ECISD rolls out new curriculum plan

CSCOPE isn’t just about aligning curriculum in ECISD schools. It means schools must get schedules down, even when five minutes of class time will be missed because of a pep rally.

“All classes are shortened by five minutes for pep rallies,” Crockett Junior High principal Mauricio Marquez said. “You have to plan for that.”

Anything that can affect instructional time must be accounted for with CSCOPE, Amy Harvey, Crockett’s campus curriculum facilitator, said. In their Year at a Glance training this week, teachers went over which days would be considered instructional and which would be non-instructional.

“The first day of school, are they really going to start instruction?” Harvey asked.

Harvey had been serving as a success coach at Crockett, but those positions were eliminated for the 2011-12 school year in favor of the curriculum facilitators. Helping teachers with CSCOPE is a large part of their jobs.

CSCOPE is a curriculum management system that is operated through 19 of the 20 education service centers in Texas. After using CSCOPE as a pilot program last year at Odessa High, Bonham Junior High and Milam Magnet Elementary, ECISD will have CSCOPE curriculum for science, considered the area where students struggle most on state testing, at all its campuses during the 2011-12 school year. CSCOPE math will be taught at all secondary schools and 12 elementaries.

ECISD is spending $1.7 million to expand CSCOPE this year.

Teachers went through training for CSCOPE this week. In June, many teachers attended a “summer camp,” where they learned about the science curriculum for three days and math for another three days.

“The district has been very supportive, providing the funds that are needed for materials and supplies,” Harvey said.

The duties for Harvey, and ECISD’s other campus curriculum facilitators, will include monitoring teachers and providing assistance and even “co-teaching” classes, she said.

“If they are falling behind, the plans help them to make sure they catch back up,” she said.

Each ECISD campus principal receives an iPad, which they will utilize on classroom “walk throughs.” Marquez said the tablet computers will allow them to make sure the lessons are in line with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, which the state requires them to teach.

“You’re looking at immediate feedback for teachers, which is an added plus” he said.

CSCOPE was created by a consortium of Texas education service centers and offered to Texas school districts, Brad Gibson, comprehensive school support director for the Region 18 ESC, said. A total of 30 school districts and charter schools in Region 18, which includes the Ector County and Midland ISDs, have adopted CSCOPE, leaving five that have not.

“The vast majority came on board last year,” Gibson said.

Gibson said that as the state transitions from TAKS testing to the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, meeting requirements isn’t getting any easier.

“One of the things that keeps happening is the standards keep rising,” he said. “As the standards keep rising, the districts like to strengthen their curriculum.”

ECISD has entered into contracts with Region 18 that call for the district to pay Region 18 more than $200,000 for various services.

Gibson said the regional service centers evaluate the state requirements and makes adjustments in curriculum for the districts. Once the curriculum is determined, it provides training and support for the schools. He said it is difficult for school districts to keep up with the statewide changes.

“The standards have changed,” he said. “We’ve had to reorganize and basically redo the scope and sequence.”

Gibson said that 80 percent of the school districts in Texas now participate in CSCOPE. While larger districts have been holdouts, he said “big boys” like the Dallas Independent School District are now considering coming on board.

Currently only the Andrews, Wink-Loving, Buena Vista, Presidio and Terlingua school districts are not using CSCOPE in Region 18, Gibson said.

Wink-Loving ISD Superintendent John Benham said his district uses curriculum designed by the Region 4 ESC in Houston, the only service center in Texas that doesn’t offer CSCOPE. The Wink district was one of a handful in Region 18 to maintain a Texas Education Accountability rating of recognized for the 2010-11 school year when the ratings were released last month.

“I know that a lot of people have been very successful with CSCOPE,” Benham said. “It’s nothing against them, we’re just happy with Region 4.”

Kathleen Bordner, a ninth grade teacher at Crockett, said having the consistent curriculum prevents students who move to other ECISD campuses during the school year from missing any lessons. The schools strive to make sure that each lesson is taught around the same time.

“Give or take a couple of days, we should all be in the same area, just a couple of days apart,” she said. “Hopefully, it will keep everybody on track, so everybody is learning the same thing. It’s supposed to produce a higher level of thinking.”

The structured curriculum is designed to ensure that teachers “stay in their lane,” Harvey said.

“So that they get everything that they need for that year, and don’t get something that’s not related to the content,” she said.

It is also intended to increase student interest. Harvey said that in the past, students have to go through instruction before getting to work on a science experiment. Now students will be able to see an experiment at the start of the year in order to get an idea where the class is going to take them.

“It moves outside the basic lesson plan to all five components, so that you start the lesson plan with something exciting,” she said.   The five components, or “Five E Model,” for CSCOPE seeks to engage, explore, explain, extend and evaluate, Harvey said.

Mende Mays, math department chair at Crockett, said one of the teachers in her department is new. But for the remaining teachers getting adjusted to CSCOPE has been a “learning experience.”

“I can see where it can be overwhelming to some, but relieving to know that everything is in black and white right there in front of you,” Mays said.

Mays said she hopes the curriculum will get students more actively involved.

“It shouldn’t just be, ‘Sit and take notes, type this,’ ” she said. “They should be able to buy into the learning. Hopefully, in a perfect world, that’s what it’s supposed to be.”

@OAschools