Pathways to Common Core Planning

“Principals and teachers must have access to the essential professional development opportunities they need to fully implement the Common Core, to transition to rigorous standards that strengthen teaching and learning, and to develop effective strategies that engage families and communities in schools.” --Gail Connelly, Executive Director (NAESP)

Overview

At the beginning of the 2013-14 school year, the Los Angeles Unified School District announced that all schools would be moving forward with full implementation of the Common Core State Standards.

The reality is that the responsibility for ensuring high-quality, transformative professional development and fidelity of implementation falls squarely on the shoulders of the school leaders.

In my position as a Common Core Expert in Elementary Mathematics, I was able to use my knowledge of Common Core to design and deliver professional development to K-5 teachers who teach at any of the 98 schools within ESC-West.

One of the greatest challenges I faced along with the rest of the ESC-West Common Core implementation team, was providing professional development that would meet the diverse needs of our teachers at varying knowledge of Common Core.  Additionally, we were also faced with the challenge of working with teachers who come from a wide range of school contexts.  Ultimately, as a team we developed a professional development module that would serve to provide every single teacher in our ESC with a general overview of CCSS shifts, essential components of CCSS lessons, and a review of resources to aid in their future planning of CCSS instruction.

Key Responsibilities

• Promote a knowledge base of CCSS
• Assist teachers by demonstration and modeling
• Practice strategies and provide feedback through peer-coaching as a follow-up to professional development
• Plan CCSS focused lessons with teachers
• Develop, plan and facilitate on-site professional learning
• Participate in and provide on-going and extensive professional development in CCSS

Reflection

The process of developing, planning, and delivering a professional development module to such a wide audience required a great deal of collaboration and reflection as a Common Core team.  I facilitated the module twice a month from February 2014 to May 2014 and was able to reach 124 teachers.  As a Common Core team we met weekly to reflect on feedback from participants and discuss ways to refine the module.  Part of that included designing and incorporating a lesson plan template, creating sample reference binders with CCSS resources, and modifying the framework of the day to suit the needs of participants. In the end, I modified the module in order to meet the needs of our adult learners, who had such varying knowledge of CCSS instruction.  For next year, I would definitely work on providing a module that targeted a single grade level or perhaps a span of two grade levels.

Pathways to Common Core Powerpoint

CPSEL Connection

• Standard 1 - A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by facilitating the development, articulation, implementation, and stewardship of a vision of learning that is shared and supported by the school community.
• Standard 2 - A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by advocating, nurturing, and sustaining a school culture and instructional program conducive to student learning and staff professional growth.
• Standard 3 - A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success by ensuring management of the organization, operations, and resources for a safe, efficient, and effective environment.
• Standard 5 - A school administrator is an educational leader who promotes the success of all students by modeling a personal code of ethics and developing professional leadership capacity.

Supporting Documents

• PD Agenda
• Lesson Planning Template
• CCSS Resources