Children First Intensive

1. Children First Intensive • Instructional Coherence:Sustaining Gains Through Inquiry • CFN 6 • Frankie and Johnnie’s, September 17, 2009 • Bob Cohen, NL; Deena Abu-Lughod, SATIF • Vivian Alicea-Concepcion, Brandon Alvarez, Germaine Behagan, Dr. Jo Ann Benoit, Deirdre Burke, Freddie Capshaw, Alan Godlewicz, Katherine Marshall-Polite, John O’Neill, Nairobi Pena, John Strachan, Mary Ann Vance,

2. Agenda • 8:30 Welcome! • 8:45 Reflection Connection – Freddie, Kathy • 9:10 Closing the Gap and Chancellor’s Priorities - Deena • 9:15 Sustaining Improvement: Highlights of the Quality Review - Team • 10:30 Gallery Walk and Break • 10:45 Debrief and Next Steps – Jo Ann • 11:15 ARIS Parent Link, ELA Best Practice Conference - Deena • 11:30 Sponsor Presentation • 12:00 Lunch • 1:00 Principals: Legal Issues Inquiry Specialists: Online Resources

3. Reflection Connection • Walk silently; in silence, move from person to person, greeting them silently and exchanging your playing card. • When you hear the chime, search the room for someone holding the same number/face card as your own. Stand back to back. • Listen to the question. Face your partner, and respond. Say as much or as little as you like. • Respond to the second question. Say as much or as little as you like. • Repeat Steps 1-4 • Debrief

4. Honoring our own achievements! • 8 schools were in the top 20% of all elementary/middle schools, based on the Progress Report; 20 out of 22 schools received A’s: • 9x004 – ranked 11th in the city • 9x109 • 9x145 • 9x230 • 10x020 • 10x086 – ranked 20th in the city • 10x340 • 10x360

5. SINCE 2006, MORE NYC STUDENTS IN EVERY GRADE LEVEL ARE MEETING STATE STANDARDS (State began testing all of grades 3-8 in 2006) Percent of Students Meeting or Exceeding State Standards (Scoring at Levels 3 & 4) English Mathematics Largest Gains in Middle Grades 6th 7th 8th Up 49% Up 60% Up 56% Largest Gains in Middle Grades 6th 7th 8th Up 46% Up 84% Up 83% 06 09 06 09 06 09 06 09 06 09 06 09 06 09 06 09 06 09 06 09 06 09 06 09 06 09 06 09 3rd Grade 4th Grade 5th Grade 6th Grade 7th Grade 3rd Grade 4th Grade 8th Grade Grades 3-8 5th Grade 6th Grade 7th Grade 8th Grade Grades 3-8

6. AFTER MAKING LITTLE PROGRESS BEFORE 2002, NYC STUDENTS • HAVE BEEN CLOSING THE GAP WITH THE REST OF THE STATE SINCE 2002 • (NYC is 73% Black/ Hispanic, 84% low income; Rest of State is 23% Black/ Hispanic, 31% low income*) Gap Between NYC & Rest of State in Percent of Students Meeting or Exceeding State Standards 4th Grade English 4th Grade Mathematics Gap Reduction 99-02: 8% Gap Reduction 02-09: 48% Gap Reduction 99-02: 10% Gap Reduction 02-09: 85% 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 8th Grade Mathematics 8th Grade English Gap Increase 99-02: 15% Gap Reduction 02-09: 22% Gap Increase 99-02: 19% Gap Reduction 02-09: 50% 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 Rest of State = NY State minus NYC. * Percent of students in grades 3-8 that took the NY State mathematics test in 2008.

7. After Remaining Nearly Flat for 16 Years, NYC’s Graduation Rate has Increased by 29% Since 2002 Percent of Students in a Cohort Graduating from High School in 4 Years 2002-2008 + 29% 1986-1992 + 9% 1992-2002 + 0% 60.7 • NYC CALCULATION METHOD • (includes August Graduates, Local and Regents Diplomas, GEDs, and Special Education diplomas) 2005-2008 City Method: + 14% State Method: + 21% Class of NYC Calculation Method NY State Calculation Method Note: NYC traditional calculation includes Local and Regents Diplomas, GEDs, Special Education diplomas, and August graduates. It does not include disabled students in self-contained classrooms or District 75 students. The NYS calculation, used since 2005, includes Local and Regents Diplomas and all disabled students. It does not include GEDs and Special Education diplomas.

8. Chancellor’s Goals and Priorities • Goal 1: Achieve student performance gains • Goal 2: Embed the Children First reforms with a focus on sustainability • * * * * * * * * * • Priority 1: Strengthen accountability and achievement toolsfor principals and educators, by expanding the inquiry approach and adoption of ARIS in all schools, including knowledge management, both vertical and horizontal.

9. Children First Intensive (CFI) Priorities • Priority 1: Build school, network and SSO capacity to enable 90% of teachers to be engaged in inquiry with the goal of increasing student achievement. • Priority 4: Promote knowledge building and sharing for inquiry teams through Inquiry Spaces, ARIS Connect more generally, and engagement with other tools/activities. • Priority 5: Use the inquiry model to support distributed leadership and create a leadership pipeline at every level of the organization.

10. Creating great schools starts from a vision of expanding meaningful collaborative inquiry in every school CFI Priority: Build school, network, and SSO capacity to enable 90% of teachers to be engaged in inquiry with the goal of increasing student achievement 90% of teachers citywide engaged in data-driven, research-based collaborative inquiry leads to… … increased leadership, empowerment and accountability in 80,000 classrooms Builds teacher instructional and school leadership capacity; raises retention of talented educators Improves student outcomes Helps to develop and deepen rigorous, research-based instructional strategies and frameworks 1,500 Great Schools

11. Building Coherence: Levers for School Improvement • Curriculum: what are the academic tasks (content, knowledge, skills) that we ask students to do? • Teacher pedagogy: How do teachers support student learning? • Assessment/data: How do we know students are learning? • Collaborative inquiry: How do adults learn and improve their practice? • Structure: How do we use time, space, and other resources to enable student learning?

12. Instructional coherence • Gather and analyze data • Monitor and revise • Plan and set goals • Align capacity building The Revised Quality Review • Increases level of rigor in evaluating school quality • Promotes organizational and instructional coherence • Increases focus on teacher teams engaged in collaborative inquiry practice • Clarifies language and relevance to practice and research • Reduces inadvertent paperwork burden • Improves inter-rater reliability QS1 QS2 QS5 QS3 QS4

13. Instructional coherence • Gather and analyze data • Monitor and revise • Plan and set goals • Align capacity building Collaborative Inquiry supports coherence at the classroom, team and school levels • Classroom coherence: inquiry creates aligned curriculum, pedagogy and assessments for every student • Team coherence: teams use a similar approach to inquiry with a focus on specific student cohorts they teach • School coherence: decisions are made as a result of what teacher teams are learning • Appropriate strategies are identified and monitoredto help build capacity and ensure the use of rigorous curricula, instructional techniques and assessments • In the revision process, teams discuss outcomes and strategies, and share knowledge The inquiry process is aligned to the Quality Review statements

14. Scrutinizing the Quality Review Rubric • Goals: • Identify differences in Quality Review Rubric across Proficient and Well-Developed practice • Acclimate to what’s new in rubric • Take your playing card, find the corresponding table, and examine your table’s task. • Select a reporter • Complete the assigned task on chart paper

15. Quality Review Table Tasks and Facilitators • Aces: Quality Statement 1 • Two: Quality Statement 2 • Three: Quality Statement 3 • Four: Quality Statement 4 • Five: Quality Statement 5 • Six: Teacher teams/teams of teachers • Seven: Structured professional collaboration/inquiry • Eight: Goal setting/goals • Nine: TBD

16. Gallery Walk and Break Walk around alone or with partner and discuss; write clarifying questions on stickies and post them next to language you are confused about. When you return from the break, please return to your original table and school team.

17. Quality Review Debrief • Think/write for a minute about the implications of these changes for practices in your school. • As a school team, select ONE subcriteria (from any Quality Review statement) on which you would like to move your school’s practice from UPF to Proficient or Proficient to Well Developed. Specify what you would need to do to be considered Well Developed on that subcriteria. Consider that a goal for the year. • Share out.

18. What is Inquiry? • Inquiry is a sustained process of investigation and action that empowers teachers to improve student achievement and close the achievement gap. • Inquiry is: • • Focused on student outcomes, using a systematic, data-informed approach. • • Conducted by teams of teachers with a focus on small groups of students, paying close attention to those who are struggling while supporting the learning of all students. • • Designed to develop and deepen rigorous, research-based instructional strategies and frameworks.

19. What is Inquiry? • To do this work, teachers need time together to: • • Review data: student work, teacher work and data found in ARIS. • • Engage in goal setting with students and/or their parents. • • Decide on instructional change strategies for the regular school day and extended time instruction. • • Monitor the impact of the changes on student learning. • • Revise practices and promote classroom and school change based on results.

20. ARIS Parent Link: 60% of Parents Will Create Accounts CFI Priority: Actively engage parents in student learning through ARIS Parent Link • Usage to date • Since ARIS Parent Link launched to all parents last May, over 150,000 permanent passwords have been set • Goals for Adoption • FY 10: At least 60% of accounts (≈570,000) • FY 11: At least 90% of ARIS Parent Link accounts (≈860,000) • Resources • All resources and training materials are available within ARIS Connect in the ARIS Parent Link Information and Resources community: https://www.arisnyc.org/connect/node/365078/community/resources • Email ARISParentLink@schools.nyc.gov** • Call (212) 374-6646** • ** Please note: These resources are for DOE employees ONLY. They cannot support the potential volume of requests from parents. All parents should work with the parent coordinator at their child’s school for support.

21. ARIS Parent Link: New for Fall • Parent contact information • Student biographical information • Links to school’s Progress Report, Quality Review, Learning Environment Survey, and State Report Card • Walkthroughs to answer the questions: • How can I choose a school for my child? • How is my child’s school doing? • E-PAL and NYSESLAT scores and walkthroughs • Transcripts of Mayor’s message in all languages • Current class assignments (beginning Sept. 9th) • Parent-Teacher Conferences • Critical opportunity to improve the quality of parent-teacher relationships to drive better student outcomes • Encourage each of your schools to have parents log in to ARIS Parent Link before going to their child’s Parent-Teacher Conference • Ensure that parents in your schools have access to the resources they need to log in to ARIS Parent Link

22. ELA and Math Best Practices Conferences • October 22: ELADecember 9: Mathematics • Use the ELA Average Gains by Grade and Incoming Performance Levelor the NYSESLAT Passing Rates handouts to identify a grade where your ELA gains, especially for 3s + 4s, were especially high, or where your NYSESLAT Passing Rate was especially high. Use the Average Scores for Multiple Choice and Constructed Response to identify high performing classrooms. • Work with the relevant staff to identify the best practice/strategy that contributed to your success. Prepare a 10-15 minute presentation for the conference. Enter information on the ARIS wikispace.

23. Upcoming Technical Support Sessions • Supplemental Session: Wednesday, September 30 ARIS Reports • 1-3 pm, Room 820 (Computer Lab), 1 Fordham Plaza • RSVP REQUIRED: Limited enrollment. No laptops or downloads needed. • Supplemental Session: Wednesday, October 7: Using Student-Level Progress Report Data (a.m.); Using State Item Data (p.m.) • 8:30-11:00; 12:00-2:00 pm, Room 76, 1230 Zerega Avenue • RSVP REQUIRED: Bring Laptop and Progress Report Data from ARIS Reports and/or Item Data from ARIS Connect (your school’s Private community). • Periodic Assessment Training on PD Web site: • http://schools.nyc.gov/Accountability/ResourcesforEducators/PeriodicAssessments/ • Periodic+Assessment+Professional+Development.htm

24. Evaluation • Please complete the evaluation form and submit to a team member. • Note that the team will be sending all Inquiry Specialists an online survey that will help the team shape future agendas around our learning needs. Our needs may relate to improving the quality of the Inquiry work we already do, or leadership skills for extending and embedding inquiry work throughout our schools.

25. A Word From Our Sponsor Thank you Sussman Sales Represented by Arnie Zeitlin!

26. Preparing to Look at Data • Before looking at any data, surface your assumptions, expectations and predictions. • Answer the following questions regarding the ELA: • In what grades did my school make the greatest ELA gains for Level 1+2 students? • In what grades did my school make the greatest ELA gains for Level 3+4 students? • Think of grade 4, 6 or 8. Relative to other network schools, did my school do best on the multiple choice, listening, reading or writing component? • Did my school’s NYSESLAT passing rate exceed that of most other schools in the network?

27. 2009 ELA and 2007-2009 NYSESLAT Data • In your packets, you will find 3 data items to support you in deciding what to present at the October 22 Conference: • The average ELA gains by grade and incoming performance level. This will help you see in which grades and amongst which students your school excelled, relative to other network schools. • The average ELA scores for multiple choice, listening, reading and writing mechanics for each classroom in Grade 4, 6 and 8. • The distribution of students on the NYSESLAT from 2007-1009, by beginning, intermediate, advanced and passing levels.

28. How might these resources best be used? • Take 5 minutes to examine your own school’s ELA data and jot down some notes: • Here’s What (what do you see?): • So What (what are the implications?): • Now What (what will you do?)

29. Online Resources: Quick and Almost Green! Mathematics: http://schools.nyc.gov/Academics/Mathematics/EducatorResources/default.htm Item Analysis from 2008 and 2009 plus test questions: http://schools.nyc.gov/Academics/Mathematics/EducatorResources/Item+Analyses.htm Science: http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/exeres/37B9B951-BE5B-432F-868F-EF45F72704BC.htm Grade 4 and 8 Item Analysis from 2006-2008 plus test questions: http://schools.nyc.gov/Academics/Science/EducatorResources/Science+Test+Data.htm

30. What the Item Analyses Look Like

31. Look for Items Where Gap Was Widest

32. Examine the Items: Great Format!

33. Online Resources Jo Ann

34. Changes in Periodic Assessment 2009-10 Plan • Grades K–3: Only the E-PAL administration dates will move (from May to January 11–25). • Grades 3–8:Changes to Acuity Predictive and Instructionally Targeted Assessment (ITA) windows (schools will not need to select new Periodic Assessments for 2009–10; Acuity orders will be automatically updated with new windows) • High School:no changes • Design Your Own (DYO):Schools are encouraged to adjust their plans, though not required to submit revised proposals.

35. Changes to the 2009 10 38 Test Schedule

36. Assessment data available for inquiry work Schools won’t have October ELA Predictive results this year, but can use results from several other assessments this fall. • 2009 New York State Testitem and skill matrix reports for grades 3–8 are in each school's private community in ARIS; will be updated for 2009-10 rosters in late Sept. • Results of students’ June Acuity Predictive assessments are reported in ARIS and the Acuity Web site (under Prior Year Reports): • Results include % correct and scaled score (not predicted levels) • Performance Series online assessments can be used as diagnostic assessments for students at the start of the year. • Schools can use the Acuity Item Bank to create diagnostic assessments. • Assessments can include educator-created items (item authoring tool). • Acuity Instructional Resources can reinforce instructional support in areas of weakness identified by any of the above data sources.

37. New State Test Item & Skill Matrix Reports Performance Indicator, question number and type, and answer choice distribution Performance level, scaled score, proficiency rating, and SPI Correct answers are highlighted in green

38. Suggested Learning Objectives from Performance Series Online Assessments Instructional resources are available for each of the suggested learning objectives State-aligned objectives are listed in order of difficulty. The first listed skill is closest to the student’s current ability. Skills Attained are listed to show what students have already accomplished