Kentucky Adult Education’s Standards Professional Development Resources: Webinar and Guest Discussion

June 24th is the start of the Kentucky Adult Education’s Standards Professional Development Resources: Webinar and Guest Discussion.  I am the host of this activity and the subject matter expert of the College and Career Standards Community.

Today we will learn how Kentucky is moving their students toward college and career readiness through their standards-focused professional development.  We will be introduced to Kentucky’s professional development resources and have an opportunity to ask questions.  You will be able to participate even if you are not part of the webinar because a weeklong discussion is planned around the following topics: Kentucky Professional Development materials, Kentucky Common Core Standards and Standards-in-Action.  This will take place from June 24th through the 28th.  Each day the discussion will begin with guiding questions and will feature Kentucky adult educators.  I hope that you will join the conversation.

Meryl Becker-Prezocki

Discussion Schedule

  • Monday, June 24 (2:00-3:00 PM ET): Webinar Introduction of the KYAE Common Core Standards and explore the KYAE Common Core Standards Professional Development Materials (registration closed)
  • Tuesday, June 25: Getting Started with Professional Development for Standards-Based Adult Education
  • Wednesday, June 26: Ask a Standards-In-Action Teacher Day
  • Thursday, June 27: Ask a Standards-In-Action Program Administrator Day
  • Friday, June 28: Open Discussion

Webinar Presenter Bios:

Gayle Box is an associate in the Strategic Initiatives Division for Kentucky Adult Education (KYAE).  Before joining KYAE in 2007, she spent five years as the lead instructor for adult education for Perry County, Kentucky.  Gayle worked on the KYAE standards for mathematics and was one of the two state leads for Kentucky on the Standards-in-Action project.  She served on the Council for Postsecondary Education Mathematics Committee, which was charged with reviewing drafts of the Common Core Standards (CCSS) as they were presented to states for input.  Gayle was also a member of the math panel that identified college and career readiness standards for adult education, as part of OVAE’s Promoting College and Career Ready Standards in Adult Basic Education initiative.  Currently, she represents KYAE on the state Committee for Mathematics Achievement, which promotes coordination of professional development related to the CCSS for K -12, postsecondary, and adult education.  Gayle holds degrees in education from Texas State University, and she spent 24 years teaching choral music in Texas prior to moving to Kentucky.

Joyce Bullock is an associate in the Strategic Initiatives Division at Kentucky Adult Education (KYAE).  She is a member of their professional development (PD) team and is primarily responsible for drafting and overseeing the agency’s PD service contracts with state universities, KET, etc.  She now has 10 years of experience in providing policy oversight, professional development, and technical assistance for Kentucky’s local adult education programs.  Prior to coming to KYAE, Joyce served as an instructor in West Virginia’s public school system and the Universidad AutOnoma de Queretaro in Mexico, and she was senior policy analyst at the Council of State Governments.

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

Yes, this was a hard lesson that we learned. We had enrolled some students in math, thinking that they would learn the skills pretty quickly, but when they got to the applied math, they just couldn't get their gain, because of low reading skills.

 

Hello Everyone,

We have engaged in a very rich discussion these past few days with many community members of LINCS.  We have learned about Kentucky Adult Education’s professional development and been exposed to their materials and resources. We have shared and answered many questions.  Today, the conversation continues hosted by Gayle Box and Joyce Bullock.  The format is an open discussion around the following areas:

 

            Standards

            Professional Development

            Resources

            Standards-Based-Education

 

I hope to see you today in the Community.

Bios:

Gayle Box is an associate in the Strategic Initiatives Division for Kentucky Adult Education (KYAE).  Before joining KYAE in 2007, she spent five years as the lead instructor for adult education for Perry County, Kentucky.  Gayle worked on the KYAE standards for mathematics and was one of the two state leads for Kentucky on the Standards-in-Action project.  She served on the Council for Postsecondary Education Mathematics Committee, which was charged with reviewing drafts of the Common Core Standards (CCSS) as they were presented to states for input.  Gayle was also a member of the math panel that identified college and career readiness standards for adult education, as part of OVAE’s Promoting College and Career Ready Standards in Adult Basic Education initiative.  Currently, she represents KYAE on the state Committee for Mathematics Achievement, which promotes coordination of professional development related to the CCSS for K -12, postsecondary, and adult education.  Gayle holds degrees in education from Texas State University, and she spent 24 years teaching choral music in Texas prior to moving to Kentucky.

Joyce Bullock is an associate in the Strategic Initiatives Division at Kentucky Adult Education (KYAE).  She is a member of their professional development (PD) team and is primarily responsible for drafting and overseeing the agency’s PD service contracts with state universities, KET, etc.  She now has 10 years of experience in providing policy oversight, professional development, and technical assistance for Kentucky’s local adult education programs.  Prior to coming to KYAE, Joyce served as an instructor in West Virginia’s public school system and the Universidad AutOnoma de Queretaro in Mexico, and she was senior policy analyst at the Council of State Governments.

This past year is really the first year we began to "Put the Standard in to Action. " Since we are wrapping up our fiscal year and looking at reports and comparing them to last year, I can see improvement in 1) retention, 2) performance, 3) NRS goals such as Enter post-secondary, Gain Employment, and the number of NCRC certificates granted. We have a long way to but it is exciting to see the shift in a positive direction. Instructors tell me that they feel better prepared and focused.

Good morning from Kentucky!

After two years of the Common Core Professional Development here in Kentucky the changes are evident in my seven county programs! My programs range from small programs (with an enrollment goal around 120) to larger programs (with an enrollment goal around 400).

As budgets continue to decrease, we are working with less staff and fewer hours. Managed enrollment as well as the Common Core Standards has helped our programs focus in on what our students need. Instruction is more in depth and relates across the content areas. GED pass rates have increased in all of our programs. We are seeing more students expressing interest in college and/or technical school this year than we have seen in the past. We are seeing more academic gains than we have seen in the past. The Common Core provides a roadmap for instruction, my instructors although hesitant at first (like with all new things) are really excited about the change in their programs and the difference that it is making for their students.

Our target enrollment is 503 and our budget is decreasing for the next fiscal year, part time staff will have hours cut.  We are lucky that we are located on a college (technical) campus.  Our students see that they can be successful in a college setting which helps in students transferring into post-secondary.  We were all hesitant at first about the managed enrollment concept, (myself included), we are now seeing how it can be beneficial to all concerned

As you mentioned funds are being slashed and each program faces unique problems as a result, especially the smaller programs. I think the standards will be a help as we have to become more and more focused in what and how we teach. Managed enrollment has allowed greater control over how time is used. Our biggest fear was taht students would not adapt, but overall they seem to work better with the structure.

For me, developing a learning community and giving the teachers ownership was what worked. I was very excited to finally have guiding standards for adult education, but realized successful implementation would depend on the teachers' convictions. My first step was to gather information. I needed to define what the CCS encompassed, how teachers felt about the idea and how prepared the teachers were. After reviewing all of the information and informal conversations with teachers, I determined the CCS content wasn't new, teachers had mixed feelings about the standards and their experiences and/or familiarity was wide ranging. 

Next, I worked on gaining support among the teachers.  Beginning in one county with three teachers, I pulled sections of the standards that related to content already being taught in their classes, and asked them to revise their current curriculum to align with the standards. The teachers responded well, stating that it wasn't what was being taught, but how they approached teaching that changed. More time was devoted to the initial planning, lessons were more focused and involved more contextualized projects.

It was time to bring everyone (27 teaches and 2 aides) together. I called a staff day, a portion of which was devoted to hearing, acknowledging and addressing the teachers' concerns. The 'test' group shared their experience, which meant it wasn't administration trying to sell an idea. Then, I asked them to break into smaller groups and generate ideas to address those concerns.

After the day of preparation, I borrowed the idea of smaller learning communities from KY Adult Education. Teachers are very social people and love working together. Dividing the teachers into smaller groups, I assigned each group the task of developing one Unit of Instruction. I reviewed resources made availble by KYAE, and encouraged exploration of other resources and methods. Teachers of various levels of experience are working together and learning from one another, sharing resources and expertise. \

The greatest outcome for me is to watch as a larger learning community has evolved. Teachers have taken control and are working towards a better format for sharing units and lessons.

 

Hi Everyone,

Thank you, Tessa and Eva.  I understand that many adult educators will be engaged in professional development over the summer months that is focused on standards.  This is the time to ask any questions that you might have.  The Kentucky Adult Education Program Administers have a lot to share!

Meryl Becker-Prezocki, SME

One thing we are finding is that the assessment that we currently use (TABE) does not assess for the higher level mathematics (like trig.)  that is contained within the standards. I don't know if that will be changing with the GED 2014, but it probably needs to be considered.

 

Unfortunately, the TABE, along with other assessments we use to pre- and progress-test students have not historically been directly aligned to the GED. They are diagnostics, which may illustrate where students need additional instructional assistance, but do not necessarily reflect GED or current college and career readiness expectations. We understand McGraw Hill has submitted for approval (to OVAE) an adaptive version of the TABE that may come closer to assessing higher level standards, but the approval process can be a rather lengthy endeavor. However, GEDTS and other proposed high school equivalency assessment vendors have indicated they plan to produce/release readiness tests and score reports that, not only better "predict" performance on their post-tests, but provide better information to guide standards-based instruction. Of course, these have yet to be developed/released and it takes time for the "planets to align", but it appears we're closer than we have been in adult education. Due to the current state of assessments, it appears relying on standards-based instruction is our best avenue to student success.

I agree Eva! I think our instructors were ready for something different and eager for the change, especially with the GED 2014 change. Managed enrollment was the first step in the process (open enrollment is exhausting) and although my instructors were a little hesitant going in (so was I) it has been worth it for all of us. I have encouraged my part-time instructors to attend the full time PD instead of online if they could as well because I have felt that it was more beneficial for my entire staff to attend the PD as a team, all part of the learning community you also spoke of.

One of our programs also has tutors (aids). The aids particpated in the development of a Unit of Instruction with teachers to help them understand the processes for unpacking, evaluating resources and so forth. The aids are paid, but I think something similar could work with volunteer tutors. Perhaps holding a training or two to walk tutors through the processes.

Good morning Everyone,

We've had a rich discussion between instructors and program directors about the mechanics of the SIA process, transitioning to the College and Career Readiness Standards and the outcomes of those changes. 

All guest presenters reported student progress as a result.

If any of the presenters are available to participate today, I'd also like to hear what are their next steps?

 

Hello Everybody,

I want to thank all of you who participated and followed our weeklong discussion on Kentucky Adult Education's Standards Professional Development Resources: Webinar and Guest Discussion.  I believe that the conversation was of value to many folks in the field.

I hope that those who were not able to follow the week will read the posted discussion.  I would be happy to continue the dialogue and attempt to answer any questions that you might have. 

I want to thank the guests from Kentucky Adult Education:

                            Gayle Box, Joyce Bullock, Eva Henderson, Susan Dixon, Contessa Love, Betsy Popple and Rudy Rhoades

for making this activity possible.

 

Meryl Becker, SME

 

 

I have a couple of questions. 

1.  In the notes of slide 4 of the webinar presentation, it says:

a. The big question was, “How would we implement Standards-in-Action in Kentucky?”  If our goal was to better prepare our adult education students for college and careers, we needed to deliver the standards PD to all 120 programs across the state.  We had learned from our SIA pilot that a major benefit of the SIA initiative was its programmatic rather than individual approach to the PD.  So, we decided to implement the four innovations over three years requiring all our adult educators to participate.  As you can see here, the first year would be spent on Innovation 1: Understanding the Standards We Teach, focusing on Englis/LA in the Fall and Mathematics in the Spring.  Likewise, Innovation 2, which teaches participants to Translate Standards into Curriculum using the Lead Standards Approach, would be covered in the second year.  The final year would combine Innovations 3 and 4.  Unit 3-Focus on Assignments would occur in the Fall and Unit 4- Observing Standards-in-Action, in the Spring.  I’ll go into more depth about each innovation later in the presentation.

My question: Could you please explain what you mean by the SIA approach to Professional Development being programmatic rather than individual?

 

2. Your resources mention the terms “Anchor Standards” and “Lead Standards.” Could you explain if these are the same or different?  I was impressed with a video done by PBS and KET that showed Pat Marshall explaining how teachers could identify which “Lead Standards” applied to their students, and that the “Lead Standards” could change, depending on the needs of the students.

 

Thanks for sharing these resources and your knowledge.

 

Phil Anderson

Adult ESOL Program Specialist

Florida Department of Education

Hi Phil,

 

Thank you for your questions, Phil.  I am happy to attempt to answer them.  Perhaps, Gayle and Joyce will have something to add too.  I hope that this explanation will help.

Answers:

 

  1. Before SIA, adult educators signed up individually for the professional development offerings that they took each year to get their PD credit.  In other words, they selected their PD from a menu.  With the SIA approach, the individual programs came up with their program plan for how they wanted to participate in PD.  Some programs decided to concentrate on the English/Language Arts Standards, others selected the Math Standards and some agreed that everyone in the program would do both English and Math.  This was a new way to approach professional development for KYAE.
  2. Let me clear up the confusion between the words lead and anchor standards.  Yes, you are right the lead standards can change depending on the students and lessons.  The anchor standards never change.  They anchor the standards document.  They are the College and Career Readiness Standards that state the general, cross-disciplinary literacy expectations that must be met in order for students to be prepared to enter college and work training programs and be ready to succeed in those areas.  The K-12 grade specific standards define the expectations at each grade level.  Together the CCR anchor standards and grade 9-12 standards define college and work readiness.                                                                      

Meryl Becker-Prezocki, SME

 

 

 

Good morning, everyone.

I just want to add a couple of points to about the structure of our SIA pilot and lessons learned from it.  One lesson we learned was how positive it was to involve the program directors in aspects of the plannng of the workshops to teach each innovation. Because the program directors learned each innovation with the state leads, they became true partners in planning how to implement the innovation with their staff.  We all benefited greatly from each other's insights and wanted to replicate that element in the pilot sessions.  We did so, realizing several benefits:

1. Program directors know their instructors and for maximum effectiveness, should determine how to group them into the small teams needed to work on the assignments.

2.  Directors and instructors benefit from meeting as learning communities of 20 to 30 members.  This managable size promotes discussion and the exchange of ideas.

3. We should form the learning communities geographically and take the PD to them.  This cuts down on their travel and time away from students and family, which they greatly appreciate.

4. Having the program directors present at the workshops to lead their instructors in the work, asking for clarification at times or answering instructor questions, places them in the role of instructional leader and assures that they will have the knowledge to sustain the innovations beyond the our trainings.

5.  Because of their work together on the SIA assignments, program directors reported that instructors started functioning more as teams in general, sharing ideas, working together more to support students.

Meryl,

Thank you for your helpful response.  It sounds like you offered a catered meal complete with all the trimmings to a group of diners instead of single meals that an individual would take out of the fridge, heat up, and eat alone!  There would probably be advantages and disadvantages to both methods, but it is clear in the case of standards that group learning increased the likelihood of wider and deeper implementation.

Phil Anderson

Florida Department of Education

Hello everyone - 

Thank you for joining us for the Kentucky Adult Education Professional Development Resources activity in the LINCS Community last week. For those of you who participated in the webinar, we will be sending you a link to the activity evaluation (in a separate email). We would greatly appreciate if you can take 5 minutes to complete the evaluation. The evaluation will help us enhance our activities so that we can bring you more of what is most helpful to you.  The email will be sent to you in the next couple of days.

As Meryl said earlier, she is happy to continue the discussion with you. So if you have any additional questions as you go through the KYAE PD Resources, feel free to continue to post your questions.

For those of you who missed the webinar presentation, the PowerPoint is housed here: http://kyae.ky.gov/NR/rdonlyres/DAB2DFD3-B931-4950-9F38-8CF3A9E491A8/0/LINCSWebinar.pptx

The materials highlighted in the presentation can be located here:

Thank you again!