Aligning Resources to Standards

We met for an all-team training meeting in Overland Park (thanks for hosting us Johnson County Community College) and talked about the work each program had completed, unpacking portions of the Kansas Math Content Standards.   Then. participants learned how to align program curriculum resources with the standards we unpacked.  When learning the aligning curriculum process, the team had an in-depth discussion about the process and whether or not programs should align resources by level.  In the end, the consensus was to align each resource for the associated appropriate content area and where standards cross multiple
levels, note which level(s) the resource was reviewed and aligned to address.

The work from both phases is due June 15…so hopefully everyone can enjoy a few days of summer with the first innovation of SIA completed! I will also post reflections from the team members regarding the SIA project and the first innovation then….look for them shortly after the 15th.

Our next in person Eagle team meeting is not until October 1 in Overland Park…let’s keep in touch between now and then!

July kicks off Innovation 1 for the Meadowlark team.  The team will be working with the Reading content standards for ABE and ESL—over 100 of them!  I’ll share who the team members will be in a later blog…SIA could be coming to a program where YOU are! Also in July, the state SIA implementation team has a national webinar on how to assess and build the argument for sustainability of the SIA innovations in Kansas.

And then in August, it’s back to DC for the SIA project leads to learn about exciting Innovation 2—Translating Standards into Curriculum: The Lead Standards Approach.

So much to learn…but take time to enjoy the end of the program year and don’t forget to celebrate the work you do each day and the learner’s lives you forever improve!

Michelle

SIA Kansas Kick Off

In February, 2010, the Standards-in-Action Eagle team leads for the Mathematics Content Standards, Rebecca Rhaesa, Salina Adult Education Center; Janet Daley, Johnson County Community College Adult Education Center; Rosemary Lischka, Kansas City Kansas Community College On Track along with Michelle Carson, Kansas Board of Regents Adult Education made the trip to Washington D.C. for our first look at the national diffusion of the Standards-In-Action Innovations. Kansas adult education was one of only seven states to be given the opportunity to participate. After two-days of training and planning, the leads returned to Kansas to truly put our standards-in-action!

We kicked off the Kansas diffusion of Standards-in-Action on April 9 in Overland Park, Kansas.   Project leads were joined by their fellow team members and the program directors:

Salina Adult Education Center		Johnson County Community College Adult Education		Kansas City Kansas Community College On Track
Director: Kelly Mobray Lead: Rebecca Rhaesa		Director: Susan McCabe Lead: Janet Daley		Director: Rosemary Lischka Lead: Rosemary Lischka
Team Members: Myrt Falk Donna Munsch LouAnne Snavely		Team Members: Dawn Woods Margery Downey Christy Green Kathy Wiley Dixie Wantoch		Team Members: Melvin Rice Yussuf Al-Hassan Bob Davidson

Program teams participated in learning how to “unpack” standards and determine the bloom’s cognitive domain level of the standard.  Once teachers identified the skills, concepts and context of the standards, they learned how to write sample activities for each standard.  Following some practice sample activity writing, teachers played a game of jeopardy to see if they could correctly identify the standard from the description of the activity.  Armed with these new tools, the program teams went home to unpack and create in order to help them better understand the standards they teach!  We meet again May 7—look for my post after that meeting!  We will be sharing project team members’ reflections on their interaction with the implementation of the first innovation!

Michelle Carson, M.S. Adult Education
Associate Director of Adult Education
Professional Development and Program Improvement
Kansas Board of Regents
e-mail: mcarson@ksbor.org

Content Standards and Comptencies

What are content standards, performance standards and competencies?
Content standards define what a learner should know and be able to do (and a teacher should know and be able to teach) within an educational level. Performance standards specify “how much” a learner should know and be able to do. The U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE), Department of Adult Education and Literacy’s (DAEL) National Reporting System (NRS) has set the performance standards for WIA, Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) funded adult education programs. CASAS Competencies provide “real-life” evidence of the learner’s mastery of content standards.

What is the relationship between content standards and CASAS competencies?
The relationship is more like “love and marriage” in that they go together and are not an either-or type of relationship—both are needed for the learner to master competencies. Content standards tell teachers, learners, parents, employers, community members and stakeholders what basic skills learners need to have in order to master competencies. The mastery of competencies is measured in several ways—
      on CASAS assessments…
         on the GED Test Battery AND most importantly…
            in everyday life in the REAL world!