Scope of Work for the Winter and Spring

As the challenges and deadlines of both NCLB and Act 60 became apparent, the Vermont Department of Education (VT DOE) articulated the first two steps towards meeting the requirements: 1) Developing Grade Level Expectations; and 2) Developing Assessment Specifications and Blueprints. These steps translate into the major scope of work for this winter and spring, and will involve three contractors as well as of many VT educators. The Vermont Institutes has the lead responsibility for NCLB work in math and writing, and all of the Act 60 work; Measured Progress, from Dover, NH, has responsibility for NCLB reading GLEs; and the National Center for Assessment, in Portsmouth, NH, will provide oversight to the NCLB work. (There is more about these contractors in the article “The Contractors for NCLB”).

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Marc Hull, former Commissioner of Education, framed the work in the
context of the history of the Vermont Framework. He cautioned the group to remember that ALL Vermont students ought to feel success in meeting the standards. Marc also emphasized that doing what hasn’t yet been done --setting the grade level expectations that allow students to achieve while also maintaining high quality--will require great thought and determination.

Marc was followed by Marge Petit, [see the article titled “The Contractors…”] who had the difficult job of taking participants through a myriad of resources that had been prepared for them to work with (for example, comparisons of Vermont’s Framework to numerous local, state and national documents), and explaining such parameters as “grain size,” “balance of representation,” and depth and breadth. [Future editions of Assessment Notes will address these concepts in greater detail.]

The content groups then began the work of becoming more familiar with the state, national and local resources. Each group also attempted to write GLEs for one standard. Everyone became much clearer about what the work really involves.

Comments from participants indicate that the preparation of the resource materials was helpful, and would be even more so once they had time to
devour them. On the other hand, many participants expressed concern about the scope of the work, the importance that we “get it right,” and the time constraints that NCLB has imposed. Nevertheless, the overall feeling is one of anticipation that this is an opportunity to provide tools that will help teachers and students.

Here are some additional comments from the first day:

Five more days are scheduled for these groups to work on GLEs, after which we are planning to get broad input from educators and other citizens throughout Vermont. The Vermont Standards and Assessment Consortium will be working with the Teacher Quality Networks to plan a process that will enable all educators to review and have input into the draft documents. Stay tuned for more information!

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Science, for example, started work last year on creating two-grade cluster GLEs for the Inquiry Standard (7.1). This work will be reviewed by an oversight committee later in January, and then go out to teachers for use in their classrooms. Revisions will then be made based on feedback from the field. Simultaneously, groups of
science teachers in three different supervisory unions are writing the GLEs for Standard 7.12. These GLEs will eventually go through the same feedback and revision process. This work is being led by Dave White (dwhite@doe.state.vt.us) from the VT DOE, Pam Quinn (pquinn@vermontinstitutes.org) and Gail Hall (ghall@vermontinstitutes.org) from The Vermont Institutes.

Physical Education and Health groups around the state have been working for the last few years to create documents that more clearly explain expectations for each grade cluster. They will continue their work this winter and spring. Ellen Harris (eharris@vermontinstitutes.org) from VI has joined in to help make connections from current and future GLE work to the overall assessment design.

The Arts have also been busy over the years clarifying expectations for music, fine arts, drama and dance. There has already been some excellent work done in designing assessments for these areas. A group is convening this month to discuss how to move this work forward with the intent of defining the two-grade cluster grade level
expectations in each area. Wendy Cohen (wcohen@vermontinstitutes.org) is the VI staff person responsible for coordinating this work.

Sigrid Lumbra (slumbra@vermontinstitutes.org), another Vermont Institutes staff member, will be convening a History and Social Sciences committee in the next month to define upcoming work. As with the other Fields of Knowledge, work on grade-cluster expectations will be a key focus. In addition to this work, over the last few years the DOE has invested time and money for participation in the Comprehensive Social Studies Assessment Project (CSSAP). CSSAP has developed a portfolio assessment process as well as some excellent assessment items. Part of the history and social sciences committee’s job will be to align this national work with the Framework and with the still to-be-developed grade level expectations.

The Math, Reading and Writing groups are on a “fast track” and have additional demands placed on them because of stipulations in the No Child Left Behind Act. They are currently developing grade level expectations for grades 3 through 8. Using these GLEs, assessments for each of these grades will eventually be designed. [For more detailed information about this work, see the article titled NCLB Assessment “Kick Off.”]

Finally, we are continuing to search for districts and schools that are addressing and/or assessing the Vital Results. We are drawing on work from the high schools’ Vital Results Conference as well as following up on any lead we get. We also are considering the ways that the Vital Results should tie into all the fields of knowledge in terms of GLEs and assessments. Wendy, Ellen and Sigrid at VI are all providing the impetus for this work.

Developing Assessment Specifications and Blueprints

This is work scheduled for late in the spring and will be discussed in the next edition of Assessment Notes.

The Center for Assessment, located in Portsmouth, NH, has two “old friends” on their roster who are key players in helping with the Vermont assessment work. Marge Petit has been an integral part of the development of the Vermont Framework and Learning Opportunities, and in her role as Deputy Commissioner provided important leadership for setting up systems for implementing the standards. Now here she is again, this time helping to frame the assessment work. Marge’s role is to provide technical assistance to the VT DOE in terms of oversight of the assessment work. In fact, she is providing strong leadership in helping the contractors come together to accomplish the work in reading, writing and mathematics in a coherent way.

Karin Hess has been a principal and curriculum leader in VT for a number of years, and in a number of capacities. She, too, is back and helping Marge keep tabs on everything. Even more importantly, she is facilitating the writing group work. In this effort she is working closely with The Vermont Institutes writing staff, Marty Gephart (mgephart@vermontinstitutes.org), Karen Kurzman (kkurzman@vermontinstitutes.org), and Joey Hawkins (jhawkins@vermontinstitutes.org).

Marty, Karen and Joey are probably familiar to many of you. They provide consultation and professional development in writing, primarily but not solely in schools that have needed technical assistance. Their long-time commitment to understanding the issues of teaching writing as well as their many connections to Vermont classrooms provides them with a strong foundation to help shape the development of grade level expectations in writing.

The Math team from The Vermont Institutes includes Doug Harris (VI’s Executive Director), Aldo Bianchi (abianchi@vermontinstitutes.org), Deb Armitage (darmitage@vermontinstitutes.org), Sheila Rivers (srivers@vermontinstitutes.org), Pat Buttolph (pbuttolph@vermontinstitutes.org), and Judi Laird (jlaird@vermontstitutes.org). This team brings their knowledge, skills, and deep commitment to strong math opportunities for all Vermont students to the work of developing the grade level expectations that will help create solid math assessments.

Sue Biggam and Pat Halloran of the Vermont READS Institute (and therefore a part of VI) have provided the VT leadership in the review of the field documents in reading and in helping Measured Progress plan for and convene the reading committee. Lyn Haas is the coordinator of the all of VI assessment work, which includes the Vital Results, science, history and the social sciences, health, physical education and the arts [see the article titled “Developing Grade Level Expectations” for more information].

Measured Progress, an educational consulting firm in Dover, NH, brings us a number of new friends--adding the silver to the gold mentioned above. MP has assumed responsibility for the work in reading. Andrew McCarter is directing MP’s effort. His team includes Tim Crockett, the project manager, Dan Cheever, and Duane Small. These folks bring incredible breadth and depth of experience that will enrich the products that are the outcome. MP also has done a thorough job of analyzing a number of national and other state documents in relation to the Vermont Framework.

The three contractors are confident that with the incredible group of Vermont teachers that have agreed to work on the GLEs, they stand a very good chance of creating a foundation for assessments that will help guide curriculum and instruction in positive ways.

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The emphasis in Balance of Representation may be in terms of effort, time, scope, importance, or more quantitatively, numbers of standards, numbers of assessment items, weight of assessment items or scores, and so on. As a part of Vermont GLE development, a series of Balance of Representation studies will be conducted. The actual dimension(s) for which “emphasis” is represented must be made explicit in each Balance of Representation study. A BoR study may help align the quantities with the valued emphasis (if used to guide development), or it may be a means to adjust counts to reflect desired weights.