Organized Instructional Strategies

As a teacher I use formative and summative data to drive my instruction. As I start with the state standard for the lesson and plan a formative assessment on that skill before a summative assessment. In years prior our school district used the platform of Performance Matter to collect data of that grade level standards three times a year. This type of information set in with Dr. Scott McLeod (20??) essential concepts. “The five major elements of data-driven instruction are: good baseline, measurable instructional goals, frequent formative assessment, professional learning communities, and focused instructional interventions (pp. 1-2, 20??). The assessment gave teachers a baseline, mid-year, and end year focus. When the teacher delved into the platform each question was broken down each standard and concept, thus allowing teacher to provide adequate instructional goal to meet the students’ needs. Teachers would also look at past state standardized testing to determine what if any remediation is needed. As a principal, he/she/I needs to understand the data elements to schedule necessary people and aid for the professional development communities.

A formative assessment provides informal feedback and information during the teaching process. This assessment measures student progress and performance thus allowing further improvement and development. It can also assess the teacher’s progress as an instructor, enabling the teacher to evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching methods.

Our professional development sessions are conducted weekly in a variety of subject areas, and the monthly school-wide session, using interactive reform activities, align with the Danielson Framework for Teaching (Danielson, 2013) to showcase best practices of teachers and to develop grade-level performance tasks, looking at students’ work to provide individual feedback that is aligned with the teaching rubric in order to show academic progress and growth in the target areas of ELA and Math.

To assist residents who need help with getting up in the morning, dressing, undressing, washing,

We all build strong relationships amongst our students and ourselves. Everyone works well for the benefit of all who come through our doors. Our longest working staff member has been here nineteen years, but we also have a couple of first year teachers starting out. The gender balance is nine males to twenty-one females. Our professional development is focused on our main district initiatives, which include: AIW (Authentic Intellectual Work), IPI (Instructional Practices Inventory), TLIM (The Leader in Me), Technology Integration, and Iowa Core. We have professional development time every Wednesday from 2:10-4:00. Professional development is a mix of building and district wide meetings.

After reading the article, “Using Common Formative Assessments as a Source of Professional Development in and Urban American Elementary School,” Answer these questions.

During one of our professional development days in the week before school started, we spent an entire day reviewing the curriculum mapping process and began identifying the most essential standards and learning outcomes for students. One subtle indicator was that only two teachers demonstrated understanding about the importance of using assessment results to plan their first two weeks of lessons. One suggested that they would begin with a writing prompt to determine where students were in their narrative writing, and the other expressed the urgency to administer the reading assessment so that she could put her students in reading groups. Eighty percent of our staff were either longing for the

Over the past decade, many literary studies has emerged on in-service professional development, teacher learning, and teacher change. The research literature includes mixture of studies including intensive case studies of classroom teaching (e.g, Cohen,1990), evaluations of programs designed to improve teaching and learning (e.g., U.S. Department of education 1999), and surveys of teachers about their pre-service preparation and in-service professional development experiences (e.g., Carey &Frechtling , 1997). In addition, there is a considerable amount of literature describing "best practices" in professional development, drawing on expert experiences (e.g.,

This chapter presents a comprehensive overview of methodology used in this study: research design, study participants, data collection and instruments, reliability and validity, data analysis, ethical concerns, and study limitations, followed by a brief summary.

The design proposed to evaluate staff development is a process design using a convenience sample. The methods associated with this component include a document review of professional development meeting agendas, minutes and attendance sheets, a staff manual, completed personnel feedback forms, staff evaluation, copies of resumes that align with job postings, and the number of professional development hours and topics provided to staff. Most of this information will be obtained during site visits in the fall and spring. Most of the documents required are also listed in the observation checklist that evaluators should request during their site visits (Appendix E). The observation checklist was created to support a comparable funding stream 21CCLC. This list was created by the 21CCLC Grant Management Team based on the New York State Education Department site monitoring form and New York State Afterschool Network (NYSAN) QSA Tool. The New York State Education Department monitoring form is used to by NYSED to monitor and

Cognitive apprenticeship allows one to problem solve and complete complex tasks successfully. The concept that I think has more value with, cognitive apprenticeship is scaffolding. Scaffolding is best for students because it offers student support so they can master their education. Allowing students to stay on task with their work. “In education, scaffolding refers to a variety of instructional techniques used to move students progressively toward stronger understanding and, ultimately, greater independence in the learning process” (Education Reform, 2015, para.1). This article also explains, “the term itself offers the relevant descriptive metaphor: teachers provide successive levels of temporary support that help students reach higher levels of comprehension and skill acquisition that they would not be able to achieve without assistance” (2015, para.1). When teachers support the student he or she feel encouraged. When the student feels more encouraged they are motivated to learning which allows them to achieve at a high rate academically.

This professional development was identified by analyzing trends in the student data, as well as current trends in data collected from the teacher’s recent observations. When talking to the principal at the practicum school site, he was concerned with the overall trends from observations completed by the administrators and district evaluators. These trends showed that the

In my placements at the Linn-Mar School District, I was blessed with an opportunity to work with some great professionals. We assessed each other's teaching all of the time. I got the opportunity to bounce ideas off each other and help progress our teaching even further. Often times I talked with my CT about my teaching. I would ask them what they thought, if they had any suggestions, and many other “group think” discussion questions in order to improve my teaching. Every Monday morning, at the high school, we would meet with our professional learning communities, PLCs, and work on different ways to improve our classes. One conversation I had frequently with my CT, which then came up in our PLC, was assessing homework versus using a formative check or assessment. In our PLCs, we anticipate struggle areas for students, discuss the different ways each one of teaches taught those concepts, collaborate on data from assessments. We did a lot of assessing of each other,

Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, a K-12 Independent School in Philadelphia is known for passion-based learning and academic innovation. Despite the focus on creative pedagogy and technology, the school has failed to articulate a well-designed program for faculty professional development. Furthermore, there is no formal evaluation or tools for assessment in place to determine whether the goals and objectives of the program positively influence student learning or creativity.

As reported in our Annual Performance Report, we continue to invest in our staff for their professional success. We use our Community School Accountability Rubric to assist our team in identifying areas for growth in the Community School Model implemented at the four schools. This rubric also helps us in identifying areas in which our staff excel and need improvement on. Once areas of common need are identify, we seek for strategic training and resources to increase productivity and enhance quality of services. To address these needs our staff participated in a two-day professional development conference where they broaden their knowledge about Results-Based Leadership and Accountability.