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December
2006
Copyright © 2006, Queue, Inc.
FREE
STUDENT WORKBOOKS AVAILABLE FOR PREVIEW (Advertisement)
Queue, Inc.'s latest Test Preparation Catalogue features many new titles. We would be delighted to send catalogues and/or free review copies of any of the student versions of these books at no cost to you. Call, fax, or email your request.
In addition, we’re offering a wide array of curriculum-based materials in our New Curriculum Catalogue. We welcome you to request free review copies of these books as well as a copy of the curriculum catalogue.
We think you will find Queue’s test preparation materials to be great tools to prepare your students for state assessment tests. In addition, we encourage you to sample our curriculum workbooks to help engage and challenge your students.
For further information on Queue, Inc. and our product line, visit http://www.qworkbooks.com.
To order free previews, please visit: http://www.qworkbooks.com/samplerequest.html
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Georgia Schools Highlighted for Closing the Gap
Nearly 100 Georgia schools were recently highlighted nationally for significantly narrowing the achievement gap.
Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services recently identified 96 schools in 59 districts (http://www.schoolmatters.com/pdf/achievement-gap/ga-achievement-gap-schools-schoolmatters.pdf) that have reduced the gap in at least one of three categories: Black and White student achievement, Hispanic and White student achievement, Economically Disadvantaged and Non-Disadvantaged student achievement.
"This shows that the hard work we are doing all over Georgia is paying off," State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox said. "In Georgia, all boats are rising and the gap is closing."
Governor Sonny Perdue congratulated the 96 schools.
“These schools demonstrate that an excellent education is possible for all students and they represent the progress Georgia is making in raising student achievement across the board,” Governor Perdue said.
In order to be recognized by Standard & Poor's, schools must:
- Test at least 30 students in each student group being analyzed;
- Reduce at least one achievement gap between student groups in reading and math proficiency (RaMP) rates by more than 5 percentage points from one year to the next; and simultaneously raise the RaMP rates for each student group being compared.
- Reduce at least one achievement gap between student groups in a grade-level reading test by more than 5 percentage points from one year to the next; and simultaneously raise that grade-level reading proficiency rate for each student group being compared. Schools must demonstrate similar progress in math, though not necessarily the same grade level.
In the past several months, Standard & Poor's has recognized schools in 14 states that have reduced the achievement gap. Only California (103) had more schools recognized than Georgia.
- Standard & Poor's Press Release and Information (includes list of schools)
http://www.schoolmatters.com/app/content/q/mtype=Achievement_Gap_Georgia_111406_SchoolMatters.shtml/mlvl=2/stid=-1/llid=-1/stllid=-1/locid=-1/site=pes
Standard & Poor's Press Releases About Other States:
http://www.schoolmatters.com/app/content/q/mtype=PressRoom.shtml/mlvl=1/stid=-1/llid=-1/stllid=-1/locid=-1/site=pes
Curriculum Advantage Finds Georgia Good for Schools, Business
A little more than a year after Curriculum Advantage, Inc., publishers of Classworks — computer-based student instruction in K-12 for English/Language Arts, Reading and Mathematics — relocated the company headquarters from Los Angles to suburban Atlanta, the move is proving to be a success not only for the company, but for many local schools as well.
The move, which took place in August of 2005, brought the company closer to the majority of Classworks customers, who are in the Southeast, and established a space for a demonstration classroom and training center to showcase Classworks successes and best practices from all around the Southeast.
Curriculum Advantage (www.curriculumadvantage.com) has grown through various acquisitions, and many of its inherited offices were located far from its user base. All departments, including sales, technical support, customer support and operations, were relocated into a new Duluth location.
Nearly 120 schools in 30 school districts in Georgia are currently using Classworks in classrooms and computer labs, including sites in Atlanta City Schools, Houston County School District and Buford City Schools. This is in addition to hundreds of schools in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and North and South Carolina that use Classworks. The reports back from these schools and districts show that its students are benefiting from Classworks – both the program and the new company location.
In Houston County School District, 100 miles south of Atlanta, Classworks has been used extensively for two years, district officials decided to also use Classworks to help children who had failed Georgia’s statewide Criterion-Referenced Competency Test. The results of this targeted application were impressive.
At Houston’s King’s Chapel School, third-, fourth- and fifth-graders who didn’t pass the 2005-06 CRCT as second-, third- and fourth-graders received extra time with Classworks to prepare for this year’s test. Of these students, 77 percent passed all three CRCT categories (reading, math and language arts), and of those, 18 percent not only met but exceeded expectations in at least one category. An amazing 100-percent of King’s Chapel’s third-graders who received extra time with Classworks met expectations in math, and 85 percent passed all three CRCT categories.
“This is an example that shows Classworks can help students make significant gains for on-grade-level success, as well as for remediation,” said Danny Carpenter, the superintendent of schools for Houston County. “Students at King’s Chapel were not working toward retaking a test they had already failed, but preparing themselves for the upcoming year’s exams.”
Classworks staff development is usually done at the schools, but because of the growing number of requests from districts seeking additional or specialized training, the company built a state-of-the-art training center in the middle of the headquarters. Recently a group of teachers, principals and technology department heads from throughout Barrow County, made the short trip down I-85 to Curriculum Advantage’s Duluth office for a day of extra training in Classworks.
Barrow recently proved the value of Classworks instruction through an internal analysis of student achievement based on Classworks use. The study, which utilized questions released from the CRCT, showed student scores improving, on average, by 20 percent in reading and 12 percent in math.
“Students with considerable differences in individual skill on the pre-test demonstrated a fairly uniform and consistent improvement after exposure to Classworks,” said Matt Thompson, the Barrow County testing specialist who conducted the study. “The improvement pre- and post-test for all students was noteworthy and considerable.”
About Curriculum Advantage
Curriculum Advantage, Inc. (www.curriculumadvantage.com) is based in Duluth, Ga. Curriculum Advantage’s flagship product is Classworks, a network-based system of K-12 reading and mathematics curriculum and learning tools that currently comprise over 5,000 hours of curriculum. Classworks activities are correlated to national and state learning standards and state tests. They include prescriptive and summative assessment, remediation and reporting tools. Classworks is installed in 3,000 schools in the United States and worldwide. INET Classroom, also from Curriculum Advantage, is a comprehensive library of web-based curriculum linked to state and national standards.
Valdosta City School District Implements Lucid Data's PDExpress to Manage Professional Learning Programs
Lucid Data Corporation's PDExpress® was recently implemented by the Valdosta City School District (Valdosta, Georgia) to manage their professional learning programs including out-of-district activities, certifications/licenses and in-district workshop registrations.
The Valdosta City School District, which includes 500+ full time teachers, needed an efficient way to organize the professional learning of teachers and manage Professional Learning Unit (PLU) credits. Using PDExpress, the District has decreased the administrative time spent managing its professional learning programs, automate the PLU approval process, eliminate paper applications for PLU credits, run reports on classes and credits and achieve an immediate return on its investment.
"As we continued to grow, it was getting harder to manage all the professional learning requirements for the District," said Scarlet Correll, Valdosta's Director of Professional Learning. "The web-based PDExpress professional learning management system allowed us to cut administration time, while centralizing information and giving teachers more control over their own professional learning information and opportunities."
Before using PDExpress, Valdosta teachers had difficulty getting information on their licensing status. Some didn't understand how the PLU requirements operated and, as a result, often had to scramble to take classes or workshops near the end of each licensing period. Using PDExpress, the district can now post classes online and teachers can register online from school or home. Teachers can access their own credit information and view information on classes, credits received and credits pending. They can print a transcript of all completed PLU activities and workshops and know where they are in the re-certification process. This helps the teachers plan their professional development classes more effectively and eliminates the last-minute rush to take classes.
Scarlet states, "One initial benefit of PDExpress was automating staff registration for our district professional learning day at the beginning of this school year. We were able to concentrate on the professional learning content that we wanted our staff to experience and not be bogged down in registration paperwork."
"We have also merged our certification information, human resources information and professional learning information into PDExpress so that these departments are all accessing and working with the same data. We have customized PDExpress so that our staff can update changes in name, address, phone, personal email addresses, etc. for us. PDExpress, therefore, has become our one source of official information about staff."
"A surprise benefit is that we have been able to place all of our staff information documentation for professional learning and human resources on the PDExpress web site, where staff can easily access them. We can easily update that documentation in PDExpress eliminating the need to print new documents and distribute them to our buildings." says Scarlet Correll.
The Valdosta City School District includes multiple buildings, each with its own Professional Learning Council. When staff members complete a proposal to participate in a professional learning activity, it is routed electronically to the building professional learning council which reviews the proposal. Staff are notified of the learning council's approval by automated email and approved proposals are then routed to Scarlet Correll for approval at the District level. When final approval is given at the District level, another automated email informs the staff member that they are approved to attend the PLU activity. Prior to PDExpress, it would take days for the building Professional Learning Councils and Scarlet to review the hundreds of papers, pass them around and approve each application and then inform the staff member.
"PDExpress has greatly improved our information level for professional learning - teachers know exactly where they stand on credits and administrators have professional learning information at their fingertips," said Scarlet Correll.
Two Georgia School Districts Select Atlanta-Based Securiant to Provide Integrated Network Security
Securiant Adds Tift County Public Schools and Bacon County School District to Customer List
Tift County Public Schools and Bacon County School District have selected Securiant, Inc. to provide a comprehensive, integrated network security platform for the school systems. Securiant enables these two Georgia school districts to meet the high priority demands of protecting students and meet regulatory compliance such as the Child Internet Protection Act.
“The risks to our students are growing everyday, this requires that we think of security in a broader more integrated way,” said Harris Tucker, Tift County Public Schools Technology Services Director. “My job is to protect the students and block everything from e-mail spam to inappropriate websites that the students should not be exposed to. Securiant provides an affordable security solution to help me combat these issues, while focusing more resources on technologies that help our children learn.”
Tucker chose Securiant to replace an existing network security appliance that was only providing functionality for two of the 12+ security modules that Securiant offers in one platform. Tift County Public Schools currently utilizes the integrated firewall, intrusion prevention, intrusion detection, web content filter/proxy and SPAM/Anti-virus modules to protect the 13 school locations within the district.
Securiant’s Spider Integrated Security Appliance (SpiderISA) consolidates and integrates more than 12 security functions in one platform that is simple to deploy, simple to use and simple to measure. Securiant’s solution provides a single management console, single vendor and a single training source to augment existing staff, and eliminate the need for extensive training and multiple vendor and maintenance contracts that traditionally require additional resources for schools to manage.
Shane Bennett, Bacon County School District Technology Director, chose Securiant for a more powerful network security solution with additional network security functionality to replace his existing firewall. Securiant provided him with a solution that met his immediate firewall needs but also offered integrated intrusion prevention, intrusion detection, web content filter/proxy and SPAM/Anti-virus and unmatched customer service team dedicated to education customers.
“I am responsible for all technology efforts throughout the entire school district, and we have many projects to support and implement but we have limited resources. After reviewing multiple network security products, I chose Securiant over the other vendors because of the level of hands-on customer service that they could provide, being a local Georgia company,” said Shane Bennett. “The product has the security capabilities that I need for my schools but beyond that, when I have a support issue or request, a live person answers and serves as an extension of my team to get the issue resolved. Securiant has lived up to that customer service promise.”
Tift County Public Schools and Bacon County School District join some of Securiant’s other prominent Georgia K-12 customers such as DeKalb County Schools and Atlanta Public Schools.Whitefield Academy Unites School Families With communitey(SM)
Whitefield Academy, private school in Atlanta, Georgia, will be the first educational institution to use communitey as their community resourcing site. Uniting all Whitefield families through an exclusive online community gives Whitefield a unique tool among private schools. Before adopting communitey as their online community partner, the school considered developing their own "home-grown" electronic networking resource for families. Following a demonstration, they quickly decided the communitey approach was best. With communitey, the school found a solution that was ready to go, very affordable, easy to implement, technologically advanced, and very easy for families to use.
The school saved considerable time and money because they didn't have to build something this comprehensive and robust by themselves. As a result, Whitefield launched their new online site immediately with easy-to-use tools for everyone. Whitefield Academy faculty and families are rapidly embracing the site and enjoying immediate benefits from their enhanced connectivity.
For more information visit www.whitefieldacademy.com, or call 678.305.3000.
About communitey: communiteySM, (pronounced "commun-uh-tay") partners with local faith-based organizations, educational institutions, and affinity groups. Examples include private schools, service groups, networking clubs, business associations, alumni groups, private clubs, churches, and synagogues. communitey offers a different approach to the popular online practice of "social networking" by giving adults a dedicated and exclusive site for their group. This gives members an opportunity to strengthen their connections to each other, exchange personal and professional resources, and unite members in a much more robust, empowered community. This approach is what communitey refers to as "community resourcing."
To find out how an organization or group can benefit from their own "community resourcing" opportunity, visit www.communitey.net