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New Resources

Quick Reference Guides to the 2017 ELA/Literacy Curriculum Framework
ESE has created four Quick Reference Guides to support effective implementation of the ELA/Literacy Framework. The first, "Massachusetts Anchor Standards for Reading," shows how the ten anchor standards work together to define what and how students should read in school. Two additional guides, one tailored to the elementary grades and another to the secondary grades, describe the role of close reading in the standards and in the classroom. The fourth, "Text Complexity and the Growth of Reading Comprehension," provides guidelines and resources designed to help educators choose appropriately complex texts for their students. These guides are short and snappy - two pages only - so that they are accessible and easy to distribute. We will release additional guides throughout the school year, so stay tuned! 
"What to Look For" Observation Guides
ESE, in partnership with PK-12 educators, developed a suite of grade-level and content-area specific observation guides for classroom mentors and evaluators. Our “What to Look For” (WTLF) guides help an observer understand the effective teacher and student behaviors to look for in classrooms as well as the content that aligns with updated curriculum frameworks. The WTLF guides are easy to use. The front page details the knowledge and skills students should be learning in their grade level; the back page lists the examples of student and teacher behaviors aligned to selected Professional Standards for Teachers (PSTs), Candidate Assessment of Performance (CAP) Essential Elements, and the Standards of Effective Practice used in the MA Educator Evaluation Frameworks. We encourage you to download and/or print the guides from our webpage.
Updated Guidebook for Inclusive Practice
Our late Commissioner Mitchell Chester once said that "parents want to know [that] the school experience is enjoyable, safe, and that their children are learning." Inclusive Practice helps all students - no matter what - enjoy school, feel safe, and learn. The Guidebook for Inclusive Practice has a wealth of resources for educators who want to improve their ability to meet the increasingly diverse needs of our students, including struggles with gender identity, poverty, and trauma. New features in the Guidebook include a job-embedded professional development planning guide and guidance for communicating about inclusion. We encourage all educators to think about how your systems and processes can be improved to allow all students to be educated within the same educational community. To learn more about how we are helping to improve equitable access to quality education in Massachusetts, please read our Equity Plan
New Partnership Toolkit

Effective partnerships between school districts and educator preparation providers improve student outcomes and build strong employment pipelines. ESE’s new Partnership Toolkit emerged from a year of close work with district-prep partnerships in Boston, Salem and Brockton. The Toolkit provides a comprehensive set of tools and resources designed to support the initiation, implementation, and continuous improvement of partnerships.
 
“It’s so exciting to see all of the tools and resources that we utilized to develop the vision for the Boston University (BU)/Boston Public Schools (BPS) pipeline,” says Jenn Bryson, Faculty Director of Educator Preparation at BU. Over the last year, BU and BPS worked to expand an existing partnership with The Trotter School (Dorchester) to two additional Boston schools and officially launched the Student Teaching Placement Network this summer. 

The full toolkit is available here. Please send any questions to our Ed Prep team. 

Opportunities

Join our 2017-2018 Educator Networks!
ESE welcomes educators from across the state to join our 2017–18 mathematics, literacy, and science educator networks. These networks are designed to drive implementation of the 2017 Mathematics and ELA/Literacy Frameworks and the 2016 Science and Technology/Engineering (STE) Framework. We are calling on classroom leaders, school leaders, and district leaders to partner across districts to learn, to test and refine tools and strategies, and to innovate. The networks and links to registration are below. The full list in a shareable PDF format is available here
WIDA Professional Development
ESE is proud to offer various new WIDA professional development opportunities at no cost to districts, listed below. We encourage you to register teams of educators working with English learners to attend.

1.      Collaboration: October 3-4, Devens. Register here. (Full)
2.      Scaffolding Language: October 31-November 1, Burlington. Register here. (Full)
3.      Engaging ELs in Science: November 14-15, Marlborough. Register here.
4.      Scaffolding Language: November 27-28, Hudson. Register here.
5.      Lesson Planning: December 4-5, Falmouth. Register here.
6.      Engaging ELs in Science: December 12-13, Devens. Register here.
7.      Engaging ELs in Math: March 13-14, Holyoke. Register here.

Stay tuned for an updated Collaboration Tool, and interactive guide to the Collaboration Tool, and eight new videos of the ESL MCUs in action!
Grant Opportunity
ESE has launched a new grant program to support school districts interested in making substantial changes in resource allocation and directing more resources toward evidence-based improvement strategies. The main priority for this grant program is to improve district practices for resource allocation, specifically supporting districts to:
  • Examine and question resource allocation in more depth, using data available in districts along with tools provided by ESE, particularly Resource Allocation and District Action Reports (RADAR)
  • Make meaningful changes in resource allocation to support best practices and district improvement strategies
  • Measure the impact of resource shifts on the desired outcomes. Districts awarded grants will be paired with an action research consultant who will help gather data, measure impact and report results.
This is a great opportunity to act on long-term investments associated with curriculum implementation, pipeline development in partnership with educator preparation programs, or staffing/scheduling models that will directly impact teaching and learning in your district. Please go here to learn more! The application deadline is Monday, October 16, 2017.

Key Updates

Leading the Nation
Thanks to the incredible work of our educators, Massachusetts schools are the best in the country and among the best in the world. During the upcoming school year, we will be gathering with students, parents, and teachers to celebrate their accomplishments. Please visit our Leading the Nation page to sign up for updates! We looking forward to celebrating with you.
Educator Licensure
In June, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education made changes to our licensure regulations. Our overview of the changes is available here for you to read.  

District Spotlight: Haverhill Public Schools

There is a buzz in the content area classrooms of Haverhill High School (HHS).

After being placed in Level 3 status, teachers and administrators at HHS engaged in a close collaborative examination of their MCAS data to determine their next steps. They visualized their data by test question by using different colors to highlight proficient, just under proficient, and low scores. HHS's Data Specialist then aligned the results to the Massachusetts ELA/Literacy Curriculum Framework to determine key levers for curricular alignment and overall improvement.

ESE's Northeast District and School Assistance Center (DSAC) Team helped to implement and integrate the ELA/Literacy framework into history, science and math classrooms. HHS scheduled full days of professional development once a week with ESE – one or two periods each of English, History and Science teachers together. A school administrator participated in every professional development session, demonstrating that not only is everyone in the work together, but that everyone is a teacher of literacy.

During professional development, staff examined MCAS passages and questions. Teams then identified the reasons why students did not answer questions correctly and connected passages to content areas. For example, staff identified that students were not consistently citing evidence from passages properly. By modeling teaching strategies with each group, the staff was able to take these best practices to their respective classrooms.

HHS was also responsive to feedback from the state. For example, in classroom observations, ESE noted that teachers were asking too few higher-order questions, which was hampering student engagement and discussion. HHS immediately designed professional development sessions that focused on the practice of asking higher-order questions. Teachers brought their lesson materials to these sessions and worked collaboratively to plan higher-order questions for their lessons and units. Teachers then workshopped these questions with each other and monitored the subsequent amount of discourse. It was a "light bulb" moment for the team. Student engagement and productive discourse quickly increased. Teachers were excited to invite ESE staff back to see the improvements; many happily reported that they were no longer fielding one-word responses.

HHS continues to be successful due to a number of factors, including:   
  • Trust shared by participants 
  • Gracious acceptance of constructive criticism and suggestions 
  • Shared understanding that literacy is the foundation for all learning. Reading and writing strategies are necessary for all classrooms 
  • Commitment to speaking and listening to one another on a regular basis, which leads to greater collaboration 
During a Monitoring Site Visit in the spring, ESE noted that the climate at HHS is upbeat and that students are engaged. We appreciate their hard work and willingness to share their best practices! ESE will continue to support the effective implementation of the ELA/Literacy Curriculum Frameworks in a variety of ways during the school year. Please stay tuned! 

Contact Us! 

Instructional Support
InstructionalSupport@doe.mass.edu
 
Educator Development:
 EducatorDevelopment@doe.mass.edu
 
Educator Preparation:
EdPrep@doe.mass.edu

Language Acquisition & Academic Achievement:
ell@doe.mass.edu
 
Literacy & Humanities:
literacy@doe.mass.edu
 
Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics:
STEM@doe.mass.edu

Copyright © 2017 Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, All rights reserved.



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