Salt Lake City, UT (PRWEB) November 02, 2011
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), widely known as the nations report card, has released its most recent round of test scores, and the results, while highlighting advances in math proficiency, indicate a virtual halt in reading gains. The outcomes reveal national reading scores that have risen only a handful of points since 1990, with no progress made at all in the last few years among 4th graders. “This is wake up call to everyone with a stake in education,” says Curtis Linton, vice president of PD developer School Improvement Network. “For all of the progress we’ve made, we still have plenty of work to do.”
The highlight of the report, however, can be found in the figures emerging from a handful of states whose progress significantly outpaces the rest of the country. Chief among these are Maryland and Hawaii, the only states to make gains since 2009 in both reading and math at 4th and 8th grade levels.
Hawaii in particular has achieved unprecedented growth in proficiency rates in very little time. The progress owes itself, among other things, to the states improved infrastructure, renewed emphasis on leadership, and a statewide overhaul of professional development.
In January of 2010, the state of Hawaii installed the School Improvement Networks PD 360 professional development platform into all of its 289 public schools. Since that time, the state has not only realized gains in reading, but dramatic gains relative to the rest of the country. Since integrating PD 360, while almost every other states reading scores flattened out, Hawaii saw a 6 to 7 percent rise in reading proficiency among 4th and 8th graders.
Educators in Hawaii have been enthusiastic about the role that PD 360 has played in their elevated student achievement.
Schools that have infused PD 360 into their professional learning development, says Robert Campbell, Director of Federal Compliance and Project Management in the Hawaii Department of Education, have found success in getting closer to their achievement goals.
To Troy Takazono, Principal of Waiau Elementary School, one of the foundations of success has been the way that PD 360 increases teacher engagement in professional development.
The biggest change I see, he says, is when we have professional development, when we plan our collaboration days, the teachers do all the planning. We have excellent teachers here, and this system helps them work closer together.
And while Maryland doesnt enjoy quite as wide a use of PD 360 as Hawaii, the majority of the districts in the state do currently utilize the platform for their professional development needs.
PD 360 has allowed us to greatly enhance our instructional conversations, says Dr. Ted Haynie, Director of System Performance for Marylands Calvert County Public School District, and to engage in the type of job-embedded learning that most always produces the best results for our students.
With member schools continuing to report considerable gains in student achievementas much as 15 percent higher than district averagesPD 360 is proving a remarkable tool for elevating education at the school, district, and state levels.
Anyone can receive a free 30-day trial of PD 360, the worlds largest online video and professional development distribution network for educators, just by logging on to http://www.schoolimprovement.com and clicking on the free trial button.
About School Improvement Network
Founded in 1991 by teachers, the School Improvement Network provides comprehensive, research-based professional development anytime, anywhere. School Improvement Network resources focus on the most relevant topics, feature the top experts, and show educators how to put theory into practice. The company works with thousands of schools and districts in every state and around the world and has visited over 3,000 classrooms to document best practices in action. Learn more at http://www.schoolimprovement.com.
About PD 360 Practical, Scalable, Measurable
PD 360 is the multi-award winning, leading online, on-demand professional learning resource for schools and districts. With 1,800 videos on 117 topics from 120 experts, PD 360 has the largest online community of educators, with over 700,000 subscribers. The innovative PD 360 videos are unique and class-leading because of the quality of production, and each is research-based with classroom examples of best practices. The videos are also relatively short in nature (approximately 6-12 minutes in length) allowing educators access to snack-able content that is easy and accessible to view and implement.
Teachers, administrators, professional learning communities, coaches, mentors, instructional leaders, and paraprofessionals have available at their fingertips hundreds of indexed and searchable video segments that present real, best-practice classroom examples and feature respected education experts, such as Michael Fullan, Rick DuFour, Doug Reeves, Rick Stiggins, and many others. Educators can instantly find the help they need on nearly every topic, including differentiation, assessment, English language learners, leadership, and more. PD 360 can also be used to create a structured learning experience for an individual teacher, a PLC, or even an entire school. PD 360 bridges the gap between training and classroom implementation with job-embedded follow-up, tracking, and reflection tools. PD 360 gives educators access to an online community of teaching professionals that allows interaction and collaboration either within a district or across the United States and the world. PD 360 includes over 1,500 research-based video learning segments and is the most comprehensive web-based library of professional development resources available. See a demonstration at http://www.pd360.com.
School Improvement Network, PD 360, and their respective logos are trademarks of the School Improvement Network. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
School Improvement Network
# # #