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In fact, test scores are possibly one of the poorest ways to gauge how learning is progressing, and these test scores darken your classroom door too late in the school year to do much about learning that's gone awry, anyway.

Here are authentic indicators of instruction that is going right in your classroom:

Students ask each other a lot of questions

The best indicator that instruction is meaningful and "sticking" in the minds of your students is found in the hallway, cafeteria and playground; not derived from the weekly test.

When you hear students talking about the lesson, asking questions of each other, and questioning information that you presented because they found logical or factual discrepancies; then you know that instruction is on the right track

Students are listening to each other

Students listening to each other means that a teamwork atmosphere has been established, and that everyone is respected for their contributions.

Besides mirroring the real world-of-work that students will one day enter, 80% of the time, team thinking will prove that many brains produce richer results than individual, "go it alone," thinking

Teacher and Students Explain their Thinking

The thought process is transparent in a learning classroom, and everyone feels free to share not only their ideas, but their thinking

Debate can be lively, but, the atmosphere has to be one of tolerance for others' ideas and acceptance that give-and-take idea exchanges are healthy, stimulating and refreshing

Students have access to relevant, accurate and intellectually stimulating information

Information resources are similar to minerals and organic fertilizer in the soil. An abundant crop of ideas flourishes if nourished with knowledge, facts, concepts, ideas, images, sounds, graphs, charts and other idea-communicating media.

Students understand how the ideas and concepts connect to their world and relate to each other

The ability to chunk information into categories and manipulate meaning elevates learning above the burden of processing multitudes of discrete facts to a strategy of collecting related and understandable concepts

Students use communication shortcuts and code-words of shared understanding

Using communication shortcuts and code-words demonstrates that learning has reached a meta-level.

Educational jargon is an example of these communication shortcuts, "if only teachers from over yonder really knew what the term means...like we do."

A small group, such as a learning classroom, develops a local meaning for its own jargon.

One "gotcha" exists for teachers who teach the same class more than once a day. It is easy for the teacher to confuse the shared understandings of the second class by introducing derivations of meaning developed by the first class.

The solution for this trap is to ensure that all classes of the same subject that you are teaching are communicating with each other through a variety of means

Teacher and students take learning seriously

Everyone accepts responsibility for learning, and everyone keeps track of learning progress in tangible ways. Everyone helps everyone else to learn.

The distribution of accountability for learning resides with students as well as teachers; and students become responsible for helping the teacher to learn, too.

Disagreements are addressed in a transparent, open and civil manner

Everyone learns when differences of opinion are acknowledged and debated.

Theories, opinions, hypotheses, and contradictory facts are accepted in stride

Pride of ownership in a learning classroom is similar to copyright; i.e., the form of unique expression can be copyrighted, but ideas cannot be owned. Ideas are "community property"

The teacher and students are motivated by learning and external rewards are incidental

The teacher and students become so involved in the learning process that working for rewards is ignored

Students are so involved in learning that punishments designed to force them to comply are unnecessary

Everyone's innate desire for mastery and achievement is constantly fulfilled, and learning for the sake of learning is exhilarating enough to sustain itself

When you have established a learning classroom; you, your students, and everybody else, knows it.

Adapted from Ellsberry, James. 10 Ways to Recognize a Learning Organization. District Administrator, November, 2004. P. - 87)