01
Standards
Choose a meaningful focus
Begin with a student need, then select a relevant standard or element. Use it to clarify the part of your practice you want to examine.
What do my students need, and which standard helps me focus?
Action Growth Cycle™
The Action Growth Cycle™ in Practice
Connect a teaching standard to an intentional action, examine the evidence, and use what you learn to strengthen students’ experiences.
See one cycle in actionStart with a student need
Developed by Tyrone Brown, the Action Growth Cycle™ connects standards with everyday professional learning. Choose a focused question, try a manageable action, and let the evidence guide your next step.
- Standards
- Practice
- Evidence
- Reflection
- Student impact
Keep the cycle moving: what you learn about student impact informs your next focus.
02
Practice
Take an intentional action
Choose one manageable action connected to your focus. Be clear about what you will do, why you are trying it, and what you hope students will experience.
What will I do differently, and why might it help?
03
Evidence
Look closely at what happens
Collect information about your practice and students’ experiences. Student work, observations, feedback, and participation patterns can help you examine what happened.
What evidence will help me understand the effect of my action?
04
Reflection
Make sense of the evidence
Compare what you hoped would happen with what you observed. Consider who benefited, who still needs support, and what other explanations might account for the results.
What am I learning about my practice and my students?
05
Student impact
Use what you learn to move forward
Consider changes in learning, engagement, confidence, access, or independence. Impact may take time to emerge. Use the evidence to decide what to continue, adjust, or investigate next.
What changed for students, and what should I try next?
An illustrative example
Helping more students explain their thinking
A teacher notices that the same few students answer questions while others rarely share. Here is one way to investigate that need through the cycle.
1. Standards
Select a focus within CSTP 1: Engaging and Supporting All Students in Learning. Ask how to give more students a meaningful opportunity to participate.
2. Practice
Try a brief write, partner discussion, and invitation to share. Offer a sentence starter so students have time and support to prepare an explanation.
3. Evidence
Compare participation before and during the trial. Review short written responses and ask students which supports helped them explain their thinking.
4. Reflection
Examine whether participation broadened and explanations became clearer. Look for students who still needed support and consider what to adjust.
5. Student impact
If the evidence suggests more students can explain their thinking, keep and refine the support. If results are mixed, adjust the approach and collect further evidence.
This example illustrates a process, not a guaranteed result. Participation is one source of evidence; examine the quality of student thinking as well.
Three questions to carry with you
- What student need am I trying to understand or address?
- What evidence would help me see whether my practice is making a difference?
- What will I continue, change, or investigate based on what I learn?
Use the cycle for reflection, coaching, and inquiry. It is a professional-growth framework, not an evaluation score or a requirement to show immediate gains.
Put the cycle to work with a handbook
The handbooks bring the cycle to specific teaching standards through detailed descriptions of practice, evidence examples, coaching questions, and structured reflection tools.