School Follow-Up Visit: Diagnostic

Audience

Schools seeking to achieve or renew Core Knowledge Official School designation, schools (regardless of implementation level) wishing to continuously improve their implementation practices.

Length

1–3 days

Prerequisites

To qualify for a diagnostic School Follow-Up Visit, you must first:

• participate in a Getting Started workshop;
• complete a self-evaluation using the Implementation Feedback Rubric; and
• complete a self-evaluation of your Curriculum Plan and Domain Maps.

Objectives

Through a process of self-evaluation coupled with customized feedback from an experienced Core Knowledge consultant, school staff will have the opportunity to:

• discuss implementation progress, challenges, and successes;
• analyze and plan updates to the yearlong Curriculum Plan and Domain Maps;
• assess the general level of implementation on campus;
• provide information and data to support a school-wide needs assessment; and
• develop a realistic plan of action for increasing the level of quality Core Knowledge implementation.

Summary

The diagnostic School Follow-Up Visit is designed to review your school's Core Knowledge implementation as a whole, and inform tailored feedback regarding opportunities for improvement. The targets of diagnostic visit feedback will change based on the maturity of Core Knowledge implementation, recent professional development, and previously provided combination of feedback and next steps. Professional development recommendations may also result from this visit.

The visit is appropriate for schools wishing to achieve or renew the Core Knowledge Official School designation or as a means of needs assessment for schools that have not had recent Core Knowledge professional development visits.

A Core Knowledge consultant will confer with school administrators, and conduct grade level team meetings and classroom observations. The Implementation Feedback Rubric tool will be used to guide this visit. Questionnaires may also be administered for faculty and parents to gather more information prior to the visit. If, during the visit, a school demonstrates fairly strong implementation, visits of this type can continue periodically to fine-tune the implementation until the Foundation deems the school ready for an Analysis of Curriculum and Practices (ACAP) visit. The ACAP visit will verify readiness for a Core Knowledge Official School designation.

If, during this diagnostic School Follow-Up Visit, the school demonstrates poor fidelity of implementation, a more detailed remediation plan—possibly involving an ACAP visit to better target needs—will be constructed by the Foundation in collaboration with the school.

Registration:

Now scheduling visits for March 2013.

For additional details, please contact the Professional Development Coordinator via email, professionaldevelopment@coreknowledge.org, or by calling (434) 220-3352.