DESE Instructional Leadership Institute - August 2023

In August 2023, DESE hosted the first ever summer Instructional Leadership Institute. District teams gathered from across Massachusetts to engage in an interactive, learning-centered approach to building the effectiveness of instructional leadership teams towards advancing innovative, high quality instructional practices and equitable student outcomes.

This opportunity was developed in response to requests from school and district leaders for more support with:   

1. deeply examining what relevant, real-world, and interactive grade-level work looks and sounds like within the Massachusetts ELA and Mathematics Curriculum Frameworks,

2. deepening their understanding of how to equitably use high-quality instructional materials to engage all learners at the rigor of the standards, and

3. helping to build the necessary equity-centered routines and rituals for instructional leadership teams to effectively support high-quality instruction across all classroom and drive professional learning.

The Institute materials are now available to any school or district.

Resources

Instructional Leadership Institute materials

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and TNTP

Improving Math Instruction for Students with Disabilities Protocols for Mathematics and Special Education Leadership Teams

This series of five protocols are designed to promote collaboration between mathematics and special educators to improve math instruction and outcomes for all students including students with disabilities. The protocols are intended to assist district or school-based leadership teams by providing a structure for developing a shared vision, common language and foundational knowledge on mathematics instruction and the instructional needs of students with disabilities. These protocols are the result of a four-year collaboration between the Offices of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and the Special Education Planning and Policy at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, EDC and math and special educators from the districts participating in the Massachusetts Urban Math Support Network.

Resources

Protocol 1 Resources: Shared Beliefs About Mathematics Instruction for Students with Disabilities

• Overview

• Summary

• Beliefs

• Facilitator Notes

• Math Leadership

• Talking Points

Protocol 2 Resources: Essential Understandings About Students with Disabilities

• Overview

• Facilitator Notes

• Essential Understandings about Student with Disabilities

• The Six Areas of Demands and Difficulties

• Memory Learning

• Math Language

Protocol 3 Resources: Essential Understandings About Rigorous Mathematics Instruction

• Overview

• Facilitator Notes

• Math Practices Summary

• Rigorous Math Instruction

• Staircase Problem

• Talking Points

• Standards Math Practice

Protocol 4 Resources: Aligning Barriers and Strategies

• Overview

• Facilitator Notes

• Talking Points

• Math Accessibility Strategies

• Six Learning Areas

• Aligning Barriers

• Candies Problem

• Kym’s Description

• Kym’s IEP

• Kym’s Work

Protocol 5 Resources: Using an Accessibility Framework to Support a Group of Students

• Overview

• Facilitator Notes

• Talking Points

• Learning Needs

• Strategy Cards

• Work for Students

• Individual Reflection

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

Education Development Center, Inc.

Social and Emotional Learning in Math →

Resources describing connections between the Massachusetts Mathematics Curriculum Frameworks and development of students' social and emotional skills.

Resource Links

Social and Emotional Learning in Math

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Curriculum & Instruction

Middle Grades Math Book Study→

A virtual book study for administrators and teachers to engage with the challenges of middle grades math. The book study consists of 8 online session modules with facilitator guides and questions that participants will go through. Each participating team will receive up to 10 copies of NCTM’s, “Putting Essential Understanding of Ratios and Proportions into Practice: 6 – 8” for their team directly from DESE at no charge.

Resource Links

Middle Grades Math Book Study

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Curriculum & Instruction

What to Look for Observation Guides: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics→

These content-specific What to Look For (WtLF) Observation Guides are designed to support observations of classroom content and practice. They highlight what the teacher and students should be doing in a standards-aligned classroom. The front page outlines content and skills from grade level standards that students will be learning in the classroom. The back page outlines key features related to the MA teacher rubric to use as a guide for collecting evidence in planning and instruction.

Resource Links

• Science, Technology & Engineering

• Mathematics

Source

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Curriculum & Instruction