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August 24, 2014 will mark the beginning of the 365-day countdown to when high school teachers will be required to teach the new high school math Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills ( TEKS ).  Teachers across the state have been working hard to prepare for the changes. Districts are adjusting instruction, instructional materials and assessments to ensure students will learn the new standards successfully. On Friday, July 25, 2014, the Texas Education Agency released a document to better assist teachers in this process, The Revised Mathematics TEKS: Side-by-Side Comparison documents for Algebra I, Algebra II and Geometry. The documents show educators in a user-friendly, color-coded template, what content has been added, deleted, has remained the same and/or has been clarified. In addition, the document provides critical instructional implication details in the Supporting Information column. Since the  value of collaboration  is far greater than the knowledge of any one person, we ask you: "How are you preparing to teach the new high school math TEKS?" (See comment box below) We look forward to your responses via the comment field of this blog. All answers will be compiled anonymously in an upcoming blog post by the end of July.  Thank you for participating. * If you enjoyed reading this article, you may also enjoy: Before Buying Instructional Materials, What Would You Ask?

DynaStudy ’s DynaNotes Science Course Notes are app-based supplemental learning aids that support instruction in high school biology and chemistry courses and science courses at grades 5 and 8. At each grade level, Course Notes complement TEKS -aligned comprehensive, core science curricula and support preparation for STAAR testing and end of course exams. Students can create easy, password-protected journals on individual or shared iPads or Android tablets . The apps are grounded in TEKS, personal to each student and connected to the outside world. Course Notes summarize fundamental concepts and define vocabulary in short easy-to-read passages that include clear examples, colorful illustrations, and links to external resources with relevant content (e.g., NBC Learn ). Instruction focuses content tested on STAAR exams and includes eligible content from prior grades.  Course Notes do not include hands-on activities or practice in problem-solving skills. However, teachers are able to expand notes to include additional information, activities, and experiments aligned to the TEKS. Course Notes are easy-to-use for both students and teachers. Students are able to add their own notes in text format or by using tablet camera functions to attach photographs. All notes are local to the device, so once the app has been downloaded, all course notes and student notes are accessible without an Internet connection. Links to external resources, however, continue to require Internet access. Effective student tools yield many benefits for teachers. While students use DynaNotes apps, teachers are freed to do more. DynaStudy, the creator of DynaNotes , is an award-winning educational publishing company headquartered in Austin, Texas. More information is available about this and other options on their website .

Over the past few weeks, we have been working our way through a series of 15 questions that are most commonly asked of Learning List by those who develop and deliver content. The series began with Part 1 : the first five questions and answers; that was followed by Part 2 - the answers to the second five. In this final installment, we’ll address the remaining questions. Who are Learning List's reviewers? Learning List’s reviewers, called Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), are experienced, certified educators with prior standards-alignment experience. To be eligible for selection as an SME for Learning List, a candidate must meet the following criteria: He or she must have at least five years of teaching experience, though most are far more experienced; He or she must be certified in the grade and subject related to the product(s) assigned for review; and He or she cannot have been employed by a publisher or K-12 online content provider for at least two years immediately preceding his or her relationship with Learning List. 2. How does Learning List protect the security of materials that are submitted? Learning List  is acutely aware of and respects publishers’ security concerns. Publishers upload all product data and access information directly into Learning List’s secure database. Products are accessible only to the subject matter experts assigned to review the material through the database; materials are not emailed during the review process.  Six weeks after product reviews are published on  LearningList.com , the product access information is deleted from Learning List’s database. 3. How many districts does Learning List have as subscribers? The number of Learning List’s subscribing districts is continuously growing, with over 500,000 students now served through the districts that subscribe to our service. While Learning List’s subscribers include very large urban and suburban districts, there are many small rural districts and private schools located inside and outside of Texas. 4. Can publishers subscribe to Learning List? What features are included in a publisher subscription? Yes. Publishers may  subscribe to Learning List . With a subscription, publishers have full access to all of Learning List’s reviews and have all but two of the same privileges as subscribing districts. The two exceptions are: 1) publishers cannot request the review of a product published by another company and 2) publishers are not able use the educator ratings feature. Subscribing publishers have commented that Learning List is an incomparable source of market intelligence (identifying gaps in the market) and competitive intelligence (better understanding competitors’ products). We offer a 15% discount for publishers that have submitted materials to Learning List for review. For more information about publisher subscriptions or submitting content, contact Christopher Lucas, Director of Publisher Relations, via ChristopherL@learninglist.com. 5. Can we get a trial subscription to LearningList.com to see what the reviews look like? Learning List does not offer trial subscriptions for publishers. However, we are happy to  schedule a webinar  to introduce our service and enable the publisher to see how product information and the reviews are presented  on LearningList.com . If you enjoyed this article, you may be interested in reading: Publishers: Meet Learning List (Part 1) Publishers: Meet Learning List (Part 2)

In the July 15 th issue of Education Week, there was a tech-related article about personalized learning titled: “ Before Buying Technology, Asking ‘Why?’ ” The same can be asked about the K-12 instructional materials selection process. Before you purchase anything, ask “Why?” Why is your proposed selection the best choice? Yet there are other key questions that must be asked. When we sampled school districts to better understand the cost of the selecting instructional materials (IM), we found that there are hidden costs. We learned more about the cost of selecting IM that remained unused within each district. Our sampling showed the value of unused materials sitting in district warehouses ranged from $50,000 to well over $1 million. Of course, this range was not a yearly total, but one that was a cumulative effect over a period of several years. So how can you best optimize a standards-aligned selection process that will use every dollar of the IM budget toward resources that your teachers will use  for the next 6-8 years? Ask the critical  questions before you buy. Districts often ask us which questions they should be asking publishers. Our editorial reviews answer the key questions the research suggests that differentiate high quality instructional materials. We also provide publishers' answers to the 12 most commonly asked questions from district RFPs across the country. Since the value of collaborating across school districts is far greater than the knowledge of any one school district, we ask you: Before Buying Instructional Materials, What Are the Key Questions You Ask Publishers? We look forward to your responses via the comment field of this blog or through Twitter via @LearningList using #IMkeyQs (hashtag for Instructional Materials Key Questions). All answers will be compiled anonymously in an upcoming blog post by the end of July. Thank you for participating.

Earlier this week, we began our series on the 15 questions that are most commonly asked of Learning List by those who develop and deliver content. The series began with the answers to five of those questions. In this installment, we’ll address five more. Why do I need Learning List if my products have already been reviewed by a state agency and by the general public? Many state agencies only verify alignment to standards, while Learning List adds an editorial review to that. The review describes the product’s features and highlights important qualitative information about the product, as well as educator reviews and ratings. Additionally, we market to the same schools that publishers do - in ways that they might not be able to. We believe that by having products reviewed by Learning List, a publisher can increase its marketing reach to districts and schools across the country. Finally, LearningList.com can generate sales leads. On each review, we place a link to the publisher’s website in order to drive high quality sales leads from subscribers that have already read the reviews. To ensure that the information on Learning List is as robust and informative as possible, we actively invite publisher participation. Participating publishers provide us the correlation to the standards and advise us which customers to interview for the editorial review as well as which reference districts to list. Additionally, publishers can preview the editorial review and alignment report in order to correct any errors before reviews go live on the Learning List service. If we chose not to submit, why is there a review of one of our products on Learning List.com ? Learning List exists to provide districts with unbiased, independent information about instructional materials to enable them to choose the materials that can best meet students' needs. When a district requests the review of a specific product, we contact the publisher and invite that publisher to submit the product for review. If the publisher declines to participate in the review, Learning List will attempt to review the product using publicly available information. While Learning List invites and values publisher participation, we are committed to responding to each districts’ needs. The reviews on Learning List clearly indicate if the publisher did not participate. Publishers that do not participate are offered a one-week period to preview the reviews before they are active on Learning List. Can I withdraw a product if I’m not happy with the results of the review? No. Because Learning List begins investing its resources in the review as soon as a product is uploaded, a product may not be withdrawn once it is submitted. However, participating publishers do have a lot of input into the reviews. Learning List’s alignment process begins with the publisher’s correlation. Furthermore, the editorial reviews utilize feedback provided by the publisher and the publisher’s customers, as well as from Learning List’s subject-matter-experts. Publishers are able to preview the reviews before they are published, correct errors in the editorial reviews, and submit additional citations for Learning List to review for alignment. Does Learning List review for coverage of only the TEKS standards? Currently, Learning List verifies alignment to  Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), and College Board AP framework. How long does the entire process take? Once a product is submitted and Learning List receives all necessary information, the final reviews are published on LearningList.com within about 30 days of receiving the comprehensive materials.

Learning List  has reviewed hundreds of K-12 instructional materials. Some are textbooks, many are digital materials and some are even DVDs.  What we’ve learned is that no two materials are alike. That makes our job exciting and educators’ jobs even more difficult. In the “old days,” educators just had textbooks to compare. Today, they have to compare online, adaptive products to paper-and-pen materials. How do you do an apples-to-apples comparison of peaches and pears? The obvious answer is to use the same criteria to assess all products. But, that’s not as easy at is sounds. Let’s take, for example, aligning to standards.  Learning List verifies that instructional material is aligned to the content, context and cognitive demand of each standard. One of the most challenging aspects of an alignment analysis is to determine whether the material aligns to the verb of the standard to grade-appropriate level of rigor. A comprehensive online video-based material could more easily provide simulations and prompts to ensure that students demonstrate their mastery of the content of the standards in in the manner prescribed by the verb(s) in each standard.   In contrast, a print material intended to be a study guide may contain descriptions and examples, but it may not contain simulations, prompts or questions.  Could the examples alone suffice to align the material to the verbs of the standards? The question we have wrestled with is this: In order for a material to be aligned to the verb of a standard, does the material have to require students to demonstrate that they can do what the standard expects students to be able to do, or is it sufficient for the material to prepare students to be able to do what the standard expects?  In other words, must instructional materials contain prompts (questions, activities) or would an example depicting what the standards is teaching sufficient? After much debate, Learning List’s subject matter experts agreed that materials that contain robust examples may align to lower rigor verbs such as “identify,” “compare” or perhaps even “understand,” particularly in the earlier grade levels. But, in order to align to most verbs, materials must contain teacher prompts or questions or activities for students that require students to demonstrate the action (e.g., “ask and answer,” “analyze” or “demonstrate”) required by the verb of the standard. Do you agree?

Being an independent instructional materials review service for schools and districts, Learning List focuses on serving educators. However, in meeting the needs of districts, we also create value for publishers of instructional materials. We have identified 15 questions that are most commonly asked by those who develop and deliver instructional content. In this and two subsequent posts, we’ll answer each of these questions. What criteria does Learning List use to rate/rank the materials? Learning List does not rate or rank instructional materials. Our purpose is to provide districts with unbiased, independent information about each instructional material to enable them to choose the materials that are most appropriate for their students. To accomplish this, we provide three types of reviews: a verification of the material’s alignment to state, Common Core , and other relevant standards, an editorial review that describes the product’s features and highlights important qualitative information about the product, and educator ratings and reviews based on specific criteria aligned with effective teaching practices. Does Learning List re-review materials that have been reviewed by the state and are state-adopted? For products that have gone through the state’s adoption process: if the state produces a detailed alignment report showing specific citations that the state checked for alignment to state standards, Learning List features the state’s alignment report. If the state does not produce a detailed alignment verification, then Learning List will produce an independent verification of the material’s alignment to state standards. For products that have not gone through a state-adoption process (e.g., non-adopted materials), Learning List produces an independent verification of the material’s alignment to state standards. For all materials, Learning List develops an editorial review and educator ratings and reviews. Do publishers get to preview and/or respond to the information before it is published? Yes. For each product, we give publishers one week to preview the information before it is made available to subscribers on LearningList.com. During this period, publishers can correct any errors of fact in the editorial review and provide written comments and/or additional citations for Learning List to review in response to the alignment verification. The publisher’s comments on the alignment verification are published on LearningList.com along with the alignment verification. How much does it cost to submit materials? Submitting materials to Learning List for review is free . There is no out-of-pocket cost for publishers to submit materials. If it’s free for publishers, where does Learning List’s revenue come from? Learning List is a subscription-based service. Schools and districts subscribe to Learning List to access our reviews. Subscribers may also request that Learning List review materials that are not yet available on LearningList.com. Stay tuned for the next two parts of this series. If you enjoyed this article, you may also want to read Teacher Collaboration: A Key to Success .

Having attended almost 10 years of legislative hearings, I’ve heard countless educators lament that with so many demands on teachers’ time, lesson planning is often relegated to a last-minute “to do”. They recount relying on lesson plans from prior years or hastily scribbled notes as a substitute for a lesson plan. Moreover, though educators realize the need, few have the time to make sure that the materials they assign to the students are aligned to the standards and reinforce their lessons. I thought to myself, how can students be successful when teachers don’t have lesson plans to help them cover the knowledge and skills students need to learn? It’s like driving to a destination without a map or at very least, a good sense of direction. Helping teachers overcome that challenge was one our motivations in designing Learning List’s detailed alignment reports. For each instructional material reviewed, Learning List provides an independent verification of the publisher’s correlation, checking that the citations (e.g., page numbers, units, activities, videos, etc…) the publisher lists as aligned to each standard truly are aligned to the standard’s content, context and cognitive demand (i.e., “performance expectation”). If a citation is not aligned to all three dimensions of the standard, Learning List provides a comment explaining which part of the standard is not addressed. Subscribing educators can consult Learning List’s alignment report for the instructional material their district uses to ensure that they assign the portions of the material that will help their students master the standards. Just as our alignment reports and editorial reviews help districts and campuses streamline their selection processes, educators can use Learning List’s independent alignment reports to create standards-aligned lesson plans more efficiently and effectively. Most importantly, Learning List’s alignment reports help give educators confidence that their lessons are preparing their students for success.

Today, Learning List released market insights drawn from hundreds of alignment verifications we have completed.  Although Learning List reviews both comprehensive and supplemental instructional materials, this analysis only included materials that publishers claimed to be aligned to 100% of the relevant standards.  Learning List’s Subject Matter Experts (experienced educators) found that, on average, those materials were aligned to: 87% of Common Core State Standards; and 88% of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). Thus, there was an average gap of 13 percentage points between publishers’ claimed alignment percentage and the alignment percentage determined by Learning List’s independent reviews. The largest gap was 50 percentage points for Common Core materials and 32 percentage points for TEKS materials. Why the discrepancy?  One reason is that publishers and educators may be using different definitions of “alignment”.  The impetus for Learning List was the need to address a common frustration among school board members, superintendents, and curriculum directors. District and School executives asserted that publishers often say that their materials are aligned to 100% of the standards, but once districts purchase them and teachers start using the products, they find that the materials are only “superficially” aligned. One plain-spoken superintendent explained it this way, “Publishers align to the nouns of the standards, but our students are tested on the verbs.” Learning List reviews instructional materials from the educators' perspective, looking for alignment to the content, context and cognitive demand (or performance expectation) of each standard.  Having already reviewed hundreds of instructional materials for alignment to both the Common Core and Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, our experience corroborates that most publishers do a good job of aligning their materials to the content of the standards (what students are expected to know), but do not routinely ensure that the material also addresses the cognitive demand of each standard (how the students are expected to demonstrate their knowledge) at the requisite level of rigor for the grade level.  Hence, that is the most significant reason for the discrepancy between the publisher’s claimed alignment percentage and the percentage determined by Learning List. So, prior to purchasing any instructional materials that span multiple grade levels, it would be wise for schools and districts to review the material’s alignment to each grade level’s standards.

Have you ever wondered how your district is going to purchase all the new instructional materials your students need?  With the Association of American Publishers noting a four percent decline of instructional materials purchases in 1Q of 2014, school budgets continue to be under close scrutiny to maximize the ROI for education. Some states, like Texas, Florida and South Carolina, provide discrete funding for instructional materials. Most others expect districts to use general formula funding to purchase instructional materials.  All states expect school districts to use local funds to fill in the gaps. But, if those funding streams aren't sufficient to cover the costs of all the new instructional materials your students need, we need to think creatively. Here are five strategies to help you stretch your dollars so that you can afford the instructional materials your students need: (1)    Get the most from the instructional materials you have purchased :  Make sure your teachers know how to fully implement the materials your district has purchased so that they do not purchase additional materials with redundant functionalities. (2)    Align the materials you have to new state standards for the same grade and subject and then fill-in-the-gaps with supplemental products or high-quality open-education resources. Learning List can help! (3)    Align your materials for one subject to the standards for another subject - then fill-in-the-gaps with supplemental or high quality open-education resources.  Learning List can help! (4)    Buy/Sell surplus.  If districts have physical ownership over instructional materials under your state's law, sell them if your district is not or will not be using them in the foreseeable future. Check whether your state's laws prescribe when and how districts in your state may sell surplus instructional materials. (5)    Use Federal funds .  Federal  funds may be used to purchase instructional materials for select students or for the general student population . Some of those funding sources include: Title I , which allows funding to ensure "... that high-quality academic assessments, accountability systems, teacher preparation and training, curriculum, and instructional materials are aligned with challenging State academic standards so that students, teachers, parents, and administrators can measure progress against common expectations for student academic achievement...." and Title II , which provides funds to: "(1) increase student academic achievement through strategies such as improving teacher and principal quality and increasing the number of highly qualified teachers in the classroom and highly qualified principals and assistant principals in schools; and (2) hold local educational agencies and schools accountable for improvements in student academic achievement." You can use one or all of the above strategies to stretch your fund$ to optimize the ROI for your instructional materials budget. We welcome you to share other strategies that have worked for your leadership team. ISTE Update: JOIN Learning List for an ISTE RECEPTION on Sunday, June 29th at 5:30 PM. RSVP Here.

As 1-to-1 and BYOD* initiatives proliferate in K12 education across the country, keyboarding skills increasingly are taking precedence over handwriting instruction in elementary school classrooms.  Perhaps the greatest indicator of the shift away from handwriting is the attention given to keyboarding proficiency in the Common Core State Standards.  The CCSS, which have been adopted in most states, call for instruction in legible writing in kindergarten and first grade, but emphasize keyboarding skills in second grade and beyond. However, psychologists warn that handwriting is an important skill that has wide benefits in supporting student learning at all ages.  For example, a 2012 study by Karin James, a psychologist at the University of Indiana, demonstrated that the practice of handwriting shapes brain development in ways that support the acquisition of reading skills in young children.  In June, Scientific American cited a 2014 study by psychologists at the University of California Los Angeles and Princeton found that college students who took notes using longhand had better retention and understanding of lecture information than students who took notes on laptops.  The authors argue that that the process of writing allows students to process and frame information in ways that support memory and understanding. In light of these findings, educators may want to seek a balance between instruction in keyboarding and handwriting skills, particularly in the elementary grades.   Educators considering such a balance may be interested in Learning List’s recent review of Handwriting Without Tears (HWT).  HWT is a comprehensive handwriting curriculum for grades K-5 that focuses on printing skills in grades K-2 and cursive writing in grades 3-5.  Across grade levels, handwriting instruction is provided in 15-minute periods that integrate learning to write with instruction in other subjects, particularly language arts.  Teacher’s guides provide support for integrating reading (e.g., encoding and decoding) and writing skills (e.g., composing words, sentences, and paragraphs) with handwriting instruction and include engaging and developmentally appropriate activities at each grade level. *BYOD = Bring Your Own Device

The Math Learning Center recently released the second edition of Bridges in Mathematics for grades K-5, and Learning List has just reviewed the new set of products.  Bridges is a comprehensive, inquiry-based program that creates a cooperative community of learners in the elementary mathematics classroom by blending teacher-led instruction, structured investigation, and open exploration of math concepts. The Bridges program includes three key components: Problems & Investigations prompt students to think independently about a teacher-posed problem and to share and evaluate strategies to reach a solution in whole class and partner discussions. Work Places are station-based activities that engage students in games and other activities that develop and practice new skills. Number Corner is a calendar-based skills program of short daily activities (20 minutes) that promote understanding of key concepts and develop computational fluency. Each component includes engaging, age-appropriate content, resources for intervention and support, as well as enrichment activities. The use of increasingly complex visual models and hands-on instructional tools moves students from the understanding of concrete concepts to more abstract thinking about mathematics. Family resources help parents understand learning goals and engage parents as partners in supporting students’ home learning. Educators enjoy sharing their experiences working with this program: see video here . At each grade level, Bridges focuses on developing students’ ability to reason mathematically, communicate their reasoning, model with mathematics, and critique the reasoning of others. Educators who provided feedback about Bridges to Learning List said the product helped them create classroom cultures in which students work independently and interact positively when discussing problem-solving strategies with classmates. Educators stressed the importance of using teacher resources and overviews to plan and guide daily instruction. They said that teachers needed to trust Bridges’ sequencing and pacing of instruction, explaining that instruction is mapped to how students learn mathematics and activities build on one another to ensure deep understanding of content.