Common Core Transition Guides for School-Level Leaders & Teachers

The Aspen Institute, together with Education First, Insight Education Group, Student Achievement Partners and Targeted Leadership Consulting, have released "Implementation of the CCSS: A Transition Guide for School-Level Leaders." 

The guide provides specific steps and tools for successful transition to the new standards at the school level.

• High-Impact Actions: Critical moves that the leadership team and other stakeholders should take to implement the indicator in their school.
• Measures: Examples of ways to collect and analyze data to assess the implementation of each indicator.
• Tools: Links to supporting materials that will help the leadership team and other stakeholders address the indicator. 

The guide also includes vignettes with discussion questions to encourage further exploration of the indicators among leadership team members and other school community members.



In addition, The Aspen Institute also released several new modules in its Tools for Teachers series, including:

• Implementing the CCSS: The Role of ILTs and LASW
• Close Reading and Text-Dependent Questions
• Designing Close Reading Instruction
• Engaging in Academic Writing
• Text Complexity and the CCSS

Send us a note if there is anything we can do to support you in your Common Core implementation initiatives.
 


@InsightEdGroup & @drmichaelmoody

Implementing the Common Core: Determine your curriculum

Last week, Insight's Dr. Michael Moody and Syracuse Superintendent Sharon Contreras led a conversation featured in SmartBlog on Education about key lessons for school leaders to consider in implementing the Common Core.

Here's another lesson to consider.

Lesson: Determine the curriculum you will use.

Dr. Moody: A real challenge is determining if you’ll “make or buy” CCSS-Aligned curriculum.

While there is no right answer, it is important that there is an answer.  Implementing the Common Core is not as simple as identifying a “Common Core curriculum” and then training teachers to use it. 

The new standards require real changes in the way we teach, what we teach and even how we think about teaching. Embracing this change (and putting the necessary resources behind it) is critical.  

Superintendent Contreras: In Syracuse City School District, teachers are developing curricular units, lesson plans and assessments aligned to the CCSS. There is no better way for teachers to learn about or to become vested in the standards.

What do you think? Have more lessons you've learned? Share in the comments section below.

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@insighteducationgroup, @drmichaelmoody, @SyracuseSchools and @SContrerasSCSD

Implementing the Common Core: Set goals and monitor progress - frequently

Image courtesy of
syracusecityschools.com

We're excited to have a guest blog post today on SmartBlog on Education: Implementing the Common Core: 4 Lessons Learned for School and District Leaders. Check out the conversation between Superintendent Sharon Contreras from Syracuse City School District (NY) and our very own, Dr. Michael Moody, CEO of Insight Education Group. Let us know how the lessons resonate in your district or state.

In addition to the four lessons in SmartBlog, we're going to going to feature additional lessons here over the next few weeks. Here's one for today.

Set goals and monitor progress - frequently. 

Dr. Moody: Be clear with educators about expectations during each step of the process, assess for effectiveness, and address gaps immediately. Be careful not to wait too long to see what is sticking and what needs more attention. After all, the worst time to find about the success of your implementation is when you get the results of the new assessments. 

Superintendent Contreras: Yes, but I would add that you need to make sure you get enough feedback to actually address the gaps.  When you set up the process for getting feedback, you need to put forth effort to not only get good information, but then to use to the information to support students, teachers and building leaders.   

One of the problems we experienced is that we didn’t develop a robust enough feedback system.  We sent out online surveys, for example, and we didn’t hear from very many teachers.  Months went by and we thought things were going relatively smoothly.   

As we dug deeper, however, we realized most teachers were struggling with implementation of the CCSS.  They were struggling with teaching more rigorous content and in aligning curriculum and instructional practices.  

In retrospect, we acknowledged that there were probably more effective ways to gather and process feedback. For example, we should have solicited feedback about implementation more often and through multiple venues like focus groups and online teacher chat rooms. Consequently, in some instances we had to completely start over with curricular and/or assessment design.  

What do you think? Have more lessons you've learned? Share it in the comments below.

Follow us on Twitter! @insighteducationgroup, @drmichaelmoody, @SyracuseSchools and @SContrerasSCSD

Syracuse City School District: A Case Study in Teacher & School Leader Effectiveness

We're excited to partner again with Syracuse City School District (SCSD) for this upcoming school year.

During the 2011-2012 school year, SCSD and Insight created custom frameworks for both teachers and school leaders. 

Together, we created a taskforce bringing key stakeholders to the table, including teachers, principals, parents, university representatives and community members, to build the frameworks. 

Including these various stakeholder’s voices was an important part of the framework development process and continues to influence revisions to the frameworks.  

In 2012, SCSD was the first district in New York to win state approval to use a custom built, Common Core-aligned teacher framework and complementary leadership framework. Implementation of the frameworks is part of a larger effort to continue supporting and growing teaching and leadership talent in Syracuse.

Building on the successes over the past two school years, Insight will support SCSD's efforts to further support talent development, create robust professional development based on teacher performance data, calibrate teacher observers, and conduct quality school reviews.

Learn more:

• Syracuse City School District: A Case Study in Teacher & School Leader Effectiveness
• Syracuse City School District Expands Partnership with Insight Education Group (Sept. 5, 2013)