Less is More: Rethinking Essential Standards for Deeper Learning

In this S5E10 Schoolutions Teaching Strategies conversation, join me with Larry Ainsworth, the pioneer of essential standards work, where he reveals why focusing deeply on fewer standards leads to BETTER assessment results than frantically trying to cover everything. Yes, you read that right: 88% focused teaching outperforms 100% surface-level teaching.

What You'll Learn: 
✅ The REAL criteria for identifying essential standards (Readiness, Endurance, Assessment, Leverage) 
✅ How to support students with disabilities and multilingual learners with essential standards 
✅ Why teachers MUST be involved in selecting essential standards (ownership matters!) 
✅ How to scaffold instruction for students reading below grade level while maintaining grade-level expectations 
✅ The connection between essential standards and project-based learning, classroom engagement, and student motivation 
✅ Why Arizona is now weighting its state assessments toward essential standards 
✅ How essential standards save time and guide effective teaching, lesson planning, and instructional strategies

Larry has guided educators for over two decades and helped countless schools create culturally responsive teaching environments with equity in education at the center. 

Resources from Larry: 

💫Inquiring Minds Want to Know: FAQs About Prioritizing Standards

💫Clarity Pathway

💫Integrating Teaching & Learning Newsletter & Books

💫Essential Standards: Pathway to Success for All Students Course

CHAPTERS
0:00 - Introduction: The Standards Struggle 
0:41 - The 88% Solution: Focus Over Coverage 
3:00 - Meet Larry Ainsworth: Pioneer of Essential Standards 
5:00 - Defining Essential Standards: Power, Priority, or Essential? 
9:00 - The 88% Question: Will Students Fail the Test? 
14:00 - Supporting Students with Disabilities with Essential Standards 
17:00 - Scaffolding Strategy: Meeting Students Where They Are 
19:00 - The REAL Criteria: Readiness, Endurance, Assessment, Leverage 
23:00 - Assessment and the State Testing Reality 
25:00 - Project-Based Learning and Essential Standards 
27:00 - This IS the Unit: Depth Over Breadth 
28:00 - Focus Dispels the Illusion of Coverage 
30:00 - The Administrator's Role: Coach, Cheerleader, Quarterback 
33:00 - Lightning Round: Essential Standards vs. Backward Design 
35:00 - State-Level Essential Standards: Good or Undermining? 
37:00 - The Spectacular Failure: When Teachers Aren't Involved 
39:00 - Final Takeaway: Essential Standards as the Foundation 
41:00 - Closing: Resources and Next Steps

Join our community of educators committed to cultivating student success, inspired teaching, and creating inclusive classrooms with a pro-kid mindset focused on the whole child. 

📧 Connect: schoolutionspodcast@gmail.com
🎵 Music: Benjamin Wahl

When coaches, teachers, administrators, and families work hand in hand, it fosters a school atmosphere where everyone is inspired and every student is fully engaged in their learning journey.

Transcript

Olivia: [00:00:00] You know that feeling when you're racing through your curriculum. You're checking off standards like items on a grocery list, and deep down, you know, your students aren't really getting it. You feel like you're covering everything, but your students aren't really mastering anything. Today's conversation's going to challenge everything you thought about curriculum coverage.

I'm Olivia Wahl and I had the incredible honor of sitting down with Larry Ainsworth. He is the person who has been guiding educators through essential standards for over two decades. When I shared with colleagues and friends that I was interviewing Larry, my inbox exploded with questions from teachers all over the world.

That's the kind of impact this work has, and here's the counterintuitive truth that Larry shares. Focusing deeply on 88% of standards can actually lead to better assessment results than [00:01:00] frantically covering 100%. That sounds odd and impossible, right? But the research backs it up and states like Arizona are now building their assessments around this principle.

If you're a teacher, you know the struggle. You have too many standards, not enough time, and constant pressure to cover it all. Meanwhile, your students are lost in the weeds and you're spending precious time reteaching because nothing really stuck the first time around. And if you're a special education teacher or working with multilingual learners, the challenge multiplies.

How do you meet a seventh grader where they are if they're reading at a third grade level or acquiring English as a new language while still holding that student to grade level expectations? In this conversation, Larry breaks down exactly how essential standards create clarity for everyone from crafting IEPs to designing project-based [00:02:00] learning tasks.

He shares his real R-E-A-L criteria for identifying what truly matters and why teacher involvement in this process is critical. You'll hear specific examples, practical strategies, and why this isn't about watering down expectations. It's about building the scaffold students actually need to reach rigorous goals.

By the end of this episode, you'll understand why Larry says, essential standards provide the very foundation for quality units of study, and more importantly, you'll know exactly how to start implementing this in your own practice. So if you're ready to stop drowning in standards and start creating the focused, meaningful learning experiences your students deserve, let's dive in together.

This is Schoolutions Teaching Strategies, the podcast that extends education beyond the classroom. [00:03:00] A show that isn't just theory, but practical try-it-tomorrow approaches for educators and caregivers to ensure every student finds their spark and receives the support they need to thrive. 

I am Olivia Wahl, and I am humbled to be in conversation with the one and only Dr. Larry Ainsworth today. Let me tell you a little bit about Larry. Dr. Ainsworth is a seasoned educator, author and consultant with over two decades of experience guiding Pre-K through 12 educators, schools and districts. He has written or co-written more than 20 books now. You can see them behind him. And he now leads Clarity Pathway, helping schools turn complexity into coherent, timeless, essential curriculum design.

Our conversation today is going to focus on a recent Integrating Teaching & Learning newsletter from Larry. I love these [00:04:00] newsletters. Inquiring Minds Want to Know: FAQs About Prioritizing Standards. Welcome, Larry. I'm so happy to have you as a guest on the podcast. 

Larry: Well, thank you Olivia, and thank you for your kind words. That was very gracious of you and I'm honored and humble that you have valued my work enough to invite me to be a guest on your show. So I hope I can provide some good information for your audience. 

Olivia: You will it. It's impossible not to because it's you. And I have to tell you, when I knew I had the gift of this conversation, I reached out to colleagues all over the world and said, I get to talk to Dr. Ainsworth. What questions do you want me to ask him? And so I received emails, texts, calls from people all over with questions for you. Here's the good news. Many of them were already incorporated into that FAQ doc. 

Larry: Oh, wonderful. 

Olivia: Which, [00:05:00] is amazing. So you've hit it. So we're going to cover quite a bit of territory today. 

Larry: Yeah. 

Olivia: Um. I like to start off, you know, what is, this'll be so hard for you, what is a piece of research or a researcher that you want us to have in mind as we're listening to this conversation? 

Larry: Oh, wow. Well, that's so many come to come, come to my mind because I have such respect for Dr. Douglas Reeves, for Dr. John Hattie, Dr. Robert Marzano. Dr. James Popham, Rick Stiggins. Um. The DuFours, the list goes on and on and on. I've grown and benefited from all of their work over the years, so it's would be very difficult to single out one, but they've all made a huge impact on me and hopefully on all those that I've been fortunate to share their work with.

Olivia: Yes. Okay. So let's start with gaining total clarity, because you mentioned Dr. [00:06:00] Douglas Reeves and he was, the originator created the idea of power standards - that term. But then we also hear priority standards. We hear essential standards. So can you illuminate for us, first of all, does it matter? Does it matter what we call, and then does that also change how we utilize the process?

Larry: Well, the idea is it doesn't matter as long as everybody has the same understanding about what it means. It it's a term. I occasionally use the terms interchangeably because everybody has come to this process, which I call timeless over decades. Starting with Dr. Reeves when he originated power standards back in the 1990s, and I started working with him as his colleague from 1999 all the way up to 2012-13.

And so the idea was power standards was the original term and he was generous enough to allow me to really take, take [00:07:00] over that topic and create the workshops, which I presented all over. And, but what I found out Olivia, was that over time people thought that power standards were all we teach. And the idea became then like, well, what about the other ones?

And we heard terms like need to know, nice to know, don't need to know. And I said, that just is not gonna work any longer because of the fact that, especially when the Common Core came out in 2010, is that the standards are all important. The idea is there are just so many of them. But what I wanted to emphasize, I rebranded the name around that time when I wrote, Prioritizing The Common Core because people needed to realize that the other standards play a vital role.

And I call those supporting standards, and to this day, probably the biggest, biggest myth that I still have to address is the fact that we are prioritizing, not [00:08:00] eliminating. The supporting standards have a huge impact in terms of helping kids achieve the more rigorous, the more complex essential standards.

By the way, the name change. This is funny. When I wrote my new book series, Integrating Teaching and Learning, that came out last year. I have three chapters about essential standards in that book alone. The first volume. And it was funny because, um, the names came up right away. Power Standards, priority Standards, essential standards, guaranteed Standards, Focus Standards, the name, the names are all over the place.

So, you know, um, I just decided to just make it clear what priority standards were, but I do call them now essential standards because they are essential to building a quality curriculum, um, to having, making sure that students know those standards as they move through school and then on into life and also the ones that [00:09:00] are most emphasized on state assessments.

Olivia: Yes. Okay. So, now I have that clarity let's use essential standards moving forward for the rest of this conversation. And I also want to speak to a question I received, and it was both from teachers at the high school level, specifically, but this really runs 3rd grade through 12th grade and the states around testing.

And I know this was something that Dr. Reeves, you were so gracious and you have actually reached out to him because this was his response in the FAQ Doc. But I want to just speak to essential standards typically only cover about 88% of the state tests, um, or what could be covered on the state tests. Not 100%. So. If I am a teacher and I am freaking out, because what about the other 12%? Larry? What do we do? So can you speak to that? 

Larry: Sure. I'd be happy to speak to that. You know, and that's one of the [00:10:00] questions that was in that frequently asked question document, but that is one of the ones I published in the book Power Standards, 2003 and the 20th anniversary edition 2023. Um, and it continued to use that in the current work I've done. But here's the thing, when, when Dr. Reeves talked about that, he was really referring to the fact that if students can, um, really know those standards that are going to really empower that student in their forward journey, whether it's school and in life and on assessments and so on, his research indicated that about 88% of the questions would be if, if students could get about 88% of those questions, they would actually be fine. 

But here's what I wanted to let you know that, um, I called Dr. Reeves yesterday to say, Doug, [00:11:00] 'cause we're friends. I said, Doug, we're gonna, I'm gonna be on this wonderful podcast that, um, and I would like to ask you if you could please update me on your thinking about that question that you provided for me years ago, because that was his question and his response. Um, so here's what he said, “Let me first validate the importance of this question. It is a fact that teachers face limited amounts of time every day to try and teach students too many standards.” 

Olivia: Yes. 

Larry: So then he gave a couple examples. He said, “Let's say for math for example, he goes, no student will fail a state test because they happen to forget the quadratic equation.”

He said, “But they will fail if they don't know. The four basic operations of Oregon ones applied to algebra standards.”

Olivia: Yes. 

Larry: And then he said, as far as ELA, he goes, well, “Students won't fail a, a state assessment for not knowing their adverbs, but they will fail if they don't know how to read and [00:12:00] write.”

Larry: That's pretty basic, right? 

Olivia: Good points. 

Larry: Yeah, Doug always cuts to the chase and then he goes, but I really like this. He said, “In a real world setting today,” he goes, “there's no such thing as all fifth grade students, for example, being at the same level you've got kids of same age at multiple, uh, learning levels so the idea is for teachers to provide a variety of learning at different levels with the emphasis on depth over breadth of the standards coverage.”

And then, but here's how I, I love how he ended it though, Livi. He said, The bottom line is this. There is no student in the United States who will ever fail the state test with an overall score of 88%.”

Olivia: This is true. 

Larry: Isn't that great? He goes, “Focus for what is most important with the time you have available.”

Larry: And see that's why this whole thing got started because of the time and in several of my books, Dr. Marzano did a fabulous job of calculating of the number [00:13:00] of standards there are and the time it would take. And he said his witty conclusion was we would've to change schooling from K-12 to K-22 to cover all of these standards. Anyway. That, that's the essence of his response though. But you know, I think there was a follow up question that you'd asked me about, but a teacher said, well, what happens if an essay question is based on 20% of…

Olivia: Well, that other 12%?

Larry: Of that 12%? And my, my response to that would be, I think he would agree, would be with the fact that, well, here's the thing. If it was really that much of a weighted score, it would have to be on an essential stand. 

Olivia: Right.

Larry: Right. Yeah. 

Olivia: And then we'd be good to go. Right?

Larry: Listen, Olivia, if I can say one more thing about this, and I promise. 

Olivia: Of course.

Larry: I won’t make all my responses this long, but I wanted to add my own two cents to, um, Dr. Reeves's response. And it's so interesting in this online course I'm creating for, [00:14:00] um, essential standards, I, here's what I found too. “Even though all standards…” this is coming from Arizona. It's on their state website. “Even though all standards will continue to be included in the annual Arizona's annual state exams, beginning with the 2025-26 school year, identified essential standard, (their term) from the existing State Board of Education approved standards for ELA and meth will have a higher proportion of items on the statewide assessment. keeping with the current blueprint adopted by the Arizona State Board of Education.”

Olivia: Wow. 

Larry: How’s that? 

Olivia: All right. That is validation 101 stamp. 

Larry: It is. 

Olivia: And, but Larry, that makes me think of a couple of different populations of learners that we have in our buildings, in our schools. I think of students with disabilities, I think of multilingual learners. Because, [00:15:00] you know, there's no time like the present. And I know essential standards can be invaluable for special educators crafting IEPs, but also, you know, what makes essential standards even more critical for those populations of students in your mind? 

Larry: Right. Well, again, this is a big idea. The, the whole idea about priority standards has to be accompanied with a definition of supporting standards. Priority standards are really, I referred to them and I have for years as a subset of the total list of standards for each grade and content area. The supporting standards are those less challenging standards, but they serve a vital role in terms of preparing kids from the, with those lower-level skills to be able to achieve the more rigorous priority standards or essential standards.

So I think the idea about for those, those the population students you're talking about. The first thing is we gotta have clarity. We have to have clarity about what's [00:16:00] most essential for all students. Then we need to focus on making sure that those, what those essential standards require in terms of student learning for specific student populations.

Olivia: May I ask you a question then? So. If I'm working with a student that technically is in seventh grade, 

Larry: Right, 

Olivia: …Age-wise, yet that student, uh, is reading I maybe second or third grade, uh, standards wise, meeting those standards, am I selecting essential standards at the seventh grade level if I'm crafting an IEP as a special education teacher, or at the second or third grade, how am I selecting essential standards?

Larry: Yeah, that's, that's really a great question. And the idea, what we've always said is. It's not about watering down or changing the standards at that grade level. The students, the target should remain the same for all kids. 

Olivia: So seventh grade. 

Larry: So seventh grade. But obviously if it's, if you've got a seventh grader reading at a [00:17:00] third grade level, for example, and let's just say that one of the, um, skills that the student needs is to be able to decode multisyllabic words with comprehension. Okay? 

Here's the, here's what I'm gonna propose. 60 to 70% of instructional time could be on foundational skills - third grade where the student currently is. An example, so you can write it like decode, multi-syllabic words using knowledge of syllable types and patterns. Third grade, okay? 

Why do this? Because without this, the student can't access any grade level content independently. So what about if the IEP goal, for example, was something like this? Um, Jamal, as an example, will decode multisyllabic words with 85% accuracy using syllable division strategies. And then 30 to 40% of the instructional time would be modified grade level essential standards.[00:18:00] 

So, for example, seventh grade essential standard cite text evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly and implicitly. Modified approach? Use third grade level text with seventh grade thinking skills. So then the IEP goal could be when reading adapted grade level content, student will identify and send two pieces of text evidence to support answer with 80% accuracy. What about that? 

Olivia: You know, I cannot thank you enough for preparing such a clear, cohesive response because if I'm sitting as a special education teacher, I would know exactly how to meet the need of that child. And then you just also gave us a transferable process that then can be mimicked and replicated based on the needs of each individual student. So that, that was absolutely fantastic. Thank you. 

Larry: Well, I'm so glad. [00:19:00] But you know, here's the thing. You know, I, you know, I've been working with educators. For 25 years now. And I feel a tremendous responsibility to me, like probably because of my 24 years in the classroom, myself as a teacher. I see everything through the lens of the busy classroom educator. It's gotta be relevant, it's gotta make sense, it's gotta be practical. And you've gotta take kids from where they are currently. Yes, 

Olivia: Yes. yes. 

Larry: But we don't water it down. We don't lower the expectations and I. Why I was thinking about, yeah, I gotta write this new blog and a new newsletter about this question because it applies to both special ed kids and it applies to multi-language learners. So…

Olivia: That was so, is so clear. Then, you know, I know you have had four criteria. For, um, agreeing on what makes a standard essential. And I picture a room filled with veteran teachers, newer teachers, and you know what if I think a standard is essential based on my favorite unit that someone else doesn't? And so [00:20:00] if someone is listening to this conversation right now, and they don't know what an essential standard is, if they're a caregiver, could you give those four criteria first? 

Larry: Sure. 

Olivia: And then I'm also interested to know, have these four criteria changed at all over time? 

Larry: Yeah. Those are great questions. Well, the idea is this, um, the criteria are Readiness for the next level, Endurance, which means life skills, life concepts. A is Assessment, what the students are going to need to be prepared for, to do well on the state exams, national exams. And then L is Leverage, which means cross content or is interdisciplinary connections.

And it's been really interesting because, um that acronym has been, you know, we love acronyms in education. And that accurate acronym, R-E-A-L, has been really, really helpful. And that's [00:21:00] the one that I'm, I'm using now more and more to say, because an essential standard should meet all four of those criteria, not just one of them.

And you know which one A lot of them probably go to first is a, the Assessment? What's on the test? Which is why I always talk also about the fact that what do students need for success? Students need for success in school, in life, and on state exams. 

Olivia: Yes. 

Larry: So anyway, the key here is the word objective. The criteria need to be objective. 

Olivia: And so I, I wanted to just ask about, you know, has it ever, have you changed those criteria because you're leaning on R-E-A-L now still, but has it ever adapted? And I would say, Larry, before you, before you respond, I think Leverage is actually the most critical. So for our students to actually have knowledge become sticky. for me, it's that application across content [00:22:00] areas. 

Larry: Exactly. 

Olivia: And and applying, and applying and applying. Right. So, um, has it changed at all for you over time? 

Larry: You know, it really hasn't changed, you know, and that's, that's the part why I call them timeless. 

Olivia: Yeah. 

Larry: And why I call them established criteria. And the idea, you know, Dr. Reeves again was, he first introduced me to the idea of Readiness, Endurance, and Leverage. As I was in the field and working with districts all over the US all those years, the teacher's natural question was, well, what about what's on the test? And that's when I started to realize that we needed to also bring into those criteria, expand the three with one more. And that would be external exams, which I, again, for the acronym just change Assessment. 

Olivia: Assessment. Yeah, that makes sense. 

Larry: But lots, but those have been, and that has also helped level the playing field. Also when teachers are going to share their different ways of selecting what they think to be essential standards, [00:23:00] you need objective criteria about what the students need for success, and then everybody's on the same page.

Olivia: Okay, so this is a perfect segue because let's think assessment. And I know you have said, you know, how do we know they've got it? And I think of John Hattie saying, you know, how do we know? How do we know? And so if we think about the idea of deeper mastery and the idea of, um, learning performance tasks. Do you, are you still of the mindset that students have to have this culminating performance task at the end of every essential standard to show they've truly mastered it?

Larry: No. 

Olivia: I'm gonna just pause right there. That was, I heard ripple effects around the world. So say more, because those, those projects are intense for [00:24:00] teachers. 

Larry: They are intense. Well, here's the idea. The idea is again, and this is something again I owe to Dr. Reeves because, um, the idea should be that these assessments that are project based, we all now acronym again, PBL - project based learning.

The whole idea is everything should connect. You've got your essential standards as your foundation, and the idea is that we're gonna have our assessment at the end of each unit of study that's based on, or should be based on those essential standards at the level of rigor or complexity, right? 

So, we've got, you know, hand and glove match. What do you do during the classroom period, day-to-day instruction? Are kids just going to be doing, you know, whatever the, the assignment is for that day? No. Project based learning, what I call hands-on minds on active learning projects, are guess what they're based on the unwrapped, unpacked essential standards.[00:25:00] 

And they, and the idea is kids can work collaboratively. They can work in pairs, you know, or you know, three or four kids together. But here's the idea, those standards, because they're the driver of whatever those tasks are, the kids are learning the standards in a real, authentic way. 

But everybody always says this, where's the time to do this? Once I was with a group, I won't name the place, but I was with a group and we had secondary teachers, elementary, everybody was there and they'd been working. One of the teachers at the end, the teachers were talking about, oh my gosh, where's the time to do this? I said, well, first of all, you don't have to do it for every standard or every unit of study, pick and choose. 

One biology teacher told me in an Eastern state, she said I wanted to do, I wanted to plan these performance tasks, these, you know, assessment tasks for a biology, for my biology unit, one of my biology units. [00:26:00] And she said, I picked that unit in particular, in your workshop because I wanted to develop these tasks to see if I could get better results from the kids than I usually do.

Again, her end of unit evaluation was her state, I mean, was her unit test. So all the tasks were designed to prepare kids to learn the standards that were going to be assessed on, on the unit test. And she said, Larry, I did it. I did the comparison. She said, my biology students did far better on this unit because we turned them into engaging learning activities.

Olivia: Ah. 

Larry: But the idea, again, you start small, build solely, but back of the, I'll wrap up quickly, but the other story was one teacher said at the end, in this first scenario I was describing, we were all done and they said, oh my gosh, where's the time to do this? So we had this discussion about, you don't have to do it every unit. But then she said, am I supposed to do this on top of my unit, regular unit instruction and [00:27:00] activities. All of her colleagues kind of jumped on her and said, this is the unit!

Olivia: This is it. This is it. 

Larry: This is it. So anyway, she… 

Olivia: That's fascinating. 

Larry: I said, well let's that get mad at her. She's asking a really good question, you know. But anyways, she was fine with it. But no, that's the thing. Kids don't have enough experience with depth of understanding. So if we build them on the essential standards, but just use them judiciously. But it doesn't have to be a culminating Capstone Project at the end of the year or a course. It's better, I think, to give shorter ones during the year where kids get, are staying involved. 

Olivia: So I'm going to quote you because you have a fabulous, fabulous line that you use that I think speaks to this. You say, “focus dispels the illusion that frantic coverage is equivalent to student learning.”

And so that idea of, even though you're narrowing down with the essential standards, I see it as a [00:28:00] clear pathway for students as well. So you spend actually less time reteaching because there's this very explicit clarity for students of - this is the end of the map where we are landing. Here is the thread and through line I'm going to take you on through these essential standards, small tasks along the way. And so you end up, it's so seamless. And also I love in the FAQ doc, you point out that the idea of essential standards, it really helps guide your formative assessment. Oh, 

Larry: Oh absolutely. 

Olivia: So, right? If I'm a teacher in the classroom and I know a unit has three essential standards, I'm going to break those standards down to the most basic level. So when I am conferring one-on-one or in conversation with children. I can access where they are, but still constantly in my mind be scaffolding. So..

Larry: Absolutely. 

Olivia: I just think that's [00:29:00] invaluable. Um, can I ask you another question? 

Larry: Of course. That's what we're here for! 

Olivia: So you say that administrators are the coach, the cheerleader, the quarterback. Okay. So that's a lot of different sport analogies. And you did allude to time. So how, then let's go back to what I was just saying. How can, in your mind, the essential standards really save time and also guide our feedback to students? 

Larry: Well, first of all, if you want me just to speak a little bit to the role of the administrator, honestly, what I've seen, this really hinges the, the successful implementation of essential standards, either within a school or across the district, absolutely hinges on the involvement of leadership. School leaders, district leaders, and my all-time classic example was Dr. Mike Wasta, Bristol, Connecticut, used to attend my [00:30:00] workshops when I would be there working with his teachers superintendent, sitting side-by-side with the teachers and I, one day I took him aside.

I said, Mike, this is so. You've got a list to do and you're here. And he goes, he looked at me, he goes, Larry, where else should I be? He goes, how can I champion a process and expect all of my administrators and schools to be doing this if I don't really understand it myself? Now I realize that today's reality is different and administrators are pulled in so many directions, but the idea is somebody needs to set an expectation and not just make it the initiative of the year or the DuJour.

So they, they sustain it year after year, after year after year. And that's where we're seeing all the success in the test scores because they, they've kept their focus. But the idea is, I realize not everyone can do that, but if they, their, whoever they choose in, in a leadership role who attends and understands, [00:31:00] it means a lot to, for educators to see leadership there attending, doing the work with them.

Olivia: Absolutely. 

Larry: But again, you know, you asked the thing about how is this, how is this actually feasible to do with time and so on? And so here's how I think we can break it down for essential standards. I think the days of all day dedicated professional development are gone, are losing ground because it's just not reasonable and realistic today.

So what about this idea? This is what we found that really works for implementation and effective implementation. First, identify what your focus or your goal is. So let's say it's central standard. Okay? And be sure to include, especially how it's gonna benefit teachers and students. There's gotta be a strong rationale first.

Next, set a reasonable, flexible, realistic timeframe for completing it, and then plan the sequence of steps to accomplish the goal. [00:32:00] After that, follow the steps one-by-one, like chunks and then based on the available time teachers have, whether it's a staff meeting or whatever. Because I know for a fact that teachers, you know what a, you know what a challenge is for teachers to be outta the classroom and have to leave lesson plans for subs.

Olivia: Yeah. 

Larry: And worry about it.

Olivia: So much work. 

Larry: They're going to prefer something if they can see the big picture of where we're going and the fact that they know they're gonna do it in small incremental steps based on time availability, they're gonna appreciate that so much more. And the other thing I've found that once teachers get into it, they go, oh my gosh, this is really great. We've gotta do this 'cause this is gonna directly impact our daily instruction and assessment practices. 

Olivia: Yes. That's so helpful. So helpful. Um, and, and I'm thinking too, that. I crafted some lightning round questions. I wanna wrap the conversation with those and then end, I have a couple of just lingering pieces for you, but let's go, [00:33:00] let's go lightning round to spice it up a little bit.

Larry: Okay! Lightning round!

Olivia: So how are essential standards different from backwards design and UBD or Understanding by Design? 

Larry: Well, that's a great question and um, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe did an amazing job. With that process when I was a classroom teacher, UBD, Understanding by Design was, you know what everybody was starting to realize, oh my gosh, that makes so much sense! Well, here's what I realized about UBD and essential standards and how they go together. So the idea is if people see the reality and the importance of a prioritized subset of essential standards. Are supported by learning progressions, which are often the supporting standards, which by the way, those are all, those are incorporated into those performance tasks we were talking about.

Then the idea, they go, once they've got that established [00:34:00] foundation for each unit study, they go to the end, now, create your assessment and make sure that your assessment questions matches the standards and the level of rigor, uh, in those standards. And then you've got like bookends. 

So now it's like, okay, now you've got your start. You've got your goal. That's what you've got. Now work backwards and create your day-to-day instruction with learning progressions and quick checks to see how kids are doing, like exit tickets. And then use that formative assessment data every day to adjust your follow-up instruction. Let the kids see where they're currently at so they can adjust their learning tactic.

Because you've got a clear end in mind. You know what the kids have to do on the end of that assessment at the end of that unit. So now you've got that clarity there and you can just focus your day to help kids make that progress so they can be successful in that end of unit assessment. 

Olivia: They can have complete autonomy over the process.

Larry: Absolutely. 

Olivia: 'cause you're transparent. All right. That's a good [00:35:00] response. Um, you've shared actually a, a good success story. I'm interested because I know California, Illinois, and I think New York State is also on the way to do this. They are selecting, uh, essential standards at the state level. They're starting to, so in your mind, is this good or is it undermining?

Larry: Yeah, no, that's a really great question and, um, I wanna make sure that I, I'm so happy you asked me this question. So you mentioned Illinois states are starting to do it at more, at the state level, but I did a lot of work in Illinois for different, for years. And when COVID started, I, everything migrated online. So I continued adapting all my workshops to be online Illinois in 2020 and 21 gathered educators from across the state to come together as a state group representative group to create what they call the Illinois Priority Learning Standards. They didn't do it [00:36:00] just ELA and math or tested areas. They did it all subjects, which is awesome.

But here's the cool part. Their stated message to everybody in Illinois education was, you have the autonomy at a district level to create your own. We are not mandating that these are the ones to be used. And that part I think is why everybody had so much buy-in to the process because they realized, but a lot of 'em, of course, actually said, well, gosh, if they had reps from the old state, let's just use those right as our essential standards.

Olivia: Right, it’s a lot of thought. 

Larry: Yeah. Or, but the thing was, they could say, or we'll take what the standard's got, but we've gotta make a couple tweaks to it based on our needs. And that's why there was buy-in, you know, Illinois. Okay. 

Olivia: Okay, and so then I, I'm going to ask a question. It's probably gonna be a little uncomfortable, but what is the most spectacular failure…

Larry: Oh no! Oh no!

Olivia: …you have ever witnessed when it comes to essential standards and when [00:37:00] failure happens, which it inevitably always does, what did you learn from the experience?

Larry: Oh, that's a, that's a really great question, and I'm gonna be really upfront in my response to that too. And the fact that one state, years ago prioritized the standards at the state level, and then they just distributed them to all of the school systems, all the school districts, and they said, we ne Larry, we've never got so many calls in our life. The phone was ringing off the hook, what is this? What are we supposed to do with these? 

Anyways, I learned a good lesson and here's the lesson that I learned. Teachers must be involved in the selection of the essential standards. Without it, there's no shared ownership. There's no teacher voice. They're the ones closest. They know what should be. They'll take guidance, they'll take suggestions. They look at R-E-A-L, the criteria. But what I, my takeaway was what I found that that's not been the case. I go back to what Dr. Thomas Guskey said to me years ago [00:38:00] when we gave back to back keynotes in Ohio. We were sitting there having lunch and he said, “Well Larry, you know what I think I've realized from all this stuff is a good idea poorly implemented is a bad idea.” 

Olivia: Well said. 

Larry: Isn't that great? 

Olivia: Well said. It is. That's such a, that's great. That's great. 

Larry: Or that's the most way about this is like, 

Olivia: Yeah. 

Larry: That's it. 

Olivia: So that's it. That's it. All right. So we're gonna end the conversation. I think we could just start a podcast. You, you should do this, a podcast just around essential standards and have different teachers on to pick your brain and ask questions because this FAQ doc was incredibly helpful. That, and I, I look forward to your newsletters. I'm so happy you're doing that. Um, so if we have to just pause and you reflect on this conversation, you, we both prepared for this. It, it was a moment in time. What is the one idea [00:39:00] that you want us to leave with besides a good idea implemented badly is a bad idea. Like what, what should we know and think about leaving this conversation? 

Larry: Well, that's a really good idea. I, I think that one idea would be, and again everyone has to experience the process and prove this to be true for themselves. But here's my takeaway. Essential standards provide the foundation, the very foundation for quality units of study. And the idea is you wanna make sure that, um, those are the driver. We're not standardizing teachers. We're not doing that at all, what we're doing is we're standardizing the standards.

We're making it clear for equity for all kids, um, for instructional equity. We wanna make sure that the essential standards are accompanied with supporting standards that [00:40:00] provide the scaffold or the stair step, or the building blocks, whatever you want to call it. The two must go together. That becomes the focus. You've got the clarity, and you've got the focus when you've really got essential standards in place and everybody knows why we're doing it, how we're doing it, and we've worked toward, in incrementally getting that established in our schools for all our kids and for our teachers.

Olivia: Well, Larry, I, I'm leaving with so much knowledge after being in conversation with you for this short time and I just, your work has been a beacon for me as a teacher, for me as a coach. And you - I hope you feel the love because my goodness, as soon as I shared that I had the gift of this interview time with you, people just poured emails and texts and phone calls in with questions for you. So thank you for your dedication for kids, for teachers, and to our field. I appreciate you so much. 

Larry: Well, that's very humbling. [00:41:00] Olivia. Thank you for all your work and all the good work that you're doing to connect everybody and to give them, as you said, wonderful instructional strategies that will help them achieve their life purpose as an educator and for all the kids that they serve. So thank you so much for having me. 

Olivia: Absolutely. And I just for listeners to know, um, Larry, you shared that you're creating more different tools for your followers. I'm going to tuck in everything I possibly can into the show notes with your website, um, and just know listeners that you'll be fully taken care of with the show note links, um, that Larry, you're so generous to offer all of the thank you that you do with the world. So, alright. Take care. 

Larry: Alright, thank you so much, Olivia. Again. Be well. 

Olivia: Schoolutions Teaching Strategies is created, produced, and edited by me, Olivia Wahl. Thank you to my older son [00:42:00] Benjamin, who created the music playing in the background. You can follow and listen to solutions wherever you get your podcasts or subscribe to never miss an episode and watch on YouTube. 

Thank you to my guest, Larry Ainsworth, for sharing how essential standards can support us with creating the focused, meaningful learning experiences our students deserve. Here's my invitation: send me an email at schoolutionspodcast@gmail.com, and tell me one thing from this conversation that's shifting your thinking.

More importantly, tell me what your next step is. Maybe it's beginning with just one unit. Use Larry's R-E-A-L criteria, Readiness, Endurance Assessment, and Leverage, and see what emerges when you ask What do my students absolutely need for success in school and life and on assessments? 

If you're a building or district leader, don't try to mandate [00:43:00] essential standards work from the top down. Involve your educators in the selection process. As Larry's colleague said, “A good idea, poorly implemented is a bad idea.”

And with that said, don't forget to tune in every Monday for the best research, back coaching and teaching strategies you can apply right away to better the lives of the children in your care. Stay tuned for my bonus episodes every Friday where I'll reflect and share connections to what I learned from the guest that week. See you then.