Parent Leadership 101

1. Parent Leadership 101 Day 2 Presented by the Parent & Educator Partnership Adapted from the Center for Parent Leadership, Lexington, KY.

2. Welcome back • Enjoy breakfast • Reconnect with folks you met yesterday • Complete any unfinished reflections from yesterday’s work

3. Parent Leadership 101 Objectives • Introduce the concept of parent leadership; • Develop an awareness of your communication style; • Provide an overview of how the Illinois Learning Standards and student performance data; • Identify ways partner with schools to engage more families; and • Develop a plan for reaching other parents and engaging with schools

4. A little housekeeping • Rest rooms • Refreshments • Lunch • Notebook • Evaluation • Parking Lot • Word Wall • Ground Rules

5. Working Agreements • Everyone shares knowledge and skills • Common courtesy • Avoid distracting side conversations • Share table supplies • What’s said here stays here, what’s learned here leaves • Law of two feet • Turn electronics to silent or vibrate mode • Call to action……

6. Standards • What do children learn in Illinois? • How do we evaluate success?

7. What are Standards? Standards are simply what students are expected to learn as they move from grade to grade through school.

8. Where did the ‘new’ standards come from? • Illinois and 47 other states brought together by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. • Subject-area experts, educators, college professors and business people from all fields and from across the nation helped develop the standards. • The NGA and CCSSO initiated the work after determining that it would be more efficient and effective if states agreed on standards for student learning.

9. Is This An Attempt To Nationalize Education Through The Federal Government?

10. NO! The governors and education department leaders decided to develop these; the federal government was not involved. 45 states and DC have voluntarily adopted these. (Alaska, Nebraska, Montana, Texas and Virginia have not adopted yet)

11. Power of Common Standards • Compare student work from state to state • Share tests, textbooks, technology • Share teaching strategies • One set of clear, consistent expectations • Internationally competitive goals • High expectations for all students • Addresses student mobility • Ensures a skilled workforce • More efficient use of tax dollars

12. The goal of the standards: Ready for College and Career College ready: • Academic skills that allow students to perform college level work without remediation

13. The goal of the standards:Ready for College and Career Career ready: • Academic skills that allow students to function/excel in workplace or routine daily activities • Employability skills; critical thinking and responsibility; other skills for success in life • Technical and job-specific skills for jobs that offer life-sustaining wages

14. Common Core: Language Arts Standards listing what students need to know and be able to do: • Reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language • Anchordefinitions of students being ready for higher education and for jobs strong enough to support their own families • Grade-by-grade steps to reach anchors, with: • literary and informationalversions of reading for all grades • subject-specific versionsfor middle and high school

15. 6th Grade ELA: Vocabulary Acquisition and Use 4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 6 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. • Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence or paragraph; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. • Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., audience, auditory, audible). • Consult reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech. • Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary).

16. Standards Go Deeper Each Year GRADE 6 READING – LITERATURE: Key Ideas and Details Describe how a particular story’s or drama’s plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution. GRADE 7 READING – LITERATURE: Key Ideas and Details Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot). GRADE 8 READING – LITERATURE: Key Ideas and Details Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.

17. Common Core: Mathematics K-8 standards: • Short enough to allow deep learning • Designed for students to master each skill before moving the next (the way math is learned in many countries with stronger math achievement) • With every grade working to build key mathematical practices

18. Common Core: Mathematics High school standards: • Organized around six main categories, rather than grades, so that schools can teach those elements in more than one order of courses • With continuing work to build those key mathematical practices

19. Six Conceptual Categories • Number & quantity • Algebra • Functions • Modeling • Geometry • Statistics & probability

20. High School Math Courses • Course titles remain the same, algebra I and II, geometry, calculus, etc. • Middle school students may take high school math courses but will still be required to take 4 years of math in high school.

21. Assessment • Illinois assessment system to measure achievement of the new common core standards is currently being developed and will be comprised of four components. • Each component will be computer-delivered and will leverage technology to incorporate innovations.

22. Assessment components • Two summative assessment components designed to • Make “college and career readiness” and “on-track” determinations • Measure the full range of standards and full performance continuum • Provide data for accountability uses, including measures of growth

23. Summative Assessment Components • Performance-Based Assessment (PBA) administered as close to the end of the school year as possible. The ELA/literacy PBA will focus on writing effectively when analyzing text. The mathematics PBA will focus on applying skills, concepts, and understandings to solve multi-step problems requiring abstract reasoning, precision, perseverance, and strategic use of tools.

24. Summative Assessment Components • End-of-Year Assessment (EOY) administered after approx. 90% of the school year.  The ELA/literacy EOY will focus on reading comprehension.  The mathematics EOY will be comprised of innovative, machine-scorable items.

25. Assessment components • Two interim assessment components designed to: • Generate timely information for informing instruction, interventions, and professional development during the school year • In ELA/literacy, a third formative component will assess students’ speaking and listening skills

26. Interim Assessment Components • Early Assessment designed to be an indicator of student knowledge and skills so that instruction, supports and professional development can be tailored to meet student needs • Mid-Year Assessment comprised of performance-based items and tasks, with an emphasis on hard-to-measure standards.  After study, individual states may consider including as a summative component

27. Testing • The target date for implementation of the new assessment is the 2014‐15 school year.

28. For more information: • www.isbe.state.il.us • www.corestandards.org • www.pta.org • www.pepartnership.org

29. Reflections Day 2.7 • What questions do I have about standards-based education?

30. 15 Minute Break

31. School Data • What does school data mean? • How is it used?

32. School Data Sources • ISAT scores grades 3-8 • PSAE scores HS, grade 11 • Explore/Plan scores • AYP status • Surveys from parents, teachers, and students • Student grades • Student enrollment • Student attendance • Graduation rates

33. School/District Report Cards • NCLB requires all states and school districts to prepare and distribute to all parents a report card specifying how every school and district as a whole are performing. • The report card must include specific information on school data.

34. Report Card Scavenger Hunt • Use your school report card and the scavenger hunt provided to look more closely at your school data.

36. Reflections Day 2.8 • What are my “ah-ha’s” or surprises about my school’s data? • What are my concerns? • What can I do to help parents better understand the school report card?

37. QUESTION FORMULATION TECHNIQUE (QFT) • What skills do I have to ask good questions?

38. QUESTION FORMULATION TECHNIQUE (QFT) • Brainstorm a list of school issues • Select an issue • Ask questions about the issue

39. Question Formulation Technique Brainstorm What questions do you have about the issue you have chosen? Prioritize Choose 3 questions that get you closer to answers

40. Close vs. Open-Ended Questions It is helpful to know when to use close-ended or open-ended questions: Close-ended questions are answered with a simple “yes” or “no”. Open-ended questions require more explanation.

41. Close vs. Open-Ended Questions What are the advantages of CLOSE ENDED questions? What are the disadvantages of CLOSE ENDED questions?

42. Close vs. Open-Ended Questions What are the advantages of OPEN ENDED questions? What are the disadvantages of OPEN ENDED questions?

43. Close vs. Open-Ended Questions • Review your list of questions • Change all close-ended questions to open-ended

44. Question Formulation Technique 1. Branch-Off Choose one of the three prioritized questions to focus on 2. Brainstorm • 3. Prioritize again • Choose three questions to focus on

45. Small Group Activity 1. Brainstorm What questions do you have about the issue you have chosen? 3. Branch-Off Choose one of the three prioritized questions to focus on. --Brainstorm 2. Prioritize Choose three questions that get you closer to answers 4. Prioritize again Choose three questions to focus on.

46. Reflection Day 2.9 • How do I plan to use the QFT process?

47. ACTION PLANNING DATA SOURCES: • School report card • District report card • School improvement plan • Research on parent involvement

48. Parents are most likely to become involved if: • They understand they should be involved • They feel capable of making a contribution • They feel welcomed by the school and their children

49. Parent ACTION PLAN School: _________________________________________________________________ Parent Name: ________________________________________________________________ • Ask the parents to help • b. Schedule a date and time that works for everyone