Edison School District Staff Development

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On September 16th and 17th, 2008, Edison School District faculty members attended two evenings of professional development. During this time, we created grade level/content area Action Plans. These plans were the result of a focused student data collection and analyzing process. The “Decision Making for Results” seminar represents Tier I of five staff development opportunities:

Tier II: Identifying Essential Standards

Tier III: Data Teams (March 17th and 18th, 2009)

Tier IV: Effective Grading Practices (April 17th, 2009)

Tier V: Common Formative assessments (Summer 2009)

View our Decision Making For Results summary video (click HERE).

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On November 17th and 18th, 2008, our faculty chose the most essential standards and were able to communicate why they matter the most. Once grade levels determined their Power Standards in English Language/Arts,  mathematics, social studies and science, they aligned them vertically with all other grade levels and content areas. This proved to be an important process as it helped us answer these guiding questions:

1. Which standards are critical for our students to know and understand?
   

2. Which standards - according to our state assessment data - do we especially need to emphasize?
   

3. Which standards represent concepts and skills that endure?
   

Power Standards do not relieve teachers of the responsibility for teaching all standards and indicators, but they do identify which standards are critical for student success and which ones can be given less emphasis. One of our goals is to teach the “nice to know” standards within the context of the essentials. Additionally, we believe that depth of a lesser number of key concepts and skills is preferable to “covering” superficially every concept in the book.

To view our grade level/content area Power Standards, please click HERE.

On March 17th and 18th, 2009, Edison School District staff participated in the formal Data Teams training process. This Data Teams seminar demonstrated the “how to” implementation of decision making at the classroom practitioner level. Data Teams focus on building links between specific teaching and leadership practices and student achievement. The structure of the meetings provide for effective collaboration that builds understanding of the antecedents of excellence, or those specific actions that lead to current results. It is not an exercise in number crunching or evaluating teachers. The spirit of the process in one of continuous improvement and a no-fault reflection on educational practice.

Edison School District teachers were shown the five-step Data Teams process:

1. 1.Collect and chart data
   

2. 2.Analyze strengths and obstacles
   

3. 3.Establish goals: set, review, revise
   

4. 4.Select instructional strategies
   

5. 5.Determine results indicators
   

We also learned how to:

1. form our Data Teams
   

2. collaborate on gathering data that will immediately address urgent areas of student achievement
   

3. set improvement goals and how to collect and analyze student achievement to monitor those goals
   

4. identify the function and purpose of an effective Data Team in relation to school and district student achievement goals
   

5. discuss the important distinction between effect data and cause data
   

                    Practices

Edison School District

On August 18th and 19th, 2009, Edison School District certificated staff received training in creating and formatting Common Formative Assessments (CFAs). CFAs provide us with a current data set to use during our Data Team meetings. Our new regular and frequent assessment system has enabled teachers to discuss the most urgent learning needs of our students. Collaboratively designed and analyzed, CFAs permit teachers to learn more about cause data (adult actions) and effect data (student results). Once we have more alignment between these two data sets, we expect to see greater gains in student achievement.

Why are Common Formative Assessments so effective?

1. •Regular and timely feedback regarding student attainment of most critical standards in order to inform and differentiate instruction
   

2. •Multiple-measure assessments that allow students to demonstrate their understanding in a variety of formats
   

3. •Ongoing collaboration opportunities for teachers
   

4. •Consistent expectations within a grade level, course, and department regarding standards, instruction, and assessment priorities
   

5. •Agreed-upon criteria for proficiency to be met within each individual classroom, grade level, school, and district
   

6. •Deliberate alignment of classroom, school, district assessments to better prepare students for success on state assessments
   

7. •Results provide predictive value as to how students are likely to do on each succeeding assessment in time to make instructional modifications

On Friday, April 17th , 2009, Edison School District staff participated in learning more about the most effective grading practices. The presentation focused on meeting these six objectives:

1. Create a compelling case for improving grading practices

2. Learn the elements of effective grading practices

3. Analyze common grading systems

4. Experiment with alternative grading practices and policies

5. Create improved feedback strategies

6. 6.Develop an implementation plan
   

Teachers were given an opportunity to calculate grades using grading practices that produced several different results for the same student and work.

We learned that the student work did not change. The only change was the grading policies of the teacher.

Also discussed was the criteria for effective feedback as it pertains to grades:

1. Accurate
   

2. Timely
   

3. Fair
   

4. Understandable
   

5. Effective
   

We looked at the most toxic grading practices and alternatives to those practices. Our next steps involve a two year transition to standards based report cards (K-8) with an emphasis on improved feedback and higher student achievement.