School Improvement Innovation Summit 2014 - September 29 - October 1

The education experience you won’t soon forget.

Expand your thinking. Connect with top educators. And build the future of learning.

When: September 29–October 1 Where: Little America Hotel, Salt Lake City, Utah

Make plans to attend SIIS 2014, an intimate gathering of like-minded educators seeking to expand thinking, ideals, and vision. Join this group of visionaries who want to help build the future of teaching and learning. Come to learn, make new friends, reconnect with old ones, and reaffirm your love of teaching.

More than a conference, SIIS is an educational adventure of exploration, learning, discovery, and engagement. It’s a celebration of education and the purpose behind our profession. And it’s also an opportunity to have fun—to experience our annual welcome lu’au with great food, authentic island music, and amazing dance performances.

At SIIS 2014, you’ll go home with:

• An understanding of how to use powerful professional learning tools to createsignificant improvement in student achievement
• Valuable, productive relationships with other education leaders
• Insight into education from the student’s perspective

You’ll walk away with not only strategic frameworks and actionable tools, but also a refreshed sense of purpose and a positive outlook toward the future of education.

 Learn more at www.SIIS2014.com

NEW PD 360 Video Demo Live

The new PD 360 is Coming July 2014

We've just released the video demo of the new PD 360. This release is more than a feature freshener. It’s an entirely new platform with a new interface that learns what each of your teachers needs and automatically directs them to personalized resources.

Watch the video below - Just click.

Learn more about the exciting new changes at www.thenewpd360.com

School Improvement Innovation Summit - Sept. 29 - Oct. 1

More than just an education event. 

The School Improvement Innovation Summit (SIIS) is an annual meeting of the country's leading education innovators. Here they share strategies for improving education and discuss the developments that will shape education this year and far into the future.

Dates:
Monday, September 29 through Wednesday, October 1.

Times:
Monday: 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.; Welcome Luau 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Tuesday: 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Wednesday: 8 a.m. – 1 p.m.

The Summit is also a gathering point where educators and School Improvement Network trainers come to share best practices for using PD 360, Common Core 360, and Observation 360 to improve teacher effectiveness and increase student achievement.

• Meet with peers and share forward-thinking ideas for improving education
• Discuss industry developments that will shape the future of education with our experts
• Walk away from the Summit with strategic frameworks and actionable tools to help implement new tactics for teacher improvement and student achievement
• Garner insights into unique student perspectives, context, and culture from guest student speakers—and learn how that knowledge can shape a school's approach to education and professional development
• Enjoy the fresh mountain air of Utah and a day of fun and adventure in world-famous Park City
• Get face-to-face support! Our expert training staff will be on hand to help you and your team with any implementation challenges you may be facing with EES, PD 360, Observation 360, Common Core 360, or any of our solutions.

This year’s speakers include many top names in education, including: 

• Dr. Terry Holliday—Commissioner of Education, Kentucky 
• Jay McTighe—Educational Writer and Consultant at the Maryland Assessment Consortium 
• David Hyerle—Founder and President of the Thinking Foundation and Developer of the Thinking Maps® model 
• Alexina Medley—Principal and CEO of Warren Easton Charter High School, New Orleans, Louisiana
• Dr. Lucy Hansen—Principal at Agua Caliente Elementary School, Cathedral City, California

Learn more about the 2014 School Improvement Innovation Summit at www.siis2014.com 

Exciting Changes to PD 360 Coming Soon

A major PD 360 release is coming this summer that will make personalized professional learning much easier for your teachers—and much easier for you to implement and manage. 

This release is more than a feature freshener. It’s an entirely new platform with a new interface that learns what each of your teachers needs and automatically directs them to personalized resources.

Easier and more useful for your teachers

• Delivers incredibly specific PD content to each of your teachers—and more personalized learning means more effective learning
• Serves up exactly what each teacher needs, with items like assigned content, group activity, and personal video queues delivered front and center on the home page

Easier for administrators to implement and manage systemic professional learning

• Supported by a comprehensive implementation framework with step-by-step guidance in rolling out PD 360 to your system, making sure it gets to teachers
• All recommended PD is consolidated into one place on the home page, so you’ll never have to worry about your teachers not finding their assigned personal learning goals or resources again

High performance—anytime, anywhere, on most devices

• Technology advancements dramatically improve performance, reducing load times and ensuring data stability
• Mobility allows for anytime, anywhere access on most smart devices

More than just professional development

• The new PD 360 is the cornerstone of the Educator Effectiveness System—a comprehensive, whole-school system that helps every teacher become even more effective and every student college and career ready


• The new PD 360 is full of tools and resources to help you comply with state and federal requirements—especially surrounding classroom observation, teacher evaluation, and Common Core readiness.

Click here to see all of the exciting changes to PD 360.

Child Abuse and Prevention Survey Results Released by School Improvement Network

Data Shows School Administrators Believe Abuse Cases Are Being Reported Nearly 60 Percent of the Time, Teachers Say Cases are Reported Less Than Half the Time

School Improvement Network has released the results from a recently conducted survey on Child Abuse and Prevention in U.S. Schools. 950 educators and school administrators from across the country weighed in on topics including:

• The frequency that child abuse or neglect is suspected by the teacher
• The most common type of abuse suspected by the teacher
• What may be stopping a teacher from reporting their concerns to authorities
• What type and frequency of training is provided for teachers

Alarmingly, when asked what percentage of abuse cases respondents estimate are reported, administrators believe 59% are reported, but teachers say only 42% of abuse cases get reported.

“Because of their close interaction with children on a daily basis, teachers are often a child’s first line of defense against abuse and neglect,” said Chet D. Linton, School Improvement Network president and CEO. “We need to make sure information and training about how to recognize, report and prevent abuse is available to educators everywhere.”

Earlier this month, in recognition of National Child Abuse and Prevention Month, School Improvement Network announced the release of a video series for educators detailing how to take those three steps of recognizing, reporting and preventing child abuse and neglect. The video series has been made available to the public on YouTube through the end of the month.

Six percent of survey respondents indicate they do not know a specific procedure for reporting abuse. Additionally, eight percent of respondents claim that their school districts provide no training at all for reporting child abuse.

For survey results, please visit http://www.schoolimprovement.com/voices-of-education/child-abuse-and-neglect/.

Get the Secrets to Effective Common Core Implementation

New School Improvement Network Site Offers Resources for Effective Common Core Implementation in Oregon

Here are four resources to help all educators effectively implement the Common Core State Standards in Oregon.

The featured resources include video footage of the Common Core State Standards being taught by master teachers, Common Core-aligned lesson plans, a map showing how the standards progressively build on each other from year to year, and a case study showing a successful Common Core implementation in an Oregon school district.

“Educators in schools and systems around the nation are working to effectively implement the Common Core Standards into their local school curriculum to help drive students towards mastering the 21st century skills they need to be prepared for both college and career when they graduate from high school,” said Chet D. Linton, CEO and president of School Improvement Network. “In our cause of helping make every educator effective to help every student succeed, we have created these scalable resources for all educators, regardless of where their classroom or school is, to help them effectively implement the Common Core State Standards and make a meaningful impact on student learning.”

Beyond the new site, these resources are available to all educators as part of the Educator Effectiveness System, a web-based, on-demand platform that delivers professional learning resources to any educator, anytime, anywhere.

Click here for exclusive access to the Common Core implementation tools for Oregon.

Click here for more Common Core implementation resources on the Common Core Blog.