Educator Effectiveness Academy 2012

As part of the Race to the Top grant, the Maryland State Department of Education is conducting 10 regional Educator Effectiveness Academies (EEA) again this summer. The academies are designed to help teams from each public school begin to understand the curricular changes that teachers and students will begin to see over the next few years here in Maryland classrooms.

Mrs. Warner, Mrs Kelley and Mr. Spicher joined me this past week as we attended the EEA in Howard County at Marriotts Ridge High School. We learned a lot about the new state curriculum and began working on our school's transition plan. This plan will guide the professional learning activities we will use to help our staff members focus on  ways to fully implement of the Common Core State Curriculum including Maryland's STEM initiatives.

To read more, click here: Regional 'educator effectiveness academies' begin at Marriotts Ridge High

or visit:
lhttp://mdk12.org/instruction/curriculum/index.html

“As Maryland moves from the State Curriculum to the Maryland Common Core State Curriculum, teams of educators from around the state engaged in developing curriculum frameworks and tools that will provide all Maryland educators with the information and resources they need to insure that our children receive a world-class education."
                   —Judy Jenkins, Director of Curriculum

Educator Effectiveness Academy

My team and I just finished attending a three-day Educator Effectiveness Academy hosted by the Maryland State Department of Education in Anne Arundel County. We heard from curriculum experts and other leaders from MSDE about the MCCSC. During the academy we  were given the opportunity to disect the MCCSC standards, ask questions and provide feedback on certain aspects of the common core structure and design.

I want to thank our master teachers for doing a good job facilitating activities which were designed to help us begin to think about the new MCCSC standards, their implications on teacher training and student achievement and how this information will be shared with teachers this year. 

We learned a lot. However, our introductory training has generated many questions that don't seem to have answers yet. Some of our questions included:

What will be the assessment limits?

Why aren't the structures of the mathematics, English/Reading Language Arts and STEM standards formatted in the same manner?

How do you start teaching these new standards in the middle school when students have not been exposed to the elementary core content building blocks?

How do you balance the need to introduce and begin implementing the new MCCSC standards while at the same time being held accountable to teach the old curriculum that is assessed by the MSA? 

Where will the money come from to support the purchase of technology in order for students to take online tests?

Since the common core doesn't spiral the content in mathematics from year to year, what do you do to help to remediate a child who is below grade level?

While we had many questions, we are excited about the direction we are heading as a state. It reminded me of a quote...

Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident, and more and more successful.

Mark Victor Hansen

Educator Effectiveness Academy

This coming week, a team of teachers from Wilde lake Middle School and I will be traveling to Arundel High School to participate in one of the eleven Educator Effectiveness Academies being held this summer in the state of Maryland. All public schools in Maryland were required to identify a team of teachers this past spring who would attend this grassroots professional development program to begin the transition to the Common Core. This will be the state's official kick-off to the next wave of school reform that has been championed by President Obama and Education Secretary Duncan and developed by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governor's Association. The academies are designed to help educators begin to understand the new Common Core State Standards, which are the foundation for the new Maryland Common Core State Curriculum. 

The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, STEM, and English Language Arts (ELA); Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects (“the Standards”) are the culmination of an extended, broad-based effort to fulfill the charge issued by the states to create the next generation of K–12 standards in order to help ensure that all students are college and career ready in literacy no later than the end of high school. They are designed to provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are meant to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers.

The Standards set requirements not only for English language arts (ELA) and Mathematics, but also for literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects. Just as students must learn to read, write, speak, listen, problem solve and use language effectively in a variety of content areas, so too must the Standards specify the literacy skills and understandings required for college and career readiness in multiple disciplines. Literacy standards for grade 6 and above are predicated on teachers of ELA, history/social studies, science, and technical subjects using their content area expertise to help students meet the particular challenges of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language in their respective fields. It is important to note that the 6–12 literacy standards in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects are not meant to replace content standards in those areas but rather to supplement them.

The newly adopted standards also lay out a vision of what it means to be a literate person in the twenty-first century. Indeed, the skills and understandings students are expected to demonstrate have wide applicability outside the classroom or workplace. Students who meet the Standards readily undertake the close, attentive reading that is at the heart of understanding and enjoying complex works of literature. They are able to problem-solve using a variety of methods and demontrate critical thinking skills. They habitually perform the critical reading necessary to pick carefully through the staggering amount of information available today in print and digitally. They actively seek the wide, deep, and thoughtful engagement with high-quality literary and informational texts that builds knowledge, enlarges experience, and broadens worldviews. They reflexively demonstrate the cogent reasoning and use of evidence that is essential to both private deliberation and responsible citizenship in a democratic republic. In short, students who meet the Standards develop the skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening that are the foundation for any creative and purposeful expression in language.  (Source: modified from http://www.corestandards.org/)

I am looking forward to attending the Educator Effectiveness Academy and learning more about the common core. In particular, I am interested in developing a greater knowledge of the Common Core State Standards and the Curriculum Frameworks for Mathematics and English Language Arts, understanding the relationship between Maryland’s vision of STEM and the Curriculum Frameworks, and beginning to create our school's transition plan that will guide our staff in preparing to implement the changes that will be necessary.

It is exciting work!

Stay tuned...I plan to share more when I learn more.