The Instruction and Professional Development Committee shall develop and organize instructional workshops, monitor local, state, and national agencies, and/or governing bodies on issues affecting the education profession, and coordinate instructional projects.
Meeting Dates: Thursday, November 7th NEW DATE, January 15th, February 19th, April 2nd, and May 7th
Chairperson: Geoff Stonecipher- Woodmere ES and Valerie Turner- Mt. Tabor MS
Board Liaison: Ricardo Alonso Jefferson HS
November Update:
Update from Math-Focused IPC on 11/19/24
The Instruction and Professional Development Committee (IPD) plus 10 mathematics educators (HUGE thanks for being there!) met with PPS central office employees on Tuesday, November 19 for the monthly Instructional Program Council (IPC) meeting. 52 mathematics educators responded to a survey sent out by the PAT IPD Committee (thanks again!) and we used those responses to develop agenda items and questions, based on grade bands. Highlights of the Council include:
The K-5 group (PPS lead: Patrice Woods, [email protected], K-5 i-Ready Overview slides) spoke about the shift towards using whiteboards, math journals, and discussion in classes to emphasize quality over quantity of math lessons. K-5 educators can give feedback to Curriculum Associates (makers of iReady) by using the support link, and that feedback will come back to Patrice as well. Reminder that due to the heavy language load in iReady, i-Ready is supposed to be a heavy discourse-based curriculum - and a lot of kids are just being asked to “do the workbook”. Patrice referenced discourse cards which are within the i-Ready resources. Also, every school has access to a site-based learning day, which is announced via Teacher Connect..
The 6-8 group (PPS lead: Thu-Tam Doan, [email protected], IPC 6-8 Math Updates slides) spent time reviewing a slide deck with an overview of a project-based math course being piloted in 5 schools, followed by information and resources available in the Mid School Math curriculum that might help teachers better support Multi-Language Learners and students with knowledge gaps. Educators advocated for making sure these helpful resources and links are added to the Playbook (one place to look). There was some conversation about the reality that many middle school math classrooms have learners with a vast array of math skills, and better Tier 2 and Tier 3 supports (iReady for all?) are needed. A suggestion was made to have middle school mathematics educators meet again, possibly in February, so resources created by educators can be organized and accessed by others (to avoid reinventing the wheel in separate buildings).
The 9-12 group (PPS lead: Noelle Gorbett, [email protected] - not present but she is the contact person) asked about resources for students whose language is other than English, and heard about an upcoming session for Instructional Coaches to bring academic discourse strategies back to buildings. The group talked about the lack of assessment retakes, and PPS leaders offered to pay teachers extended hours if they develop retakes/resources that can be shared. Part of the conversation centered around removing the requirement to teach Statistics in Algebra, and adding it to Geometry instead. Educators emphasized the need for flexibility in assessments as well as the scope and sequence.
After PPS employees left, we had a debrief session among PAT members about what went well and what was challenging in the IPC structure. Having district folks hear from and respond to educators in schools seems to be a tentative yet optimistic step in the directions towards working in a more collaborative district.
October Updates:
Neighborhood Schools Update
Our BIG agenda item was hearing updates and answers to our questions regarding the Special Education Neighborhood (aka full-inclusion) Schools model. Our IPD Committee heard concerns from many members, especially during our SpEd Listening Session on October 22 (thanks to those of you who participated!). Our Council meeting is supposed to focus only on curriculum and PD, not necessarily staffing (PPS insists Neighborhood schools staffing is based on “level of need” which we know is not true), soo… What we heard is that PPS is devoted to the full-inclusion model. Jey Buno (SpEd Director) shared that 80% of our students with IEPs spend 80% or more of their school day in GenEd, which is apparently pretty good compared to other districts in Oregon (not PAT fact-checked or verified). PPS looks at data about student sense of belonging from the Panorama survey in addition to grades/achievement and standardized test data, and PPS believes that data from schools already in Neighborhood-mode supports the expansion of this model. PAT expressed frustration from educators regarding lack of collaboration time, lack of PD around co-teaching, and lack of Universal Design for Learning training. PAT also shared that educators are concerned about the lack of scaffolds and support in district-adopted curriculum, creating greater workload for SpEd and GenEd teachers. Kelli Charles (another SpEd Director) shared that the team is conducting reviews of adopted curricula to determine how to make it more accessible for kids with less workload on teachers, so we will request an update on that in a future Council meeting. In addition, Kelli said her team aims to make TeachTown (SpEd curriculum) available to all Inclusion Specialists/Learning Center educators. Finally, PAT emphasized the wish from educators for PD and training to happen within our school days/work hours and in the spring, not during Summer Institute or pre-service days.
Student Data Sharing
PAT shared member concerns about how student data is used or stored when students take mandated online assessments in adopted curriculum platforms. PPS Information Technology leaders Melissa Lim and Derrick Brown said that all apps must adhere to PPS privacy policies, and student privacy is a requirement of the approval process for apps/platforms that our district uses. Any student data is anonymized and/or kept confidential, as per PPS District Privacy Agreements. To see district-approved apps, check out the PPS Learn Platform page.
Curriculum Adoption
PAT expressed the wish for less silo-ing and more cross-collaboration when educators are field testing curricula for possible adoptions. PPS seemed open to the idea. PAT stated there would likely be greater buy-in for participation on curriculum adoption teams if there was more collaboration and transparency. PPS shared that teams of 30 field-testing educators are much preferred to teams of 6. Here is a link to the PPS Adoption Toolkit. Watch PPS Connect emails that mention “AIR” teams or committees (Advisors on Instructional Resources) to get involved - having more educators participate will hopefully result in better decisions being made.
Standards Based Grading Info Share
PPS is working to transition grades 6-8 (including in K-8’s) to a Standards-Based Grading Report card for the 25-26 school year. Most of the technical work is complete and roughly 40 educators are participating in field-testing the pilot gradebook. PPS prefers a one-year rollout, with a possibility of some schools participating in a two-year plan (depending on building/staff readiness).
PAT suggestions: Make sure educators are familiar with the philosophy of equitable grading practices as well as standards-based grading. Make sure that admin can support the different messages to families/students, and have an understanding around the core elements. Offer early adoption/PD (Spring 2025) to be proactive (don’t wait for Summer Institute or pre-service days).
Next IPC @ PAT: Tuesday, November 19 12:30 pm
Math-focused curriculum session
PAT will invite math educators (4-5 educators in each grade band, based on SURVEY results/volunteers)
There will be 3 breakout spaces (K-5, 6-8, 9-12)
Request a pm sub (use “Union Business-District” and state “IPC 11/19/24” in ‘Notes to Administrator’, as well as fill out this form for our PAT Treasurer)
September Updates:
Your PAT Instruction and Professional Development (IPD) Committee met with PPS district leaders during our monthly Instructional Program Council (IPC) on Tuesday, September 24. Here are the updates about the following initiatives, adoptions, and issues for the 24-25 school year:
Science of Reading (ES): As part of our district’s initiatives to boost literacy for all students, 20 schools are part of Science of Reading Cohort 1. Professional development is underway with asynchronous sessions in Pepper (release time with subs provided). Educators are engaging in cross-school synchronous learning during Early Releases.
Standards-Based Grading (MS): Roughly 40 middle school educators (mostly ELA and Math) are participating in a Standards-Based Grading pilot this year, agreeing to use a district-developed Synergy gradebook. The goal is to field-test the SBG gradebook and roll out to all middle schools for the 25-26 school year. More information will come out in Admin/Teacher Connect to gather feedback from pilot gradebook educators as the school year progresses.
Curriculum Adoptions: Content areas follow ODE policy for a rolling 7-year cycle of curriculum review and adoption. Currently, HS Science and portions of HS Health are in this adoption cycle. HS Science is field-testing curricula this year with a recommendation by the end of the year and a roll-out for 25-26. HS Health is looking at various curricula for the Sex Ed portion of instruction; other portions are already ODE-compliant.
Middle School Common Assessments: ELA and Math teachers, and Social Sciences and Science to a lesser extent are being asked to administer district-mandated common assessments at the ends of quarters. There was discussion about the amount of instructional time lost to assessments, with a clarification from PPS leaders that they do not consider mandated curriculum-based assessments to count for overall assessment time (Art. 10.4 of our contract states that “all district mandated standardized assessments to not exceed 0.65% of instructional time” but I guess we are agreeing to disagree at the moment). The IPD Committee suggested that MAP Reading can and should count for the ELA district-mandated reading assessment in Quarters 1 and 2. This would also be true for Math. So far, the answer is no - teachers must do both. If it’s clear that fall MAP scores and Q1 HMH assessments overlap with data, it’s possible the curriculum-based common assessments would be suspended/replaced by MAP testing. Stay tuned. Much discussion about pacing guides, timing of assessments, and exactly how to administer the HMH Reading assessments. Here is a message jointly-created during our Council meeting: ELA 6-8 Clarification Language. ***please read this if you teach ELA 6-8 - and this will also be sent via Admin/Teacher Connect***
Neighborhood Schools update coming soon… at our next Council meeting on October 29.