Teachers and school leaders everywhere collect and analyze data to make informed decisions about instruction that will support all students in meeting standards. However, in many schools, the power of data to improve student achievement is not fully leveraged because students are left out of the process. The most powerful determinants of student growth are the mindsets and learning strategies that students themselves bring to their work—how much they care about working hard and learning, how convinced they are that hard work leads to growth, and how capably they have built strategies to focus, organize, remember, and navigate challenges.

Imagine a ballet troupe without a teacher who continually adjusts students’ posture and position, or a basketball team that never critiques strategies during halftime or analyzes their plays on video. These ongoing feedback practices, which help us improve, are essential in nearly every field. Despite its prevalence in the world, this kind of on-the-job, on-the-spot feedback, based on strong models, is still strangely absent from many schools and classrooms. To be sure, grades and test scores are routinely given, and occasionally students get assignments returned with comments, but these “results” are often too distant from the moment of learning or effort to be useful or too cryptic to be meaningful to students.

A student-led conference is a meeting with a student and his or her family and teachers during which the student shares his or her portfolio of work and discusses progress with family members. The student facilitates the meeting from start to finish. Student-led conferences can be implemented at all grade levels, K–12. Preparation for a conference creates an authentic purpose for good organizational and communication skills. The structure builds students’ sense of responsibility and accountability for their own learning, and it helps to hone their understanding of what it means to meet learning targets.

It is not uncommon for students to be in the spotlight in front of their communities from time to time. Almost always this happens in one of two formats: a performance, such as a school play or concert, or a sporting event. The pressure of preparing for a big concert, play, or game compels students to practice and to strive to improve. In the same way, celebrations of learning involving all students showcase students’ efforts to do more than they think possible and honor students as contributors to the broader community.

A portfolio is a selected body of student work—with reflections—that provides evidence of a student’s progress toward standards, learning targets, and character growth. Passage presentations are benchmark presentations at the end of pivotal transition years (e.g., fifth grade, eighth grade, twelfth grade). During passage presentations, students use their portfolios as evidence to demonstrate their readiness to move on to the next level of their education. Student portfolios are the anchors for passage presentations during which students—with nervousness, excitement, and pride—stand before teachers, parents, other students, or community members and present evidence of growth and readiness to move forward with their learning.

From classroom to classroom, subject area to subject area, grades must have a consistent meaning for students and parents. Standards-based grading distinguishes between students’ work habits (e.g., effort, participation, homework) and whether students know and can do what specific course standards describe. Academic grades are no longer an average of student performance over a grading period, but a measure of whether or not they can show mastery at its closure. Moreover, a standards-based report card is like the part of an iceberg that is visible above the water. What lies beneath are thoughtful standard-target-assessment plans, quality assessments, a common understanding of what evidence of learning looks like, and a school culture in which all students are expected to do quality, meaningful work in school.

The lesson is the basic unit of instruction. It is the package in which we wrap curriculum and the vehicle we use to deliver content and skills. Lessons that challenge, engage, and empower students must be carefully crafted and skillfully delivered to maximize deeper learning. This chapter describes such lessons, including three specific lesson formats—the workshop model, protocol-based lessons, and discovery-based lessons—as well as the essential elements of any lesson, no matter its name or format, and shows what they look like and sound like in action in classrooms representing all types of students and schools.

Literacy is the bedrock of learning. When students can manipulate information and ideas both accurately and fluently, and when they read not only for knowledge but also for joy and wonder, their capacity to learn and express themselves rests on a stable foundation unlikely to crumble even in a seismic educational or life event. Deeper instructional practices in literacy begin with purposeful lesson planning and curriculum choices that sift standards-based topics of study through relevant, compelling literature and informational text so that students are challenged with work that goes beyond standards. Leading with worthy texts, teachers help students connect what they’re reading to real-world ideas and problems. Deeper instruction gives students the tools to do the hard work of close reading and supports students to write claims grounded in evidence and presented to authentic audiences.

Deeper instructional practices in Science and Social Studies ask teachers to think about the big picture of their content in order to determine what big ideas are important for students to learn. These big ideas frame the curriculum, giving shape to engaging case studies, authentic fieldwork, and compelling tasks.

Reimagining mathematics instruction can be a heavy lift. Most teachers have years of traditional mathematics instruction under their belts by the time they enter their professional careers. Chapter 4 of  EL Education’s book Learning that Lasts explores two critical strategies for improving mathematics instruction—changing mindsets about mathematics; and remodeling the basic lesson structure for mathematics. This reimagination leads to mathematics instruction that is more challenging, engaging, and empowering for students as well as teachers.

“Arts budget slashed…”  is a headline that is probably all too familiar, especially in schools and districts that serve low-income students. A rich arts-infused education balances and complements deeper instruction in “high-stakes” subjects like language arts and mathematics. As one part of a comprehensive educational experience, the arts promote a well-rounded, intellectual, expressive, and profoundly human experience in the world. Chapter 5 of EL Education’s book Learning that Lasts explores how intentional integration of the arts provides a powerful framework to cultivate skills of inquiry, creativity, problem-solving, perseverance, and craftsmanship.

When you know your students well and know your standards well, it is easier to support all students—those who are ready for an extra challenge, those who are just learning English, and those who need more scaffolding and support in order to learn. Chapter 6 of Learning that Lasts describes the culture, planning decisions, and deeper instructional moves that enable more students to reach more learning targets more of the time.

As a nation, we strive continually to improve America’s schools and do a better of job of preparing students for success in college, career, and life. We mandate new policies, new structures, and new standards. But none of this will matter if we fail to make changes in the classroom, where learning actually takes place. Educational research has made it clear: the quality of teaching is the single most important factor in student success. But we cannot mandate great instruction. We need to inspire it and shepherd it.

As a nation, we strive continually to improve America’s schools and do a better of job of  preparing students for success in college, career, and life. We mandate new policies, new structures, and new standards. But none of this will matter if we fail to make changes in the classroom, where learning actually takes place. Educational research has made it clear: the quality of teaching is the single most important factor in student success. But we cannot mandate great instruction. We need to inspire it and shepherd it.

This video shows how to dissect a chicken wing. Students use this video as a tutorial in order to dissect their own chicken wings during the Life Science Grade 4 module. The purpose of the dissection is to help students understand how different structures (like muscles, nerves, and bones) work together to allow the chicken to move (aligned with NGSS 4-LS1-1).

This list includes all the science materials needed to effectively implement the Life Science Module for grade 4. Note that some of these items (e.g., eyedroppers, children's socks) may already be available in a school building or in students' homes; others (e.g., water lily plants, mix of pond snail specimens) may need to be special ordered.

This list includes all the science materials needed to effectively implement the Life Science Module for grade 5.

Note that some of these items (e.g., eyedroppers, children's socks) may already be available in a school building or in students' homes; others (e.g., water lily plants, mix of pond snail specimens) may need to be special ordered.

This list includes all the science materials needed to effectively implement the Life Science Module for grade 5.

Note that some of these items (e.g., eyedroppers, children's socks) may already be available in a school building or in students' homes; others (e.g., water lily plants, mix of pond snail specimens) may need to be special ordered.

A Little More Than Just People is a project created by the founding eighth-grade class at Four Rivers Charter School in Greenfield, Massachusetts. In this project, students publicly recognize the contributions made by members in their town. These individuals hold important roles in their area, both in official and volunteer capacities. Pairs of students interviewed “community cultivators” and, through an intensive editing process, created monologues from recorded transcripts. How can a project like A Little More Than Just People help students meet state-mandated content standards through the use of the storytelling medium? How can project-based learning provide opportunities for students to meet high standards and create beautiful, creative, collaborative work?