Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Walch Education has inked a deal with the St. Croix School District of the U.S. Virgin Islands. We'll be developing and providing customized versions of our award-winning Academic Support Programs (ASPs). The material is being developed for approximately 700 special education students in the St. Croix district. We're creating four distinct ASPS, one each for Junior High and High School Mathematics and English Language Arts.

Each ASP will be developed according to NCTM and NCTE standards and correlated to the Virgin Islands’ Academic Content Standards. The ASPs will also include implementation guides keyed to the basal series being used in various classrooms.

Walch Education’s ASP series has been widely used in both national, standards-based versions and state-specific versions in Maryland, Florida, and Georgia. The national Algebra and English Language Arts versions were recently given Distinguished Achievement Awards “For Excellence in Educational Publishing” at the annual meeting of the Association of Educational Publishers.

Monday, June 16, 2008

To Tutor: In-house or not?

Interesting article in last Friday's Washington Post about how schools in Virginia, Maryland and elsewhere are finding that hiring outside tutors to work with their struggling students doessn't necessarily lead to better test scores. The headline is "Mandated Tutoring Not Helping Md., Va. Scores," and you can read the full article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/12/AR2008061203681.html

The issue in a nutshell: NCLB requires certain schools to provide tutors to struggling students. But after all the time and expense of hiring and bringing those outside firms up to speed, the results are often negligible.

That emerging story is certainly contributing to the success of our customized Academic Support Program ("ASP") materials. Because the ASPs can be tailored to individual district needs, they also make sense in an in-school tutoring context. Rather than paying outside resources that may or may not hit the target, districts can use the ASPs as a comprehensive program for teacher-tutors.

That's what we're especially good at: developing customized materials that zero in on a particular district's particular needs. And then creating the materials, printing them quickly on our in-house digital presses, and delivering them with customized professional development. Sometimes the materials are new from the ground up, sometimes they're more of a tweak on the established state standards, or what the district next door has already developed. But however we work with a district, we're able to offer a level of attention and detail they simply can't find from traditional publishers.

And that includes materials that work for tutors, too.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

3 for 3 ain't bad!







Our Director of Education, Susan Graham, just returned from Washington, D.C., site last week of the annual conference of the Association of Educational Publishers (AEP). This, our industry group, gives out annual awards for the "best of the best" published materials for schools. They're known as "Distinguished Achievement Awards."



We jokingly told Susan before she left that she shouldn't "return without any metal." Well, she didn't disappoint. Walch Education had three books nominated in three separate categories -- and we won for each of our entries! They are:



1) Our Academic Support Program (ASP) for Mathematics (in the category of Curriculum Packages for Mathematics, grades 9-12) http://www.walch.com/product/2157



2) Building Math (in the category of Currriculum Packages for Mathematics, grades 6-8) http://www.walch.com/product/2137



3) Our Academic Support Program for English Language Arts (in the category of Curriculum Packages for Reading & Language Instruction, grades 9-12) http://www.walch.com/product/2106



No, it may not be quite the same as receiving an Oscar or Tony, but it nevertheless makes us awfully proud. These are materials we created in close consultation with educators, they have been extremely successful in the field -- and now we have the kudos of our professional peers, as well.




Susan tells us there were photos taken in Washington, with her holding the three awards...we'll find those and post them, too.