Our Recent Work
Welcome to January 2022. This time of year is full of hope—the excitement of new beginnings, resolutions, and goals. In our personal lives, we attack these resolutions with a plan. Typically, we have researched multiple sources, triangulated our data (using qualitative data, quantitative data), and developed a solid plan based on the current reality. There is no judgment, no shame, just a strong desire to move forward, to achieve, to become even better than we are at this moment in time.
Compass-PD would love to help you do this work in your districts and schools. We support districts of all sizes with their professional development needs. We realize that sounds incredibly vague, so here are some examples of what we are doing in districts today.
1.) While problem-solving with a mid-size school district and auditing their curricula, it became evident that their high-stakes assessment scores from the state matched the curriculum, instruction, and assessment methods being used. The other issue the district was facing was having two curriculum leaders in the entire district doing all of the work. Based on extensive experience, we know it is impossible. Regardless of district size, many curricula still need writing, updating, and maintenance. Compass-PD worked alongside the district to offer multiple solutions. The district is in the process of implementing all three.
Compass-PD curriculum experts facilitate curriculum writing with teams. This solution is for the first year. Participants walk away from each meeting with a thorough understanding of their content and have noticed it immediately impacted their instructional practices.
Compass-PD created a Curriculum Academy for the district to send 30 participants over the summer. The five-day academy will build additional curriculum, instruction, and assessment experts in the district. Participants from the academy will spend the next year or summer facilitating curriculum development improving the current curriculum within the district.
Compass-PD created a needs assessment based on the district criteria. The needs assessment ranks the district’s curricula that need updating or a complete overhaul.
Compass-PD consultants are experts in curriculum writing. They have extensive experience writing curriculum for PreK through grade 12 in all content areas. The consultants have spent years studying and researching the best curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices. Our curriculum for the Curriculum Academy is influenced by the research from Grant Wiggens, Jay McTighe, Rick Stiggens, Robert Marzano, and over 40 years of curriculum experience in education. Compass-PD is booking Curriculum Academies in districts for the summer of 2022; limited opportunities are available!
Carrie collaborates with teachers, administrators, and other district leaders to write curriculum, provide professional development, adopt curricular resources, conduct data analysis and facilitate reflection within the Professional Learning Communities model. Through her interaction with all stakeholders, Carrie exhibits exemplary communication skills, knowledge/application of instructional best practices, and the ability to lead complex second-order change in a large organization. Dr. Hepburn has received glowing reviews regarding customer service, leadership, and follow-through. Carrie’s commitment and work ethic are above reproach; I have yet to find anybody who can match her productivity and attention to detail, she is a workhorse.” ~District Assistant Superintendent testimonial
2.) While developing a professional development plan in a rural school district, Compass-PD and district leaders noticed their scores in reading were declining. The district and Compass-PD put together a plan to impact reading PreK-grade 12. The district previously purchased a resource for reading prior to delivering best practice professional development around reading instruction. Overall this led to confusion and frustration among the teachers. Compass-PD kicked off the school year facilitating best practice professional development with the teachers and then taught teachers how to implement their resources within the best practices of reading instruction. We realized this wasn’t enough and wanted to increase content knowledge for in the moment responsive teaching. The district beefed up the plan to include unpacking reading standards and creating continuums. This work has led to creating higher-quality assessments in reading for elementary classrooms.
In secondary classrooms, the focus is on disciplinary literacy. We know that if students are below grade level readers in secondary classrooms, it is a shared responsibility to improve reading achievement. Our team taught secondary teachers how to support high-impact reading strategies supporting students as readers and writers in their specific content area. “Kids that don’t like to read are reading and wanting to talk about their books.” ~secondary teacher
Dr. Carrie Hepburn, Dr. Natalie Fallert, and Dr. Stephanie Brenner helped our administrators and instructional coaches develop high-quality professional development plans to better support the implementation of our literacy resources and to strengthen teaching practices for all staff. All of the consultants are willing and open to meeting with the administrators and our content coaches prior to professional development learning to hone in on the outcomes of learning to ensure there is clarity for all. They listen to our needs and do a phenomenal job of aligning the learning for staff. You can be sure that staff will walk away with many practical tools, ideas, and a new level of confidence! ~ Director of Teaching and Learning, Jama H.
3.) The professional development teachers and administrators currently enjoy the most are lab sites. Compass-PD helps buildings and districts create a schedule that utilizes the minimum number of substitute teachers while maximizing the number of teachers receiving professional learning. Compass-PD uses lab sites to teach alongside educators in their classrooms, with their resources, and their students. Our team models impactful methods of instruction and how to be responsive to students at the moment. We can help you get creative with your time and PD funds, so learning is impactful and relevant for all participants. Call us if you would like help in reading, writing, math, blended learning, or disciplinary literacy.
Dr. Carrie Hepburn has been an instrumental part of helping our elementary schools develop a plan and vision for implementing a balanced literacy program by unpacking standards, developing progressions of standards, and planning for assessment practices to measure student progress. She helped to create a vision so we could more easily use our FPC resources ~ Instructional Coach, Andy B.
In all of my work as an athlete and an educator, I’ve learned hard, important work is best done with a coach, a partner. Coaches, (instructional, athletic, life) have pushed me to reach bigger goals than I imagined. Coaches and partners helped me even when a situation was uncomfortable. As you consider the big goals you have for your students, consider partnering with Compass-PD. We can be the additional team of thought partners, aligning all of the work with evidence and research-based practices.
