Monday, May 24, 2010

Reading the tea leaves on state standards

If you look at Texas, based on Friday's vote to approve a controversial new social studies curriculum, you'd conclude that states are reaffirming their right to make their own judgments and decisions, even when there is enormous pressure to do otherwise. But if you look at Massachusetts, you'd conclude that states (or at least this one) might be giving up some "local control."

That's one of the ways to interpret the news out of Massachusetts. The story there is that state education officials are looking seriously at a proposal to do away with standards in English and math (the "MCAS" exams) and replace them with standards developed across many states -- or perhaps even to-be-crafted national standards: http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/mcas/articles/2010/05/20/education_officials_may_scrap_mcas_test/

So is there a single way the wind is blowing, or are there multiple crosswinds? Perhaps the primary conclusion is that the standards issue is in flux and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Even in Texas, where the curriculum vote is binding for the next decade? Yes, even in Texas. If a new (i.e. Democrat) governor is elected in November, the curriculum issue could theoretically be brought up again before the state Board of Education.

And in Massachusetts, while some are already bemoaning what is seen as a possible retreat from rigorous state standards, it's clear that there are many potential outcomes, including multi-state standards, national standards, or some version of state standards cobbled together with them. Naturally, money is at the root of some of this: Massachusetts, like some other states, may have lost out on early Federal "Race to the Top" funding because of a perception that state officials didn't want to water down stringent local standards. Now, perhaps, that position is being rethought.

It's the educator in the classroom who faces the greatest challenge in the long run. She or he still has to teach those twenty-five-or-so students every day AND ensure that what is being taught meets the (sometimes rapidly changing) standards. It's just one of the reasons why our customized materials are striking such a chord with district decision-makers. Because we can develop and produce new content quickly, customized Walch programs can meet new standards and easily be re-fashioned if the standards alter.

Friday, May 14, 2010

On beyond books

It's easy to beat up on PowerPoint. We've all sat through more than our fair share of presentations featuring that ubiquitous Microsoft application, bullet after bullet, screen after screen. The New York Times even recently had an article about how PowerPoint has become an obessive time-devourer within the U.S. Army.

But one of the reasons PowerPoint is so universal is because sometimes it really does the trick. That was the case in a Maryland district that wanted to use a PowerPoint presentation to supplement their regular Algebra program. Working with the district, we developed 100 Lesson Starters for Algebra I, and it's now available in both a Maryland and a national version.

The "book" is a 100-slide PowerPoint program (it comes on a disc, easy to install, just insert it into a computer). Each slide has an image showing something students can identify with: a mall, a concert, a swim meet. And below each image is a basic Algebra problem that relates to that place or event. Teachers can use one or more of these screens every day to introduce Algebra in a more friendly format for students. [The speaker notes for each slide give suggestions for how to use the material, what student responses might be, and more.] Most students are familiar with PowerPoint -- they often use it themselves in class presentations. Makes sense to employ the same format to teach. We're not suggesting that PowerPoint can (or will) replace books or other educational media. But here's a case where it works well as a supplementary aid in the teacher's toolkit.

Turning the world upside down

Since 1927, Walch Education (known back then as J. Weston Walch) had published supplemental books, primarily for middle and high schools following a tried-and-true publishing process. Generate ideas internally for a number of book ideas, winnow them down (using any one of a number of filters), and then write and publish the books. And then hope/trust/pray that any market research done in advance was accurate, and that the books would appeal to teachers.

In the last few years, we've been quietly turning that world upside down. The costs and the risks are simply too high to continue tossing books towards schools and waiting for a response. Plus, educators have increasingly specific needs for the classroom, and increasingly demanding state and Federal standards to meet.

In states throughout America, we're now several years into a new system that starts with a novel premise: ask the educators what they need. We first talk to administrators and teachers in key districts and find out from them where there are holes to be plugged, skills that are not being taught or learned properly, standards -- and students -- that are slipping through the cracks. We then take those needs and build them into curricula that fit that particular state's standards and testing expectations. And we have them partner with us throughout the development process, reviewing and improving our materials.

The result: when we deliver a program to a given district, or school, or teacher, it has already been designed and vetted so that it successfully meets unique needs. Our operating mantra is "one size does not fit all." Students are unique, schools are unique, districts are unique, states are unique -- and they all deserve materials that teach uniquely. When we get feedback from teachers in the field, they tell us that our custom programs are unlike anything they've experienced before. For many of these teachers, it's the first time they've worked with materials that were designed with local input.

We think this is the direction all educational publishing is heading towards. And we're just excited to be one of the pioneers.