Week+1+Assignment+Part+1.4,+Reflections+on+EDLD+5333

__Reflection on EDLD 5333, Leadership for Accountability__
====Overall the assignments for this course were fairly easy for me. This is because at the time I was working at a position that required me to give presentations and staff developments to teachers involving the use of student data! Making the PowerPoint and coming up with a PD for teachers was second-nature.====

====What was new for me was using data from Texas schools. TEKS, STaR, and the Texas Long Range Plan for Technology were brand new. It was interesting to see what the benchmarks and standards were for Texas (TEA, 2008) and to compare them to California. They actually have more in common than not.====

====I used the same approach to prepare for a “Texas” PD that I would use for one here in Southern California. I knew that there would have to be some time spent going over the rationale and benefit of using student data for formative and summative assessments. I agree with the Stiggins (2005) article on the need for teachers to understand formative assessments and how to use them. I also wanted the teachers to spend time working with each other and with their data. My goal was that they would leave the PD with something tangible that they could use in the classroom to improve student achievement.====

====When I plan PDs, I try to imagine myself as a teacher participating in it. I think this helps keep me focused on being relevant and ensuring they have what they need to succeed in the task they are given. As usual, my fellow students were a wonderful source of encouragement and information through their comments and feedback on the discussion boards. My assignments were better as a result.====

====One of the take-aways for me in lifelong learning is that many states and school districts are struggling with the same problems (TEA, 2008). That there really is not as much difference between them as I had once thought. My exposure of course has only been to two states, Texas and California, but I also know that they are some of the major players in national educational policy.====

====As a result of this class I now have a network of fellow educators who are all working towards the same goal. I would like to continue to study how the adoption of Common Standards at a national level with impact these 2 wonderful states.====