Far West GREAT Advisory Council

1
Far West GREAT Advisory Council

• June 6, 2006
• Head Start Multipurpose Center

2
Major Trainings to Date

• New Teacher Academies II and III
• Workforce Literacy Institute II
• GED Academy III
• Learning Disabilities Institute
• Project-Based Learning Institute

3
New Teacher Academies

• 20 new teachers trained
• Teacher Action Learning Projects
• Successful mentoring program
• Questions
• How many new teachers do we expect to have next
  year?
• Will we need 2 new teacher academies?
• Year-long model vs. semester model?

4
Workforce Literacy Institute

• Focus on transition to college
• Student Panel
• Research-Based
• Participation by representatives from EPCC
• Improving Academic skills of more advanced
  students
• Questions
• 1. What should be the focus of next years
  workforce literacy institute?

5
GED Academy

• Focus on Technology
• Hands on use of technology in the classroom
• Teacher projects
• Questions
• 1. What other areas of GED/ ABE instructions need
  to be covered in future training?

6
Adult Learning Disabilities Institute

• 3 separate sessions by nationally recognized
  experts in adult LD
• Follow up produced excellent lesson plans focused
  on students
• Excellent evaluations
• Questions
• 1. To what extent is the training we provide
  consistent with Texas guidelines for adult LD?
  Is it enough?

7
Texas LD Policy

• Texas LEARNS will be training 2 teachers per
  region to provide a broad overview of learning
  disabilities in each region.
• Teachers, who have already gone through more
  intensive LD training will not have to
  participate in this training.
• By 2007/08 all teachers are expected to have some
  basic training on LD

8
Project Based Learning Institute

• 14 Participants
• We have lent out 6 technology kits
• Teachers will be developing PowerPoint Lessons to
  teach material using as little Spanish as
  possible
• Combination of communicative skills and
  technology training

9
Trainings Scheduled for Summer

• Learning Disabilities training for San Jacinto,
  Ysleta and Socorro
• Classroom Management Institute
• August 4-5 (Susan Pittman and Bonnie Vondracek)
• Motivation
• Classroom Techniques to promote persistence and
  achievement
• September 8-9 11(Andy Nash)
• Needs Assessment
• Teaching from Standards
• Multilevel Teaching
• Alternative Classroom Assessment

10
The New Website
11
Credential Model Updates

• Last meeting we set a goal of signing up 10
  teachers for the Credential Model. As of today,
  we have 10 committed to participating who have
  completed most of the required paper work to
  participate
• San Jacinto
• Delia Dominguez
• Flor Munoz
• Hector Trejo
• Ricardo Quintana
• Nelly Cancino
• Ysleta CLC
• Victor Arzate
• Pedro Parra
• Socorro CLC
• Linda Cortez
• Manuela Hernandez
• AVANCE
• Arturo Muro

Teacher needs to submit a PD Plan
12
Credential Process

• 6 teachers statewide are actively submitting
  reflections
• 2 Credential Staff score reflection a third
  scorer settles the difference
• Scorers use the rubric to determine whether the
  components of the reflection meet the standards
• Reflection is approved or is found deficient
  reviewer indicates the deficiencies based on
  rubric

13
The New Reflection Rubric

• A new rubric was created to facilitate the
  evaluation of teacher reflections used in the
  credential process.
• The rubric was validated with the help of teacher
  focus groups across the state. Four local area
  teachers participated.
• There are still some concerns about the burden
  placed on teachers trying to obtain the
  credential. Credential staff seems to be setting
  a very high bar for the completion of process.

14
Reflection Tips

• Most common reason for rejection of the
  reflection is that teacher did not provide a
  clear explanation of how the PD activity was
  applied in the classroom.
• A simplified version of how to use the reflection
  is available (see handout)

15
Texas Content Standards

• A six week pilot concluded in April. Teachers
  from around the state got a chance to try
  selected standards in their classes.
• Feedback from teachers and consultants was used
  to revise the draft content standards in May.
• A full-fledged state wide pilot involving 5-10
  teachers in each region will begin in the fall.
  Standards staff should be contacting you with
  details.
• Teachers participating in the pilot will be
  required to attend a training July 31 here in El
  Paso.
• Teachers will be paid a stipend for their
  participation

16
Content Standards (contd)

• According to Texas LEARNS the new standards will
  probably go into effect 2007-2008.
• The standards will not be mandatory, but programs
  will be required to show that they have an
  equivalent or better set of standards of their
  own.
• Dr. Dominique Chlup, co-director of TCALL, has
  replaced Don Seaman as Director of the Standards
  project.

17
CAELA Capacity Building

• State of Texas is working on three initiatives to
  improve the delivery of PD with the help of the
  Center for Adult English Language Acquisition
• CAELA has provided the great Center with a draft
  of PD resources which include research based
  training modules for
• Needs assessment
• Lesson planning
• Reading
• Writing
• Alternative Assessment
• The FW Center will be trying out the needs
  assessment, lesson planning and alternative
  assessment modules during the Classroom
  Management Institute this summer

18
Ysleta YCLC Distance Education Pilot

• Since March 6, Ysleta has been participating in
  an ESOL distance education pilot.
• Ysleta recruited 32 students for this pilot 22
  from their evening program and 10 were brand new
  students who had no prior experience with adult
  education and distance learning.
• This distance project will come to and end August
  31. All participants will be post-tested to
  assess progress in English.

19
Distance Ed. (contd)

• Two Ysleta CLC teachers and an administrator
  participated in an online course.
• Preliminary observations seem to indicate that
  ESL distance learning seems to work best as a
  complement to ongoing classroom instruction.
• On its own, English for All requires great
  discipline and continued interaction with the
  different elements of the program. Teachers and
  administrators had a harder time verifying that
  the distance only students were actually doing
  the work.

20
EPALL IV

• October 27-28, Camino Real Hotel
• Luncheon speaker invited Lennox McClendon
• Registration deadline September 27
• fee remains at 60
• Presentation Proposal September 8
• Encourage teachers to present at EPALL

21
Workplace Literacy Initiative

• As a result of rider 82, Texas is developing
  workforce oriented curriculum in three areas
• Retail
• Manufacturing
• Health
• El Paso Community College is leading this effort
  with the help of adult ed. programs in Seguin and
  Dallas.
• The retail curriculum is going to be piloted in
  Socorro ISD from June-August.
• Eventually the GREAT Centers will be providing
  training on how to use these curricula in adult
  education classrooms.

22
News Flash

• Texas LEARNS is considering using the CASAS test
  as an alternativenot a replacement for BEST and
  TABE
• It wont happen immediately because it has to be
  incorporated in the state plan and written into
  TEAMS

23
PD Issues in TEAMS

• Texas LEARNS has been concerned with the amount
  of duplication in entries for PD in TEAMS.
• Make sure you search for an activity before
  entering into TEAMS. If it is a GREAT Center
  sponsored activity you should look search for FW
  GRT. This will give you a complete list of
  trainings for the year.
• If you cant find one of our trainings, please
  call the GREAT Center do not enter on your own
• Also make sure that you do not double enter
  statewide trainings such as COABE. They will be
  DELETED by our assistant state director.
• READ the memo section of TEAMS for updates and
  error entries.

24
GREAT Access to TEAMS Data

• Texas LEARNS has decided to give READ-ONLY
  access to TEAMS reports for the purpose of
  improving the targeting of PD activities to areas
  of need and to evaluate the effectiveness of
  current PD offerings
• These changes wont be programmed into TEAMS
  until September. Until then, Tex LEARNS has
  asked us to seek access to reports by signing a
  TEA SE application giving the GREAT Center
  coordinator access to this data.
• The data will be used confidentially for the
  purpose of overall program improvement and is not
  meant to single out any program.

25
Date of Next Meeting

• Tuesday, September 19 2006