Survey | Share Your Thoughts on PLAN Pilot School Application Process

This survey is now closed.

NYSED is soliciting feedback on the design of the PLAN Pilot school application process via the survey linked below.  We invite you to complete the survey to share your thoughts on:

1. Key features of a supportive application process;
2. Considerations that should be taken into account when selecting Pilot Schools;
3. Main topics/sections that should be covered in the application;
4. Types of questions the application should ask; and
5. Top questions you have about the application process.

Click here to share your thoughts!  This survey will close at midnight on Friday, May 19, 2023.

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Background

In the 2022 Competitive Grants for State Assessment (CGSA) grant proposal funding the PLAN Pilot, NYSED committed to supporting interested schools through the PLAN Pilot application process, stating:

Our goal is to remove any barriers to entry for schools with fewer local resources.  Moreover, the application will be designed to ensure that core services intended in the design of this pilot—including accessibility, transparency, equity and inclusion, student voice, parent/community engagement, deepening student learning, and improving school culture—are carried through in local implementation (p. 38).

When selecting pilot schools, NYSED will need to consider: 

1. Requirements for participating schools, as described in NYSED’s 2022 CGSA grant proposal. See excerpts of these requirements at this link: Excerpts from NYSED's Funded CGSA Proposal.

2. Research considerations. The PLAN Pilot will look at how performance-based learning and assessment (PBLA) can be implemented in a diverse range of schools—urban and rural, large and small, with different student demographics—and how to support schools in making that transition.  In pursuit of these aims, NYSED will need to purposefully select a sample of schools with:

• diverse features (e.g., student population, N/RC, geographic location, size, etc.); 
• diverse interests in PBLA (e.g., work-based learning, internships, CTE, learner profiles, PBATs, etc.); and 
• diverse stages of readiness for PBLA implementation (i.e., from schools starting with only the essential pre-implementation conditions to schools already implementing some PBLA practices). 

3. Features of successful PBLA implementation, according to current research and practice.  For this consideration, PLAN Pilot Advisors have been reviewing these resources: 

• Fairfax Network - Fairfax County Public Schools. "Best practices: FCPS learning model" [Video]. (2016).
• Willis, Larkin, Aneesha Badrinarayan, and Monica Martinez. Quality criteria for systems of performance assessment for school, district, and network leaders. Learning Policy Institute, (2022).

4. Essential pre-implementation conditions, according to current research and practice.  For this consideration, PLAN Pilot Advisors have been reviewing these resources:

• “Lessons Learned and Recommendations” (p. 45-50) in the Learning Policy Institute’s 2020 report: Using Performance Assessments to Support Student Learning: How District Initiatives Can Make a Difference.
• Sample Application for Candidacy for the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme.
• School Success Study template from Big Picture Learning, including sample staff focus questions that are developed to inform the Success Study report.

Watch a 16-minute presentation by project staff entitled "NYSED PLAN Pilot School Application Process Background and Considerations" below.