They provide managed choice so that students have meaningful choices and can learn from their errors. They use a range of instructional formats, with much interaction. Students learn to consult with one another and to make their thinking available to others. In these effective classrooms, evaluations are based more on improvement, progress, and effort than on standard testing methods. And all students work hard.
Evaluation is personalized, often holistic, and focused on complex activities.
Self-evaluation is encouraged, and students are often provided with rubrics as part of the evaluation process. Students in these exemplary classrooms make superior educational gains as measured by standard achievement tests. Altogether, the studies have considerable commonality despite their differences in approach and emphases. These clusters of practices, beliefs, expectations, and personal characteristics are important to consider because they might ultimately provide researchers and educators with a more unified structure for looking at effective instruction. International Reading Association.