How to leverage the Ela content leader modules Rebecca Stephenson – Director of Assessment, Accountability, PD, and IT Alisa Brown – Professional Development Coach Pointe Coupee Parish Public Schools

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Alisa brown District Professional Development Coach Current Cohort of ELA Content Leaders

Rebecca Stephenson Director of Assessment, Accountability, Professional Development, & IT 2017-2018 - Participated in Year 1 ELA Content Leader 2018-2019 - Redelivered district-wide 2019-2020 – Leveraging in PLCs

Our journey I came in 2016, the district was a D. 2018 Guidebooks implemented for a full year. Overall, we saw growth, but not like we expected. I knew the research, what was going on? What were we doing wrong?

We knew the research One study found that switching curriculum to boost achievement was, on average, nearly 40 times more cost-effective than reducing class size to bolster student outcomes. This is in part due to curriculum’s power to affect meaningful student growth, rivaling even the impact that teacher effectiveness has on student performance.  - LearnZillion, Nov. 2018 “The single most important initiative a school or district can engage in to raise student achievement is a guaranteed and viable curriculum” Marzano, 2003

SUPPORT So what happened? We were not giving our teachers the support that they needed. Nor did we give the principals what they needed. I was sitting the Content Leader Training thinking, “How can get this PD back to all teachers in my district?”

2019 Preliminary results 63% to 85% Basic and Above 39% to 49% Mastery and Above AI: 61.9 to 82.5 63% to 85% Basic and Above 39% to 49% Mastery and Above Increase of 20.6!

Our Plan 2018-2019 So what did we do to get here?

How to do it Get your Leaders on Board Make a Schedule Research on Shifts – CLM1 Annotate Guidebook Lesson Give Walk-Through Expecations Make a Schedule Train your Teachers Support your Teachers in PLCs

1. Educate your leaders

Why? Here are five essential insights supported by reading research that educators should know—but all too often don’t:  Grouping students by reading level is poorly supported by research, yet pervasive. For example, 9 out of 10 U.S. 15-year-olds attend schools that use the practice. Many teachers overspend instructional time on “skills and strategies” instruction, an emphasis that offers diminishing returns for student learning, according to a Learning First and the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy report this year.

Why? Cont… Students’ background knowledge is essential to reading comprehension. Curricula should help students build content knowledge in history and science, in order to empower reading success. Daily, systematic phonics instruction in early grades is recommended by the National Institute for Literacy, based on extensive evidence from the National Reading Panel. Proven strategies for getting all kids—including English-language learners, students with IEPs, and struggling readers—working with grade- level texts must be employed to ensure equitable literacy work. “We Have a National Reading Crisis” (Education Week, June 2019)

Experiencing the shifts

Annotate a Guidebook Lesson Compare to the COMPASS Rubric

Walk-through expectations What should they be looking for? Create in Google Forms

2. Make your schedule

TIPS: Be creative with funding Utilize built-in PD dates Leave at least 6 weeks betweek Modules 3 to 4 and 5 to 6 Give an overview day to ALL new teachers before beginning Module 1!

3. Train your teachers

Our PD then vs. now 2017-2018 Initial training on how to navigate LearnZillion Collaborations focused on assessment guides, rubrics, and planning Individualized walk-throughs and feedback 2018-2019 Engaged in ALL 6 modules Dug deep into the shifts and research Understood the backwards design of the Guidebooks Unpacked unit assessments Collaborated with peers TEAMBUILDING

4. Support your teachers Through PLCs We noticed that as the teachers were engaging in amazing learning with each other, unpacking their units, looking at student work in a new way… there wasn’t any follow through at the school level. PLCs were still compliance, looking at unreated data, etc. We needed to do something to support our work.

https://tinyurl.com/PCPSBContentLeader Couldn’t do it all ourselves… partnered with a vendor (SPDG Funds) Leaders engaged in learning thorugh walk-throughs and PLCs Activity Access “Unpacking the Cold Read” through hard copy or website Discuss: What do you notice and what do you wonder about how this can be used? https://tinyurl.com/PCPSBContentLeader