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February 2017 - In This Issue
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Greetings everyone,
Did you know that EdGate is capable of creating specific taxonomies for varying grades, subjects and purposes? Publishers who need to organize content, create a hierarchy, correlate by concept or have a specific need for a taxonomy call upon EdGate to create taxonomies based on specific requirements. And our taxonomies expand beyond K-12. Below, find out how we can help. We welcome a challenge!
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
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 Hot Topic
Should Cursive Writing be required in Schools?
Whether to require cursive writing in the curriculum has been debated for some time. When Common Core Standards for English
did not include cursive writing, many states dropped the requirement from their classrooms. However, as the
debate continues, several states* have re-introduced the requirement into their curriculums.
Those who favor teaching children cursive writing believe that it has both historic and artistic importance. Besides the ability to read important historical documents, the act of writing helps develop fine motor skills. A Carnegie Corporation 2010 study found that students who wrote down what they were reading improved their reading skills. Many educators believe that cursive writing develops mental abilities including memory development and spatial orientation that leads to better organizational skills. Teachers are finding that students who are required to use cursive writing for assignments are less likely to plagiarize, and that practicing penmanship helps dyslexic children learn to group words in the proper order.
Those who favor dropping cursive from the curriculum argue that students need to concentrate on electronic skills to make them competitive in the future and not waste valuable time learning cursive writing. They argue that historical (cursive) documents can be read on the Internet in plain text to aid comprehension. People who are against cursive writing point to tablets, smart phones and gaming consoles as important ways for children to develop fine motor skills. They believe that if cursive writing has artistic merits it should be taught in art classes.
Interestingly, a recent news article about the rise in popularity of journal writing described the satisfaction of using pen and paper to relax, to reflect and to simply get away from the computer that bombards individuals with too much information each day.
*Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, California, Louisiana, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Kansas, North Carolina require cursive and Nevada and Ohio (in Art classes) are considering it as well.
Project Manager
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Client Solution
Taxonomy Development
Taxonomy development is one aspect of our services that you may not be aware of. While the bulk of our work currently comes from taking the "standard" Concept Index for the various academic subjects that we cover and using those to connect content to standards, we are also able to develop new taxonomies or revise existing ones to meet your particular needs. Taxonomies can be useful in several ways: they can be linked to specialized standards (such as the Microsoft Office Specialist certification outcomes) to show correlations to those standards; they can help to identify places where your content might be made stronger, such as gaps, over-covered topics, or items that are trying to cover too much content in too small a space; or they can form the framework for searching for desired content. If you have a need for such a taxonomy, particularly for an unusual or specialized subject, we can help! Don't hesitate to contact us for a discussion of your needs and our services.
By: Michael Walpole
Project Manager
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Teaching Trends
ESSA Update
An interesting article in
Education Week took a look at what was happening around the country with the status of the implementation of ESSA now that a year has gone by since the new law was passed. Maria Voles Ferguson, the executive director of the Center on Education Policy at the George Washington University's Graduate School of Education and Human Development, pointed out that since states have been given the task of formulating their own plans on assessing student progress and learning, the actual implementation of ESSA may look entirely different from one state to the next. It will be a chance for states to be innovative in designing their own policy and the hope is that this challenge will bring about new ideas on assessing student success. States are expected to roll out implementation this fall and although they have been given the autonomy to veer from standardized tests to gauge performance they must develop and implement a variety of measures of both student and school success. States and districts under ESSA must also create a comprehensive plan to tackle those who are not succeeding and demonstrate what success looks like. It is both an exciting and difficult challenge for states and districts to take on. One looming question: What effect will the new administration have on the rollout of ESSA? For now, states are moving forward with crafting new policies for the upcoming school year.
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EdGate Services
9 Major Ed Tech Trends for 2017
While the world of technology has brought some fun and amazing tools/products to the classroom, it is also a vacillating business which can be overwhelming and frustrating for IT Managers and educators alike.
According to a recent article on the "Top 9 Major Ed Tech Trends for 2017" which was published by THE Journal, "the thing everybody was trying one year is on the way out the next." This message was confirmed at the FETC conference in Orlando this past January where some voiced concerns over the ongoing challenge of finding what captivates educators and getting them trained and past the learning curve before starting the process all over again.
Unfortunately these types of challenges are not only discouraging, but can result in a negative impact on teaching as well as student growth.
Our mission at EdGate is to help students grow and succeed by making life easier for our teachers. We are confident about the impact we are making through our partners by providing our knowledge, skills, and expertise.
Following are some areas in which we are proud to contribute:
To learn more about EdGate, our services, and partners, please visit our website at
http://correlation.edgate.com/
. You can also contact us direct by calling
(866) 405-3357 or by email
and we will be happy to share more about our services and how we can save you money!
We look forward to hearing from you!
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Gina Faulk
General Manager
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Tracy Olstad,
Senior Account Executive
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Standards Update
Updates to The EdGate Standards Repository include:
- Arkansas - Math (2016) new courses added
- Georgia - Math (2016) new courses added
- Alberta - Science (2014 Grades 7-9)
- Arkansas - Early Childhood (2016)
- British Columbia - Language Arts (2016 Grades K-9)
- British Columbia - Math (2016 Grades K-9)
- British Columbia - Science (2016 Grades K-9)
- British Columbia - Social Studies (2016 Grades K-9)
- CASEL Guidelines (2016 Grades K-5)
- Manitoba - Science Updates (2006-2013)
- New Hampshire - Early Childhood (2016)
- New York - Early Childhood (2012)
- Oklahoma - Art Education (2015 Grades 1-12)
- Ontario - Kindergarten (2016)
https://www.facebook.com/EdGateCorrelationServices/
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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.
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