Group items tagged

"he Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led effort coordinated by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers to ensure that all students in the United States receive a world-class education and are prepared to be a literate person in the twenty-first century regardless of their zip code."

Educational standards describe what students should know and be able to do in each subject in each grade. In California, the State Board of Education decides on the standards for all students, from kindergarten through high school. Since 2010, 45 states have adopted the same standards for English and math. These standards are called the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Having the same standards helps all students get a good education, even if they change schools or move to a different state. Teachers, parents, and education experts designed the standards to prepare students for success in college and the workplace.

Thanks for sharing, Randy! What is the general feeling in the OC about "Common Core"? I realize it's a very very polarizing topic.

"Open Educational Resources (OER) offer opportunities for increasing equity and access to high-quality K-12 education. Many state education agencies now have offices devoted to identifying and using OERs and other digital resources in their states. To help states, districts, teachers, and other users determine the degree of alignment of OERs to the Common Core State Standards, and to determine aspects of quality of OERs, Achieve has developed eight rubrics in collaboration with leaders from the OER community (download link for rubrics below). To allow users to apply these rubrics and evaluate the quality of instructional resources, Achieve partnered with OER Commons to develop an online evaluation tool. OER Commons, an online repository for open education resources, is now hosting the tool and its resulting evaluation data. Every resource available on OER Commons contains an "Evaluate Resource" button that will direct users to the evaluation tool. The coding for the tool is freely available online here. Resources rated on OER Commons will create a pool of metadata, and this metadata will be shared through the Learning Registry with other interested repositories."

"This project focuses on building the capacity of leaders and policymakers in states that are members of the Innovation Lab Network (ILN) to design assessment and accountability systems that result in deeper forms of student learning. With support from the Sandler Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, SCALE works alongside ILN states (California, Kentucky, Iowa, Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oregon, West Virginia, and Wisconsin) to support the development, piloting, and implementation of new performance assessments that can be incorporated into accountability systems. All assessments are aligned to the Common Core State Standards and the work of SBAC and PARCC, the two assessment consortia."

"he mission of the Common Core State Standards is to provide a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn, so teachers and parents know what they need to do to help them. The standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. With American students fully prepared for the future, our communities will be best positioned to compete successfully in the global economy. "

"The SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium is a state-led consortium working to develop next-generation assessments that are aligned to the Common Core State Standards and that accurately measure student progress toward college and career readiness. The work of the Consortium is guided by the belief that a high-quality assessment system can provide resources and tools for teachers and schools to improve instruction and help students succeed. The Consortium involves educators, researchers, policymakers, and community groups in a transparent and consensus-driven process. "

U.S. topographic map site.

USMapExplorer  lets you build your own maps with different features like mountain ranges, earthquake data, tall buildings and MUCH more! Try our State Rankings. Data for reports is available on every State in the US, as well as for every Country in the world ! Maps4Kids.com is a great resource for fast facts about places in our world.

"A coalition representing 11 state education agencies is setting out to create open educational resources to support math and English/language arts in K-12 schools."

"The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium will conduct a Pilot Test of its assessments February 20 through May 10, 2013 in grades 3-11. Smarter Balanced will select schools for the Pilot Test using two approaches or components: The "Scientific" component will target a representative sample of schools to yield critical data about the items developed to date as well as how the test administration system is functioning. The "Volunteer" component will be open to all schools in Smarter Balanced states and will ensure that all schools have the opportunity to experience the basic functionality of the test administration system. Schools can volunteer for the Pilot Test by completing the online survey External link opens in new window or tab.. The Pilot Test flyer (PDF) and the Pilot Test FAQs (PDF) from Smarter Balanced have more information about the Pilot Test. Choose a county in the dropdown box below to display the list of schools selected for the "Scientific" component by district."

"Welcome to the CTAP, Common Core State Standards Instructional Modules website. Brought to you by CTAP, the CaliforniaTechnology Assistance Project, this site is designed to assist educational professionals with the task of preparing teachers and students to excel in the Common Core environment, while developing the necessary technology integration skills for mastery of content and performing well on the Smarter Balanced Assessment."

"MasteryConnect makes it simple to share and discover common formative assessments and track mastery of state and Common Core standards. Built-in grading tools save teachers time."

"The Orange County Department of Education is searching for the best student curriculum technology integration projects in Orange County. Selected student representatives will present at the OC Student Technology Showcase and may be asked to present at the 11th annual State Student Technology Showcase in Palm Springs. Use the information found within the Guidelines and Rubric sections of this website to help prepare your application. "

Speak Up 2012 is open for input through December 21, 2012. Speak Up, a national online research project facilitated by Project Tomorrow®, gives individuals the opportunity to share their viewpoints about key educational issues. Each year, findings are summarized and shared with national and state policy makers. Participating schools and districts can access their data online, free-of-charge in February 2013."

Kidsdata.org is your gateway to comprehensive data about the health and well being of children across California. The site offers data for every city, county, and school district in the state, making it easy to monitor trends and pinpoint disparities.

"August 6, 2011 Social Networking's Good and Bad Impacts on Kids Psychologists explore myths, realities and offer guidance for parents WASHINGTON-Social media present risks and benefits to children but parents who try to secretly monitor their kids' activities online are wasting their time, according to a presentation at the 119th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association. "While nobody can deny that Facebook has altered the landscape of social interaction, particularly among young people, we are just now starting to see solid psychological research demonstrating both the positives and the negatives," said Larry D. Rosen, PhD, professor of psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills."

"Cybersafety is the safe and responsible use of the Internet and all information and communication technology devices, including mobile phones, digital cameras, and webcams. CTAP Region IV, a California-State funded project, has been a leader in cybersafety education for the California public school system since 1997."

"Atmosphere of Innovation: What's Your 20% Project? September 27, 2012 - by Adam Renfro You don't want to be the one who can't breathe in this atmosphere of innovation. I've had the great opportunity to work with some impressive leaders who always encouraged innovation and creativity. One went on to lead the 18th Airborne Corp, another became the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, another went straight from principal to superintendent, and others went on to start, resurrect, and transform state-level virtual schools. I'm lucky indeed."

2 page short version of the larger elearning framework that comes from the state and recreated by the evergreen group out of Colorado. It is being used across the country.

"We are pleased to release Keeping Pace 2011. Updated state profiles, enrollment data, trends, and analysis of K-12 online and blended learning can be found in the full report and graphics, available here!"