October Board of Ed: strengthening instructional materials

Riley: I've seen a lot of variation in what curriculum are being used and some aren't aligned with state standards
CURATE assesses degree of alignment
Ron Noble: teacher access to high quality instructional materials
began as teachers who needed to source their own materials
spoke with educators about the best role of the department
"they and we are compelled by the emerging research" that curricular materials matters
need support with professional development
ensuring that all students have access to high quality materials
CURATE: "cut through the noise" in the marketplace in ELA, math, and, "to a lesser extent" science
quality and useablity of materials
in some cases, there isn't much to consider
"dearth of high quality science materials"
use Ed Reports as an initial line
then further review conducted "by Massachusetts teacher leaders"
review process is on a card that the Board has but isn't in the presentation
test quality and organization; classroom tasks and instruction; usability; impact on learning
standards alignment, classroom application, overall rating
if they qualify for an overall meets expectations qualifies for a statewide contract
give publisher a chance to response
quotes by teachers
overview of subratings for productes reviewed
I am finding this SUPER hard to follow...I'm going to remind you that School Committees adopt curriculum
there was also a question there that I missed
West: no one documents what curricula are in use
have made usch progress in tracking student learning but don't track what may matter in student learner
"curriculum heat maps" to track what is being used where and make that data available
Fernández: curriculum design by teachers that are in use and being used now: how is that captured in your process?
Noble: CURATE doesn't address that as built
'we are doing other things to try to capture home-grown curriculum"
14 districts meeting with researchers from Johns Hopkins in places where they rely on teacher home-grown materials; way to start the conversation
Riley: think teachers should have to start with purchased curriculum
then "sharing teacher created tasks"
I don't think I agree with that
use additional resources wisely
OpenSciEd science: need for additional materials
through guiding design of open-source curriculum K-12
in year 2 of piloting middle school materials
one unit per grade level publicly released
2 units piloted each year before being released
professional learning resources being released alongside
Boston teacher: "the students are doing the heavy lifting here"
student: "it was more student guided than teacher guided"
student: "opens a door to what we need to study about"
Peske: What are we trying to get done: if schools and districts have the information they need and professional learning then experiences and outcomes will improve
"this board has had decades of work in building the standards...and the assessments"
haven't done a lot of work around the assessment of those standards
were asked "to send a signal about quality"

Mills: do you expect all districts in the state in users of this or participants in this? Or which districts do you think will or won't use it?
Science: storyline instructional model is not unique to OpenSciEd
"my hope is that every student is getting to learn science through this instructional model" by student questioning and engagement
a way to get it quickly into classrooms
Noble: at least want every district to go to the site and use it
want districts that self-build to use rubrics to review their own produced curriculum
hoping cost isn't an object
Stewart: raises for me some issues around integration with other efforts
mentions site council and school committee efforts
Peske: an effort to ensure that all of the students in our state have access to high quality materials
"all of this work is districts choosing to use the resources provided"
"we did this work because the field said to us 'we need help here'"
and it would feel like a spot here to note that among the end users should be school committees...and again, not mentioend

AHA! Riley "as they begin to make some of these decisions at the school committees..." using this as a resource
Rouhanifard: how many districts are using ELA and math curriculua that meet expectations?
Quite low
have information from only about a third of districts
"have a lot of work to do"

Fernández: adaptability of curriculua
A; "think it will be more of a question as they start to develop into the high school"
because it is open source will be easier to adapt over time
West: history, social studies area
imagine there's a need to support districts and educators
develop curriculum from scratch in 8th grade
effort going on like OpenSciEd
Peske:agreed, more parallel
"very specific to Massachusetts"
in process of building out a project plan "to build our own curriculum"
interviewed with districts
"emphasized need for upper elementary grades"
guidance in response to law that requires completion of civics tasks