Messy Minutes Assessment Edition Special Proficiency Scale Series Episode 4 - I Feel the Need, the Need for Detailed Criteria!

TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome back to Messy Minutes: Assessment Edition! I’m your host, Shannon Schinkel, from the Embrace the Messy Podcast. Over the past three episodes, we’ve been hiking our way through the Hiking 101 standard. We started with backward design, unpacked the standard, and explored how to create task-neutral criteria.

Today, we’re going to take those task-neutral criteria a step further by making them detailed and actionable: I Feel the Need, the Need for Detailed Criteria!

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Here’s the Issue: In In the last episode, we designed criteria using some quality performance indicators. Here’s a recap.

 

• Level 1: Is beginning to apply strategies and tools for safety, pacing, and environmental awareness.

• Level 2: Applies strategies and tools for safety, pacing, and environmental awareness with limited effectiveness.

• Level 3: Applies strategies and tools for safety, pacing, and environmental awareness effectively.

• Level 4: Demonstrates expert application of strategies and tools with thoughtful precision.

 

Now we need to address what the difference is between "limited effectiveness" and "effectively," or how "thoughtful precision" can feel too subjective. Using words like this can be an important first step—but they’re often geared only toward the teacher who wrote them and can feel ambiguous to others. Words like "adequate" or "proficient" help establish a baseline for understanding, but without further detail, they can leave too much room for interpretation and make it harder to communicate expectations clearly.

 

This is where clear and descriptive criteria come in. They provide measurable outcomes, creating a shared understanding of what performance looks like among educators. When criteria are well-defined, they give teachers a consistent framework for evaluating performance, even for more qualitative aspects. Professional judgment plays a critical role in this process, as it does in all professions, but anchoring it in established criteria ensures that it’s professional and evidence-based, not personal or arbitrary. This balance is essential for fostering fairness and ensuring meaningful assessments that reflect the complexities of learning.

 

So, detailed criteria solve this problem by painting a clear picture of what each level of performance looks like. They give teachers a solid foundation for consistent evaluations and informed decision-making.

 

Here’s the key takeaway: detailed doesn’t mean complicated. Think of detailed criteria as a roadmap—it needs to be clear, concise, and actionable, not overwhelming. With this approach, educators can bridge the gap between subjective language and measurable results, enabling reliable and professional assessments.

 

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Visualize This Scenario: So, we are back to our Hiking 101 course and have already revisited the standard, Apply appropriate strategies and tools to complete a hike, ensuring safety, pacing, and environmental awareness. Now we need to shift from concise descriptors to detailed descriptions of performance levels. So I am going to go through each of the four levels as I shared them in episode 3 – concise and then how now in episode 4 they can be written with more detail and I’ll also explain the changes made so you can visualize it.

 

Level 1

 

Concise (Episode 3): Is beginning to apply strategies and tools for safety, pacing, and environmental awareness.

 

Detailed (Episode 4): Is in the beginning stages of identifying and attempting to apply strategies and tools for safety, pacing, and environmental awareness, and is working towards demonstrating understanding and consistency.

 

Changes made: Additional qualifying language has been added. Beginning stages means “identifying and attempting to apply strategies and tools” and the outcome is they are “working towards demonstrating understanding.”

 

Level 2

 

Concise (Episode 3): Applies strategies and tools for safety, pacing, and environmental awareness with limited effectiveness.

 

Detailed (Episode 4): Applies some strategies and tools for safety, pacing, and environmental awareness with limited success, while continuing to work through challenges they are having in understanding and consistency.

 

Changes made: The word “limited” is still there but it is clarified as “while continuing to work through challenges they are having in understanding and consistency.”

 

Level 3

 

Concise (Episode 3): Applies strategies and tools for safety, pacing, and environmental awareness effectively.

 

Detailed (Episode 4): Applies appropriate strategies and tools for safety, pacing, and environmental awareness effectively, demonstrating solid confidence and understanding.

 

Changes made: The word “effectively” is there but the addition of “demonstrating solid confidence and understanding”

 

Level 4

 

Concise (Episode 3): Demonstrates expert application of strategies and tools with thoughtful precision.

 

Detailed (Episode 4): Demonstrates expert application of varied strategies and tools with confidence, precision, and flexibility, fully addressing safety, pacing, and environmental awareness. This final level shows the greatest strength. 

 

Changes made: They are expert meaning they exude “confidence, precision, and flexibility, fully addressing safety, pacing, and environmental awareness.”

 

Notice how each level builds logically on the previous one and is more effective because it provides greater specificity and observable actions for each level, offering clarity for teachers. It ensures a logical progression of skill development and makes expectations transparent, reducing subjectivity and supporting consistent assessment.

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Let’s Break It Down:

 

Let’s zoom in on the process. Here’s how you can add detailed criteria for any standard:

 

1. Define the Levels: Keep the "quality" words from episode 3 but add in more quality words and specific actions to describe what performance looks like at each level. Think about how you can differentiate between basic and advanced performance. For example, it is okay to begin with saying they are "limited" at the start of the criteria but clearer quality words like “continuing to work through challenges” shows what “limited” means.  Avoid vague terms like "good" or "perfect” which sound judgmental and keep it is a positive as possible so each level is a step forward rather than something they have done wrong at each level.

 

2. Keep it task-neutral – I know I am a broken record but avoid adding in language that is task-specific. For example, if I suggested that a student showed “limited understanding in comprehension because their written explanations for short story questions needed more details,” it suggests that written explanations are the only way to assess comprehension and the short story unit is the only unit the teacher is focussing on for the standard. One of the values of generating task-neutral criteria is to see the potential of the criteria across units.

 

3. Check for Progression: Each level should represent a clear step forward, showing growth from one to the next. Ask yourself: Does the progression make sense? For instance, moving from "limited application" to "effective application" should reflect increased skill and understanding, not just repeated effort. Ensure that each level builds logically, providing teachers with a clear path for student improvement.

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Let’s Recap: To summarize: detailed criteria make success visible by giving teachers a clear roadmap for improvement and ensuring assessments are both fair and meaningful. When done well, they help everyone—students and teachers alike—feel confident in the learning process.

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Closing: Now it’s your turn to create detailed criteria! Grab a standard and start breaking it down. Use the Hiking 101 example as inspiration, and don’t forget to include specific, observable actions at each level. Need help? AI tools like ChatGPT can offer examples, suggest phrasing, and help you refine your work.

 

And remember, this is a process. Start small, collaborate, and give yourself time to iterate. 

 

See you next Friday for part five in this series…To boldly build criteria where no one has gone before.

 

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Find out more about Shannon Schinkel:

https://linktr.ee/ShannonSchinkel