Curriculum Council
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
9:00 AM-11:30 AM Meeting
8:30 Morning Refreshments/11:30 Lunch
-Meeting Minutes-
1. Welcome & Introductions:
Attendance: Dr. Betsy Baker, CIU #10; Kristen Baughman-Gray, CIU #10; Tracy Boone, Bald
Eagle SD; Dr. Jill Dillon, Harmony SD; Paul Hetrick, Curwensville ASD; Bruce Nicolls, Clearfield
ASD; Jamie Russler, CIU #10; David Simcox, Philipsburg-Osceola ASD; John Zesiger, Moshannon
Valley SD; Sherri Connell, Penns Valley ASD; Terry Murty, Keystone Central SD; Cathy Thomas,
CCCTC; Ed DiSabato, Glendale
Virtual Attendance: Deirdre Bauer, State college SD; Brett Everhart, Lock Haven University;
Midge Barilla, Lock Haven University
See Slides 3-8 of the PowerPoint for an introduction to each member of the Department of
Continuous School Improvement Services and their roles. The only new member for 2014-15 is
Diane Hubona. She is an IU08 employee contracted to provide support for PIIC. Bethann
McCain’s roles have changed slightly now that she will be heavily involved with KtO at the State
level. Betsy Baker has accepted the position of Director of Education for the Altoona Area
School District. At this point, she expects to remain at CIU until November 21. All scheduled
trainings and meetings will proceed as planned.
Email addresses for each of the department members follow:
 Betsy Baker = bbaker@ciu10.org
 Kristen Baughman-Gray = kgray@ciu10.org
 Bethann McCain = bmccain@ciu10.org
 Diane Hubona = dhubona@ciu10.org
 Jamie Russler = jrussler@ciu10.org
 Patti Rice = price@ciu10.org
Pennsylvania Basic Funding Campaign - Dr. Dwyer discussed the Pennsylvania Basic
Education Funding Campaign to be held on Tuesday, September 20, 2014, at the Central
Intermediate Unit #10 starting at 6:30 PM. Superintendents, business managers, school
administrators, and school board members are encouraged to attend. Register at
www.paiu.org/vcon or contact Mary Ann Wigfield, P: 814-342-0884, ext.
3021/mawigfie@ciu10.org.
2. PDE/PAIUCC Updates & Discussion
a. Educator Effectiveness – PDE has updated the Educator Effectiveness pages. Please
reference the 2013 PA Bulletin for regulations related to Classroom Teacher Evaluation
and the 82-1 Rating form. This includes Table H which is used for determining a teacher’s
rating for Student Performance on Assessments in the teacher Specific Data section. The
2014 PA Bulletin provides regulations for Principal Effectiveness/82-2 and also for NonTeaching Professionals/82-3. The Administration Manual has been updated for 2014-15
and the Student Measures FAQ is a resource you want to be sure to review. Note that,
although the new 82-1, 82-2, & 82-3 rating forms are posted, the teacher specific data
section if the 82-1 form is being re-formatted to allow for entry of decimals.
Copyright Reminder - Teachscape holds the copyright for the 2011 & 2013 Framework
for Teaching. ASCD holds the copyright for the 2007 version. To purchase the work from
ASCD, email permissions@ascd.org. Copyright issues regarding the Framework for
Leadership and the Specialist Rubrics are currently being reviewed.
SAS Evaluation System – PDE has contracted SAS to develop an electronic system for
evaluation only (i.e., 82-1, 82-2, & 82-3 rating tools). This system will NOT replace any
supervisory systems you are currently using to record observation and practice data (ex.
PA-eTEP, Teachscape, etc.). The new SAS evaluation system will be a web-based system for
completing the electronic spreadsheets so that a variety of data will be able to be pre-filled
for the evaluator (ex. SPP scores, PVAAS rolling average). This FREE system is expected to
be open for voluntary use in the spring. More than one evaluator may have access to an
individual’s rating form. LEAs will still determine the weighting for each Teacher Specific
Data aspect.
Classifications within Job Descriptions – It is recommended that job descriptions be
revised to clearly specify the classification of the particular position: Classroom Teacher
under 82-1, Principal/CTC Director under 82-2, or Non-Teaching Professional Employee
under 82-3.
i. SPP - September 19 - LEAs Preview SPP
October 1 – Public Release of SPPs
Data Files for 2012-13 and 2013-14 can be found in the footer at the bottom right of
the SPP.
ii. Classroom Teacher Effectiveness- The Classroom Teacher Effectiveness
page provides valuable resources related to the supervision and evaluation of those
classified as Classroom Teachers. For 2014-15, the factors for the 82-1 form follow:
 Teacher Observation/Practice = 50% (approved practice models are posted)
 Building Level Data = 15%
 Teacher Specific Data (except for PVAAS) = 15% (resources for documenting IEP
goal progress are posted on the Classroom Teacher Effectiveness page – The IEP
Progress-Teacher Specific Data Template is an OPTIONAL document for
determining IEP goal progress. It does NOT replace the use of SLO Template 4
for Elective Data)
 Elective Data = 20% (Required document = SLO Template 4)
Teacher Effectiveness Modules for Act 48 - Training modules regarding Teacher
Effectiveness can be found within the SAS PD Center. You must be logged in to view
the modules.
1. Teacher Specific Data - In regard to Teacher Specific Data, Act 82 states
the following:
(B) Fifteen per centum (15%) teacher-specific data, including, but not
limited to, student achievement attributable to a specific teacher as
measured by all of the following:
(I) Student performance on assessments.*
(II)
Value-added assessment system data made available by the
department under section 221.
(III) Progress in meeting the goals of student individualized education
plans required under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (Public
Law 91-230, 20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq.).
(IV) Locally developed school district rubrics.
*The term "assessment" shall mean the Pennsylvania System of School
Assessment test, the Keystone Exam, an equivalent local assessment or
another test established by the State Board of Education to meet the
requirements of section
Link to Act 82:
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/US/HTM/2012/0/0082..HTM
Decisions regarding how to weight and apply each aspect need to be made
locally in collaboration with the Collective Bargaining Unit and the Solicitor.
PDE does not have the authority to provide black and white answers in
relation to Teacher Specific Data.
LEA’s are encouraged to utilize an “N” Count of 11 across teacher specific and
elective data; however, this is a local decision. Decisions should be applied
consistently so as not to be deemed arbitrary or capricious.
2. Teachers with Unique Roles & Functions – See the SAS portal for
new examples of evidence and guiding questions.
3. SLOs – The SAS SLO site has been updated. On the landing page, the blue
box on the left side of the page provides all resources by category. The only
required document is Template 4. On the Homeroom Site, documents are
organized by the following categories: Orientation, Design, Build, Review.
There is an I am a Teacher section and an I am a School Leader section. The
documents are essentially the same. The School Leader section is just a
scaled down version of the Teacher section. The one major difference
between the Homeroom Site and the SAS SLO landing page is that the
Homeroom Site provides web-based versions of Template 4 & 5 that can
saved to My History in a teacher’s SAS account. Unfortunately, though, the
web-based version times out quickly so saving frequently is required. Betsy
has also received reports that complete templates have been lost in cyber
space, so if you use this tool, it is recommended that you also download and
save the completed template to another location.
iii. Principal Effectiveness – Multiple resources can be found on the Principal
Effectiveness page, including the Principal Effectiveness Program Brochure (PDE’s
“advertisement” of its new system), the Framework for Leadership, Types of
Evidence documents, Possible Guiding Questions documents, Correlation Data
resources, and Elective Data/SLOs. More details will be provided at the upcoming
Principal Effectiveness trainings.
iv. Non-Teaching Professional Effectiveness - All three groups of NTPEs (i.e.,
1. Instructionally Certified people who are not providing direct instruction, 2.
Educational specialists, and 3. supervisors) will be evaluated using 82-3. All
domains for the Observation/Practice area of the 82-3 will be weighted equally. The
four domains follow:
 Planning and Preparation
 Educational Environment
 Delivery of Service
 Professional Development
For the supervision process, the three groups will utilize differing tools:
 NTPEs working under their Instructional Certification will be supervised using
the Danielson Framework for Teaching. A crosswalk has been posted on PDEs NTPE
page to illustrate the connection between the legislative intent of Act 82 for NTPEs
and the Danielson Framework.

NTPEs working under their Supervisory Certification will be supervised using
the Framework for Leadership. Examples of professional employees in this group
would include Special Education Directors and Curriculum Directors.
(Note: Principal certification may qualify an administrator to serve as a Director of
Curriculum. In such a case, the employee would be considered a NTPE working
under their Supervisory Certification.) A crosswalk has been posted on PDEs
website to illustrate the connection between the legislative intent of Act 82 for
NTPEs and the Framework for Leadership. Types of Evidence documents and
Guiding Question documents for various supervisors are also posted.

NTPEs working under an Educational Specialist Certification will be supervised
using the specialist rubrics which are designed to help the evaluators have a better
understanding of the level of performance of their specialists. Guiding Questions for
each specialist group are also posted.

Speech & Language - Districts have struggled to find Speech and Language teachers.
Qualified speech therapists may not have instructional certification. Therefore, a
new specialist certification for speech was posted on PDE’s sites last week (CSPG
#86). This means that there are now two speech certifications: specialist and
instructional. Most current speech teachers have both. PDE will create a specialist
rubric for speech teachers who do not have instructional certification. They will be
evaluated using 82-3 with all other educational specialists. Once that rubric is
available, it will be a local call regarding how speech teachers with both specialist
and instructional certification are evaluated.
b. Comprehensive Planning - Reminder: The PDE Comp Planning site has been
updated to align with Chapter 4 requirements. A Wiki links you to all of the current
resources from Comprehensive Planning trainings. One update not yet incorporated onto
the site is the recent removal of the Technology Planning requirements for Priority 2
schools, the ENTIRE Materials and Resources section under Core Foundations is now
OPTIONAL and can be left blank. It is still strongly recommended that schools infuse
technology throughout their Action Planning components.
i. Title I School Improvement – A waiver application has been submitted. If
approved, the timeline for Priority and Focus School Improvement will be changed
to allow these schools the full three years to improve their AMOs. This waiver will
also impact whether or not a Title I School needs to do a School Improvement Plan if
they are not designated as a Priority or Focus School, but do not make their AMOs
for two years in a row. For now, we are awaiting the response to the waiver request.
c. PVAAS – The updated PVAAS Public Site will open on October 8. Teacher Specific Reports
will be available to District and School Admins on October 23rd and to the teachers on
October 30. No Teacher Specific Reports will be released for Grade 5 & 8 Writing.
A District Launchpad will be available this year along with a new Export Function.
There will be the option to incorporate Grade 3 into Roster Verification this year. The
value in doing so is that the PVAAS system may calculate student proficiency for the
Teacher Specific Data segment. Percent Instructional Responsibility won’t need to be
calculated for grade 3.
Dates for 2014-15 Roster Verification follow:
 April 27-May 3 = LEA Preview Window, by school
 May 4-17 = Teacher Verification Window
 May 18-31 = School Admin Verification Window
 June 1-14 = LEA Verification Window
d. Assessment – The eDirect site posts periodic assessment updates. The August
Assessment Update includes a variety of important dates relative to the various
assessments. Online testing will be expanded to be able to be done on Chromebooks and
on iPads with external keyboards. CDTs will not require external keyboards since they do
not incorporate open-ended responses. A FAQ regarding testing guidance in relation to
Chapter 4 regulations is under development.
Out of State Transfers – If a student transfers to PA from another state after completing
and passing the other state’s test for accountability purposes, the student will be
considered proficient and will not need to take the Keystone Exam.
Q: When using electronic online testing, how can the assessment be shown for parental
review for religious exemption reasons to remain compliant? (One of our districts who
participated in online testing last year ran into this situation. There were told they had to
have a plan for providing parents with access to the test.)
A: Order one hard copy of each test for parental review purposes.
i. CDTs - DRC has posted a number of new CDT resources on eDirect. To access them,
go to https://pa.drcedirect.com/. Click on Documents on left side bar. Select 20142015 Classroom Diagnostic Tools under Administration. Select All as the Document
Type. Click Show Documents button.

Parent Letter

Student Metacognition Templates for Lower Grades (3-5) - all content and
grade levels

Student Metacognition Templates for Upper Grades (6-12) - all content and
grade levels

Lower Grades Skill Pamphlets for all content and grade levels (Science is not
yet completed, but when finished, they will be posted.)

Upper Grades Skill Pamphlets for all content and grade levels (Science is not
yet completed, but when finished, they will be posted.)

Simulations for Grade 4: Writing, Science, Reading and Math

Simulation for Grade 7 Science
ii. PSSA – New resources have been posted on the PDE PSSA site. These include the
new test blueprints. The Science PSSAs have not changed. The Math & ELA testing
will be separate weeks and separate test books. For Math, items can now be double
coded, meaning that one test item may cross over more than one piece of eligible
content. The number of reporting categories will be reduced from 5 to 4. For the
ELA assessment, there will now be 4 sections instead of 3. The first section will be
the writing. It will include language questions and a writing prompt. All grades will
now be tested on writing. For the reading sections, there will be Evidence Based
Selected Response questions (EBSR) which require the student to mark multiple
correct answers. For example, part one will ask for one correct answer. Part two
will ask the tester to select the one or two pieces of evidence that support his/her
response. If the question requires two answers, students will fill in two answer
bubbles. EBSRs are worth 2-3 points each. For Text Dependent Analysis Questions
(TDAs), students will be expected to write an essay to support their response. CIU
consultants will receive training on TDAs in October and then will be sharing this
information with LEAs.
iii. Keystones & Project Based Assessment – No changes to the Keystone
Exams are planned for 2014-15.
Part A/B Courses: If the content that will be assessed on the Keystone Exam
requires two courses to cover everything, only the second course should be coded as
the Keystone related course, and both modules of the Keystone exam should be
administered at the end of the second course. You cannot elect to administer
Module 1 after the first half of the course and Module 2 after the second half. The
students’ exams will not be scored if this is attempted.
IEP students must take the Keystone Exams at least once for purposes of federal
accountability, but the IEP team dictates graduation requirements. There may be
instances where the completion of a Project Based Assessment by a student with an
IEP is not a requirement of the IEP. That’s an IEP team decision. In addition, there
may be instances where the student is not even required to complete the Keystone
Course. The Keystone exam, however, remains a requirement.
Resources for Tutor Training follow:
 FAQ (recently updated)
 PBA Video
 Roles & Responsibilities
 Released Field Test Projects
All resources are posted at:
http://www.pdesas.org/module/assessment/About.aspx
e. PA Core - PA Core Curriculum Frameworks can only be viewed by logging into SAS and
going to the Curriculum Mapping site. The template can be duplicated and utilized for
other content areas.
PA Core Networking Sessions are scheduled through the STEM Consortium for Math and
Science.
The iTunes U Project offers a variety of resources for supporting student learning. Search
for courses or just for videos/materials. Courses are not credit courses, but are a collection
of materials. PA materials are called Pennsylvania Learns. Grade 6-8 Language Arts &
Math, including Algebra, and high school language arts, math, and biology courses are
developed. The goal is to develop courses for PreK-12 in ELA, Math, and Science, and
possibly Civics within two years. The resources are supposed to align with the new
curriculum frameworks. Kristen Gray will be receiving training soon from Apple.
3. CIU Initiatives
a. Nearpod - The IU will offer Consortium pricing = $50/teacher/year –OR$100/teacher/3years. Interested districts may contact Kristen Gray at kgray@ciu10.org for
purchasing information.
b. STEM - Don’t forget to turn in your Consortium Agreement. If you have questions, please
contact Kristen Baughman-Gray at kgray@ciu10.org or by phone at 814-342-0884.
Agreements may be sent to Kristen or to Jamie Russler at jrussler@ciu10.org. A statewide
STEM competition is being sponsored by PDE this year. Changes have been made so
schools may have more than one team. Deadlines have also been extended. Contact Kristen
Gray for more information. PA Engage is a new Hybrid Learning initiative under
development by PAIUCC. The intent is to offer a more cost-effective hybrid learning model.
c. Professional Development – A demonstration was provided regarding how to locate
and register for CIU professional development sessions and also for CPE courses along with
how to manage your E-LRNR registrations. CIU policy indicates that late registrations may
incur a $15 processing fee and that full registration costs may be charged to those who
register but do not attend. The Department of Continuous School Improvement Services
will be enforcing this policy. In addition, our Act 48 forms indicate that all Act 48
documentation must be submitted by the end of the training session in order for Act 48
hours to be provided. We will also adhere to that policy. Information on the KSRA
Conference was shared.
d. Vendors – Vendors from 24 Challenge/First in Math, Zulama, and Compass Learning
have expressed interest in speaking to the Curriculum Council. The general consensus
seemed to be that the group prefers not to bring in vendors. If LEAs determine that they
are interested in scheduling a meeting with any of these vendors, let Betsy know and a
session will be offered outside of Curriculum Council.
e. 2014-15 Meeting Schedule
All meetings are held from 9-11:30 AM with lunch following.
8:30 Registration/Refreshments
Oct. 29, 2014 – This meeting conflicts with the PAFPC Regional Meeting. Those
impacted have indicated that they will attend other area Regional Meetings
(Clarion or Blast) and the date/time for Curriculum Council should remain as
planned.
Dec. 3, 2014
Jan. 28, 2015
Feb. 25, 2015
Mar. 25, 2015
May 6, 2015
Click Here to Register
4. Other Needs/Questions/Discussion Items
a. National History Day: Please let Dr. Dwyer know if your district has interest in this event.
b. Dr. Dwyer asked for recommendations of secondary social studies teachers who could
participate in a one day planning session on Teaching American Labor History. CIU # 10 is
partnering with PSU Dept. of Labor Relations and the Penn. Labor History Society to
develop teacher workshops. The one day planning event would be at PSU in October. A
$100 stipend and substitute teacher cost will be provided. Send your teacher names and
email to Dr. Dwyer at jhdwyer@ciu10.org.