CFSD-CIA Updates March 1, 2023

Hello CFSD Staff,

Welcome back from what was hopefully a February break that has recharged you for the next 8 weeks until spring break. In honor of Black History Month and in anticipation of National Reading Month and Women's History Month in March, I am sharing with you a book I recently bought for my grandson by a talented Black female author, Kelly J. Baptist, called The Electric Slide and Kai. If you're looking for a story for your students or family that underscores themes of family, perseverance, and joy, while providing a reason to bust out some dance moves, give this one a try. Below is a video of Kelly Baptist reading it aloud. It's ELECTRIC!

During reading month, I encourage you to share your favorite books with your students and colleagues since reading need not need be a solo sport. Additionally, if you're looking for a guest reader for your classroom, please let me know. Our CFSD district team would be happy to oblige if we can. Lastly, there's a Little Free Library located at 602 Broad Street if you're looking to donate books for CF families to enjoy.

Wishing you all a good book that makes you feel like this:

“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.” ~John Greene

Cheers,

Joy Souza

Chief Academic Officer

souzaj@cfschools.net

(401) 871-6260

As the ACCESS testing window comes to a close this week, we have less than a month to prepare for the spring state testing season for RICAS, DLM, SAT, PSAT, and NGSA. The testing windows are as follows:

Testing Windows

RICAS ELA: March 27-April 28

RICAS Math: April 24-May 26

Dynamic Learning Maps Alternate Assessments: April 3-May 26

SAT/PSAT: April 18, Make-ups April 25

NGSA (Grades 5, 8, 11): April 24-May 26

I know this time of year can be stressful for students and teachers alike. So, what can we do now to ensure that testing is smooth and students are set up for success?

Be Prepared to Administer Testing: State testing manuals and resources can be found on the Assessment Manuals & Materials page of the RIDE website. Every CFSD school has a testing coordinator who will provide testing schedules and logistical information for testing, as well as some basic training, but it is the responsibility of all test administrators to know how to proctor.

Help Students to Know What to Expect: The more practice students have with state testing aligned materials, the more comfortable they will be come testing time. Here are some resources available to help support student preparation for testing:

• RICAS Practice: RICAS ELA and Math released items are available computer-based and on paper. These are most helpful if administered via the computer-based option to get students familiar with the digital features of the test. Additionally, there is a TestNav tutorial to help students learn about navigating the platform during testing and both math and ELA practice tests to get students familiar with the kinds of items and formats used on RICAS. TestNav Tutorial & RICAS Practice Tests
• PSAT/SAT Prep: IXL has skill plans aligned directly to PSAT and SAT math/ELA items. The skill plans can be located in IXL by selecting "Learning" (green bar at top), Skill Plans, Test Prep, The PSAT or THE SAT, Math or Reading. Khan Academy also offers SAT practice for students, allowing them to select their teacher as a "coach" so you can see what they're struggling with and tailor your instruction to support their prep needs.
• NGSA: RIDE offers an NGSA practice test session for students to help them get familiar with the item types and interactions that they will encounter when they take the online RI NGSA. Though students can score themselves on this practice test, it only includes a small subset of performance expectations that may or may not be found on the actual RI NGSA, and is not a predictor of success on the actual RI NGSA.
• DLM: Sample Testlet Information Pages and Released Testlets for ELA, Math, and Science can be printed out and given to students (page 3 of webpage)

Make it About Growth: Use past assessments to set goals for upcoming tests. Intrinsic motivation through helping students to know where they preformed last time and setting rigorous growth goals for this round of testing can make testing more meaningful. At Ella Risk, Dr. Comet meets with families and students to review RICAS scores when they are released to help set goals for the next round of testing. At Calcutt, teachers have been sharing their students' RICAS released writing to A) make it known to students that their teachers can see it and know if they did not try their best, and B) provide writing instruction grounded in their authentic RICAS writing responses. In many of our schools, teachers are using the most recent STAR scores and IRLA data to help students to see how much they've grown and how that knowledge can be leveraged come state testing time. Quite a few classrooms have creative ways of displaying student growth as a daily reminder of what Warrior students are capable of (See image below from Jen Scott's classroom at Veterans).

Make it Special: There are so many Pinterest ways to make testing special, but here's a few that I've gravitated towards in the past:

• Decorate: Since learning posters need to come down, why not decorate with motivational pictures and posters. Hanging speech bubbles with words of encouragement from teachers and students in other grades can be a nice touch.
• Celebrate: Pep rallies, parades, assemblies, and Minute-to-Win-It games can get students pumped up for testing season. It works for sports, after all!
• Make it Momentous: Create a selfie booth or take pictures of students with special props either before or after testing to inspire or celebrate their hard work.
• Show Some Love: Write special notes of inspiration for students to read and re-read before testing that give them that warm and fuzzy feeling they may need to persevere. It's a nice reminder that you're rooting for them.
• Sing & Dance: Pick a theme song, hold a dance party, make up a state test dance move! We Will Rock You by Queen was always one of my favorites. Make a "pump up" playlist with your students (kid friendly lyrics) that you can play on the days leading up to testing.

I'm sure you have many awesome ideas that can help students to realize that CFSD Warriors work hard and play hard! Be sure to share them with your colleagues and school leaders.

STAR Data is in

Thanks for administering another round of STAR testing...2 down, one more to go. If you're a math or ELA teacher (or both), it's analysis time! Renaissance has quite the plethora of reports you can view, which is awesome and overwhelming at the same time. To get to STAR reports, follow these steps:

1. Go to Clever
2. Go to Renaissance
3. Go to Reports under View Reports
4. Select STAR/Assessment
5. Select your report

I have my go-to favorites that may be useful to you, too.

• Growth and Progress-Growth Proficiency Chart: This scatter plot graphs student growth percentile (SGP) on a quadrant graph with a companion report below it (See image below). Each dot represents a student. When you click on a dot, it will show the student's previous STAR scale scores, their current scale score, and their SGP.
• Growth and Progress-STAR Growth Report: This report shows individual student's growth over time with an emphasis on student growth (SGP).
• Growth and Progress-STAR Student Progress Monitoring Report: Shows a trend line for each student that is statistically calculated after four or more tests to show the direction the scores are moving.

If you need any help accessing or analyzing STAR data, feel free to reach out to me and I'm happy to connect with you.

FYI for Elementary and Social Studies Teachers

As of earlier this week, the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education approved new social studies standards. Here is a slide deck that includes the standards at the end, which was presented at the Council meeting on February 21st. The expectation is that districts begin to implement the new standards in the 24-25 school year with full implementation by school year 26-27. RIDE will be putting out guidance and resources to support districts with transitioning to the new standards early next school year. Stay tuned for more information regarding the standards which will be available in the Commissioner's weekly field memo and on the RIDE website.

CFSD Focus on Writing

Having all our K-12 core academic teachers focused on writing during the January 25th PD day felt powerful and surfaced great questions, ideas, and resources to strengthen writing instruction for students. Thank you to those who have forwarded teacher-created slide decks and materials to me to be shared more broadly. Knowing that the k-8 ARC curriculum is explicit and systematic, but not overly prescriptive, my goal is to have writing rubrics and slide decks aligned to ARC units for the kick off of next school year. Here are resources that may be useful to support writing instruction across PreK-12, as well as a couple of books that come highly recommended:

• Rhode Island Core Standards for ELA

• Common Core State Standards Writing Exemplars

• RIDE Comprehensive Literacy Guidance

• Kinsley Developmental Writing Scale

• RIELDs Standards for Writing

• Standards Progressions for Writing

• Writing Calibration Tool

• Achieve the Core Student Writing Samples

• The Reading and Writing Project Teachers College, Columbia University (protocols for examining writing)

• Teaching Elementary Students to be Effective Writers Institute of Education Sciences
  

Eureka & ARC K-8 Pacing

Thanks for participating in January 25th's Edulastic training to help support giving all Eureka mid and end-of-module assessments using the Edulastic platform (Not GreatMinds!). Pacing information and links to Edulastic grade level playlists with the assessments for Eureka can be found in this Eureka Pacing Guide. Below are the grade level units/modules you should be instructing at this point in the school year. If you are off pace, please connect with your school leader to collaborate on a plan for acceleration.

• Kindergarten: Module 4
• 1st Grade: Module 4
• 2nd Grade: End of Module 5/Beginning Module 6
• 3rd Grade: End of Module 5
• 4th Grade: Module 5
• 5th Grade: Module 4
• 6th Grade: Module 4
• 7th Grade: Module 4
• 8th Grade: End of Module 5

All grades should currently be in ARC Unit 3.

National Pi Day, March 14, 2023

Pi is the number π, a mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter (approximately 3.14159, but it's an infinite number). Are you looking for ways to engage students in Pi Day? Here are some resources that you may want to explore.

• National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Pi Day
• Exploratorium.EDU
• The Music of Pi-Avoision.com
• Pi and the Fibonacci Sequence-PBS

Focus on Attendance

Students can't access learning if they're not in school. Attendance has been a focus across our district and it is paying off. Check out the chart below highlighting the major improvement happening at each CFSD school regarding attendance when we look at where it was in February 2022 compared to February 2023. You are a HUGE reason why students come to school each day, so don't underestimate the power of the warm, caring and joyous environment you create that helps students to feel a sense of belonging. It matters a lot!

Eureka Math and MLLs

Ella Risk's Dr. Comet and math specialist Carolyn Melillo will join me this spring in participating in the English Learners Success Forum to focus on strategies for skillfully implementing Eureka math to support multilingual learners. We are grateful to have been accepted into the program alongside 9 other RI districts and excited to share our new learning with colleagues across the district who are instructing Eureka math. With almost 50% of our CFSD students being multilingual learners, we know that Eureka implementation in our district needs an MLL specific approach.

See-the-3

Did you know that we currently have 68 CFSD staff supporting 225 students to grow their English language proficiency through targeted instruction in listening, speaking, reading, and writing, as well as fun recreational activities and frequent field trips to gain background knowledge and language practice? Yup, it's true. The program ranges from 3-5 days depending on the school, which can be exhausting for students and staff alike. To help students to make it through the additional time added to the school day, they will be receiving a HOT after school meal effective March 6th (Open to any student in any CFSD after school program). For staff working the program, SHOUT OUT to you for making the commitment; you deserve some serious R-E-S-P-E-C-T! Enjoy the pictures below of CFHS students who took a field trip the the Boston Museum of Fine Arts via the commuter rail.

ACCESS The ACCESS testing window closes March 3rd. Thank you to those who played a role in supporting testing for our MLL students.

New TELL Assessment

Our students who scored levels 1 and 2 on ACCESS in winter 2022 recently took the Test of English Language (TELL) diagnostic assessment to give us more up-to-date data regarding language proficiency since the most recent ACCESS data will not arrive for some time. The TELL also offers progress monitoring assessments which will be administered monthly in the See-the-3 after school program. In June, all students who took the diagnostic assessment in January will be assessed again to check on growth. Although we are still learning about how to analyze TELL data and the various reports it offers, there are some really cool aspects of the TELL data platform worth highlighting.

• It will be integrated with Ellevation in just a couple of weeks, so you can go to the Ellevation data and find Tell scores, as well.
• Students receive an overall TELL score, as well as individual scores in listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
• TELL gives you a prediction of what students would have scored on ACCESS if they took it at the same time as TELL.
• TELL provides parent reports in multiple languages to keep students and parents abreast of progress.

We've HIRED!

As of today, we have nurses in every school who are CFSD employees. We have therapists in every school who are CFSD employees. All of the children who need them currently have either a PCA, CNA, or RN. And, except for a few outliers, all of our special education teaching positions have been filled. A huge shutout to Jay Midwood, Dee Ramos, Jackie Parra, Christine Chalk, Lori Bassett, and school leaders, among others, for all their help with filling these positions. #CollaboratingForStudentsDreams.

Transitional Warriors

Briana Jones and Christine Conway at CFHS will be starting a bowling program at the Lincoln Mall and a swimming program at the Lincoln YMCA with our CFSD Transitional Warriors (ages 18-22) to get students out in the community accessing recreational resources to help strengthen their bodies and minds, while creating opportunities for practicing social skills in age appropriate social settings.

Attention Dog Lovers

Sarah Lang's SID classroom at Calcutt will be making and selling dog biscuits to learn math, literacy, science, and communication skills through hands-on learning, while providing a service to the community and maybe even raising some funds. Stay tuned for more details on how to place an order.

Special Education Local Advisory Council (SELAC)

SELAC meeting #3 is happening Tuesday, March 7th, 4:30-6:30 at Central Falls High School. Topic: IEP 101 to support families in learning the ins and outs of IEPs. SELAC is an opportunity for families of students in our special education programs to come together with CFSD staff to learn with and from one another in an effort to improve outcomes for students.

Central Falls High School now has three fully approved CTE programs; Biomedical, Computer Science, and Environmental Engineering have the official stamps of approval from RIDE. Students take 1-2 courses in their chosen program and graduate CFHS with college credits and hands-on experience. We are also considering adding more programs! Be on the lookout for the following pathways: Law and Community Advocacy, a Teacher Preparation Academy, and a Business- Entrepreneurship pathway.

Reading Warriors: This is a new and exciting course offered at Central Falls High School by teacher Beth Toney. Participating students are 10th-12th graders enrolled in this elective class. Students spent the month of February learning about the ARC curriculum and how to teach reading skills to younger students. In March and April they will work with Calcutt and Veterans students to help improve their reading skills. This is the first step in creating a Teacher Preparation Academy!

Computer Science: CTE students in the Computer Science program have been busy working with industry partners to create their own websites. Students learn the important programming that is behind launching a successful website so to ultimately improve their employment skills.

Biomedical: February vacation was a learning experience for 41 CTE Biomedical students. Dr. Upegui spent a full day working with students and preparing them for the upcoming AP Biology exam. This April Vacation CTE Biomedical students will be invited to Brown University's Alpert School of Medicine for a "Week of Surgical School". Students will work alongside top surgeons and medical students, attend lectures, conduct dissections, and experience the life of a medical student.

Environmental Engineering: This March CTE Environmental Engineering students are competing in the WindWin Wind Turbine Competition at CCRI. This exciting state-wide competition will allow students to demonstrate their knowledge of wind turbines by using Whitebox simulation software to design, 3D print, and test turbine blades. Best of skill, CFHS Warriors!

Entrepreneurship: Minority business ownership in RI is at an all-time low. To help increase minority-owned businesses we will be running a Food Truck Entrepreneurship class this summer. Students will learn how to create a business plan, learn basic entrepreneurship skills, and learn how to run a food truck business. Stay tuned for more about this exciting opportunity coming this summer.

Stay in the know about all things CTE by visiting the CTE webpage: https://www.cfschools.net/page/real-cte-programs

Congrats CFHS: CFHS learned recently that they are the recipients of a $450,000 grant from the Barr Foundation to support teacher capacity building and the development of an instructional coaching model. As a result, CFHS is hiring an ELA coach and a math coach for the 2023-2024 school year to further support teachers with full and skillful implementation of Reveal math and StudySync ELA.

School leaders get their coaching on: As school principals work to strengthen their instructional leadership, they are working to increase their frequency of and skills in coaching. This months' leadership PLC is dedicated to learning about and practicing coaching that provides bite-sized and targeted feedback grounded in observation. Since ALL teachers, new and experienced alike, can benefit from coaching, leaders will engage in a 6-week coaching cycle with a teacher whose instructional area aligns with their own area of expertise. This should be a win-win collaboration where teacher and coach further develop their skills in tandem with one another. Thank you to teachers who are engaging in this coaching experience with school leaders. #collaborating4studentdreams

Induction Coaching Update: As of the end of February, our CFSD induction coaches Paula Pinto and Gina Furtado have engaged in over 600 coaching interactions (observations, debriefs, model lessons, etc.) with new teachers across all schools. They have also begun using a video platform called Torsh Talent to help teachers to better see their individual areas of instructional focus as well as videos of exemplar teaching. Torsh makes the video exchanges private between coach and teacher and both can record video through a Torsh app on their phones that uploads to the private Torsh platform in seconds making it fast and convenient. Once they debrief the video together, they can hit delete and it's gone forever. You can read more about video coaching in this Edutopia article: Using Video as a Coaching Tool With First-Year Teachers. You can also reach out to Gina and Paula if you would like to learn more about how video can be used to for professional learning.

Speaking of coaching, another season of my favorite television show comes out next week. Here are some coaching tips for teachers from Coach Ted Lasso.

• Check out these AMAZING insect books created by Veterans students in Ms. Murphy's classroom using storyjumper.com...it's FREE!

• Students in Central Falls got $10k to upgrade their high school. It drove a citywide "wave of democracy", Asher Lehrer-Small, Boston Globe, February 2023

• Bridge Builder: Brown University's Soljane Martinez is helping students overcome educational barriers (featuring Delores Grant-CFHS), Pro 2023vidence Journal, January 2023

• Show your Warrior PRIDE and keep up on CFSD Warrior athletics by following @CFWARRIORSRI on Twitter

• Interesting Harvard Business Review Article: Learning Is a Learned Behavior. Here's How to Get Better at It, Ulrich Boser, May 2018
• Deep Dive: How Math Practices 7 and 8 Power Student "Lightbulb" Moments, Marquis Alvaradous, Ed Reports, Feb 2023

• Opportunity: Help Identify High-Quality Instructional Materials with EdReports: EdReports is a non-profit organization with a mission to empower educators with independent, credible, evidence-rich information about instructional materials to ensure students have what they need to be college and career-ready. They are now accepting applications for stipended reviewers of K-12 science instructional materials starting in April 2023. Apply now to engage in deep professional learning on the Next Generation Science Standards with a national network of skilled educators. Learn more about EdReports here and apply to become a reviewer here.

• Awards Program from the National Association of Biology Teachers: NABT has numerous awards for educators focused on areas of Life Science- genetics, ecology, evolution- as well as awards to recognize new biology teachers and science education leaders. Check out the award descriptions and applications here. Nominate a colleague or self-nominate for an award

• Background Knowledge and ELLs: What Teachers Need to Know, Lydia Breiseth, Colorín Colorado, 2021

• To Assess Knowledge, Use Checks for Understanding (16 ways to formatively assess learning), Instructional Coaching Group, February 2023

• I Teach Scientists! FREE posters for the classroom from Amplify Science

• How to Help Readers Grapple With Challenging Texts, Andrew Boryga, Edutopia, November 2022

• One Word to Drop From Your Teacher Vocabulary, Holly Hagman, Edutopia, June 2020