the process for developing performance growth goals, beginning on page 63. It includes the goal templates and a rubric to determine the quality of the goal and the level at which the teacher met his or her goal.
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This guidebook from the Illinois State Board of Education developed by the Illinois Performance Evaluation Advisory Council provides guidance, tools, examples, and resources to support local education agencies in designing and implementing an SLO process. The guidebook provides some practical planning steps for districts to develop an SLO process and to implement this process.
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The Maryland State Department of Education developed a guidebook for the use of SLOs in its state model for educator effectiveness. The guidebook describes the rationale for using SLOs, how SLOs fit into the Maryland’s State Model for Educator Effectiveness, what an SLO is, and how to use SLOs to evaluate educator effectiveness. The guidebook also discusses how SLOs relate to professional practice.
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This guidebook from the Hawaii Department of Education provides step-by-step instructions to help teachers with planning to write their SLOs. The guidebook provides a brief description for each component of Hawaii’s SLOs and guiding questions to complete that section of the SLO. In order to help teachers choose an appropriate assessment, the guidebook includes a checklist to assess the quality of assessments used in SLOs.
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The Ohio Department of Education provides step-by-step instructions of the SLO scoring process in this guidebook. It includes a scoring template with instructions and a scoring matrix to determine SLO ratings that align with the state’s value-added scores.
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This guidebook from the Ohio Department of Education provides guidance on choosing an assessment for writing SLOs. The document includes a checklist for selecting appropriate assessments to ensure that the assessment chosen meets the basic requirements.
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This guidebook from the Rhode Island Department of Education provides educators an update to the changes made to the state’s SLO process. The guidebook reviews the process for setting, approving, monitoring, and scoring SLOs for the state. The appendix includes guidance on selecting quality assessments.
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This guide from the Ohio Department of Education provides Ohio’s LEAs with guidance on implementing SLOs. This guide explains what is an SLO and the steps for setting SLOs. The paper also provides districts with guidance on setting SLO policies and reviews some challenges and solutions for implementing SLOs.
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This handbook from the Indiana Department of Education defines an SLO and its purpose. The manual provides an overview of how SLOs fit into the teacher evaluation context in Indiana and then provides step-by-step instructions on how to write an SLO. There are several example SLOs also included in the handbook.
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This manual from the New York State Department of Education provides background on SLOs and describes the rules for setting SLOs in New York. This guidebook also provides guidance on scoring SLOs and the steps for districts to implement SLOs.
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This handout from the Rhode Island Department of Education provides criteria and guidance for a strong SLO. Educator and evaluators will find this guide helpful as they write or review and approve SLOs.
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The Rhode Island Department of Education developed this guide to provide educators strategies for writing and revising SLOs. The guide provides the steps necessary to writing an SLO in Rhode Island and best practices based on their first year of implementing SLOs.
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The Austin Independent School District produced a manual on developing SLOs for its strategic compensation initiative, REACH. This manual describes what an SLO is and the process for developing SLOs for Austin teachers.