Pennsylvania Administrators’ ESSA-Aligned Guide to Planning for the New School Year
Pennsylvania Administrators’ ESSA-Aligned Guide to Planning for the New School Year
We know you have been hard at work making sure everything this school year goes off without a hitch but there may be a few things that still need to be buttoned up. Not to fear! To support you, we’ve put together this blog post, which takes a closer look at Pennsylvania’s ESSA goals and provides you with a curated list of our best resources.
Boost PSSA and Keystone Achievement
Pennsylvania is focusing on a balanced approach to assessment, placing significant emphasis on both proficiency and growth to ensure that students are making personal progress toward the skills needed to be successful beyond the classroom. Utilize the following guides to take a fresh approach to your instructional programs or refine your current practices.
Frequent, standards-based formative assessments are a critical piece of effective data-driven instruction. Our formative assessment workbook provides a framework for implementing formative assessments throughout the lesson cycle. Its planning forms and data-tracking worksheets can be used across multiple subjects and grade levels.
Pennsylvania has put forth a plan that emphasizes career readiness beginning in the earliest grades. And, a strong foundation in literacy is key to that future success. This workbook evaluates the many facets of structuring an effective, research-based reading and language arts block and helps you select the appropriate technology tools to support your approach.
Bring the best parts of online learning and traditional instruction together in a blended learning program. Blended learning programs come in many forms and enable scalable personalized learning. Use this workbook to get your district’s or school's blended learning program started.
Blog: 10 Creative Ways to Formatively Assess Your Students
This fun, GIF-filled blog post is great to share with teachers to help them get some fresh, creative ideas for ways they could assess students!
Address Achievement Gaps and Support English Learners and Special Education Students
With a long-term goal of reducing by half the statewide percentage of nonproficient students on state assessments by the end of the 2029–30 school year, Pennsylvania demonstrates its commitment to closing achievement gaps. The following resources provide strategies for meeting the needs of special student populations.
Special Populations Program Planning Worksheet
Use this worksheet to plan programs to address the needs of special populations of students.
Personalized Learning Workbook
Personalized learning allows educators to meet the varying needs of all learners, improving learning outcomes. This workbook takes the guesswork out of personalized learning by providing a step-by-step plan from development to implementation.
This collection of blog posts addresses topics like back-to-school strategies to support ELLs, ways to prepare ELLs for high-stakes assessments, and more.
Special Education Blog Collection
This collection of blog posts addresses topics like dyslexia, ways to navigate IEP meetings, ADHD, and trends in special education.
Support Graduation Rates
Pennsylvania has set ambitious standards for graduation expectations with a long-term goal of achieving a four-year graduation rate for all students of 92.4% by 2030. Make sure that your school has a credit recovery program in place so that all students who fall behind can catch up and graduate on time.
Our credit recovery worksheet will show you how to set up a new program or enhance your current credit recovery offering.
Ensure College and Career Readiness
Pennsylvania’s new Career Readiness indicator shows the state’s dedication to college and career preparedness throughout students’ academic careers. Beginning in the elementary grades, students will be expected to develop ongoing portfolios of career exploration and preparation activities aligned to state standards. The following resources will help you open the door to several options in support of this initiative.
CTE programs have been shown to increase engagement and improve outcomes for enrolled students. Use our CTE workbook to plan a new program, or utilize it as a guide to augment your current one.
Online curriculum can open up a world of college- and career-focused courses to students that their schools may not otherwise be able to offer, including Advanced Placement®, CTE, SAT®, ACT®, and WorkKeys® assessment preparation. Our online curriculum guide discusses several different ways that online curriculum can be used, and it even includes a worksheet to guide the process of identifying a provider that meets your needs.
A virtual implementation may help your school or district offer more flexible and expansive course options to serve populations in need. Use this workbook to evaluate if a virtual implementation is the best option for your school and get guidance on developing a program and selecting a digital provider.
We know that everyone is hard at work getting one’s bearings when it comes to the Future Ready PA Index as well. We’re excited to share that we’ve created multiple rubrics to help guide the use of Study Island Benchmark Assessments as an on-track measure as a part of the Future Ready PA Index. You can find more detailed information here.
Looking for online programs to help your school or district improve outcomes for all students? Check out Edmentum's suite of K–12 evidence-based assessments and digital curriculum, and see why over 8,000 districts in the nation partner with us.
This blog post was published on June 27, 2018.
