City’s Common Core rollout ramps up today with teacher training

standards movement

September 7, 2011

City’s Common Core rollout ramps up today with teacher training

by Philissa Cramer, at 10:02 am

When it comes to new “common core” standards, theoretical language is giving way to hands-on practice.

The curriculum standards, accepted by 48 states, are being rolled out citywide this year after being piloted in 100 schools last year. Today, every teacher in the city is expected to get training on them.

Chancellor Dennis Walcott sat in on a training session this morning at Brooklyn’s PS 124, which took part in the pilot last year. But at many schools, today is likely to be the first time that teachers learn just how the common core standards are poised to change their jobs.

Some principals put together their own plans for today, but they can also draw on four 90-minute lessons the city devised. One session asks teachers to evaluate student work from their own school to see if it meets the new standards. In another, they will practice assessing teachers according to a new evaluation rubric. A third lesson focuses on connecting two overarching citywide goals: strengthening student work and teacher practice. And a fourth lesson asks teachers to examine student work from a school that adopted the new standards last year. The lessons are part of the Department of Education’s online “Common Core Library” of resources.

In a letter to principals last week announcing the lesson plans, Walcott laid out a timeline for schools’ common core-related accomplishments. This fall, he wrote, teams of teachers at each school should identify students’ shortcomings. In the winter, teachers should ask all students to complete two common core-aligned “tasks,” one in reading and one in math. Through it all, principals should be giving teachers frequent feedback based on classroom observations, Walcott wrote.

Walcott’s letter to principals is below:

Dear Colleagues,

As we begin the new school year, I am excited to continue our conversation around increasing the rigor of student work and strengthening teacher practice. In partnership with the CSA and UFT, we’ve designated Tuesday, September 7, for you to engage with your staff in an additional day of professional learning and planning around this exciting work. To support you in preparing for this day and for implementing the 2011-12 citywide instructional expectations, we have posted resources and facilitation materials on the Common Core Library. The posted activities will provide you and your staff members with an opportunity to identify gaps in knowledge, familiarize yourselves with Danielson’s Framework for Teaching, and examine Common Core-aligned tasks and corresponding student work.

At our conference in June, I was energized by your eagerness to lead this instructional work in our schools and I continue to be inspired by your commitment to ensure that our students are engaged in cognitively-demanding tasks that will prepare them to succeed later in life.

This year, we need to take the next step toward college and career readiness for all our students. As you know, we’ve asked all schools to:

This fall, in teacher teams, review samples of student work and identify the gaps between what students currently know and are able to do and the demands of the Common Core. This analysis will help schools develop next steps for helping their students reach the level of the Common Core.

This winter, engage all students in at least one literacy task and one math task aligned to strategically-selected Common Core standards and embedded in Common Core-aligned curricula. Schools should include multiple entry points for all learners, including students with disabilities and English Language Learners.

To support this work in classrooms, we’ve asked you to:

Use sections of Charlotte Danielson’s Framework for Teaching, or continue to use a research-based teaching framework that is already in place, to articulate clear expectations for teacher practice and serve as the focus for teacher development.

Engage in short, frequent cycles of classroom observation, collaborative examination of student work, and timely, specific, evidence-based feedback teachers can act on to increase the rigor and effectiveness of their instruction. Teachers should receive feedback on student work on Common Core-aligned tasks and on successes and challenges related to reaching all students, including students with disabilities and English Language Learners.

Strengthen your own capacity to provide high-quality feedback to teachers through professional development and support from network teams.

Please work with your network if you have questions. I hope that September 7 is a robust learning experience for you and your staff.

Sincerely,

Dennis M. Walcott
Chancellor

Frankmaltese2000

The training at my school made it obvious that the whole pupose of this program is to find more ways to give teachers U ratings. Charlotte Danielson is living in fantasy world where all students are perfectly behaved and engaged. Her book is a load of nonsense, packed with rubrics designed to scare all of us. She claims to have once been a teacher. She sold her soul.

AND: I’ve heard that the UFT is doing NOTHING about this madness. Thanks. Those union dues sure are worth it. Is Bloomberg paying them off also?
Anonymous

I demur … up till now teacher ratings were solely based on principal judgment, with no agreed upon standards. Take a look at the Danielson Frameworks and her Talk About Teaching:Leading Professional Conversations …sometime down the road the UFT and the Doe will agree upon the implementation of the new law – 20% student scores, 20% locally negotiated anf 60% traditional, aka, observations … it will be a much fairer system, and, yes, some teeachers may be dismissed.
Vote NO!

“it will be a much fairer system, and, yes, some teachers may be dismissed.

There is absolutely nothing fair about an evaluation system which holds any worker responsible for so many factors beyond their control.

As far as some people being “dismissed.”..The last thing this country “needs” is any more people on the unemployment line, or collecting other forms of public assistance.
el flerpo

please propose a fair evaluation system. thx.
Frankmaltese2000

Danielson’s rubric for student engagement is lunacy. It’s MY fault if some of them are bored? It’s MY fault that they don’t care? MY fault that their parents don’t care?
Frankmaltese2000

Danielson’s rubric for student engagement is lunacy. It’s MY fault if some of them are bored? It’s MY fault that they don’t care? MY fault that their parents don’t care?
http://nyceducator.com/ NYC Educator

It’s unfortunate that no research suggests student scores have any validity whatsoever in determining teacher effectiveness. I’m afraid your confidence fails to inspire. However, I certainly appreciate just what sort of boldness it entails for a retired teacher willing to risk the dismissal of working teachers, as should all.
Anonymous

The “Frameworks” have nothing to do w/ pupil test scores – they are descriptors of teacher behaviors that are research based. In a 100-school pilot in Chicago teacher and supervisor ratings of teachers were congruent … currently u r either S or U and there is no standard, simply principal judgment.

In a number of state teacher evaluation is based on test scores, up to 50% … while in NYS only 20% … r u argiubng that teachers should not be assessed? If they r assessed who should be the rater and what should the rating be based on? Would u favor peer review? The system has changed, the new law is in place, final regulations are being adjudicated and the new system will emerge … the core of the law – 60% of the evaluation will be observations … if u don’t like the Danielson Frameworks state law allows for the adoption of a number of other systems, or, a locally designed system …in a year or so the new system will be in place.
Miss Eyre

While I’m fortunate to work for an administration that collaborated with us to create our own teacher effectiveness framework, our principal was very frank with us today: the DOE is out for blood. They are looking for reasons to deny tenure and to fire people. All teachers would do well to be extra sure all the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed, this year more than ever.

On that note, have a great day tomorrow!
Vote NO!

I do believe a new evaluation system is contingent upon a new collective bargaining agreement being negotiated. The UFT would be every foolish to negotiate any new evaluation without clear safeguards such as a detailed action plan for any teacher rated “ineffective” to protect them from abuse.

In NYC, an evaluation system which replaces S or U probably should be developed over a more extensive period of time than this one. This was rushed through to meet a competition deadline. It will have far reaching consequences as it will result in thousands of people losing their livelihood in an economy that has NO JOBS! Those people and their families will be on public assistance at great cost to the taxpayers….Less money for education..”the death spiral continues.”

Chicago…You trust something which was tried out in Chicago? Who would want to replicate anything from Chicago? The Chicago public school system is arguably one of the worst urban public school systems in the country.
Nnails322

Our dept. received an article about the common core standards after a visit from an EPO representative who could not answer any questions presented to him. If this is the kind of professional development we can expect, heaven help us all.
Anonymous

The new law is not tied to contract negotiations, although some of implementation details require negotiations under PERB rules … the 20% that is locally negotiated is the major item. Two items are currently being litigated … under some circumstances the state wants the 20% student scores to be 40%, and, if a teacher “fails” the 20% student scores section they “fail” the enitre evaluation. A lower court sustained the union.

The new law ids being implemented in the “turnaround” schools. Cuomo favored a strong teacher evaluation law and the law we ended up with was far more pro-teacher than Cuomo’s orinal plans.
http://nyceducator.com/ NYC Educator

Interesting you would see that as an improvement. Obviously you did not care for the previous system. Therefore it’s tough to see how retaining 60% of it is much of an improvement. The fact that 20% is tied to tests, and that this as a judge of teacher effectiveness is unsupported by research or practice (according to sources like Diane Ravitch and Aaron Pallas) hardly represents an improvement. I suppose we’re left to pin our hopes on the mystery 20% yet to be negotiated.

Personally, I’m hardly encouraged that we’ve bought into the blatant unsubstantiated nonsense of the Billionaire Boys Club. Of course, as a working teacher, I lack the perspective of someone like yourself, who will be utterly unaffected by whatever happens.
el flerpo

how should teachers be evaluated?
Tiredofyou

How are lawyers evaluated??? How are trolls evaluated?
http://www.facebook.com/jack.farrell Jack Farrell

The Common Core Standards are as much about how students learn as what they learn. This makes them demonstratively different from prior standards which focused only on what students know and can do. These are text-based standards which assume students can read and understand grade-level calibrated text without scaffolding. They assume an independent reader who will be ready for college and career, deep and complex reading tasks.
Jdbalthazar

100% My Union dues are wasted. The UFT might as well be abolished. They do nothing now, have lost much of their political clout and most importantly are simply selling us out for extra dues from extra employees. WE GOT NO TEACHERS CHOICE BECAUSE MICHAEL MULGREW NEEDED SEVERAL MILLION DOLLARS TO MOVE THE UFT CHARTER SCHOOL AND HE SAID TO CHRISTINE QUINN- GIVE ME THAT AND TAKE I WONT FIGHT FOR TEACHERS CHOICE.

THE UFT SUCKS< I HATE YOU!
F2loyal

You are wrong. The Danielson model is explicitly- in the language of the DOE- for formative development purposes. You don’t want teachers to have a tool by which they can better their craft? Silly rabbit. Your comment shows a lack of intelligence. You can’t manage kids behavior? Don’t teach- what did you think you were going to encounter when you walked into a room with 5-18 yr olds (whatever grade you teach)? Robots? Please. As much as there are tangible descriptors of good teaching sir, there are also intangible ones: google doug lemov. If you’re scared of what makes good teaching, then you shouldn’t be teaching should you.
ASTRAKA

“If you’re scared of what makes good teaching, then you shouldn’t be teaching should you.”

You sound so intelligent! In fact you seem to me to be an experienced teacher who has mastered the art of teaching thanks to doug lemov! Your ability to distinguish tangible descriptors and especially the intangible ones will make you an excellent teacher. Keep up the good work! How many years have you been teaching?

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standards movement

September 7, 2011

City’s Common Core rollout ramps up today with teacher training

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