Textbook Adoption
You can now view the oppportunities
offered by Reading Street online. Please follow the link below to take a
look at the program.
http://www.pearsonschool.com/index.cfm?locator=PS1mW2
Plan 2020 Update: "Every child a graduate that is prepared for citizenship and life"
A
powerpoint presentation with the January 2013 updates for Plan 2020 can
be viewed under the Document Uploads section of our page. This
presentation includes changes that will take place with assessments and
accountability for the next four years. Click Plan 2020 to see Dr.
Bice's vision for Alabama schools.
12 Myths and Facts about Alabama College and Career Readiness Standards
MYTH: Parents will lose control of their children’s K-12 education under the
Common Core State Standards Initiative.
FACT: There is no change in parental control from Alabama’s previous
standards to the College- and Career-Ready Standards based
on the Common Core. Input is encouraged by parents and
other stakeholders throughout the process of determining and
adopting standards.
MYTH: Most parents remain unaware of the specific details of the Common
Core State Standards.
FACT: All of Alabama’s standards, adopted two years ago, can be
accessed and read by anyone on the Alabama State
Department of Education Website:
www.alsde.edu/html/CoursesOfStudy.asp. Public hearings were
held throughout the state before adoption by the State Board of
Education.
MYTH: Education decisions in states with the Common Core will ultimately
be mandated by unaccountable bureaucrats and special interests in
Washington, D.C.
FACT: According to the Alabama State Board of Education’s
resolution adopting the standards on November 18, 2010, the
SBOE remains the “sole and exclusive entity vested with
authority" over Alabama’s public schools.
MYTH: The Common Core invades students’ privacy by requiring the
collection of personal information, which will be shared with the
federal government and private organizations without parents’
permission, and it requires that students be tracked from preschool
through their careers with data that will become part of a national
database.
FACT: The Alabama College- and Career-Ready Standards, as well as
the Common Core State Standards, are only academic
standards for each grade in math and English. Neither set of
standards mandates any type of data collection. The state of
Alabama has no reporting requirements associated with its
involvement with the Common Core State Standards Initiative
as it is not a Race to the Top state, not a participant in the Race
to the Top funded assessment consortia, nor a recipient of the
federally funded longitudinal data system grant.
MYTH: The U.S. Department of Education is funding the development of
national curriculum guidelines, modes, and materials, which creates
a national curriculum.
FACT: Many organizations are creating various instructional materials
for teachers to access, just like they always have. Local
systems retain control of their curricula.
MYTH: The U.S. Department of Education is funding the creation of national
assessments based on the Common Core standards, which creates
a national testing system.
FACT: States can voluntarily select their own assessments. Alabama
is not involved in the consortia helping to guide assessment
creation. Alabama has chosen to work with ACT, an existing
college- and career-readiness test provider.
MYTH: The U.S. Department of Education is violating federal laws that prohibit
any federal direction, control, or supervision of curricula, programs of
instruction, and instructional materials in the elementary and secondary
schools, and this is an invasion of states’ rights.
FACT: None of this is based in fact. Each school system in Alabama
retains complete authority to develop its own curriculum, without
fear of reprisal from the government. Lesson plans and daily
curriculum are created by local teachers and administrators.
MYTH: The Common Core de-emphasizes classical literature and American
history and will replace literary works about Western Civilization with
informational texts such as executive orders and work manuals, which
will further diminish students’ knowledge of the moral, historical, and
cultural foundations of our country.
FACT: Students will spend more time reading informational texts, but in
science and history classes. The new standards actually
encourage teachers to use historical documents like the
Constitution and Federalist Papers. The majority of texts students
will study in English class will still include novels, short stories,
poems, and plays.
MYTH: The Common Core violates the founding principle that parents and
states, not federal government, control local education.
FACT: According to the Alabama State Board of Education’s November 18,
2010, resolution adopting the standards, the SBOE remains the
“sole and exclusive entity vested with authority” regarding
Alabama’s public schools. Public hearings were held throughout
the state before adoption by the State Board of Education.
MYTH: Implementation of the Common Core will cost Alabama taxpayers
many millions of dollars to revamp state education systems.
FACT: Alabama adopts new standards every six years. Funding for the
adoption and selection of related materials is included in
Education Trust Fund budget.
MYTH: Alabama taxpayers had no voice or vote in adoption of the new state
standards. The Legislature needs to protect its citizens against an
overzealous federal government and keep education decisions local by
protecting state education sovereignty.
FACT: State Board of Education members are popularly elected
representatives of the citizens of Alabama. The SBOE held
public hearings regarding the standards’ adoption in 2010.
The resolution adopting the standards maintains the SBOE is
the “sole and exclusive entity vested with authority” regarding
Alabama’s public schools.
MYTH: The Alabama College- and Career-Ready Standards and the Common
Core violate the 1974 Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act
(FERPA) by requiring the collection and sharing of non-academic
information on students.
FACT: Alabama’s College- and Career-Ready Standards are academic
standards that say nothing about collection of student or teacher
data or information. Regardless, all student and teacher data is
already protected by FERPA.
NEW MATH & SCIENCE RESOURCES
1. Vernier Technology Awards
Do you have an innovative use of data collection technology using a computer, graphing calculator,
or other handheld in the science classroom? A total of 7 awards are
presented: 1 award at the elementary level (grades K–5); 2 awards at the
middle level (grades 6–8); 3 awards at the high school level (grades
9–12); and 1 award at the college level. Each award will consist of
$1,500 towards expenses to attend the NSTA National Conference in San
Antonio, $1,000 in cash for the teacher, and $3,000 in Vernier products.
Think of all the equipment you can get! Please visit http://www.vernier.com/grants/nsta for all details and how to apply. We haven’t had a winner from our area since 2010 so check out past winner profiles for examples!
2. Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Contest
Samsung and its partners are asking
teachers to participate in its contest which will address a key academic
challenge in our country: to increase the pursuit of Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education. The top 15 schools
will receive technology grants worth at least $40,000. Five grand finalists will receive grants of $110,000 and be honored at an awards ceremony. Applications due October 31, 2013. Please visit http://pages.samsung.com/us/sft/home.html for details.
3. NABT Awards
The National Association of Biology
Teachers (NABT) recognizes excellence in teaching with a variety of
awards. Nominate yourself or a colleague for one or more of the
following awards by filling out an online nomination form and e-mailing a
letter stating why the candidate should be selected. The nominee will
be sent all the information, including application materials and cover
sheets to complete in order to be considered for the award. You could
even win Texas Instruments and Vernier equipment! Congratulations to the Outstanding Biology Teacher Award winners from MS, AL, and GA last year! For complete details please visit http://www.nabt.org.
4. Siemens STEM Academy Summer of Learning
The Siemens STEM Academy Summer of Learning includes two
all-expenses-paid programs for STEM educators: Siemens Teachers as
Researchers (STARs) and Siemens STEM Institute. Access the application
at http://siemensstemacademy.com/index.cfm?event=showSTEMApplication&landing=1
to apply to the STARs and Siemens STEM Institute programs. You can
apply to one or both programs by completing this application only once.
If you apply to both programs, you must complete the application
requirements for each program before submitting your application. Of
course, all details are at that web page! Sounds like fun!
5. Shell Oil Company Educational Grants
Focus on energy awareness with special
publics, increasing interest in technical careers among students and
professional development in science and math among educators.
We support K-12 programs that boost
math and science skills, as well as university programs that aid
engineering and geoscience students and departments. Shell funds
projects at vocational and technical schools where chemical and refinery
operators and technicians are trained. We are especially interested in
supporting educational outreach in math, science and technology to
women/minority students and academic institutions with ethnically
diverse enrollments. Grants between $10,000-$50,000. Details available
at http://www.shell.us/environment-society/grant.html.
6. Free On-Line Webinar Series for Math and Science
Learn online with the all-new lineup of
2013 science and math professional development webinars from Texas
Instruments. This on-going resource offers many choices for you to learn
to use TI technology effectively in the classroom to increase student
understanding. The new lineup features webinars on the most relevant
topics in education today, including Next Generation Science Standards, Common Core State Standards and Formative Assessment.
Register for the webinar(s) of your choice and either watch the live
online event or receive the webinar’s playback link via email to view at
your convenience! Please check out the titles at http://education.ti.com/calculators/pd/US/Online-Learning/Webinars.
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