Academics

This page is intended to provide the most updated information from our schools and from the Teaching and Learning Team in support of schools' transition to Virtual Learning.

AP Updates from College Board

General Updates

5 Steps to Get Ready from the AP Student homepage

Several additional Exam Submission questions were posted online to the FAQs.

AP World Language Exams:

  • AP 2020 World Language Exams: Video Walkthrough: HERE

  • WLEA FAQs: HERE

    • Do I have the right kind of device?

      • To check whether the device you plan to use for your world language and culture exam can run the app, you can complete this survey.

  • Keep in Mind:

    • Download and practice submitting exam with the free WLE App the week of May 11.

    • Use the same WLE App to submit your exam on exam day.

    • Make sure your device is ready.

Other Assessment Information and Resources

Assessment Information

End of Course Assessments are Canceled for this School Year

In light of this unprecedented pandemic, we are canceling the administration of our End-of-Course Assessments (EOCAs) for this school year.  We ask that you NOT share the EOCAs with students in any form, and maintain test security in the same way that you would keep these hard copies under lock and key in your school building.  Please do NOT use any portion as a formative or summative assessment this year; this will help us ensure the integrity of the exam for future years. 

We urge teachers to revisit their annual plans and continue to backwards plan from our benchmarks and EOCAs, adjusting for the shortened school year and the transition to e-learning. We ask that you remain faithful the good planning practices you’ve established thus far, prioritizing key skills and content to ensure students are set up for success in the coming school year. 

Assessment Resources

Creating Open-Ended Assessments

We invite teachers and schools leaders to join Dao Kambara, Director of Curriculum and Instruction, in an interactive 75-minute session on how to create open-ended assessment items. By the end of the session, participants will be able to:

  • Describe the purpose and advantages of open-ended assessment items.

  • Identify the components of writing high quality short response and extended response assessment items.

  • Write a benchmark-aligned open-ended response item that mirrors the rigor level required on the end-of-course assessment.

Participants will be asked to complete some pre-work, which will take about 20-30 minutes prior to our meeting. The same session will be offered on Friday, May 8th at 10am CT and Tuesday, May 12 at 1:30pm CT. Participation will be limited to 25 people in each meeting. Click here to register. For those who are unable to attend, a self-paced lesson will be made available after the sessions.

Math Performance Based Assessment

As part of our Math Initiative, we have access to performance-based assessments created by the Silicon Valley Math Initiative. We encourage you to look at these samples, and use them with your students as instructional tools and formative assessments, or as part of a larger summative assessment.

SAT-like quizzes

GAINS Education Group, an education consulting company we have worked with for a number of years, has shared with us a set of SAT-like quizlets. These mini-assessments are aligned to the SAT and are designed in look and feel the SAT. Teachers can unbundle them and use them as instructional tools; they can re-write them as open-ended questions (rather than the using current format of multiple choice), or they can use them as mini-quarterly assessments on whatever secure platform they’re currently using.

Curriculum Planning Resources

As we ask our teachers to revise their annual, unit and lesson plans in light of COVID-19, we also seek to support them through what might seem to be a difficult process. Here are some resources that may help school leaders and teachers through the steps of updating their curriculum plans for virtual learning:

  • Sacramento held a training and provided templates to their teachers to help them through their revisions.

  • Twin Cities held a similar training, and outlined those sessions here.

  • We asked two teachers--one in ELA and the other in Biology--to articulate their thinking as they prioritized and updated their end of year units.

  • Birmingham video on instructional expectations for final exams, the final exam schedule, and end of the year procedures.

Looking Ahead: Virtual Professional Development Sessions this Summer

  • Updating your Annual Plans and Instructional Strategies for the 2020-2021 School Year: With many schools anticipating that a portion of the school year will involve virtual instruction, this session is designed for returning teachers who wish to update their annual plans and lesson plans to reflect a hybrid of both virtual and in-person instruction in the upcoming school year.

  • New Teacher Orientation: This virtual workshop is designed for teachers who are new to the Cristo Rey Network. Participants will develop an understanding of the curriculum framework, learn how to unpack the benchmarks, develop an annual plan to teach and assess grade level benchmarks, and refine their skills in planning curriculum-aligned lessons. This will be offered as a series of sessions across 5-days, with each session lasting 2-hours.

Effective practices shared by Cristo Rey schools

We continue to collect and update effective practices shared by our schools. Please visit this summary table for more resources, and continue to participate in our collaboration calls.

As part of the Internal Coherence Framework, many schools have been working on coming to a shared understanding of effective practice. We know that effective instructional practice in the classroom looks different than in the virtual space. These two resources may help you think through what effective e-instruction looks like at your school:

Online Classroom Discussion and Student Engagement

Two recent resources shared from Boston on supporting discussion and increasing student engagement online:

Virtual Hiring Process

Graduation

We want to hear any ideas you have for celebrating your seniors this year. Share your plans for graduation at your school here.

Academic Support Discussions

Resources identified in our Zoom sessions have been updated and can be found in the link here. Please see some of the specific recommendations that have been made regarding supports for our most at-risk students (Tier 3) and for summer programs.

Possible future session topics include:

  • Mental Health (this meeting would include an expanded group of Network educators)

  • Data to inform school planning: summer school and the 2020-21 academic year

  • Executive Function skills

Files and Sample Communications - Academics

Virtual Learning Resources

For Technology Guidance, Click Here:

Support

Resources

Interactive curricular resources to supplement/complement existing course content

For Corporate Work Study, Click Here:

Contact

Mary Kearney
Chief Academic Officer
mkearney@cristoreynetwork.org