Goals vs Standards

First, standards - refers to the universal model or approved content and/or pedagogy that should be followed to meet the underwritten standard for an organization.  Think about the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.  They are the guiding principles that NBCTs follow to achieve and maintain excellence in the classroom.  Your state has adopted standards that outline the specific information students must know and be able to do across each grade level to be able to perform proficiently on the End of Year assessment tool.  Standards are typically seen as overarching when compared to goals, targets or objectives when being used in the classroom.

Second, goals - refers to the specific information you want your students to know and be able to do within the scope of a lesson or unit of study/project.  Goals are measurable and use verbs found on the Bloom’s Taxonomy scale.  Sometimes they are called learning targets or objectives. They are the guiding force for both teacher and student and should be formatively & summatively assessed to ensure mastery.  Goals also inform a teacher’s practice with remediation and enrichment.  You may write long range goals which will be covered over a period of time or short range goals which should be met quickly.

For the Maintenance of Certification process - Component 2 - these questions relate to “goals” (Question #2) and “standards” (Questions #5 - AKA certificate specific content knowledge standard) in a teacher’s current practice.  To learn more about this visit my blog on unpacking your broader context for Component 2.

Question #2 in Component 2 of the Maintenance of Certification Process asks: For the featured lesson, what were your goals, and how did they fit into the broader context of learning for these students?

Question #5 in Component 2 of the Maintenance of Certification Process asks: How does the video recording reflect your certificate-specific content knowledge?

Now lets take a look at the broader context more in depth in my blog by clicking HERE