Equip educators with the skills needed to formatively assess student learning, develop checks for understanding, use student data to inform instruction, and help students understand their academic progress.
Focus Area
Training educators to begin using assessments strategically and differentiating learning for students is a shift that requires district-wide buy-in, personalized support for educators at every level, and clear goals that are tied to measurable metrics for success. Our learning plans include four distinct phases of implementation to support these changes across your district.
Serving as the central hub for your professional learning program, the BL Lab is where professional learning happens. Teachers can access Formative Assessment and Differentiation strategies, engage with their coach, track progress toward their outcomes, and measure their confidence to enact those outcomes in the classroom.
Instructional leaders use self-directed courses to drive ongoing professional learning in PLCs or to enrich new teachers with a full library of research-backed strategies and lesson plans that provide differentiated support any time throughout the school year.
Administrators can get an overhead view of the progress of their professional learning programs and see how multiple cohorts are progressing towards their outcomes.
Designed to bring your team together and normalize new concepts, language, and practices to accelerate student growth, our launch experiences are best done in person and include the teachers, instructional leaders, and building leaders that will work together to begin enacting these changes in practice.
Launching Formative Assessment and Differentiation | In-Person
Educators can articulate the shifts in practice needed to use formative assessment data to differentiate instruction.
Teachers are matched with a coach who will help them plan lessons, try new Formative Assessment and Differentiation strategies, and measure the impact for students. Using the Try-Measure-Learn approach, coaches provide personalized support to help educators make ongoing changes to their Formative Assessment and Differentiation practices.
1:1 Job Embedded Coaching | Virtual
Educators work with a coach to create sustained shifts in practice aligned to target outcomes using our Try-Measure-Learn approach.
Know what success looks like in the classroom, how to support teachers to achieve their target outcomes, and build your ongoing learning plan for continuous improvement. Learning Walks are a non-evaluative tool that helps instructional leaders identify and celebrate new Formative Assessment and Differentiation teaching practices.
Learning Walk Cycle | In-Person
Leaders can identify evidence of the target outcomes in the classroom and in student learning.
Virtual Workshops provide educators with collaborative learning experiences aligned to the changes you want to see in the classroom. Teachers use workshops to set goals, identify specific steps they can take to implement new changes, and create a plan to measure and reflect on those changes.
Using Data to Differentiate Small Groups | Virtual
I differentiate the material I present to students in instruction.
Designing Student-Centered Performance Assessments | Virtual
I design or adapt student-centered formative assessments.
Authentic Assessment: Going Beyond Tests and Towards Mastery | Virtual
I incorporate student-centered formative assessments into my instruction.
Providing Feedback to Promote Academic Growth | Virtual
I guide students in gaining ownership over their own progress monitoring.
Tracking Student Data to Promote Growth | Virtual
I examine assessment data for learner progress.
Creating a change in practice can take one to three years, depending on your district’s area of focus and size. Our comprehensive learning plans are built from in-person, virtual, group, and online self-directed learning experiences that are paced throughout the full school year to provide a full arc of support. Our team will create a personalized learning plan with your district, built from a mix of research-backed learning experiences to achieve your district’s goals.
Outcomes are the ultimate goal of our learning experiences. Each experience is tied to an outcome to make the output of the professional learning actionable and impactful for both students and teachers. For Formative Assessment and Differentiation, we focus on helping educators achieve the below outcomes.
Outcome: I incorporate student-centered formative assessments into my instruction.
Outcome: I guide students in gaining ownership over their own progress monitoring.
Outcome: I examine assessment data for learner progress.
Outcome: I differentiate the material I present to students in instruction.
Outcome: I design or adapt student-centered formative assessments.
Outcome: I differentiate how students are engaging in and reflecting on the learning process.
Outcome: I differentiate the ways students demonstrate their understanding.
Professional learning is most effective when it’s intentionally paced to build upon past successes. A connected professional learning approach uses multiple kinds of learning experiences to differentiate learning across an entire district for teachers, leaders, and administrators to create sustainable changes in practice.
Watch a webinar about systems and strategies to shift mindsets and practices around assessments.
Give students access to a Mastery Map and create opportunities for them to practice skills at their own pace.
Provide structure to create user-friendly data sets and student action plans to put student data to good use.
Accelerate growth in your schools and stay ahead of the curve.
