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Each student, every time, empowered to succeed.

Standards Based Learning

Standards Based Teaching and Learning in MTSD

Diagram showing a process flow with interconnected colored circles and text labels.

What is Standards-Based Learning?

The Purpose of a Standards-Based Learning System is to maximize the academic achievement and personal growth of each student by focusing on prioritized standards to maximize the academic achievement and personal growth of each student.

In a Standards-Based Learning System, students, teachers, and school leaders work together to help every child succeed.

  • Students take charge of their own learning by understanding what they learning, recognizing what proficiency looks like, using feedback to improve, and setting goals towards mastery of the standards.

  • Teachers guide students by setting clear goals based on priority standards, creating meaningful learning activities, giving actionable feedback, and differentiating lessons to meet each child's individual needs.

  • School Leaders and Specialists support teachers by setting school-wide goals, providing professional learning and tools, and fostering a collaborative environment with high expectations for all students.

Common Terms in Standards Based Learning

Priority Standards

Priority standards are the key learning goals that educators focus on in each subject area. As the most important standards, they outline the knowledge and skills students need to master by the end of the school year. In our standards-based system, teachers emphasize these priority standards through focused instruction, targeted feedback, and regular assessment.

These standards are selected from our board-approved curriculum, which includes the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Math, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) for Science, and Wisconsin State Standards for Social Studies, Art, Music, and Physical Education. In collaboration with teachers and specialists, priority standards are identified based on what is most crucial for student success at each grade level. These standards guide instruction, feedback, and assessment throughout the year, ensuring that students have the skills they need to live a life of infinite possibilities.

By focusing on these priority standards, we make sure that teaching is challenging and prepares students for the rigors of future learning. Through feedback and assessments, we ensure that students are progressing toward meeting or exceeding the standards.

Supporting Standards

Supporting standards represent the remaining academic standards for a specific course, which are often taught in conjunction with priority standards. Rather than being taught at the same level of depth or complexity, these standards focus on providing broader exposure; therefore, formal mastery and assessment are not expected.

Proficiency Scales

A proficiency scale is a tool used to inform your child痴 progress in mastering each priority standard. It displays a collection of related learning targets and the scores that reflect a student痴 current level of performance on each target.

Learning Target

Learning targets are "I can" statements that describe what students should know and be able to do. They break down the specific knowledge and skills required for students to achieve proficiency in a standard.
A diagram illustrating the Standards-Based Learning Cycle featuring a central yellow lightbulb surrounded by blue arrows and educational icons.

What does Standards-Based Grading mean for your child?

Focus on Mastery: Grades reflect what a student knows and can do regarding grade-level priority standards, rather than accumulated points.

Separating Practice from Grades: Homework, participation, and behavior are kept separate from academic performance grades.

Meaningful Feedback: Homework is assigned thoughtfully and given clear feedback to guide learning, but it is not awarded or deducted credit in the gradebook.

This approach emphasizes growth and learning over time, providing a more detailed understanding of your child’s strengths and areas for growth. It also allows teachers, parents, and students to identify specific standards and skills that need further development in order to
achieve proficiency.

Reporting on Student Learning in a Standards-Based System: Focus on Learning toward Mastery

Report cards are a valuable tool that provides insights into a student’s academic performance and overall social-emotional development. We want to offer guidance to help families understand and interpret the information provided on the student’s report card.

Standards-based teaching and learning supports a student’s ongoing growth & development by tracking individual progress toward proficiency of priority standards, allowing for targeted support and intervention in areas that need growth. In this system, teachers provide clear and actionable feedback to students and parents. This approach emphasizes growth and learning over time, providing a more detailed understanding of your child’s strengths and areas for improvement. It also allows teachers, parents, and students to identify specific priority standards and skills that need attention in order to achieve proficiency by the end of the school year.

An instructional graphic demonstrates four different proficieny levels with silhouettes of a person on a bike

Understanding Your Child's Report Card

Grades 4k-5th:  At the elementary school, instead of a single-letter grade, you will see a numerical value for each priority standard.  It’s important to remember that students may not initially (in Trimester 1 or 2) earn a score of a 3, as they are all working at their own pace to master each priority standard. A score of 3 indicates that your child is meeting the end-of-year grade-level expectations. A score of 4 (applicable for 3rd-5th grade) signifies that a student has exceeded the grade-level knowledge and skills required for that standard. Teacher comments on the report card can provide further clarity on the student’s progress.

Grade 6-8:  To ensure report card grades accurately reflect learning, teachers collect a body of evidence—at least three distinct assignments like classwork, quizzes, or projects—before a profiency level is calculated into a letter grade. Rather than averaging all work equally, the system uses a growth-weighted average that prioritizes a student's most recent performance as they learn and improve. At the middle school level, these resulting proficiency levels are converted into a letter grade using the conversion chart,  and teachers conduct a final end-of-trimester review of the full body of evidence to verify that the final grade truly reflects mastery of each priority standard.

Click here to view the Middle School Proficiency Levels to Letter Grade Conversion Chart.

 

For more information, please see our linked parent flyers below.