Virginia Administrators’ ESSA-Aligned Guide to Planning for the New School Year
Virginia Administrators’ ESSA-Aligned Guide to Planning for the New School Year
Planning for the upcoming school year is already on the horizon for district and school administrators. To support you in that process, we've assembled a curated a list of our best resources aligned to goals outlined by the Virginia Department of Education and the Virginia ESSA plan.
Boost Virginia Content Mastery and SOL Achievement
Are students achieving at the level necessary to be prepared for the next grade, college, or careers? As you consider your approach to supporting students across all four core subjects, 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.
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.
Foundation in literacy is key to future academic success in any subject. 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.
Address Achievement Gaps, Support English Language Learners, and Ensure Equity for Special Education Students
Because the Virginia ESSA plan focuses on both schools making progress toward proficiency and schools who are currently meeting grade-level expectations, finding balanced resources that focus on each goal is important to success. The following planning tools provide strategies for helping all students achieve growth, as well as 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.
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.
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.
Support Graduation Rates
A large number of states have posted ambitious short- and long-term goals which will mean ramping up efforts to help students who fall behind get back on track. For example, one of Virginia’s goals expects 84% on-time graduation, with corresponding goals of 85% for five-year and 86% for six-year graduation. Make sure that your school has a credit recovery program in place so that all students can see a path to graduation.
Resources for Virginia Educators to Support Effective Credit Recovery Programs
Find tools such as a credit recovery planning checklist, a credit recovery workbook, and a series of blogs that will give you tips on how to implement, maintain, and manage a credit recovery program. The tips provided are based on the experiences of our Professional Services team. We’ve seen the successes and the challenges that schools have faced while implementing credit recovery programs and we share those experiences with you.
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.
Ensure College and Career Readiness
Connecting high school to college and careers is a key way that many states are ensuring that the workforce will be better equipped to meet the needs of the future job market. Although Virginia’s ESSA plan does not specifically state goals for college and career readiness, it is anticipated that, by 2020, 65% of all jobs will require some form of postsecondary education or training. The following resources will help support college and career success.
Whereas No Child Left Behind had a narrow focus on math and ELA, ESSA has given states the freedom to allow schools to create programs that allow students to pursue interests that align with future career goals. One way of achieving this alignment is through a career and technical education program. This workbook takes a deep dive into the components of an evolving and improving a CTE program to help hone in on a map for improvement and professional development.
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.
Reduce Chronic Absenteeism
Chronic absenteeism negatively impacts student success in a palpable way. As a result, the Virginia Department of Education is using this metric as one of its school quality indicators required by ESSA. Check out the following resources for more helpful information and suggestions for improvement.
How Chronic Absenteeism Affects Student Achievement
This blog post looks at the impacts of chronic absence, and it includes information on initiatives that aim to move the needle on this growing problem.
The Consequences of Suspension and What Schools Can Do Instead
When it comes to missing school, suspension is a big offender in hiking up the chronic absenteeism rate. As you consider how to keep students in the classroom, taking a hard look at suspension policies is an important step in the process of overcoming chronic absenteeism.
Additional Free Resources:
- Marzano Teaching Best Practices
- [Budgeting] New & Creative School Funding Sources
- Marzano-Validated Best Practices for Online Practice
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 schools proudly partner with us.
This blog post was originally published on May 5, 2018.
