As you move to standards-based curriculum, instruction, and assessment, it is important to communicate with others who are concerned about student learning. The most important communication is with your students because standards-based practice is, first and foremost, a learning tool. You also need to plan for communicating with parents, community members, colleagues, and with the administrators and the school board members.

You will make some communication decisions alone. Some communication decisions will be made by you and colleagues as a team or department, as a building, or as a district. In this chapter, we consider the communication needs for each group, recognizing that decisions are made differently depending on the circumstances.

Communicating with Students