Ladder and Knot Outcomes

Ladder & Knot Tool cover

The first step in designing learner-centered experiences, assessment systems, and structures that are competency-based is to define the desired learning outcomes—what we want students to know and be able to do. 

There are two types of learning outcomes and, ideally, we are tending to both. We often think of them as Ladder and Knot outcomes. This tool provides an overview of each type of outcome and will guide you to identify and reflect on the outcomes in your current practices. 

Please complete the form below to access the resource.

 

It’s Your Journey

Explore More Topics

Blog
Building Brighter Futures Together: Insights from the SoCal LiNK Regional Partnership
A fresh model of collaboration is emerging in Southern California; one that unites K–12 education, higher education institutions, and local communities with a shared focus on supporting the whole learner.  SoCal LiNK, Southern California Learning in Networked Knowledge, is a research-practice partnership between the Department of Education Studies at UC San Diego, Learner-Centered Collaborative…
Blog
What is the Purpose of School? A Call for Whole-Learner Outcomes.
What is the purpose of school? For the past four decades, the prevailing national answer—shaped largely by the 1983 report “A Nation at Risk” and documented by historian Patricia Graham—has been singular: Achievement. This focus helped usher in an era of standardization, compliance, and testing. It was designed to respond to global economic anxieties…
Tools
A Learner-Centered Ecosystem
It’s time for a shift from the school-centered education system—where efficiency, standardization, compliance, ranking, sorting, and task completion are top priorities—to a learner-centered paradigm, where we focus on supporting each learner to know who they are, thrive in community, and actively engaged in the world as their best selves. “A Learner-Centered Ecosystem” dives deep…