Focusing on Our English Language Learners

in Virginia

Lani Hall SeikalyTechnical Assistance Provider

SEC ELL Grant

An Orientation to The Surveys of Enacted Curriculum

Questions that will be addressed…

• What are the Survey of Enacted Curriculum tools?

• Why are SEC data useful to educators?

• How are data collected, analyzed, reported?

• Why is your state participating in this project?

• What is your role in this project?

What are the Surveys of Enacted Curriculum and why do educators use

them?

The Surveys of Enacted Curriculum are

• educational tools that can help teachers answer these questions and others to improve their instruction and student achievement.

How many educators are using the Surveys of Enacted Curriculum?

10,393 teachers took a Survey of Enacted Curriculum in the 2006-07 school year

4674 Math 1993 Science

3646 ELAR 80 Soc Stud

131 standards and assessments were coded.

Why are educators using the Surveys of Enacted

Curriculum?

Could you improve student achievement if you had answers to these questions?

• How do I know that what teachers are teaching is aligned with what students are expected to learn as identified by the Virginia SOL?

• How do I know that teachers are spending instructional time on the right things?

• What do I know about our instructional program in a low performing area?

• Are our instructional practices consistent with research on effective practices?

• What professional development do my teachers need?

Could you improve student achievement if you had answers to these questions?

• Am I teaching what students are expected to learn?

• Am I spending my instructional time on the right things?

• Are my instructional practices consistent with research on effective practices?

• What professional development do I need?

The Surveys of Enacted Curriculum are

• a research-based, data analysis tool for analyzing the content of state standards (for Virginia the SOL) and assessments

• online, web-based surveys that collect teacher reported information about what content they teach and what instructional practices they use in one class

• graphed reports representing the data collected from teacher surveys and coding.

The Surveys of Enacted Curriculum

Surveys of Enacted Surveys of Enacted CurriculumCurriculum

A neutral content grid

with cognitive demand

The intended curriculum: State content standards—What students should learn

The enacted curriculum: What teachers teach

The learned curriculum: Student outcomes based on school learning

The assessed curriculum: State (and other) assessments—tested learning

Enacted (3rd Grade Teacher Reports) Intended (3rd Grade Math Indicators)

Enacted (9th Grade Teacher Reports) Intended (9th Grade Indicators)

How do the surveys work?

• Content specialists code the Virginia SOL and assessments

• Teachers take an online survey about what they teach, how they teach it and what professional development they have had

How are standards coded?

• Teams of content experts from state departments are trained to code content standards using neutral language to describe the content.

• The resulting descriptions are graphed so that comparisons can be made between standards (in Virginia’s case the SOL) and assessments or between enacted and intended curriculum.

How will the Virginia SOL be coded?

SEC utilizes a two-dimensional taxonomy based on:Topic

by Cognitive Demand

1

2

3

4

5

B C D E F

Categories of Cognitive Demand

Topics Memorize Conduct

Investigations Communicate Understanding

Analyze Information

Apply / Make Connections

Nature of Science

Science & Technology

Science, Health, Env.

Meas. & Calc. In Sci.

Comp. Of Living

Systems

Botany

The Content Matrix

The teacher online survey …• Collects data on what content is taught and

how it is taught.• Produces reports indicating the degree of

alignment between the taught (enacted) curriculum and state assessments or standards.

• Collects data on teacher beliefs, readiness to teach the content and readiness to instruct special groups of students.

• Provides a rich source of information to support teachers analysis of student learning challenges.

• to compare instructional content they are teaching to the state standards and assessments.

• to compare their own practice with results for their school, district, and state.

SEC data is never used for teacher evaluations. Individual teacher responses remain confidential and teacher ID information is never reported.

The Surveys allow teachers

Content Descriptions

ContentDescriptions

AlignmentAnalyses

School Improvement

Planning

ProgramEvaluation

MonitoringChange

CurriculumAnalysis

TeacherReports

ContentAnalyses

SECTaxonomy

SEC Online

Contour Maps are also available.

Drop-down menus allow you to select grade-specific and course-specific results for your school, district and state, in addition to reports of your own results.

SEC Onlinereports instructional content using tile charts.

Drop-down menus allow you to select grade-specific and course-specific results for your school, district and state, in addition to reports of your own results.

Survey results can be summarized using a collection of Instructional Practice and Characteristics Scales

Results are displayed using floating bar charts to report mean and standard deviation results to describe variations of teacher responses

A teacher’s own results.

Why is your state and district participating in the project?

What do they hope to learn?

Virginia is one of nine states to participate in the SEC - ELL Grant, an enhanced assessment grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Education to CCSSO and a consortium of states to better understand and support the achievement of English Language Learners.

In too many schools, English Language Learners are a subgroup whose performance is not meeting the AYP targets. Schools, divisions, and states across the country are trying to find answers to how to best provide access to and support ELL students in attaining state standards and NCLB targets.

To help our ELL students, we need to better understand…

• What is the nature of the language that students need to meaningfully engage with and achieve academic content?

• Given the expected student outcome, how do we expect students to use (receive, produce) language to acquire/demonstrate understanding of the content?

• What are the language demands and complexity of the Virginia content SOL?

• What do the Virginia content SOL require in their language complexity and demands?

To help our ELL students, we need to better understand…

• Are our ELL students being taught the Virginia SOL?

• What instructional strategies and activites are being used to help ELL students learn the content?

• Are regular education teachers supporting the language needs of their ELL students in any ways?

• Are the language proficiency skills aligned with the Virginia SOL?

This SEC ELL Consortium is studying the following questions:

To what extent do ELL’s have opportunity to learn academic content and skills in state standards?

What is relationship of state ELP standards and assessments to state academic standards?

What instructional practices/strategies are used to teach English language skills across content areas?

What is relationship of alignment of instruction (to standards) with student achievement?

Virginia is focusing on a subset of the grant questions:

To what extent do ELL’s have the opportunity to learn the academic content and skills in the Virginia SOL?

What instructional practices/strategies are used to teach English language skills across content areas?

Are there differences between the instructional practices used with ELL students in rural, urban, or suburban areas?

What is relationship of alignment of instruction to the Virginia SOL with student achievement?

What can Virginia educators gain from participating

in the Surveys?

School and district leaders can…

• Identify the extent to which instruction is aligned to the Virginia SOL and assessments

• Understand what instructional activities and strategies are being used in classrooms

• Compare the strategies used in classrooms with ELL students to strategies used in classrooms without ELL students.

School and district leaders can…

• Identify the extent to which language proficiency standards are aligned to language proficiency assessments

• Identify alignment of language complexity and demand in the Virginia SOL

• Identify priority needs for professional development

Teachers can…

• Identify the extent to which what they teach is aligned with the Virginia SOL and assessments

• Better understand what they need to be teaching more or less

• See how their instructional practices compare to other teachers in their school or district

• Identify the language complexity and demand of the Virginia SOL they teach

• Identify priority needs for professional development

What is your role in this project?

What is the state’s role?

The state’s role …• To participate in a nine state collaborative with

CCSSO (Council for Chief State School Officers) and WCER (Wisconsin Center for Educational Research) to identify study questions, implement the survey in their respective states, and analyze the results.

• To identify which divisions will participate in taking the survey, the target number of participants and content areas and grade levels that will be included in the project.

• To coordinate the coding of selected Virginia SOL and the language proficiency standards for their state and send content and linguistic specialists to participate in the coding workshops.

Your role …• Select which schools and teachers participate

in taking the survey and the timeframe for completion

• Plan and lead an orientation presentation to the participating teachers

• Administer or monitor the administration of the survey

• Attend a one day training on how to read and interpret the data results from the survey (Oct 29 or 30)

• Facilitate a discussion with the participating teachers about their data results

Administering the Surveys:What is involved?

Online Survey Administrationwww.seconline.org

• Approximately 30-120 minutes to complete (depending on which survey teachers have been assigned to take)

• May be completed in multiple sittings• Data is saved as each section is completed• Teachers may use their planning book or

calendar• Teachers may have paper copies of the

surveys prior to completing the online survey

To set up the online survey for your schools, you need to email WCER the following information two weeks in advance:

• Name of Project/Group/Region

• Participating District(s)

• Participating School(s)

• Survey Start Date

• Survey End Date

• Contact name, email and phone #

The Virginia DOE has set the following expectations for participation and completion of the survey:

• 24 Divisions will be participating • At least one middle and one high school per

division will participate• The first date that teachers may take the

survey is May 1, 2008• The surveys should be completed by May 30,

2008

Let’s take a look at the online registration process and the survey process to see what

teachers actually need to do.

www.seconline.org

SEC Online Registration

From the Home Page, click on “Registrar’

SEC Online Registration

Registrar AreaIf not registered,select your groupfrom the drop-down menu, thenclick on Registerbutton.

If registered,enter yourusername andpassword, thenclick on Loginbutton.

Complete allrequired fields (*).

Be sure to selectthe subject you willbe reporting on.

NOTE: Your personal information will remain strictly confidential!

Registration Page

SEC Online Registration

Final Step

SEC Online Registration

After submitting yourpersonal informationyou will be promptedto enter a usernameand password

Enter a valid email address. This will beimportant if you forget your username or password.

Both Username and Password are required to log back in.

You will receive an email verification of your username and password after registration is completed. Save for your records.

Survey Menu

SEC Online

Sections assignedfor your group willbe pre-checked.

Sections youhave completedwill appear withgreen text.

Sections youhave notcompleted willappear in whitetext.

Note Instructions for Selecting the Target Class!

•For all questions, please respond only for the selected subject.

•If you teach more than one class in this subject, respond only for the first class that you teach each week for this subject.

•If that is a split class (i.e., the class contains more than one group for instruction, and each group is taught separately), respond for only one group.

Instructions for Selecting the Target Class

SEC Online

Your data is saved each time you click on a Submit button.

You may log-off at any time by simply closing your browser.

Reporting Instructional Content

• Encourage use of lesson plans, grade books, text, etc. to recall• Topic Coverage organized and reported by Content Area (e.g. math)

Number Sense, Properties, Relationships

Operations

Measurement

Consumer Applications

Basic Algebra

Advanced Algebra

Geometric Concepts

Advanced Geometry

Data Displays

Statistics

Probability

Analysis

Trigonometry

Special Topics

Functions

Instructional Technology

Reporting Instructional Content

• Cognitive Demand reported for each topic covered (e.g. math)

Memorize Facts, Definitions, Formulas

Perform Procedures

Demonstrate Understanding of Mathematical Ideas

Conjecture, Generalize, Prove

Solve non-routine problems, Make Connections

Avoid assigning same level of emphasis across categories of cognitive demand

Step 1: Report time spent on topics taught

Reporting Instructional Content

Review the list of topicspresented for thecurrent Content Area. For each topic in the listthat is taught to thetarget class, select aradio buttoncorresponding to 1,2, or3 based on thefollowing definitions:

0 = Not covered1 = Less than 1 lesson2 = 1-5 lessons3 = more than 5 lessons

Step 2: Set expectations for students for each topic taught.

Reporting Instructional Content

For each topic selectedfrom the previousscreen set the cognitiveexpectations forstudents for each of 5categories of cognitivedemand, using thefollowing definitions

0 = No emphasis1 = Slight emphasis2 = Moderate emphasis3 = Sustained emphasis

Focus on target class & reporting period.

Editing Results

Survey Completion

Completed survey sections may be reviewed/edited until:

1) The survey completion window has closed2) You review results for a given survey section

To review/edit responses:

Check the box on the Survey Menu Screen next to the section you want to review/edit. (Completed sections will be identified by green text.)

Results are available for review immediately upon completion of required survey sections.

While results are available immediately, you may want to wait until all teachers fromyour group have completed the survey before reviewing results.

Online Report Generator

Reviewing Results

Taking a look at the survey items

Please take the next 10 minutes to read through some of the questions in each Instructional Content section of the survey. Record any questions you have, and we will address them with entire group at the end of this time.

What questions do you have about the

survey items?

Taking a look at the survey items

Please take the next 10 minutes to read through some of the questions in each Instructional Practices section of the survey. Record any questions you have, and we will address them with entire group at the end of this time.

What questions do you have about the

survey items?

Planning and Leading the Orientation Session

What do you need to tell teachers about taking the survey?

• What do teachers need to know to be able to do a good job taking the survey?

• Where and when will teachers take the survey?• What do teachers need to bring?• What data will teachers receive after they take

the survey?• How will their confidentiality be protected?• Are there any additional incentives for their

participation?

What happens after teachers take the survey?

• The state, districts, and schools will have invaluable data to analyze for a variety of purposes.

• Next October 29 or 30, you will participate in a training workshop on how to read and interpret your data.

• After that training, you will facilitate a data discussion with your schools about how to read their SEC data and what lessons they are learning as a result of their survey data.

Who are your primary contacts for this project?

At the state….Robert Fugate, LEP Assessment Specialist

804 786-3113Robert.Fugate@doe.virginia.gov Stacy Freeman, LEP Specialist

Stacy.Freeman@doe.virginia.gov

At CCSSO …Lani Seikaly, Technical Assistant

703 867-3922 lani@MeetAYP.com

Where can you find additional information?

• Facilitator packet – Resources for leading the orientation– Handouts for teachers

• SEC Website: (http://seconline.org) – Surveys of Enacted Curriculum– SEC Resources– Online training PPTs and handouts