Pennsylvania’s Plan for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provides several pathways to success by providing equitable access to a high-quality, well-rounded education for all students. These pathways include focusing on teaching in the classroom, shortening of state assessments and establishing rigorous coursework. To help meet the growing demands for analysis of academic texts for college and career readiness, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) will continue to coalesce around the Governor’s goals, its vision, and literacy priorities. PDE is offering a series of professional development sessions entitled PA Leadership: Providing Equitable Access through Analysis of Academic Texts. The intent of this training is to assist district leadership teams in meeting the demands of text dependent analysis essay writing.

Leadership teams should consist of three individuals: the Superintendent, Director of Curriculum/Curriculum Supervisor/Curriculum Coordinator, and a Principal. The series will be four days during the 2018-2019 school year as outlined below.

Day 1:  WHY? (Superintendent, Director of Curriculum/Curriculum Supervisor/Curriculum

Coordinator, Principal)

the importance of analysis of academic texts (including analytic essay writing) as a College and Career Readiness (CCR) skill, which is assessed on State Accountability tests and consequently within the district’s curriculum

Day 2:  WHAT? (Director of Curriculum/Curriculum Supervisor/Curriculum Coordinator, Principal) the understanding of analysis of academic texts (including analytic essay writing) and the need for instructing analysis of academic texts (including analytic essay writing)

Days 3/4: HOW? (Director of Curriculum/Curriculum Supervisor/Curriculum Coordinator, Principal) the creation of a local plan of action, examination of instructional resources and curriculum to provide a continuous and coherent plan of teaching and learning

The participant teams will need to contact Sharon Kennedy at SKennedy@pattan.net to receive a registration key. Register by visiting www.pattan.net, go to training calendar and click on event.

Questions about this communication may be sent to rbaumleama@pa.gov or dsimaska@pa.gov.