Council of Chief State School Officers
The Surveys of Enacted Curriculum are a practical, reliable set of data collection tools being used with teachers of Mathematics, Science, English language arts, and Social studies to collect and report consistent, comparable data on current instructional practices and content being taught in classrooms. The resulting data provide an objective method for educators to analyze the degree of alignment between instruction and standards and assessments. Teachers complete the Survey questions through an online, web-based system. The web-based reported data are used by educators and leaders for: a) Aligning classroom instruction with state standards and assessments, b) Evaluating effects of initiatives such as professional development in improving instruction and learning, c) Data-driven school-based improvement of instruction with teachers, particularly to focus on low performance areas, and d) Measuring indicators of instruction and their relationship to student achievement. Annually, the Surveys system is used by over 10,000 teachers in 30 states. The session will focus on strategies for analyzing and using the SEC curriculum data including the three-dimensional maps and charts, comparing practices among teachers, and analyzing gaps between current practice and goals.
Rolf K. Blank is Director of Education Indicators at the Council of Chief State School Officers. At CCSSO he is responsible for developing, managing, and reporting a system of state-by-state and national indicators of the condition and quality of education in public schools. For the past decade, Dr. Blank has led two multi-state collaborative projects involving state education leaders, curriculum specialists, assessment directors, and evaluators, including a 28-state collaborative project on Accountability Systems and Reporting, and an 18-state collaborative project focused on developing and implementing Surveys of Enacted Curriculum, a set of in-depth, high quality online data collection and reporting tools now being used by in twenty states and by 10,000 teachers per year for curriculum and instructional improvement, alignment analysis, and analyzing needs and trends over time. In his Council leadership role, Dr. Blank collaborates with state education leaders, researchers, and professional organizations in directing program evaluation studies and technical assistance projects aimed toward improving the quality of K-12 public education. He holds a Ph.D. from Florida State University and an M.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.