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.

New Exhibit at Common Ground 2014 Conference Shows System for Improving Teacher Practice and Student Outcomes

How to Increase Student Achievement and Educator Effectiveness

We are excited to be able to exhibit at the Common Ground 2014 conference showing how to raise student achievement and educator effectiveness with a holistic solution to personalize learning for educators. The exhibit will show May 1-2 at the Ocean City Convention Center in Maryland.

“Raising graduation rates and students’ mastery of 21st century skills goes much further than increasing funding or technology,” said Chet D. Linton, CEO and president of School Improvement Network. “Giving educators the tools and resources they need to personalize professional development and observation feedback is essential to increase student achievement and educator effectiveness and make a true impact on college and career readiness.”

The exhibit at the Common Ground 2014 conference will feature the Educator Effectiveness System, an end-to-end professional learning solution that offers personalized professional development, complete support for core standards implementation, effective observation and evaluation tools, and more. Independent research shows schools that use the tools in the Educator Effectiveness System see, on average, an 18% gain in student proficiency on standardized tests, a 20% decrease in dropout rates, and a 33% drop in discipline issues—powerful evidence that all students can be reached with the right approach and the right solution.

Click here to learn more about how to increase student achievement and educator effectiveness with the Educator Effectiveness System.

Click here to see other solutions to help increase student achievement and educator effectiveness.

How Often Do Educators Recognize Child Abuse or Neglect in Students?

School Improvement Network Survey Gathers Educator Insight to Support National Child Abuse Prevention Month

We have recently released a new survey gathering educator insights on the prevalence of child abuse and neglect in support of National Child Abuse Prevention Month. The survey comes as part of School Improvement Network’s “Voices of Education” surveys, which gather educator insight on real issues affecting education across the US.

“Educators are often the first to report potential child abuse or neglect situations since they observe children so regularly in their classrooms,” said Chet D. Linton, CEO and president of School Improvement Network. “As such, their insights and experiences are essential to truly understanding this issue and forming solutions that can help children in need.”

The five-question survey asks educators how often they see symptoms of the various types of child abuse and neglect in their students, what resources are available to help them help their students, and other related questions. Survey results will be publicly available at the end of April and will be used to guide future awareness efforts, research, and resource development.

Click here to take the survey about child abuse and neglect prevention.

Click here to see other “Voices of Education” surveys.

Create Common Core-Aligned Assessment Tasks with Jay McTighe

Free Education Webinar Shows How to Create Common Core-Aligned Assessment Tasks
Webinar Recording Shows Education Expert Jay McTighe Outlining How to Develop Rich Common Core-Aligned Assessment Tasks to Measure Student Learning

Webinar recording with education expert Jay McTighe showing how to create Common Core-aligned assessment tasks to measure student learning is now available.

“Creating effective assessments aligned to the Common Core or any state standards is essential to accurately measure student learning,” said Chet D. Linton, CEO and president of School Improvement Network. “With Common Core-aligned assessments like those shown by Jay McTighe in this webinar, educators can effectively use the Common Core Standards to drive students towards college and career readiness.”

In this webinar recording, educators receive a set of proven and practical design tools for developing quality performance tasks to help them create Common Core-aligned assessment tasks to engage students from Jay McTighe’s new LumiBook, “Core Learning: Assessing What Matters Most.”

Click here to see the webinar recording.

Click here for more information on Jay McTighe’s LumiBook, “Core Learning: Assessing What Matters Most.”

Click here to see another Jay McTighe webinar about creating Common Core-aligned assessments.