January 2017 - In This Issue

Hot Topic:
What is Design Thinking?
Client Solution:
Looking for More Proof that Strong Standards Alignments pay off?
Teaching Trends:
California's Assessment Battle
EdGate Services:
Standards Licensing: Tap into Millions of Standards
Standards Update
What's new in the repository?

Top Stories
New South Carolina Computer Science Standards & Eighteen states adopting NGSS

Celebrating Our 20th Year in Business!
Greetings Everyone,

In 2017 we celebrate an important milestone for our business:
our 20 year anniversary! Founded in 1997 by a group of educators, our team recognized the power of the internet as a teaching tool.  We began our work by creating a website to organize online resources aligned to state standards. Eventually, as part of a state-wide contract with Wyoming, we correlated content for several supplemental publishers. The publishers were thrilled with how accurately and cost effectively we did the correlations, and news of this successful project brought inquiries from a long line of publishers. Today EdGate delivers the most comprehensive standards alignment services and products to content providers. The innovative thinkers who started this company along with the expanded EdGate team provide high quality solutions that now serve over 250 clients.

Regards,

Gina Faulk
EdGate General Manager
 
 
 
HotTopicHot Topic

What is Design Thinking? 
Design thinking is an approach to learning that involves multiple skills and disciplines. Although many find it hard to define it concisely, it involves academic, creative, problem solving, collaborative as well as other skills. Design thinking helps the student explore both creative and analytical aspects of a project.  Furthermore, it gives students glimpses of real world application and potential career paths. The designed thinking approach challenges students to consider all aspects of the design process before embarking on the end result. As stated in the source article, "Learning happens throughout the process, from the early research phase to the final presentation. This allows students and teachers to focus on what's most important in learning: the process, rather than the product."  This approach is well suited to help students combine all the individual aspects of learning into an amalgamation of experiences where the student researches, considers options, creates prototypes, gets input and finalizes a design.
 
Content and curriculum for design thinking fits well into the STEM and Career Technical realms. If your company has content that supports designed thinking our sales team can provide you more information on aligning this content to the STEM or Career Technical standards.
 

Project Manager
 
ClientSolutionClient Solution

Looking for More Proof that Strong Standards Alignments pay off? 
A growing body of evidence, including a five-state study discussed at a recent Hopkins/Hunter forum, showed that high-quality instructional materials produced a larger effect than having an experienced teacher versus a novice teacher.  So what kids are being taught is the key component of student success, more so than the areas typically studied, such as class size and school accountability mechanisms.

Over the past four years, the state of Louisiana has reviewed more than 100 curricular programs according to their alignment with state content standards. The state's emphasis on curriculum is generating results. Louisiana fourth graders achieved the highest growth among all states on the 2015 NAEP and the second highest in math. There is a growing list of similar outcomes across the country and worldwide. Partnerships Schools, a network of Catholic schools in Harlem and South Bronx, replaced the jumble of curricular offerings at the schools with the well-regarded Core Knowledge and Eureka Math curricula and provided teachers with the training and support to implement them well. As a result the schools have doubled the percentage of students scoring "proficient" on the state's English exam and nearly tripled the math proficiency rate."

More evidence on the importance of strong standards, curriculum, and well-aligned assessments can be found in "Pluralism and American Public Education: No One Way to School," by Ashley Berner and "Why Knowledge Matters: Rescuing Our Children from Failed Educational Theories," by E. D. Hirsch.

As the importance of curricula and standards alignment become more apparent, it is imperative to realize that in the U.S alone, nearly 30% of educational standards are overhauled, revised or edited each year. Tracking these changes demands the full-time expertise that EdGate provides.

Learn more about standard alignment services offered by EdGate.
 

By: Alex Alo
Project Manager
 
TeachingTrendsTeaching Trends

California's Assessment Battle 
California adopted the NGSS science standards and has been teaching them for the entire 2016-17 school year.  California education officials submitted a request to the U.S. Department of Education asking for a waiver from federal testing laws so they could begin giving students a new statewide science exam based on the NGSS standards...what the students were learning in their classrooms.  The U.S. Department of Education formally rejected that request last week, ruling that California Department of Education leaders will be breaking federal law if they move forward with their current plans to administer the new tests this spring.  The US DOE also says California will not be able to determine whether student achievement in science is improving by administering the new tests.

In order to comply with federal laws, California would be required to give students its old science tests that are based on their old standards written in 1998. Since they would be testing against what is no longer being taught, one has to wonder exactly what this test data would represent in terms of student learning.   The dilemma, and challenge, for any state that adopts new standards is to find a meaningful bridge between test data collected against one set of standards, to test data collected against a new set of standards.  Because all states adopt new standards, they are likely watching to see how California addresses this issue with the US DOE.

For further reading:
http://www.cde.ca.gov/nr/ne/yr16/yr16rel84.asp 

Project Manager
 
EdgateServicesEdGate Services

Standards Licensing
Since 1997, EdGate has invested time and energy in building and maintaining its repository which now hosts more than three million standards from around the world. It is the largest and most robust in the industry, covering twelve subject areas including Arts Education, Career Technical Education, Early Childhood Education, English as a Second Language, Health and PE, Language Arts, Math, Media/Technology, Professional Development, Science, Social Studies, and World Languages.
 
Every year nearly 30% of the educational standards across the U.S. are revised, edited, or overhauled. Tracking these standards demands full-time attention and expertise which is why so many publishers rely on EdGate for support.

Below are just a few ways that we can help:

Standards Licensing. For our partners who simply need access to standards but struggle with the time and resources to manage them, we have a whole repository to choose from! We will ensure that the standards you receive from EdGate are current and easily accessible!

Standards Alignment. If you are a publisher that needs help with aligning your content to ALL standards and maintaining those alignments so they stay current with state changes, we got you covered! Our subject experts are on standby to review and align your unique content to the most current standards available and ensure they stay current when states implement changes.

DIY Alignment Tool. EdGate standards and taxonomy are the strength behind this DIY alignment tool! ExACT was developed to help publishers quickly and easily create an accurate and global alignment to ALL standards in one fell swoop. If you have the team but not the means to efficiently align to multiple standards at one time, this is a perfect solution!
 
The struggle is real. Let us be your partner!

For more information on these or other EdGate services, please contact us at (866) 405-3357 or  contact us and we will be happy to share more about our services and how we can save you money!  

Tracy_Olstad
Gina Faulk 
General Manager 
Tracy Olstad,  
Senior Account Executive  
 
standardsStandards Update

Updates to The EdGate Standards Repository include:
  • Arizona - Mathematics (2016)
  • New York  - Science (2016)
  • British Columbia - Social Studies (Draft 2016 Grades 10-12)
  • Virginia - Mathematics (2016)
  • Iowa Core - Language Arts (2016)
  • Arizona - Language Arts (2016)
  • New Jersey - Language Arts (2016)
  • Saskatchewan - Science (2016 Grades 10-12)
  • Oregon - Health and PE (Physical Education 2016)
  • Nebraska - Health and PE (Physical Education 2016)

  https://www.facebook.com/EdGateCorrelationServices/
 
topstories

South Carolina Dept of Ed introduces K-8 Computer Science Standards

Beginning in 2018 K-8 students will be required to learn age appropriate computer science in all South Carolina public schools.

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are coming to many states

With 18 states adopting the Next Generation Science Standards teachers are making the shift from the old standards to the new content, practices and principles.

didyouknow
What's New - The most annoying words of 2016
The year of 2016 brought many changes. Brexit, US Elections, the Olympics, and SAT modifications. With all these changes also comes a new list of some the most annoying overused words or phrases: Whatever; Huge; I can't even; I know, right?; Cray cray; Literally; Just sayin'; and Totes are among the top. Any thoughts on what will make the 2017 list?



aboutusAbout 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.