Assessment Checkpoints

These checkpoints are low-stakes. They help facilitators notice what learners can already explain, where they need support, and whether the next phase should stay simple, guided, or more open-ended.

Learners can answer by talking, drawing, sorting cards, writing a few notes, role-playing, or explaining their thinking to a partner. None of these checkpoints are meant to feel like a formal test.

Age-Banded Civic Learning Goals

Ages 8-9: Guided foundation

Learners should be able to:

• describe simple community roles, rules, and responsibilities with support
• identify decision-makers in familiar settings, such as a classroom, school, library, neighborhood, or town
• explain why a rule might exist using a familiar example
• notice when a civic message is trying to inform, persuade, invite, warn, or ask for help
• ask simple questions such as "Who made this?", "Who is affected?", and "What should we check?"

Ages 10-12: Core path

Learners should be able to:

• explain rights, responsibilities, rules, and laws in their own words
• compare two community decisions and identify possible tradeoffs
• identify claims, evidence, opinions, and missing perspectives in civic messages
• participate in respectful civic discussion using sentence frames and evidence
• check a civic claim with more than one source or example
• design a simple civic action project for a school, library, neighborhood, or community issue

Ages 11-13: Optional extension

Learners may also:

• analyze more complex issues involving local government, budgets, elections, public services, or community priorities
• compare civic messages from different groups or viewpoints
• evaluate sponsored, campaign, influencer, or advocacy messages for incentives and bias
• build a more detailed civic proposal with stakeholders, tradeoffs, constraints, and evidence
• reflect on how power, access, language, money, media, and technology can shape civic participation

Civic Checkpoint

When learners see a rule, announcement, claim, poster, news story, policy idea, or civic message, they can ask:

• Who created this rule, message, or announcement?
• Who is it for?
• What does it want people to think, feel, do, or understand?
• What claim is being made?
• What evidence, reasons, or examples are shown?
• Who benefits?
• Who is affected?
• Who might be missing or left out?
• How might money, power, popularity, identity, media, or special interests shape this message?
• What should I check before I trust, share, repeat, or act on this?

Use the same routine in observations, conferences, quick writes, project check-ins, and final reflections. For the full routine set, see Civic Checkpoint and Discussion Routines.

Phase Checkpoint: Foundations of Civic Life

What this checkpoint is for

This checkpoint helps facilitators see whether learners understand that communities use rules, roles, and shared responsibilities to solve problems and help people live together. It is not a test. Learners may answer by talking, drawing, sorting cards, writing short notes, or explaining their thinking to a partner.

Look-fors

Learners are ready to move on when they can:

• name rules from familiar settings and explain why they exist
• identify at least one decision-maker in a classroom, school, library, club, or community space
• describe a responsibility that helps a group work well
• explain how a rule can support safety, fairness, or order

Checkpoint questions

• Why do groups make rules?
• Who makes decisions in this setting?
• What happens when a group has no shared expectations?

Ready to move on

The learner can explain a familiar rule, who made it, and what problem it solves without relying only on memorized vocabulary.

Reteach moves

• Sort picture cards into home, school, library, club, and community rules.
• Compare one written rule with one unwritten expectation.
• Use a fictional classroom or playground problem and ask learners to design one fair rule.
• Revisit Week 1 and Week 2 examples with drawing or acting instead of writing.

Checkpoint snapshot

Skill	Beginning	Developing	Secure	Extending
Explains why rules exist	Needs help naming the purpose of a rule	Names one purpose with support	Explains how a rule supports safety, fairness, or order	Compares how one rule may solve more than one problem
Identifies decision-makers	Needs prompts to name who decides	Names a decision-maker in one setting	Names decision-makers in multiple familiar settings	Explains how decision-making changes across settings
Connects roles and responsibilities	Lists roles without explaining them	Describes a role or responsibility with support	Explains how roles and responsibilities help a group function	Explains what may happen when responsibilities are ignored

Phase Checkpoint: Rights, Responsibilities, Rules, and Fairness

What this checkpoint is for

This checkpoint helps facilitators see whether learners can distinguish between rules, rights, responsibilities, and laws, and whether they can talk about fairness and tradeoffs without treating every disagreement as a fight.

Look-fors

Learners are ready to move on when they can:

• explain the difference between a right, a responsibility, a rule, and a law
• describe one fairness question or tradeoff in a public decision
• explain why shared power and public procedures matter
• use a respectful sentence frame during disagreement or debate

Checkpoint questions

• What is the difference between a rule and a law?
• Why can a fair decision still involve tradeoffs?
• Why do communities divide power instead of giving all power to one person?

Ready to move on

The learner can explain one civic tradeoff and use civic vocabulary accurately enough to compare two examples.

Reteach moves

• Use a T-chart for rule versus law and right versus responsibility.
• Role-play a small disagreement and practice civil discussion sentence frames.
• Revisit a budget or compromise scenario with only two options at first.
• Use school or library examples before state or national examples.

Checkpoint snapshot

Skill	Beginning	Developing	Secure	Extending
Uses civic vocabulary	Mixes up rules, laws, rights, and responsibilities	Uses some terms correctly with support	Explains the terms in their own words	Applies the terms accurately in new situations
Notices fairness and tradeoffs	Treats one choice as obviously right	Names a tradeoff with support	Explains why different people may choose differently	Compares several tradeoffs and their effects on different groups
Participates in discussion	Needs reminders to listen and respond respectfully	Uses one sentence frame with support	Uses respectful discussion moves independently	Builds on another view and revises thinking with evidence

Phase Checkpoint: Civic Information and Source Checking

What this checkpoint is for

This checkpoint helps facilitators see whether learners can slow down, identify a civic claim, look for evidence, and decide what should be checked before trusting or sharing information. It is not a test. Learners may answer by talking, drawing, sorting cards, writing short notes, or explaining their thinking to a partner.

Look-fors

Learners are ready to move on when they can:

• identify who created a civic message
• separate a claim from evidence or opinion
• name at least one missing perspective or unanswered question
• compare the message with another source or example
• explain what they would check before sharing or acting

Checkpoint questions

• What claim is this message making?
• What evidence is shown?
• What is missing or worth checking?

Ready to move on

The learner can use the Civic Checkpoint to explain why a message feels trustworthy, incomplete, or still worth checking.

Reteach moves

• Use two fictional community posters side by side and underline the claims.
• Sort cards into fact, opinion, feeling, and question.
• Give learners sentence frames for asking what is missing.
• Model checking a claim with one additional source.

Checkpoint snapshot

Skill	Beginning	Developing	Secure	Extending
Identifies the civic message	Needs help naming the message or issue	Names the message with support	Clearly names the message and audience	Explains how audience affects the message
Uses evidence	Gives an opinion without evidence	Points to one clue or reason	Uses relevant evidence from the example	Compares evidence across examples
Checks before trusting	Trusts or rejects quickly	Names one thing to check with support	Explains what should be checked and why	Compares multiple sources or perspectives

Phase Checkpoint: Civic Participation and Community Decision-Making

What this checkpoint is for

This checkpoint helps facilitators see whether learners can connect civic participation to real community decisions, identify appropriate audiences, and discuss disagreement respectfully.

Look-fors

Learners are ready to move on when they can:

• identify at least two ways people participate in community decision-making
• explain who is responsible for a local issue or service
• use respectful discussion moves when comparing solutions
• describe how a meeting, letter, petition, or public comment could fit a specific issue

Checkpoint questions

• Who could make or influence this decision?
• What is one respectful way to speak up about this issue?
• Who else might be affected or have a different view?

Ready to move on

The learner can connect a real or fictional community problem to an audience, a participation method, and at least one tradeoff.

Reteach moves

• Match issue cards to likely decision-makers.
• Practice one short public comment or letter using a template.
• Compare two meeting agendas and identify which item matters to a learner's example.
• Use a school, library, park, transit, or apartment-building example before a citywide issue.

Checkpoint snapshot

Skill	Beginning	Developing	Secure	Extending
Connects issue to decision-maker	Cannot yet identify who is responsible	Names a possible decision-maker with support	Identifies a realistic decision-maker or institution	Explains how more than one group may share responsibility
Chooses participation method	Suggests action without matching it to the issue	Chooses a possible action with support	Matches a realistic civic action to the issue	Compares several participation options and their strengths
Uses respectful civic reasoning	Reacts without reasons or listening	Gives a reason with prompting	Gives reasons, listens, and asks clarifying questions	Weighs evidence, tradeoffs, and perspectives in discussion

Phase Checkpoint: Civic Action Project

What this checkpoint is for

This checkpoint helps facilitators see whether learners can carry a community issue from observation to research, proposal, presentation, and reflection. It is a project checkpoint, not a high-stakes performance task.

Look-fors

Learners are ready to move on when they can:

• describe a clear issue, need, rule, decision, or community problem
• explain who is affected and who the audience is
• support claims with evidence, examples, or sources
• mention more than one perspective, tradeoff, or limitation
• present or revise a plan respectfully and honestly

Checkpoint questions

• What is the problem, and who is affected?
• What evidence supports your proposal?
• What tradeoff, concern, or missing perspective should you still think about?

Ready to move on

The learner can present a realistic civic action idea that is honest about what they know, what they still need to check, and what audience they are trying to reach.

Reteach moves

• Shrink the project to a more specific problem, setting, or audience.
• Highlight claims in one color and evidence in another.
• Practice answering one audience question with a sentence frame.
• Use the Honest Civic Action Project Checklist before revising.

Checkpoint snapshot

Skill	Beginning	Developing	Secure	Extending
Defines the issue and audience	Topic is broad or unclear	Names an issue with support	Clearly defines the issue and intended audience	Explains why the audience and setting matter
Supports claims with evidence	Relies mostly on opinion	Uses one example or source with support	Uses relevant evidence, examples, or sources	Weighs evidence from multiple sources or perspectives
Revises and reflects	Resists revision or cannot explain next steps	Revises when prompted	Revises respectfully and explains what changed	Reflects on tradeoffs, limits, and future action steps

Related Pages

• Learning Outcomes
• Civic Checkpoint and Discussion Routines
• Learner Self-Assessment
• Assessment Framework