The Arkansas Department of Education will present Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Institute #1. This institute will focus on the Arkansas CCSS Strategic Plan. ADE staff will review the seven action areas of the plan.

Topics covered:

• Plan and resources
• CCSS micro-website
• "Need to Know" tool

The Arkansas Department of Education will present Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Institute #2. This institute will focus on assessment literacy. Suggestions will be provided for designing an assessment plan focused on the CCSS for Math and ELA. Participants may submit questions for the afternoon Q and A.

Topics covered:

• Assessment Literacy

The Arkansas Department of Education will present Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Institute #3. This institute will focus on planning for formative assessment within the CCSS for Math and ELA. Participants may submit questions for the afternoon Q and A.

Topics covered:

• English Language Arts
• Mathematics

The Arkansas Department of Education will present Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Institute #4. This institute will focus on the learning progressions within the CCSS for Math and ELA. Participants may submit questions for the afternoon Q and A.

Topics covered:

• English Language Arts
• Mathematics

Dr. Tom Kimbrell, Commissioner of Education, and Dr. Denise Airola, Research Specialist for the Arkansas Leadership Academy, present the key components of the ESEA Flexibility for Arkansas.

On June 29, 2012, the US Department of Education announced that Arkansas is one of five more states to be granted flexibility from some long-standing requirements of No Child Left Behind.

Under the ruling, Arkansas will reward some schools for exemplary performance and improvement and distribute targeted resources to help persistently struggling schools. The state's plan for flexibility under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) runs parallel with the implementation of college and career ready learning standards and efforts to strengthen educator evaluation.

Education Commissioner Dr. Tom Kimbrell is grateful for the flexibility Secretary Duncan has given the state to provide stronger tools to improve schools.

"This flexibility allows Arkansas to evaluate schools in terms of performance, growth and graduation rate," said Kimbrell. "We are not turning our back on accountability. With our new system of accountability, support and intervention, we will focus on specific problems unique to each public school in Arkansas."

The new accountability system is anchored in college and career readiness for all students. Like previous models, it continues annual public reporting of student outcome measures in math and literacy to assess school performance. However, this more robust system also includes student achievement growth measures and high school graduation rates. The new system holds all schools and districts accountable for improving student performance and creates five performance classifications that determine consequences and guide interventions and supports.

The state's goal is to ensure all students graduate from high school ready for success in college or a career. This flexibility is one step closer to fulfilling the goal of a better, educated workforce.

Target Audience: Administrators, secondary principals, central office curriculum administrators, instructional facilitators, counselors

Curriculum Specialists from the Curriculum and Instruction Unit of ADE will introduce and answer questions about the new high school math and ELA course offerings to be implemented beginning in the 2013-2014 school year.

Target Audience: District CTE Testing Coordinator, CTE Co-op Coordinators, CTE Administrators and Teachers

The Arkansas Department of Career Education, in conjunction with PCG Education, will present training on the new CTE Assessment System.This session will focus on the skills necessary to successfully assess students online and retrieve student, teacher, school, and district performance data.

Brenda Beard, PCG Education IT Specialist, and Lesia Edwards, ACE Assessment and Curriculum Program Advisor, will introduce and provide training on the new CTE assessment system being launched this year.

Topics Covered:

• Overview of New Assessment System
• Accessing Teacher Information
• Accessing Student Information
• Online Testing
• Reporting

Target Audience: All educators

This one-hour presentation is a recording of Dr. Stephen Pruitt addressing the Arkansas Science Teachers Association during the 2012 Arkansas Curriculum Conference. A dynamic speaker, Dr. Pruitt is Vice President for Content, Research, and Development at Achieve, Inc., where he is coordinating the development of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). In preparation for the spring 2013 release of the NGSS, he describes the development process, supporting resources, and the structure of the standards. He explains the three-dimensional nature of the NGSS student performance expectations which will include science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas. To emphasize how NGSS will change science instruction, Dr. Pruitt compares a current middle school standard to a sample NGSS middle school standard and provides an example of how high school students could demonstrate understanding of ecosystems using a unit entitled Lake Algae. His message is clear: We, the science education community, have an opportunity to "unlock the future" of not just a select few, but all students.

Target Audience: Curriculum Directors, Building Administrators, Instructional Facilitators and Classroom Teachers

The Arkansas Department of Education is hosting a six-hour institute to help teachers and curriculum directors understand and use the PARCC Model Content Frameworks for ELA/Literacy (Grades 3-11) and the PARCC Model Content Frameworks for Mathematics (Grades 3-11). The documents were developed by PARCC to support the implementation of the Common Core State Standards and to inform the development of item specification and blueprints for the PARCC assessments. As such, the PARCC Model Content Frameworks serve as useful tools for classroom teachers and curriculum developers by providing insight into key areas of focus of the CCSS and PARCC assessments as well as the instructional shifts needed for successful implementation in the classroom.