Knowledge of Students
Knowledge becomes professionally useful when it is current, respectfully gathered, and connected to a specific instructional choice—not when it hardens into a label.
The official Element
Element 1B: Teachers elicit and solicit knowledge of each student’s assets and needs, including cognitive, cultural and linguistic, social–emotional, and physical and developmental capacities, in the service of increasing active engagement in learning.
What this Element asks of an educator
Knowledge becomes professionally useful when it is current, respectfully gathered, and connected to a specific instructional choice—not when it hardens into a label.
Read together, these indicators ask educators to make knowledge of students visible in planning, teaching, student experience, and follow-through. The aim is not to display every indicator in every lesson, but to understand the full range of the Element and select a focused practice to develop with evidence.
Official Example Indicators—and an SDLA reading
The Commission presents Example Indicators as illustrations rather than a comprehensive or required checklist. Their sequence shows the breadth of this Element and gives teachers, mentors, and coaches a shared language for focused development.
Affirm each student’s cultural
Official indicator: Affirm each student’s cultural, linguistic, and racial identities by actively seeking knowledge and approaches for creating culturally and linguistically responsive and sustaining learning opportunities.
Create learning opportunities that draw on students’ interests
Official indicator: Create learning opportunities that draw on students’ interests, prior experiences, culture, and linguistic assets to support active engagement for each learner.
Integrate student voice in planning and sustaining classroom structures…
Official indicator: Integrate student voice in planning and sustaining classroom structures and practices by including student participation and encouraging students to provide feedback.
Provide learning experiences for language acquisition
Official indicator: Provide learning experiences for language acquisition, using evidence-based approaches that leverage students’ linguistic assets and address the diverse needs of all students.
Respond to and implement support for students’ social–emotional well-being…
Official indicator: Respond to and implement support for students’ social–emotional well-being and mental health needs, including those of students who have experienced trauma, homelessness or other situations.
Developing the practice
Learn responsibly
Gather information for a clear instructional purpose, protect privacy, and let students and families revise adult assumptions.
Turn knowledge into design
Connect learner assets and needs with an observable choice about goals, access, participation, materials, or feedback.
Study experience and outcomes
Notice who participates, persists, receives challenge and support, and succeeds; adjust the conditions while learning continues.
Evidence worth noticing
- a planning annotation connecting learner knowledge with an instructional decision
- student or family information gathered for a clear purpose and used respectfully
- participation and student-work patterns before and after an adjustment
- student explanations of relevance, challenge, belonging, access, or choice
Evidence caution: No single artifact proves accomplished practice. Interpret evidence in context, center student experience and learning, use multiple sources, and avoid collecting identifiable information that is not necessary.
A pinch of data integration and digital learning
Digital systems can organize information, improve access, coordinate work, or shorten a feedback loop. They are valuable only when the educator can explain the human decision they support, the information they require, and how privacy, accessibility, equity, and professional responsibility are protected.
Special education IEP systems
See the district systems that carry formal plans and authorized supports teachers must understand and implement.
Questions for reflection and coaching
- Where is knowledge of students already visible in my practice, and what evidence supports that judgment?
- Which students experience the current approach differently from the way I intend?
- Which official indicator names the most important next area for growth?
- What is one affordable, manageable adjustment I can test, and what will I look for afterward?
- Whose perspective—student, family, colleague, specialist, or community partner—would improve the next decision?
Continuum of Teaching Practice: Element 1B
This Element-specific continuum describes how practice develops from Emerging through Innovating. Compare the teacher-practice descriptions with the related evidence in students’ experience, then identify a current strength and a purposeful next step.
How to understand and use this continuum for professional growth
- Begin at Emerging and read across. Practices described at earlier levels carry forward even when they are not repeated.
- Use evidence gathered over time to identify the description that most closely reflects current practice.
- A teacher may be at different levels in different Elements, regardless of years in the profession.
- Changes in students, content, grade level, school, or responsibilities may appropriately shift practice in either direction.
- Use the continuum for reflection and goal setting, not as a stand-alone observation or evaluation instrument.
Select a level to expand it. Select it again to return to the full comparison.
Teacher practice
The teacher learns about students’ assets and needs through documents provided by the school and district assessments.
Evidence in student experience
Students occasionally participate in classroom activities that reflect aspects of their identities.
Teacher practice
The teacher elicits information from students about their interests and identities.
The teacher recognizes each student’s cultural, linguistic, and social-emotional assets and needs.
The teacher solicits additional information from educational partners, including caregivers and service providers.
Evidence in student experience
Students share details about their unique backgrounds, cultures, experiences, and talents.
Students have opportunities to express their interests, hobbies, passions, and motivations.
Teacher practice
The teacher regularly collects formal and informal student data to create learning opportunities that draw on students’ interests, experiences, culture, and linguistic assets to support active engagement for every student.
Evidence in student experience
Students experience an asset-based approach where the teacher identifies and builds upon their unique talents.
Students engage in learning opportunities based on their specific needs.
Teacher practice
The teacher consistently integrates student voice, feedback, and cultural assets into all aspects of learning and uses evidence-based engagement strategies that leverage students’ assets and addresses their diverse needs.
Evidence in student experience
Students actively participate in learning, using cultural and linguistic strengths to enhance their educational experience.
Students actively elicit and respond to feedback.
Teacher practice
The teacher designs engagement methods that support culturally and linguistically sustaining teaching based on the comprehensive knowledge of every student.
The teacher effectively addresses complex social-emotional needs through innovative practices.
Evidence in student experience
Students are resilient and take ownership of learning, using their identities as springboards for exploring and applying knowledge in meaningful ways.
Source and attribution: Continuum language reproduced from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, Continuum of Teaching Practice (2025), aligned with the California Standards for the Teaching Profession (2024). This publication by the Commission on Teacher Credentialing is not copyright. It may be reproduced in the public interest, but proper attribution is requested.