"What would we find if this principle were honored? We would see the following:

Grading and assessment systems that make clear the progress we are making toward exit goals and the value outside school of such assessments.

Assignments, lessons, and assessment tasks that show clearly the answer to the questions, "Why do we need to learn this? What does this help us do?"

Assessments that reflect real-world tasks.

Ongoing assessments that provide helpful, user-friendly feedback and opportunities to use it. Teachers function as coaches, helping learners use feedback to deepen understanding and successfully transfer their learning.

A supervision and professional development system that provides staff with training and ongoing, useful feedback and advice for improving practice.

Regular surveys of students and parents about how interested, engaged, and competent students feel in school (Wiggins and McTighe 2007, 117)."

"What would we find if this principle were honored? We would see the following:

Regular use of "hooks," essential questions, and probes (for example, What is the evidence? Do you agree?)

Constructivist learning experiences (for example, inquiry lessons, problem-based learning, interactive notebooks, authentic tasks) to help students make meaning of content.

Unit designs that reflect more "uncoverage" than "coverage," with teachers acting more like facilitators of an "Aha!" experience than "tellers" of what the idea is, as if it were just another fact to learn.

Assessments designed to reveal the extent to which students can use ideas on their own, with minimal cueing and prompting to connect seemingly unrelated information.

Greater engagement by learners as their schoolwork is seen as interesting and purposeful (Wiggins and McTighe 2007, 118)."

"What would we find if this principle were honored? We would see the following:

Every syllabus and unit framed in terms of the key transfer goals that the content and lessons address.

Students who can explain where the work or course is headed because the ultimate performance goals, tasks, rubrics, and models would be clear from the start.

Agreed-upon rubrics, consistently used by teachers across classrooms and grade levels.

Teachers helping students understand the standards of excellence by looking at anchors and examples of work of varying quality, and discussion of the differences between those examples that meet the standards and those that don't meet the standards.

Leaders ensuring that all teachers have access to and study print and video examples of best practice.

Teachers regularly meeting in teams to review results (achievement data and student work) and to plan for needed improvements.

Teachers and teams having clear personal improvement plans, based on standards and models for such plans, related to transfer goals and areas of current weakness against the goals.

Hiring and supervision ensuring that staff have a clear sense of what the job requires in terms of accomplishments, not just credentials, role, and the content of the work (Wiggins and McTighe 2007, 118 - 119)."

"What would we find if this principle were honored? We would see the following:

Every syllabus providing for built-in time for giving students opportunities to learn from feedback.

Teachers and teams routinely making major adjustments to the syllabus for the rest of the year, based on formative results related to year-end goals.

Students at all levels of performance making gains over time in response to effective feedback and opportunities to use it.

Pre-assessments, ongoing monitoring, and post-tests to ensure that feedback is given against the ultimate and recurring big ideas and transfer goals, not just feedback related to specific tests of content.

Supervisors ensuring that every teacher gets feedback on a timely basis and opportunities to use the feedback to improve a key practice.

Teacher teams routinely looking at both student work and feedback from students and parents in order to make effective and timely adjustments (Wiggins and McTighe 2007, 119)."

"What would we find if this principle were honored? We would see the following:

Teachers would model and encourage intellectual risk taking, rethinking, and respect for diverse opinions.

Leaders would model and encourage the openness to rethinking our habits and assumptions in their conduct as well as in their goals and practices (such as running meetings and reaching decisions).

Supervision and professional development making people feel eager to learn, not inadequate or ignorant.

Learning from mistakes would be valued as a necessary element of continuous improvement (Wiggins and McTighe 2007, 120)."

"What would we find if this principle were honored? We would see the following:

Syllabi designed to provide a differentiated experience based on who the students are in this class, this year.

Teachers routinely doing an initial survey of learner styles, interests, talents, and readiness levels prior to launching into teaching and adjusting the syllabus in light of the results from the pre-assessment.

Differentiation through flexible groupings, appropriate choices of learning process and products, multimodal instruction, and other options.

Professional development differentiated in response to teacher subject, style, and interest.

Clear guidelines for staff to know when they must differentiate, when they might differentiate, and when they must not differentiate, given standards that must be met.

Supervision based on a clinical model in which teachers ask supervisors to look at an area of their practice related to personal goals (Wiggins and McTighe 2007, 121)."