Amazing things are happening in the Socorro Independent School District this year! Administrators and teachers are integrating CSCOPE into their classrooms for the first time this academic school year. Although every campus has been given latitude on what beyond the curriculum documents is to be negotiable or non-negotiable, the district as a whole has committed to consistent implementation of a guaranteed and viable cur-riculum through the use of CSCOPE. Although already a historically highly successful district with a strong dedication to the state standards, they took a proactive approach in preparing for the new assessment design and imminent budget cuts by joining the other 750+ school districts in Texas who are driven by vertical alignment, college and career readiness, rigor and conceptual constructivist teaching.

Socorro ISD is a year-round 5A school district with an earlier start date than traditional schools. SISD made every effort to get all administrators and teachers trained before beginning the 2010-2011 school year. That is not to say there were not challenges to face and hurdles to jump over, but Socorro ISD certainly came together to make the transition as seamless as possible. Administrators found several ways to make implementation easier on teachers. In year 1, SISD afforded the following support to their staff: Summer TOT Trainings provided by ESC-Region 19 and SISD, District Support Team Trainings, personalized campus support trainings and additional planning days were built into the calendar and devoted to CSCOPE implementation. SISD also held monthly principal meetings that allow for campuses to share how they are using CSCOPE and address chal-lenges/concerns, as well as monthly detailed CSCOPE Newsletters. Also in place are TOT sessions for their Campus Instructional Leadership Teams. These TOT sessions were di-rectly correlated with CSCOPE resources with emphasis on the specificity of the TEKS and covered: Curriculum mapping, 6 + 1 Traits Writing and a Writing Plan, 5 E's and ELARs, Developing a Plan for Success: Math and Science Focus, and Developing a Plan for Success: ELAR and Social Studies Focus.

In addition to in-house support, Socorro ISD took advantage of the resources and assistance made available by the ESC- Region 19. After a training provided to Clark Middle School English Language Arts teachers, Kristine Sarabia, ELAR/ESL teacher said, “This training was an eye opener at how using the CSCOPE program can make our job as a teacher easier and also make sure that we are covering all of the content that is needed in 7th grade. Since the training on Monday I have put together power points using the les-sons that are in CSCOPE. My students are doing very well with the activities and I only have to modify the time a little with the ESL classes that I have. Now that I am more knowledgeable on how CSCOPE is designed I feel more prepared for my classes and do not have to worry about how I am going to combine multiple TEKS into my lessons since it is already done for you in CSCOPE”.

According to Louisa Aguirre-Baeza, Socorro's CSCOPE Director, “The biggest challenge of course is new standards. Personally I feel STAAR and CSCOPE are in direct correlation with each other in terms of rigor and depth of understanding of each of the student expectations. The greatest benefit from CSCOPE has been that our administrators and teachers now have a document that clearly articulates the specificity and the rigor of the standards as provided by TEA. Dr. De La Torre initiated an Instructional Rounds initiative with the campus and district leadership in order for us to develop the skills of observing and analyzing teaching.

Local campus coaches have also dedicated themselves to becoming proficient with CSCOPE and have made themselves available to assist their campus in its effective implementation. Although processes and support structures vary from campus to campus, some of what you can find in Socorro ISD includes meeting with PLC's multiple times per week, centrally located and easily accessible resources, posted goals and objectives that have been agreed upon, a concerted effort to involve all stakeholders in the process, and binders of information that hold sign-in sheets, meeting minutes, documented follow-up assignments and timely CSCOPE documents to ensure organization.