PASL Task 1 asks you to prove you can do the core job of a school leader: find a real problem on your campus, back it with data, build and communicate a plan, implement it, and show results. Your submission is written commentary responding to guiding prompts across four steps, plus seven artifact pages that prove your story is real. Here is exactly how to build it.
What does PASL Task 1 require?
Task 1, Problem Solving in the Field, requires written commentary (up to the stated character limits per textbox) and artifacts across four steps: identifying a problem, researching and developing a plan, implementing the plan, and reflecting. Every prompt must be answered and every major claim should point at an artifact.
The artifact set:
| Artifact | Where it comes from on your campus |
|---|---|
| One page of longitudinal data | Three years of assessment results, campus vs district vs state |
| One page of research materials | Your references, a conference registration, book pages |
| Page(s) of the plan | Your intervention or PD plan |
| One page of timeline and steps | The plan's timeline |
| One page of stakeholder communication | An email, newsletter, or agenda |
| One page of adjustments or results | A mid-year review or meeting notes |
| One page of student work | Baseline vs post-intervention samples |
How do I pick a Task 1 problem?
Pick a problem that is significant, data-visible, and already on your plate. The strongest choices show a multi-year gap between your campus and the district and state on a state assessment, because that pattern is easy to prove with one clean data page. A problem you or your team are already working on is ideal: the PASL rewards documenting real work, not inventing a project.
Choose it in collaboration with your supervising administrator, and confirm you can pull three years of comparable data before you commit.
What does a scoring Task 1 answer sound like?
The frame is a chain: problem, evidence, plan, result. Open by naming the problem plainly and tying it to instruction and learning: "The significant problem selected is the persistently low performance of students on X, particularly following Y change." Then quantify: campus below district and state across all performance levels, with the gap stated by year. Then anticipate results with a specific, realistic target and describe what changes for teachers and for students if the problem is addressed.
Two habits separate strong submissions. First, every claim references an artifact by name, so the rater never has to hunt. Second, impact statements always land on students: not "teachers attended PD" but "students' constructed responses grew from restating the question to citing document evidence."
How do I show results if my scores aren't back yet?
Use leading indicators. Walkthrough trend data, growth between baseline and post-intervention student work samples, formative assessment movement, and a documented mid-course adjustment all count as results. A one-page implementation review showing what the data said in September versus January, what worked, and what you adjusted is one of the strongest artifacts in the entire submission because it proves you monitor, not just launch.
Task 1 mistakes that cost points
Naming your school, district, or city anywhere, which is an automatic problem. Citing one year of data when the prompt says longitudinal. Describing a plan with no timeline. Skipping the communication artifact because "everyone already knew." And writing reflection as a victory lap instead of an honest analysis of what you would change.
Task 1 FAQ
Can Task 1 share a project with Tasks 2 and 3? Yes, and it should. One data-backed campus project generates artifacts for all three tasks. The full one-project strategy is in the PASL 368 Complete Guide.
How long should the written commentary be? Use the space to answer every prompt with evidence, not to fill the character limit. Complete and specific beats long.
Does the problem have to be academic? Academic problems are easiest to evidence with longitudinal data, but attendance or culture problems work if you can show three years of numbers and a link to instruction and learning.
Building your submission? The PASL Playbook includes the Task 1 planner, artifact checklist, writing frames, and the 16-week timeline that runs all three tasks off one project. Start with the free 268 Cheat Sheet.
Free: The PASL Starter Kit
Every artifact for all three tasks on one page, organized by the one-project strategy, with the three rules that protect your submission.
Send me the starter kit