The Penn Manor Align System

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The Penn Manor Align System Higher Order
Thinking

• Charlie Reisinger
• August 2003

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Problems with Current System

• Secondary schools can't easily access elementary
  curriculum.
• Departments don't/cant share lessons/resources.
• Administration does not have a clue about what is
  being taught where.
• Are we hitting standards? Demonstrate yes/no.
• Where are we duplicating instruction/standards?

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More Problems

• How do we report progress on standards in terms
  of NCLB?
• How do we predict student performance?
• What students are slipping through the cracks?
• What standards are slipping through the cracks?
• How to do a multi-dimensional analysis of
  performance vs. X criteria?

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Objectives of Align

• Provide a structured system by which departments
  can classify, store and develop curriculum
  strands for specific courses.
• Digitize curriculum so it can easily be made
  accessible to all teachers regardless of
  building.
• Align district curriculum to standards and local
  assessments.
• Provide raw material for data-driven
  instructional decision-making.

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Higher Level Questions

• Geometry students arent getting X concept.
  Didnt they cover this stuff in Algebra 1?
• Middle School tech ed students cant read a
  ruler! Wasnt the material covered in 6th grade?
  Let me see the data.
• Reading Recovery is an expensive program to
  operate. Lets look at the data for the RR group.
  Are they performing at the expected level by x
  grade? Is the program working?
• HS students are doing poorly on the PSSA exams.
  Where in the curriculum must we make a change?

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New Align System Process

• Departments create curriculum
• Establish common local assessments
• Local assessments are inserted into eGradebook
• Proficiency levels established based on student
  grade
• Users mine database for data to support
  educational questions.

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CreateCurriculum
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Standards Per Building

• Analyze Standards Across Buildings
• HOT - Are all elementary schools equally teaching
  standards?
• HOT - Plan for rolling out new standards.
• HOT - What gaps exist across buildings?

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Standards Per Student

• Reports Standards Achieved by Each Student
• HOT - Demonstrate that students are getting x
  standard. (NCLB)
• HOT - Defend the cost of that new science gear!

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Local Assessments

• Proficiencies are Demonstrated by Assessments
• HOT - Are HS Math Students getting geometry?
• HOT - What is student xs strength/weakness? Then
  intervene.
• HOT - Define the relationship between students
  and teacher x.

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Standards Mapped to Course

• HOT Questions
• Will a student who takes xyz courses meet xyz
  standards?
• How should we restructure the sequence of
  courses?

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Are Students Falling Behind?
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Next Step Bigger Questions

• What is the relationship between PSSA scores and
  PA standards for x demographic?
• Given a series of courses, predict how a student
  will perform on the PSSA test.
• We spent 50,000 dollars on that software
  package. Did it impact student performance?

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Your Questions?