Teachers have more than enough to juggle each day, lacking the time to search for, and find, high-quality curricular resources online. When I would search for lesson plan supplements, I would often get lost in Google's abyss of results, spending far too much precious time sifting through mediocre materials. Until one day, I saw the light. Mrs. Angie Stephenson, a neighboring English teacher, brought her freshmen into my classroom to use my computer lab for SAS Curriculum Pathways. She had her class upload their essays into the Writing Reviser tool allowing SAS' artificial intelligence to identify possible errors. Students then self-edited their work by making their own determination of how to improve their run-on sentences, fragments, dangling modifiers, verb tense issues, relative and dependent clauses, and more.

In the era of increased class sizes and the need to have students practice writing constantly to improve their proficiency, SAS Curriculum Pathways is the answer. What’s even better? This $75 million philanthropic effort of SAS is offered at no cost to educators!

I discovered this resource in my seventh year of teaching, and I truly hope that more educators explore it now in preparation for the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).  SAS Curriculum Pathways provides more than 200 Interactive Tools, 200 “read, research and respond” inquiries, 600 Web Lessons and 70 Audio Tutorials in the areas of Math, ELA, Social Studies, Science, and Spanish. These resources are mapped to each state’s standards; English language arts and math resources also map to the CCSS. Curriculum Pathways has won numerous recent awards for these advancements, including ones from eSchool News, District Administration and Technology & Learning magazines.

SAS announced today record registrations in 2011. Over 18,000 schools nationwide now take advantage of this powerful free resource. However, some schools combine Curriculum Pathways with other SAS educational tools, such as EVAAS, to fully leverage student data and individualize learning opportunities for all. See how one high school in Granville County, NC, has increased graduation rates over 20% in two years, while decreasing absences and discipline incidents. Teachers first used EVAAS’ individual student projections to identify which students needed to be challenged, or to be retaught concepts in new ways. They then used Curriculum Pathways to differentiate instructional activities based on specific student needs. NC’s Mooresville Graded School District even caught the attention of the NY Times with their successful 1:1 initiative. By combining EVAAS and Curriculum Pathways, they were able to maximize the use of their laptops with this technology-rich content. The engaging lessons capture students’ attention to more deeply explore challenging material. Spread the word and share this free resource with your education colleagues!