Student Learning Objectives (SLO)

This guidebook from the Illinois State Board of Education developed by the Illinois Performance Evaluation Advisory Council provides guidance, tools, examples, and resources to support local education agencies in designing and implementing an SLO process. The guidebook provides some practical planning steps for districts to develop an SLO process and to implement this process.

This sample SLO from the Maryland State Department of Education is focused on elementary physical education.

This Maryland State Department of Education sample SLO is focused on mathematics for Grade 7.

This sample SLO from the Maryland State Department of Education is focused on Foundations of Technology for Grade 9.

This Maryland State Department of Education sample SLO is focused on cosmetology for Grade 10.

This sample SLO from the Maryland State Department of Education is focused on high school biology.

In December 2012, the Maryland State Department of Education presented on the quality assurance process for SLOs. This presentation outlines quality control components, provides guidance, templates and tools, establishes the priority of standard, provides details on how to determine and score rigorous targets, and identifies high-quality , common assessments. Along with these components, additional time is devoted to monitoring and auditing the SLO process. 

The Maryland State Department of Education developed this presentation to illustrate how SLOs align with the goals for the state’s Race to the Top initiative. The presentation discusses the purpose of using SLOs, explains the development and implementation process around SLOs, and discusses how to plan for key considerations in piloting the implementation of SLOs. 

The Maryland State Department of Education developed a rubric to assist with principals with the review and approval of teacher SLOs. The rubric is designed to help principals ensure consistency among the individual components and that the SLO reflects careful planning and thoughtful reflection that will support successful implementation and accomplishment of the SLO targets. There are four domains within the rubric: priority of standard, rigor of target, quality of measure and evidence, and action, and each domain includes a set of criteria.