Today’s Agenda

2. Today’s Agenda • Welcome • Contextualizing the Scaffolded Inquiry Project • Break • Module 1: Learning challenge variable maps • Module 2: Research-based abstracts • Module 3: Additional resources for designing a change strategy • Debrief: Integration into your team process • Evaluation

3. Contextualizing The Scaffolded Inquiry Project • Setting the context— • Chancellor's Priorities and School-based Inquiry • Listening to the Field and Looking Forward • Integrating the New Tools • Objectives for Professional Development

4. Inquiry and the Three Pillars • Leadership: Building capacity within the Inquiry Team and throughout the school • Develop principal distributed leadership. • Provide teacher leadership opportunities through Inquiry Team work. • Support school leaders to look at data to determine student needs and identify strategies. • Empowerment: Building confidence and ownership • Experience of success with small group of struggling students allows schools to deepen and expand the work. • Focus of work is customized at the school level. • Energize educators throughout the city to be continuous learners. • Accountability: Highlighting the responsibility for learning of every student in the school • Focus on lowest performing students. • Create accountability for closing the achievement gap at multiple levels: individual, team, and school.

5. Preparing the System: Children First Intensive ‘07-’08 • Children First Intensive was created to infuse data-informed instructional decision-making throughout New York City schools by engaging educators around the new accountability tools. Implement Tools & Build Understanding Design tools & Organize Data Building & Implementing In 2007, the New York City Department of Education implemented Inquiry Teams in every school as a core component of its school improvement strategy. Changing the culture

6. Looking Forward: ’08-’09 Priorities Target State: Continuous, Citywide Data-Informed Improvement Facilitate Knowledge Sharing & Collaboration Implement Tools & Build Understanding Design tools & Organize Data Embedding & Sustaining Sustaining & Enhancing Building & Implementing Theory of Change Chancellor’s Priorities • Build capacity, confidence of teachers and principals • Increase teacher empowerment & engagement • Ensure educators are accountable for success • Embed and sustain the reforms through: • Inquiry Teams • Knowledge Management • ARIS

7. Listening to the Field: Educator Needs • Through CFI surveys, the Inquiry Team Interface, SAFs, and SSO support staff, we heard inquiry teams needed more support. • Teams: • needed help identifying the next steps after determining learning challenges for their target populations • were challenged with finding time to research instructionally targeted responses • struggled to come up with instructional strategies that were different from ones they had tried before • worked to develop strategies for their students, but remained concerned that the practices implemented sometimes did not adequately address the students’ needs • were challenged when trying to adopt practices for specific students populations

8. The Scaffolded Inquiry Project • American Institutes for Research (AIR) was awarded a competitive contract to design a set of tools to help Inquiry Team members and other educators select research-based instructional strategies for their struggling students. • The Steering Committee consisted of SAFs, SSO Design Team staff, CFI, KM, and subject specific content experts from Teaching & Learning and the Office of Accountability. • The Tools created: • Variable maps • Research-based abstracts • Additional resources for Inquiry Teams • Professional Development materials

9. Integration in the CFI Process • American Institutes for Research (AIR) has focused on Step 6 of the inquiry cycle.

10. Professional Development Objectives Introductory Session: Learn how to access and utilize the technology platform: • Learning challenge variable maps to guide educators’ thinking around instructional approaches • Research-based abstracts to support the identified variables • Additional resources to support Inquiry Teams Train-the-Trainer Session: Plan and practice training techniques for sharing the Scaffolded Inquiry Process with school-based teams Develop turn-key options for delivery

11. Our Purpose • Support the work of Inquiry Teams in NYC as they design a change strategy by: • Providing high quality variable maps around particular learning challenges, research abstracts, and additional resources that can help Inquiry Teams design a change strategy. • Supporting the SAFs and SSO staff to integrate research into their work with school-based Inquiry Teams. • Supporting the launch of these tools with professional development materials for SAFs and SSO staff.

12. Designing a Change Strategy • American Institutes for Research (AIR) has focused on Step 6 of the inquiry cycle.

13. Scope of the Scaffolded Inquiry Project • The tools consists of: • 16 variable maps developed for ELA and Mathematics • 400 research-based abstracts • 12 additional resources for designing a change strategy • Professional development materials

14. Welcome to the Scaffolded Inquiry Project Web site

15. Session 1: Outline of Binder Materials • Manuals contain: • All slides and narration • Outline • Intro and three modules • Sample abstracts • All additional resources

16. BREAK

17. Module 1: Learning Challenge Variable Maps

18. Variable Maps • Discussion: Your team has identified a learning challenge – what next?

19. Variable Maps • Bridge the inquiry work from considering conditions of learning to exploring the research. • Present variables that surround commonly identified skill gaps. • Prompt educators’ thinking about the range of variables that impact student achievement. • Organize sets of research-based strategies into factors that impact skill gaps.

20. Tab Displaying Learning Challenges

21. Exploring a Variable Map

22. Classroom-Level Variables • Instructional practices for content knowledge, study skills, and student engagement Research-based strategies to address • specific knowledge and skills related to the content of the learning challenge • students’ engagement, interest, and interactions with teachers • Classroom instructional environment Research-based materials and routines that can support the change strategy

23. School Organization and Culture Variables • School organizational environment Research-based organizational structures and decisions that can support student learning • School-level curricular and assessment resources Research-based resources that can be leveraged to support the change strategy • Culture of professional learning Cultural habits and practices that can support collaboration and learning

24. Search Results Hover with your mouse over the name of a strategy to open up a window with further details about the strategy. Click on the name of a strategy to access the full abstract.

25. ACTIVITY: Variable Maps • Explore the variable maps: • Choose a learning challenge (ELA). • Explore the variables in classroom and school levels. • Identify variables to search (click to select, then click Submit). • Browse the abstracts titles that are returned. • Reflect: • Do these variables reflect some of the conditions of learning faced by your Inquiry Teams? Why or why not?

26. Module 2: Research-based Abstracts

27. Abstracts • Bridge the variable maps to actual implementation strategies. • Represent a careful literature review on each learning challenge. • Describe research-based instructional or organizational strategies. • Summarize one or more studies. • Point to additional related research. • Include sample activities as examples.

28. Developing the Abstracts • Team of ten researchers reviewed literature and wrote abstracts. • Focused on original quantitative and qualitative studies, literature reviews and meta-analyses. • Included published research only. • Published in the last 30 years (no earlier than 1978). • Remember: abstracts represent a strong beginning, but Teams must explore research on their own as well.

29. Sample Abstract • Each abstract presents: • Title of Strategy • Why is This Strategy Useful? • Description • Research Evidence • Sample Studies • Sample Activities • Additional Resources

30. Refining Search Results

31. Activity: Finding Abstracts • Explore the abstracts: • Choose a learning challenge. • Search variables for abstracts. • Filter the findings in various ways. • Browse the abstracts that are returned. • Reflect: • How might you work with your networks to introduce these abstracts to your teams?

32. Module 3: Additional Resources

33. Accessing Additional Resources

34. Consider Conditions of Learning • Use this resource to: • Guide discussion on the what, how, how well, and who of the conditions • Brainstorm means for Collecting Data • Plan for analysis of the data – What to Look For

35. Explore the Research Base • Use this resource to: • Demonstrate how the research abstracts are structured • Guide comprehension and questioning of the abstracts • Find linked tools and understand their alignment • Other resources include: • Using the Variable Maps • Variable Map Legend • Understanding Types of Research • Finding Research on Your Own

36. Evaluate Strategies • Use one of these 3 resource options to: • Guide discussion • Check the “fit” of the strategy • Determine which modifications may be necessary • Make decisions about implementation • Consider impacts on school change

37. Generate Hypotheses and a Change Strategy • Use this resource to: • Document team decisions • Articulate rationale and assumptions • Put it all together into a change strategy

38. Plan for Implementation • Use this resource to: • Consider the many elements to implementation • Plan for coordinated activities • Document team decisions • Other resource include: • Implementation Check-up

39. Debrief: Integration Into Your Team Process