News from EdGate Correlation Services

The EdGate Observer

INSIGHTS FOR EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING IN THE 21st CENTURY

January 2011

In This Issue

Client Solution

Burning Question

Hot Topic

Standards Update

Client Solution

Are Print Publishers
Ready for 2011?

How are print publishers competing in 2011? The answer for many is to provide their content in additional formats, namely eBooks. With the explosion of E-readers on the market this year, is it any wonder that eBooks for schools, students and publishers will be growing exponentially?

Several of our clients have already digitized all versions of their print books to provide them as available for purchase as eBooks. As competition grows within the E-reader market and prices drop to levels that make it an affordable alternative to print copies, converting your content into a marketable digital format will significantly expand your potential market. Wikipedia provides a good overview of all the choices when it comes to the formats available for moving to digital: Wikipedia Comparison of e-book formats

As always, we are here to assist you and can certainly provide correlations to any and all versions of titles you offer.

Jennifer Larson

Project Manager

About Us

Founded in 1997, EdGate Correlation Services (EdGate) is a leader in the field of aligning educational content to U.S. states, Canadian, and international standards.

Through the power of our technology and the professional experience of our subject-area specialists, EdGate provides more than 150 educational publishing clients with accurate and continually updated correlations, on-demand correlation reporting capabilities, and effective website integration options.

EdGate can also provide standards licensing, customized taxonomy solutions, correlation to assessment standards, and more.

Welcome to The EdGate Observer!

Greetings everyone,

In this month's newsletter, we focus on content for Character Education (Hot Topic), new Indiana Professional Teaching standards (Burning Question), ebooks and print publishing (Client Solutions), and following up with new additions to the EdGate Standards Repository and a Common Core update (Standards Update).

As always, EdGate is your source for staying abreast of any new developments in education and specifically the impact of educational standards. Many thanks to our "Improving The EdGate Observer" survey! We will be contributing $10 for each respondent to Heifer International and reviewing all the comments in order to better serve you with relevant information.

2011 promises to be a very exciting and busy time for EdGate. Watch for more news about our additional services and the growth of our K-12 product - the Curriculum Matrix.

Regards,

Sandra Schugren, EdGate General Manager

Burning Question Burning_Question

Indiana Teacher Standards: To correlate or not?

By: Rich Street

According to a press release dated December 27, 2010, Indiana has become the first state in the nation to fully align its teacher standards with Common Core State Standards (http://www.doe.in.gov/news/2010/12-December/common_core_standards.html).

The Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) contracted with Pearson to develop the Indiana Developmental and Content Standards in Spring 2010. The standards are aligned with the Rules for Educator Preparation and Accountability (REPA), Indiana Academic Standards, Indiana Core Standards, the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects, standards of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), and other relevant standards of national professional organizations.

The new standards include educator standards in forty-six content and administrative areas and five school setting developmental levels. The developmental areas include early childhood, elementary, middle school, secondary, and P-12.

EdGate Correlation Services will be adding the developmental standards in the near future and will decide how best to address the teacher content standards.

A sample mathematics content standard:

Standard 1: Number and Quantity

Mathematics teachers have a broad and comprehensive understanding of number systems, number representations, number operations, and number theory, including the following:

1.1. properties of the real and complex numbers and their subsets

The burning question publishers might ask is whether their content on "properties of real numbers" or other lesson materials should be correlated to these standards? Let us know.

RichStreet

The complete standards are available at:

http://www.doe.in.gov/educatorlicensing/ProfessionalTeacherStandards.html

Hot Topic

Producing Content for Character Education

Now showing on YouTube, The Collector of Bedford Street is an award-winning documentary about director Alice Elliott's neighbor, Larry Selman, a community activist and fundraiser who has an intellectual disability. Using our powerful Correlation tools, EdGate was able to demonstrate the relevance of this wonderful film to U.S. standards in health education. Students viewing The Collector of Bedford Street broaden their knowledge of and appreciation of the issue of homelessness, those with disabilities, and the power of community and individual action. Partnering with EdGate, producers of educational media gain understanding of current standards that can inspire their next project!

For Teachers: With more than a million visits per day, YouTube commands the attention of students all over the world. In a media-based world, this popular Web address is a natural fit for educators desiring to accommodate various learning styles and to offer "real life" examples of positive values in action. EdGate Correlation Services provides powerful tools to help educators keep pace with the opportunities to use non-traditional--and often free--content provided by popular media.

Lisa Waugh

Project Manager

EdGate Services

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our clients for your business in 2010 and look forward to our continued success in 2011!

Next month I will be attending FETC in Orlando. Each year this conference provides amazing workshops to inform and inspire cutting-edge K-12 educational technology. I also plan to attend the National Conference on Education in Denver, February 17^th-19^th, conducted by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA).

Let me know if you will be in attendance and we can schedule a time to meet. Wishing everyone continued success and prosperity in 2011! Leslie_2009

Leslie Kolber

847-559-9939

lkolber@edgate.com

Standards Update

Updates to The EdGate Standards Repository include:

· Alaska Mathematics (revised 2010)

· California Common Core Content Standards (2010)

· National Board Professional Teaching Standards (2001)

· Nebraska Science (2010)

· Ohio 2012-2013 Social Studies (2010)

· Oklahoma Social Studies (revised 2010)

· Oregon World Languages (2010)

· TIMSS 2011 Science Framework (2011)

· Utah Science Grades K-2 Core (2010)

Common Core Update

Currently, there are 43 states that have "adopted" the Common Core standards for English Language Arts and Mathematics. Most of these states are in the process of developing their implementation timelines, reviewing their current state standards against the Common Core to determine if any of the 15% federal guideline changes will be considered, and developing new state assessments to Common Core. Based upon this research and our continual monitoring of the status of these standards being adopted and implemented by state educational departments, EdGate Correlation Services has determined that the Common Core State Standards should continue to be separate from the state-specific curriculum standards.

The target date for implementation of the new assessments is scheduled for the 2014-2015 school year. Until that time, state assessments are tied to the current state educational standards for these subjects.

Many states have developed draft Common Core documents that are under review and not yet finalized. As states make their decision on whether they will make any changes, the EdGate Standards Repository will maintain the current state's standards and also provide access for clients to any states that finalize their draft documents and/or adopt the Common Core as-is without changes.

To date, California, Colorado, and Minnesota did opt for the 15% changes and finalized their documents; whereas the District of Columbia, Illinois, Kentucky, and Wisconsin have adopted the Common Core as they are without changes. By purchasing the Common Core K-12 State Standards from the EdGate Standards Repository, you will automatically have access to both standards sets for each state that adopts (i.e. California Standards, and California Common Core Content Standards).

If you have any questions regarding standards, feel free to contact me and I will be happy to assist you. You can always join us on Twitter and Facebook to receive postings regarding state standards in the EdGate Standards Repository at: Kristie

http://twitter.com/EdGate

http://www.facebook.com

Kristie McCarley

EdGate Standards Manager

kmccarley@edgate.com