6 EDCAL January 8 , 2018
First school celebrated
Arcadia Unified School District celebrated the 110th anniversary of the city ’ s first school , First Avenue Middle School , with a day of family-friendly fun in December . Students led tours of the school , which was recently ranked in the top 1 percent of public middle schools in the Los Angeles area on the Niche 2018 Best Public Middle Schools lists . The Spartan music and dance programs performed , and unique class projects were highlighted . Principal Semeen Issa said the historic school was “ very excited to … share with the Arcadia community all that First Avenue ’ s creative and innovative students and staff do to make concepts come to life in our classrooms .”
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Awards honor districts for their digital strategies
The Learning Counsel ’ s Annual Gathering and National Awards recognized 11 innovative schools and districts for their work to not only transform the way they teach , but for their management-level restructuring of digital delivery . Attendees at a recent award event included top education executives from around the U . S ., who gathered to acknowledge exemplary progress and discuss the latest systems , strategies and tools to build a new model for K-12 education .
“ The Learning Counsel National Gathering provided a unique opportunity to learn and network with outstanding educational technology leaders and industry experts ,” said Karla Burkholder , director of Instructional Technology at Schertz-Cibolo Universal City ISD . “ The connections made and information shared will be invaluable to my staff and me on our journey to digital transformation . The timely presentations about cyber security , machine learning , personalized teacher professional development , the national industry view , and tools that are available to support teaching and learning will provide guidance for us in this seemingly ever-changing educational technology landscape .”
LeiLani Cauthen , the CEO and publisher of the Learning Counsel , said that while on the road this year visiting with school leaders in districts of every size across the country , she observed that all were in the midst of various aspects of software systems-level restructuring . Confusions over devices and buying technology were mostly over . Administrations were deep into finding better solutions to support teachers with full digital curriculum implementations and more sophisticated teacher professional development .
“ While it was common to find districts with decently established infrastructure and computing devices , what is happening with teachers is far from well-executed with regards to software oversight ,” Cauthen said . “ By survey , teachers are still spending upwards of 25 percent of their time finding content and building custom lessons . In the meantime , technology and digital content collections continue to grow into realms that individual teachers and even school technology departments can ’ t keep up with – and the oversight to vet this content is questionable at best , in most cases . Luckily , I am finding most districts , such as our award winners here at the gathering , are beginning to get a handle on many of these challenges .”
The California recipients of the Learning Counsel Digital Curriculum Strategy Awards for 2017 are :
Lammersville USD : The district “ chang- ing time and space ” in terms of schedule and use of classrooms , they were awarded for additionally facilitating student success with 21st-century skills of collaboration , creativity , communication , citizenship , and critical thinking . LUSD has a fully digital high school , 1:1 Chromebooks for students grades 3-12 , 3:1 in grades TK-2 , a combination of print and digital K-8 curriculum , and a uniform classroom technology standard for teacher devices . Key to their success is intentional planning to support teachers with the skills and knowledge to design and facilitate powerful instruction using technology at the center of every implementation . Their journey is punctuated with challenges around vetting the technical aspects of any roll-out for integration and requisite IT support . Receiving the award were Mountain House High School Principal Ben Fobert ; IT Program Manager Shawn Yohannan ; Assistant Superintendent Heather Sherburn ; and Instruction , Assessment , and Technology Coordinator Katrina Borncamp .
Los Angeles USD : The district thriving on digital . Awarded to the nation ’ s secondlargest school district , serving a total of 618,970 students , for their Instructional Technology Initiative ( ITI ), which provides instructional technology support districtwide . In 2014 , ITI led a task force of more than 50 members , which included parents , students , teachers , community leaders and district personnel , to develop the mission and vision that would shape the way ITI serves school leaders . The task force ’ s efforts resulted in developing a mission and vision that ITI continues to adhere to today : Always lead with instruction and not the tool . For example , in 2016 , ITI helped pioneer the district ’ s adoption of an interdisciplinary framework called the International Society for Technology in Education ( ISTE ) Student Standards – the first school district in the country to do so . Designing programs of support founded on the ISTE Standards ensures that ITI provides rigorous professional development to all LAUSD school leaders to address living , working , and thriving in a growing digital world . Receiving the award were ITI Coordinator Sophia Mendoza and High Tech Los Angeles Principal Mathew McClenahan .
Schools and districts from Colorado , Ohio , Virginia , Utah , New Jersey , Maine , Texas , Washington and Florida were also recognized . The Learning Counsel is a mission-based news media and events organization focused on helping education professionals in the K-12 sector gain research and context on the shift to digital . For more information , please visit TheLearningCounsel . com .
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Girls outperform boys in problem-solving skills
Students in the United States performed finding the quickest route to a destination . above average on the first problem-solving test from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris .
The OECD tested approximately 125,000 students in 52 countries and economies on the computer-based test , involving real-life scenarios to measure skills faced every day , such as setting a thermostat or
Students from Singapore , Japan , Hong Kong and Korea performed the best on this addition to the main OECD PISA 2015 Survey on Science , Mathematics and Reading . Results were released late last year .
Among the 15-year-olds taking the test , girls outperformed boys in collaborative problem solving in every country around the world . In C . M . Rubin ’ s interview with Andreas Schleicher , director for the Directorate of Education and Skills at the OECD , he notes , “ Girls show more positive attitudes toward relationships , meaning that they tend to be more interested in others ’ opinions and want others to succeed .”
Schleicher also notes that “ strong academic skills will not automatically also lead to strong social skills . Part of the answer lies in giving students more ownership over the time , place , path , pace and interactions of their learning . Another part of the answer can lie in fostering more positive relationships at school and designing learning environments that benefit students ’ collaborative problem-solving skills and their attitudes toward collaboration .”
Read the full interview at https :// goo . gl / yhEVjM .