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As you are preparing to welcome students into your classrooms, you're probably thinking a lot about how you are going to provide the best instruction for your students. Research studies have provided us with the top factors that increase student achievement. Strong teachers and principals with great leadership skills are two factors cited in many studies as central to improving student achievement. A third commonly cited factor in raising student achievement is teaching the standards. That sounds simple but it's not. To teach the standards, teachers must know what students are required to learn and demonstrate. If a teacher does not teach the material to the depth and complexity required by the standards, students may not succeed in that grade or subject, no matter how hard the teacher works. To help educators teach what the standards demand, instructional materials must align to the standards. To be aligned, a lesson must meet the content, context, and cognitive rigor of the standard. In the next few weeks, our blog posts will address these three critical components of the standards.

It seems like school just let out yesterday. “Back to School” sales are everywhere… children are labeling their school supplies, teachers are already in their classrooms preparing for the new school year, and administrators are carefully disaggregating student data. As a teacher and administrator for many years, I know how hard educators work to provide the best instruction possible for their students. Many wonderful products are out there that will assist you in meeting the educational needs of your students, but how do you know which one is the best for YOUR students? Educators don’t have time, especially at the beginning of the year, to sort through hundreds of catalogs or listen to long sales presentations. So what do you do? Learning List is here to help you quickly find the best instructional materials. No longer do teachers have to be taken out of their classroom to verify that a product’s alignment to the standards is on the mark. Learning List’s team of expert educators does that for you plus provides much information about the product and names of school districts that have used the product. Think of it as Christmas in August for all you educators!

Agile Mind is a comprehensive, online program to support mathematics instruction in middle school and high school.  Agile Mind resources are designed to support teacher-led instruction and include interactive animations, simulations, and collaborative learning experiences to engage students with mathematics concepts. Agile Mind resources are aligned to the Common Core State Standards and the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills . Instruction is organized in three-part lessons: Overview activities spark students’ interest using animations and visualizations to introduce new concepts. Exploring activities provide core instruction in the context of real-world problems. Interactive simulations allow students to manipulate variables, make predictions, and analyze data. Instruction incorporates multiple representations of math concepts (e.g., words, tables, graphs, and equations) and provides opportunities for students to communicate their thinking in written and spoken formats. Summary sections review and reinforce key concepts and vocabulary . Agile Mind resources include Bloom’s and Webb’s Depth of Knowledge (DOK) questioning taxonomies and Mathematics Assessment Resource Service (MARS) problem sets that are aligned to national and international standards. An Algebra I teacher from Lyford High School in Texas commented: “Even though I didn’t think I had time to implement another new program at our school, I found out that having students work on Agile Mind to explore a new topic before I taught the lesson actually saved me time in the long run!” Agile Mind provides extensive instructional support for teachers, including topic-specific support for planning and implementing lessons and downloadable student work sheets to support note-taking and lab-based activities. The program’s browser-based learning management system (LMS) is easy to use and includes tools that allow teachers to plan instruction; manage assignments, quizzes, and assessments; and communicate with students. The teacher dashboard is formatted as an interactive calendar that includes an “at-a-glance” feature that allows users to track individual student and class progress on assignments. LMS resources include comprehensive guidance in using online tools and professional development and support for instruction in print and video formats. About Agile Mind: With over 2.3 million students served in 27 states, Agile Mind was founded in 2002 to enhance one thing: the opportunity to learn. The team focuses on equity and high achievement in mathematics and science because of its importance to both the lives of students and to the future of our nation. Agile Mind’s mission—and promise—is to provide the programs, tools, and the instructional improvement systems educators need to transform student achievement through exemplary, sustainable teaching practices. Click here to learn more about Agile Mind courses and programs.

Learning List has reviewed Agile Mind’s resources for single-variable Advanced Placement (AP) Calculus AB courses.  Materials are comprehensive and available online with some printable content. Instruction addresses communication and reasoning skills and the application of mathematics to real-world situations. Instruction is organized in 36 “Topics” that address AP Calculus AB content. Each Topic structures a three-part lesson that includes (1) Overview , (2) Exploring , (3) Summary sections. Overview sections engage students using animations and visualizations to introduce new concepts and link content to students’ prior learning. Exploring sections provide core instruction in the context of real-world problems. Summary sections review and reinforce key concepts and vocabulary . Topics also include (4) Assessment and (5) Testing sections that support formative and summative assessment. The course incorporates multiple representations of math concepts (e.g., words, tables, graphs, and equations) and develops students’ ability to communicate their thinking in written and spoken formats. Instruction includes animations that engage students using real-world scenarios and problems (e.g., graphing the arc of a snowboarder’s jump). Animations are accompanied by rigorous, open-ended questions that encourage students to think critically and apply their learning. The course also includes two versions of an AP Calculus AB practice exam.  Practice exams are formatted to reflect the rigor, content, and time and technology allocations of the AP exam. Practice exams must be printed for paper and pencil administration and include complete solutions. Agile Mind has created a webinar introduction to Resources for Calculus. Subscribers may view the webinar on the product’s homepage on Learninglist.com . About Agile Mind* Agile Mind was founded to enhance one thing: the opportunity to learn. We focus on equity and high achievement in mathematics and science because of its importance to both the lives of students and to the future of our nation. For students, we have created powerful programs, tools, and strategies that help them excel in the courses that are crucial for admission to America’s leading colleges and universities. We have used the Internet to deliver these tools and services at a fraction of their historical costs. Further leveraging this infrastructure, we deliver high-quality services that schools and districts find increasingly essential to meet the high expectations of our nation, our states, and our communities.. Agile Mind is built on a combination of high-tech and high-touch strategies. In addition to Internet-delivered services, educators and administrators also receive face-to-face seminars, mentoring, and a rich array of  resources to manage their demanding workloads, expand their expertise, and dramatically improve outcomes for their students. But the success of our tools and our services is measured in the faces, in the motivation, and in the achievement of your students—all of your students. Our only success is theirs and yours. *The content in this section is provided by or adapted from Agile Mind . Subscribe to Learning List for access to full editorial reviews, alignment reports and spec sheets.

L earning A-Z’s Reading A-Z is a supplemental program that supports reading instruction in grades K-5. Resources are available online and may be downloaded and printed or displayed using classroom projection devices. Instruction focuses on developing proficient readers using texts that match students’ individual reading levels. Learning List has recently completed reviews of Learning A-Z's materials for grades K-5. Reading A-Z content is organized in 27 reading levels (i.e., aa to Z) that gradually increase in difficulty. Levels are identified using Learning A- Z’s proprietary “Text Leveling System.” This system considers qualitative indicators (e.g., author’s purpose), quantitative measures (e.g., word count), and reader and task considerations (e.g., student interest and skill) to provide a rounded measure of text complexity. Learning A-Z provides a “Level Correlation Chart” aligning its complexity levels with other widely used measures (e.g., Lexiles, Fountas & Pinnell). At each level of text complexity, Reading A-Z provides two “Benchmark Books” that assess students’ readiness for instruction. Core instruction is presented through the use of more than 1,400 leveled texts and their associated “Guided Lessons.” Texts include a balance of fiction and non-fiction selections. Lessons address fluency, comprehension, writing, vocabulary and foundational skills, such as letter recognition, phonological awareness, and phonics. Each leveled reader is accompanied by a set of instructional resources, including worksheets and quizzes. Teachers may enable individual students and/or classes to access the online “On Your Own Book Room.”  The Book Room contains a variety of independent reading materials in eBook format, including Spanish-language books, poetry, and texts that emphasize high frequency vocabulary.

If you have lived in Texas over the last 10 months, it would have been difficult to escape the debate over the CSCOPE lesson plans. If you are involved in public education in any way, it would have been impossible. CSCOPE is a curriculum management system aligned to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) that was developed by a consortium of the 20 Education Service Centers (ESCs) in Texas. The system has been purchased and used by a majority of Texas school districts for many years. Though a later development, CSCOPE also includes TEKS-aligned lesson plans. The CSCOPE lesson plans came under intense scrutiny during the recently-ended Texas legislative session because of concerns about the content of some lessons. As a result, the legislature passed two bills addressing CSCOPE: S.B. 1406 subjects the CSCOPE lessons to review by the State Board of Education. The bill took immediate effect. SB 1474 requires school districts to adopt a process that solicits teacher, school district employee and public input prior to adopting a major curriculum initiative, including a curriculum management system, such as CSCOPE. Before the legislative session ended, the governing board of the non-profit organization formed to oversee CSCOPE voted to discontinue the CSCOPE lesson plans as of August 31, 2013. However, the lesson plans subsequently were made freely available to districts through multiple sources, including the Texas Tribune . During the July meeting of the State Board of Education, the general counsel for the Texas Education Agency stated that since CSCOPE lessons are in the public domain and there is no law prohibiting school districts from using them, districts may use CSCOPE lessons if authorized to do so by their school boards. Consequently, the controversy over CSCOPE continues, and Senator Dan Patrick, Chairman of the Senate Education Committee and Thomas Ratliff, Vice Chairman of the SBOE, will debate the use of CSCOPE in Texas public schools this Saturday, August 23, at 6:30pm. Senator Patrick has been a vocal critic of CSCOPE, while Vice Chairman Ratliff has been a strong advocate of districts’ right to use CSCOPE lessons. The debate promises to be interesting. You can follow it here: http://clients.streamingmediahosting.com/jlepe/10571.html

In 2011, the Texas legislature decentralized and largely deregulated the purchasing of instructional materials and technology by school districts.  At the same time, school districts nationally were facing the challenge of implementing the Common Core State Standards. Education reformers were touting the cost-saving and academic benefits of online courses. And, faced with massive budget cuts, educators were surfing the internet to find free, open-source materials to fill the gap because their districts could not afford new instructional resources.  The marketplace needed order, and educators needed help identifying  the materials are best suited to their students’ learning needs.  The three types of review (alignment to standards, editorial review and subscriber ratings) and tools on LearningList are designed to help educators identify the right materials to for students.

One day I was walking through a prairie in Kenya accompanied by a guide and two friends from the U.S., when we suddenly came across five kids and an adult huddled under a tree.  As we approached, we saw that the adult was teaching the students math.  The teacher threw out a question and the kids feverishly calculated the answer in the dirt using sticks as pencils. A hand shot up and the student answered the question with delight. The teacher confirmed the answer and the other students reveled in their collective victory. It was pure magic- teaching and learning at its essence.  After almost 20 years in education law and policy, that day I re-committed myself to doing whatever I can to make sure that all students have what they need to experience the of learning, as these five kids had under a tree on a prairie in Kenya.

A study published this month in the journal Science points to the benefits of reading literary fiction in developing students’ ability to empathize as well as to read and understand social cues. Social psychologists at the New School for Social Research in New York City relied on Amazon.com to recruit participants ranging in age from 18 to 73 from diverse backgrounds.  In a set of five experiments, study participants were paid between $2 and $3 to read selected texts for several minutes.  Some participants read non-fiction, others read popular fiction, and still others read literary fiction.  After reading their assigned texts, study participants took computerized tests that assessed their ability to identify emotions or predict an individual’s behaviors or thinking in a given situation.  Across experiments, participants who read literary fiction had better test scores than those who read non-fiction or popular fiction, or in some cases, nothing at all.  And, results held even when participants said they did not enjoy reading literary fiction.  Researchers reasoned that literary fiction is more open-ended than most popular fiction and non-fiction.  It requires that readers be sensitive to subtleties in characters’ behavior and language and that readers use their imagination and inference skills.  Although the study did not address how long results last, the study’s authors highlight the importance of findings for curriculum development, noting the movement away from literary fiction in the Common Core State Standards, which emphasizes non-fiction reading assignments. If you are interested in participating in the study, click here .

Parental engagement is a well-documented contributor to student success. So much so, that the Texas legislature just added a requirement to the state accountability system that districts make public a self-evaluation of, among other factors, the level of community and parental involvement. Here’s a carrot….the application deadline for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Family Engagement Grants is September 23, 2013. WKKF awards grants of up to $500,000 to organizations, including public schools, that are developing promising models of family engagement in low-income communities. Grants will be awarded for one to three years. WKKF defines family engagement as “a shared responsibility of families, schools and communities for student learning and achievement.” WKKF seeks to fund “on the ground” efforts, including those focused on program design and implementation, policy design and implementation, and service delivery. Selected applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal in October 2013. Selected grantees will be notified of grant awards in December 2013.

We are happy to launch Learning List’s blog. Not surprisingly, our blog will focus on selecting and purchasing instructional materials and online courses. More specifically, we hope our posts will help educators review and select the instructional materials best suited to meet their students’ unique needs. Our blog posts will address such topics as: Understanding the standards; aligning to standards; policy trends and changes; and, factors to consider when selecting and purchasing instructional materials. We hope this blog will be a useful information resource for educators and publishers, alike. Please feel free to submit ideas for topics you’d like to see us address.