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RLA Home Designing a System Elements of a System District Practices Table Index Local Systems Fed & State Systems Resources |
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Contact Janet Grossnicklaus, Coordinator of Assessment and Accountability Grossnicklaus_j @madera.k12.ca.us 559.675.4500 Joanne Hyman, Educational Specialist Hyman_j@madera.k12.ca.us 559.675.4500 ext 252 Demographics Summary Madera Unified School District provides ongoing professional learning opportunities for all teachers - workshops, curriculum meetings, staff meetings, and classroom observations - for all K-8 teachers to use a Curriculum Guide. The guide is a resource for planning standards-based lessons. It lists content standards, assessments, teaching strategies, learning activities indicating student performance, and instructional time and materials. Essential standards in language arts and mathematics are the highest priority for instruction and elicit parents' and/or legal guardians' understanding of standards-based education. Professional development and staff meetings integrate adult learning and accountability for implementation along with additional opportunities for sharing ideas and problem solving. Full Description Madera Unified School District adopted the state standards in language arts and mathematics and distributed a copy with the state frameworks documents to all schools. District staff provided initial training for site administrators on the standards and frameworks documents. Curriculum Guide The district developed a Curriculum Guide for all teachers in grades K-8 and provided an initial overview to help teachers design standards-based lessons and teach the standards. The development of the Curriculum Guide was influenced by Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) training and suggestions from External Evaluators for schools participating in the Immediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program (II/USP). A five-year plan of professional learning opportunities supports teachers to use the guide and implement standards-based instruction. The Curriculum Guide connects standards, instruction, and assessment. The format of the guide supports standards-based lesson planning -- a sequence of identifying target standards, assessments, instructional strategies, student activities, and curriculum materials. The chart below presents the structure of sample standards-based lessons contained in the Curriculum Guide.
Special Education Content standards also apply to special education students. The district approach is to start with the "instructional grade-level" standards -- standards at a student's current level of instruction -- and challenge students to progress toward chronological grade-level standards. Workshops address how special education teachers can use accommodations in student learning and assessment activities. Professional Development Teachers are given a variety of professional development opportunities to learn and practice standards-based education. Curriculum meetings and Curriculum Updates (supplementary materials) target deeper understanding and application of specific standards in classrooms. The starting point was standards in writing, especially in grades four and seven because of the state writing assessment introduced in Spring 2001. Professional development activities are integrated around standards-based education. For example, Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment (BTSA) workshops provide more intensive training for beginning teachers on teaching and assessing standards. Essential Standards In Spring and Summer 2001, a district committee identified essential standards in mathematics that are similar in scope to the state's substrands (e.g., reading comprehension). Identifying essential standards in language arts is planned for 2001-2002. The essential standards are the highest priority of all standards taught, as determined by weight on state assessments and critical concepts or skills required at the next grade level. Teachers are expected to address all standards, but will emphasize the essential standards. The district's Curriculum Guide is the centerpiece of professional learning opportunities that integrate standards, instruction, and assessment. District staff annually review the five-year plan to determine accomplishments and refine next steps for the district and its schools. The district reviews the school plans annually to ensure they reference specific instructional strategies to teach content standards. A major source of reading strategies comes from the California Department of Education's Strategic Teaching and Learning. Leadership The district expects and trains site administrators to be standards-based leaders. The district protects principals' time to enable them to conduct frequent classroom walk-throughs to observe teachers implementing professional development objectives. Administrator workshops and coaching opportunities build principals' skills to conduct observations and give helpful feedback to teachers. Principals have formed teams and visit others' schools to learn collaboratively. Principals become involved in a particular program or model and share their ideas with the rest of the district team. Study group meetings have helped them learn and grow as an organization. District staff encourages school initiatives, coordinates efforts, integrates schools systems into a districtwide system so that improvement in Madera is a grass roots approach, slowly but methodically building internal capacity and choice. For instance, Baldridge, America's Choice, and Success For All provided models for conducting walk throughs. The district made several changes to protect time for principals to conduct walk throughs. Principal meetings from mornings to 2:30 p.m. and limited frequency to two per month, one for just principals with the Superintendent and the second as the Instructional Leadership Team (principals, vice principals and district staff from Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment). In the latter team meeting, issues about walk throughs and standards-based instruction are discussed. District staff visit schools to observe as well as conduct business whenever possible instead of asking the principal to come to the district office. Accountability Implementation of frequent walk-throughs is part of the principals' personnel evaluation, and they are encouraged to discuss their accomplishments and explore solutions to difficulties at administrator meetings. The principal asks teachers to identify standards being taught during observations and/or in lesson plans. The formal teacher evaluation process includes criteria related to standards-based lesson plans and the California Standards for the Teaching Profession. At the II/USP elementary schools, the action plans state that teachers will discuss standards with their students, and principals at these schools report the extent to which it is happening. The district expects II/USP schools to model for other schools how to raise the awareness of students about the standards they are learning. |
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