Approaching the Social Studies Classroom-Based Assessments: A Global Source Initiative for Washington State Schools
"Over the past few years, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction
and Global Source Education have successfully collaborated on a number of
teacher workshops on the CBAs. Feedback from these workshops reveals that
educators have found them to be both practical and inspiring. Specifically,
Jon Garfunkel has proven himself to be a skilled trainer who can not only
engage diverse audiences of teachers and administrators but also challenge
them to see how state assessments can be used to promote teacher empowerment
and student engagement."
-Caleb Perkins, Former Program Supervisor, Social Studies/International
Education, OSPI
Following the belief that teachers must and should be the primary driving force behind school change and reform, Global Source Education has become involved in building learning communities and cultivating teacher leadership around the WA State Social Studies Classroom-Based Assessments (CBAs), slated for implementation 2008-2009. Global Source's professional development programs link CBA integration strategies with best practice in social studies education.
Richard Elmore’s 1996 article Getting to Scale with Educational Practice makes the most compelling case for building a teacher leadership network around the Social Studies Classroom-Based Assessments (CBA’s) developed by OSPI. His extensive research on educational reform reveals that "the problem of scale in educational innovation can be briefly stated as follows: Innovations that require large changes in the core of educational practice seldom penetrate more than a small fraction of US schools and classrooms and seldom last for very long when they do".
Hence, the statewide implementation of the CBA’s slated to take place in 2008-2009 faces this same fate unless we can somehow learn from the lessons of previous educational reform efforts. Fortunately, Elmore concludes this article, as do other researchers in more recent studies, with a hopeful call for the development of "strong external normative structures for practice" for teachers.
Elmore goes on to explain that teachers would "begin increasingly to think of themselves as operating in a web of professional relations that influence their daily decisions, rather than as solo practitioners inventing practice out of their personalities, prior experiences, and assessments of their own strengths and weaknesses" (p.19). This new way of thinking captures what we hope to foster among a select group of educators who want to be part of a CBA Teacher Leadership Network. Moreover, it supports the work of other researchers, including Milbrey McLaughlin, who highlight the importance of developing professional learning communities when trying to ensure that educational reforms have the opportunity to succeed.
In collaboration with OSPI's Social Studies Program, school districts, and others, Global Source, is helping to meet the needs of districts and educators in support of the statewide implementation of the CBA’s. Jonathan Garfunkel, social studies specialist and director of Global Source, has been designing and facilitating a series of teacher education programs to cultivate professional learning and build teacher leadership around the development of curriculum to meet the new WA State social studies reform. Jon has been a lead CBA trainer, and consultant with schools and districts on CBA professional development, implementation and integration.
If you would be would like to learn more about this
initiative, please
contact us.
(Reference: Getting to Scale with Good Educational Practice, by Richard Elmore, Harvard Educational Review, Spring 1996)
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Resources Related to CBAs
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If you would like to learn more about CBA programs and consultation services, please contact Global Source or call (206) 780-5797
