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Teaching Your Standards: Putting Standards to Work in

the Classroom

Regie Stites and Susan PimentelJuly 21, 2005

U.S. Department of Education, Division of Adult Education and Literacy

American Institutes for Research

Adult Education Content Standards Consortia Meeting

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Putting Your Standards to Work …

1. Developing Curriculum

2. Strengthening Content Knowledge

3. Planning Instruction

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What is Curriculum, Anyway???

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When you hear the word “curriculum,” what comes to

mind?

(Note: There is no wrong answer!)

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Some Common Definitions: State standards (broad goals) Specific learning expectations Commercial programs/textbooks Teaching units/lesson plans Classroom materials/resources Classroom methods Scope and sequence/instruction Various other classroom tools

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Good First Steps:

1. Get clear as a state about what you mean by curriculum.

2. Think through what the state has the time and capacity to support.

3. Think through the type of state support: Organize? Finance? Staff?

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Characteristics of Effective Professional Development:

1. Grounded in inquiry, reflection and experimentation

2. Participant driven

3. Collaborative (Promotes teacher communities)

4. Sustained, intensive, ongoing

5. Connected to and derived from teachers’ work w/learners

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Professional Development, cont’d. 5. Solves specific problems of practice

6. Promotes active learning (hands-on vs. lecture format)

7. When possible, job-embedded

8. Includes incentives

9. Focuses on academic subject matter

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Resources on Effective Teacher Professional Development in K-12Darling-Hammond, L., & McLaughlin, M. (1995). Policies that support

professional development in an era of reform. Phi Delta Kappan, 76(8), 597-604.

Corcoran, T. B., Shields, P. M., & Zucker, A. A. (1998, March). Evaluation of NSF's Statewide Systemic Initiatives (SSI) Program: The SSIs and professional development for teachers. Menlo Park, CA: SRI International.

http://www.sri.com/policy/cep/pubs/ssi/ssiprfdv.pdf

Garet, M. S., Porter, A. C., Desimone, L., Birman, B. F., & Yoon, K. S. (2001). What makes professional development effective? Results from a national sample of teachers. American Educational Research Journal, 38(4), 915-945.

http://aztla.asu.edu/ProfDev1.pdf

The Education Alliance. (2005, February). Bridging the achievement gap: The role of professional development for teachers. [online]

http://www.educationalliance.org/Professional_Development.pdf

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Recommendations for Teacher Professional Development (TPD) in

Adult Education

Christine Smith, Judy Hofer, Marilyn Gillespie, Marla Solomon, & Karen Rowe. (November 2003). How teachers change: A study of professional development in adult education. NCSALL Reports #25. Cambridge, MA: National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy.

http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/research/report25.pdf

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Recommendations for TPD in Adult Education (NCSALL) 1

For Program Directors and States1. Improve teachers’ working conditions,

including access to decision-making in the program

2. Pay teachers to attend professional development

3. Increase access to colleagues and directors during and after professional development

4. Establish expectations at the state and program level that all teachers must continue to learn

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Recommendations for TPD in Adult Education (NCSALL) 2

For Professional Developers1. Ensure that professional development is of high quality2. Offer a variety of professional development models for

teachers to attend3. Be clear during recruitment for “reform” models of

professional development what participation will be like for teachers

4. Help teachers acquire skills to build theories of good teaching and student success

5. Add activities to professional development that help teachers strategize how to deal with the forces that affect their ability to take action

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Recommendations for TPD in Adult Education (NCSALL) 3

For Teachers1. Expect high-quality professional development2. Think clearly about what they want to learn in

professional development3. Recognize the need to develop a philosophy

and theory of good teaching and student success

4. Work to increase opportunities for collegiality and teacher decision-making in their program

5. Work with other colleagues to improve working conditions

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Some possibilities…

1. TPD focused on content knowledge (subject matter knowledge)

2. TPD focused on how adults learn and how to teach in key subject areas

3. Development of classroom tools and resources

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Some tools …

1. Standards Needs Analysis Template

2. Textbook/Standards Alignment Template

3. EFF Teaching/Learning Cycle

4. Top Ten Characteristics of Effective Lessons

5. Identifying “Power” Standards

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Planning Activity

Using whatever information and tools are appropriate to the task, identify an area of need (related to putting your standards to work in the classroom) and draft an event, activity, or plan to address that need.