League Events
League Conferences and Workshops
The Colorado League of Charter Schools continually offers a comprehensive list of professional development, networking and training opportunities for charter school board members, principals and other key leaders throughout the year. All workshops and trainings are focused on helping charter school leaders:
- Achieve strong student learning results
- Build organizational capacity
- Develop and sustain effective leadership on the governance and administrative levels
- Operate in a fiscally responsible and effective way
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Maintain a continued focus on school quality and improvement
Performance Management Training Opportunities
The League is again offering a number of training opportunities on performance management. Trainings include the new School Performance Frameworks and Unified Planning Template, Understanding new Colorado State Standards, Response to Intervention, Alpine Achievement Systems, Implementing Data Teams, Northwest Evaluation Systems Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) assessment and more. In addition, we have included trainings offered by other organizations related to systems that charter schools are using. These trainings are a great opportunity to get up-to-date information on systems and data, dig deeper into your school’s student performance data, and share your experiences and collaborate with other schools to strengthen our performance management systems.
It's Time for Your Alpine Training!
The League is excited to offer training sessions on Alpine Achievement Systems. Ongoing training is necessary to use this tool effectively. Space is limited so register today! To register or questions contact Tisha Bouwmeester at 303-989-5356 x 106.
Alpine Achievement User Conference: Introduction & Refresher Course, Advanced & Technical Topics and Practicum in Data Use
Date: Monday, July 26, 2010
Time: 8:30 AM – 3:30 PM
Location: Mead High School, Longmont (12750 County Road 7, Longmont, Colorado 80504; (720) 494-3940)
Description: Deadline is Thursday, July 22. •Using Alpine for New and New-ish Users •Alpine Behind the Scenes for New and New-ish Users •Practicum in Data Use •Understanding your Alpine Summary Reports and the new Alpine Research Studies (New!) •Setting up your own Tests and Plans (advanced Technical Topic) •Student Plans •Data Warehouse •How to do the things on the "high priority" list •Setting up and Using Custom Spreadsheets (New!) •Student Groups, Demographic Groups, and Teacher Class Groups (New!)
Cost: $100 members, $150 non-members
Alpine Achievement User Conference: Introduction & Refresher Course, Advanced & Technical Topics and Practicum in Data Use
Date: Tuesday, July 27
Time: 8:30 AM – 3:30 PM
Location: Summit High School (16201 Hwy 9, Frisco, CO 80443; (970)368-1100)
Description: Deadline is Friday, July 23. •Using Alpine for New and New-ish Users
•Alpine Behind the Scenes for New and New-ish Users •Practicum in Data Use
•Understanding your Alpine Summary Reports and the new Alpine Research Studies (New!) •Setting up your own Tests and Plans (advanced Technical Topic) •Student Plans •Data Warehouse •How to do the things on the "high priority" list •Setting up and Using Custom Spreadsheets (New!) •Student Groups, Demographic Groups, and Teacher Class Groups (New!)
Cost: $100 members, $150 non-members
Alpine Achievement User Conference: Introduction & Refresher Course, Advanced & Technical Topics and Practicum in Data Use
Date: Wednesday, August 4
Time: 8:30 AM – 3:30 PM
Location: Lamar High School (1900 South Eleventh Street, Lamar CO 81052; (719) 336-3488)
Description: Deadline is Monday, August 2. •Using Alpine for New and New-ish Users •Alpine Behind the Scenes for New and New-ish Users •Practicum in Data Use
•Understanding your Alpine Summary Reports and the new Alpine Research Studies (New!) •Setting up your own Tests and Plans (advanced Technical Topic) •Student Plans •Data Warehouse •How to do the things on the "high priority" list •Setting up and Using Custom Spreadsheets (New!) •Student Groups, Demographic Groups, and Teacher Class Groups (New!)
Cost: $100 members, $150 non-members
Alpine Achievement User Conference: Introduction & Refresher Course, Advanced & Technical Topics and Practicum in Data Use
Date: Friday, August 6
Time: 8:30 AM – 3:30 PM
Location: Mesa Ridge High School (6070 Mesa Ridge Parkway, Colorado Springs, CO 80911; (719) 391-3600)
Description: Deadline is Wednesday, August 4. •Using Alpine for New and New-ish Users •Alpine Behind the Scenes for New and New-ish Users
•Practicum in Data Use •Understanding your Alpine Summary Reports and the new Alpine Research Studies (New!) •Setting up your own Tests and Plans (advanced Technical Topic) •Student Plans •Data Warehouse •How to do the things on the "high priority" list •Setting up and Using Custom Spreadsheets (New!) •Student Groups, Demographic Groups, and Teacher Class Groups (New!)
Cost: $100 members, $150 non-members
Alpine Achievement User Conference: Introduction & Refresher Course, Advanced & Technical Topics and Practicum in Data Use
Date: Tuesday, August 10
Time: 8:30 AM – 3:30 PM
Location: Pagosa Springs High School (800 South 8th Street, Pagosa Springs, CO 81147-1498; (970) 264-2231)
Description: Deadline is Friday, August 6. •Using Alpine for New and New-ish Users •Alpine Behind the Scenes for New and New-ish Users •Practicum in Data Use
•Understanding your Alpine Summary Reports and the new Alpine Research Studies (New!) •Setting up your own Tests and Plans (advanced Technical Topic) •Student Plans •Data Warehouse •How to do the things on the "high priority" list •Setting up and Using Custom Spreadsheets (New!) •Student Groups, Demographic Groups, and Teacher Class Groups (New!)
Cost: $100 members, $150 non-members
Using Alpine Achievement to Summarize School Level Growth Trends, Evaluate Gaps, and Set Goals Designed for Principals, Teachers & Lit. Specialists (Introduction & Refresher Course)
Date: Thursday, August 12
Time: 8:30 AM - 3:30 PM
Location: TBD
Description: Deadline is August 9. •Using Alpine for New and New-ish Users •Alpine Behind the Scenes for New and New-ish Users •Student Groups, Demographic Groups, and Teacher Class Groups •Student Plans •Data Warehouse Assessments (ie. NWEA, Sat 10, Scantron, DIBELS, etc).
Cost: $100 member, $150 non-member
It’s All About Growth!
Date: Monday, August 16
Time: 8:30 AM - 3:30 PM
Location: TBD
Description: Deadline is August 12. Utilizing Colorado’s Growth Model for increasing student performance and looking at growth to set goals & targets for your students: Training Designed for Principals, Data Teams, Teacher Leaders. • Brief overview of the Colorado Growth Model, a growth percentile and accessing your data within CDE’s interface.
• Using Alpine to drill down further into each student’s growth trends and track student level progress. •Understanding Alpine’s Summary Growth Reports (COGM, NWEA, etc) to inform practices within your building •Using student groups, demographic groups, and teacher class groups to help make growth more meaningful for staff.
This will be a hands-on session, working with CDE’s student level interface. If you have questions on how to access your own student-level data please contact Jody Ernst at 303-989-5356 x 102 or Jennifer Turnbull at 303-989-5356 x 111.
Cost: $100 member, $150 non-member
Making Data Simple! Practicum in Data Use: Using alpine to connect all your data and simplify for staff-Designed for Principals
Date: Tuesday, August 17
Time; 8:30 AM - 3:30 PM
Location: TBD
Description: Deadline is August 12. •Summarizing school level growth trends, evaluating gaps, and setting goals •Understanding alpine summary reports (ie. CSAP, NWEA, COGM, DIBELS, etc) and disseminating to staff, parents, board & Authorizers •Pulling all the data together for school improvement, instruction and program planning and differentiation •Introduction to data teams and tools for managing all the data and making data actionable today.
Cost: $100 members, $150 non-members
Creating, and managing assessments & plans within Alpine’s Data Warehouse & Plan Builder and using custom spreadsheets as a tool for monitoring student learning (Advanced Course)
Date: Tuesday, August 24
Training: 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Location: TBD
Description: Deadline is August 13. •Overview of preformatted plans (RTI, Gifted and Special Education Plans) & assessments (NWEA, Sat 10, Scantron, DIBELS) •Setting up your own tests and plans in the Data Warehouse and Plan Builder •Setting up and using Custom Spreadsheets •Student Groups, Demographic Groups, and Teacher Class Groups.
Cost: $75 members, $100 non-member schools
Student Information Systems
Infinite Campus
If your school is using the student information system, Infinite Campus there are a number of summer professional development opportunities to take advantage of, at a discounted rate. Courses are offered for both the veteran user and beginning user and many courses are webinars, while others are on-site in Greeley, Colorado.
Sign up today for sessions on:
• Standards Based Report Cards
• Attendance
• Grading Refresher
• Transcripts
• Scheduling Prep
• Ad Hoc Reporting
• Assessment Setup
• & even a Three Day Infinite Campus Boot Camp! July 27-July 29. Click here to view agenda
Visit the CIC Learning Lab Catalog for a full listing of courses and to register.
If you have any questions or are interested in scheduling group trainings for cost savings, please contact Tisha Bouwmeester at 303-989-5356 x 106.
PowerSchool
We are in the midst of planning the first ever Colorado PowerSchool Conference! This one-day conference will be in late October or early November and will feature multiple breakout sessions in a variety of topics designed for all levels of users. If you are interested in helping plan the event, hosting, or presenting please contact Tisha Bouwmeester at 303-989-5356 x 106.
Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA)’s MAP Assessment
For a second year in a row, we will be offering several professional development opportunities at a significantly reduced price for schools that are using NWEA’s MAP assessment.
Growth and Goals
Date: Thursday, August 12
Time: 8:30 AM - 4:00 PM
Location: Littleton Preparatory Charter School
Description: Taking an in depth look at school, class and individual student performance by understanding growth norms, evaluate growth data reports and use growth targets proficiency benchmarks to appropriately set school, class and student goals, and learn how to conference with students about their growth.
Cost: $150
Stepping Stones to Using Data
Date: September 2010
Time: 8:30 AM - 4:00 PM
Location: TBD
Description: This training is aimed for school leaders, teachers, and data teams. We dive into what the data in reports tells us and what questions we can and can NOT infer from them and how to engage parents and larger accountability pieces (i.e. boards and SAC’s) in these conversations. We introduce and familiarize folks to Descartes and how to use this powerful tool, and other instructional materials. In addition, we learn how to make MAP more than just an assessment and moving to the next level of really using the data at the classroom level to make daily instructional changes to improve student performance. We provide time for goal setting, school performance and improvement planning with your teams as well as time in the computer lab to navigate the NWEA website.
Cost: $150
Climbing the Data ladder (designed for teachers)
Date: October 2010
Time: 8:30 AM - 4:00 PM
Location: TBD
Description: Participants learn to use test results to support classroom instruction and differentiation (aligning nicely to Response to Intervention). We learn how to use MAP data to assess students’ readiness, learning styles and interests. We discuss Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development Theory and monitoring student progress. We will learn basic concepts of differentiated instruction, (differentiation by content, process, and product) strategies for differentiation, and managing the differentiated classroom, data-informed lesson planning, and other strategies to support the instructional needs of all students.
Cost: $150
Stepping Stones to Using Data
Date: October 2010
Time: 8:30 AM - 4:00 PM
Location: TBD
Description: This training is aimed for school leaders, teachers, and data teams. We dive into what the data in reports tells us and what questions we can and can NOT infer from them and how to engage parents and larger accountability pieces (i.e. boards and SAC’s) in these conversations. We introduce and familiarize folks to Descartes and how to use this powerful tool, and other instructional materials. In addition, we learn how to make MAP more than just an assessment and moving to the next level of really using the data at the classroom level to make daily instructional changes to improve student performance. We provide time for goal setting, school performance and improvement planning with your teams as well as time in the computer lab to navigate the NWEA website.
Cost: $150
To Register contact Tisha Bouwmeester at 303-989-5356 x 106 or tbouwmeester@coloradoleague.org
We are also searching for available schools willing to host group training sessions. If you are interested in hosting or in setting up additional trainings for your staff, please contact Tisha Bouwmeester.
NWEA’s Virtual Comparison Group Analysis
Are you assessing your students using NWEA's Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) in the fall and spring? If so, you qualify to purchase NWEA’s virtual comparison group (VCG) report. The VCG analysis determines how your school's longitudinal growth compares nationally, based on students in the same grades and with similar starting RIT points. VCG reports provide excellent evidence for understanding your school’s performance on a national level.
The League contracts with NWEA to conduct a Virtual Comparison Group (VCG) analysis for schools and can write an accompanying document to help schools interpret their results. This analysis will be run over the summer, and our goal is to get both reports back to you in time for instructional planning efforts in August.
The cost for the VCG report is $0.90 per student, plus a $25 surcharge (when purchased through the League). Customization of the VCG reports, such as separate reports by grade level (elementary, middle, and high school grades) gender or ethnicity, are available through NWEA for an additional charge.
If you would like the League to summarize your school’s results in a concise report suitable for parents, board members or authorizer (excellent for inclusion in your annual report), the cost is $100.
If you are interested in purchasing a VCG report for your school or learning more about VCG, please contact Tisha Bouwmeester (tbouwmeester@coloradoleague.org or 303-989-5356 106) by August 3rd.
Update on School Performance Framework
The Colorado Department of Education will release in August a School Performance Framework (SPF) for every public school in the state. The SPF will be displayed on the schoolview.org website. The League is holding a couple of free webinars for member charter schools to bring awareness to the SPF and point schools to resources/tools to better understand the framework and opportunities for additional support. Come with your questions and join us for this one hour overview of the SPF.
The webinars took place June 22 and 23.
For more information on the School Performance Framework, click here.
Click here for the power point of the webinars.
Colorado Charter School Board Retreat, October 22-23, 2010 REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!!
Breckenridge, Colorado
Join us for a two-day event designed exclusively for charter school governing board members. The event includes a day of multiple breakout sessions on charter school issues. The second day includes dedicated time for individual school boards to work with a facilitator on specific issues identified prior to the retreat. There is also time for networking with other governing board members and team building with your own board. Click here to register.