Nov.+17

Curriculum Directors Webinar Nov 17, 2009 10 – Noon  =Agenda =

= = DeVee Dietz, Director, Civic Education Programs housed through the Chiesman Center for Democracy, presented a brief overview of the various K – 12 projects available to school districts throughout South Dakota. The projects include: Nationally affiliated, //Kids Voting South Dakota, South Dakota Project Citizen, We the People, Representative Democracy in America// and statewide, //South Dakota Youth Congress//. The main focus of the presentation was on //Kids Voting South Dakota// (KVSD), a non-profit, non-partisan, grassroots organization, promoting a year-round civic education program that provides hands-on, action oriented lessons on the importance and awareness of good citizenship, the voting process, and how to make responsible, informed decisions. Currently 77 school districts in South Dakota participate in KVSD and through a newly awarded grant, KVSD is looking to expand their participation. KVSD received a project grant through the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) entitled //Teens Electing to Impact Change// (TETIC). Through this grant, KVSD is currently seeking youth leaders to become part of a “youthful perspective” from students all around South Dakota. Some of the opportunities that these student leaders will partake in are: receiving leadership skills, practicing professionalism through civic engagement, attending a regional training on facilitating issues forums, social networking with other youth, participating in a state-wide election kick-off convention in Pierre, contributing to the mission and goals of KVSD and give back to their communities. Leaders will help other students better define and understand what it means to have an impact on the general public and that their vote and civic engagement is relevant to society as a whole. Each participating high school will nominate a student delegate along with a mentor teacher. DeVee briefly shared the details of the TETIC project. School districts interested in these civic education projects should contact DeVee, ddietz@chiesman.org or 605-341-4311, to see how you can get involved or if you would like a FREE workshop or overview to be presented to your staff.
 * 1. Chiesman Foundation – Kids Voting **

**2. Proposed Core Content Revision Cycle Update** The proposed core content revision cycle has been put on hold until the Dept. of Education knows more about the national common core standards and the deptartment can weigh the impact of assessing new standards the either the year before or same year the current NCLB cycle ends. The deptartment still plans to take the revision cycle to the State Board of Education this school year for approval. Discussion was held regarding timeline for professional development and the impact on districts.
 * [[file:Civic Education Programs - Curriculum Directors Webinar 1.ppt]] || [[file:Chiesman Center for Democracy - Civic Education Programs with Sponsors.pdf]] || [[file:Commitment to Participants.pdf]] ||
 * [[file:KIDS VOTING SOUTH DAKOTA - HISTORY & INFO.pdf]] || [[file:KVSD 08-10 Site Coordinator CONTACT INFO.pdf]] || [[file:PC - Lead-Deadwood, Sheltered Reality.pdf]] ||
 * [[file:PC correlation to 21st century skills.pdf]] ||  ||   ||

A question was asked regarding ordering textbooks for math. Another district suggested that since the new math standards closely align with SD Counts project, that district may not need to rely so heavely on texbooks in the future.

The state is working on a packet of information to send out to the school district that ouline the new graduation requirements. The packet would include a list of questions and answers that disect the details of the changes. The Graduation Requirements information can be found on the following website: []
 * 3. Graduation Requirements Questions**

If schools would like to offer CTE courses for core content credit, the districts will need to complete and application to Dept. of Education. The department is developing the application. The following components will need to be addressed: course syllabus, standards based curriculum, teacher certification, and assessment.
 * 4. Process for requesting CTE for Core Content Credit**

A professional development dates for Senior Experience, Teachers As Advisors Program, Youth Internship, and CTE Standards Implementation were shared. The state is strongly encouraging CTE teachers to attend the standards implementation pd. The pd will use data to help teachers evaulate current course offerings and start aligning courses to new standards.
 * 5. Professional Development for Standards (CTE and Core Content)**

For the past year, the Department of Education has been investigating options related to the state-required writing test: the Dakota Writing Assessment. It's clear the current summative writing assessment, given to students in the spring, does not meet the needs of teachers in measuring the writing process. Our research has shown teachers need a formative assessment they can use periodically throughout the year to measure student progress and give immediate feedback to students on their writing skills. To that end, the Department of Education will suspend the current writing assessment, which was scheduled to be administered February 2010. In its place, the department will develop a pilot program to implement an online formative writing assessment. The pilot will be launched spring 2010, and the department will be seeking districts to participate in the pilot. With the pilot, the department plans to utilize an online writing assessment provided by Pearson that allows teachers to pick from hundreds of prompts. Students then write to the prompt where an online scoring engine will score the student's work and provide the teacher with immediate feedback. Teachers can save the student work and allow students to edit, revise and resubmit their work as many times as they wish, having the scoring engine evaluate the student's work continuously.
 * 6. Assessment updates**


 * 7. Assessment Literacy Project**

Marta Lemke from the department shared information about the Lexile framework. The Lexile Framework for Reading has been linked to the Dakota STEP reading assessment. There are a wide variety of resources available for teachers, librarians, and schools available on the DOE Lexile website including conversation tables and a Find-a-Book feature. If you would like to receive a roster of your district's Lexile measures as well as a merged file of parent letters, contact Marta Lemke, Language Arts Curriculum Specialist. Marta.lemke @state.sd.us More information can be found on the following website:
 * 8. Lexile Framework**