1. Idaho Core Coaching Network
April Niemela
Idaho Core Coach, Region II

2. April Niemela Idaho Core Coaching Network
Co-Director of Idaho Core Coaching Network
Region II Idaho Core Coach (Literacy)
NIWP Summer Institute: 2002
Co-Director (2006-current)
Summer Institute Facilitator
Fifteen years in education: 7-12 English Teacher
LCSC: B.A. & Secondary Certificate
UI: M.Ed. Curriculum & Instruction
MSU: Ph.D. Ed Psych / Ed Tech (in progress)

3. Begin with the end in mind…
What if there was a cohesive, strategic, and sustainable method for rolling out deep learning of the Idaho Core, facilitating implementation of the Standards, and impacting student learning through high quality professional development for teachers, instructional coaches, curriculum teams, administrators, and support staff?

4. Strategic Plan: three keys to success
Strand 1: Core Teachers
Intensive professional development and support for Core Teachers in EQuIP rubric and Idaho Core
Strand 2: Admin
Administrative support & professional development in the EQuIP rubric and Idaho Core
Strand 3: Higher Ed
Support to universities & colleges / teacher prep programs; Offer training in EQuIP rubric.
Strand 1: Our teachers are the experts. They are the ones on the ground, in the trenches, doing the work. If we are going to build capacity, we are going to do that through empowering educators. Unfortunately, education has a long history of introducing “the next big thing” that fades away in a year or two. If we are going to effect change, we must be systematic and strategic – and we must create a sustainable program. At the same time, we must be locally responsive and working within the context of the school or district culture.
Strand 2: Administrators are vital to the process: they support Core Teacher work, the professional development they are offering in their school and/or district, and, especially important, they will recognize Core aligned teaching practices when they see it. At our first EQuIP Training for admin in Region II, 33 admin attended, representing 10 districts, plus IDLA.
Strand 3: Our teacher prep programs are working to be Core-aligned and providing our teacher candidates & new teachers with knowledge about the standards, the key shifts, those best practices best aligned w/ the core & multiple assessments. Because teachers, administrators, and schools across the state are being trained in the EQuIP rubric, we are offering this training to university faculty as well.

5. Statewide Core Teacher Program
Regions
Coaches
Teachers
Program
Six Regions
One coach / region
Region III: 3 coaches
Statewide: 260
Region: 40
F2F: Regional 8 pd days
Online: all teachers

6. EQuIP: Evaluating Quality Instructional Materials
The EQuIP Rubric is the unifying strand across all three keys: the teachers, the administrators, and the university teacher prep programs.
…the unifying strand.

7. About EQuIP
EQuIP (Educators Evaluating the Quality of Instructional Products) is an initiative of the American Diploma Project (ADP) Network designed to identify high-quality materials aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
The objectives are two-fold:
Increase the supply of high quality lessons and units aligned to the CCSS that are available to elementary, middle, and high school teachers as soon as possible; and,
Build the capacity of educators to evaluate and improve the quality of instructional materials for use in their classrooms and schools.
The ADP Network consists of 35 states, including Idaho. An initiative of ADP, EQuIP builds on a collaborative effort of education leaders from Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island that Achieve facilitated. The outcome of that effort was the development of the “Tri-State Rubrics” as wells as a quality review process designed to determine the quality and alignment of instructional lessons and units to the CCSS. Over 20 states have participated in the cross-state convenings, revisions, and refinings of the EQuIP rubric and review process since spring of 2012 – and the shift from “Tri-State Rubric” to “EQuIP” reflects the wider national participation, as well as the focus on the integral role of educators in this process.

8. EQuIP Offers Quality Review Rubrics for These Areas
Mathematics (K-12)
ELA/Literacy (3-12
ELA Literacy (K-2)
In Idaho, we’ll be doing a tiered rollout of these rubrics. This year we are focusing on the ELA/Literacy (3-12) rubric; Training on the K-2 rubric will be rolling out sometime in the next year. We don’t yet have a projected training date for the EQuIP math rubric.
Please note the website address. Here you can print extra copies of the rubrics and quality review response forms that we will be using throughout today’s session.
Download copies at:

9. EQuIP: the ELA / Literacy Rubric
The EQuIP rubric describes four dimensions of quality in lessons and units. These dimensions deeply examine the following areas:
Rigor of the Common Core
Key Shifts of the Common Core
Best Practices and Instructional Strategies
Varied Modes of Assessment

10. EQuIP and Idaho
The Idaho State Department of Education has adopted the EQuIP rubric to support implementation of the Idaho Core in the following ways:
Build the capacity of teachers, administrators, and support educators to gain a deeper understanding of the CCSS, key shifts, best practices, and assessments;
Guide the development of lessons and units;
Evaluate existing lessons and units to identify improvements needed to align with the CCSS; and,
Inform vendors of criteria that will be applied in the evaluation of proposals and final products.
Building on the success of that effort, over twenty states have participated in cross-state EQuIP convenings since the initiative launched in the spring of To date, Achieve has facilitated cross-state convenings for state teams to review materials, provide feedback to materials developed by peers, and exchange strategies and ideas for aligning lessons/units and focusing instruction on the CCSS. The Idaho State Department of Education’s EQuIP Team was formed in December 2012 and has been a part of these cross-state convenings and trainings since.

11. What does this mean for our pre-service teachers?
The power is in the process: We feel very strongly that experiencing the protocol is essential for deep understanding.
The rubric, in and of itself, is meaningless without the conversations, explorations, and productive struggling that go hand-in-hand with the EQuIP Training.

12. Open EQuIP Trainings for Faculty
EQuIP Training in Two Sessions (three hours each):
Part I: Introduction to the EQuIP Rubric and lesson (Sojourner Truth)
Part II: Exemplar Unit (Steve Jobs) & the EQuIP Rubric
All training materials (PowerPoints, copies, rubrics) will be made available via DropBox: you can use / repurpose as you see fit for your needs and the needs of your students.

13. Questions?

14. April Niemela, Idaho Core Coach idahocore2@sde.idaho.gov
Thank You!
April Niemela, Idaho Core Coach