| Support for Keystone Quality Teacher Framework Project
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During Year 7, MACC will assist the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) with building capacity to develop ongoing professional development focused on teacher quality and improved academic achievement. MACC will work with the Deputy Secretary of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Division of Federal Programs and Bureau of Teacher Quality, in recasting teacher quality issues and policies from the NCLB standard of “highly qualified” to the emerging standard of “highly effective.” Working with the CC on Teacher Quality, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and others, a new teacher and principal evaluation model has been developed and is being piloted in four Pennsylvania school districts. MACC will help carry this work forward by assisting PDE in presenting the new teacher and principal evaluation design to SIG grantee districts and school. This process began prior to the SIG Principal’s Academy, September 26-28, 2011, and will be carried forward with technical assistance for potential adopting districts and schools during the school year. MACC is contributing to Pennsylvania’s transition from teacher quality to teacher effectiveness by leveraging expert contributions and relevant research to support state capacity to implement ongoing professional development, change the recommended teacher evaluation model and validate its usefulness. MACC is helping PDE to leverage the implementation of principal and teacher effectiveness evaluation by assisting PDE in offering its model to SIG grantees in a series of scheduled conferences and in individualized technical assistance to districts or schools as requested. MACC will also continue to serve as a critical friend and support to department staff working to improve teacher quality. |
| Refinement of Pennsylvania State Assessment Policies for Accommodating English Language Learners (ELLs)
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Previously, MACC provided ELL accommodations technical assistance and individualized support to the five MACC state education agencies (SEAs) in the MACC region during 2009-2010 as the SEAs updated and refined their state ELL assessment policies. In Year 7, MACC will increase PDE's capacity to appropriately address the unique needs of ELL students by supporting them in improving the SEA’s assessment accommodation policies so they are more responsive to the individual needs of each ELL child. Based on the success of this project in previous years, PDE has requested that this assistance continue in 2011-2012. Using the Guide for the Refinement of State Assessment Policies for Accommodating English Language Learners (Rivera, Acosta, & Shafer Willner, 2008), MACC will continue to facilitate conversations and coach the PDE state team (assessment, Title III, and Title I directors) through a process of review and refinement of individual state assessment policies for accommodating ELLs. MACC will provide the PDE team with individualized and group coaching and technical assistance via web and telephonic conferences in addition to inviting the PDE team to attend one face-to face meeting with other SEA teams and allow them to share what has been learned. The meeting also will allow the SEAs to identify common themes and issues in the mid-Atlantic region that need further attention. Finally, PDE will be asked to develop a presentation to present to their peers at the national Title I Conference and/or CCSSO Student Assessment Conference. |
| Supporting the Implementation of the PDE’s Migrant Education Program (MEP) Statewide Service Delivery Plan (SDP) |
MACC will provide technical assistance to build Pennsylvania’s capacity to identify and develop resources and training for LEAs that are charged with improving migrant student and family outcomes. The PA MEP SDP specifies a need to: "Develop training models for MEP educators related to ‘improving the quality and effectiveness of supplemental instructional reading and math programs.” MACC will assist MEP field staff by providing technical assistance on improving reading achievement of migrant children (enrolled in secondary schools) statewide through the formation of regional teams of educators that will focus on research-based literacy and STEM competency strategies. MACC will be working with both SEA and LEA educators to build their capacity to continue with similar statewide training efforts in the future. At the request of the program director, MACC will continue working with the state on their Comprehensive Needs Assessment (CNA) Review project (begun in MACC’s Year 6) to target four specific program improvement areas—Mathematics, High School Graduation, Out of School Youth, and Health--as they strive to implement and expand the goals and objectives of their statewide SDP. |
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Collaborative Coaching Board (CCB) |
In Year 7, MACC will support the CCB in creating a common definition and vision of coaching in PA schools and to share that vision with schools, districts, IU’s, and colleges and universities in Pennsylvania. MACC will also support the CCB’s work in designing collaborative support and guidance for all coaching initiatives being implemented in Pennsylvania schools. MACC staff has experience training and supporting coaches in PA and in other states, and have worked with coaches at the school, district, and state level and can share insights on issues related to coaching at different levels. Because MACC staff are not advocates of any particular coaching initiative, and are not involved in PDE funding decisions, this neutral stance and cross-state perspective, can help the CCB make decisions and create support and guidance that will support the success of all its coaching initiatives. |
| COI-MACC-PDE Collaboration on RTI Implementation Practices |
The purpose of this project is to increase the body of knowledge and broaden the dissemination of effective practices associated with the state-level integration of the Response to Intervention (RTI) process in school improvement efforts in Pennsylvania and nationwide. MACC will continue its collaboration with the Pennsylvania Department of Education, and the Center on Instruction, which intends to continue to observe Pennsylvania’s RTI planning and implementation process and create products that will inform and guide other states in implementing RTI. MACC's assistance in this project is as a broker between national centers, regional centers, labs, and PDE. MACC will help coordinate the external assistance from numerous centers so that it is beneficial to PDE in meeting their needs, as well as providing the centers with process, program, and progress information about PDE's implementation of RTI. In this project, MACC aims to: (1) serve as an intermediary between Pennsylvania and the Center on Instruction, and other national centers that have joined forces to collaborate and leverage resources to the benefit of the recipients of network services and TA, (2) serve as a critical friend to engage PDE leaders in reflective and proactive improvement of the PDE capacity to implement RTI and to coordinate RTI implementation with other district and school reform and improvement efforts that are part of PDE's strategic plan, and (3) participate in the RTII for ELLs Focus Group that was established in 2009 to build SEA and Intermediate Unit capacity to apply the PA RTII framework to the education of English Language Learners. |
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Using Academic English (AE) in Implementation of Common Core Standards in English Language Arts and Literacy |
MACC will provide technical assistance to build Pennsylvania’s capacity to provide professional development that includes initial training for instructional leaders followed by ongoing training and support throughout the school year. The state curriculum system will enhance and expand professional development to align implementation of the Common Core English Language Arts and Literacy with an Academic English (AE) curriculum. MACC’s parent organization GW-CEEE has become a national leader in academic English frameworks and related state professional development Recently, GW-CEEE carried out a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to analyze the academic English used in state standards, instructional and assessment materials in the states of New York and California. This initial work focused on introductory Algebra and Biology, since these gateway courses, when successfully completed, are associated with high levels of secondary achievement. This work with English Language Arts and Literacy will provide Pennsylvania with a framework for professional development and lesson planning as it implements the Common Core standards in English Language Arts and Literacy. |
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Supporting the Implementation of the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s School Improvement Grants to Districts and Schools |
MACC will provide technical assistance to build Pennsylvania’s capacity to provide technical assistance and training for LEAs and schools that are implementing School Improvement Grants (SIG). MACC’s principal contributions will be to: (1) enhance the SEA system of support by building the capacity of the Division of Federal Programs (DFP) to monitor and evaluate SIG program implementation strategies employed by districts and schools. Beginning with a survey of SIG Principals, MACC is assisting DFP to differentiate technical assistance determined in part by perceived needs of school leaders, (2) share examples from other states and tools developed by the content centers to support the DFP with efforts to improve collaboration with other federal/state/district supplemental programs to ensure that the SIG school students continue to receive the support they need to stay in school and succeed, and (3) assist the DFP in developing additional rounds of training and technical assistance throughout the year, including at least one face-to face conference and two webinars on topics that are most needed by the SIG principals as identified in the needs assessment and in the discussions on Eduplanet. |
For more information regarding MACC’s work in Pennsylvania please contact MACC’s Pennsylvania State Coordinator James Ruff at jruff@ceee.gwu.edu or Team Member Janet Brown at jbrown@ceee.gwu.edu
