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"April 29, 2014 Achieve Webinar: Integrating EQuIP Into Your State's Common Core State Standards Implementation Strategy Achieve hosted a webinar on integrating EQuIP into Common Core State Standards implementation plans. Alissa Peltzman, Vice President, State Policy and Implementation Support, Achieve and Sasheen Phillips, Achieve's new Director of EQuIP and OER, provided an overview of the available tools and resources developed through Achieve's EQuIP (Educators Evaluating the Quality of Instructional Products) initiative, designed to identify high-quality materials aligned to the CCSS. We then heard directly from leaders at the state and district level who have put the EQuIP resources into use to support their efforts to identify quality and aligned instructional materials to advance implementation of the CCSS, including Merri Ann Drake, Idaho Core Coach, Idaho State Department of Education; Elissa Farmer, Curriculum Specialist, Seattle Public Schools; Terri King-Hunt, Gifted Support Specialist, Atlanta Public Schools; Linda Schoenbrodt, Elementary Mathematics Program Specialist, Maryland Department of Education; and Amy Youngblood, Founder, Eduoptimus. Please see below for resources shared during the webinar. Integrating EQuIP Into Your State's CCSS Implementation Strategy (PowerPoint slide deck) Integrating EQuIP Into Your State's CCSS Implementation Strategy (audio recording)"

iNACOL Standards for Quality Online Courses. Thanks Liz.. Do they have a newer version?

This is the latest version

"How do you know you have quality digital learning content? This question could be made incredibly complex, but luckily people in-the-know have given ten simple guidelines. The Association of Educational Publishers has stepped up to offer some professional standards of quality and consistency - a baseline for all instructional resources."

Teaching Channel is a video showcase-on the Internet and TV-of inspiring and effective teaching practices in America's schools. We have a rapidly growing community of registered members who trade ideas and share inspiration from each other. With the help of the Tch community, our mission is to revolutionize how teachers learn, connect, and inspire each other to improve the outcomes for all K-12 students across America. In order to accomplish this mission, we have three simple goals, all of them reliant on input from teachers: * Build professional learning resources that teachers want * Deepen and improve opportunities for teacher learning * Elevate and celebrate teachers in our society Share This Video Our videos are produced by a unique team of professionals-a collaborative effort between video production experts, education advisors, and the classroom teachers themselves. We should point out that Teaching Channel does not determine or influence the content taught in our videos. Our video library offers educators a wide range of subjects for grades K-12. The videos also include information on alignment with Common Core State Standards and ancillary material for teachers to use in their own classrooms. Teaching Channel Presents, a weekly one-hour program featuring Tch videos, airs on PBS stations in nearly 75 million homes across the United States. A non-profit organization, Teaching Channel launched publicly in June 2011."

"Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license. These resources may be used free of charge , distributed without restriction , and modified without permission. In 2012, the Washington State Legislature passed Engrossed Second Substitute House Bill 2337 that directed the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to create a collection of openly licensed courseware aligned with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and conduct an awareness campaign to inform school di stricts about these resources. The Legislature saw this as an opportunity to both "reduce the expenses that districts would otherwise incur in purchasing these materials" and "provide districts and students with a broader selection of materials, and materi als that are more up - to - date." As a part of th is legislative mandate , OSPI conducted a review of OER in high school mathematics and English Language Arts (ELA) that built on the work of the 2013 WA OER R eview . Teams evaluated full - course Geometry/Integrated Math 2 and units in 9 th - 10 th grade ELA. In addition, an OER Algebra 1 course unavailable for review in 2013 was examined. The review process, conducted durin g February and March , 201 4 , made use of existing review instruments designed to gauge alignment with the C CSS and overall OER quality . Minor revisions to the 2013 process were informed by feedback from the first cohort of reviewers. The results from this r eview enable educators and content developers to tap into the most powerful feature of OER : the ability to freely adapt and redistribute materials ."

"Guidelines for Professional Development of Online Teachers Based on the SREB Standards for Quality Online Teaching Providing quality professional development for online teachers is extremely important to ensure ongoing quality teaching and learning - just as it is for teachers in traditional classrooms. The professional development of online teachers should be well-planned and organized to meet the specific academic and instructional needs of online teachers."

"Guide to Piloting CK-12 Quick Guide to Doing a Pilot All of CK-12 Foundation's resources (FlexBook System, FlexMath, INeedAPencil, BrainGenie, and studyHELP) are free and open for use by everyone, anywhere. We do, however, invite our administrator and teacher users to initiate a more formal exploration of our offerings in the form of a pilot. Below is a quick guide to doing so with questions to consider. The actual implementation will be a joint effort by the school and CK-12 (pilots@ck12.org) CK-12 Pilot - the systematic implementation of CK-12 resources as part of an official exploration to fully incorporate the content and services into a school or class curriculum with structured feedback and data being provided to CK-12 for improving our future development OVERALL PILOT DEFINITION How many schools, students and teachers will be involved in the pilot? What subjects will be explored (e.g. Physics, Algebra)? What are the content needs (e.g. standards-alignment, lesson plans)? What CK-12 offering best meets your needs (e.g. FlexMath for Algebra I)? What are the technology needs for presenting content to students (e.g. projector, laptops, tablets, print)? What is the pilot duration? TACTICS FOR IMPLEMENTATION Select a project manager to oversee and define roles and to coordinate across schools and teachers Establish a main point of contact for corresponding with CK-12 Assign roles for customizing CK-12 content for your school and compiling and uploading finalized materials Have editors and reviewers view online training materials and attend webinar(s) to familiarize themselves with the CK-12 platform CK-12 SUPPORT Set up accounts at www.ck12.org Create a timeline for editing content and coordinate editing collaboration Set up training schedule (online and/or onsite) with CK-12 for your school / district Weekly/monthly check-in meetings to ensure progress with pilot PILOT RESULTS & NEXT STEPS

"oday's education system includes ingrained practices, including policy and decades-old methods, that prevent schools from moving to competency-based models. Solutions to this problem include: Creating and making available educational resources on competency-based learning. These resources might be best practices, rubrics or tools, or research. Convening a coalition of League of Innovative Schools districts that are working to build successful competency-based models. Creating a technical solution for flexible tracking of competencies and credits. Problem No. 2: Leadership doesn't always support second-order change, and those in potential leadership roles, such as teachers and librarians, aren't always empowered to help effect change. Solutions to this problem include: Promoting League of Innovative Schools efforts to enable second-order change leadership Creating a framework, to be used in professional development, that would target and explain second-order change leadership discussions Schedule panel discussions about second-order change leadership Problem No. 3: Communities and cultures are resistant to change, including technology-based change Solutions to this problem include: Identifying new and engaging ways to share cutting-edge and tech-savvy best practices with school and district stakeholders and community members Involve business leaders in technology-rich schools and create school-business partnerships Look to influential organizations to spearhead national ed-tech awareness campaigns Problem No. 4: Education budgets aren't always flexible enough to support the cost, sustainability, or scalability of innovations Solutions to this problem include: Build relationships with local businesses and career academies, and create incentives for companies to hire students, in order to create a revenue stream for schools Look to competitive pricing and creative solutions Leaders must not be afraid t

"The Publishers' Criteria for ELA / Literacy and the Publishers' Criteria for Mathematics support faithful implementation of the Common Core State Standards by providing criteria for aligned materials."

"EQuIP (Educators Evaluating the Quality of Instructional Products)is an initiative of the American Diploma Project (ADP) Network designed to identify high-quality materials aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The objectives are two-fold: Increase the supply of high quality lessons and units aligned to the CCSS that are available to elementary, middle, and high school teachers as soon as possible; and Build the capacity of educators to evaluate and improve the quality of instructional materials for use in their classrooms and schools. EQuIP builds on a collaborative effort of education leaders from Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island that Achieve facilitated. The outcome of that effort was the development of the "Tri-State Rubrics" and a quality review process designed to determine the quality and alignment of instructional lessons and units to the CCSS."

"We organized our expert presenters' tips into seven categories: Making Learning Stick, Effective Instructional Design and Development, Managing Project Costs and Time, Demonstrating Your Value, Documenting and Managing Your Designs and Standards, Designing for Mobile, and Customizing and Personalizing Learning. We compiled these into a free eBook for your enjoyment. Read here for details and where to download the book!"

"This policy brief provides concrete, actionable recommendations for state policymakers. There are five key issues in the iNACOL State Policy Framework: 1.Create Competency-Based Education Systems 2.Improve Student Access and Equity 3.Measure and Assure Quality from Inputs to Outcomes 4.Support Innovative Educators 5.Support New Learning Models Through Connectivity, Data Systems, and Security"