HFM BOCES news

Sharing the load helps win the race

Component districts seek BOCES help with RTTT

The announcement of New York State’s $696 million Race to the Top (RTTT) award left school district leaders around the state drawing a deep breath and waiting to see what requirements are attached to the federal money.

HFM BOCES’ 15 component school districts learned that they would receive approximately $1.1 million of the federal grant over four years, along with directives for using the money to advance education reform around four specific areas:

• Adopting standards and assessments that prepare students to succeed in college, the workplace and the global economy;

• Building data systems that effectively measure student growth and success, and inform teachers and principals about how they can improve instruction;

• Recruiting, developing, rewarding, and retaining effective teachers and principals, especially where they are needed most; and

• Turning around the lowest-achieving schools.

The HFM component districts asked BOCES to provide the services they need to meet the requirements of the grant, including the creation of a Network Team—made up of experts in curriculum, data analysis, and instruction—whose role is to work directly with educators to provide consistent, high-quality professional development and related training to ensure success of the plan.

“It epitomizes what HFM BOCES is; where we are at our best,” HFM BOCES Assistant Superintendent Dr. Lorraine Hohenforst said. “BOCES is perfectly positioned to provide the shared services required by our districts for Race to the Top.”

The State Education Department agrees, recommending that the BOCES across the state staff three-person Network Teams that can provide the required services to their components.

According to NYSED guidelines, each participating district is required to use up to 75 percent of its RTTT allocation for a Network Team. The other 25 percent of the award must be spent on a new Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR), an evaluation system for classroom teachers and building principals, 40 percent of which is based on student achievement.

Each district is required to submit its own “scope of work” documentation to NYSED by Nov. 8. HFM BOCES Instructional Services Coordinator Stacy Ward is creating protocols now for the shared training, focusing on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), new assessments and understanding data.

“HFM BOCES will be the hub for helping all our districts with APPR, Common Core State Standards, new assessments and the transition to a new data system,” Dr. Hohenforst explained.

RTTT… CCSS… APPR… PARCC… ‘OMG!’

Implementation of the Obama administration’s Race to the Top program has revealed an alphabet soup of initiatives and offices involved in the $4 billion competitive grant to reform education. Below is a lexicon to help navigate some of the acronyms.

RTTT – Race to the Top. Designed to “spur systemic reform and embrace innovative approaches to teaching and learning in America’s schools. Race to the Top will help prepare America’s students to graduate ready for college and career, and enable them to out-compete any worker, anywhere in the world.” ~ President Barack Obama

CCCS - Common Core State Standards. Resulting from a states-led initiative to build clear, consistent and rigorous national standards based on the strengths of current state standards, CCCS are aligned with college and workforce expectations to help equip graduates to succeed in the world beyond high school.

APPR - Annual Professional Performance Review. New accountability criteria for teacher and principal evaluations passed into law in 2010 will require negotiations to implement into districts’ collective bargaining agreements. The revised APPR rates teachers and principals in four categories: Highly Effective, Effective, Developing, and Ineffective. The new system weighs student achievement more prominently, accounting for 40 percent of the evaluation.

PARCC - Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. A grant-funded consortium of 26 states united to create a national assessment system to help all states increase the number of high school graduates who are ready for college and careers. New York is one of the 11 governing states leading the assessment development effort on behalf of the larger Partnership.

CCRS - College and Career Readiness Goals and Standards. Student learning goals that define the path to readiness for college and careers through rigorous content standards that accurately describe what students should learn in specific grades and subjects, and performance standards that indicate whether students are learning enough to be on track to graduate from high school ready for college and skilled careers.

OCIS - Office of Curriculum, Instruction and Standards. Office of the State Education Department that provides leadership and oversight for the development, support, and implementation of NYS Learning Standards for early education through secondary education. OCIS provides technical assistance and guidance on curriculum and instruction in career and technical education and all content areas for PreK-12, English Language Learners, and bilingual students. The Office also provides support for high quality professional development for teachers and administrators to ensure effective teaching and learning in New York State.

OTI - Office of Teaching Initiatives. NYSED office provides qualified and certified teachers for employment in New York's public schools, issuing certificates, developing teaching policy, and providing supportive services for teachers, schools, and the public.

OAPDA - Office of Assessment Policy, Development and Administration. Responsible for the coordination, development, and implementation of the Grade 3-8 tests, Regents Examinations, Regents Competency Tests, Second Language Proficiency Examinations, Alternate Assessments and English Language Proficiency assessments that comprise the New York State Testing Program (NYSTP).

OEDT - Office of Educational Design and Technology. NYSED office guides the effective integration of technology in schools. Implements and monitors the University of the State of New York (USNY) Statewide Learning Technology Plan.

NAEP - National Assessment of Educational Progress. Conducted periodically in mathematics, reading, science, writing, the arts, civics, economics, geography, and U.S. history, NAEP assessments are administered uniformly using the same sets of test booklets across the nation, resulting in a common metric for all states and selected urban districts.

OMG – “Oh my goodness”