DRIVER 01 · THE STUDENT SUCCESS SYSTEM
Visibility
A shared understanding of every student.
True Progress works with schools to know each student deeply: their strengths, where learning is difficult, their experience of school, and what helps them succeed.
Visibility is the first driver of the Student Success System. It brings assessment and progress together with classroom work, educators’ knowledge, and the perspectives of students and families. As understanding develops, educators can determine where teaching, curriculum, support, or greater challenge needs attention.
Knowing the student more deeply
Understanding develops through daily teaching, conversation, and careful inquiry. These questions help educators connect what they already know and identify what they still need to understand.
| Area of understanding | Questions to explore |
|---|---|
| Strengths and interests | Where does this student show understanding, curiosity, capability, or confidence? What engages them and gives them a sense of accomplishment? |
| 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 educators and families notice about effort, participation, confidence, relationships, or frustration? |
| Conditions that help | Which approaches, relationships, and supports help this student participate and learn? What additional effort or assistance is needed outside the classroom? |
| History and response | What has been tried, and what did it accomplish? What should colleagues know about previous support, successful approaches, and questions that remain unresolved? |
Bringing the evidence together
True Progress helps educators bring these perspectives into a shared understanding of the student. Agreement can strengthen confidence in a response. Differences can reveal a question that deserves closer attention.
Educator knowledge
Teachers and specialists see how a student approaches work, responds to challenge, and uses support. Their observations and professional concerns contribute directly to the school's understanding and can prompt a closer look.
Student and family perspectives
Students can describe what feels difficult, engaging, or helpful. Families contribute knowledge of the student's history and experience beyond school, including effort and support that may be less visible in the classroom.
Assessment
The Screener, Diagnostic, and Inventory contribute evidence about ELA and math learning. Results, patterns across skills, and the responses behind scores help educators examine questions about strengths, needs, and readiness for greater challenge.
Progress over time
Screener results and Progress Rate help educators consider current learning alongside growth over time. They interpret these findings with classroom work and their knowledge of the student, including the teaching, support, and challenge provided.
Regular attention and a closer look when needed
Following every student
Most students need only a brief, periodic Screener. When results and classroom evidence indicate that a student is learning well and progressing, further True Progress assessment may not be needed. Teachers continue to attend to that student’s learning and experience, including opportunities for greater challenge.
Exploring a question
A teacher’s concern, a student’s account, family information, or an assessment result may prompt further inquiry. That can involve reviewing classroom work, talking with the student or family, or using a Diagnostic or Inventory when more assessment detail would help. Inquiry can begin whenever a question arises.
Shared understanding that informs action
Teachers and specialists consider the evidence together and interpret it in the student’s context. Their judgment connects what the school is learning about the student with what it does next.
Understand the pattern
The team considers strengths, difficulties, student experience, and the effects of previous support. It identifies what is understood, what needs further inquiry, and where there is enough evidence to begin a response.
Agree on a response and review
Educators decide how teaching, support, or challenge should respond. They establish who will carry the work forward and when to review it. The review considers the student's learning and experience, helping the team decide what to continue or change.
Carry understanding forward
What educators learn informs the next teacher's work and conversations with families. The student's strengths, helpful approaches, previous responses, and unresolved questions remain part of the shared understanding as classrooms and school years change.
Establishing Visibility with your school
The first year of implementation focuses on establishing comprehensive, in-depth Visibility. True Progress begins with the ways your school already knows students and the questions your educators want to understand more fully.
Together, we develop the assessment approach, interpret findings in your school’s context, and establish shared practices for bringing knowledge together. Professional development and work with school leaders help educators use that understanding in their daily practice.
Teaching, support, and challenge respond as understanding develops throughout the year. Visibility informs Focused Curriculum and Instruction, while Meaningful Data and Workflows strengthen how the school evaluates and sustains its response. Once Visibility is established, the school and True Progress determine the next driver to build.
Developing a shared understanding of your students
We can discuss how your educators currently bring together their knowledge of students, where questions remain, and what would make that understanding more useful in daily practice. Together, we can consider how to establish Visibility around your school’s students, people, and priorities.