Here are some staff development ideas to assist staff in helping students to understand how they can prepare for the State high school assessments.

 

Explore Dimensions of Learning, Dimension One, to ensure that strategies and processes are in place to create a supportive, nurturing, and "can-do" educational environment, including processes to help students develop positive attitudes and perceptions about learning.
Use Acquiring and Integrating (Dimension Two) strategies to ensure that staff deliver a consensus driven core curriculum that clearly articulates for students the core declarative knowledge (i.e., facts, concepts, generalizations, and principles) and procedural knowledge (i.e., skills, processes, procedures) associated with the Core Learning Goals and Scope and Sequence for each content area.
Train staff in the use of higher-order questioning strategies, including use of multiple question formats: i.e., interpretive, analytical, and evaluative questions (Dimension Three).
Ensure that there is consensus about the higher-order thinking skills and processes that students should be taught to help them assimilate and apply the Core Learning Goals (Dimension Three).
At key culminating points in curriculum delivery, make certain that staff use meaningful-use tasks (Dimension Four) to reinforce students' independent application of core knowledge and skills.
Identify those mental habits (i.e., habits of mind) associated with student success within each of the core disciplines to be assessed by the State High School Assessment Program.
Train all staff in the use of graphic organizers, flow charts, and other forms of visual organizers to help students make sense of and synthesize key knowledge and skills.

Provide professional development to assist staff in understanding how to explain to students the new state graduation requirements and their relationship to the State High School Assessments.

Integrate coaching and mentoring experiences into students' instructional and support programs, including using members of the Student Government Association as mentors to explain to peers the new testing program and its implications for graduation.

Back to High School Assessment Initiative Page

 

This site was developed by the Department of Staff Development, in collaboration with the Division of Instruction. Questions, comments, and other inquiries may be addressed to Allene Chriest (achriest@pgcps.org) or Jeff Maher  (jmaher@pgcps.org).