Student Outcomes: Everyone's Responsibility

    Student outcomes are more than just grades on a report card or the results of a state exam, and they come in many formats throughout the school year.  If one only thinks about the "97" on the Chemistry Regents or the "S" on the report card in Reading as the only student outcomes, they are missing the most important ones.  The outcomes I am most interested in are those that can't be touched and are the least obvious.  I am interested in the teaching, learning and thinking processes that lead to
the "97" and the "S".  The "97" and "S" are just indicators of how students think at the end of block of time, so it is my
role to evaluate, refine and support teaching and learning processes that succeed, so that the indicators for all students are high.  I believe that implementing the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles and formative assessments are two ways to support student outcomes.
    My role is to help teachers design instruction that teaches every student. One way to accomplish this task is to use the principles of Universal Design. Based on brain research, UDL was developed to give teachers strategies to teach all learners. Through classroom visits, staff development and curriculum/assessment discussion groups, we will work together to design lessons that enable successful student outcomes.
    Another way to improve student outcomes is to use formative assessments.  In a meta-analysis study of research, Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam (1998b) found that frequent assessment feedback helps improve student achievement. Again, my role is to ensure that teachers know how to use formative assessments to adjust their instruction and that they teach students how to use them to adjust their learning tactics.
    There is no reason to think that teachers are not tied to student outcomes, they are. The above two strategies will help teachers feel more confident about their teaching when student outcomes are less than desired. But, as W. James Popham (2008) writes, "human beings are complicated beings," and in the end, the responsibility to learn is on the student.
    If an administrator is not deeply involved in evaluating student outcomes, they are not doing their job.  A student's job is to produce high quality work, a teacher's job is to teach them how and the administrator's job is to ensure it gets done!