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Ken O’Connor presenting his workshop on “Sound Grading Practices”

On April 30, Ken O’Connor provided 45 participants with grading strategies that would result in grades being a truer reflection of students’ academic achievement with respect to the Common Core and North Carolina Essential Standards.  Each participant received a copy of the 2nd edition of O’Connor’s book A Repair Kit for Grading: 15 Fixes for Broken Grades.  Exit surveys indicated participants were highly satisfied with the session and intended to return to their districts and schools to further examine their grading practices and initiate discussion around some of the “fixes.”

Teams from 5 districts share curriculum documents.

Thomas Hierck, a consultant with the Leadership and Learning Center, spent two days with us on April 22-23. On the first day (pictured here), Dr. Hierck facilitated a “Critical Friends” session at which teams from five of our school districts (Granville, Franklin, Person, Durham, and Nash-Rocky Mount) shared the progress that they have made with developing curriculum documents that incorporate the Common Core State Standards. It was exciting and affirming to see how far districts have come over the past year, yet each district’s team left with ideas as to how to enhance its work.  The second day focused on formative assessments and how to use information from these assessments to further students’ learning. A more in-depth session on formative and other classroom assessments, oriented more toward teachers, principals, and curriculum specialists,  will be held on June 12-13 with Jan Chappuis.

CCRESA’s Spring/Summer Lineup of Thought Leaders

Our focus for the next two months will be on enhancing the quality and effectiveness of classroom assessments  Click on the Events tab to learn more about and how to register for the following sessions:

We enjoyed hosting such a large crowd of almost 300 enthusiastic participants at the McKimmon Center on February 11th.

“For this session to make a difference in the classroom, you and your colleagues need to follow up with reading further, promoting discussions in your schools, modeling, coaching, and collaborating.” – Dr. Steven Leinwand

Steve, very generously, gave us permission to post his Powerpoint presentation. You can access it by clicking here.

You might spread the word to colleagues in your district that Steve will be in Greensboro on March 22nd at the NCCTM Spring Leadership Seminar. You can register by going to ncctm.org.

The link to the sample Smarter Balanced assessment items is http://sampleitems.smarterbalanced.org/itempreview/sbac/index.htm.  You may want to peruse the many resources that the CCRESA has accumulated related to Common Core implementation by going to the Common Core tab. You can access the sample item page by going to the Smarter Balanced home page from our Assessment link and clicking on assessments.

The best price for Steve Leinwand’s book that we found was from Book-Pal.com You may want to shop around for the best price, but this is a source of which you may not be aware.  I also asked Steve what the difference is between his two books.  He said that Accessible Math is written more for teachers and Sensible Mathematics is for those in leadership roles responsible for overseeing the implementation of the math shifts or strategies.

Request for Proposals to Provide Professional Development Services to School Districts in Region 3 and the Central Carolina RESA through December 30, 2014

The successful service provider will propose professional development opportunities, strategies, tools, and sample materials that they can provide and/or coordinate to assist in the development of districts’ capacity to implement the CCSS and the state Essential Standards to promote professional growth among the staff in Region 3 and the CCRESA’s member districts.

Download RFP here.

Tom Hierck, presenter from The Leadership & Learning Center

On December 13-14, Tom Hierck, an associate with the Leadership and Learning Center, conducted a two-day workshop on Rigorous Curriculum Design with teachers from the arts, CTE, healthful living, and world language.  Dr. Hierck has been consulting with the RESA since May 2012 and will return in April.  He provides training on Larry Ainsworth’s RCD model and is assisting districts with their curriculum development as they move forward with implementation of the Common Core State Standards and the N.C. Essential Standards.  Approximately 50 educators from eight districts and one charter school participated.