Professional Development and Curriculum Consortium
The Montana Small Schools Professional Development and Curriculum Consortium is one of the major programs of the Alliance. Starting in 1999, the Alliance has provided more than three hundred day-long workshops to multi-grade school districts and small K-12 districts helping them create curriculum, instruction, and assessments, to meet state standards. Each year the consortium has grown to serve more school districts. In 2002, for the Consortium work, the executive director of the Alliance received a professional Development Leadership award  and for "commitment to the continuous improvement of professional development in Montana," from the Title II Program at the Montana Office of Public Instruction.

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Montana counties with school in the Consortium in teal.

 

Alternative Standards
In response to a change in policy by the Montana Board of Public Education regarding the accreditation standards for guidance and libraries, MSSA offers a program that if a school district follows will meet the alternative standards in these two areas.  Even though school districts do not apply to the state every year for an alternative all school districts must contract every year with a school licensed guidance counselor and a school licensed librarian in order to meet the Montana Accreditation Standards.  MSSA’s Alternative Standards Program allows school districts a way to contract for these services for a small fee.  MSSA has four professionals who provide an understanding of instructional strategies to meet the standards in these two areas, formative and summative assessments and individual school consultations.  

MSSA-MAP  A Quality Student Assessment Program
We know how difficult and expensive it is for small school districts to create a student growth model assessment system.  Therefore, we have teamed up with the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) of Portland, Oregon to offer school districts, with a student body of less than 200 students, special rates to use NWEA’s well-known Measures of Academic Progress (MAP).  Assessments may be given up to four times in a school year (fall, winter, spring and summer).  These assessments are individualized to the student and reflect Montana’s standards and can predict CRT scores.  They are available in language, reading and mathematics for grades 2-12.  There is also a Kindergarten, grade 1 and English Language Learner assessment in the three areas provided orally through a computer.  In addition, there is a new science assessment for grades 3–12.  Teachers will receive results back the next day.  Join now to help all your students meet the state achievement levels.   

Writing Instruction Now (WIN)
MSSA has worked for over ten years to help small schools teach writing.  Three years ago with a Title II Higher Education Grant, MSSA partnered with the University of Montana English Department and the University of Montana-Western Education Department to create this innovative program to improve students writing skills at the middle school level.  The program invites a select number of teachers to join each year.  The teachers receive graduate credit and all their expenses paid to become a learning community focused on improving their students’ writing skills. 

In the fall semester educators learn a variety of pre-writing strategies as well as concentrating on all aspects of the writing process.  Each teacher’s school receives enough Inspiration software for one computer lab.  They also share their insights on the latest professional books in teaching composition.

In the spring semester, teachers learn first hand the writing expectations for their students when they complete high school by participating in the scoring of the Montana University System Writing Assessment.  They also learn about the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) writing assessment and its latest plans.  Finally, they have an opportunity to have their students take a timed writing assessment and blind score each other’s students.  In this way the WIN program can see if in fact what the teachers have been learning is indeed translating into improving their students’ writing skills. 

National Rural Education Association (NREA)
MSSA is the unified state affiliate of the National Rural Education Association. Montana students have taken top honors in the NREA Student Essay Contests. Montana Teachers have received NREA mini-grants. One of our state Rural Teacher of the Year has been the National Rural Teacher of the Yearadn two other have been finalists. MSSA's director received the NREA Distinguished Service Award. For more information on these programs, contact NREA or us. http://www.nrea.net/

Montana Unified School Trust
After 10 years of research, MSSA, working with MUST, assisted in designing affordable health insurance for our smallest schools. Check out this program at the MUST website. www.mustbenefits.org

Graduate Classes
MSSA offers graduate classes with our Alliance partner, the College of Education, Health and Human Development, Montana State University-Bozeman.