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Academy Overview
Year One
The First Year of the ACADEMY program focuses on selection. Selecting materials involves more than looking at the topics covered, reading level, and graphics in a textbook. Selection includes analyzing instructional materials based on how they align with standards. For example, how do the instructional materials support the learning and teaching of science as inquiry? In addition to determining standards alignment, this stage includes establishing criteria for selection, completing an evidence-based screening process that leads to piloting, making a decision based on the pilot results, and finally, purchasing new instructional materials.
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Year Two
The Second Year of the ACADEMY program focuses on the various aspects of adoption. In the adoption stage, leadership teams focus on designing professional development opportunities to support teachers' use of new instructional materials. Adoption means more than purchasing or learning how to manage new materials. Adoption includes building a professional development infrastructure for ongoing support and feedback. This infrastructure should integrate the knowledge and beliefs of teachers with research on how students learn science and with the resources provided in the materials themselves. |
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Year Three
The Third Year of the ACADEMY program focuses on analyzing sustainability. The goal of this stage is to analyze curriculum implementation's impact on students, teachers, and the school community. Leadership Teams will learn strategies to ensure the impact of successful implementation by concentrating on how students are learning science concepts using standards-based approaches to learning and teaching. One way of informing instruction and assessing the instructional materials' impact on student learning is to engage teachers in collaboratively examining student work. |
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Coaches
Each Leadership Team in the ACADEMY program is supported and challenged by a coach who is selected by the team. Coaches are critical to the success of the Leadership Team in a school or district. They help team members communicate within the group and become more reflective about adult learning and the change process. During the annual Coaches Institute held each spring at BSCS in Colorado Springs, coaches gain skills and information to guide their Leadership Teams. |
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Leadership Teams
Leadership Teams in the ACADEMY must consist of teachers and key supporters who are represented in a 2:1 ratio. The leadership development within a dedicated team is crucial in building the capacity for sustainable curriculum reform and the development of a professional learning community.
- A key administrator - science supervisor, district curriculum coordinator, or science department chairperson.
- Two or more high school science teachers - involved in the implementation of new instructional materials.
- A coach - selected to facilitate and guide the team as it works together to become more reflective about adult learning and the change process.
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