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The EdGate Observer

CONNECTING PUBLISHERS AND

EDUCATORS TO WHAT WORKS

May 2013

In This Issue

Top Stories

Common Core Update

Hot Topic

Client Solution

Top Stories

SETDA - Transforming Data to Information in Service of Learning

New report released by SETDA to help education leaders understand how technical interoperability initiatives relate to teaching and learning. This report offers recommendations for how states, districts, and schools can become more responsive to educator needs and personalize learning for students. These initiatives focus on ensuring consistent data definitions across schools, enabling the sharing of information across school data systems, and facilitating the search and discovery of targeted education resources on the internet.

Education Giant Pearson Adapts to Digital Learning

Pearson, the world's largest educational publisher, recognized older students as online learning harbinger. Schools aren't the only ones grappling with big questions about online learning, flipped classrooms, assessment analytics and open-source alternatives to commercial products. Traditional publishers are making changes, too.

A 2012 Babson Survey of online learning revealed that over 6.7 million students were taking at least one online course during the 2011 fall term, an increase of 570,000 students over the previous year. Based on responses from over 2,800 academic leaders, the survey also found that online learning was critical to the long-term strategies of 69% of chief academic leaders.

Congratulations College Graduate! Now Tell Us: What Did You Learn?

It's college commencement season. The graduates are now ready for the next stage of their life. There is much debate these days about the return on investment of a college education. Much of that conversation is focused on what students spend on college compared to what they get in return in terms of a salary. But if the purpose of college is to get an education, why don't we measure the return on investment in terms of what students learn in college? We need more authoritative and accurate ways of measuring the value that a college adds to a student's life.

Staff Highlight

We would like to introduce you to a member of our Mathematics Project Team,

John Kullberg

John has over 30 years experience teaching Mathematics at the high school level. Since coming to work for EdGate, John has been involved with correlating mathematics materials with current standards and has worked in reviewing, writing and evaluating quiz questions for digital media. He was the head wrestling coach at Central Kitsap High School for 27 years and in November, 2011, he was inducted into the Washington State Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame.

About Us

Founded in 1997, EdGate Correlation Services (EdGate) is a leader in the field of alignment solutions for educational companies around the world.

The EdGate Standards Repository is the most comprehensive collection of national and international educational standards in all subject areas.

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

EdGate can also deliver 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 the most recent educational news pertaining to Maryland Common Core Draft Curriculum Frameworks (Common Core Update), Publishers' Criteria for Common Core (Hot Topic), 2014 GED New Assessment (Client Solution), Beat the Summer Rush (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 specifically the impact of educational standards.

Regards,

Sandra Schugren, EdGate General Manager

Common Core Update

MARYLAND COMMON CORE DRAFT CURRICULUM FRAMEWORKS

Since Maryland's adoption of the Common Core State Standards in 2010, EdGate as well as many of our clients have been regularly monitoring the finalization of their draft curriculum frameworks for inclusion in the EdGate Standards Repository.

The curriculum Framework, the foundation of the new curriculum, was presented to the State Board in June 2011, and the completed curriculum will be implemented in Maryland schools in the 2013-2014 school year.

EdGate's Standards Team reached out to the State Department of Education this month to get a status on these draft documents.

According to Maryland DOE, they have left these documents in draft form as they develop their supportive lesson and unit models. They do not have a timeline for removing this status at this time and said to encourage publishers to align everything for Maryland to the Common Core State Standards. They are aligning all of their lessons and units this way.

The "Essential Skills and Knowledge" section in the draft frameworks are meant to be a supportive document for Maryland teachers but will not be lettered or numbered because the focus of instruction will be on the language in the Common Core State Standards.

If you have any questions, please contact the EdGate Standards Manager, Kristie McCarley, or your assigned Project Manager.

Hot Topic

"PUBLISHERS' CRITERIA" FOR COMMON CORE

On April 9th, the "High School Publishers' Criteria for the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics" document was released.

This document supplements the "K-8 Publishers' Criteria for the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics" published last summer. Both documents were developed by the CCSSM (Math) writing team. They provide support for the CCSSM implementation by "providing criteria for materials aligned to the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics."

Since the aim is to influence decisions by purchasers and developers, the high school document should be on all of our reading lists. A table spells out specific standards, domains, and clusters that deserve "special attention" in five areas: number and quantity, algebra, functions, geometry, and statistics and probability. These documents can be downloaded from the Common Core Resources Webpage.

Also found at http://www.corestandards.org/resources are the "Revised Publishers' Criteria for the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts and Literacy, Grades K-2" and "Revised Publishers' Criteria for the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts and Literacy, Grades 3-12."

Rich_New

How do your materials stack up to these selected standards? Ask EdGate Correlation Services to help find out.

By: Rich Street

Project Manager

Client Solution

2014 GED� NEW ASSESSMENT

Did you know that the GED high school equivalency assessment was first published in 1942? There have been 4 generations of this exam since then.

The latest 2014 GED� test goes into effect January 2, 2014. This computerized assessment will replace the 2002 series test that was delivered in two formats; paper and computer. The 2014 test is designed to measure core knowledge in math, language arts, science and social studies, as well as provide information regarding career and college readiness. We are proud to see that some of EdGate's clients will be releasing materials to facilitate test preparation throughout 2013. To learn more about the publishers currently working with the GED Testing Center you can visit http://www.gedtestingservice.com/educators/2014-publishers.

To facilitate the transition from the 2002 to the 2014 assessment, EdGate has correlated the 2014 Assessment Targets for grades 9-12 in the 4 core subject areas. If you are interested in correlating your materials to these targets please contact your project manager.

JWaugh

For more information regarding the 2014 GED, visit: http://www.gedtestingservice.com/educators/home

By: Jodi Waugh
Project Manager

EdGate Services

"MAY" WE HELP YOU BEAT THE SUMMER RUSH?

It's that time of year again where you might be scrambling to get new products or initiatives launched in time for the next school year. EdGate is here to help!

Whether your need is Correlation Services, Standards or Concept Index™ Licensing, or use of our ExACT Alignment Tool to perform your own correlations, EdGate has the solution right for you! Our team of experienced and highly qualified subject experts is ready to support you with whatever you need to get your project done on time and on budget.

If you would like to learn more about our services, looking for guidance on a custom project, or need a quote, please contact a representative and they will be happy to assist you.

Leslie Kolber can be reached at [email protected] or to reach Tracy Olstad, please email [email protected].

Leslie_Kolber The "EdGate Advantage is

YOUR Advantage"

Standards Update

Updates to The EdGate Standards Repository include:

� AERO Standards - Language Arts (2012)

� GED 2014 Assessment Targets - Language Arts (2012)

� GED 2014 Assessment Targets - Mathematics (2012)

� GED 2014 Assessment Targets - Social Studies (2012)

� Indiana Early Childhood (2012)

� Iowa Core - Language Arts (2012)

� Iowa Core - Mathematics (2012)

� Iowa Core - Science Literacy (2012)

� Iowa Core - Social Studies Literacy (2012)

� Kentucky - World Languages (2013)

� National Curriculum of Ireland - English Grades 10-12 (1999)

� National Curriculum of Ireland - Mathematics Primary Grades (1999)

� National STEM Standards - Science (NGSS) (2013)

� Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) (2013)

� Northern Ireland Curriculum - Social Studies (2012)

� Northern Ireland Thematic Units: Primary Years 3 & 4 (2012)

� Northern Ireland Thematic Units: Primary Year 5 (2012)

� Northern Ireland Thematic Units: Primary Years 6 & 7 (2012)

� Northern Ireland Thematic Units: Primary STEM (2012)

� Northern Ireland Thematic Units: Personal Health Year 8 (2012)

� Northern Ireland Thematic Units: Personal Understanding Year 8 (2012)

� Northern Ireland Thematic Units: Sustainable Development Year 9 (2012)

� Northern Ireland Thematic Units: Spiritual Awareness Year 9 (2012)

� Northern Ireland Thematic Units: Citizenship Year 10 (2012)

� Northern Ireland Thematic Units: Employability Year 10 (2012)

� Northern Ireland Thematic Units: Cultural Understanding Year 10 (2012)

� Rhode Island Social Studies (2012)

� U.S. National Standards - Science (NGSS) (2013)

� Utah Social Studies Grade PreK (2013)

� Washington - Early Childhood Education (2012)

� West Virginia - Early Childhood Education (2010)

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 notifications regarding state standards in the

EdGate Standards Repository at:

Kristie

http://twitter.com/EdGate

http://www.facebook.com

Kristie McCarley

EdGate Standards and Operations Manager

[email protected]