Strengthening Teacher Approaches to CCSS & NGSS through Proficiency:  Lessons from BEC/ODE State Demonstration Sites (Grades 4-8)

Perry LaBounty, Principal, Talmadge Middle School, Central SD
Patrick Waugh, Teacher, Talmadge Middle School, Central SD
Alisha Bowen, Teacher, Talmadge Middle School, Central SD
Dale Inskeep, Principal, Sunset School, Coos Bay SD
Sondra Sperling, Teacher, Sunset School, Coos Bay SD
Brian Hutchins, Teacher, Sunset School, Coos Bay SD
Andrew Roundy, Teacher, Sunset School, Coos Bay SD
Shirley Tremel, Teacher, Sunset School, Coos Bay SD
Scott Marsh, Principal, Madison Middle School, Eugene SD
Allison Machado, Teacher, Madison Middle School, Eugene SD
Jan Youngman, Teacher, Madison Middle School, Eugene SD
Ronda Fyer, Madison Middle School, Eugene SD

Building administrators and teacher leader teams from three (3) different schools will share their journey in becoming a State demonstration site school and the steps they took in implementing proficiency-based instruction, grading and reporting. They will outline the key lessons learned and challenges they have experienced.  You will hear responses from each of the schools on the benefits in using proficiency strategies for the teacher and for the student. Learn how they hold students accountable through interventions and how they went about designing formative and summative assessments that modeled constructed response and performance tasks to help students with CCSS and NGSS assessments. The use of rubrics and grading scales will also be conveyed. Material generated by classroom teachers will be shared. 

Setting the Stage: Telling Our District Story with Specific Focus On Elementary Schools

Mathieu Aubuchon, Director of Early Childhood Education, Adams County SD, CO

This session will be a summary of Adams 50 School District’s journey towards being a competency-based system in Colorado. Attendees will be given a history of the district’s implementation of the Learning-centered Competency-based System (CBS) model, the rationale for the systemic shift, and the successes and pitfalls along the way. The presenter will describe the systemic changes from a PreK-12 perspective along with a focus on how CBS is different from a traditional instructional model.

This session will give an overview of the mission of the district from the preK-12 perspective; but, it will have a specific focus for elementary schools and the moral imperative of why competency-based education makes sense at the elementary level.

Creating a Learner Centered Environment

Jaime Robles, Principal, School Lindsay High School, CA

How do your students respond when you ask them to revise their work?  What do they say when you tell them the work doesn’t reflect their best effort?  If your school is like Lindsay High School used to be, your students might not care; they might just be tired of school work that doesn’t seem meaningful to them and teachers they think don’t seem to care whether they succeed or not. Learn how teachers created learning environments where kids want to do their best and to work for a proficient level of knowledge and skill.

Process Do’s and Don’ts in Implementing a Proficiency-based Model for 6-12 Schools

Carlos Sequeira, Collaboration Director, Bethel SD
Jill Robinson, Assistant Principal, Shasta Middle School, Bethel SD
Brady Cottle, Principal, Prairie Middle School, Bethel SD
Natalie Oliver, Math Teacher/TOSA, Bethel SD

A team of Bethel administrators will share their journey in implementing an aligned proficiency-based model for their 6-8 schools. Gain knowledge on where they are now in their journey, the challenges they faced and specific steps taken that worked and those that didn’t work to move Proficiency forward in their schools. Then, hear their plans for the future.

The team will share specific processes and communication strategies used to inform parents, teachers, administrators and community members. You will walk away with specific tools and communication examples that you could adapt for your own district and school.

Communicating with Stakeholders: Lessons Learned the Hard Way

Scott Depew, Principal, Umatilla High School, Umatilla SD

Regardless of how you implement proficiency practices in your schools or districts, communication with your stakeholders is critical for long-term success. You will find out quickly that your stakeholders not only have genuine interest in what changes are happening, but also a real desire for adequate information.  Good communication practices ensure all stakeholders’ needs are met (both those actively involved and those who will eventually be affected).

Umatilla High School is now in Year Five of a school re-design centered on proficiency practices. We have learned a lot (often the hard way) and will provide some direction and advice on how to make implementation a success. Samples of communication materials will be shared.

Recording and Reporting in a Competency-Based System with Specific Supports for Elementary Classrooms and Administrators

Mathieu Aubuchon, Director of Early Childhood Education, Adams County SD, CO

This session will focus on the recording/reporting components of CBS including a look at the competency-based reporting software, discussion of data dialogues and internal processes within schools (specifically at the elementary level) and the role of student and parental ownership in a competency-based system model. While the tools and processes are able to be used at any grade level, this session will focus on specific supports for elementary classrooms and administration.

Performance Based Education – The Nuts and Bolts

Jaime Robles, Principal, School Lindsay High School, CA

Creating a true performance-based model requires some tough decisions and changes in practices.  Join Jaime Robles as he shares a hard  look at some of the logistics involved in the implementation of a performance based delivery  system. He will discuss how staff reached agreements including, but not limited to,  retaking assessments, regrouping, homework, the use of zeros, and grading.

Ensuring Proficiency Success:  Teachers Helping Teachers through the Newly Designed BEC Proficiency Portal

Diane Smith, Director of Teaching & Learning, Business Education Compact

Teachers constantly look for resources to use in their classrooms, reflecting a wide range of needs, from formative and summative assessments, to units of study, alignment documents, rubrics for academic standards, classroom behaviors and activities aligned to CCSS and NGSS. The newly designed BEC document portal has undergone an alignment to CCSS and NGSS, as well as adding a search engine to help teachers find documents by grade level/standard/and domain.  Bring your computer, iPad, tablet, or other technology to explore the new portal and experience where to find some of the newly updated documents at this one-of-a-kind site in the state!

Creating a Fluid Master Schedule:  How to Offer Students the Ability to Advance Upon Mastery

Sarah Braman-Smith, Principal, Madras High School, Jefferson County SD

Is it possible to keep rigor high and offer students an opportunity to move through the standards in a self-paced system? After using proficiency-based elements and strategies for several years, Madras High School recognized that some students were ready to move on to the standards in the next course before the end of a grading period. Yet their system didn’t allow for this to happen.  As a State demonstration site partner with the Business Education Compact, Madras High School staff was able to explore how to offer an accelerated model that doesn’t hold students back. Join Madras staff members and administrators to learn how their professional development and dialogue helped them get over the hurdles and put a model in place that is student centered.

Proficiency Assessment through Content, Create and Community:  Ensuring Student Ownership

Andy Hock, Teacher, Academy of Arts and Academics, Springfield SD

Proficiency is not a simple regurgitation of the facts found in a Google search; instead it is a holistic approach that measures not just what a student knows, but what a student can do with what he knows.  We call this system “C3” - short for Content, Create, and Community.  Real proficiency happens when we connect these three components.  Students engage BEYOND the Content by Creating their own demonstrations of what they have learned.  They work interdependently with their peers and with experts in a Community, and, as a result, their work reflects a high level of student ownership and buy-in.  Handouts of sample units will be provided.

Competency-based System Instruction in the Elementary Classroom

Mathieu Aubuchon, Director of Early Childhood Education, Adams County SD, CO

Adams 50 elementary teachers foster a highly nurturing elementary environment where all students, kindergarten through fifth grade, move through instructional levels based on ability. Classroom environments, processes and schedules are set up in such a manner to assist students with functioning in different levels across content areas.  

Attendees will discover how instruction is set up and classes are arranged, as well as the role of teacher leadership necessary to support a shared vision and beliefs that are essential to the CBS journey. Examples of lesson design, interventions and serving students with special needs will be provided.

Shared Leadership:  Are You Ready to Get Onboard?

Jaime Robles, Principal, School Lindsay High School, CA

What roles have you trained your parents and community members to take on in helping your students be successful in a performance-based delivery model?  What are the leadership qualities of your teachers, support staff and your administration?  Are they there for you when you need them?  Do these groups know what the students in your building are learning and how capable they are?  All stakeholders are responsible for the success of your students.  This session addresses on how you can create a strong climate of learning that includes  all stakeholders  including, but not limited to staff, learners, parents and community members.

Teaching Smarter Not Harder-Online on-Demand Self-Graded Assessments

Terrel Smith, Teacher, Sherwood High School, Sherwood SD

Attendees will learn how to reduce grading time and increase student ownership of course assessments, both formative and summative, through the use of Examview, Moodle, Google Forms, and Flubaroo.  Examview, a popular test generating software that publishers include for teachers when districts adopt their textbooks, provides teachers with network ready and online tests, either developed from content databases or from original design.  Google Forms can be used like Survey Monkey to build assessments that can be made available to students online.  Flubaroo is an add-on to Google Forms for self-grading of objective questions.  Both Google Forms and Flubaroo support question design that reflects a higher level of thinking taxonomy, such as analyze, synthesize, and evaluate.  Teachers will easily make the transition between these on-demand self-grading assessment models and the complex process skills that students need to be able to demonstrate for success in the SBACC and the NGSS.

Using Instructional Coaching to Improve Proficiency Practices of Teachers

Craig King, Instructional Coach, McKay HS, Salem-Keizer SD

Data drives many professional development decisions and creates the momentum behind a variety of important initiatives.  McKay High School’s teachers benefit from having an instructional coach who provides training and professional development to PLCs to integrate data protocols in proficiency-based instruction.   In other words, the instructional coach works with the PLCs to review available data and analyze student work to evaluate student growth.  When they are finished, the team determines learning needs based on these student data points and puts a plan together that focuses on improving student learning.  McKay’s teachers are beginning to use proficiency with a growth mindset to recognize that each student is capable of making optimum academic achievement.