Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

How our school is reimagining math education

At Scott Elementary School, our approach to education is defined as GAIN (Growth in Academics through Innovation and Neuroeducation), which includes multiple initiatives to ensure each student reaches their maximum potential. Our focus is to inspire a love for learning and prepare students to be successful throughout every stage of their lives.

Indiana is one of that states that has not adopted Common Core State Standards. Similar to the Common Core standards in other states, we focus on developing the critical-thinking, problem-solving, and analytical skills that students need to be successful. Our view is that the real power to learn rests with the learner. My role is to seek out ways to engage this power within each child to optimize their opportunities in life.

My corporation strives to educate the whole child by integrating academics with social and emotional learning. We inspire students’ desire to learn by making them feel important, leading by example, praising their successes, and developing their confidence.…Read More

STEMscopes Math Receives Top Rating from Learning List for Alignment to Common Core State Standards for Grades K-5

HOUSTON – July 14, 2021 – STEMscopes Math from Accelerate Learning has received the highest rating from Learning List for alignment to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and Mathematical Practices for grades K-5. Published this month, Learning List’s new, independent review of STEMscopes Math includes a standard-by-standard review of the alignment of material for grades K-2, a review of the product’s instructional quality, and a review of its technology compatibility. In March of 2021, Learning List completed and published its review of STEMscopes Math for grades 3-5.

STEMscopes Math is a core mathematics program for grades K-5. It combines digital, print, and kit components to provide teachers with everything they need to create meaningful math learning experiences for students. The curriculum is available in English and Spanish, and it can be used in the classroom, distance learning, and hybrid learning settings.

STEMscopes Math incorporates the 5E plus Intervention and Acceleration lesson model, the Concrete-Representational-Abstract (CRA) approach, intentional discourse, and real-world exploration to provide a fresh approach to math instruction. From hands-on, inquiry-based math investigations to career connections to current events stories, it bridges the gap between the classroom and real world, and brings meaning and context to the math concepts and skills students are learning.…Read More

Free learning platform targets improved media literacy

KQED Teach, which launched on July 11, provides a series of free, self-paced courses to help K-12 educators develop the media skills necessary to bring media production and communication to their learning environments.

These courses will take place in an online platform developed by KQED Education that tracks user progress and encourages sharing and feedback through an integrated social community.

KQED Teach participants will have access to a wide range of social media and digital media tools allowing them to construct and remix media in multiple formats and across a variety of platforms while addressing many writing, reading, speaking and listening skills required by both the Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards.…Read More

Common Core is changing how schools teach ELA and math

New report finds Common Core is affecting reading and math — but not test scores

States considered strong adopters of Common Core are more likely to see a de-emphasis of fiction and a decline in advanced math enrollment among middle school students, according to a new report that also found a trivial difference in test scores between states that have and have not adopted the standards.

The report, from the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings, pulls data from surveys conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to see how far Common Core recommendations have seeped into states’ instruction, comparing data from 2011 to 2015. The question of whether students should focus on analyzing fiction, which has been traditionally favored by schools, or nonfiction, which is favored by the CCSS, was considered a major implementation hurdle just a few years ago.

On that point, it appears Common Core’s suggestions are winning out over entrenched practice. In 2011, according to the data, 63 percent of students had teachers who said they emphasized fiction, compared with 38 percent of students with teachers who said they were emphasizing nonfiction — a 25 percent gap. By 2015, however, that gap had shrunk to just eight percent, with 45 percent of students who have teachers emphasizing nonfiction. The gap shrunk for eighth grade students from 34 percent in 2011 to 16 percent in 2015.…Read More

How to Create Assessments for The Common Core

Here’s how to create new formative assessments to measure complex student comprehension

assessments-common coreThe rigors of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) ask today’s educators not simply to measure students’ factual knowledge, but instead to accurately assess students’ critical thinking. With such a major transition from multiple-choice testing, it’s important to know how to create assessments for these 21st-century standards.

“The most important question to ask at the onset of assessment creation is: How might we develop and use rich tasks to focus on those outcomes that matter most, and make school more relevant and engaging for learners and teachers?” explained Jay McTighe, consultant and author of the new Lumibook, Core Learning: Assessing What Matters Most, during a webinar hosted by the School Improvement Network.

McTighe emphasized that the aim of the new standards is autonomous transfer, or student comprehension and understanding of concepts, rather than facts.…Read More

Here’s Common Core help for students with disabilities

New website helps students with disabilities meet Common Core standards

students-with-disabilitiesThe Center for Technology Implementation has launched a new website, called PowerUp What Works, offering free resources and information to help educators ensure that students with disabilities meet the Common Core State Standards.

PowerUp links evidence-based practices, Universal Design for Learning, and technology to guide teachers, school leaders, professional development facilitators, and teacher educators in their professional learning, its makers say. The website’s goal is to enhance teaching and learning in English language arts (ELA) and math through the effective implementation of technology tools and strategies.

Resources available through the website include:…Read More

Report: Public fuzzy on Common Core State Standards

core-educationAt a time when most U.S. public schools are implementing the Common Core State Standards, a new report finds that Americans don’t know what the Common Core State Standards are, and that they say more testing is not going to help students.

These are just some of the findings of the 45th annual PDK/Gallup Poll on the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools—the longest-running survey of American attitudes toward education, providing an extensive repository of data.

Overall, survey participants give their local schools an “A” or “B” rating, express confidence in teachers and principals, and support the growth of charter schools and home schooling.…Read More

School standards’ debut is rocky, and critics pounce

The New York Times reports that the Common Core, a set of standards for kindergarten through high school that has been ardently supported by the Obama administration and many business leaders and state legislatures, is facing growing opposition from both the right and the left even before it has been properly introduced into classrooms.  Tea Party conservatives, who reject the standards as an unwelcome edict from above, have called for them to be severely rolled back. Indiana has already put a brake on them. The Michigan House of Representatives is holding hearings on whether to suspend them. And citing the cost of new tests requiring more writing and a significant online component, Georgia and Oklahoma have withdrawn from a consortium developing exams based on the standards…

Read the full story

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Creating your own eTextbooks for Common Core

Creating eTextbooks might be easier than you think.

In an effort to save schools and districts money that’s often spent on outdated textbooks, many of which are not aligned with the Common Core State Standards, innovative educators and administrators are using online resources to create customized eTextbooks.In a recent edweb.net webinar, “Create Your Own Textbooks for the Common Core,” Nicole Rothbauer, an intervention specialist for Salem City Schools in Ohio, detailed how her district didn’t want to spend money on old textbooks that didn’t reflect the Common Core State Standards.

“Common Core really pushes students to build a deeper understanding of content and effectively apply learning within and across disciplines,” she said. “It was time to take action.”…Read More

Just how effective are the Common Core State Standards?

A new infographic wonders how effective the Common Core State Standards will be.

With all the hype about the Common Core State Standards, it’s easy to forget that some states have decided not to adopt the standards–plus, some adopting states are now re-evaluating their decisions. Now, a new infographic questions some of the basic tenets of the Common Core State Standards.

Perhaps one of the biggest arguments against the standards, according to the infographic, is that “while core curriculum has improved performance in states with traditionally good education systems,” states that have struggled academically wonder if the standards are more a one-size-fits-all pathway instead of a “great equalizing force,” in which the common standards bridge a gap between vocational education and the university pathway.…Read More