Pre-AP Learning Checkpoints

What are Learning Checkpoints?

Except for the Arts, each unit of each course includes two short, digital learning checkpoints featuring multiple-choice and technology-enhanced questions. The learning checkpoints are formative, low-stakes assessments designed to provide both teachers and students with data to inform their teaching and learning. The grade-level appropriate questions are modeled after what students will encounter on national exams.

The learning checkpoints are course framework–aligned and designed to provide efficient and actionable feedback to support instruction. They provide teachers with a snapshot of students’ understanding of a unit’s (or part of a unit’s) learning objectives by challenging students to apply what they've learned to new contexts, passages, data sets, etc. When students are able to successfully apply the unit’s learning objectives to novel scenarios, teachers can be confident that their students are achieving the goals for that unit.

Teachers can view learning checkpoints with no restrictions on Pre-AP Classroom. We do encourage teachers to continue to keep learning checkpoints private from students until they are ready to take the assessment. This gives students a chance to apply their learning in a novel way and teachers a means to engage students in reflection and feedback on results.

Note: Learning checkpoints are aligned to the course framework, and there is not always a model lesson connected to a learning checkpoint question set.

Administering Learning Checkpoints

Learning checkpoints are administered and scored exclusively within Pre-AP Classroom, so each student will need computer access for the administration. Results at the student- and class-level are provided through automatic score reports that contain explanations of all correct and incorrect answers for each question as well as aggregated data that can be used to inform instruction. Pre-AP teachers can assign a learning checkpoint at any time, but the course map found within the teacher resources and course guides provides guidance on when in a unit to administer each assessment.

A learning checkpoint is meant to take a single class period or less, or approximately 45 minutes. The learning checkpoints are designed so that students can apply the key concepts and skills they are learning to new texts, images, data sets, and contexts.

As Pre-AP teachers begin each unit, they will be able to see the number and types of questions as well as which concepts and skills are assessed on each learning checkpoint via the Assessment Summary in Pre-AP Classroom.

Learning checkpoints are delivered in the same digital format to all students. However, if students lack access to mobile devices or computers at school and at home, teachers can print the test book and manually enter scores on the "Assigned Resources" page of the Resources & Assignments section.

Viewing Results

Once the digital learning checkpoints are submitted, they're scored automatically. Insight into how individual students and whole classes performed at the question level and overall is available on the "Learning Checkpoints" page in the Reports section in Pre-AP Classroom.

Throughout the Reports section, reports show the colors yellow, green, and dark green. These colors represent the performance categories of Developing, Approaching, and Achieving, respectively. These categories, and not a percentage of correct answers out of total questions, should be the primary consideration for teachers when they're reviewing the assessment results and making decisions about students’ grades or adapting instruction. Ideally, the learning checkpoints would be viewed as purely formative and not associated with a traditional grade or score.

The performance categories are based on the following breakdown of percent of questions correct within a learning checkpoint.

Developing: 0%–39.99% questions correct
Approaching: 40%–74.99% questions correct
Achieving: 75%–100% questions correct

These categories, and the percentages they’re based on, don't naturally translate into a traditional grading schema in which a 90% or greater results in an A. The assessments have been designed to yield the most useful information for Pre-AP teachers and their instruction, and calculating a grade based on the percentage of questions correct out of the total is likely to misrepresent a student’s needs, successes, and progress. Therefore, we don't recommend that Pre-AP teachers apply such a direct calculation when assigning grades.

Instead, we recommend that Pre-AP teachers approach learning checkpoint results as they would with standards-based grading, where the learning objectives assessed represent end-of-year targets, and each learning checkpoint offers a view of how students are progressing toward those end-of-year goals at that given moment within the unit.

We also encourage Pre-AP teachers to examine learning checkpoint results with their colleagues. Together Pre-AP teachers can reflect on the data in connection with broader observations of student progress and achievement within the classroom. This is a school-based model of standards setting, in which a team of educators comes together to establish the grading scale associated with the performance categories of each learning checkpoint. This process increases the shared reflection following each assessment and further promotes calibration of assessment feedback and fairness across classroom assessments.

For more on viewing student results, see the Results Overview help page.