With the student academic progress standard, the goal is for educators to provide concrete evidence that their students are growing in knowledge and abilities. Teacher quality is considered the “most important school-related factor influencing student achievement,” (VDOE, 2015, p. 39) whereas student achievement is considered one of the best ways to measure it (VDOE, 2015). When teachers follow the student academic progress standards, pupils can benefit from having teachers who are effectively developing goals and improving instructional tactics as necessary. Teachers can implement the standard by setting SMART goals for their students that is founded on baseline data. With my current first graders, I am using their DRA levels to create objectives for how I want them to grow during the school year. (Note: BOY means “Beginning of the Year.”)

Another way teachers can demonstrate the standard is by using any pertinent, accessible data to keep track of student progress and modify goals accordingly. When I taught third graders the Earth Cycles unit, I used their pre-assessments, homework assignments, informal assessments, and quizzes to determine how to best help them better understand the material. Sometimes their results led to me spending more time than originally planned on certain topics.

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Lastly, instructors who effectively show the student academic progress standard  give evidence that achievement goals have been met (VDOE, 2011). While the third grade students did not have to take a Science SOL, I used their Record of Pupil Learning as evidence that my students learned the material.

The entire paper can be found by clicking on the link: PPS Student Academic Progress