The EdGate Observer 

Connecting Publishers With What Works!

November 2016 correlation.edgate.com   
Greetings everyone,       

In this month's newsletter, we focus on the most recent education news pertaining to College Readiness (Hot Topic); CTE and the Makers Movement (Client Solution); Homeschooling on the Rise (Teaching Trends); DIY Alignment Tool (EdGate Services); and following up with new additions to the EdGate Standards Repository (Standards Update).
 
As always, EdGate is your source for staying current with new developments in education and the impact of educational standards.
 
Regards,
 
Gina Faulk
EdGate General Manager  
 
Hot Topic 
College Readiness is not a High School Graduation Requirement

States have come to realize that high school graduates are not necessarily college ready and are taking steps to change that.  Although the Common Core initiative set out to make students better prepared for college, many college faculty note that they were not consulted about what skills are needed to make students college ready.  Taking the remedial courses in college sets students back both financially and time wise by adding to the expense of college and it taking longer for the student to complete his/her college graduation requirements.  Unfortunately , high schools are judged on how many students graduate and not on how many students are college ready.  However, Colorado, Tennessee, and other states are now providing remedial courses for high school students. Without the states intervening on the student's behalf, students are handed a high school diploma only to find out they have more work ahead of them in order to be college ready.
 
Does your company have remediation content for students?  If so, EdGate can help with your alignment needs.  Additionally , EdGate has built a repository of more than 500,000 grade specific open educational resources which could be used to complement your remediation content.  Resources in EdGate's repository are aligned to each of the 50 U.S. sets of state specific standards in addition to Common Core, NGSS, NCSS and other national and international sets of standards.  For more information, please contact our Sales and Marketing Team.
 

Project Manager

Client Solution 
CTE and the Makers Movement
 
The impact of the makers movement in Career and Technical Education (CTE) is unmistakable. Both education methods share a similar goal to prepare students for the global workforce through experience. The makers movement enhances the CTE experience by allowing students to dream, build, create and make in the context of real word industry. For many students, the physicality of making something provides the space to understand how they can impact the world around them. This process helps students form identity, reveal genuine interest, and visualize what they could do and become. 
 
CTE is the new frontier in education and the makers movement is a natural fit. As schools and publishers make progress in this field, standards alignment becomes increasingly important. At EdGate, we assist in making the connection between innovative pedagogy and educational guidelines, by aligning new career-based courseware to CTE standards. We assist in opening the pathway for meaningful curriculum to reach students in the classroom.

For more information about EdGate's alignment service and work surrounding CTE standards: http://correlation.edgate.com/cte 
 
By: Denise Maria 
Account Executive
 
Teaching Trends 
Homeschooling on the Rise
      
The number of U.S. children being homeschooled has more than doubled between 1999 and 2012. These children now make up 3.4 percent of the country's student population between ages 5 and 17.  According tothe National Center for Education Statistics, the increase was fastest from 1999 to 2007 and slowed between 2007 and 2012.

Data shows that in 2012, most children being home schooled were white and living above the poverty line. About 40% of parents who homeschool have graduated from college while 10% of parents have not completed high school. Homeschooled students are fairly equally distributed between rural, suburban, and urban areas.

It is difficult to determine why parents choose to home school their children and if those reason are changing. In 2007, providing "religious or moral instruction" was the top-ranked reason for homeschooling among survey participants. By 2012, the number of parents citing these reasons fell from 36% to roughly 22%. Parents concerned about environmental factors at schools including safety, drugs, and peer pressure rose from 21% in 2007 to 25% in 2012.

Whatever the reason, the rate of homeschooled children is rising . It is now more important than ever to provide access to quality education services and tools for teachers, parents, and students.

For more information about education resources, visit: https://correlation.edgate.com/ 
 
For more information about the homeschooling trend, visit http://www.nheri.org/research/research-facts-on-homeschooling.html

By: Alex Alo
Project Manager

In This Issue
Top Stories 
California State Board Approves Science Framework, Based on NGSS

California's State Board of Education approved a new set of standards after leaders pushed for rewriting the science curriculum that had not been changed since the late 1990s.

Studies Suggest Teachers Underestimate Girls' Math Abilities

According to researchers, many female students as early as kindergarten find barriers to opportunities in math, largely in part due to teacher's perceptions of their abilities. 

Sparking Learning Everywhere Kids Go

Playfully named "Supermarket Project" creates opportunities for children under the age of 8 to learn in Philadelphia-area supermarkets. 

Did You Know?

Six years after academic standards were adopted in the majority of states, all but a handful of states are seeing better outcomes. See the stats here.

EdGate Services 
DIY Alignment Tool  

If you are a publisher looking for a faster and more efficient way to align content but you do not want to outsource, we have the perfect solution!

"ExACT", the EdGate DIY alignment tool was developed to empower publishers with the ability to correlate their unique content to standards. What makes it exciting is that users who are aligning content state-by-state now have a way to correlate to all standards in one fell swoop!

How does it work? It's simple.

The framework upon which ExACT was developed is EdGate's Concept Index. The Concept Index is a taxonomical list of educational concepts (terms) that was designed and built on K12 standards. The list of terms which has been aligned to all standards in our repository is what ties everything together and allows for a global alignment to all standards.

The user simply chooses the concept(s) they want to 'tag' the item to and hits 'submit'. It is at that point when the item is correlated to any/all standards containing the same concept(s). The correlation remains in 'Pending' status until the designated Administrator, a publisher staff member, reviews and authorizes the alignment.

What are the benefits?
  • The publisher can manage the correlations in-house;
  • The publisher saves time and money from correlating state-by-state;
  • The publisher saves time and money from re-correlating each time a state makes changes to the standards. The alignments are maintained by EdGate so when standards are updated they are automatically and seamlessly reflected in the correlation performed by the publisher; 
  • The correlations can be fully integrated into your system;
If you have considered aligning your content to all states but struggling with the time, resources and budget to do so, please contact one of our Account Executives at (866) 405-3357 or contact us and they will be happy to share more about our services and how we can save you money!
 
You may also learn more by visiting our site at EdGate Correlation Services.
 
We're here to help with any of your educational needs!

Tracy_Olstad
Denise Maria
Account Executive  
Gina Faulk 
General Manager 
Tracy Olstad,  
Senior Account Executive  
Standards Update 

Updates to The EdGate Standards Repository include:
  • Arkansas - Media/Technology (Computer Science 2016)
  • Arkansas - Language Arts (2016)
  • British Columbia - Science (Draft 2016 Grades 10-12)
  • Indiana - Media/Technology (Computer Science 2016 Grades K-8)
  • Massachusetts - Media/Technology (Computer Science 2016)
  • Montana - Health and PE (2016)
  • Montana - Science (2016)
  • New South Wales - Mathematics (2014 Grades K-10)
  • Ohio Assessment Standards - Language Arts (2015)
  • Ohio Assessment Standards - Mathematics (2015)
  • Ohio Assessment Standards - Science (2015)
  • Ohio Assessment Standards - Social Studies (2015)
  • Ontario - Social Studies (2015 Grades 11-12)
  • Utah - Health and PE (Physical Education 2016)
  • Utah - World Languages (2014)
  • Vermont - Health and PE (2015)
  • Washington Financial Education Learning Standards - Mathematics/Social Studies (2016)

Kristie
Kristie McCarley

Standards and Operations Manager
About Us 

EdGate Correlation Services works with over 200 content providers to increase the value of their products in a rapidly expanding digital world. EdGate uses its patented technology and highly skilled staff to assure client success. Employing its nearly two decades of innovation experience, EdGate has proven learning platforms, robust metadata tools and comprehensive correlation services to serve every clients unique needs.

EdGate currently focuses on correlation consulting, content and metadata development and management, media segmentation and licensing of international educational standards.
EdGate Correlation Services LLC is a division of EDmin, Inc., a learning management and instructional technology solutions company based in San Diego, California.

EdGate Correlation Services 3413 56th St. NW Gig Harbor, WA 98335
http://correlation.edgate.com