During the first weeks of school most teachers and principals are working together to document learning plans that support continuous improvement in areas such as planning, instruction, assessment, and learning environment. Regardless of where you teach, these plans are likely to include: Designing lessons that are aligned to standards Using formal and informal methods to measure student progress Using student progress data to adjust instruction Using data to design lessons that are appropriate for diverse learners Planning lessons that encourage higher order thinking Creating opportunities for student engagement Formal professional development is a great resource for learning, but you may have limited time and opportunity for attendance during the school year.  Job-related experiences and interactions with colleagues are often just as valuable as formal professional development because these just-in-time learning activities provide just what you need when you need it . Speaking of which, as you focus on your learning plan for the 2016-17 school year Learning List can assist you in achieving goals for standards-based planning and instruction.  Learning List has reviewed almost 2500 of the most widely used instructional materials. As a subscriber using these reviewed materials you can access detailed alignment reports to use in PLCs, peer mentoring and coaching, and individual planning and research whenever you need it. Training resources to help you use the alignment reports for the areas listed above are located next to your “Library” once you have logged into LearningList.com . These resources include short videos and step-by-step guides that put learning at your fingertips. Subscribers can also request webinar training on any of the topics listed. Use your Learning List subscription to support your professional learning goals.

In this article published recently in Education Week Jackie Lain, President of Learning List, shares a two-step process to determine whether your instructional materials are propelling your students’ success or undermining it. As Jackie explains, students cannot learn what they are not taught. If your students' test scores reflect a pattern of low performance on questions associated with a standard or group of standards, use the two-step process to determine whether your materials may be to blame.  If your materials do not address or the citations that were assigned are not  aligned  to those standards, then your students did not learn  all  of the knowledge and skills those standards require and their test scores reflect the materials' deficits. Access the full article for details and see previous posts to this blog highlighting the importance of alignment of instructional materials to standards are: Are Your Resources Supporting Your Efforts to Close the Achievement Gap? Are You Discussing Instructional Material Alignment in Your PLC?

Are you teaching a new grade level or subject this year? If so, have you had time to investigate the instructional materials provided by the district for the grade or course you are teaching? Sometimes when we have short notice of a change of assignment there just doesn’t seem to be enough time to plan.  Three years into my teaching career I moved between campuses and inherited a book cart full of materials for my new assignment. I had no idea which materials were current or most aligned to the standards for the course I would be teaching!  To make things more difficult, I was a singleton teacher and had no one to ask.  It took me a long time to wade through what I had and I am quite sure that I was missing components of the material that came with the original purchase. If you are in a similar position consider the following as you navigate your new role and review the materials you have. What types of materials do you have? Are your materials comprehensive or supplemental? A comprehensive material is one that supports instruction for a course’s full curriculum and is provided for all students. Such materials would include broad, deep discussions of content; remediation and enrichment activities; formative and summative assessments; as well as teacher resources. Supplemental resources are not designed to be the sole instructional resource for a course. Instead, supplementary materials complement, enrich, or extend the content of comprehensive resources. It seems reasonable that supplemental products will vary in terms of their alignment to standards. Some products may focus on a narrow set of standards, while others, such as test preparation resources, may provide a brief review of all standards. What other instructional resources are included with those materials? For example, do you and/or your students have access to additional web resources, or consumables that may engage them or help extend their learning? Hopefully you were left a list, or someone else on your team can provide this information to you. If not, it may be worth your time to research the material on the publisher’s website in order to understand all of the components you have at your fingertips. Is the material aligned to the standards you are teaching? Sometimes we have older materials that were purchased prior to a standards revision cycle. Those may not address all the current standards students are responsible for learning. How would you know? Compare the material’s publication date to the date the new standards were implemented. If provided, use the publisher’s correlation to identify which standards are addressed in the instructional material. When planning your instruction check that the citation(s) (page, lesson, video, etc.) you plan on using  is aligned to the content, context, and cognitive demand of the standard s you are teaching. Students won’t learn what they are not taught.  So make sure the materials you are using address the entire standards you are teaching. Thinking back to my third year teaching I would have been a far more effective teacher if I had known to check my materials.  I didn’t.  I hope this helps you avoid the same mistake so that your students have the best opportunity for success.

Compass Learning’s supplemental Hybridge™ Math program provides interactive, online mathematics instruction for grades K-8. Resources support instruction in blended learning environments and integrate easily with offline content. At the elementary level (K-5), instruction supports the development of algebraic reasoning, data analysis, and financial literacy skills. Content includes multimedia resources that illustrate and explain mathematics concepts in visually appealing segments appropriate to students’ age and attention span. Hybridge™ Math is a flexible program that may be used to supplement core math instruction in several ways. Teachers may select pre-made lessons that address a particular standard or topic covered in core math instruction. Teachers may also create customized lessons for individual students or groups of students. Customized learning paths are created using diagnostic pre-tests that adapt instruction based on individual student's needs. Teachers may create their own diagnostic tests using program software or they may use a premade assessment provided by one of Compass Learning’s assessment partners (i.e., Northwest Evaluation Association, Scantron, and Renaissance Learning). Most lessons take between 15 and 20 minutes to complete and include direct instruction, guided and independent practice, and a short assessment. Lessons increase in complexity across grade levels and include topics in geometry, mathematical operations, measurement and data, algebraic thinking, and financial literacy. At grade K, lessons help students learn to count and understand quantities. Lessons for grades 3-5 include operations with fractions. Instruction is presented in video lessons and narrated slide shows that include interactive games, puzzles, and activities. Familiar, age-appropriate characters engage students with humor, vivid graphics, and a conversational tone. Some lessons include printable worksheets to accompany instruction and most lessons include a short quiz. NOTE: Compass Learning, a leader in learning acceleration, has recently earned an  Education Software Review (EDDIE) Awards for its newly-released learning acceleration software™ that was selected from submissions worldwide: Hybridge™ won the best Reading/Math solution for Middle School.

Are you considering whether to renew a subscription of an online material? If so, the two-step process featured in this blog will help you analyze potential connections between student assessment results and the online resources you are using. Jackie Lain, President of Learning List, has recently been featured on the “Getting Smart Blog” as a Guest Author. http://gettingsmart.com/2016/08/how-to-determine-the-need-to-renew-online-material-subscription/

As the school year begins, so does the debate over homework. Educators, parents, and researchers have differing opinions about how much (if any) homework is appropriate. Some people believe homework is useless, if not harmful.  Others favor homework in some cases but not all, depending on the age of the child, the type of homework assigned, and the time it takes to complete.  Whether or not you agree with the concept of assigning of homework, students’ time spent interacting with instructional materials (during the school day or as homework) will lead to improved academic performance only if the materials used are aligned to the standards. As you plan homework, review the instructional material you plan to use to make sure that it addresses, and is aligned, to the standards you want students to learn. Here’s why: after hearing many teachers complain that they were not getting the promised results from a widely used supplemental material, Learning List reviewed it. Our alignment report revealed the problem: The material was not aligned to 100% of the state standards, which was not surprising because few supplemental materials intend to cover 100% of the standards. Teachers were (unintentionally) using the material to help students practice standards the material did not cover. In fact, the publisher’s correlation did not list those standards as being addressed in the material at all. In order for homework to be effective it must be aligned to the standards you want students to learn. Otherwise, you are giving students false confidence that they have learned what they need to be successful. For more information about using instructional materials efficiently and effectively, read these previous posts: Are You Discussing Instructional Material Alignment in Your PLC? Are Your Resources Supporting Your Efforts to Close the Achievement Gap?

This past weekend at ISTE *, Compass Learning unveiled its new suite of accelerated learning software to help teachers tackle some of today’s biggest education challenges. The new offerings focus on blended learning, intervention and credit recovery with software that includes: Pathblazer ™ a reading and math intervention program for elementary and middle school students, Hybridge ™ a blended learning solution for elementary and middle school, and Gradbound ™ , a credit recovery program for high school. Compass Learning is also launching new professional development courses, including its Leveraging Data course, which will support educators in implementing data-driven instruction. While these products are new, Compass Learning has been building on more than 40 years of innovation by providing rigorous products to support accelerated learning experiences that enable K-12 students to succeed. Last year, Learning List reviewed Compass Learning’s comprehensive Odyssey program.  Odyssey provides interactive, accelerated, online instruction in mathematics and English language arts/reading for K-12 students. Across grade levels, Odyssey’s flexible resources support a range of instructional needs, including self-paced learning, remediation, tutorials, and credit-recovery programs.  Lessons are highly customizable and use video, audio, text-based, and interactive learning experiences to accommodate differences in student learning styles. At each grade level, Odyssey’s multimedia content illustrates and explains concepts in humorous, visually appealing segments appropriate to students’ age and attention spans. Each Odyssey course is structured to facilitate easy access to lessons and associated content. Lessons are indexed by sequence, skill, and learning standard, and lessons titles include accurate and thorough descriptions of content and activities. Teachers may customize instruction by adding offline or other web-based resources to existing course materials. Odyssey’s Test Builder tool allows teachers to develop customized assessments using test bank items indexed by learning objective. Teachers may set mastery levels, timed testing windows, and other testing criteria. Like the new suite of products, Odyssey’s reporting tools support data-driven instruction by providing teachers with detailed reports in more than 20 formats. Report data may be aggregated by class, grade, school, and multiple schools and disaggregated for particular student groups, such as English language learners. You can look forward to reviewing the resources on Learning List  after the resources become available for the new school year. *International Society for Technology in Education

Students are more likely to do well on state assessments if their instructional materials help them learn what the state requires them to know and be able to do after taking the course. Publishers regularly tell us that going through our review process has helped them strengthen their materials in a variety of ways: 1) Creating correlations for more products: Trustworthy correlations help teachers quickly identify the parts of an instructional material that will help students master the knowledge and skills required in each standard. Publishers typically develop correlations for materials they intend to submit for state adoption but do not routinely correlate their non-state-adopted and supplemental materials. A detailed correlation document must accompany any product submitted to Learning List for review. Therefore, many publishers have used Learning List’s alignment templates to correlate their materials to state standards for the first time. Learning List’s subject matter experts then verify that the citations in the publisher’s correlation are aligned to the content, context and cognitive demand of each standard. 2) Strengthening their correlations: Learning List’s subject matter experts review the citations listed in the publisher’s correlation from an educator’s perspective. For each citation found not to be aligned to the relevant standard, Learning List’s reviewers provide a comment explaining precisely which part of the standard the citation fails to address. Some publishers have eliminated from their correlations any citations Learning List found not to be aligned to the standards. As one publisher told us, “We don’t want to mislead our customers in any way. We’d rather remove any citations that your reviewers believed did not address the standards as deeply as educators need them to.” 3) Helping educators use products more effectively: Learning List allows publishers to provide comments in response to our alignment review. Several publishers have provided comments to guide subscribers to content provided in another grade level where a particular standard is more deeply aligned. Other publishers suggest ways subscribers can adjust their use of the product (e.g., extend the number range; access a writing tool) to address the dictates of a particular standard that Learning List found not to be aligned in the material. 4) Strengthening product content: Publishers have also added content to their products to address deficiencies highlighted in Learning List’s alignment reports. For example, in response to Learning List’s alignment review of its elementary math products, a publisher created new content for the teacher editions and submitted a correlation to the new content for a subsequent review. As a result of the additional content, the product’s alignment percentage increased from around 70 to 98%. Last week, the publisher of state-adopted materials that were deemed by the state review panel to be aligned to fewer than 100% of the standards asked us to review new content developed to address deficits highlighted in the state’s review. We will review the new content and provide subscribers with both the original state alignment report and Learning List’s alignment report for the updated product. Learning List helps students learn by providing high quality reviews that empower educators to select the instructional materials that will best meet their students’ needs. However, Learning List is helping students learn in another, equally important way. By helping publishers strengthen their materials’ alignment to the standards, Learning List is helping students receive materials that will better prepare them for academic success.

A recent Gallup poll of superintendents reported that 45 percent of respondents intended to make budget cuts during the upcoming school year.  The respondents commented that they intended to make cuts in the areas of operations and maintenance, instruction, salary and wages, and administration. Note: A full copy of the survey results is available here . Given the deep cuts districts were forced to make in 2011, it’s shocking that so many are again having to cut budgets. The burden of budget cuts is born not only by the employees who are released, but also by the remaining employees who have to assume the additional responsibilities of their departed colleagues. I often hear district leaders lamenting the fact that they keep having to ask their staff to do more … and more … and more. Learning List can help. Learning List helps relieves educators of the stress and burden of determining whether instructional materials are aligned to the standards and would address their students’ learning needs. Functioning like a virtual curriculum department, Learning List develops detailed alignment reports and professional reviews to assist district staff and local selection committees narrow the number of materials they need to review themselves. As a result, they spend less time reviewing instructional materials, review the materials they are most interested in more deeply and ultimately make better informed selection decisions. As a curriculum director of a large suburban district recently commented, “The question is not so much how can we afford to subscribe to your service; but rather, how can we afford not to.”

National Geographic Learning/ Cengage Learning’s Biology: The Unity and Diversity of Life About National Geographic Learning* National Geographic Learning, a part of Cengage Learning, is a leading educational publisher of school, higher education, English Language Teaching, library and reference materials. At National Geographic Learning, we believe that an engaged and motivated learner will be a successful one, and we design our materials to motivate. We believe that learning can be exciting, inspiring, and transformational. Through our learning programs, we want learners to experience the excitement and joy of learning that National Geographic explorers, scientists, writers and photographers experience. We share real stories from National Geographic that increase learners' knowledge of the world and everything in it. We illustrate these materials with stunning National Geographic photography, video, and illustrations that bring the world to the classroom and the classroom to life. At National Geographic Learning, we have a responsibility to future generations to provide strong educational skills and an awareness of their role as caretakers of the planet. *The content in this section is provided by or adapted from National Geographic Learning . Subscribe to Learning List for access to full editorial reviews, alignment reports and spec sheets.

Learning List has reviewed two National Geographic Learning/Cengage Learning calculus products written by the team of authors led by James Stewart: Calculus and Calculus of a Single Variable . Both are comprehensive resources that support instruction in Advanced Placement (AP) Calculus AB and BC courses.  Learning List has only reviewed eBook content, but both texts are available in print and eBook formats. Calculus covers single and multivariable calculus content in 17 chapters.  Calculus of a Single Variable is a single-variable course and presents the same content as that of Calculus’s first 11 chapters. Instruction in both courses emphasizes inquiry-based learning and the application of calculus to solve real-world problems. Online “Tools for Enriching Calculus” (TEC) materials are available to students using the “Enhanced WebAssign” learning management system (LMS) or at www.stewartcalculus.com. TEC provides course-specific “Visuals” and “Modules” that complement instruction, as well as “Homework Hits” for some chapter exercises. Visuals and Modules provide interactive animated illustrations of concepts with audio narrations. Using interactive tools, students are able to visualize how variable changes affect functions, and in turn, are better able to approximate solutions. Teachers using the Enhanced WebAssign LMS have access to online gradebooks, calendars, and communication tools. Analytic tools also allow teachers to monitor individual and class progress for students completing assignments using LMS resources. About National Geographic Learning/Cengage Learning* National Geographic Learning, a part of Cengage Learning, is a leading educational publisher of school, higher education, English Language Teaching, library and reference materials. At National Geographic Learning, we believe that an engaged and motivated learner will be a successful one, and we design our materials to motivate. We believe that learning can be exciting, inspiring, and transformational. Through our learning programs, we want learners to experience the excitement and joy of learning that National Geographic explorers, scientists, writers and photographers experience. We share real stories from National Geographic that increase learners' knowledge of the world and everything in it. We illustrate these materials with stunning National Geographic photography, video, and illustrations that bring the world to the classroom and the classroom to life. At National Geographic Learning, we have a responsibility to future generations to provide strong educational skills and an awareness of their role as caretakers of the planet. *The content in this section is provided by or adapted from National Geographic Learning . Subscribe to Learning List for access to full editorial reviews, alignment reports and spec sheets.

Learning List has reviewed McGraw Hill’s Reading Wonders, a comprehensive reading and language arts program for students in grades K-6. Instruction focuses on the close reading, collaborative discussion, and analytic writing strands of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), including the California CCSS. Materials are available in print and digital formats. Wonders uses a variety of student materials, such as the Reading/Writing Workshop, Your Turn Practice Book, Close Reading Companion , Leveled Readers, a Literature Anthology, and Grammar Handbook, and WonderWorks for Response to Intervention. The Reading/Writing Workshop is at the center of instruction and addresses the CCSS Anchor Strands for close reading of complex texts, collaborative conversations, and analytic writing, as well as foundational skills (e.g., phonics) as appropriate for a particular grade level. At each grade, Workshops present six-week thematic units (e.g., New Discoveries) organized in weekly instructional blocks. Wonders focuses on the reading of literary and informational texts, rereading for specific purposes, and the use of textual evidence to support conclusions and opinions in spoken and written formats. Lessons are structured using the Gradual Release of Responsibility (i.e., GRR) instructional model. Instruction relies on a set of instructional routines (i.e., introduction, modeling, and guided and independent practice) that are applied to specific learning task (e.g., sound categorization). Optional technology-based activities are provided. About McGraw Hill* At McGraw-Hill Education, we believe that our contribution to unlocking a brighter future lies within the application of our deep understanding of how learning happens and how the mind develops. It exists where the science of learning meets the art of teaching. Educators have been and always will be at the core of the learning experience. The solutions we develop help educators impart their knowledge to students more efficiently. We believe that harnessing technology can enhance learning inside and outside of the classroom and deepen the connections between students and teachers to empower greater success. By partnering with educators around the globe, our learning engineers, content developers and pedagogical experts are developing increasingly open learning ecosystems that are proven to improve pass rates, elevate grades and increase engagement for each individual learner while improving outcomes for all. *The content in this section is provided by or adapted from McGraw Hill. Subscribe to Learning List for access to full editorial reviews, alignment reports and spec sheets.