Children First Intensive

1. Children First Intensive • Empowering Professional Learning Communities: Embedding and Extending Collaborative Inquiry • ESO Network 19 • NCEE/America’s Choice, 30 Broad Street, September 23, 2009 • Deena Abu-Lughod, SATIF • Elvira Barone, Network Leader; Karen Ames, Achievement Coach; Randy Soderman, Special Services Manager; Linda Tom, Business Services Manager; Ross Frankel, Attendance Specialist

2. Agenda • 8:21 Welcome and Introductions • 8:30 Reflection Connection • 8:50 Chancellor’s Goals and CFI Priorities • 9:00 What Inquiry Should Look Like, and Making Time For Inquiry • 9:45 The Role of Teacher Teams: Previewing the Quality Review • 10:30 Break • 10:45 Norm Setting, Survey Results and Agenda Building • 11:15 ARIS Parent Link, ELA Best Practice Conference, ARIS Connect • 12:00 Lunch • 12:50 Data Analysis, Action Planning and Online Resources • 2:15 Closing and Evaluation

3. Reflection Connection • Walk silently; in silence, move from person to person, greeting them silently and exchanging your playing card. • When you hear the chime, search the room for someone holding the same number/face card as your own. Stand back to back. • Listen to the question. Face your partner, and respond. Say as much or as little as you like. • Respond to the second question. Say as much or as little as you like. • Repeat Steps 1-4 • Debrief

4. Honoring our own achievements! • 4 schools were in the top 20% of all elementary/middle schools, based on the Progress Report; 20 out of 22 schools received A’s: • 2M130 • 9X161 • 17K189 • 23K155 • 5 schools received Schoolwide Bonuses! • 9X161, 12X061, 23K155, 23K156, 23K184

5. SINCE 2006, MORE NYC STUDENTS IN EVERY GRADE LEVEL ARE MEETING STATE STANDARDS (State began testing all of grades 3-8 in 2006) Percent of Students Meeting or Exceeding State Standards (Scoring at Levels 3 & 4) English Mathematics Largest Gains in Middle Grades 6th 7th 8th Up 49% Up 60% Up 56% Largest Gains in Middle Grades 6th 7th 8th Up 46% Up 84% Up 83% 06 09 06 09 06 09 06 09 06 09 06 09 06 09 06 09 06 09 06 09 06 09 06 09 06 09 06 09 3rd Grade 4th Grade 5th Grade 6th Grade 7th Grade 3rd Grade 4th Grade 8th Grade Grades 3-8 5th Grade 6th Grade 7th Grade 8th Grade Grades 3-8

6. AFTER MAKING LITTLE PROGRESS BEFORE 2002, NYC STUDENTS • HAVE BEEN CLOSING THE GAP WITH THE REST OF THE STATE SINCE 2002 • (NYC is 73% Black/ Hispanic, 84% low income; Rest of State is 23% Black/ Hispanic, 31% low income*) Gap Between NYC & Rest of State in Percent of Students Meeting or Exceeding State Standards 4th Grade English 4th Grade Mathematics Gap Reduction 99-02: 8% Gap Reduction 02-09: 48% Gap Reduction 99-02: 10% Gap Reduction 02-09: 85% 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 8th Grade Mathematics 8th Grade English Gap Increase 99-02: 15% Gap Reduction 02-09: 22% Gap Increase 99-02: 19% Gap Reduction 02-09: 50% 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 Rest of State = NY State minus NYC. * Percent of students in grades 3-8 that took the NY State mathematics test in 2008.

7. Chancellor’s Goals and Priorities • Goal 1: Achieve student performance gains • Goal 2: Embed the Children First reforms with a focus on sustainability • * * * * * * * * * • Priority 1: Strengthen accountability and achievement toolsfor principals and educators, by expanding the inquiry approach and adoption of ARIS in all schools, including knowledge management, both vertical and horizontal.

8. Children First Intensive (CFI) Priorities • Priority 1: Build school, network and SSO capacity to enable 90% of teachers to be engaged in inquiry with the goal of increasing student achievement. • Priority 4: Promote knowledge building and sharing for inquiry teams through Inquiry Spaces, ARIS Connect more generally, and engagement with other tools/activities. • Priority 5: Use the inquiry model to support distributed leadership and create a leadership pipeline at every level of the organization.

9. Creating great schools starts from a vision of expanding meaningful collaborative inquiry in every school CFI Priority: Build school, network, and SSO capacity to enable 90% of teachers to be engaged in inquiry with the goal of increasing student achievement 90% of teachers citywide engaged in data-driven, research-based collaborative inquiry leads to… … increased leadership, empowerment and accountability in 80,000 classrooms Builds teacher instructional and school leadership capacity; raises retention of talented educators Improves student outcomes Helps to develop and deepen rigorous, research-based instructional strategies and frameworks 1,500 Great Schools

10. Building Coherence: Levers for School Improvement • Curriculum: what are the academic tasks (content, knowledge, skills) that we ask students to do? • Teacher pedagogy: How do teachers support student learning? • Assessment/data: How do we know students are learning? • Collaborative inquiry: How do adults learn and improve their practice? • Structure: How do we use time, space, and other resources to enable student learning?

11. What Is Inquiry? • What are the steps of the Inquiry process? • Read Making Time for Inquiry. • How will you use this information?

12. What Does Your Inquiry Process Look Like? • Read your assigned Inquiry Steps. (A: Steps 1+6; B: Steps 2+7; C: Steps 3+8; D: Steps 4+9; E: Steps 5+10) • Circle the statements from either column that resemble how your school approached its inquiry work last year. • Highlight the statements from the left hand column that you would like to aspire to this year. • Share out.

13. Teacher Teams and the new Quality Review • Read your assigned Quality Review statement. • Highlight all references to Teacher Teams/Groups of Teachers in all sub-criteria for Underdeveloped with Proficient Features, Proficient and Well Developed for that statement. • At your table, summarize the key features that distinguish a Well Developed school from a Proficient or UPF school and chart. What is the most important piece of evidence that a school could present to show it is Well Developed? • Share out. • What are the implications of this for your work at your school?

14. Norm Setting • Take a few moments to think about the advantages of belonging to a group where everyone understands the norms that guide the group process or the rules of being a group member. • What happens when ground rules aren’t articulated?

15. Norm Setting • Ground rules are helpful when they are: • Behavioral • About do’s and about don’ts • Specific • In simple active language • Communicated to all visitors as well as team members • Individuals: Think about ground rules that you believe will help this group to operate to its greatest potential and to achieve its goals. Jot down your ideas here:

16. Norms for Network 19

17. Survey Results • Professional Learning Communities • Inquiry and Data Skills Competencies/Interests

18. ARIS Parent Link: 60% of Parents Will Create Accounts CFI Priority: Actively engage parents in student learning through ARIS Parent Link • Usage to date • Since ARIS Parent Link launched to all parents last May, over 150,000 permanent passwords have been set • Goals for Adoption • FY 10: At least 60% of accounts (≈570,000) • FY 11: At least 90% of ARIS Parent Link accounts (≈860,000) • Resources • All resources and training materials are available within ARIS Connect in the ARIS Parent Link Information and Resources community: https://www.arisnyc.org/connect/node/365078/community/resources • Email ARISParentLink@schools.nyc.gov** • Call (212) 374-6646** • ** Please note: These resources are for DOE employees ONLY. They cannot support the potential volume of requests from parents. All parents should work with the parent coordinator at their child’s school for support.

19. ARIS Parent Link: New for Fall • Parent contact information • Student biographical information • Links to school’s Progress Report, Quality Review, Learning Environment Survey, and State Report Card • Walkthroughs to answer the questions: • How can I choose a school for my child? • How is my child’s school doing? • E-PAL and NYSESLAT scores and walkthroughs • Transcripts of Mayor’s message in all languages • Current class assignments (beginning Sept. 9th) • What are the implications for teachers?

20. ELA and Math Best Practices Conferences • October 22: ELADecember 9: Mathematics • Use the ELA Average Gains by Grade and Incoming Performance Levelor the NYSESLAT Passing Rates handouts to identify a grade where your ELA gains, especially for 3s + 4s, were especially high, or where your NYSESLAT Passing Rate was especially high. Use the Average Scores for Multiple Choice and Constructed Response to identify high performing classrooms. • Work with the relevant staff to identify the best practice/strategy that contributed to your success. Prepare a 10-15 minute presentation for the conference. Enter information on the ARIS wikispace.

21. Preparing to Look at Data • Before looking at any data, surface your assumptions, expectations and predictions. • Answer the following questions regarding the ELA: • In what grades did my school make the greatest ELA gains for Level 1+2 students? • In what grades did my school make the greatest ELA gains for Level 3+4 students? • Think of grade 4, 6 or 8. Relative to other network schools, did my school do best on the multiple choice, listening, reading or writing component? • Did my school’s NYSESLAT passing rate exceed that of most other schools in the network?

22. 2009 ELA and 2007-2009 NYSESLAT Data • In your packets, you will find 3 data items to support you in deciding what to present at the October 22 Conference: • The average ELA gains by grade and incoming performance level. This will help you see in which grades and amongst which students your school excelled, relative to other network schools. • The average ELA scores for multiple choice, listening, reading and writing mechanics for each classroom in Grade 4, 6 and 8. • The distribution of students on the NYSESLAT from 2007-1009, by beginning, intermediate, advanced and passing levels.

23. How might these resources best be used? • Take 5 minutes to examine your own school’s ELA data and jot down some notes: • Here’s What (what do you see?): • So What (what are the implications?): • Now What (what will you do?)

24. Using ARIS Reports for Grade-Level Goals • Examine the 2 ARIS “Comparing Populations” Reports (Last year, Gr. 4 and Incoming Students). • Notice how both reports are for Grade 4. One is last year’s Grade 4 and the other is this year’s Grade 4, showing the students’ 3rd grade performance levels. (To do this in ARIS, select either “enrollment in school at time of assessment “or “enrollment in current School Year”) • Do you have more Level 3+4 students entering 4th grade now than you had in 4th grade at the end of last year? • What are the implications of this for goal setting?

25. Notes

26. Preparing for October 8 – Math Think Tank • We have modeled the use of several ELA data sources. • For Mathematics, we are asking that you work with your teams to identify your school’s priority skills. • You have several data sources available: • The Math Item Data (available on ARIS Connect, in your school’s Private Community) • The 2009 Math Item Analysis (available in the Educator Resources link in the Mathematics section of the NYCDOE website (see slide on Online Resources)

27. State Test Item & Skill Matrix Reports (in ARIS Connect) Performance Indicator, question number and type, and answer choice distribution Performance level, scaled score, proficiency rating, and SPI Correct answers are highlighted in green

28. Online Resources: Quick and Almost Green! Mathematics: http://schools.nyc.gov/Academics/Mathematics/EducatorResources/default.htm Item Analysis from 2008 and 2009 plus test questions: http://schools.nyc.gov/Academics/Mathematics/EducatorResources/Item+Analyses.htm Science: http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/exeres/37B9B951-BE5B-432F-868F-EF45F72704BC.htm Grade 4 and 8 Item Analysis from 2006-2008 plus test questions: http://schools.nyc.gov/Academics/Science/EducatorResources/Science+Test+Data.htm

29. What the Item Analyses Look Like

30. Look for Items Where Gap Was Widest

31. Examine the Items: Great Format!

32. Changes in Periodic Assessment 2009-10 Plan • Grades K–3: Only the E-PAL administration dates will move (from May to January 11–25). • Grades 3–8:Changes to Acuity Predictive and Instructionally Targeted Assessment (ITA) windows (schools will not need to select new Periodic Assessments for 2009–10; Acuity orders will be automatically updated with new windows) • Design Your Own (DYO):Schools are encouraged to adjust their plans, though not required to submit revised proposals.

33. Changes to the 2009 10 38 Test Schedule

34. Assessment data available for inquiry work Schools won’t have October ELA Predictive results this year, but can use results from several other assessments this fall. • 2009 New York State Testitem and skill matrix reports for grades 3–8 are in each school's private community in ARIS; will be updated for 2009-10 rosters in late Sept. • Results of students’ June Acuity Predictive assessments are reported in ARIS and the Acuity Web site (under Prior Year Reports): • Results include % correct and scaled score (not predicted levels) • Performance Series online assessments can be used as diagnostic assessments for students at the start of the year. • Schools can use the Acuity Item Bank to create diagnostic assessments. • Assessments can include educator-created items (item authoring tool). • Acuity Instructional Resources can reinforce instructional support in areas of weakness identified by any of the above data sources.

35. Suggested Learning Objectives from Performance Series Online Assessments Instructional resources are available for each of the suggested learning objectives State-aligned objectives are listed in order of difficulty. The first listed skill is closest to the student’s current ability. Skills Attained are listed to show what students have already accomplished

36. Upcoming Technical Support Sessions • Supplemental Session: Wednesday, September 30 ARIS Reports • 1-3 pm, Room 820 (Computer Lab), 1 Fordham Plaza • RSVP REQUIRED: Limited enrollment. No laptops or downloads needed. • Supplemental Session: Wednesday, October 7: Using Student-Level Progress Report Data (a.m.); Using State Item Data (p.m.) • 8:30-11:00; 12:00-2:00 pm, Room 76, 1230 Zerega Avenue • RSVP REQUIRED: Bring Laptop and Progress Report Data from ARIS Reports and/or Item Data from ARIS Connect (your school’s Private community). • Periodic Assessment Training on PD Web site: • http://schools.nyc.gov/Accountability/ResourcesforEducators/PeriodicAssessments/ • Periodic+Assessment+Professional+Development.htm