Assessment Learning Survey

Ways in Which Teachers Communicate
Learning Targets, CHteria, and Standards for Performance to Their Students

Steven Ferrara
Gall Goldberg
Maryland Department of Education
Jay McTighe
Maryland Assessment Consortium

Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association,
San Francisco, April 1995

Ways in Which Teachers Communicate
Learning Targets, Criteria, and Standards to Their Students
Steven Ferrara
Gail Goldberg
Maryland Department of Education
Jay McTighe
Maryland Assessment Consortium

How do students know what we want from them? How do they know what criteria we
will apply to evaluate the work they do for us? How do they know when their work meets our
expectations or is good enough? These questions pertain to the performance targets and learning
outcomes, elements of quality, of student work, and standards for performance that we hold for
our students. When we communicate the answers to these questions - when we make the targets
for learning and performance clear (e.g., Stiggins, 1994, chap. 4) -- students can understand what
we expect them to know and be able to do and try to hit our targets. Most important, once
students have internalized the elements of quality and standards for performance we hold out for
them, they can apply these criteria and standards to all of their learning and work. The de~ee to
which students internalize and learn to apply elements of quality and standards for performance
is fundamental to improving student learning and performance, and to educational reform. The
purpose of this study is to describe ways in which "performance oriented" teachers may
communicate learning targets, elements of quality, and standards for performance to their
students.

As conceptualized for this study, we regard teachers who are familiar with performance
based instruction and performance assessment (classroom, formative, and summative) as
"performance oriented." Performance...