The Portrait Indicator
Roxbury's Academic Newsletter
The Importance of Effective Communication about Student Achievement
By Charles Seipp, Ed. D.
Have you ever wanted to be better at something or learn something new, something difficult that requires perseverance? Each person has something in their life they would like to be better at. Regardless of what that might be, there are ways to facilitate growth. How does this improvement cycle occur?
Regardless of the “thing” people want to get better at, feedback is a key component of the growth cycle. It is critical to receive it, but also to do something with it. Within this cycle, reflection upon the circumstances, an individual’s role in those circumstances, and potential adjustments, when necessary, will support improvement. It is important to acknowledge that those who engage in reflective practice are always seeking feedback to improve. For instance, when musical artists receive positive feedback (a standing ovation), they continue to practice and hone their skills for the next performance. This pattern of performance, feedback, reflective practice, and growth seeking are no different for athletes, scholars, or relationships. The best way to improve is to recognize where you were, where you are now, consider feedback from various sources (self, peers, and master practitioners), then develop a plan for growth/improvement. Nowhere is this more ever-present than in schools, where the master practitioners, teachers, are constantly providing feedback to students regarding various facets of their learning experience including academic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal performance.
Research has clearly shown that the most influential feedback is goal-oriented, specific, actionable, user-friendly, and timely. With these characteristics, feedback is focused on the task, a process, self-regulation, or personal. These characteristics establish the distinction between meaningful feedback and advice (Hattie & Timperley, 2007, Wiggins, 2021). Using this as the basis for the functional definition, advice lacks one or more of these elements, which diminishes its effectiveness and robs the recipient of their role in the growth and development process. “Praise only” comments such as, “You’re so smart,” fall into this category since they do not provide the recipient with any information about what made the provider say this or how to continue to grow; they suggest finiteness to the process of growth and remove the investment of the recipient in its process. In fact, it can prove to be detrimental to the recipient when struggle is encountered because it challenges the self-image that has been established. In this instance, feedback could sound more like, “I really like the way you thought carefully about that, next time could you…?” This example includes the aforementioned elements and does not focus on shortcomings, rather it is future-oriented and demonstrates a growth mindset. “Focusing people on their shortcomings doesn’t enable learning; it impairs it” (Buckingham & Goodall, 2019, Dweck, 2016).
Feedback is provided by educators and other students in schools in a variety of different ways from daily classroom work, to casual conversations, to evaluation of tasks/assignments. This feedback provides both motivation and a path toward improvement. Dan Pink refers to this connection between motivation and growth as “flow” (Pink, 2009). In fact, students receive feedback continuously throughout the school day and should be encouraged to engage in reflective practice not only as it pertains to the feedback they receive from others, but also from themselves through a self-reflection/evaluation process. This feedback loop in school is most frequently formalized through grade reporting on individual assignments and report cards. One of the most consistent assignments that students are given is homework. While homework has been investigated through an entirely different research base, one thing is clear, it has the power to positively influence the learning process if it is relevant, application-based, and connected to the learning progression (Cooper, 2007, Vatterott, 2018). The connection to the learning progression is established by not only the task itself, but also how the feedback provided by the evaluator which is attached to the task gives the learner concrete steps for further learning. The importance of the feedback on homework as a critical aspect of teaching and learning is memorialized in Roxbury Board of Education Policy 2330.
Individual daily experiences are compiled to extend the communication/feedback loop beyond educator and student to include parents through grade reporting on a periodic basis (report cards). Dr. Thomas Guskey, Professor Emeritus at the University of Kentucky, has shared that the most accurate communication about student learning experiences consist of three elements: progress, process, and product.
Progress: the demonstration of improvement (resubmission of an essay, retesting)
Process: behaviors that influence the learning process (effort, homework, participation,
Product: the achievement of learning goals (assessments, projects, laboratory investigations)
While all of these aspects are certainly present in every classroom, it is important for the most effective communication that these elements be accurately memorialized. This communication appears differently in each classroom, and when utilized on an ongoing basis, both parents and students have the most comprehensive feedback loop from which to cultivate growth and improvement. After all, the mission of the school district is “...in partnership with a supportive and collaborative community, to inspire and empower all learners to flourish as ethical and global citizens in the 21st century.” The most impactful way to progress toward the actualization of this mission is to provide information that clearly demonstrates how students are growing in a supportive progress structure both through process and product means. This allows the recipients of this information (parents and students) to understand not only how a student is progressing toward mastery of content, but also allows them to gain a clear understanding of the characteristics and attributes that are demonstrated which contribute toward their individual achievement. Educational researchers, Ken O’Connor, Lee Ann Jung, and Douglas Reeves (2018), suggest that the most effective way to leverage grades as a powerful communication tool that supports student growth is for them to be FAST (fair, accurate, specific, and timely). If this sounds familiar…it is. It is consistent with how research describes impactful feedback. After all, since learning is an ongoing process, supporting it as a growth model would inherently suggest that it is a part of a feedback loop whereby performance information is shared in a method that is usable for reflection and growth. Therefore, grades should not be something that unintentionally discourages the learning process, rather they should be a multifaceted set of feedback information that encourages a student’s “flow” through a growth mindset and motivation for improvement.
Educational researchers continue to investigate the most effective means of communicating student learning progress and their research has expanded to include a discussion of reporting on specific learning targets/goals through a mastery report format. A mastery report is a communication tool which provides information about student growth focusing on specific learning criteria. These criteria are clusters of learning standards used to show progress toward groups of skills that are essential for future success. The format of a report card like this differs slightly from a traditional report card by using a format where the evaluation is targeted on mastery of these learning standards as opposed to being focused on one grade (letter or number). The consolidation of various data points, which Guskey would refer to as process and product indicators, into one grade/value in a “data blender” can make it difficult to determine where improvement is needed or what successes to celebrate. In fact, these singular representations can also be challenging to compare as individual teachers and individual schools have unique criteria and consolidation (averaging) strategies. This consolidation of data, which may elicit strong feelings, leaves important questions unanswered: What does an “A” actually mean? Does it translate into “having learned everything”? Does it align with academic mastery, classroom contribution, learning compliance, a combination of all, and if so, to what degree? Sometimes clarity can be provided through the use of specific accompanying narrative commentary. Roxbury School District implements a mastery reporting tool in grades K - 5 which was prepared collaboratively by teachers and administration with grade 5 also providing an accompanying grade, while grades 6 - 12 offer a traditional final average-based report each marking period. Regardless of grade reporting format, Roxbury School District subscribes to the following grading philosophy which is published on all report cards:
The Roxbury School District believes the purpose of grade reporting is to communicate current student academic achievement as it relates to the mastery of standards-based curricular goals along with additional criteria, focused on attributes that influence the ongoing learning process. The entirety of this report is representative of current factors which form a basis whereby a student’s learning may be encouraged, challenged, and supported.
Over this next year or so, we will continue to build upon this philosophy to ensure that grade reporting is an effective tool to communicate student progress as described above at all levels. Insight has already been gathered from teachers and administration, not only on the development of this philosophy for grading, but also as it relates to our current grade reporting tools. It is important to recognize that the 9 - 12 tool serves an additional purpose when it contributes to a students application for further education as a part of the transcript. We will work collaboratively to analyze the perception of all of our tools, compare it to best practices, gather more insight from teachers as well as students and parents so we can examine our practices to make them the most efficient communications tools in order to encourage and inspire learners while supporting our school district’s goal of achieving its mission.
For additional information on this topic, Dr. Seipp and Dr. Zegar presented at the New Jersey Educator Summit for educators hosted by The College of New Jersey on January 14, 2022, which can be viewed here.
Citations
Buckingham, M & Goodall, A. (March/April 2019). The feedback fallacy. Harvard Business Review, 92-101.
Cooper, H. (2007). The battle over homework: Common ground for administrators, teachers, and parents. New York, NJ: Corwin Press.
Dweck, C. S. (2016). Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York, NY: Ballantine Books.
Guskey, T. R. (2020). Get set go! Creating successful grading and reporting systems.Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree.
Hattie, J. & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81-112.
O’Connor, K., Jung, L. A., & Reeves, D. (2018). Gearing up for FAST grading and reporting. Phi Delta Kappan, 99(8), 67-71.
Pink, D. (2009). Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. New York, NY: Riverhead Books.
Vatterott, K. (2018). Rethinking homework: Best practices that support diverse needs (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Wiggins, G. (2012). Seven keys to effective feedback. Educational Leadership, 70(1), 10-16.