Statewide Systems of Support
NECC offered extensive research-based assistance to help build state-level capacity to support low-performing schools and districts. The work began with a January 2007 regional meeting of state leaders, researchers, policy makers, and guests from states outside the region, with a keynote presentation by Paul Reville, then-NECC Board member and chair of the Massachusetts Board of Education. Access audio and visual presentations from that meeting.
NECC sponsored a regional meeting in April 2008 that engaged state and district leaders in problem-solving sessions on key issues in state systems of support to advance teaching and learning. Tom Payzant of Harvard University served as critical reflector. Access materials from that meeting.
NECC staff focused on three essential components of state-level support:
Instructional Supports and Interventions
In collaboration with the Northeast Regional Resource Center (NERRC), the National Center on Response to Intervention, the New England Equity Assistance Center, and the Regional Parent Technical Assistance Center, NECC engaged state education leaders in learning about the Response to Intervention (RTI) approach to district and school improvement. Download and play a recording of an NECC and NERRC webinar on RTI.
Effective Use of Data and Curriculum Supports
Working with the Assessment and Accountability Center and the Comprehensive Center on Instruction, NECC disseminated tools to develop practitioners' assessment literacy, to engage state leaders in identifying regional needs for assessment literacy, and to support online regional seminars on the use of assessment data to improve instruction, with a focus on formative and diagnostic assessment.
Job-Embedded Professional Development
The Center offered learning opportunities on the design and implementation of professional learning communities to drive school improvement. NECC worked with State Education Agency (SEA) staff members about the key components of effective professional learning communities and their implications for SEAs.
Contact
Nick Hardy
Email: nhardy
wested.org
Related events
Webinar: Using the RTI Classification Tool and Resource Locator (CTRL)
2:30 - 3:30 Eastern Time
Online
This is a Web-based self-assessment and resource filtering tool. SEAs can use this tool to determine their level of RTI implementation and find resources that are relevant to their unique needs. The tool is available at www.rtictrl.org.
Contact: Carol Keirstead
Email: ckeirsteadrmcres.com
Webinar: Making Progress on Essential Standards and Assessment Reforms
1:30 - 3:00 p.m., Eastern Time
Online
In the context of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), Dr. Stanley Rabinowitz, Director of the WestEd/ CRESST Assessment and Accountability Comprehensive Center, described innovative state-level strategies to define, develop, and benchmark (nationally and internationally) rigorous college and career-ready core standards.
Strategies included considerations for English language learners, students with disabilities, and low-performing students. The discussion included evidence-based principles and practices, methods for PK-13 articulation, approaches to identify and integrate content knowledge and essential skills, examples from states, and the role of state policies and strategies based on best practices.
Contact: Carol Keirstead
Email: ckeirsteadrmcres.com
Webinar: State Supports for Low-Performing Schools and Districts in the Northeast and Islands Region
12:00 - 1:00 p.m. Eastern time
Online
This webinar featured the newly published report, "How Eight State Education Agencies in the Northeast and Islands Region Identify and Support Low-Performing Schools and Districts." Issued by the Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands (REL-NEI), the report found that the eight agencies have created supports and rationales to put federal accountability principles in practice.
Carole Urbano of REL-NEI moderated; co-authors Sonia Caus Gleason of Learning Innovations at WestEd and Leslie Hergert of REL-NEI presented and discussed the report's findings.
Contact: Nick Hardy
Email: nhardywested.org
Webinar: Online RTI Professional Development Modules and Resources for Classroom Assessment
1:30 - 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Online
This interactive webinar featured free online professional development modules and resources provided by the IRIS (IDEA '04 and Research for Inclusive Settings) Center for Training Enhancements to support classroom progress monitoring and curriculum-based assessment, a cornerstone of Response to Intervention (RTI). Presenters Kimberly Skow, Project Coordinator of the IRIS Center; Silvia DeRuvo, Senior Program Associate at the California RCC; and Debbie DeBerry, a practicing School Psychologist in Hardeman County, Tennessee provided hands-on activities for teachers and discussed how these resources have been used in professional development activities by professional developers, site and district administrators, and teacher trainers.
Contact: Carol Keirstead
Email: ckeirsteadrmcres.com
Webinar: Online Professional Development Modules and Resources for RTI Implementation
1:30 - 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Online
This interactive webinar highlighted free online materials provided by the IRIS (IDEA '04 and Research for Inclusive Settings) Center for Training Enhancements to support implementation of Response to Intervention (RTI). Presenters Naomi Tyler, co-director of the IRIS Center; Silvia DeRuvo, Senior Program Associate at the California RCC; Kathy Strunk, director of RTI at the Tennessee Department of Education; and Debbie Williams, program specialist at Hardeman County, Tennessee provided information for professional developers and teacher trainers on the scope of the IRIS RTI materials as well as voices from experts who have used these tools.
Contact: Carol Keirstead
Email: ckeirsteadrmcres.com
Webinar: Exploring the Use of Online Learning Communities
12 noon - 1:30 p.m.
Online
This webinar featured Jeff Mao, the Learning Policy Director for Maine, and Stan Freeda and Cathy Higgins of OPEN NH. They discussed their work with online professional learning communities, addressing such issues as participation, beginning an online learning community, challenges, and lessons learned.
Contact: Joe Trunk
Email: jtrunkrmcres.com
Webinar: Formative Assessment: Improving Teaching and Learning
1:30 - 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time
The Assessment and Accountability Comprehensive Center (AACC), in collaboration with WestEd's Schools Moving Up, presented a free online event by Margaret Heritage and Ellen Osmundson of the AACC. The webinar provided information on the knowledge base for formative assessment, ways to elicit evidence to guide instruction, and how to involve students in the assessment process.
Contact: Steve Hamilton
Email: shamiltwested.org
Webinar: Using the AACC Data Use Inventory to Build Organizational Capacity
1:30-2:30 p.m. EDT
In this special one-hour Assessment and Accountability Comprehensive Center (AACC) webinar, participants learned about the AACC Data Use Inventory and how states, districts, and schools can use it to build capacity in their organizations. Presenter: AACC/CRESST partners Ellen Osmundson and Margaret Heritage, in collaboration with Julie Duffield of WestEd.
Contact: Ellen Osmundson
Email: eosmundson21comcast.net
Regional Meeting on Building Statewide Systems of Support
The New England Comprehensive Center and The Education Alliance at Brown University co-hosted a regional meeting on statewide systems of support that engaged more than fifty state and district representatives from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island in two days of intensive study and discussion. With assistance from the Northeast Regional Resource Center (NERRC) and the National Response to Intervention Center, the meeting focused on seven key topics in the interplay between state education systems and student outcomes.
In order to give participants time to grapple with the topics in some depth, the meeting was structured as a series of two-and-a-half to three-hour topic discussions, complemented by two-hour state team meetings.
Participants appeared to appreciate the opportunity to take time and reflect with others, citing "face-to-face sustained conversations," "time to learn," "time with state people," "focus on big ideas," and "two full days to devote to thinking about this!" among the event's benefits. Other highly valued elements of the event were copious opportunities to interact with representatives from other states and a talk by the event's "critical reflector," Thomas Payzant of Harvard University's Graduate School of Education.
Webinar: Response to Intervention, Lessons from the Field
This webinar on implementing Response to Intervention (RTI) featured two elementary school principals, Tom Komp and Merri Greenia, who are using RTI to improve teaching and learning.
Tom Komp, Principal, Boulevard Elementary School, Gloversville, N.Y.
Through shared leadership and data-driven decision-making, Boulevard has established an effective tiered instructional program. Tom describes how the school culture changed to use an RTI approach to improvement.
Merri Greenia, Principal, Wolcott Elementary School, Wolcott, V.T.
Merri is implementing RTI in literacy and mathematics. She focuses on the importance of ensuring fidelity in implementing high quality core instruction and supports in an RTI approach.
Webinar: Response to Intervention
This webinar on Response to Intervention (RTI) featured Dr. Greg Roberts, Vaughn Gross Center for Reading and Language Arts at the University of Texas at Austin and director of the Center on Instruction's Special Education Strand; Joe Sassone, Senior Program Associate at WestEd and former Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, Assessment, and Professional Development for the Vail Unified District in Arizona; John Carruth, Assistant Superintendent, Vail Unified School District, Vail, AZ; and Merri Greenia, Principal of Wolcott Elementary School, Wolcott, VT.
January Regional Meeting: Statewide Systems of Support
Framingham, MA
Sheraton Hotel
Paul Reville, president of the Rennie Center, delivered the keynote speech. Other speakers were Alyssa Alston of the Council of Chief State School Officers; Keith Speers, Director of the Office of Field Relations, Ohio Department of Education; and Lauren Morando-Rhim of the national Center on Innovation and Improvement.