What Districts are looking for in your Student Learning Plan (Pt. 1)
What exactly constitutes a great Learning Plan?
Creating successful Learning Plans can be challenging for SES or Private Tutoring Organizations. Learning Plans must demonstrate that the Tutor has a clear understanding of what the specific need of each child is relative to a set of standardized or customized grade-level based goals. The Learning Plan must also succinctly describe the steps to be taken in service of achieving the stated goals. Finally, the Plan must identify evaluation tools and the changes in student performance expected to be measured with proper and consistent application of these tools.
In this two-part post, The Last Period will examine the best practices for establishing Learning Plan goals as well as what information you will need to assemble a successful Plan. At this point it bears mentioning that ODDTech SES is not a Tutor Organization, nor are we educators. At ODDTech SES we serve as a consultants to SES Providers, offering services and solutions that assist them in their daily operations and planning. We have created hundreds of Learning Plans on behalf of SES Providers and, based upon our experience, have a pretty good handle on what separates a successful Plan from one less likely to succeed.
Assessing the Goals
A Learning Plan goal ideally represents a very specific focus on a child’s ability in an area of academic study. Most often the areas of academic study are limited to math and reading. However, in the SES world, and certainly in the private Tutoring environment, other areas of study are available. We’ll focus on the two main areas (math & reading) when referencing goals and Learning Plans here.
The first step in establishing a goal is an accurate assessment of the students performance level in the main areas and sub-categories in those areas. The Tutoring Organization must provide a tool to evaluate the student’s performance on what is typically referred to as an Assessment Test. The Assessment Test quantifies the student’s performance and gives them an Assessment Score or value. Assessment Scores recorded at the beginning of the school term are typically called pre-assessments while test results at the end of the term are called post assessment scores. Most Districts require a provider submit both a pre-assessment and post assessment test scores during a term.
The Tutor must analyze the pre-assessment test scores to determine which goals will best serve to strengthen the student’s weak areas of performance. A good Assessment Test tool will identify not only the deficient subject but also the sub-areas within a goal that may be targeted to improve the student’s performance. For example, reading goals may be broken down into Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary and Word Recognition. Within each of these areas, performance should be measured and compared against standards offered by the state, District or other educational resource. Once the assessment has been analyzed, the recommendation for which goals should be pursued are outlined for the Learning Plan.
Using the S.M.A.R.T. method for establishing Learning Plan Goals
In the event that the Tutoring Organization is required to submit “custom” goals for each child, careful planning and attention to detail separate the successful Learning Plans from those which tend to be less successful. Our experience has found that Tutoring Organizations using the S.M.A.R.T. method to create the “custom” goals often end up with a more focused and, subsequently achievable, Learning Plan.
What are S.M.A.R.T. Goals? “Smart” goals are Provider customized goals that adhere to the following guidelines:
- Specific – Goals must be precise in what they are setup to accomplish. In many cases this precision can be measured subjectively using evaluation tools to test the subject. The goals should also be significant in that they carry consequence to the child’s learning strategy.
- Measurable – Your program must be able to objectively quantify results. Thus the goals you establish for each child must be measurable on a published scale. Goals under this criteria must also be meaningful in that they show correlation with the child’s areas of opportunity as presented by the pre-assessment test results.
- Achievable – Goals must be able to be reached within the confines of the tutoring sessions
available, student’s ability and tutoring term. - Relevant – Create goals that will precipitate a positive change in the student’s understanding of or competency with the subject matter. Nothing is more frustrating than having goals that offer no strategic benefit to the participants.
- Time-based – Let’s face it, you only have a relatively small amount of time with the student each week. Your goals must be achievable within a timetable that make practical sense. Goals that
require more time than realistically available will only frustrate your Tutors and the child.
Using the “Smart” Goals method can not only speed the process of creating customized Learning Plan goals, it can also help the Tutoring Organization focus on what is achievable for each child’s performance test results. In our next post we will cover how to get your information organized when putting together successful Learning Plans.
Tags: cayen systems, IAP, nclb, SES Tutoring, SLP, SSTPro, Student Learning Plans, Student Tracking System
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.
