Student Success in Higher Education Using Professional Learning Communities to Impact Student Learning Outcomes, Instruction, and Assessment Dorie Combs, EKU Ginni Fair, EKU

Session Outcomes Participants will be able to…  Describe your school/district/institution’s efforts to meet the requirements of Senate Bill 1 (Unbridled Learning).  Evaluate the success of your alignment processes and products.  Determine “next steps” for addressing the expectations of SB1.  Discuss the P-20 relationship and how it can support students’ success at all levels.

Unbridled Learning: Expectations in SB1 New content standards will be disseminated to all stakeholders. Fewer, more rigorous, clearer standards requires strong content knowledge and ability to deconstruct standards.

Unbridled Learning: Expectations in SB1, continued All teachers, administrators, and Higher Education Teacher Prep faculty will understand and be able to communicate what a balanced assessment system is and why it is important in Kentucky. SB 1 Requires PD to move all toward “Assessment Literacy” and an understanding of ‘balanced assessment.’

Unbridled Learning: Expectations in SB1, continued An ongoing statewide system of support for the learning of all teachers and administrators will be established. CPE and EPSB will coordinate training sessions for teacher preparation programs in the use of the revised standards. CPE also is responsible for determining compliance of postsecondary institutions in training faculty and pre-service teachers.

What are YOUR Goals? Write and share your major goal(s) or task for P-20 alignment.

EKU’s CARTE goals 1.Align key courses to KY Core Academic Standards: a. General Ed b. Teacher Ed content knowledge courses c. Teacher Ed pedagogy / methods 2.Provide Professional Development for faculty and leadership a. Professional Learning Communities b. The mandates of SB 1 c. Common Core / KCAS d. Highly effective teaching and learning e. Assessment 3. Improve retention and graduation 4. College Career Readiness at all levels

What are YOUR Goals? Write and share your major accomplishment(s) or task for P-20 alignment. What are YOUR Accomplishments?

Workshops and presentations that have provided instruction to over 100 faculty & academic leadership. 5 Professional Learning Communities in English, math, science, social science and teacher education have collaborated over the past 1 ½ years. Super PLC meets every bi-monthly. Executive PLC meets bi-weekly. 39 syllabi have been aligned to KCAS for E/LA, math, and literacy in science, social science and technical areas. 25 syllabi are in process to complete by August 1. Blackboard online community for PLCs Project Evaluation CARTE Accomplishments

College and Career Readiness, READING strand anchor standards

Student Learning Outcomes:  Describe the major components of reading comprehension from an interactive and schema theoretic point of view.  Demonstrate an understanding of reading as the process of constructing meaning through the interaction of the reader’s existing knowledge, the information suggested by the written language and the context of the reading situation.  Explore the role of the content area teacher in the literate lives of their students and clarify core concepts related to literacy and learning (i.e., content literacy, disciplinary literacy, adolescent literacy, new literacies, and reading to learn).  Explain the applications of informal and formal writing (i.e., information/explanatory, augmentative, and narrative) within a content area classroom. R.1

Alignment to KCAS: Factual: “Knowledge” – Do I, as the instructor, require students to identify and explain what is expected by the standard? Interpretive: “Concepts” – Do I, as the instructor, prompt students to apply the standard effectively in the context of the course/discipline?

Alignment to KCAS Procedural: “How-to” – Do I, as the instructor, expect students to apply the standard strategically and intentionally in the context of the course/discipline without prompting? Metacognitive: “Knowing what you know and how you know it” – Do I, as the instructor, require students to articulate how the standard affects learning for themselves and others?

Curriculum Project Update: Four Instructional Targets Procedural Interpretive Factual Metacognitive Students as learners? Students as teachers?

Student Learning Outcomes:  Describe the major components of reading comprehension from an interactive and schema theoretic point of view. (R.1, R.2, R.3, R.7, R.8, R.9, R.10)  Demonstrate an understanding of reading as the process of constructing meaning through the interaction of the reader’s existing knowledge, the information suggested by the written language and the context of the reading situation. (R.1, R.2, R.3, R.8, R.9, R.10)  Explore the role of the content area teacher in the literate lives of their students and clarify core concepts related to literacy and learning (i.e., content literacy, disciplinary literacy, adolescent literacy, new literacies, and reading to learn). (R.1, R.2, R.4, R.6, R.7, R.8, R.9, R.10) (R.5, R.10)  Explain the applications of informal and formal writing (i.e., information/explanatory, augmentative, and narrative) within a content area classroom. (R.4) (W.1, W.2, W.3)

Something to Ponder… “Sixty minutes of thinking of any kind is bound to lead to confusion and unhappiness.” --James Thurber

Something to Ponder… “Out of confusion comes understanding.” --Dorie Combs and others

“FIP-M” Charts: READINGR - 1R - 2R - 3R - 4R - 5R - 6R - 7R - 8R - 9R - 10 EMG 447 Using standard s as a learner F___ I 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9 P1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9 M__ F___ I1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9 P1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9 M___ F___ I1, 2, 5 P1, 2, 5 M___ F___ I 3, 4,12 P 3,4,12 M___ F___ I___ P___ M___ F___ I 3, 8 P3, 8 M___ F___ I 1, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13 P 1, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13 M___ F___ I 1, 2, 3, 8, 11, 12 P 1, 2, 3, 8, 11, 12 M___ F___ I 1, 2, 3, 8,12 P 1, 2, 3, 8,12 M___ F___ I___ P 1,2, 3, 8, 9 M___ EMG 447 Using standard s as a teacher F 5, 9, 10, 12, 14 I 5, 9, 10, 12, 14 P___ M___ F 5, 9, 10, 12, 14 I 5, 9, 10, 12, 14 P___ M___ F 5, 9, 10, 12, 14 I 5, 9, 10, 12, 14 P___ M___ F 6 I 6 P___ M___ F 3 I 3 P___ M___ F___ I___ P___ M___ F___ I___ P___ M___ F___ I___ P___ M___ F___ I___ P___ M___ F 3 I 3 P___ M___

What are YOUR Goals? Write and share ideas about evaluating your progress. How and What Would YOU Evaluate?

PLCs allow faculty time to collaborate. Faculty appreciate that their work is valued & they are compensated. Faculty are more likely to implement because they are directly involved in the alignment process. Alignment is complex! Embedded PLCs keep focus and support facilitators. Some resistance remains among faculty…cats are wandering. Need better instruction of FIP-M process for clarity / deeper understanding. Make the connections among: Outcomes - Assessment – Instruction What exactly is it we expect our students to be able to do? Need to maintain momentum and ensure fidelity Continued Professional Development for participants PD for new / adjunct faculty Science standards Evaluating CARTE’s progress

How do we make FIP-M more manageable? Analyzing Data Calibrating Student Learning Outcomes Design Assessment Create appropriate instructional activities Implement Assessment

How do we make FIP-M more manageable? Application to Classroom Consider depth of knowledge in instruction Calibrating Student Learning Outcomes Analyzing University Data Design assessment Implement assessment

How do we make Alignment more manageable: “AHA!” Moments Analyzing Data Calibrating Student Learning Outcomes Design Assessment Create appropriate instructional activities Implement Assessment We talked about university data that impact our decision-making, but that is only part of the data that should be analyzed. We made some assumptions about what faculty already understood about designing assessment. This is part of our “Phase 2” plan for our faculty. We started talking about effective instruction, using HETL as our guide. We assumed that faculty would be able to transfer their understanding about depth of knowledge from the FIP-M to instructional planning. In our “Phase 2,” we will be designing common assessments for aligned courses. This will provide the important data for classroom analysis.

Lessons Learned From FIP-M The more you know, the more you realize you don’t know. Faculty background knowledge (e.g., depth of knowledge, assessment literacy, etc.) impacted the success of the FIP-M chart (ZPD). Trying to think about the depth of instruction, when connected to depth of learning, is fruitless without attending to assessment. It is better to have FIP-Med and faltered than to have never FIP-Med at all. Faculty – on their own – are beginning to ask relevant and powerful questions about assessment and instruction.

Assessment to the front, please! Student Learner Outcomes EvaluationAssessment for learningAssessment of learning 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13 Text/ Professional Reading/Class or Online Activities  Reader Response Journal/Graphic Organizers  Discussion Activities  Structured pair/group work  Modeling  Clicker Response System  Homework Completion Grade 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 13 Field Work Reflections  Assignment reflections, narrative feedback  Self-assessment using patterns of reasoning symbols  Documentation log  Task Stream log submission 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 Lesson Plan  Models of both strong and weak exemplar work provided for whole and small group analysis  Self-assessment using scoring guide required prior to assignment submission for grading  Grades assessed using scoring guide 13, 14, 15, 16 Writing Tasks – (Research Paper for Writing Intensive sections)  Mini-lessons arranged to scaffold content knowledge with individual feedback with each lesson  Focused revision using models of strong and weak work provided  Thesis statement submitted for descriptive feedback; multiple revisions (re-drafting) accepted  Peer-review of drafts required by multiple sources (NOEL Studio, trusted peer, and instructor) using a feedback form (min. 3 required)  Engagement in self-reflection using scoring guide prior to final submission  Grades assessed on final draft using scoring guide

Ensure fidelity to syllabi and standards. Provide ongoing professional development and continue to support collaboration Enhance instruction and assessment across the university Develop classroom assessment tools that demonstrate learning Herd the cats! CARTE’s Next Steps

What are YOUR Goals? Write and share ideas about what your district/school/institution needs to do next. What are YOUR Next Steps?

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