800-615-0254
Request Demo
Professional Development
Want to learn more about using data to inform instruction? SchoolCity now offers 3 ways for your district to get the help it needs to make systemic change possible.
- Choose from one of our Professional Development Series modules, designed to help educators and students get the most from STARS
OR
- Let our team of experienced educators customize professional development sessions as per your district's needs
OR
- Choose from Knowledge Delivery System's dynamic online professional development course catalogue. KDS' renowned presenters are second to none, and offer districts a cost-effective means of reaching a larger number of educators simultaneously while providing evaluation and reporting tools.
Whatever your choice, we'll help your teachers and PLCs use data more effectively to improve instruction. Just contact us to arrange a consultation.
SchoolCity's Professional Development Series (PDS)
Data has become ubiquitous in education. Increasingly, federal and state accountability models demand both savvy and results. Charts, graphs, percentages, scale scores, and performance levels have become common tools used by district leaders and teachers. Too often, a disconnect exists between the data and the people most affected by it: students and teachers. Therefore, a comprehensive professional development program is critical in order to maximize the use of any data system. SchoolCity's Professional Development Series (PDS) keeps the focus on the ultimate goal of improving teaching and learning in the classroom.SchoolCity PDS Modules
Our educators have created six PD modules designed to help your schools get the most from STARS. Because we're teachers as well as parents, we've chosen some of our own children's favorite stories to help draw analogies between our modules and the aspects of test data analysis they cover.Districts have the option of having the modules delivered in sequence, purchasing them a la carte or in combination with other SchoolCity services.
Below is a listing of our seven modules. Just click on a title for a detailed description.
- Putting It All Together: Assessment Planning and Test Creation
- The Importance of Messaging when Rolling Out an Assessment Plan
- Taming the Beast: Scanners, Scanning and Scoring Made Simple
- Assessment Data Analysis 101: Getting the Big Picture
- What Now? Putting the Data to Work in the Classroom
- Looking in the Mirror: Assessment Validation and Revision
- Involving Students in Test Data Analysis
Seven Blind Mice is a children's story with much to say about one common assessment danger: making instructional decisions based on partial or faulty information. In this story, six mice make individual judgments about what they know based on very limited perspectives. The wise seventh mouse, however, puts together all the parts and arrives at an accurate conclusion about what's really going on.
Putting It All Together: Assessment Planning and Test Creation
Designing a comprehensive assessment program with reliable tests does not have to be a process of the blind leading the blind. Planning and creating assessments is a critical first step to any successful testing program. This 3-Day Professional Development Module helps ensure effective assessment data analysis and enhances your district's effort to enact systemic change by working with instructional leaders to:- Analyze test data and pacing plans to determine areas of focus.
- Identify essential standards and make agreements on how much testing is needed per standard to make sure that teachers have enough information to impact instruction.
- Create an initial round of assessments while developing a feedback loop to ensure input and buy-in from teaching staff.
⇑ PDS Modules
The Important Book draws young readers' focus on what is important about various objects. Although objects have many attributes, some are more critical than others. The same holds true about assessment. For some, the most important thing about testing is the promise of informed instructional decisions. Yet, given all the variables involved, there's a good chance that other aspects of testing are just as important.
The Importance of Messaging in Smart Assessment Roll Out
Each of us has our own values regarding what's important to know about introducing a new or revamped assessment plan. While the goals of informing instruction or identifying student strengths are certainly important elements, there is one key ingredient that must not be overlooked: effectively communicating assessment goals and methods to all stakeholders. Fallout from a poorly communicated testing plan can derail a district's efforts in a myriad of ways. This 2-Day Professional Development Module brings together members of the organization at the district and site level to:- Help teachers and administrators understand precisely why common assessments are being administered.
- Generate teacher buy-in through team-building & "classroom ready" formative test creation activities.
- Assist schools in developing specific actions to improve teacher and student understanding of how the data will be used to inform instruction.
⇑ PDS Modules
If You Give a Pig a Party is children's book is about cause and effect. It also happens to be the latest of a best-selling "demanding-animal-meets-long-suffering-human series." Given how demanding the small protagonist becomes, the animal may just as well be one of your test answer key scanners --- requiring more and more of your time and energy just to make things run halfway smoothly!
Taming The Beast: Scanning & Scoring Made Simple
Effective scanning can be a great lesson in cause and effect. Each district is different in size and thus will process scoring differently, but the sad fact remains: scanners can be finicky and things can easily go awry. It is critical that a system be in place. SchoolCity's fun and comprehensive 1-Day Scanning Boot Camp has helped districts adopt and adhere to certain practices and steps leading to improved, seamless scanning. Let us help your district:- Identify and 'Clone' your district's Scan-Master (i.e., expert) to spread scanning expertise across each school site.
- Develop and streamline scanning protocol to ensure that test data is available no more than 2 days after an assessment is administered.
⇑ PDS Modules
ZOOM features a series of images that come together to tell a story. This book presents a lesson on the role and importance of perspective when analyzing student test data. Readers must zoom in and zoom out to understand the context of each detailed image. The book's layout actually sets the stage for in-depth data review.
Assessment Data Analysis 101: Getting the Big Picture
Analyzing test data requires maintaining a delicate balance between processing discrete bits of information and understanding how that data relates to the big picture. This 3-Day Professional Development Module focuses on the first piece of the assessment data analysis puzzle: Gaining perspective. Teachers and district instructional leaders will be guided through processes designed to:- Enable quick identification of achievement trends among students.
- Examine school- and district-wide achievement gaps through the lens of individual student, grade-level, and subject performance.
- Prepare principals and district administrators to present data to stakeholder groups.
⇑ PDS Modules
Readers of the popular Where's Waldo series scour hundreds of images to locate the recognizable but hard to find Waldo characters. In data analysis, it's easy to get lost amidst all the numbers, charts and graphs. If finding out why certain students achieve while others do not were as easy as finding Waldo, chances are you would not be reading this!
What Now? Putting the Data to Work in the Classroom
Finding answers to critical questions about how best to use data can be like searching for Waldo: a blended matter of focus and pattern recognition. In other words, a talent that takes training to develop. This 3-Day Professional Development Module picks up where Assessment Data Analysis 101 leaves off. SchoolCity brings together your district leaders, site administrators and teachers to ensure that no student gets lost in the details by:- Facilitating work groups to develop data reflection sheets and protocol for use and automatic access within STARS.
- Instructing principals on how to convert assessment patterns and achievement trends into teacher action items.
- Guiding teachers through the use of the online data reflection sheets to determine standards-specific strategies to support student learning.
⇑ PDS Modules
Art & Max tells the story of two very different artist-lizards while also being a thought-provoking exploration of the creative process. Art is a master painter, conventional and formal. While Max, his young student is anything but. Things get complicated when Max decides to literally paint Art. Although Max's best intentions get unraveled, he manages to bring Art to a Jackson Pollock-like transformation. It is a process not unlike what happens when educators engage data.
Looking in the Mirror: Assessment Validation and Revision
Assessment mirrors the creative arts as a cyclical process of application and reflection. To complete the cycle, it becomes necessary to take a birds' eye view and determine if the assessment reached the goal of informing on student learning. This 1-Day Professional Development Module brings educators together to reflect on teacher feedback gleaned from prior SchoolCity sessions on test data analysis. District leaders, principals, and teacher representatives will:- Reexamine cut points.
- Carefully analyze test items that were most difficult for students across the district to ascertain if the lack of achievement resulted from a poorly written item or inadequate instruction.
- Refine item selection for upcoming assessments and develop a plan for communicating the changes to staff.
⇑ PDS Modules
In Little Mouse's Big Secret a mouse finds an apple and buries it to keep it a secret from all the other animals. But the apple eventually grows into a tree bearing much more fruit than just the one apple and the secret is revealed. All the animals end up enjoying the apples. Some secrets, it seems, are better when shared. The book provides a good analogy for the benefits of unlocking 'data secrets' with students.
Involving Students in Test Data Analysis
Psst. We'd like to let you in on one of assessment's big secrets: Students perform better when they analyze their own test results. Such involvement is but one reason for formative assessment's power. After all, students are the focus of instruction and students are the ones taking the tests. Yet, all too often, students are left out of the data reflection process. We typically provide them with their overall percentage score or their performance level, but seldom do we drill down to standards with them. Seldom do they clearly see where they're successful and where they need help. This Multi-Day Professional Development module occurs at the site level. SchoolCity experts will work with site leaders and teachers to:- Identify patterns of success or challenge in the most recent benchmark or formative assessment.
- Conduct a series of 40–50 minute model lessons, guiding students through data reflection activities.
- Facilitate a debriefing and teacher dialogue at the end of each teaching day for the purpose of discussing specific techniques that can be adopted or modified in their classrooms.
⇑ PDS Modules
Products
Assessment
STARS™ Suite - Management & Analysis STARS™ - Teacher Resources STARS™ - SchoolCity Exclusives Item Banks Professional Development SchoolCity Inc. | 405 Clyde Ave. Mountain View, CA 94043 | 800-615-0254 | sales@schoolcity.com
© Copyright 2011 SchoolCity Inc. All Rights Reserved.