Asset-Based, Rigorous, & Coherent Systems of Support
How do I learn?
Build Strong Universal Supports
Create rigorous, asset-based learning and supportive conditions that develop the whole learner.
Respond to Evidence Across Tiers
Use evidence to provide timely, targeted, and increasingly intensive support while preserving identity, belonging, and agency.
Make Learning and Growth Visible
Use Metacognitive Clarity to help learners understand their strengths, needs, progress, and next steps.
Develop Personal and Collective Agency
Help learners increasingly direct their own growth, support others, and contribute to their communities.
The Right Support—Before the Gap Widens
Strong Tier 1 makes learning visible and invites every learner into rigorous thinking. Learners understand what they are learning, why it matters, what success looks like, where they are, and what to do next. Instruction moves from foundational knowledge to deep understanding and transfer. When learners need more, targeted Tier 2 and intensive Tier 3 support must address unfinished learning now—not pass it forward—while feedback, reflection, and gradual release build agency and independence.
Explore the pathways that help every learner thrive.
Develop learners who understand their thinking, own their learning, and confidently transfer their knowledge.
View PD OptionsDevelop learners who think deeply, collaborate effectively, and apply their learning in new and meaningful situations.
View PD OptionsHelp learners understand what they know, how they are growing, and what they need to do next.
View PD OptionsBuild Metacognitive Clarity
Metacognitive Clarity provides a shared framework across academic, social, emotional, behavioral, and relational learning so learners understand what they are learning and developing, why it matters, what success looks like, where they are in their growth, and how to move forward. Across every tier of support, feedback, reflection, revision, and purposeful practice help learners develop self-awareness, confidence, identity, belonging, and the agency to increasingly direct their own growth.
Educators Will Develop the Capacity To:
- Design coherent instructional systems grounded in human-centered learning.
- Align curriculum, instruction, assessment, and grading around ambitious learning goals.
- Develop learning progressions and success criteria that make learning transparent.
- Use formative assessment to provide timely, actionable feedback that moves learning forward.
- Build learners’ metacognitive awareness, emotional intelligence, and self-regulation.
- Foster learner identity, agency, and ownership through reflection, revision, and goal setting.
- Use collaborative inquiry and evidence to continuously improve instruction across all tiers of support.
- Develop classrooms where learners increasingly support one another’s growth, strengthening both personal and collective agency.
Metacognitive Clarity: Think Rigorously. Advance Democracy.
Paul J Bloomberg, Isaac Wells and St. Claire Adriaan
Transform Instruction by Re-Envisioning Rigor
Re-Envisioning Rigor helps educators design learning that moves from foundational knowledge to deep understanding and meaningful transfer. Through high-impact routines, academic discourse, inquiry, collaboration, and authentic performance tasks, every learner experiences productive challenge with appropriate support while developing the confidence to think deeply, solve problems, and apply learning in new situations.
Educators Will Develop the Capacity To:
- Design instruction that intentionally moves learners from surface understanding to deep learning and transfer.
- Implement transferable instructional routines across content areas.
- Facilitate rich academic discourse and collaborative learning.
- Design inquiry experiences that promote curiosity and critical thinking.
- Use performance tasks to assess understanding and authentic application.
- Differentiate productive challenge while maintaining high expectations for every learner.
- Foster learner ownership through reflection, discourse, and authentic problem solving.
Re-Envisioning Rigor: Powerful Routines for Promoting Learning at High Levels
Michael McDowell and Aaron Eisberg
Shape Learning by Grading for the Future
Grading for the Future positions grading as part of a coherent Human-Centered MTSS evidence system. Grades communicate what learners know and can do, make progress visible, and help learners, educators, and families understand what needs to happen next. Through clear goals, meaningful evidence, feedback, reflection, revision, and reassessment, grading becomes information that guides responsive action while keeping learners active participants in their growth.
Educators Will Develop the Capacity To:
- Develop grading practices that accurately communicate learning and growth.
- Align grading with curriculum, assessment, and instructional priorities.
- Design feedback cycles that strengthen learner ownership.
- Build systems for revision and reassessment that promote continuous improvement.
- Communicate learner progress clearly with students and families.
- Use grading practices that foster motivation, agency, and equitable opportunities for success.
Grading for the Future: A Practical Path to Competency-Based Grading
Josh Kunnath, Ed.D. and Ryan Sikkes, Ed.D.
Resources
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