February 26th, 2020

How Do Proficiency Scales Support Reflection?

In our last post we shared how proficiency scales connect to the “assess” portion of the JDLM and support balanced assessment practices. In this edition we are exploring the question “How Do Proficiency Scales Support the Reflect portion of the Jeffco Deeper Learning Model”? 
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As formal and informal assessments are crafted and administered based on proficiency scales it becomes easier to offer feedback to students that is meaningful and purposeful, as well as aligned to grade level expectations. Proficiency scales give a space for effective feedback to be specific and timely linked to learning targets that  gives clear direction for next steps. Many researchers in the field such as Hattie, Wiggins, and Marzano all agree on the importance of feedback in our field. We welcome you to visit the reflect portion of the JDLM as you explore how you can use proficiency scales as a way to reflect as a leader or teacher. 

Our students can also use proficiency scales as reflection tools.  Susan M. Brookhart shares “When you give feedback, explicitly describe how students’ effort on formative work for practice and learning have helped them develop the knowledge and skills that you [the teacher] are grading. This kind of feedback supports student self-regulation and motivation, and it also supports students’ understanding of what their grades are supposed to mean.”  Several teachers have been piloting proficiency scales across Jeffco. Some of them have used the proficiency scale as a part of student reflection. Some have given the scale in the same form that the teacher is using it. For example, this 7th grade teacher used a scale throughout a unit of study for students to annotate as they increased their knowledge about ancient civilizations in the Eastern Hemisphere.

You can see that the student made notes, highlighted, and was able to track their progress through the required knowledge outline in the 2.0 portion of the scale. 

Another example can be seen from this high school student who took the scale and organized their notes on the French Revolution to match the knowledge they needed to know for the upcoming summative assessment.
Connecting back to the JDLM resources, as you engage in the buttons at the bottom of the reflect page you will see learning targets,  goal setting, monitoring and continuous improvement as four categories you might consider when reflecting with proficiency scales and high expectation for students in mind.