TNTP will support Clay County Public Schools with six monthly professional learning and application opportunities for principals and key district leaders to identify successes and continued areas for improvement. TNTP can support both the design and implementation of the district- and principal-level learning. The scope of work outlined below is intended to build capacity so that leaders at all levels of the district are calibrated on the bar for rigor and a common vision of excellent instruction and poised to bring to life the district’s vision in each campus. The intended outcome will span the school year from September 2017 through March 15, 2018.

Intended Outcome: To continue to build capacity of school principals to implement the vision and manage change in their buildings.Monthly principal meetings provide an opportunity to continue to build the knowledge and skills of school leaders to recognize and support rigorous instruction aligned to the shifts and demands of the Florida Standards. Each monthly session will include two pieces: a knowledge-building learning session where participants can continue to dive deep into the standards and shifts, and an application session designed to push leaders to think about how the learning translates to the classrooms and teachers in their buildings. Leaders will have ample opportunity to practice and calibrate on observing instruction (through video and walk-throughs) and on student work and will practice diagnosing where the shifts are represented and where they are missing. 

Session objective will be determined in partnership with the district and will be informed by data from classroom observations, but may include:

• Practice determining alignment of ELA and math lessons to the instructional shifts of the Florida Standards

• Use the IPG to prioritize feedback and next steps at the classroom level

• Explain foundational instructional practice for each content area and how it connects to the shifts (e.g. task-based instruction in math; close reading in literacy or content areas); identify common instructional practices that do not directly support the shifts

• Identify non-negotiables for curriculum and instruction to support implementation of shifts (e.g., ELA lessons include a trajectory of text-dependent questions that support text-centered lessons)

• Articulate a vision for how teachers will prepare for lessons/units using aligned instructional practices and the curriculum available; identify content-specific priorities for lesson/unit planning.

• Examine high quality assessments and exemplars and understand their alignment with the state standards. 

• Analyze student tasks for alignment to the standards and shifts for ELA and math and articulate a clear vision for student success for a given lesson or task

• Plan for the school-specific tools and time needed to support teacher development (e.g., observation feedback, planning meetings, PD, teacher collaboration opportunities, etc.)

• Collaborate with colleagues to build a culture of continuous learning and feedback around implementation of the state standards. 

The monthly work with principals aims to build a deeper understanding of curriculum design and related instructional practices that will prepare leaders to articulate a content-specific vision of great teaching and learning.

The dates for the 6 development sessions are as follows:

• Tuesday, September 12

• Wednesday, October 11

• Wednesday, November 8

• Wednesday, January 10

• Tuesday, February 13

• Wednesday, March 7

This scope will include an informal data-collection “diagnostic” early in the school year to gauge the current state of alignment of instruction and student tasks to the rigor of the Florida Standards. This walk-through will be conducted side-by-side, using the Instructional Practice Guide—a nationally available tool for measuring standards-aligned instruction, with key leaders (including the Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Instruction, The Chief of Secondary Education, and the Director of Professional Learning, School Choice and Leadership Development) in order to begin calibration on the bar for rigor and to norm on the current state of alignment. The data collected in this early “diagnostic” will inform the scope and sequence of leader training for the year as well. The diagnostic will be scheduled at a mutually convenient time.

Clay County District Schools are in the process of redefining excellence for all students as part of the transition plan Elevate Clay. In 2017, district leaders prioritized building the instructional leadership of principals and assistant principals through daily observations of classroom instruction. The Clay County Leader Institute pushed principals as instructional leaders to establish a vision and priorities for their building that align to the four principles of effective instruction adopted by the district. In addition, leaders received an introduction to the rigor demanded by the Florida Standards and the shifts required for college and career ready instruction and learning. Clay County leadership has identified that school leaders need continued support in the form of learning, calibration walks and opportunities to apply new knowledge and skills. In order for leaders to manage the change process and to drive constant improvement in teaching and learning at their campuses, they must have a deep understanding of the shifts required by the standards as well as a shared instructional vision to implement in their buildings, and this vision must be shared and supported at all levels of the system.

During summer 2017, the process of building a district-wide vision of high quality instruction began with the three day Leadership Institute attended by principals and assistant principals. While the institute was a powerful experience, it is not a stand-alone training experience; now to build upon the foundation from this summer, principals will receive ongoing, job-embedded professional learning and connect this learning to school based practice through learning walks in each other’s schools guided by TNTP and district leadership. The ultimate goal is to develop learning-focused principals intent on helping teachers improve their practice either directly through instructional coaching, or with the aid of school leaders like department chairs and other teaching experts.

The January 2017 Insight Survey provides information on how to build positive, learning-focused school communities. This area still represents a need for Clay County schools as evidenced by the large gap between top and bottom-quartile schools:

Through this partnership, Clay County Schools will achieve the following outcomes:

• Continue to develop school-based administrators able to articulate a content-specific vision of teaching and learning.
• Feedback through surveys will indicate that participants benefitted from the program and their skills in trained areas improved. 
• As a result of this leadership development, Clay County’s K-6 students will achieve at least a 3% increase in the % of students scoring Level 3 and above in Mathematics and English Language Arts.

Not Applicable 

1. That the Clay County School Board approve acceptance of The New Teacher Project (TNTP) funded through the state District Instructional Leadership & Faculty Development grant in an amount not to exceed $75,024.00 for the 2017-18 school year for providing professional learning for the principals during the monthly principal meetings.

2. That the Clay County School Board approve the budgeting and expenditures of these funds, and authorize the Chairman and Superintendent to execute, upon form approval by the Office of Legal Services, the The New Teacher Project Scope of Work.