Education Week - September 23, 2015 - 9

BLOGS

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U.S. Education Department Names Delaware Eyes Revamp
Its First Open-Resources Adviser
To Teachers' Pay and Roles
| MARKETPLACE K-12 | The U.S. Department of Education
has hired an adviser to focus on helping schools use "open
educational resources," as districts around the country
experiment with the free, flexible materials.
Andrew Marcinek, a longtime educator, will be the first
staff member at the agency to serve in the role. He will
work out of the office of educational technology under its
director, Richard Culatta.
The move will "greatly enhance our ability to support
states and districts as they move to using openly licensed
learning resources," Culatta said.
A number of school districts in recent years have
embraced open educational resources, generally defined as
materials created on licenses that permit their free sharing,
repurposing, and alteration.
Some districts have taken up open resources out of
dissatisfaction with curricula offered by commercial
providers, or because of concerns about the costs.
In some cases, districts' interest in open educational
materials has been driven by the need for content aligned
to the Common Core State Standards and their lack of
conviction that commercial resources hit the mark.
Some open-resource projects have already had a major
reach. EngageNY, a website created by the state of New
York, is estimated to have received more than 20 million
downloads so far.
Commercial publishers and content producers say there's
reason to doubt the quality of open resources, and they
question whether those resources can be maintained and
updated without a business model for supporting them.
And to be sure, some districts that tossed out commercial
lessons in favor of open materials have been forced to
devote big chunks of time and money to organizing the new
content to their liking.
-SEAN CAVANAGH

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| TEACHER BEAT | In recommendations to Gov. Jack Markell,
a panel of Delaware leaders and education officials has
recommended shifting to a pay system that recognizes a
variety of roles for teachers-and moves away from the
traditional "steps and lanes" approach, in which teachers
are paid solely on experience and credentials.
The panel, which includes lawmakers, state school
board representatives, and the head of the state teachers'
union, recently released a report outlining how such a
plan might work. In essence, it would raise beginning
salaries and collapse the number of incremental "steps."
Teachers with good teacher-evaluation scores and a
record of experience could apply to move to higher tiers as
"teacher leaders" or "senior teacher leaders," for which they
would be given release time from some classroom duties to
take on additional responsibilities, such as mentoring new
teachers and devising student interventions.
Delaware's Committee to Advance Educator
Compensation and Careers was established by 2014
legislation and charged with making recommendations
on alternative compensation.
Radio station WHYY recently looked at the system,
and it's clear from its reporting that the plan required
all parties to rethink a lot of sacred cows. "I would have
walked a picket line for [steps and lanes] 10 years ago,"
Frederika Jenner, the president of the Delaware Education
Association, told the station.
Iowa launched a statewide career-ladder initiative in
2013 but made it optional for districts to participate.
Idaho also has a statewide career-ladder system,
although it's brand-new and the details are still fairly
sketchy. But, as WHYY notes, there can be a whole host
of additional wrinkles in crafting a system statewide,
rather than district by district, given variations in local

living costs, teacher supply, and so forth.
To be clear, these are just preliminary recommendations
in Delaware. The legislature has formed several new
working groups to begin hashing out all the nitty-gritty, but
this is an initiative to watch.
-STEPHEN SAWCHUK

Early PARCC Results in Illinois:
Most Fall Short of Expectations
| CURRICULUM MATTERS | Illinois released preliminary
results last week from its PARCC tests, and they showed
that fewer than 4 in 10 of its students met or exceeded
grade-level or course expectations.
Proficiency rates hovered at about one-third for
English/language arts and were a bit lower in math,
from just 17 percent on the high school exam to 36
percent in 3rd grade.
The release was only the second, after Ohio, from a state
that gave the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness
for College and Careers tests. Neither set of scores is final,
because they don't include results from paper-and-pencil
versions, and not all groups of students are included yet.
Some changes are anticipated with the final results.
But the glimpse of student performance in Illinois
confirms what many policymakers had been warning about
new tests aligned with the Common Core State Standards:
proficiency rates lower than those seen on previous tests.
Schools Superintendent Tony Smith braced state school
board members for a less comfortable set of results than
the ones they've been used to.
"The percentages have been comforting in some ways:
'Oh good, we're at 85th.' Well, not necessarily," he said.
"Does that mean you're really ready for what's next?"
One board member said the PARCC results will "blow
parents' minds." But Smith said he and his staff will be
"up, down, and around the state" in the coming weeks to
explain them.
-CATHERINE GEWERTZ

How to Deploy a 1:1 iPad
Program in Education
In this webinar, you'll learn best
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free webinar
ThurSday, ocT. 1, 2015
2 To 3 P.m. ET
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deployinganiPadProgram

Guests

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FraSEr SPEIrS, head of
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in Education

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Education Week - September 23, 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - September 23, 2015
