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Filling The Teacher's Toolbox

Blended learning course turns supports and accommodations into daily practice

By Kelly Bikle
April 2018
Vol. 39 No. 2
A two-day standardized testing workshop might seem an odd place to find inspiration for building an innovative professional learning model, but that’s where our story begins. As professional learning director in California’s Palo Alto Unified School District, I attended a California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress Institute (CAASPP) workshop with a district team composed of our assessment coordinator, a special education inclusion specialist, and several teachers. Our goal was to learn about the Smarter Balanced test, as well as strategies and best practices for using CAASPP to improve teaching and learning. These ideas led to the creation of our blended professional learning course, Supports for All Students. THE OBJECTIVE Workshop facilitators emphasized that testing supports and accommodations were not meant just for testing days

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Authors

Kelly Bikle

Kelly Bikle ([email protected]) is professional learning director in the Palo Alto Unified School District, Palo Alto, California.

References

California Department of Education. (2017). Quality Professional Learning Standards. Available at www.cde.ca.gov/pd/ps/qpls.asp.

Guskey, T.R. & Yoon, K.S. (2009). What works in professional development? Phi Delta Kappan, 90(7), 495-500.

Powell, A., Rabbitt, B., & Kennedy, K. (2014). iNACOL blended teacher competency framework. Available at www.inacol.org/resource/inacol-blended-learning-teacher-competency-framework.

Stacker, H. & Horn, M. (2012). Classifying K-12 blended learning. San Mateo, CA: Innosight Institute.



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