Skills Iowa

1. Skills Iowa Sioux City July 8 and 18, 2014

2. Introductions • Margaret Buckton • Rhonda Justice • Susie Olesen • Doug Robbins

3. A moment of reflection • What data and information . . . . . . • do you need to do your new position of consulting teacher well? • do teachers need to do their jobs well? • do students need to be successful in school? • do parents need?

4. What is Skills Iowa? Bank of questions in reading comprehension, math and the conventions of language aligned to Common Core State Standards • Sioux City Interim Assessments • Quarterly in both math and reading • 20 questions each • Aligned to Sioux City pacing guides and power standards • Q2-Q4 will be reused with possible slight modifications to compare data over years • Q1 assessments will be new. • State Interim Assessments – Optional for Individual Teachers and Buildings • 9 annually in reading comprehension • Fiction • Non-fiction science text • Non-fiction social studies text • 3 annually in math • Cover same standards Over 1300 five to ten minute tutorials in reading comprehension, vocabulary, the conventions of writing, math, science, employability skills aligned to Common Core State Standards

5. Research Supporting Skills Iowa

6. Usage • Classes exceeding expected gains on the math benchmark tests had teachers who used all of the components of Skills Iowa more than teachers of classes with lower than expected gains. • Effective teachers found SI to be a valuable resource in raising student achievement. • Increased usage does not guarantee increased test scores. The “How” SI is used is far more important than the “How much”

7. Professional Development Joyce and Showers (1987)

8. How does this happen? Leadership Professional Development Joyce and Showers (1987)

9. Support teachers in taking quarterly benchmark assessments and stressing that usage isn’t optional. Clear and high expectations. • Finding time for trainers to work with principal, coaches, and staff, sometimes together, sometimes separately. Professional development. • Looking at the data, sharing data with students, staff, parents, school board. Using data to determine where to go next. • Student learning • Usage • Asking teachers about the data: What do you see? Areas for improvement? Surprises? Where are you going next in instruction as a result of data study? Creating a collaborative environment. • Using data in PD work and faculty meetings; modeling importance of data. Modeling what is expected. Leadership

10. David NagelCorwin Professional Learning dave@davenagel.com • “Measurable improvement in student learning only occurred in PLCs that focused on changing the instructional practices of their teachers.” • Supovitz, 2002; Supovitz & Christman 2003 http://www.davenagel.com/uploads/files/ISFIS/Slides%20from%20PLC%20Session.pdf

11. Waterloo Study Dr. Jane Lindaman Participation on Skills Iowa is decent in that 73% of students take at least 8 of the 9 reading tests. (82% take at least 7 of 9 reading tests.) There is a significant correlation between Skills Iowa benchmark tests and Iowa Assessments. When students pass the majority of Skills Iowa tests, they are quite likely (80-90% likely) to be proficient on Iowa Assessments. "Given the predictive value of the Skills Iowa benchmarks related to the Iowa Assessments, this program has gone from being a 'nice to have' to a 'need to have' tool." Jane Lindaman, Superintendent, Waterloo Community School District

12. DEMO • Remember: There are two programs edifyASSESS Skills Tutor

13. Sioux City Implementation2014-15 • Calendar – 4 quarterly tests • What needs to happen before the first assessment? • What needs to happen after each assessment? • Resources

14. Sioux City Implementation2014-15 Proposed Skills Iowa Testing Windows (a little longer time frame) Q1: Sept 15 – Oct 3 Q2: Nov 19 – Dec 9 Q3: Feb 9 – Feb 27 Q4: Apr 20 – May 7

15. 16 hours of training for each building available: Doug and Rhonda • Teach principals to use program, primarily access reports • Teach coaches to use program, access reports, make assessments • Teach teachers to use program, set up classes, access reports, make assessments, make Skills Tutor assignments, access tools in edifyAssess • Work with tech folks to be sure systems and Skills Iowa tools are compatible • Work with tech folks and clickers • Work with collaborative teams in looking at the data

16. Before the first assessment, technology personnel… • Submit Skills Iowa spreadsheet to Doug Robbins with names, state IDs, and other demographic information of students and teachers that Skills Iowa has requested • Work with Doug to ensure the clickers work • Make sure both edifyAssess and Skills Tutor are accessible in the Sioux City system

17. Before the first assessment, teachers... • Create classes from enrollment data submitted by district tech personnel. • Enter any new students not entered on initial entry into classes. • Give each student their username and password. • Make sure the pop-up blockers on computers used by students to take the assessments are turned off. Recheck for each assessment. • If using clickers (check with tech folks on accessibility), check that the system is in working order. Contact building tech coach with any concerns.

18. Before each quarterly assessment, school leaders (principals, consulting teachers) … • Develop a schedule for classes needing to access computer labs/carts to take assessments. Communicate this schedule with all staff. • Schedule quarterly meetings with Doug or Rhonda to work with the leadership team to analyze and use quarterly assessment reports to direct instruction. • ASAP: schedule new teacher leaders into a two hour initial training session. • Communicate and expect the quarterly assessment data will be used in collaborative teams, identifying students for extra help, planning instruction, follow-up formative assessment confirmations, etc. . . . talk about it – ask teachers in casual conversations, what SkillsIowa data did you discuss in your team conversation? What are you gathering now in preparation for your next team conversation? What are you doing differently in your classroom this week after talking about the benchmarks in your last team meeting?

19. Before the first assessment, central office personnel … • Make clear that all schools will participate in Skills Iowa by giving the assessments and using the data in the school improvement work. • Celebrate gains in buildings that were good early implementers and create opportunities for success stories to be told. • On-going: Remind principals, consulting teachers and instructional coaches about available support from trainers. Ask, what are you learning about classrooms in your building?

20. After each assessment. . . • Communicate any problems to technology staff, leadership or trainers that occurred during test administration, so issues can be addressed and solved. • Central office, building leaders, and teachers analyze assessment data. Doug and Rhonda will schedule a short meeting to assist each in analyzing data. • That analysis leads to these actions: • collaborative teams use data for planning lessons that address challenges, • collecting more data – what else do we need to know? • setting goals for student performance, and • other actions the team identifies as helpful.

21. Dylan Wiliam • “Why formative assessment needs to be a priority for every school” webinar and slides linked on the www.skillsiowa.org site under Research on School Improvement tab: It’s not the data – it’s what we do with the data.

22. Dylan Wiliam • “Why formative assessment needs to be a priority for every school” webinar and slides linked on the www.skillsiowa.org site under Research on School Improvement tab: It’s not the data – it’s what we do with the data.

23. Resources: • Doug Robbins DougR@skillsiowa.org • Rhonda Justice Rhonda@skillsiowa.org • Skills Iowa www.skillsiowa.org(check out the resources for school improvement) • ISFIS School Improvement Boosters http://www.skillsiowa.org/?q=publications

24. We will focus on two reports today. • Item Response Distribution Report • How might this report be useful to you in your work in improving student performance? • Detailed Performance on Standards Report • How might this report be useful to you in your work in improving student performance? P.S. There are many other reports: read about them, access them, call Doug and Rhonda, look for short training webinars. . . Lots to come

25. Let’s look at Reports and Dig In • What’s in it? How might you use this report in your work? • Item Response Distribution • Performance Band Report • Detailed Performance on Standards • Student Performance on Standards • Score Distribution • Usage Reports

26. Final feedback and Reflections: What three things do you want to remember about today? Any other comments?

27. Thanks for all you do and all you will do to improve outcomes for Sioux City students!