1. PowerPoint Slide Presentation
Assessing Academic Rigor to Ensure Grade-Level Proficiency and College Readiness Day Three October 6, West Virginia State Workshop Series Bridgeport Convention Center Clarksburg, West Virginia
Assessing Academic Rigor to Ensure Grade-level Proficiency and College Readiness 1

2. PowerPoint Slide Presentation
Do Now!
Assessing Academic Rigor
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3. PowerPoint Slide Presentation
Workshop Goal
Facilitate school staff in a collaborative effort of academic press to measure and increase classroom rigor in instruction, assessments and objectives, in order to meet the demands of continued education and, ultimately, college or the workplace.
Assessing Academic Rigor
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4. PowerPoint Slide Presentation
Housekeeping
Phone calls
Texting, s
Restrooms
Breaks
Lunch
Punctuality
Sharing
“Rule of Two Feet!”
Assessing Academic Rigor
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Assessing Academic Rigor to Ensure Grade-level Proficiency and College Readiness 4

5. “Ask It” Basket
Assessing Academic Rigor

6. PowerPoint Slide Presentation
Norms
Listen with an open mind.
Work toward solutions.
Meet commitments or let others know if you are struggling to do so.
Embrace change when appropriate.
Respect confidentiality.
Assessing Academic Rigor
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7. Flip Chart Strategy Literacy Note-taking Organization
Relationship Building

8. Flip Chart Contents YOUR NAME CHOOSE TWO : Family Education
Work experience
Hobbies/interests
Clubs/organizations
My Hero
Favorites (vacations, music, books, etc.)
What I want to be when I grow up
Something funny about yourself
An interesting experience from your job
Other (your choice)

9. Flip Chart Contents SELECT TWO FOR REVIEW:
One or more of the eight dimensions of the SREB rigor rubric with some of its indicators for implementation
One or more of the dimensions of the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy, with some of the description s(or some of the 19 gerunds)
The usefulness or value of the RBT for teachers
College readiness –definition and/or measures of college-readiness (especially those described by Conley)
Other (your choice of something else you learned in the June workshop that you think is important to remember)

10. Flip Chart Strategy: Team Share
Introduce yourself to your own school team with one interesting tidbit
Talk about ways to use flip charts in the classroom

11. Days One and Two Overview
PowerPoint Slide Presentation
Days One and Two Overview
Understanding & Applying a Definition of Rigor
Day One:
Introduction and Overview
What is Rigor, and Why Should We Care?
Building Schoolwide Academic Press and Rigor
Monitoring Schoolwide Rigor: The Rigor Rubric and Dashboard
Understanding the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy 
Day Two:
Applying the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy: Alignment
Examining Classroom Practices
Homework: Take the learning back to your whole school; gather data and implement a project of your choosing for increasing schoolwide or classroom rigor.
Assessing Academic Rigor
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Assessing Academic Rigor to Ensure Grade-level Proficiency and College Readiness 11

12. PowerPoint Slide Presentation
Day Three Overview
Analyzing Rigor in Our Classrooms
School Team Presentations: Building Schoolwide and Classroom Rigor
Applying the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy for Increasing Rigor at the Classroom Level
Aligning Units and Activities Using the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy
Using a Collaborative Process with the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy
Homework: Develop and implement a unit of study of your choosing, aligned along the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy for increasing rigor at the classroom level and bring it with you to the Day Four workshop.
Assessing Academic Rigor
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13. PowerPoint Slide Presentation
Day Four Overview
Sustaining Our Progress
Sharing Our Progress and Future Challenges
Debriefing with Other School Teams
Peer Review of Sample Units for Level of Rigor
Sharing and Extending the Work
What Have We Learned? Action Planning
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Assessing Academic Rigor to Ensure Grade-level Proficiency and College Readiness 13

14. Remember: Cycle of Low Achievement
PowerPoint Slide Presentation
Low Expectations
Poor Test Results
Why Should We Care About Rigor?
Less Challenging Courses
Low Level Assignments/ Instruction
Assessing Academic Rigor
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15. Remember: Definition of Rigor
PowerPoint Slide Presentation
SREB
Remember: Definition of Rigor
Rigor is the expectation that students will be able to perform at levels of cognitive complexity necessary for proficiency at each grade level, and readiness for college and the workplace..
Assessing Academic Rigor
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16. Remember: Dimensions of the SREB Rigor Rubric
PowerPoint Slide Presentation
Remember: Dimensions of the SREB Rigor Rubric
Assessment for Learning
Collaboration
Coursetaking Patterns
Curriculum Coherence
Expectations for Student Work
Grading Practices
Instructional Strategies
Student Support
Assessing Academic Rigor
Assessing Academic Rigor to Ensure Grade-level Proficiency and College Readiness

17. Two Dimensions of the RBT
PowerPoint Slide Presentation
Cognitive 1.
REMEMBER
Recognizing
Recalling 2.
UNDERSTAND
Interpreting
Exemplifying
Classifying
Summarizing
Inferring
Comparing
Explaining 3.
APPLY
Executing
Implementing 4.
ANALYZE
Differentiating
Organizing
Attributing 5.
EVALUATE
Checking
Critiquing 6.
CREATE
Generating
Planning
Producing
Knowledge
A. Factual Knowledge A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6
B. Conceptual Knowledge B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6
C. Procedural
Knowledge C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6
D. Metacog-nitive
Knowledge D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6
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Assessing Academic Rigor to Ensure Grade-level Proficiency and College Readiness

18. PowerPoint Slide Presentation
SREB
Rigor & Alignment
Alignment of instruction and assessment with standards/objectives that are at those levels of cognitive complexity is a critical part of increasing rigor in schools.
But---all too often---the gap between the levels of cognitive complexity in the standards and the levels in assignments increases as students progress through grade levels.
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19. Assessing Academic Rigor
Team Presentations
Description of project: Goals, activities, rationale, considerations
Findings: +/-, obstacles
Learning points: Team, individuals
Next steps
What do you think other schools can learn from your experience?
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20. Team Presentations - Feedback Protocol
Praise: Ideas that are promising; positive feedback
Question: Questions to clarify or expand upon something
Polish: Suggestions and ideas for consideration (may be posed in the form of questions)
Use planner page 9 and Notes page (p. 32)
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21. PowerPoint Slide Presentation
SREB
BREAK
Assessing Academic Rigor to Ensure Grade-level Proficiency and College Readiness

22. Review Activity: Using the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy
Decide the RBT code for the objectives, the activities and the assessment of the economics unit Money: Kids and Cash.
Planner pages 9-11

23. Two Dimensions of the RBT
PowerPoint Slide Presentation
Cognitive 1.
REMEMBER
Recognizing
Recalling 2.
UNDERSTAND
Interpreting
Exemplifying
Classifying
Summarizing
Inferring
Comparing
Explaining 3.
APPLY
Executing
Implementing 4.
ANALYZE
Differentiating
Organizing
Attributing 5.
EVALUATE
Checking
Critiquing 6.
CREATE
Generating
Planning
Producing
Knowledge
A. Factual Knowledge A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6
B. Conceptual Knowledge B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6
C. Procedural
Knowledge C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6
D. Metacog-nitive
Knowledge D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6
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Assessing Academic Rigor to Ensure Grade-level Proficiency and College Readiness

24. Evaluating Alignment - Algebra Unit
PowerPoint Slide Presentation
SREB
Evaluating Alignment - Algebra Unit
Use the poster-sized taxonomy matrix and pages in your planner.
Review Algebra Unit (Handout)
Write the number of each element on a color-coded sticky note.
Determine correct RBT cell for each element and place note on the RBT poster.
Discuss follow-up questions on page 14.
Be prepared to share out your ideas on how to improve the alignment and level of rigor of the unit.
Assessing Academic Rigor
Assessing Academic Rigor to Ensure Grade-level Proficiency and College Readiness

25. Algebra Unit Follow-up Questions
PowerPoint Slide Presentation
SREB
Algebra Unit Follow-up Questions
Look at the overall alignment of the elements in this Algebra Unit. How would you rate the alignment? Strong or weak? Why?
What advice would you give this teacher for improving the alignment and level of rigor of this unit?
How could this alignment activity be used/adapted as a professional development activity during common planning time back in your schools?
Assessing Academic Rigor to Ensure Grade-level Proficiency and College Readiness

26. PowerPoint Slide Presentation
SREB
LUNCH
Assessing Academic Rigor to Ensure Grade-level Proficiency and College Readiness

27. Using Collaborative Protocols
PowerPoint Slide Presentation
SREB
Using Collaborative Protocols
What is a protocol?
A structured process with clear goals and steps---like the one you just used.
See planner p
Let’s take a deeper look at one collaborative protocol: the tuning protocol (planner p ).
Next let’s model the tuning protocol and the RBT as a tool for reviewing a lesson plan.
Assessing Academic Rigor to Ensure Grade-level Proficiency and College Readiness

28. Protocols for Looking at Teacher Assignments and Student Work
A protocol consists of agreed upon guidelines for a conversation, and it is the existence of this structure -- which everyone understands and has agreed to -- that permits a certain kind of conversation to occur -- often a kind of conversation which people are not in the habit of having.
Protocols are vehicles for building the skills and culture necessary for collaborative work. Thus, using protocols often allows groups to build trust by actually doing substantive work together.

29. Popular Protocols http://www.lasw.org/methods.html
Art Shack
ATLAS Learning from Student Work
Charrette
Collaborative Assessment Conference
Constructivist Protocol
Consultancy
Describing Students' Work
Slice
Standards in Practice
Tuning Protocol

30. Standards in Practice
Standards in Practice (SIP) has been developed by the Education Trust as a "quality control tool" for analyzing and improving the quality of instruction provided to students. The SIP process is typically used, in bi-monthly meetings of small teams of teachers, guidance counselors, parents.
The process calls for a close examination of teachers' assignments and student work against a relevant standard or set of standards.

31. The Tuning Protocol
The Tuning Protocol was developed by the Coalition of Essential Schools as a means of providing teachers feedback on the authentic assessment systems they were engaged in developing.

32. The Tuning Protocol
A teacher, or team of teachers, presents samples of student work and the context for the work (assignment, rubric) and a focusing question about which he or she would especially welcome discussion.

33. The Tuning Protocol
After carefully reviewing the work, participants provide "warm" and "cool" feedback on the work while the presenter listens in silence, who then reflects on what she's heard. The Tuning Protocol may be facilitated by someone from inside or outside the group using it.

34. Raising Expectations for Teacher Assignments
Question levels
Types of activities
Essential questions
Ties to standards
Reflection

35. PowerPoint Slide Presentation
SREB
BREAK
Assessing Academic Rigor to Ensure Grade-level Proficiency and College Readiness

36. Using Collaborative Protocols
PowerPoint Slide Presentation
SREB
Using Collaborative Protocols
Next let’s practice the tuning protocol and the RBT as a tool to review a lesson plan.
Planner pages 24-26
Discuss what the group learned about using the protocol.
Discuss what the group learned about raising the rigor of activities.
Assessing Academic Rigor to Ensure Grade-level Proficiency and College Readiness

37. How to expand the protocol: Evaluating your students’ performance
Share the assignment and scoring guide.
Distribute papers.
Use the tuning protocol with both the assignment and the student work.
Discuss what the group learned about student performance.

38. Do your teachers all understand proficiency?
How can you replicate this process in your school?

39. Action Planning How will you engage the entire staff?
What strategies will you try first? Next?
How will you inform people? Get people organized?
What is your action plan for the next month, before the next session in December?
What will be your action plan for the rest of the school year?

40. Homework between Days Three and Four
Practice using the taxonomy on some standards.
Create your own case studies. Individually, develop a unit related to one or more of the analyzed standards.
As a leadership team support each other using the tuning protocol to give each other feedback.
Bring the case study materials to the December session. See planner page 29.

41. Exit Tickets
Assessing Academic Rigor