2024 Great Ideas in Education Conference

History, Government, and Social Studies (HGSS) teachers in Kansas have created a model for education that has set them apart nationally. Our five high-quality state standards (yes, we only have FIVE K-12 standards!) create an opportunity for our content to be vertically aligned smoothly from kindergarten through high school. Our content provides a foundational component for structured literacy, and our teachers are already equipped with how best to develop discipline literacy in our students. Our unique state assessments are the very definition of “balanced.” Our Classroom Based Assessments have become a model for other states on how best to assess what students are actually learning. With the framework of claim, evidence, and reasoning as our guide, we offer teachers the freedom to create effective measures for assessment growth while being rooted in high-quality instruction. If you want to see how best to incorporate the KSDE Four Fundamentals in one content area, look no further than HGSS!

Learn how to use formative and interim assessments to create a coherent and effective assessment system that aligns with standards, supports student learning, and drives instruction.  In this session, we will look at updates for this coming school year, how to utilize formative/interim assessments to drive instruction, the new math teacher guidance document, and resources teachers can utilize in the classroom.

Not all tests are created equal. Assessment literacy means differntiating between appropriate and inappropriate uses of different types of assessment and assessment results. This session will help educators start to identify, select, and/or create appropriate, efficient, and precise assessments that engage students in demonstrating their knowledge and abilities relative to targeted learning goals.

Come and take a deep dive into the standards alignment and balanced assessment tools for secondary science. During this session we will take a close look at how our state science standards are formatted and how to create and recognize classroom assessments aligned to all three dimensions of the standards to drive high quality instruction and learning.

Reviewing  the significance of interim assessments in guiding instructional practices is essential to growing and measuring student knowledge. Understanding the unique contributions of each interim assessment and the methods for analyzing the data they generate is crucial for informed decision-making in education. This reflective process allows educators to effectively utilize assessment data to enhance teaching strategies and improve student outcomes. KAP summative assessments feature higher text complexity and longer passages than students may be accustomed to.  Comparison of passages from grades 3-8 will be prominent, addressing standard 9

We will address the changes to TTS accommodations on the KAP, the rationale as well as purposes for using TTS and using data to drive decisions.

Join us for an action-oriented session to enhance knowledge, tools, and strategies necessary to implement collaborative inquiry processes within your schools. By leveraging data-driven decision-making and fostering a collaborative culture, attendees will learn how to identify possible systemic challenges, select aligned evidence-based practices, plan and implement practices across a school, and monitor progress to ensure sustained student success. This session will focus on literacy data, however many of the processes can be transferred to other content areas if you choose to implement them at your school site.

Come and take a deep dive into the fundamental of Standards Alignment in this session targeted towards science. During this session we will walk through; What is in the KSDE Standards Alignment Tool Kit for science, how to use it, where to find it, how to share it with teachers.