Domain 1: Student Achievement
Standard 1: Student Learning Results - Effective school leaders achieve results on the school’s student learning goals.
What is student achievement?
In the educational realm, there are various perspectives on the term student achievement. The University of New Mexico's College of Education states that student achievement is when students have learned something, met a predetermined goal, met a performance standard, or acquired a desired outcome. It is comparing a student’s product to a desired outcome. Subsequently, students are assessed to ensure they have met the targeted learning goal that reflects proficiency. Therefore, student achievement is measured based on students meeting a desired outcome or goal. What is the goal? Is passing a course a goal? Is meeting the course objectives the goal? Some may argue that student achievement can be evaluated on the 
percentage of students passing a course and mastering the course objectives. If this is the case, then student achievement should be measured by how well students perform in the classroom. There are considerations with this being the sole method for determining student achievement. Particularly, there would have to be a course description with learning objectives that every teacher must comply with to ensure that the grades are reliable. According to Marzano, learning targets convey to students the destination for the lesson - what to learn, how deeply to learn it, and exactly how to demonstrate the new learning.
By relying on students’ performance in the classroom to determine student achievement, educational leaders would have to negate the reality of grade inflation and the validity and reliability of classroom assessments. Next, they would have to determine what should be assessed in the classroom. What is an assessment? It is an iterative process that provides data on student learning, can be used to confirm and improve teaching and learning, produces evidence that students are learning the outcomes you intended, guides educators in making school improvements, and evaluates whether changes made improved or impacted student learning (University of Northern Iowa Office of Academic Assessment, 2006).
If school leaders are to use the data from classroom assessments to measure student achievement, then administrators have to know whether it is aligned to state or national standards. Therefore, students in Algebra I class are not arbitrarily earning grades but are being assessed based on standards. States create standards that reflect what students should learn. Course objectives should be based on state standards. Course assessments should provide data on whether students are meeting the course objectives. State assessments should produce evidence of students’ learning growth, students meeting or exceeding standards, and schools' effectiveness in attaining student achievement.
In a need to have a more rigorous set of standards that prepares students to be successful in college or the workforce, Florida’s education department decided to adopt the Florida Standards, based on the Common Core State Standards that are implemented accross several states. These standards were fully implemented in the 2014-2015 school year in the state of Florida.
