“It Shouldn’t Be Lonely At The Top” (AP Vertical Teams)

1. “It Shouldn’t Be Lonely At The Top”(AP Vertical Teams) College Board Southwest Regional Forum 2008

2. Presenters Laine Jones MISD Social Studies Coordinator lajones@mckinneyisd.net Teresa Dodson MISD Secondary Math Coordinator tdodson@mckinneyisd.net Kathy Arno AVID Texas Program manager (former MISD Secondary Science Coordinator) karno@avidcenter.org

3. What is an AP Vertical Team ? An AP vertical team is a group of educators in a given discipline from different grade levels, including middle school teachers, who work cooperatively to develop and implement a vertically aligned program aimed at helping students acquire the academic skills necessary for success in the Advanced Placement Program and other challenging course work. Source: AP Vertical Teams Guides

4. Why Have AP Vertical Teams? • Teachers “at the top” (AP or college-level courses) cannot solely prepare students for success in these courses. • Success requires a vertical alignment of skills and concepts, as well as content over the course of many years. • A principal goal of AP Vertical Teams is to increase the quality of instruction in a particular subject at all grade levels by improving communication among teachers. • AP Vertical Teams affect the overall academic standards of a school.

5. AP Vertical Teams Guide(College Board Publication) Step 1: Raise awareness & understanding of the AP program within the school. Step 2: Work with administrators to provide support for an AP Vertical Team. Step 3: Organize a group of interested educators and select a leader. Step 4: Create and implement a curricular reform action plan. Step 5: Cultivate important team-building and leadership skills. Step 6: Develop community-wide support for the AP Program and the AP Vertical Team.

6. Composition of a Team • Teachers in a particular discipline from grades 6-12 (or 5-12) • 8-10 members representing subjects within the discipline • Initial members selected by AP Coordinator, content coordinator, and principals

7. Team Responsibilities • Form a cohesive team committed to educational accountability • Set a common vision and realistic goals • Develop skills and concepts continua for a discipline area (An adjunct for curriculum alignment in MISD) • Develop an action plan and timeline • Develop teaching strategies, lessons, and rubrics for implementation of the skills and concepts continua

8. Team Responsibilities • Communicate standards to administrators and campus discipline teams • Assess the team’s success • Attend AP/Pre-AP Summer Institute • Attend scheduled Vertical Teams workdays

9. Setting up the Teams • Determination of subject areas • Proposal to administration • Selection of team members • Schedule initial meetings • “Informational” meeting after school • First workday in spring • Inform campus principals and team members • Purchase resource material • AP Vertical Teams books (College Board) • “Lighthouse Initiative” books (TEA)

10. “AP Vertical Teams Guide” College Board Publication Planning V.T. Curriculum Model lessons Preparing students for AP assessments “Lighthouse Initiative for __ Classrooms” www.tealight house.org AP V.T. info TEKS correlation to AP assessments Preparing for AP questions Online “work in progress” Resource Materials

11. Informational Meeting • Facilitated by AP Coordinator • 1-1 ½ hour session after school • Introduce V.T. concept and general workings of teams • Gain voluntary commitments • Set workday schedules • Set forth APSI requirement

12. Initial Workday – Year 1 • Rights and responsibilities of team members • Trust and communication among team members • Become familiar with the AP courses –the “gold standard” • AP teachers review course content, expectations of students, types of questions on AP exams.

13. Initial Workday – Year 1 • Teachers of lower grade levels asked to identify questions or portions of questions their content helps develop. • From AP to 6th grade course, team members review course content, skills and concepts for entire team. • Elect/appoint committee chair (empowering teachers to lead) • Hand out V.T. books and Lighthouse books

14. Initial Workday – Year 1 • Identify fundamental skills and concepts that are common to the courses, or that lead to an understanding of the AP level/ college level course. • Prioritize the skills and concepts to be aligned (areas of greatest need).

15. Subsequent Workdays (in summer and fall) • Develop continua of top-priority skill and concepts • Develop plans for communicating V.T. materials to campus discipline teams • Develop rationale document for discipline area (for publishing V.T. materials) • Prepare sample lessons, documents and rubrics (as time allows) • SMART goals for team

16. Math: Patterns and Sequences

17. Math Vertical Teams Alignments • Rate of Change (slope) • Functions • Patterns and Sequences

18. Social Studies: Writing

19. Social Studies Vertical Teams Alignments • Reading and note-taking • Writing (i.e., DBQ) • Vocabulary • Critical thinking • Test-taking

20. Scientific Math

21. Science Vertical Teams Alignments • Year 1: Lab investigations and reports • Year 2: Graphing • Year 2: Scientific Math

22. Workdays – Year 2 • Revise continua and documents, as needed, based on teacher feedback from use in year 1 • Develop new continua from list of areas of greatest need • Add new members, keeping large segment of previous team • Prepare sample/implementation lessons for teachers

23. On-going Tasks • Communicating V.T. goals and plans to campus discipline teams • Monitoring of V.T. implementation by content coordinators, department chairs, and administrators • Revision of continua and documents, as needed

24. Benefits of a Vertical Team • Cohesive, appropriate alignment of concepts and skills (each grade level preparing students for next grade level course in a discipline) • Use of common vocabulary, methods (writing, note-taking, etc.), lab reports, etc. • Increase in AP scores • Increase in AP enrollment

25. Benefits of a Vertical Team • Vehicle for district-wide teacher collaboration and collegial atmosphere • “Trickle-down effect” to other teachers and all students • Fostering leadership skills for teachers

26. Questions?

27. Thank you for joining us today for the session on planning and implementing AP Vertical Teams.