The Authentic Performance Tasks: The Engaging Classroom Assessments Series Certification Training is tailor-made for schools and districts that wish to increase their capacity to offer on-site, sustainable staff development.  By training your own cadre of staff developers via The Center’s certification program, your school or district can save money while working toward raising student achievement.

The purpose of this certification training is to build the knowledge and skills of educators who will provide continuous, on-site professional development as an essential part of a long-term, sustainable plan for your school or organization.  Participants will gain a deeper understanding of the seminar content in addition to learning how to support and guide professional development in designing and using teacher-created assessments.  Successful completion of the Authentic Performance Tasks: The Engaging Classroom Assessments Series Certification Training will prepare participants to present the following seminars in their districts:

• Unwrapping the Standards, a one-day seminar that includes identifying and "unwrapping" Power Standards, and identifying the Big Ideas and Essential Questions that inform lesson planning and effective performance assessment
• Designing and Developing Performance Assessments, a two-day seminar that gives participants a greater understanding of why performance tasks and scoring guides for assessing student proficiency are so powerful.  Participants develop components of the assessment model, and design first drafts of performance tasks and scoring guides.

Participants will learn how to:

• Present the content of the Unwrapping the Standards and Designing and Developing Performance Assessments seminars
• Sustain professional development by providing on-site expertise during implementation at the school and district levels
• Develop facilitation and presentation skills

Who is invited to attend?

This opportunity is available to participants by invitation only. The  training is designed for professional development coordinators, district and school administrators, and teachers who are responsible for leading school and district staff development programs.

Prerequisite

Participants must have participated in the full three-day Making Standards Work series seminar prior to attending this training.  Participants must have used the performance assessment created in the seminar with their students.  Making Standards Work is offered by The Leadership and Learning Center, and is offered on-site in school districts.

What is required to become certified?

Participation in the entire four-day training is required to receive certification

• Demonstration of proficiency at content knowledge and skills
• Signed licensing agreement that identifies district/school names in which you will be presenting the professional development seminar, and requires purchase of the Authentic Performance Tasks training manual for every participant in seminars presented by The Center-certified trainer
• The certification license for using the materials and presenting the seminars is granted for three years only to the certified individual and only for use in the individual's school district.

Important Note

Attendance and full participation for four full days (8:00-3:30) are required for certification.  Certification will not be granted to anyone who misses any portion of the instruction.  That includes leaving early for flights, so please make your travel arrangements carefully; we recommend that participants book return flights that leave after 5:30 p.m. if flying out of Denver on the last day of instruction.  Each participant will be required to present to colleagues multiple times and engage in collegial dialogue each day during the instruction.