RACE TO THE TOP DRAFT RECOMMENDATIONS

STANDARDS, ASSESSMENT AND DATA SYSTEMS

Submitted by Mickey Garrison and Matt Coleman

10-21-09

Create a Shared Understanding of the Knowledge and Skills required for college and career
readiness and contained in Oregon’s Content Standards and the National Common Core
Standards for Educators, Students and Parents

Evaluate student knowledge and skills through a standardized, well-defined and understood
process

o Specifying the learning progressions within each content area for instruction and
assessment
o Providing evidence-based feedback to students linked to instructional outcomes
o Promote a culture where students internalize the process and content standards,
criteria, objectives and expectations so that students are empowered
participants in their instruction, assessments and learning
o Emphasize meaningful and well articulated rigor in a PK-20 system that is guided
by educator judgment, international benchmarks, career and technical expertise,
higher education partnerships
 Develop classroom-based anchor papers/portfolios by subject and grade
to quantify performance expectations at a state level
 Provide technical infrastructure that can organize and disseminate
resources by building on successes of REAL, OPEN system from Linn-
Benton-Lincoln ESD, and online PASS moderation system
 Make available resources to students and teachers that support specific
learning targets/standards
o Effective communication of student proficiency in knowledge and skills including
a standards based approach to assessing student performance and assigning
grades separately from student behavior

Ensure successful implementation by acknowledging that changing systems require additional

resources
Provide time for teachers to participate in professional development (egg. Learn
and understand the content standards, and incorporate effective instructional
strategies)
Provide time and resources to evaluate student work

Draft Submitted 10-23-09 Page 1 of 4

 Provide support for educators to use multiple modalities of assessment (e.g.
Hands-on, work samples, multiple choice, etc).
Continue to use the professional development design created by the Oregon
DATA Project (roll-out, sustainability, implementation) and provide additional
training strands (e.g., use of formative assessments such as Easy CBM, learning
and understanding of the content stand.
Provide support for interim and formative assessments to gauge student
learning (e.g. EduSoft, Easy CBM)
Provide time and resources to create and calibrate consistent expectations of
student proficiency
Explore creative uses of time as an asset

Outcome:

Fully implement a statewide PK-20 system of standards, professional development, actions, and
longitudinal data systems supporting the success of every student providing feedback to
stakeholders for the continuous improvement of programs, professional development, and pre-
service training. The system will facilitate a holistic and continuous improvement cycle
supporting student achievement by informing community, business, policy makers, state,
regional, district, building, individual classrooms, post secondary, parents and students.

Key priorities include providing mechanisms to support and inform the following:

Recommendation #1: Set clear standards supporting student success for students, teachers,
and administrators

1) Implement standards and graduation requirements which are internationally normed

and predictive of college and career success.
2) Development of teacher and administrator education programs for teachers and
administrators providing differentiated “professional development” to improve student
achievement.
3) Development of continuous improvement cycles from pre-service through practice and
from PK through post-secondary, using multiple data points, to evaluate and teachers,
administrators, and the professional development programs from pre-service through
practice.
4) Development of standards supporting the evaluation of teachers and school leaders
with specific feedback on instructional strengths and weakness leading to target
differentiated “professional development”.

Note: Professional development and accountability at all levels. For example,

administrators must be trained and willing to have the ‘hard’ conversations with
teachers and other administrators.
Draft Submitted 10-23-09 Page 2 of 4
Recommendation #2: Provide statewide support for the PK-20 system to enact proficiency
based instruction.

1. Identify standards and support the implementation of a the state-wide proficiency

based practice
2. Utilize all resources effectively to provide time for stakeholders to develop standards,
practices, and interventions to improve student learning. (ex: teachers within and
between subject matter and grade level birth through post-secondary)
3. Create jobs for educators by creating an infrastructure of time for mentoring,
collaboration, and support for the deep implementation of a state-wide proficiency
based practice
4. Development of data standards, business rules, and KPIs needed to inform the
improvement cycle for stakeholders including community, business, policy makers,
state, regional, district, building, individual classrooms, post secondary, parents and
students.
5. A state-wide progress monitoring system of student progress toward proficiency for use
by administrators and teachers, but also for students and parents. The system would
include strategies, interventions and resources to help students not on target be ready
for student specific post-secondary opportunities.
6. Creation of a base of exemplar standards based lessons. The lessons will be linked to
data supporting the improvement of student learning for identified sub-groups .
Teachers and administrators would have contact information allowing them to get
additional information from these sites.
7. Develop a set of state-wide research based set of intervention business rules for student
at-risk factors.
8. Develop research based, best practice diagnostic and predictive measures tied to
standards and decision rules to proactively inform teachers and school-leaders about
students who are at risk and linking this information to potential actions on behalf of
students.
9. Provide time, which does not interrupt instruction, to bring teachers, administrators and
other stakeholders together to identify and refine data needs on an ongoing basis.
10. Provide time, which does not interrupt instruction, to allow teachers, administrators,
and other stakeholders together to develop the knowledge and skills needed to
effectively use data to improve student achievement. Use and expand the assessment
literacy training and the professional development design (roll-out, capacity building,
sustainability and implementation) created through the Oregon DATA Project.

Note: Resources and parameters for the use of the resources to provide the time and
structures needed to build capacity and implement professional development to effect
change.

Draft Submitted 10-23-09 Page 3 of 4

Recommendation #3: Implement a PK-20 longitudinal database providing actionable measures
of student, teacher, and administrator growth supporting the success of every student.

1) Data delivered to stakeholders in a manner that is role appropriate and delivered in an

actionable manner to improve student achievement. Interfaces provide feedback at
differentiated levels for stakeholder audiences offering strategies, recommendations
and resources to help “all” students be successful.
2) Extend data sets to include complementary data sources such as but not limited to
Employment, independent colleges, National Student Clearing House (NSCH), NWREL,
and TSPC
3) Work with neighboring states that we have high exchange rates of students to
strengthen instructional approaches, develop common systems, and facilitate the
exchange of required data.
4) Develop business rules and stakeholder data presentations providing for specific
actionable analysis. Examples include:
a. Business rules to identify students who are at-risk
b. SD level reports-# of graduates attended OUS with GPA & performance
c. Regional summaries of graduates attending OUS and their performance.
d. Understand the effectiveness of college level work done at the high school level
AP, IB &. dual credit study-does HS credit allow students to be successful in
higher ed.
e. Effectiveness of teacher pre-service training
f. Effectiveness of intervention systems and strategies for improving student
achievement of identified subgroups
5) Ensure a system that includes the elements specified in the America Competes Act.

Note: The following is outside of this workgroup.

1) Modify state school funding model to align with standards based proficiency grading.

Draft Submitted 10-23-09 Page 4 of 4