Aligning Success Criteria To Student Learning Targets
Jan 14, 2026
Together with Student Learning Targets that communicate to students what they are to learn and why it is important for them to do so, Success Criteria show students how they will need to demonstrate that they have learned it. Educators closely study both their “unwrapped” Essential Standards and the related Student Learning Targets from which they are derived to determine the matching Success Criteria. The benefit of doing so? Success Criteria make clear for learners exactly what they need to write, say, and/or do to provide valid evidence that they have successfully “hit the bullseye” of the Student Learning Targets.
I especially like the visual imagery Michael Absolum uses to introduce both a Student Learning Target (which he calls “learning intention”) and Success Criteria to his students:
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“I introduced the term learning intention to my students and explained that this was going to be the flashlight in my teaching and their learning. We talked about our learning being like a journey through a tunnel. This was where I introduced success criteria, and we likened them to signposts along the way through the tunnel. Often a picture of the flashlight was placed beside the words learning intention and signposts beside the success criteria." (Absolum, Clarity in the Classroom, 2010, p. 83) |
In this blog post, published also in the January 2026 issue of our Integrating Teaching and Learning Newsletter, I showcase the powerful role that Success Criteria can play in making learning expectations clear, transparent, and achievable for all students.
FROM “BACK IN THE DAY” TO NOW
Students are often confused about what they are supposed to be learning and unsure if they have been successful in learning it. Equally confusing for them can be why they received a certain grade or a score on their submitted assignments. As a result, they often resign themselves to the powerless conclusion: “I don’t know why I got this grade. It’s what the teacher gave me.”
As a former classroom educator for 24 years, I saw that my students often felt confused about how their work would be graded. The solution to that confusion appeared when I began co-creating “rubrics” (scoring guides that clearly define criteria to ensure accurate evaluation of an assignment) with them. As a result, my students knew upfront, before they ever began to complete a related classroom project or assignment, how I would grade their work.
They loved the rubrics we created together because it literally “took the mystery out of the grading process” and enabled them to set personal goals for achieving success. For me, it was a “game changer”; I was able to quickly and easily grade their submitted work because I did so according to the objectively worded performance descriptors in the rubric. We were all on the same page! When I learned about Success Criteria years later, I could only wish that I had known about this powerful practice “back in the day!”
FROM GUESSWORK TO CLARITY: WHY SUCCESS CRITERIA MATTER
Today, this same clarity is achieved through Success Criteria directly aligned to the specifically worded Student Learning Targets! Clearly aligned Success Criteria can shift students’ readiness to complete an assignment from uncertainty to certainty. Success Criteria, when made clear to students at the beginning of a lesson or an entire unit of study, can transform their hesitancy or passivity into active ownership of learning. Clarity empowers students to set their own learning goals, monitor their own progress, and confidently predict their own success. No more mystery!
Because the purpose of Success Criteria is to communicate performance expectations in precise, specific terms, students can feel confident of ultimate success even while they are completing an assignment. How? By referring continually to the Success Criteria—which they always receive (or help to co-create) prior to beginning an assignment—they can check their work against the Success Criteria as they create it, changing and adding to it while doing so. In this way they can be sure that they have successfully accomplished the task before they turn it in for their teacher’s formative or summative evaluation.
The different parts of speech in these words from the above paragraphs, “upfront, before, beginning, prior to,” all provide the secret to success as to when students need to know the Success Criteria. In the following excerpt from his co-authored research study, John Hattie clearly emphasizes the preposition that underlies the real power of Success Criteria -- “BEFORE”
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“Students who can articulate or are taught success criteria are more likely to be strategic in their choice of learning strategies, more likely to enjoy the thrill of success in learning, and more likely to reinvest in attaining even more success criteria. “When a student is aware of what it means to be successful before undertaking the task, this awareness leads to more goal-directed behaviors.” Hattie and Donoghue, Learning Strategies: A Synthesis and Conceptual Model, Published Online, 10 August 2016 |
Students (as well as adults) become more willing to take intellectual risks if, and when, they have clarity from the outset as to what they must do to succeed. Success Criteria are clearly intended to activate a personal incentive for people to engage in the task before them. With the explicit goals of Student Learning Targets and Success Criteria, students have the “roadmap” of directions they need to become independent, self-monitoring learners.
HOW TO ALIGN SUCCESS CRITERIA TO STUDENT LEARNING TARGETS
Educators in all grades and content areas can easily implement Student Learning Targets and Aligned Success Criteria in their own classrooms and instructional programs! Working together, these two “timeless” practices help educators guide and strengthen instructional planning, design matching formative and summative assessments, and improve the quality of the assessment feedback they receive from all students.
When creating Success Criteria, the first task is to intentionally align the criteria to the Student Learning Target(s) as well as to the “unwrapped” Essential Standard(s) from which the Student Learning Targets are derived. This is to make certain that the concepts and skills of the Essential Standard(s) remain the primary focus for students to achieve.
Here are a few key guidelines to follow and self-check when writing both unit-specific and lesson-specific Success Criteria:
1. Practice writing Success Criteria using measurable, action verb phrases aligned to a single “unwrapped” Essential Standard and related Student Learning Target.
2. Use specific words, phrases, and key vocabulary from the “unwrapped” concepts and skills so students will be able to show by means of the Success Criteria, that they have learned those concepts and skills.
3. Include objective wording only, no subjective words open to different interpretations by different people (e.g., some, few, little, many, elaborate).
4. Repeat the same process to create Success Criteria for multiple “unwrapped” Essential Standards and related Student Learning Targets for a several-week unit of study.
5. After writing the Success Criteria that will be used across an entire unit of study, then break those down into Success Criteria for individual daily lessons.
To see numerous educator-created and A.I.-generated examples of Success Criteria Aligned to Students Learning Targets including tools, tips, and step-by-step instructions for effectively using them, here’s the Amazon link to Volume 1 of my book series: Integrating Teaching and Learning: "Timeless Essentials" for Creating Integrated Units of Study - Volume 1.
The following section headings of Chapter 6, “Align Success Criteria to Student Learning Targets”, pp. 107-132, in Volume 1 provide a preview of its contents:
Part 1
- Why Success Criteria?
- Success Criteria Defined and Described
- Clarity for Instruction, Assessment, and Feedback
- Success Criteria Research
- How To Write Success Criteria for Single “Unwrapped” Essential Standards
- Open-Ended Contexts in Lesson Success Criteria
- Success Criteria for Multiple “Unwrapped” Essential Standards
Part 2
- From Teacher-Worded to Student-Friendly Success Criteria
- Co-Creating Success Criteria with Students
- A Secondary School Experience in Co-Creating Success Criteria
- Practical Questions About Success Criteria
- Success Criteria for Students with Special Needs
- I.-Generated Success Criteria
- Keep The Focus on The Criteria, Not the A.I.-Generated Category Headings
- Guiding Questions for Creating Effective Success Criteria
- The “If-Then” Conclusion
ADDITIONAL CLARITY PATHWAY RESOURCES FOR STUDENT LEARNING TARGETS AND SUCCESS CRITERIA:
We are excited to announce that Larry’s second online video course, Student Learning Targets and Aligned Success Criteria, will be available in early 2026! For updates on this be sure you are signed up for our free monthly newsletter here.
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