Professional Development
Richard Elmore’s insight that “task predicts performance” reminds us that students can only demonstrate thinking, skill, and understanding when a task actually requires it. This idea becomes especially powerful when paired with formative assessment.
In KnowAtom classrooms, formative assessment does more than confirm whether a release of responsibility was successful. It often reveals something more surprising: students are frequently able, willing, and ready to take on more responsibility than the teacher initially anticipated. When teachers notice this and respond by releasing additional responsibility, learning and agency can accelerate rapidly.
This article explores how formative assessment surfaces that readiness, how teacher decisions to respond matter, and why responsibility often grows faster than expected when tasks are designed to demand genuine student thinking.
Task design determines what students can show us
Students cannot demonstrate agency, reasoning, or ownership if tasks do not require those moves. When a task asks students only to follow steps or confirm known answers, formative assessment will reliably show compliance, not thinking.
When a task requires students to:
- Decide what evidence matters
- Interpret data and models
- Weigh competing explanations
- Revise ideas in response to discussion
Students are positioned as sensemakers. The teacher has already made a trust decision through the task itself.
Agency is not something students prove to earn more freedom. Agency is something tasks demand, and formative assessment helps teachers see how students are responding to that demand.
What formative assessment is really revealing
Formative assessment does not measure whether students “deserve” responsibility. It reveals how students are currently using the responsibility the task requires.
This distinction matters because it changes how teachers interpret what they see. When students exceed expectations, the signal is not that the task went well and should remain fixed. It is often a cue that the task is now under-demanding.
Elmore’s framing pushes us to ask not, “Did students handle this responsibly?” but, “What does their performance suggest they are ready to do next?”
Agency emerges because tasks require it
In kindergarten, during Weather in Our World, a task that asks students to compare sun and shade across the playground already requires decision-making. Students must choose where to observe and what to notice. Formative assessment may reveal that students are independently comparing multiple surfaces, articulating patterns, and revisiting prior observations.
When that happens, the teacher is often seeing evidence that students are ready for more responsibility, such as deciding how to record their observations or proposing new locations to test. Responding by expanding the task accelerates both learning and confidence.
In grades 1–2, during Changing Seasons, students explaining daylight patterns using shared models are exercising agency because the task requires explanation, not recall. When formative assessment shows students questioning one another’s reasoning or referencing the model in new ways, the task may no longer be sufficiently demanding.
Teachers can respond by releasing additional responsibility, such as asking students to determine which parts of the model are most relevant or to generate questions the class should investigate next. The result is deeper engagement and faster conceptual growth.
In grades 3–5, during Plant and Animal Structures, a task that positions models as revisable often leads students to suggest changes independently. When formative assessment shows students revising based on peer critique rather than teacher feedback, it signals readiness for greater ownership, such as determining criteria for a strong model or facilitating parts of the discussion themselves.
In grades 6–8, during Inheriting Traits, students debating the effects of mutations may quickly demonstrate sophisticated use of evidence. When teachers respond by releasing more responsibility, such as allowing students to frame the next question or decide which data to examine, agency and rigor increase together.
Releasing responsibility makes student capacity visible
When students have primarily experienced highly scaffolded or constrained tasks, their capacity for sustained reasoning is not always immediately visible. Releasing responsibility creates conditions where that capacity can surface.
Formative assessment often makes this visible. Students sustain productive uncertainty, build on one another’s ideas, or apply concepts in unexpected ways. These moments are not accidental; they are predictable outcomes when tasks are designed to require real thinking.
Research on motivation and agency shows that when learners experience autonomy paired with clear purpose, engagement and persistence increase (Deci & Ryan, 2017). The acceleration comes not from removing structure, but from aligning task demands with students’ demonstrated capacity.
Releasing parts of tasks before entire tasks
Teachers rarely need to release everything at once. In practice, responsibility often grows in response to what formative assessment reveals.
In kindergarten, a teacher might initially model how to record observations while allowing students to decide what to observe. When formative assessment shows students making intentional, relevant choices, the teacher may release responsibility for deciding how to represent evidence.
In grades 3–5, during Water on Earth, teachers may structure the investigation setup but release responsibility for interpreting evaporation data. When students demonstrate causal reasoning, the teacher might release responsibility for designing follow-up tests or selecting variables to compare.
In grades 6–8, during Changing Environments, teachers may initially facilitate how students compare food web models. When formative assessment shows students independently weighing evidence, the teacher can redesign the task so students determine which evidence best supports competing claims.
Each adjustment changes what performance is possible. Each response to formative evidence creates momentum.
Acceleration happens when teachers respond, not just observe
Formative assessment alone does not accelerate learning. Acceleration occurs when teachers act on what formative assessment reveals.
When teachers respond to evidence of readiness by:
- Increasing cognitive demand
- Expanding decision-making authority
- Shifting responsibility for explanation or evaluation
Students experience agency as real and consequential. Learning moves faster because students are no longer waiting for permission to think.
This aligns with Project Zero research on cultures of thinking, which emphasizes that intellectual growth accelerates when students repeatedly experience their ideas shaping the work of the classroom (Ritchhart, Church, & Morrison, 2011).
Why this matters for long-term agency
When responsibility grows in response to demonstrated readiness, students develop a durable sense of agency. They learn that their thinking can expand the work itself, not just complete it.
Formative assessment helps teachers see when the ceiling needs to be raised.
Students cannot show us thinking a task does not require. But when tasks are designed well, students often show us they are ready for more sooner than we expect.
Releasing responsibility, then, is not a linear progression. It is a responsive cycle where task design, formative evidence, and teacher decisions interact to accelerate learning and agency together.
References
- Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2017). Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness. Guilford Press.
- Elmore, R. F. (2008). School reform from the inside out: Policy, practice, and performance. Harvard Education Press.
- Ritchhart, R. (2015). Creating cultures of thinking. Jossey-Bass.
- Ritchhart, R., Church, M., & Morrison, K. (2011). Making thinking visible. Jossey-Bass.