DRIVER 01 · THE STUDENT SUCCESS SYSTEM
Visibility
A shared understanding of every student.
Knowing a student well in one classroom is not the same as carrying that understanding across a school. Teachers, specialists, students, and families contribute different perspectives. When those perspectives remain disconnected, the next teacher may have to rediscover what the school already knows.
True Progress helps schools connect classroom work, educators’ knowledge, assessment and progress, and student and family perspectives. As the first driver of the Student Success System, Visibility develops a shared understanding of each student’s strengths, interests, ambitions, learning, and experience of school. That understanding informs teaching and challenge and carries forward across classrooms and school years.
Knowing the student more deeply
These questions guide continuing inquiry, not a profile completed once and filed away. Educators explore them through teaching, conversation, and observation, with students helping to frame what matters. They apply when a student is struggling, learning securely, or ready for greater challenge.
| Area of understanding | Questions to explore |
|---|---|
| Strengths and interests | Where does this student show understanding, curiosity, capability, or confidence? What engages them, and what would they like to explore or accomplish? |
| Learning and challenge | What does the student understand securely? Where is learning difficult? Where are they ready for greater depth, complexity, or independence? |
| Experience of school | How does the student describe their experience? What do students, educators, and families notice about relationships, participation, confidence, enjoyment, or frustration? |
| Conditions for learning | Which experiences, approaches, and relationships help this student learn and participate? What encourages initiative and independence? Where does learning require additional effort or assistance? |
| Development over time | How have the student's understanding, interests, accomplishments, and independence developed? Which learning experiences have helped, and which difficulties or questions persist? |
Bringing the evidence together
Putting information in the same place does not by itself create shared understanding. Educators consider where sources agree, where they differ, and what those differences suggest they should explore. True Progress helps schools connect these perspectives while keeping clear what each source can and cannot tell them.
Educator knowledge
Teachers and specialists see how students approach unfamiliar work, explain their thinking, respond to feedback, and use what they have learned. Their observations reveal strengths, interests, difficulties, and conditions for learning that may not be visible in an assessment result.
Student and family perspectives
Students contribute their interests, ambitions, frustrations, and sense of challenge. Families contribute knowledge of effort, experiences, and changes beyond the classroom. These perspectives help educators explore differences between how learning appears at school and how the student experiences it.
Assessment
The Screener, Diagnostic, and Inventory contribute evidence about ELA and math learning. Educators examine results and the responses behind scores alongside classroom work to identify strengths, explore difficulties, and consider further challenge. Assessment contributes to understanding the student; it does not replace the other sources of knowledge.
Progress over time
Current achievement and progress answer different questions. Screener results and Progress Rate help educators examine how ELA and math learning changes over time, including for students already achieving highly. Classroom work, student reflections, and observation help educators understand how learning is being used and how confidence and independence are developing.
Knowing every student throughout the year
Following every student
Attention should not depend on a referral, a low score, or a visible difficulty. Regular review includes students who are progressing steadily and those already achieving highly. Educators consider what each student is learning, whether the challenge remains appropriate, and what might expand the student’s opportunities.
For most students, a brief, periodic Screener contributes the True Progress assessment evidence considered alongside everyday classroom knowledge. Additional assessment is chosen to answer a specific question.
Deepening understanding
Inquiry begins with a question, not automatically with another test. A student’s interest, a teacher’s observation, family information, or an assessment finding may call for a closer look. Classroom work and conversation may be enough to decide what to explore or change.
When an ELA or math question requires greater assessment detail, educators can use the Diagnostic or Inventory. Inquiry can begin between assessment windows, whether the question concerns a difficulty or an opportunity for further challenge.
Knowledge that advances each student’s education
What the school learns about a student should influence that student’s education. Visibility connects understanding with decisions about teaching, challenge, and intervention, then keeps those decisions open to review.
Develop learning opportunities
Educators choose learning experiences that respond to the student's understanding, interests, and ambitions. That may mean greater depth in a familiar subject, an unfamiliar application, more independence, or focused intervention. These choices connect with the wider curriculum and a clear purpose for the student's learning.
Follow development together
Educators agree what a change is intended to help the student understand or do, who will carry it forward, and when to review it. They return to the student's work and experience to decide whether to continue, develop, or change the approach. The same attention applies to further challenge and intervention.
Carry understanding forward
The next teacher needs more than results and a list of difficulties. Strengths, interests, ambitions, accomplishments, approaches that have helped, and unresolved questions give colleagues a stronger starting point. This understanding remains open to revision so that continuity does not become a fixed account of who the student is.
Establishing Visibility with your school
The first year of implementation focuses on establishing comprehensive, in-depth Visibility. True Progress begins with your school’s educational aims, the ways educators already know students, and where understanding becomes difficult to share or sustain.
Together, we establish the assessment approach, interpret findings alongside classroom evidence and student and family perspectives, and define how understanding will be shared and revisited. Professional development and work with school leaders help faculty use that understanding to develop learning opportunities, extend challenge, and respond to difficulties.
Educators act on what they learn throughout the year. Visibility informs decisions about curriculum and instruction, while shared review and follow-through keep those decisions connected to students’ progress and experience. Once Visibility is established, your school and True Progress determine the next driver to strengthen.
Developing a shared understanding of your students
Discuss how your school brings together what educators, students, and families know, how that knowledge informs learning, and what carries forward between classrooms and school years. We can consider where Visibility would strengthen your existing work and what implementation would involve.