The Standards-Based Classroom: Make Learning the Goal, Oct/2018

Win big in the standards-based classroom!

Standards-Based Learning (SBL) is NOT standardization. In fact, when we recognize the central purpose of SBL, which is to make learning the goal for all students, we can design systems and structures that are more personal, more flexible, and more engaging—for us and for our students.

At its core, SBL simply asks us to organize our teaching and learning around three questions. These questions guide the creation of targets, the development of assessments, the instructional planning, and the systems to communicate learning.

1. Where do we want our learners to go?
2. How do we know where our learners are in relation to where we want them to go?
3. How do we move them from where they are towards or beyond where we want them to be?

While simple at the core, the transition to a standards-based classroom is anything but. The complexity comes in the implementation, the integration into existing systems, and the difficult task of moving away from what’s most comfortable. The Standards-Based Classroom provides practical strategies and steps based on many years of both failures and successes to support educators during this transition to a standards-based system. The accessible and concrete examples, tools, and templates in the book can be adapted into any classroom. Teachers who are new to SBL will understand the parts, experienced teachers will see the connections to current practices, and all educators will realize the potential SBL has to transform learning.

About the Authors:

Emily Rinkema is currently an instructional coach in the Champlain Valley School District (CVSD) in Vermont, spending half of her time supporting standards-based instruction and learning at the high school and the other half supporting the middle schools in their transition to standards- based learning (SBL). She also code- signed and coteaches Think Tank, a class that puts high school students at the center of the educational transformation happening around them. Emily began teaching English and humanities at Champlain Valley Union High School twenty years ago and was inspired by the progressive philosophy of the school and community from the start. While teaming with Stan Williams in a heterogeneous tenth-grade humanities class, they became obsessed with differentiated instruction and SBL, applied for a sabbatical, and began down the path that would lead to instructional coaching. Emily is the cofounder of the Vermont Standards-Based Learning (VTSBL) Collective, a grassroots organization that brings together educators interested in improving education through SBL. She has organized, led, and participated in the annual symposium sponsored by the VTSBL Collective and has presented about SBL at schools around Vermont and at the 2018 ASCD Empower18 Conference. Emily has a master’s degree in English from the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College and is still involved with the Bread Loaf Teacher Network and, along with Stan, is very active professionally on social media through @ CVULearns.

Stan Williams has taught and worked in the Champlain Valley School District (CVSD) in Vermont for over twenty years. He is currently an instructional coach for the district and spends his time supporting standards-based learning (SBL) and instruction at the high school and the four district middle schools. Besides his work as an instructional coach, Stan co-teaches a class called Think Tank, which has students examining education and learning and has kids at the heart of educational transformation.