AL Educator Effectiveness Evaluation

SECC staff will support SEA staff with tools and resources for developing and implementing student learning objectives.

Latest Work Update

SECC project staff met with the ALSDE educator effectiveness lead via conference call on September 1 to discuss general SEA updates, a timeline for implementing student growth goals (SGGs) as part of teacher evaluation, and the role of SECC for Year 5. A major update was that the new state superintendent of education was hired in August as well as two new staff members in the educator effectiveness office. In terms of the timeline and activities, the SEA explained it would like to provide at least 30 districts with guidance on SGGs in early spring. The SEA would like to present these districts with at least four options for adopting a SGG model. ALSDE would like SECC to provide technical assistance with codeveloping tools and resources for this work and to lead with expertise in devising a plan for implementation. The team scheduled an online work session with the SEA for October 26 and 28 to follow up in preparation for a face-to-face meeting on November 29–30. To support the SEA project lead, on September 15, SECC staff offered to reach out to the two new educator effectiveness staff to provide context and background for the current project work on SGGs prior to the November site meeting in Alabama. SECC is seeking to meet with the new staff to bring them up to speed on the SGG process while the leaders on the team focus on the bigger picture.
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AL Internal Program Evaluation

SECC will continue to provide support to ALSDE for the implementation of Plan 2020. Branching from the Plan 2020 project, this work will focus on building the capacity of the Research and Development section to plan and implement an internal program evaluation, with a primary focus on the Alabama Reading Initiative (ARI).

Latest Work Update

There is no project activity to report for December 2015.
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Related REL Southeast Work »   

Alabama Low-Performing Schools Performance Management and Planning

SECC staff will continue to support SEA staff with processes for implementation and oversight of the FY 2016 SIG continuation grant.

Latest Work Update

The ALSDE SIG coordinator requested support from SECC to include an automated scoring system for the SIG LEA application rubric that will be used in the process of awarding FY17 SIG funds to schools competing for the grant. To augment the current rubric developed in Excel, SECC’s research and evaluation expert, Pam Bonsu, developed a survey form using Adobe to help streamline usability of the rubric. The rubric was implemented on September 20–22 as individuals selected by the SEA began the review process. SECC project staff member, Heidi Goertzen, attended the first 2 days of the review to provide technical assistance and support. SIG awards will be determined by early October. The ALSDE SIG coordinator and a SECC staff member held a planning conference call on September 30 to draft a facilitators agenda for a sustainability work session designed for SIG schools, which is scheduled for October 18–19. This training will follow up on the MEGA conference session held last July in which SIG school teams engaged in a sustainability training. Next steps are to flesh out the activities planned and develop the materials needed. 
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Alabama/Mississippi Community of Practice

SECC staff will continue its Alabama/Mississippi interstate community of practice that focuses on sharing knowledge and expertise between state education agencies. The Alabama/Mississippi Community of Practice (AMCoP) will continue to provide a forum for Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) and Mississippi Department of Education representatives and stakeholders to interact and collaborate with national experts and staff from other SEAs.

Latest Work Update

After the AMCoP planning meeting held on September 30, SECC state liaisons compiled the meeting notes and sent them to their respective states for feedback and any needed revisions. The meeting notes were finalized and sent to each state on October 31. The next AMCoP planning meeting is scheduled for January 4, 2017.
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College- and Career-Ready State Standards Resource Review

All five states in the Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC) region have adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) as a vehicle for preparing college- and career-ready students. To assist these states with their implementation of the CCSS, program associates from the SECC do an exhaustive review of the CCSS resources in order to provide the best CCSS resources to the states in the SECC region. These resources are updated twice annually to provide SECC states with guidance in implementing the CCSS.

Latest Work Update

The partial list of suggested resources was reviewed for inclusion/exclusion by SECC staff. RMC and SECC staff met and made final inclusion decisions for the first list of resources. RCC staff continued the research and evaluation of additional prospective resources for inclusion in the winter edition. Distribution expanded to include SEA staff the are participants in the SECC Assessment and Accountability Network. 
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Related REL Southeast Work »   

Common Core State Standards for Mathematics Instructional Support Videos

The Common Core State Standards Mathematics (CCSSM) videos are designed to support states, schools, and teachers in the implementation of the CCSS for mathematics. The videos were created in collaboration with the states in the Southeast Comprehensive Center region based on their needs for professional development support for the implementation of the Common Core State Standards for mathematics. Each video is an audiovisual resource that focuses on specific standards and includes examples and illustrations geared to enhancing understanding.

Latest Work Update

Video on standard 7.G.A.2 Part 1 was corrected and captions edited and approved. Transcripts for videos on standard 7.G.A.2 Part 1 and 7.G.A.2 Part 2 were created and forwarded for review and approval. 
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Cross-State Community of Practice (CoP)

SECC staff will initiate an interstate community of practice that focused on sharing knowledge and expertise between state education agencies. The CoP will provide a forum for SEA representatives and stakeholders to interact and collaborate with national experts and staff from other SEAs.

Latest Work Update

The monthly project update will be added as work progresses.
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Ensuring School Readiness Community of Practice

SECC will establish a regional community of practice (CoP) focused on ensuring school readiness and success of preschool-age children in the five states in its region. This CoP will provide a forum in which SEA representatives can interact and collaborate with national experts and staffs from other SEAs to learn about research-based and emerging promising practices in the area of school readiness, analyze their state's use of resources to address this topic, and develop strategies for strengthening connections between services provided through funding sources and K–12 standards and expectations in the state.

Latest Work Update

On October 3, SECC and CEELO held their monthly conference call tocontinue collaboration and discussion of early childhood efforts in SECC’s region and nationally. The SECC early childhood team continued to update the virtual community site with current research-based information and practices as well as early childhood news and events. The site serves as a vehicle for collaboration and knowledge building to strengthen early childhood systems across the region. The SECC early childhood team also disseminated the monthly ECCoP E-Newsletter to sustain collaborative efforts and deepen awareness of early childhood activities and efforts across the southeast region and nationally. In addition, the SECC team shared several E-Alerts with information about upcoming webinars that are important to states’ work with ESSA. The team also sought feedback from CoP members concerning how SECC can better meet their needs and to learn about topics of interest. Presently, 90% of the members have participated in the survey.
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Plan 2020 Indicators

SECC will continue to provide support to ALSDE for the implementation of Plan 2020. Largely, this work will serve to support ALSDE research and development staff with approaches to data visualization and presentation using a consultative model.

Latest Work Update

The Alabama Plan 2020 SECC project staff met during their SECC quarterly meeting in Austin, Texas, in September. The project lead shared the background and the context for past work with the ALSDE research and development team then she summarized the discussion that took place at the SECC Year 5 Work Plan meeting with ALSDE. This year, the focus of the project will be using data for examining third grade literacy and mathematics. In gearing up for the work, SECC staff members began reviewing salient resources. Next steps are to contact respective ALSDE staff to begin needs sensing and designing TA plans.
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Promoting Equitable Access at the State and Local Levels Regional Institute

Each year, the SECC provides a regional institute in an identified priority area for SEAs. The SECC will support the attendance of a team from each state for the institute. Additional follow up will take place after the institute to aid statewide implementation efforts.

Latest Work Update

Two SECC states, Georgia and Mississippi, were selected to participate in the Talent for Turnaround Leadership Academy’s first cohort, which will allow them to collaborate to design and implement innovative talent management strategies to attract, support, and retain excellent educators in the highest need, lowest performing schools. The states were notified that the first T4TLA national conference will be December 1–2, with the introductory T4TLA webinar for RCC/SEA/LEA teams set for November 1. The two states were asked to work closely with SECC to ensure that they named and confirmed district partners and named a complete team of staff to participate. Submission of completed tables to the Great Teachers and Leaders Center (GTL) at AIR was requested by October 14. In support of the cross-department collaboration encouraged by T4T, states were asked to identify a minimum of two SEA staff and two LEA staff from each participating district, with a focus on staff who are responsible for school improvement and educator effectiveness/equitable access. 
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Title III and English Learner Readiness Matters

SECC staff will continue to support ALSDE through the EL Readiness Matters Committee (including staff from Teaching and Learning, Office of Student Learning/Instructional Services – CCRS Implementation, and Office of Learning Support/Federal Programs/Title III, Special Education Services, and Career and Technical Education) to build the state’s capacity to collect, review, and analyze data related to ELs as part of its Plan 2020 goals for learners and to provide evidence-based resources that support the success of ELs.

Latest Work Update

This month, SECC staff completed a draft of the report of the state Title III networking webinar, which they facilitated on July 19 among four SECC states that shared a 15-minute presentation of their EL support systems for technical assistance and professional development. The report includes a description of each state’s support system captured through narrative and summary tables. On September 20, the SECC team sent an email to SEA participants that included a draft of the report requesting feedback by September 28. The email also included a poll for scheduling the next webinar and a request for each state to provide possible topics. Next steps for SECC are to finalize and disseminate the state Title III networking webinar report to each participating state and schedule the second webinar.
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