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This publication has been adapted from Assessing Implementation of the Common Core State Standards published by the American Federation of Teachers and may be used and reproduced without permission.
INTRODUCTION This document is intended to serve as a tool that will assist teams of labor and management working collaboratively at the district and state levels in their implementation efforts by providing guidance that can drive the development of a high-quality implementation plan. This plan can be used to support efforts to make the standards a reality in their schools and classrooms. This self-assessment tool can help teams of labor and management determine: Whether the labor-management teams current implementation efforts address critical components of a high-quality implementation plan; Whether critical components of implementation are missing from the plan and what components will need to be developed as implementation continues; One or more high-priority goals to work on collaboratively in pursuit of effective implementation of college- and careerready standards. The components in this document are not all-inclusive. We have attempted to include critical components to take into consideration when implementing the standards. However, local or state circumstances may require the adjustment or addition of components to address those issues to ensure a successful implementation process. IMPLEMENTATION PLANNING This tool is designed to be used with labor and management teams at all levels to set direction and determine supports for implementing standards through regularly scheduled meetings with cross-functional leadership teams representing all stakeholders. Whether implementation efforts support goals that are aligned with current reform efforts in the district or state; and ON THE SAME PAGE 1
COLLEGE- AND CAREER-READY STANDARDS PLANNING TO SUCCEED The College- and Career-Ready Standards provide an unprecedented opportunity and challenge. In advancing standards for mathematics and English language arts, the standards have the potential to help transform the very DNA of teaching and learning. As you review implementation note the following questions and components that should be addressed. KEY QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER: What is the current awareness level of teachers, administrators, parents and the broader community? Are stakeholders building a culture that supports the implementation of the standards? Are state and local resources allocated equitably across the district? Do educators have access to high-quality professional development? The chart indicates steps that should be taken chronologically but not independently. No step should ever be deemed complete. On going awareness campaigns and planning sessions should occur even while soliciting feedback on previous initiatives. 1 AWARENESS 2 PLANNING PROFESSIONAL 3 DEVELOPMENT 4 IMPLEMENTATION AND FEEDBACK Create broad stakeholder awareness of the standards through regular communications Collaboratively develop a sustainable plan for implementation, to include: Calendar of events and actions Expectations for all stakeholders Regular communication with stakeholders Process for identifying and developing teacher leaders Process for training staff to build capacity to sustain the work Detailed budget Identify and train teacher leaders as advocates and as trainers for other educators Create a Resource Review Team that will: Align existing instructional resources to the standards Research additional support resources and materials Examine implementation for: Opportunities for common planning time Reallocating resources toward professional development (PD) across all grades and all schools Opportunities for ongoing PD Opportunities for additional time for collegial conversations and looking at student work Provide job-embedded PD (e.g., teacher leaders, coaches, specialists) Use staff meetings for PD learning opportunities Provide opportunities for educators to deconstruct the standards to develop common understanding of their meaning and to examine student work Build assessment literacy of teachers and students Build internal capacity to sustain high-quality implementation Create opportunities to practice and refine instructional practices Include a system for evaluating effectiveness of the plan, receiving feedback from educators and modifying as necessary Review and update resources Tailor professional development offerings to address educators and students needs Use data to inform instruction, school practice, and implementation policy ONGOING COMMUNICATION WITH STAKEHOLDERS STAKEHOLDERS: Parents, students, teachers, business, community, labor, civic leaders, media, higher education faculty
A. ONGOING COMMUNICATION TO STAKEHOLDERS Identifying and communicating with stakeholders builds the awareness, knowledge, skills and commitment of those who are vital for the implementation of the standards. Communication with stakeholders should be ongoing and two-way as implementation progresses. DISCUSS AND PROVIDE EVIDENCE THAT THE FOLLOWING ELEMENTS ARE IN PLACE: 1. Identified key stakeholders, for example: Parents, students, educators, civic leaders, faith-based leaders, politicians, labor, school board members, superintendents, media, business people, chamber of commerce members, university partners, legislators, state leaders and so forth. 2. Determined the messages that need to be communicated. There are readily available resources and messaging for educators and key stakeholders that address misinformation and communicate that the standards are excellent for education because there are fewer and deeper standards, there was and continues to be educator involvement in reviewing and teaching the standards, and effective implementation of the standards demands increased student responsibility as well as high expectations for all. There are established collaborative partnerships with parents/guardians, community leaders and other stakeholders to build consistent messaging on the standards. Accomplished educators and examples of instruction aligned to the standards are provided to media outlets. 3. Determined the methods for communication. Educators consistently utilize multiple formats of communication to reach and inform all stakeholders of the school s effective standards implementation (students, teachers, parents, community and leadership). 4. Determined how often messages are revised and/or updated. Policy is reviewed and updated to support standards implementation. Educators consistently ensure that a systematic, cross-functional process and structure is in place for communication that is ongoing, two-way and fluid to keep all stakeholders abreast of standards implementation and challenges that need to be addressed. ON THE SAME PAGE 3
EVIDENCE OF EACH COMPONENT Jointly discuss, determine and record below what is currently in place for each component. A-1 A-2 A-3 A-4 4 ON THE SAME PAGE
B. AWARENESS BUILDING A SUPPORTIVE CULTURE Building on the foundation of stakeholder awareness, collaboratively developing a sustainable plan for implementation helps to ensure the presence of a culture that supports the implementation of the standards. DISCUSS AND PROVIDE EVIDENCE THAT THE FOLLOWING ELEMENTS ARE IN PLACE: 1. Collaboratively developed a sustainable plan for implementation that includes the following elements: Timeline for completing activities. The tools/processes for monitoring progress. Responsible parties for components and cross-team coordination. Information channels. Process for updating and reviewing the plan, including adjustments based on feedback, monitoring data and student work samples. 2. Collaboratively set expectations for stakeholders to: Understand the definition of the phrase college and career readiness. 1 Know the importance of the major shifts and what they look like for teachers and students. Advocate the importance of having proper standards implementation supports in place and the time needed to get this right to a variety of stakeholders. 3. Established a collaboratively developed process for identifying and developing teacher leaders and other stakeholders, which includes: A systematic approach for recruiting and selecting teacher leaders, involving both an administrator and a peer review process. A written statement of the knowledge and skills teacher leaders are to demonstrate. 1. What is College- And Career-Ready?, Achieve, www.achieve.org/what-college-and-career-ready ON THE SAME PAGE 5
Continuous professional development aligned to the knowledge and skills you have prioritized. A plan for expanding training to educators. 4. Created a detailed budget that reflects, within the appropriate local or state context, an assessment of resources needed for effective standards implementation and which: Identifies and prioritizes what resources and knowledge educators are going to need for successful implementation but don t currently have. Identifies compensation for professional development (monetary, credits, time, etc.). Provides transparency. Reflects a collaborative approach. Assesses need for realignment of allocated dollars. Allows for two-way communication about the quality of implementation and the level of student education. Allows educators to consistently engage all staff in professional development and collaboration on activities such as: Unpack and interpret the standards and shifts, unit development and assessment development; Conduct gap analysis to evaluate lesson plans/units and have conversations about raising the level of student work; Align and pilot new resources/materials; Revise/create curriculum guides and pacing guides; Increase teacher proficiency in using instructional technology to support instruction in all content areas; and Reflect on and refine new practices. 6 ON THE SAME PAGE
EVIDENCE OF EACH COMPONENT Jointly discuss, determine and record evidence of what is currently in place for each component. B-1 B-2 B-3 B-4 ON THE SAME PAGE 7
C. PLANNING Building on the systems, structures and processes in place for building awareness of standards implementation, this planning stage establishes the materials, structures, knowledge, skills and people that will be necessary to implement the standards. DISCUSS AND PROVIDE EVIDENCE THAT THE FOLLOWING ELEMENTS ARE IN PLACE: 1. Selected a change management model. 2. Identified and provided professional development to teacher leaders and stakeholders as standards advocates. 3. Provided copies of the standards to every educator and engaged all staff in understanding their value, structure and implications for teaching and learning. 4. Developed a professional development plan that ensures sustainability and includes all educators. 5. Created a resource review team, or supported a district or network of districts that created one, that includes teachers and cross-functional team members who use alignment resources (e.g., AFT alignment tools for ELA and mathematics, Student Achievement Partners Instructional Materials Evaluation Tool (IMET), and Achieve s EQuiP rubric) to ensure that: Existing instructional resources and classroom lessons/units are fully aligned to the standards, and that fully aligned instructional practices are demonstrated in curricular, instructional and assessment pieces; A process is established for communicating results to educators, including gaps that exist in the current materials; and Work is being done to research and identify resources that are better aligned to the standards. 6. Collaboratively examined, or supported a district or network of districts that examined, school/district infrastructure for opportunities for common planning time with school and district staff, such as: Master schedule; Creative ways to structure the school day for time for staff to work collaboratively; and Requesting a waiver from the state for delayed start or early release once a month. 2 2. Finding Time for Collaboration, by Mary Anne Raywid, Educational Leadership, vol. 51, no. 1, September 1993. 8 ON THE SAME PAGE
7. Reallocated, or supported a district or network of districts that reallocated, professional development resources to focus on the instructional shifts in all grades at every school: Supports and integrated professional development that help teachers seamlessly include all students in mastering the standards. 8. Identified, or supported a district or network of districts that identified, instructional and social/emotional supports for all students and put in place a system to monitor their effectiveness. 9. Coordinated, or supported a district or network of districts that coordinated, teacher development and evaluation policies to align with the implementation of the standards. 10. Created, or supported a district or network of districts that created, school leadership teams that consistently utilize a variety of metrics to determine if standards implementation is on track and working, such as: Conduct periodic needs assessments and analyze results with school community; Conduct teacher surveys; Consistently monitor metrics determining how well standards implementation is working. The monitoring is supported through a variety of feedback loops providing accountability at all levels of the implementation; Consistently ensure that individual school s implementation plan empowers educators to take part in shared decision-making and is aligned to district/state implementation plans; Work with PLCs and the school community to gather evidence of impact of the standards implementation and shifts on student learning and the quality of their work products; and Ensure that formative and interim assessments are created to consistently align to the mathematics and ELA shifts and the standards, are consistently implemented by all educators, and are utilized to assist in driving the instructional cycle to strengthen Tier 1 instruction and identify and address student needs. ON THE SAME PAGE 9
EVIDENCE OF EACH COMPONENT Jointly discuss, determine and record evidence of what is currently in place for each component. C-1 C-2 C-3 C-4 C-5 10 ON THE SAME PAGE
C-6 C-7 C-8 C-9 C-10 ON THE SAME PAGE 11
D. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Professional development builds capacity to implement the standards in ways that meet student needs and leads to their mastery of the standards. Professional development needs to be differentiated for various audiences. Additionally, professional development should include deliberate links between educator development and evaluation and the standards. Linking together the components used in instructional evaluations helps educators to become more thoughtful practitioners and builds on the foundation of effective practices. DISCUSS AND PROVIDE EVIDENCE THAT THE FOLLOWING ELEMENTS ARE IN PLACE: 1. Developed plans or supported districts or networks of districts to develop plans for job-embedded professional development, which includes modeling of instructional practices fully aligned with instructional shifts. 2. Built capacity internally for successful use of teacher leaders, coaches and specialists. 3. Restructured staff meetings for standards-based professional development, using internal cross-functional capacity, such as having teacher leaders visibly leading content sessions. 4. Provided opportunities to deconstruct the standards and develop common understanding of their meaning using a variety of tools and approaches, such as the mathematics progressions and developing shared understanding of aspects of student work that demonstrate progress toward and mastery of grade-level standards as they apply in every content area. 5. Strengthened the assessment literacy of educators, students, parents and leaders at the school, district and state levels, which should include: Understanding sound assessment practices; Describing the different types of assessment used to generate dependable student achievement information; Using data for intended purposes; and Knowing and using effective ways to address student needs revealed by the data. 6. Identified methods for assessing the effectiveness of professional development on educator capacity and the quality of student work. 7. Ensured professional development is sustainable. 8. Ensured professional development is accessible to all educators through a variety of delivery models. 12 ON THE SAME PAGE
9. Provided staff in non-tested grades and subject areas with supports and professional development to implement standards-based strategies as a shared responsibility for student progress across grade levels. 10. Included professional development opportunities to engage in unit and lesson plan development. 11. Put in place multiple professional development structures to support standards implementation. 12. Clarified through structures and activities that standards implementation is a priority; i.e. Classroom time is protected to focus on aligned instruction for all students and increasing facility and effectiveness in using the major shifts; Feedback is productive, timely and constructive and leads to enhanced practices at all levels of the organization; Embedded supports and collaboration are in place; and Improving the quality of student work is central to the implementation discussion. EVIDENCE OF EACH COMPONENT Jointly discuss, determine and record evidence of what is currently in place for each component. D-1 D-2 ON THE SAME PAGE 13
D-3 D-4 D-5 D-6 D-7 14 ON THE SAME PAGE
D-8 D9 D-10 D-11 D-12 ON THE SAME PAGE 15
E. IMPLEMENTATION AND FEEDBACK Model that this is a continuous improvement process that evolves over time. This process will never be completed because the issues that need to be addressed will change. DISCUSS AND PROVIDE EVIDENCE THAT THE FOLLOWING ELEMENTS ARE IN PLACE: 1. Developed a process for collaboratively reviewing and revising the plan on an ongoing basis. 2. Created opportunities for educators and stakeholders to refine skills and strategies by observing and sharing quality instructional practices to reach all learners, including strategies for differentiation and intervention. 3. Requested continuous feedback on plans, processes and materials from all educators and other stakeholders. 4. Developed a secure process for gathering, analyzing and sharing contextual data (data related to all aspects of the classroom, staffing, school and students and their work) that informs decision making around school and district policies and instruction, and incorporates supports for sustainability. 5. Developed a secure process for gathering, analyzing and sharing student assessment data (summative and formative) and student work that informs decision making around school and district policies and instruction, and incorporates supports for sustainability. EVIDENCE OF EACH COMPONENT Jointly discuss, determine and record evidence of what is currently in place for each component. E-1 16 ON THE SAME PAGE
E-2 E-3 E-4 E-5 ON THE SAME PAGE 17
IMPLEMENTATION PREPARATION AND PLANNING GUIDING QUESTIONS Assess: Where are we now? Goal Setting: Where do we want to be? Using the guiding questions, prioritize areas and develop a work plan that we jointly implement from the self-assessment document. Build on current strengths and natural short term opportunities as you identify action items. Identify Needs: What is necessary to get to our goals? Determine Feasibility: Given current capacity, structures, policies, and resources how feasible is this goal? Action Item Steps Timeline Coordinator/Person Responsible 1. Deliverables or Outcome Measures 2. Supports & Resources 18 ON THE SAME PAGE
Action Item Steps Timeline Coordinator/Person Responsible 3. 4. Deliverables or Outcome Measures Supports & Resources ON THE SAME PAGE 19
20 ON THE SAME PAGE NOTES
National Education Association Dennis Van Roekel, President Council of Chief State School Officers - Chris Minnich, Executive Director The School Superintendents Association - Daniel A. Domenech, Executive Director Council of the Great City Schools Michael Casserly, Executive Director National School Boards Association - Thomas Gentzel, Executive Director American Federation of Teachers Randi Weingarten, President
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