VIRGINIA SCHOOL UNIVERSITY PARTNERSHIP PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CONSORTIUM
Steering Committee Meeting Minutes
May 6, 2010 9:00 A.M. Albemarle Resource Center

Members present: Dori Walk, Jo Ann Wagner, Renee Honaker, Mac Duis, Virginia Bowerman, LuAnne Unruh, Andy Stamp, Greg Drescher, Janice Marston, Darrell Chesney, Andrea Whitmarsh,

Call to Order:
Janice Marston, Director of the VSUP Professional Development Consortium, called the meeting to order and welcomed members and guests. There were no additions or changes to the agenda.

Reports on previous and upcoming VSUP Workshops and Conferences were given by
Janice provided the following information:
o Evaluations for the Teachers as Leaders Workshops with Laurie McCullough- February 26 and March 23, 2010.
o The Summer Leadership Conference is scheduled for June 25, 2010 at William Monroe High School in Stanardsville. Carol Ann Tomlinson and Dan Mulligan will lead sessions on implementing 21st century skills. Current registration is 110. School divisions were encouraged to continue to submit registrations. The goal is 150.
Andy Stamp reported on the Student Leadership Conference- March 11, 2010- with 238 students and high school sponsors attended this year's conference held on the UVA campus. John Hunter was keynote speaker for this year's conference

Annual Report of Accomplishments:
o Janice presented the 2009-10 Annual Report to the Board showing 1601 participants in professional development workshops, conferences, and training sessions as compared to 718 during the previous year.

Test Item Bank Update:
A written report of test bank work for the year was provided including the following:
o Addition of anticipated total of 580 items in the test bank when all items are completed and posted
o Total anticipated test item for all subject areas at the end of 2009-10 is anticipated to be 1322.
o Survey from the Test Bank Workgroup participants continued to indicate the two most significance benefits of the test bank workgroup process to be: knowledge and understanding of constructing quality test questions in the appropriate SOL format and according to Bloom's levels, and the collaborative experience of working with teachers from other school divisions
o Survey from school divisions on use of the Test Item Bank during 2009-10 with comparative information from the previous year was presented. Since 18 school divisions provided feedback the previous year and 12 responded this year, an effort will be made to collect surveys from divisions not responding.

Planning for 2010-11 Test Item Bank Work:
The Steering Committee discussed plans for 2010-11Test Bank workgroups.
o Dates for the 2010-11 sessions will be set and a meeting of the Test Bank Steering Committee will be held following the appointment of the Test Bank Coordinator.
o Based on information from the surveys, the following recommendations were made: provide an ExamView training session for representatives from school divisions who are new or may wish to participate; provide training for new test bank members; provide feedback to test bank members on the quality of their test questions; determine next subject areas for questions, with consideration given to grade 4 reading. Also, the committee supported the revision of current math questions in the bank by paying stipends to a committee of math specialists from the consortium to review and align questions accordingly.

Preliminary Professional Development Plan for 2010-11:
Janice Marston presented the Professional Development Plan based on the needs assessment provided by the Steering Committee at the February Meeting. The committee agreed by consensus to focus on the areas listed in the plan.
A preliminary Draft Calendar of Events for 2010-11 was provided and adopted by Steering Committee consensus with recommendation to have Thinking Maps representative provide overview at a fall board meeting prior to determining need for conference. The VSUP Conference director will complete the scheduling of other workshops and conferences.
The Steering Committee indicated am interest in professional development at meetings. As noted on the Calendar of Events, the October 7 Steering Committee meeting will include a focus on implementation of the revised math standards with guest presenters Vickie Inge (UVA SCPS) and Micheal Bolling (VDOE). Also, consortium members agreed that book studies would be helpful and will begin discussions at the fall meetings with the ASCD book Transforming Professional Development into Student Results by Douglas Reeves.

Discussion: Reorganization of Professional Development Consortium:
Andy Stamp presented a plan (subject to approval by the Board of Directors) and explained reasons and duties as a part of the reorganization of the consortium for 2010-11. Steering Committee members supported the reorganization plan.

Evaluation of VSUP Professional Development Consortium Director was completed at the meeting.

Announcements and other information from consortium members
The use of Interactive Achievement and other testing/data warehousing systems were discussed.

Meeting dates 2010-11 (Location: Albemarle Resource Center)
October 7, 2010
December 9, 2010
February 3, 2011
May 5, 2011

Following adjournment of the meeting, Steve Agee, an educational consultant with eInstruction provided a presentation for interested members.