CORE California Office to Reform Education California Education

CORE California Office to Reform Education California Education Partners Presentation to the California Educational Research Association December 2, 2011

CORE’s Essential Questions • How can we accelerate school district reform so more students are on a meaningful trajectory to college and career? • What new approaches will lead to individual and collective sense of efficacy for our teachers, a real culture of continuous improvement for our districts, and deeper and more meaningful instruction and learning in our classrooms? CORE California Office to Reform Education California Education Partners

Out of Race to the Top Round Two… • CORE was born • A partnership of • • Clovis Fresno Long Beach Los Angeles Sacramento Sanger San Francisco Unified School Districts • 15% of the State’s student population • 23% of the State’s English Language Learners CORE California Office to Reform Education California Education Partners

CORE Demographics Number of Students (in millions) 7 One in six California students attends school in a CORE district. 6 5 4 3 2 1 25% 16% 20% 0 Total Students 21% African American Hispanic or Latino English Learners CORE Districts CORE California Office to Reform Education 19% Low Income California Education Partners

rd 3 Grade ELA Scores All Students Percentage of Students Scoring Proficient or Higher 100% 90% 80% Clovis 70% Fresno 60% Long Beach 50% Los Angeles Sacramento City 40% San Francisco 30% Sanger 20% State Average 10% 0% 2007 2008 CORE California Office to Reform Education 2009 2010 2011 California Education Partners

rd 3 Grade ELA Scores English Learners Percentage of Students Scoring Proficient or Higher 100% 90% 80% Clovis 70% Fresno 60% Long Beach Los Angeles 50% Sacramento City 40% San Francisco 30% Sanger 20% State Average 10% 0% 2007 CORE California Office to Reform Education 2008 2009 2010 2011 California Education Partners

th 8 Grade Algebra I All Students Percentage of Students Scoring Proficient or Higher 100% 90% 80% Clovis 70% Fresno 60% Long Beach 50% Los Angeles Sacramento City 40% San Francisco 30% Sanger 20% State Average 10% 0% 2007 2008 CORE California Office to Reform Education 2009 2010 2011 California Education Partners

th 8 Grade Algebra I English Learners Percentage of Students Scoring Proficient or Higher 100% 90% 80% Clovis 70% Fresno 60% Long Beach 50% Los Angeles Sacramento City 40% San Francisco 30% Sanger 20% State Average 10% 0% 2007 2008 CORE California Office to Reform Education 2009 2010 2011 California Education Partners

The Need for CORE • Despite pockets of improvement, urgent need for improved student achievement • State-level quagmire • Districts struggling in isolation • Need for combined expertise and leveraged resources • Need for peer-to-peer learning opportunities to reap benefits of professional collaboration at scale CORE California Office to Reform Education California Education Partners

CORE’s Role CORE provides the framework and support for purposeful collaboration between districts to identify, implement, and scale effective strategies so that students are prepared for college, career, and successful futures. CORE California Office to Reform Education California Education Partners

CORE’s Theory of Change CORE California Office to Reform Education California Education Partners

The Innovation Through its programs, CORE is developing meaningful, new knowledge, practice, and tools for the field, which, if successful, can eventually be scaled throughout the state and beyond. CORE California Office to Reform Education California Education Partners

Current Focal Programs I. Standards, Assessment & Instruction: Common Core Standards at scale II. Talent Management: Teacher and leader evaluation systems III. Additional opportunities: Collaboration, College and Career Readiness Framework, budget analysis, secondary reform strategies CORE California Office to Reform Education California Education Partners

2011 -2013 Program Goals CORE California Office to Reform Education California Education Partners

Research Agenda/Questions for the Field • What does an effective inter-district partnership look like? • What social and structural elements are needed to promote effective partnerships? • How do districts learn from each other? • How do cross-district partnerships support innovation? • Which innovations work, how, and under what conditions? • What policies will build effective district-to-district partnerships that improve student achievement? CORE California Office to Reform Education California Education Partners

CORE Standards, Assessment and Instruction The purpose of the SAI initiative is to help increase college and career readiness by: 1. Supporting the effective district implementation of the Common Core Standards 2. Building teacher capacity to engage in formative assessment, analysis and instructional improvement 3. Developing and piloting Common Core-aligned assessments, instructional tools and resources CORE California Office to Reform Education California Education Partners

SAI Leadership Team Established v Senior instructional leaders from each CORE District (32 total: 3 -8 per district) v Leverages wide array of expertise v Represents a unique, job-alike professional network v Informed by nationally renowned Common Core experts v Meets monthly, with interim conference calls as needed CORE California Office to Reform Education California Education Partners

SAI Leadership Team: Key Program Objectives CORE California Office to Reform Education California Education Partners

SAI Objective 3: Collaborative Action v Cross-District Design Team will be established in 2012 and charged with identifying and/or developing innovative, Common Core-aligned a) formative assessments b) instructional tools and resources c) analytic PLC processes v School-based pilot teams will field test these tools and resources and provide Design Team feedback v Based on that feedback, design teams will refine tools and resources and upload them onto online digital platform for widespread distribution CORE California Office to Reform Education California Education Partners

Impact on Curriculum • Less lock-step reliance on textbooks v Text-books be helpful guides, but they can’t tell a teacher how to react to a spontaneous classroom situation or learning need • Open Educational Resources (OER) v There are not likely to be Common Core textbooks per se—schools will need to identify, refine and/or develop highly effective teaching resources CORE California Office to Reform Education California Education Partners

Impact on Assessment • Increased use of Formative Assessment v The Common Core requires teachers to continually collect and analyze performance data to determine a) Where students are along a “learning progression” b) What it will take to help get them to the next level v Supporting inquiry-based formative assessment and analysis should be the primary purpose of grade-level professional Communities of Practice (aka PLCs) v It will require significant assessment tool and resource development and PLC capacity building CORE California Office to Reform Education California Education Partners

Impact on Instruction • Deeper Learning v By narrowing the scope, the Common Core enables teachers to engage students in a deeper exploration of key concepts v This allows opportunities for the sorts “project-based learning” that students tend to find more meaningful v The Common Core emphasizes higher order thinking, skill application and problem solving v In Math this includes not only getting the right answer, but understanding why an answer is correct (or incorrect) v In ELA this includes a greater emphasis on informational reading and expository writing CORE California Office to Reform Education California Education Partners

CORE Talent Management The purpose of the TM initiative is to help increase college and career readiness by working collaboratively to improve: 1. Pipeline 2. Recruitment and selection 3. Early career mentoring and tenure 4. Professional learning and evaluation 5. Distributed leadership and succession planning 6. Issues around placement, compensation and retention CORE California Office to Reform Education California Education Partners

Talent Management 2011 -2012 Goals Shared understating/information around robust assessments of principals and teachers 1. Develop multiple measures for assessment resource bank 2. Implement data management systems for teacher and principal assessment 3. Communicate effectively with stakeholders about teacher and principal assessment 4. Establish and advocate a policy framework CORE California Office to Reform Education California Education Partners

Multiple Measures for Assessment Resource Bank Identify goals for the evaluation system and a related theory of action • Identify and develop the measures that could be included (the information to be collected) for both the development and evaluation of educators, such as: • Value-added (i. e. , academic growth over time) metrics to incorporate student growth • Standards-based assessment protocols • Determine how much weight might be assigned to each measure • Determine a process for equity across grades/subjects • Determine how and when the educator assessment information could be collected and presented • Develop a plan for managing the change process, including attention to: • • Infrastructure for policies and procedures (what needs to change and who has the authority to do so? ) Infrastructure for data management (what needs to change to provide the information desired? ) • Infrastructure for time and job responsibilities (including observer training to support meaningful implementation of observation protocols) (what are the biggest challenges and who has the authority to address them? ) • Determine responsibility for educator growth and development CORE California Office to Reform Education California Education Partners

Policy and Lessons Learned • Federal Opportunities • Waiver • State Opportunities • 2012 Election/Ballot • Partnership CORE California Office to Reform Education California Education Partners

CORE’s College and Career Framework CORE California Office to Reform Education California Education Partners

Questions? Rick Miller Executive Director California Office to Reform Education (CORE) 1130 K Street, Suite 250 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 441 -2917 rick@capimpactllc. com CORE California Office to Reform Education California Education Partners