Keene State College / MCST Transition Resources

"In order to help you change the way your students learn, this course will expand your knowledge related to learning differences, provide actionable strategies to impact the learning experience of your students, and cultivate positive habits of mind. At the end of this course, you will have:  Deepened your own understanding of learning differences and the related constructs of motivation, executive function, and working memory. Explored relevant strategies for supporting students with learning differences. Applied strategies in your classroom and provided a more personalized learning experience for all of your students. "

"Prospective college students with disabilities will find that many campuses are equipped with offices and services that address accessibility, accommodation, and assistive technology for a diverse range of needs. Student services offices and disability coordinators at many colleges work to make campuses inclusive environments through specialized advocacy, support, and academic services."

Great monthly newsletters of links to various online disability resources

"Evidence-based intervention practices (EBPs) for children with ASD are the basis on which effective programs are built. In 2010, the NPDC conducted a review of the literature (from 1997-2007) and identified 24 EBPs. The center has just completed an expanded and updated review, which yielded a total of 27 practices. The report of the 2014 review is now available in PDF format from the link above."

"How to share data effectively: Tips for administrators, teachers, and families | These tip sheets can help administrators, teachers, and families identify the best ways to share student data in meaningful ways, on a regular basis, to strengthen family-school partnerships and promote student learning."

With this report Third Way is continuing NEXT-a series of in-depth commissioned research papers that look at the economic trends that will shape policy over the coming decades. In particular, we're bringing this deeper, more provocative academic work to bear on what we see as the central domestic policy challenge of the 21st century: how to ensure American middle class prosperity and individual success in an era of everintensifying globalization and technological upheaval. It's the defining question of our time, and one that as a country we've yet to answer.

"The education model used in many classrooms across our country can find its roots in the 20th century-in which students, organized by age, move at the same time and pace through their learning experience. Yet after decades of research and experiences in the K-12 classroom, coupled with a world where technologies have transformed the opportunities available to us, this system no longer makes much sense. Competency-based education transforms this traditional model. It shifts the focus of learning from time to mastery, from purely summative assessments to formative experiences and most important, creates personalized pathways for each student to move at their own pace and ability to meet their learning needs"

"This paper presents an overview of New Hampshire's efforts to implement a pilot accountability system designed to support deeper learning for students and powerful organization change for schools and districts. The accountability pilot, referred to as Performance Assessment of Competency Education or PACE, is grounded in a competency- based educational approach designed to ensure that students have meaningful opportunities to achieve critical knowledge and skills. These opportunities are judged by the outcomes students achieve and not by inputs such as seat time. Therefore, students must achieve these competencies before moving on to the next major learning targets and/or graduating from high school. High quality performance assessments play a crucial role in the PACE system because of the need to have assessments that measure the depths of student understanding of these complex learning targets. Performance assessments are used as both summative and interim measures in the PACE system as a way to document student learning of the competencies and to support remediation or extension interventions. The paper describes the system of assessments being implemented as part of the PACE pilot as well as providing a discussion of the technical quality issues the state is working to address as part of this accountability pilot. For example, being able to produce valid and comparable annual determinations for all students each year is a considerable technical challenge as well as documenting the degree to which all students are held to the same threshold expectations (equity). The paper concludes by relating the PACE initiative to the push for deeper and more meaningful learning for students. "

"Based at the University of California, Berkeley, the GGSC is unique in its commitment to both science and practice: not only do we sponsor groundbreaking scientific research into social and emotional well-being, we help people apply this research to their personal and professional lives. Since 2001, we have been at the fore of a new scientific movement to explore the roots of happy and compassionate individuals, strong social bonds, and altruistic behavior-the science of a meaningful life. And we have been without peer in our award-winning efforts to translate and disseminate this science to the public."

"Over the last several months, those of us at Start Empathy - along with a core group of Ashoka Fellows, leading educators and partners - have worked to identify, distill, and categorize dozens of promising empathy building insights and activities. In short, we've been asking people: "What works?" What we've received ranges from simple tips to group problem solving exercises to teacher training guides, and they all help advance our central goal: unleashing empathy as both an input and output of our education syst"

"Bullseye is a public radio show about what's good in popular culture. With a keen editorial eye, Bullseye sifts the wheat from the chaff, and brings you hot culture picks, in-depth interviews with the most revered and revolutionary creative people and irreverent original comedy. Bullseye is equal parts funny and fascinating. Whether you're already plugged in to the culture map, or looking for a signpost, Bullseye will keep you on target."