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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.
To access the secure MEMBERS ONLY area click
here.

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.
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