Student Learning Objectives (SLO)

This table of specifications from the Georgia Department of Education helps teachers build an assessment. The table’s purpose is to detail the content, level of cognitive demand, amount, type, and answer or point value of the measurement items or tasks.

This Georgia Department of Education template assists teachers with developing valid assessment items by first analyzing the content. The content alignment process is completed before the assessment is developed as a tool for teacher teams to review and think about the course content. This form will help teacher teams develop high-quality assessments. The form addresses elements such as the standards, content emphasis, concepts and understanding, student behaviors, and level of cognitive demand.

This template action plan from the Georgia Department of Education is for local education agencies (LEAs) to help them prepare for implementing SLOs. It includes guiding questions to consider, action steps, and space to assign a person responsible for the action step and due date. The action plan outlines the steps for preparation and planning, as well as steps throughout the school year at both the LEA and school building levels.

The Georgia Department of Education created a worksheet to assist teachers in developing growth targets for SLOs. It includes space to calculate individual growth targets, rubric growth targets, and growth targets for exceptionally high scores.

This Georgia Department of Education guidance document highlights the roles and responsibilities within the SLO process for the state agency, local education agencies (LEAs), evaluators, and teachers. For example, one responsibility for LEAs is to determine which assessments can be utilized in SLOs. Teachers have the responsibility of administering pretests and posttests per the guidelines of LEAs and the school.

This Georgia Department of Education guidance document on SLOs for charter schools includes guidance on who is responsible for the development of SLOs and whether charter schools are required to use the local education agency targets for SLO implementation.

The Georgia Department of Education’s guidance document on SLOs for students using the Georgia Alternate Assessment (GAA) includes a bulleted list of considerations and guidance, such as a rubric. The document also includes sample SLO statements for students assessed with the GAA.

This Georgia Department of Education document answers common questions about SLOs for special education teachers, including “Can students with IEPs have the same accommodations during SLO assessment administration?” and “Which SLO implementation procedures for special education teachers are [local education agency] determined?”

These exemplar SLOs for English to Speakers of Other Languages courses from the Georgia Department of Education include some guidance for writing an SLO, and provide assessment composite scores, performance bands, and possible growth targets for each performance band. 

The Georgia Department of Education addresses common questions about creating SLOs for prekindergarten. This document includes answers to questions about how prekindergarten teachers implement SLOs if they do not use assessments and whether prekindergarten teachers use numeric or letter descriptors to report SLO data.