Iowa Department of Education SEC – ELL April 21, 2008 Welcome

What if… You had deeper understanding of ongoing classroom instruction ? You could gain insight on the relationship of standards and instruction? You could access data on classroom instruction to guide professional development? You could know how well standards and assessment are aligned in your state ? You could use anonymous teacher data to start a powerful and reflective school discussion on instructional needs of teachers?

The Surveys of the Enacted Curriculum (SEC) provide teachers and others a comprehensive set of indicators to facilitate teacher reflection and curriculum planning. The primary purpose of the SEC data-set is to support conversations among teachers about instructional practice and content. Survey results offer teachers an opportunity to compare their own practice with results for their school, district, and state. Content analyses of various state standards and assessments when used in conjunction with teacher reports provide an easy and powerful means for comparing instructional content to standards and assessments. SEC data is never used for teacher evaluations. Individual teacher responses remain confidential and teacher ID information is never reported. SEC Overview

Collaborating Organizations

The teacher survey tool… Collects data on what content is taught and how it is taught. Produces reports indicating the degree of alignment between the taught (enacted) curriculum and state assessments or standards. Collects data on teacher beliefs, readiness to teach the content and readiness to instruct special groups of students. Provides a rich source of information to support teachers analysis of student learning challenges.

Fundamental Theorem of Learning Curriculum / Instruction / Assessment/ Learning Students learn what is taught Knowledge builds upon previous knowledge and experiences Meaningful learning objectives have value Aligning instruction to intended standards increases the chance of students learning the intended learning objectives Assessment should inform instruction - hence learning

Model for Instruction Using SEC to Inform Instruction Curriculum Standards Teacher Observation of Students Math Language Arts Science Instruction Skills Classroom Assessments Accompanying Instructional Materials StandardsAssessments State Level NRT and ELD Assessment

The SEC can help your schools… Align curriculum, instruction, and assessment including vertical alignment Improve instruction within and across grade levels, Determine professional development needs Focus teacher planning and development on instructional practice and its effects on student performance Focus coaching and mentoring activity around content and practice

Help teachers monitor changes in practice as a result of implementing new curricula. Help teachers and leaders determine areas of need when planning for professional development. Help teachers see areas for deepening content expertise and knowledge of how students learn that content. Help teachers identify gaps/redundancies in curriculum –weak materials to support instruction The SEC can …

Why is your state and district participating in the project? What do they hope to learn?

Iowa is one of ten states to participate in the SEC - ELL Grant, an enhanced assessment grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Education to CCSSO and a consortium of states to better understand and support the achievement of English Language Learners.

To help our ELL students, we need to better understand… What is the nature of the language that students need to meaningfully engage with and achieve academic content? Given the expected student outcome, how do we expect students to use (receive, produce) language to acquire/demonstrate understanding of the content? What are the language demands and complexity of our state content standards? What do our state content standards require in their language complexity and demands?

To help our ELL students, we need to better understand… The specific state standards our ELL students are being taught. The instructional strategies and activities being used to help ELL students learn the content. The degree to which regular education teachers are providing support for the language development of their ELL students. The degree to which the language proficiency skills aligned align to state ELA content standards?

Iowa is focusing on a subset of the grant questions: To what extent do English language learners have opportunity to learn the subject content specified in state academic standards that are assessed on state assessments? What instructional practices and strategies are used to teach academic English language skills within content areas or courses? What is the relationship between the extent of alignment of instruction and the Iowa English Language Proficiency Standards and Iowa content standards? What is the relationship between the extent of alignment of instruction and student assessment? What is the relationship between the Iowa English Language Proficiency Standards and the Iowa Core Curriculum in Literacy, Mathematics, and Science?

What can Iowa educators gain from participating in the Surveys?

School and district leaders can… Identify the extent to which instruction is aligned to state standards and assessments Understand what instructional activities and strategies are being used in classrooms Compare the strategies used in classrooms with ELL students to strategies used in classrooms without ELL students.

School and district leaders can… Identify the extent to which language proficiency standards are aligned to language proficiency assessments Identify alignment of language complexity and demand in content standards Identify priority needs for professional development

Teachers can… Identify the extent to which what they teach is aligned with state standards and assessments Better understand what they need to be teaching more or less See how their instructional practices compare to other teachers in their school or district Identify the language complexity and demand of the standards they teach Identify priority needs for professional development

What is your role in this project? What is the state’s role?

The state’s role … To participate in a ten state collaborative with CCSSO (Council for Chief State School Officers) and WCER (Wisconsin Center for Educational Research) to identify study questions, implement the survey in their respective states, and analyze the results. To identify which districts will participate in taking the survey, the target number of participants and content areas and grade levels that will be included in the project. To coordinate the coding of selected state content standards and the language proficiency standards for their state and send content and linguistic specialists to participate in the coding workshops.

Your role … Select which schools and teachers participate in taking the survey and the timeframe for completion Plan and lead an orientation presentation to the participating teachers Administer or monitor the administration of the survey Attend training on how to read and interpret the data results from the survey Facilitate a discussion with the participating teachers about their data results

Administering the Surveys: What is involved? John Smithson

Online Survey Administration Approximately minutes to complete –Teachers need to know their time is valued –Establishing a purpose/incentive is crucial –Prepare them for the types of questions to be asked –Materials to aid recall of prior year instruction is OK May be completed in multiple sittings Data is saved as each section is completed

School & Class Description Instructional Content Topics/Content Areas by Expectations for Performance Instructional Activities General Problem Solving Activities Pairs & Small Group Work Use of Hands-on Materials Use of Calculators/Computers & other Ed. Tech. Assessment Use Instructional Influences Instructional Readiness Teacher Opinions Professional Development Types Content Focus Active Learning Collegial Participation Coherence Time Span Teacher Characteristics Survey Sections

SEC Online Registration From the Home Page, click on “Registrar’

SEC Online Registration If not registered, select your group from the drop- down menu, then click on Register button. If registered, enter your username and password, then click on Login button. Select your stateThen: SEC-ELL Study

Registration Page SEC Online Registration ELD teacher: Subject selection depends on state interest and teacher practice.

SEC Online Registration ELL Program Coordinator Three types of surveys employed for SEC-ELL Study: ESL/ELD Teacher Survey Academic Teacher Survey ELL Program Description Survey Determination of which survey a given teacher receives will depend on answer to these questions asked during registration: I am responsible for the language development of ELLs (e.g., ESL certified). I am responsible for the delivery of academic content. (e.g., Academic/subject certification). I am responsible for both (e.g., Bilingual/Academic & ESL certified).. OR Selection of Position:

Final Step SEC Online Registration After submitting your personal information you will be prompted to enter ausername and password Enter a valid address. This will be important if you forget your username or password. Both username and Password are required to log back in. You will receive an verification of your username and password after registration is completed. Save for your records.

SEC Online Survey List

Survey Menu SEC Online Sections assigned for your group will be pre-checked. Sections you have completed will appear with green text. Sections you have not completed will appear in white text. Note Instructions for Selecting the Target Class!

For all questions, please respond only for the selected subject. If you teach more than one class in this subject, respond only for the first class that you teach each week for this subject. If that is a split class (i.e., the class contains more than one group for instruction, and each group is taught separately), respond for only one group. Instructions for Selecting the Target Class SEC Online

SEC ELD Target Class

Your data is saved each time you click on a Submit button.

You may log-off at any time by simply closing your browser.

Your progress will be noted on survey menu when you return.

Reporting Instructional Content Encourage use of lesson plans, grade books, text, etc. to recall Topic Coverage organized and reported by Content Area (e.g. ELA) Phonemic Awareness Phonics Vocabulary Text and print features Fluency Comprehension Critical Reasoning Author’s Craft Writing Process Elements of Presentation Writing applications Language Study Listening and Viewing Speaking and Presenting Forms of Text Genre Sources of Text Choice

Reporting Instructional Content Cognitive Demand reported for each topic covered (e.g. ELA) Memorize / Recall Perform Procedures Generate / Create Analyze / Investigate Evaluate / Integrate Avoid assigning same level of emphasis across categories of cognitive demand

Step 1: Report time spent on topics taught Reporting Instructional Content Review the list of topics presented for the current Content Area. For each topic in the list that is taught to the target class, select a radio button corresponding to 1,2, or 3 based on the following definitions: 0 = Not covered 1 = Less than 1 lesson 2 = 1-5 lessons 3 = more than 5 lessons

Step 2: Set expectations for students for each topic taught. Reporting Instructional Content For each topic selected from the previous screen set the cognitive expectations for students for each of 5 categories of cognitive demand, using the following definitions 0 = No emphasis 1 = Slight emphasis 2 = Moderate emphasis 3 = Sustained emphasis Focus on target class & reporting period.

SEC Response Metrics Instructional Activities None Little Some Moderate Considerable (Less than 10% of instr. Time) (10% - 25% of instr. Time) (26% - 50% of instr. Time) (More than 50% of instr. Time) Instructional Content None Slight Moderate Sustained (Less than 25% of instr. Time) (25% - 33% of instr. Time) (More than 33% of instr. Time)

Step 3: Repeat steps 1 & 2 for each content area presented. Reporting Instructional Content Step 1: Report time spent on topics. Step 2: Report expectations for students.

Editing Results Survey Completion Completed survey sections may be reviewed/edited until: 1)The survey completion window has closed 2)You review results for a given survey section To review/edit responses: Check the box on the Survey Menu Screen next to the section you want to review/edit. (Completed sections will be identified by green text.)

Online Report Generator Reviewing Results

SEC Online reports instructional content using tile charts. Drop-down menus allow you to select grade-specific and course-specific results for your school, district and state, in addition to reports of your own results.

SEC Online Contour Maps are also available. Drop-down menus allow you to select grade-specific and course-specific results for your school, district and state, in addition to reports of your own results.

–Aligning standards, assessments and curriculum –Improvement of instruction –Interpreting student assessment results –Needs assessment and program evaluation –Indicators system for monitoring progress Applications for K-12 Education:

What is Required of Teachers Sharing –Bring information about your instruction Time –Survey administered by trained leader –1-2 hours Planning –Schedule over year, meetings, etc. –Next Steps Source: Maine SEC project PPT, 2004

“Regardless of what a state policy requires or what a district curriculum spells out,” says Andrew C. Porter of Vanderbilt University, “the classroom teacher ultimately decides” what to teach. Education Week, October 8, 2003 Source: Maine SEC project PPT, 2004 The Ultimate Policy-maker

For additional information and resources, visit: SEC Collaborative ( SEC Collaborative ( (Council of Chief State School Officers) (Council of Chief State School Officers) SEC Online ( SEC Online ( (Wisconsin Center for Education Research) (Wisconsin Center for Education Research) Michael Sherry Michael Sherry Brett Moulding, Consultant CCSSO Brett Moulding, Consultant CCSSO