Master Educators Help Phoenix Teachers, School Leaders Effectively Implement QualityCore^®

Students engage in teacher Dale Slont’s math class, which uses a curriculum infused with ACT’s QualityCore program, at Vicki A. Romero High School in Phoenix.

Tony VanderZyl, a facilitator of QualityCore professional development, leads a group of math teachers through a lesson on rigor and relevance at Vicki A. Romero High School (VARHS) in Phoenix, Arizona.

“What does a rigorous high school course look, feel, and sound like?” he asks. “What do you want your students to be able to do when they finish your course?”

The teachers respond: We want them to enjoy math, feel confident in the subject, and be able to communicate mathematically.

VanderZyl describes how teachers can use the instructional strategies in the QualityCore Educator’s Toolbox with their existing curriculum to reach these goals. By the end of the discussion, the teachers are ready to try some of the strategies.

“Seeing examples of how I can increase the rigor of my classes benefitted me the most,” said VARHS math teacher Adam Scalettar. “I now know how to examine my classroom assignments to ensure they are at the proper level of rigor.”

Scalettar was one of several teachers and school leaders who recently completed QualityCore professional development at VARHS. ACT offers the optional face-to-face training in a half-day or five-day model. Master educators work with teachers, counselors, and school leaders to help them implement QualityCore.

During the five full-day professional development sessions, VARHS teachers got an in-depth look at QualityCore’s components and learned how to incorporate them into existing curriculum and classroom materials. The components include rigorous course standards, instructional resources, formative item pools, end-of-course assessments, and progress monitoring tools. VanderZyl and fellow facilitators helped the teachers structure their courses to facilitate high academic achievement.

The professional development accomplished what VARHS Principal Laura Metcalfe hoped it would: increase teacher collegiality.

Tony VanderZyl leads a QualityCore professional development session. He is one of several practicing and retired teachers who work with ACT to facilitate QualityCore professional development workshops across the country.

“For the first time, our teachers are working together and seeing how QualityCore and their efforts can, finally, help students achieve where previously achievement had been so elusive,” said Metcalfe. “Teachers understand how QualityCore helps them move students to a higher level of learning.”

VARHS, a nonprofit public charter school located in the inner city of Phoenix, is an underperforming school under the No Child Left Behind Act and Arizona LEARNS, a rating system for the state’s schools. The student population is entirely low-income Hispanic. Very few graduates go to college.

QualityCore’s focus on rigorous course standards appealed to administrators and teachers as a way of turning around the school’s academic outlook. The school is using four QualityCore courses—English 11 and 12, Algebra II, and Precalculus—and expects to add more of the current 12 QualityCore subjects in the 2012–13 school year.

“We like that QualityCore is grounded in research, works with existing curriculum, and is tied to the Common Core standards,” said Metcalfe. “Those are key elements to reaching a higher level of rigor and relevance in our classrooms and better preparing our students with twenty-first century skills that are transferable to college and careers.”