Please find more information at the following link: http://engageny.org/resource/professional-development-for-advanced-coursework-in-stem/

Dear Colleagues,

It’s National Teacher Appreciation Week, and on behalf of the New York State Board of Regents and the State Education Department (SED), I’d like to thank you for all you do every day to help your students get ready for college, for careers, for citizenship, and most importantly, for successful lives. The Regents’ goal is to ensure every student achieves college and career readiness; with your hard work and commitment, we can achieve that goal.

As you know, we are engaged in two very significant changes: implementation of the new Common Core standards and the redesign of teacher and principal evaluation.  Both of these initiatives are grounded in a desire to achieve even better learning outcomes for New York State’s students and both present extraordinary challenges and opportunities.

Last summer, SED launched EngageNY.org, a website that provides educators with resources to support implementation of the Common Core, including professional development videos and sample curriculum modules.  Recently, we added new rubrics (developed with Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Achieve, and authors of the Common Core) to help educators evaluate curricular materials against the Common Core in ELA/Literacy and Mathematics.  Go to EngageNY.org to check out the new materials.

This summer and throughout the next school year, we’ll be using Race to the Top funds to add more curriculum modules and other support materials to EngageNY.org. EngageNY is a great tool; if you haven’t checked it out, please give it a try.

Just last week, SED issued guidance on the new teacher and principal evaluation system established in law in late March.  The new law reflects the principle that a successful educator evaluation system must provide meaningful, actionable feedback that will support high-quality professional development and improved teaching and learning.  The system relies on multiple measures including evidence-based observation of practice by administrators and student learning growth on locally-selected measures and state assessments.

In school districts, 80% of the multiple measures will be negotiated between the district and union, and the teacher evaluation system can also include peer observations, observations by independent observers, student surveys, parent surveys, and teaching artifacts that demonstrate positive effects on student learning (similar to the National Board Certification process).  For the portion of the evaluations using state assessments, there’s a focus on year-to-year growth, measured in a way that accounts for a number of student-related factors – including prior academic history, socioeconomic status, and status as a student with a disability and/or an English Language Learner (ELL).  At the end of the day, evaluations done well can be a great tool to help teachers and principals improve their practice and, more importantly, help our students succeed.

Accurate information is vital to making the new system work.  For the 2011-12 school year, school districts and charter schools must report teacher-student data linkage information for teachers of grades 3-8 ELA/math, grades 4/8 science, and secondary-level courses that lead to a Regents exam.  Districts and charter schools will then receive a Personal Identification Number (PIN) for each teacher with reported data.  Once you have received your PIN, go to http://www.p12.nysed.gov/irs/teacher/, create an account, and use the state’s teacher-student roster verification reports to verify your class information.  If you teach one of the courses listed above, but have not yet received a PIN, please check with your principal; if you have received your PIN, please verify your roster reports as soon as possible. Teachers employed by the New York City Department of Education will not receive a PIN; rather, they will use an alternate online tool, Class List Reporting, to review and update class list information.

We need your help to make sure that evaluations are accurate. If you find any errors — students on the list who aren’t in your class, students who are in your class but not on your roster, or students with the wrong class enrollment start or end dates – please let your district or school know. The information we have in our database comes directly from the districts and charter schools, so we need your help to verify it. Here’s a link that has more information about the verification system: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/irs/teacher/

Thank you for the great work you do every day.  Keep on teaching; tomorrow depends on what our students learn today.

Sincerely,

John B. King Jr.
Commissioner

Follow me on Twitter: @JohnKingNYSED

1. A Web-based APPR Form using Review Room Aligned with §3012-c

2. Guidance on New York State’s Annual Professional Performance Review for Teachers and Principals to Implement Education Law 3012-c and the Commissioner’s Regulations

3. Teacher and Principal Evaluation Road Maps: 2012-13

4. Summary of Revised APPR Provisions 2012-13 – The “Purple Memo”

5. Mini-Packets: Annual Professional Performance Review

6. Developing an Effective Evaluation System – May 1, 2012 (Video)

7. Student Learning Objectives

To access these resources, please visit:
http://engageny.org/resource/department-resources-and-tools-to-support-appr-implementation/

The Toolkit also provides the following resources:

- New York State’s Common Core Implementation Timeline which provides a “scope and sequence” of activities for Common Core implementation from Summer 2011 to the school year 2014-15;

- The Common Core Video Series which explains every key aspect of Common Core standards in depth;

- Common Core Instructional Shifts, a resource describing the six instructional shifts needed to effectively implement the Common Core in ELA/Literacy and the six shifts to implement them in Math;

- Curriculum Exemplars to use in your classroom;

- Publishers Criteria for ELA/Literacy and Math which are designed to guide publishers and curriculum developers as they work to ensure alignment with CCSS in developing curricular materials;

- Tri-State Quality Review Rubric and Rating Process, criterion-based rubrics and review processes to evaluate the quality of lessons and units intended to address the Common Core Standards for Mathematics and ELA/Literacy;

- Math Content Emphases in the standards at the cluster level for each grade;

- Text Complexity Tools for the Common Core which establish a “staircase” of increasing complexity in what students must be able to read;

- A Guide to Creating Text Dependent Questions for Close Analytic Reading which includes an overview of text-dependent questions and steps that educators can follow to create text-dependent questions;

- Common Core Resources from LearnZillion, which help you create playlists for your class, track homework effortlessly, and give your students the right lesson at the right time.

- The Parents’ Guide to Student Success developed by the National Parent Teacher Association® (PTA);

- A Side-by-Side Comparison of the Main Organizational Features of the P-12 Common Core Learning Standards for ELA and the 2005 ELA Core Curriculum;

- Resources from the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI); and

- Resources from Achieve, Inc.

- The College Board CCSS Alignment Crosswalk which compares the new Common Core State Standards with New York State’s previous English Language Arts and Mathematics Standards, as presented in the ELA Core Curriculum (2005) and the Mathematics Core Curriculum (2005).

We encourage you to use these resources and exemplars as you begin to implement the Common Core in your classroom. The Common Core Toolkit is available at: http://engageny.org/resource/common-core-toolkit/

Teachers, sign up now to use LearnZillion! From there, you can create accounts for each of your students or for your class as a whole. LearnZillion also provides schools and districts with support so they can use LearnZillion as a professional development resource or a tool for personalizing instruction.

Learn more about LearnZillion here.

List of Assessments

Highlights include: adapting to global competition; the superintendent’s role in implementing the Common Core, Data Driven Instruction, and Teacher / Leader Effectiveness; timelines for delivery of curriculum, assessment, and professional development resources; and new information about APPR.

View the slides from Commissioner King’s presentation

Dear Colleagues,

Happy New Year! I want to take this opportunity to wish you, your families, your students, and your school communities a safe, healthy, and happy 2012. As we embark on a new year, New York continues to be a leader in education reform. The role you play in your classrooms is the critical element in our state’s reform efforts.

Our work in teaching and learning is now guided by the Common Core Learning Standards.  These standards are driving twelve “shifts” in instruction – six shifts in English Language Arts (ELA)/Literacy and six shifts in Mathematics. You can find a concise list of the shifts and a series of short videos about them on the EngageNY.org website.

This Spring semester, we have asked all teachers in the state to teach at least one unit that is aligned to the Common Core. You can work in teams to think through the ways each shift should impact a unit of instruction and plan these learning experiences together. You also could adopt or augment one of our curriculum exemplars. In every math classroom (or any classroom where math plays a significant role), the Common Core calls for us to create classroom time to dive deeply into the math fluencies and applications necessary for every student to reach deep understanding of a priority math concept.  In every ELA classroom (or any classroom where literacy plays a significant role), the Common Core calls for thoughtful learning experiences around rigorous texts – you should conduct close readings of those texts with your students and ask deep and thought-provoking, evidence-based questions about the texts to facilitate evidence-dependent conversations and build students’ ability to marshal arguments about the texts.

Please be sure to visit EngageNY.org, which we offer as your go-to website for teaching and learning resources. In addition to the helpful materials on the website now, more will be on the way in the coming months. Curriculum units, exemplar videos, and professional development resources will all be available on EngageNY.org and will be aimed at supporting the statewide implementation of the Common Core Learning Standards.

We designed EngageNY.org specifically for you: it is an evolving, collaborative platform for educators. As the Regents’ reform agenda moves forward across the state, we want you to be able to access and share resources that work for you. If you have questions about the Common Core Learning Standards, check out the “Get Started” page on EngageNY.org. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, let us know by signing up and commenting at the website itself or by sending us an email at info@engageny.org.

Thank you for all you do every day to serve your students and for your continued commitment to improving education in New York State.

Sincerely,
Dr. John B. King, Jr.
Follow me on Twitter @JohnKingNYSED

The State Education Department (SED) has issued two Requests for Proposals (RFPs), both aimed at supporting the statewide implementation of Common Core Learning Standards and helping educators better understand the breadth and depth of the Standards and how they will improve teaching.

The Curriculum Modules and Professional Development RFP calls for the creation of Common Core-aligned curriculum modules, tools, and resources, along with curriculum-based professional development to help educators learn how the modules meet the demands of teaching the Common Core.

As a result of the RFP for Effective Teacher and Principal Practice Video Production, SED will provide a series of videos demonstrating practices that are considered “highly-effective” in the new teacher evaluation system.  The videos will illustrate highly-effective teaching strategies in real classrooms, with a particular focus on high-need schools and under-served students.  These short videos can be used as a professional development resource for educators statewide.  A documentary that follows educators over time as they experience shifts in their instructional practice will also be created.

All of these curriculum and professional development resources will be available on EngageNY.org.  Keep coming back — we’ll let you know when these and other resources are available.

For the 2012-13 school year, the first year where Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) will be implemented in most schools, SLOs will apply to a large majority of teachers in every school. Generally, teachers who do not teach in grades 4-8 ELA and Math will have SLOs, and all principals will participate in the implementation of this new process. While the State’s new documents apply only to using SLOs as “comparable growth measures” for the State 20% of a teacher’s APPR rating in the teacher evaluation system, Districts also have the option of choosing SLOs as a locally-selected measure of student achievement.

The development of Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) is an evolutionary process, and we are only at the beginning stages of this work. Over the coming months, NYSED will work closely with district leaders to ensure they understand the State-determined SLO process. NYSED will also provide a series of webinars, training, and materials, including model SLOs, to ensure that the field is able to utilize the materials and to help facilitate the necessary district level decisions that will allow for implementation by principals and teachers.

NYSED is committed to providing district leaders support as they embark on this critical work. Beginning in mid-December 2011 and running through the end of March 2012, NYSED will host a series of introductory webinars. Each webinar will introduce components of the SLO process that will help district leaders to communicate and begin the implementation process with stakeholders.

The webinar series is available here:
http://engageny.org/resource/student-learning-objectives-webinar-series/

NYSED will continue to host a series of introductory webinars running through the end of March that will be posted on EngageNY.org. Beginning this January, and carrying through to this summer, the Network Team Institute training will include specific turnkey training for Network Teams to use with district leaders and educators regarding the SLO process. All districts should be trained on SLOs prior to the 2012-13 school year.

Please send questions to slohelp@mail.nysed.gov. The State Education Department encourages your feedback and participation on this very important process and looks forward to working together to ensure that all students achieve college and career readiness.