Professional Development
Opportunities
The Early Assessment Program (EAP) is a major collaborative effort by three CA agencies, the California State University (CSU), the CA Department of Education (CDE), and the CA State Board of Education. Under EAP’s umbrella are several components, including a professional development effort, the Reading Institutes for Academic Preparation (RIAP) and an EAP professional development program for high school English teachers related to the 12th Grade Expository Reading and Writing Course (ERWC).
Expository Reading
and Writing Course (ERWC)A task force of high school and CSU faculty has developed the Expository Reading and Writing Course (ERWC), a full-year college preparatory English course for high school seniors. The ERWC is aligned with the California English-Language Arts Content Standards and addresses critical reading and writing problems identified by the CSU English Placement Test Committee.
Course assignments, organized into 14 modules and based primarily on non-fiction texts, emphasize the in-depth study of expository, analytical, and argumentative reading and writing. The University of California has approved the ERWC for area "b" credit (from the "a-g" requirements), and the Course meets college preparatory requirements for both the UC and CSU.
To promote wide-scale adoption of the ERWC, the CSU and County Offices of Education are collaborating to provide professional development for English teachers at a variety of locations across the state. The four-day series includes all of the course materials, provides teachers with a theoretical understanding of the ERWC, outlines the benefits of the course for students and school personnel, and offers pragmatic strategies for using the course materials to teach each module. Although districts are responsible for the cost of substitutes, the workshops are free of charge for eligible teachers. Teachers of 11th- and 12th-grade English, as well as AVID teachers, are encouraged to attend.
Reading Institute
for Academic Preparation (RIAP)RIAP is a comprehensive program designed to create a school-wide, standards-based literacy plan across the curriculum. RIAP has operated since 2002-03 and has trained hundreds of high school teachers in all disciplines. Also now included is a professional development program for high school mathematics teachers focused on fostering mathematics proficiency.
The goals of the program are To help students 1) achieve a level on the joint California Standards Test and the CSU Early Assessment Program that would exempt them from the English Placement Test (EPT) or 2) demonstrate proficiency on the CSU English Placement Test (EPT) by scoring 150 with no need for remediation.
Teachers who have used the 12th grade course materials described many benefits of the course modules and strategies as well as their impact on student readiness for college. Major changes teachers reported included increased reading, use of nonfiction text, expository reading and writing, and increased use of assessments.
