Developed in partnership with the Montgomery County Public Schools (MD), Forward is a K–5 instructional system of services, tools, and curriculum. Forward incorporates Montgomery County's best practices while balancing the needs of schools and districts nationwide. It fully supports Common Core teaching and learning and offers districts a multi-year partnership to assist with change management.

Forward emphasizes the development of critical and creative thinking and academic success skills throughout instruction. Forward services a broader solution by combining curriculum, assessment and professional development, and includes extensive on- site and virtual professional support and coaching. Everything is in one place. Forward ensures equity of access and accomplishment in schools with a broad range of socioeconomic and performance need.

Value Proposition: Superintendents/District Leads Positioning Statement Forward incorporates Montgomery County's best practices while balancing the needs of schools and districts nationwide. It fully supports Common Core teaching and learning and offers districts a multi-year partnership to assist with change management. Value/ChallengeProduct Attribute Desire to achieve the vision reflected in CCSS through systemic, meaningful, and impactful change. Need to transition district to 21 st Century digital infrastructure. Need to have a digital solution that supports a technology roadmap today and into the future. Forward was written specifically for the Common Core State Standards, and takes a balanced literacy approach. Forward facilitates the transition to digital by providing an integrated system of curriculum, assessment, and professional development, as well as the change of practices support needed to help students acquire college and career-ready behaviors and help teachers maximize technology. Forward is slated to migrate to Pearson Realize in June, 2015.

Value Proposition: Curriculum/Instructional Leads Positioning Statement Pearson Forward provides teachers with digital access to a K-5 curriculum focused on thinking and academic success skills that teach children to think critically and develop key habits of mind for college, career, and civic life. Forward provides access to hundreds of sample learning tasks, notes to support teaching, student lesson pages, animations, videos, and interactive games. These materials do not create a scripted program, but instead a set of resources from which teachers can build the most appropriate content for their classes. Value/ChallengeProduct Attribute Focus on the fundamental instructional shifts, resulting in a complete change to the way teachers teach and students learn. Provide comprehensive and effective support for teachers as they focus on improving student outcomes. Facilitate a culture of professional collaboration throughout teaching staff. Schools are provided a range of Professional Development, Field Support, and Implementation Plans for the first three years to ensure a successful transition to Forward, including: A systematic review of school practices, processes, and systems to help determine readiness and set priorities for implementation planning Onsite Professional Support Online Leadership Institute to assist administrators, instructional coaches, and teacher leaders with successful implementation of Forward Key Communication Resources for parents, teachers and school administrators, to support the roll out and implementation of Forward Throughout implementation, a dedicated Education Specialist will provide feedback on progress together with scaffolding as needed; during the course of a day, the Education Specialist will work with school leaders, teachers, and coaches. To co-plan lessons, co-facilitate PLCs, and observe teachers and provide feedback. Forward offers an online course that showcases the benefits of collaboration, and the skills each teacher should hone in to collaborate effectively.

Value Proposition: Teachers/Discipline Leads Positioning Statement Forward aims to prepare students for college and beyond by fostering the growth of critical and creative thinking and academic success through subject-matter integration Value/ChallengeProduct Attribute Math-Specific: Narrow and deepen the scope of how time and energy is spent in the math classroom so that I can focus deeply on only the concepts that are prioritized in the standards. ELA-Specific Helping students navigate and access complex texts. Forward brings coherence to teaching math both within and across grade levels by connecting practice standards with content. An emphasis on mathematical reasoning develops depth of understanding and college and career readiness. By encouraging students to think mathematically when solving problems, deep understandings and connections are made within mathematical relationships. Forward adheres to the CCSS approach to text complexity. Small-group reading includes carefully leveled selections that progress in terms of readability, topic complexity, and word count. Forward also helps teachers strongly focus on the CCSS for mathematics, deepening students’ conceptual understanding and procedural skills.

Three year implementation plan Consultation Implementation Planning Ongoing Support and Progress Monitoring Partnership for Sustainability

Role of the Education Specialist Provide technical support in an ongoing and collaborative basis to help get implementation practices underway and provide feedback on progress Nurture the development of cohesiveness among all schools implementing Forward During the course of a day, the Education Specialist will work with school leaders, teachers, and coaches. Every time an Education Specialist visits a school they can do the following: With Teachers; Co-plan- lessons, individually or in a group Model- Lessons or expectations of how to facilitate Observe- teachers Co-facilitate- teacher meetings and PD With Leaders; Strategize (problem solve implementation issues) Co-plan- meetings to be facilitated to staff or events to support implementation (eg- classroom observations) Co-facilitate- meetings to be facilitated to staff Model- leadership team meetings

Implementation Planning Conference Multi-day, collaborative planning process with the district and schools to measure readiness to implement Forward. The process results in the creation of a recommended Scope of Work and establishes priorities for implementation in year 1. District Meetings: Curriculum, technology and leadership School Visits: Visit each school to collaboratively conduct the Implementation Planning Assessment; each school receives an Implementation Planning Profile Identify general trends in School Dimensions to develop a set of priorities to guide the Professional Development delivered in Year 1 School Dimensions Teaching and Learning Organizational Staffing Leadership Professional Development Technology

Professional Development and Support Days; 20 days/school Professional Development 4 days prior to the start of the year; 2 days throughout school-year. Targeted to audience: Whole School Leaders Lead Teachers Teachers Professional Support 14 days throughout the school-year. Targeted to principals and teachers, providing job-embedded coaching and mentoring focused on: Teacher team and leadership support and guidance Curricular problem solving and support Instructional support Implementation observation and reporting Sample Scope of Work

Thinking and Academic Success Skills