Students & Educators

Ralph MooreDecember 19, 2013 0

Math or Maths?

George Bernard Shaw once noted that "England and America are two countries separated by a common language," or perhaps it was Oscar Wilde, or maybe Winston Churchill. At any rate, we find examples of this linguistic divergence in many areas. Automobile terminology seems particularly prone to differences: In the United States

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English

Students & Educators

Mimi StapletonDecember 16, 2013 0

Aprende el español con Miguel del Mundo

(Editor's note: The latest addition to our Spanish Video Library, La gente, is now available both within Curriculum Pathways and on YouTube.) ¡Saludos! Es un placer introducirte a nuestra serie de videos para aprender el español. Seguirás las aventuras del Profesor Miguel del Mundo y su amigo Sabo, quien quiere aprender el

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English

Students & Educators

Brandy MannDecember 10, 2013 0

C'mon Sisters — Let's Code!

When I was 3, my mom was trying to get dinner started (oh mom, how I feel you now!) and she popped a floppy disk in our Apple II with the game Facemaker. I was mesmerized. I added beards and noses to my little guy like it was my job. From that point

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English

Students & Educators

Ralph MooreDecember 4, 2013 0

Guest Teacher Post: The Value of New Things in a Classroom

Editor's Note: Julie Stern is a 6th-grade English language arts teacher at East Cary Middle School in Cary, NC. She is currently working towards certification as a Curriculum Pathways® Master Teacher. In this guest post, Julie describes how her students and colleagues have responded to new digital resources.   As teachers,

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English

Analytics | Students & Educators

Jennifer BellNovember 20, 2013 0

Bold efforts, hard work pay off for Tennessee education, and my daughter

With the others, I filed into the school gymnasium, my super zoom camera lens at the ready and a nervous smile on my face. Across the room, I caught a glimpse of my unsmiling daughter, and my apprehension grew about how this awards day program would play out for her.

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English

Education | Government

Students & Educators

Ralph MooreNovember 12, 2013 0

We are hitting the road — and listening to teachers!

High-quality learning resources cannot be developed in a vacuum. From our beginnings over 15 years ago, SAS Curriculum Pathways has been informed and influenced by our interaction with educators. We spend countless days each year working with and listening to teachers around the country. And our curriculum specialists attend and

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English

Students & Educators

Ralph MooreOctober 29, 2013 0

FAQ: How is Curriculum Pathways provided at no cost?

A few years back we were in Orlando for the Blended and Online Learning Symposium. In addition to our conference sessions, we had the opportunity to introduce new users to Curriculum Pathways in our booth. Again and again we heard the same refrain, "You can’t really be free!" Actually we get that

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English

Advanced Analytics | SAS Events | Students & Educators

Jerry OglesbyOctober 18, 2013 0

ANALYTICS 2013 – A BEST PRACTICE CONFERENCE FOR ANALYTICS PROFESSIONALS

We are in the final countdown to the Analytics 2013 Conference to be held next week, October 21-22 at the Hyatt Regency Orlando.  There is a power-packed agenda for the conference, featuring four very strong keynote presentations from Dr. Jim Goodnight, CEO of SAS; Ed Gaffin, Walt Disney World; Will Hakes,

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English

Students & Educators

Ralph MooreOctober 18, 2013 0

Supporting the Flipped Classroom

Every summer we try to attend the Pitt County Tech Fest, a great event for teachers in Eastern North Carolina. Two years ago I noticed that one session was filled to overflowing, with participants literally standing in the hallway straining to hear the presenter. The topic? Flipping the middle school

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English

Students & Educators

Molly FarrowSeptember 24, 2013 0

Where do the Social Studies fit in?

You only have to glance at the daily news to know how important the understanding of civics, economics, geography, and history is for students today. And yet social studies can get lost in an education environment steeped in the science, technology, engineering, and math of STEM—and in the time-honored pillars

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English

Students & Educators

Jennifer BellSeptember 12, 2013 0

Building your teaching playbook

Like many of you teachers out there, I spent a lot of time recently preparing for the new school year.  At home, it began with the therapeutic organization of children's rooms.  As I sat amid in outgrown clothes, last year’s school work, and books to donate, I braced myself and

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English

Education | Government

Students & Educators

Staci LyonSeptember 12, 2013 0

Why Our Algebra Graphers are Better than a Calculator!

  One recurring theme we hear from math teachers around the country: they already use technology—the graphing calculator. While the statement is certainly true, there are a whole host of reasons to put down those old calculators and pick up SAS Curriculum Pathways. Here are just a few: 1. We

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English

Students & Educators

Tim McBrideSeptember 10, 2013 0

Genesis: Writing Navigator

In the beginning was the word, along with the pencil and paper, and the word was with students. Eons later, teachers looked at student writing and saw that it was (to invert the Old Testament lingo) not good: a Tower of Babel. So our priority was to create a set

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English

Students & Educators

Scott McQuigganSeptember 9, 2013 0

Celebrating International Literacy Day with SAS Read Aloud

Increasingly, third graders who aren't reading proficient are more likely to become high school dropouts [1]. Our education system has drawn a clear line: third graders must read at grade level. Why? K-2 education devotes more time and greater emphasis to reading. Reading skills required to learn across subject areas become critical

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English

Students & Educators

Tim McBrideSeptember 3, 2013 0

Writing Navigator versus "Drops of Blood"

“Writing is easy,” said Gene Fowler. “All you do is sit staring at a blank piece of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead.” Other than replacing blank pages with blank computer screens, technology has done mercilessly little to reduce the agony of student writers or improve

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English

Students & Educators

Brandy MannAugust 29, 2013 0

Back to School: Goodies for Your iPad

It's the new school year and you are handed a shiny new iPad. What do you start putting on it? SAS Curriculum Pathways of course! We have been working to bring you more mobile options, both new and old. We've begun to update our award-winning resources, and we've created no-cost

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English

Students & Educators

Scott McQuigganAugust 22, 2013 0

SXSW Proposal 2013: Educators' Role in App Development

South by Southwest Edu—a major national educational conference that focuses on teaching and learning using innovative technologies and practices—is fast approaching. Here at SAS Curriculum Pathways, we are looking at how to be a part of the excitement. Representatives from the SAS Curriculum Pathways team will be attending in March 2014 to

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English

Students & Educators

Brandy MannAugust 14, 2013 0

So what is SAS?

Actually, we get that question a lot. Curriculum Pathways is just one education product of SAS, a global leader in data analytics – that “Big Data” thing you may have heard about. In fact, SAS has over 200 software solutions, many for helping education. While Curriculum Pathways has been around

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English

Students & Educators

Nadja YoungAugust 12, 2013 0

Beyond value-added: Teachers need diagnostic data to improve their practice

As student growth or value-added measures become more prevalent in educator evaluation systems, many question how those ratings actually help teachers improve their practice. i.e. “How does a level 3 teacher become a level 4 or 5?” Robust and reliable value-added data serve as a great starting point for teachers

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English

Education | Government

Students & Educators

Julie BrownAugust 6, 2013 0

Create an Account: No Cost, No Trouble

New to SAS Curriculum Pathways? Wondering how to get started? And how much it will cost? It's easy to create an account, and after a quick check of your device, you'll have access to hundreds of instructional resources with no fees or hidden costs. Creating Your Account It's simple! Just go

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English

Students & Educators

Ralph MooreJuly 26, 2013 0

The Problem Solvers

Spend time with educators and a few simple truths emerge: There is never enough time, resources are constrained, requirements grow more complex, and so on, and so on. If you travel to enough education-related conferences, the refrains become all too predictable. Yet at these same conferences, you learn about people

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English

Students & Educators

Ralph MooreJuly 12, 2013 0

GEAR UP North Carolina

The high school dropout rate in the United States is simply abysmal. Dr. Jim Goodnight, the CEO of SAS, has cited this problem as a core reason for developing SAS Curriculum Pathways and for providing it at no cost. Many outstanding organizations are working to increase graduation rates, and we

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English

Students & Educators

Brandy MannJuly 8, 2013 0

Why we do what we do

SAS Curriculum Pathways is more than just a product. In many ways, we're a family. Lots of us have worked here for over a decade and love what we do. Part of the reason for starting this blog is to give you a little behind-the-scenes tour of how we operate:

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English

Students & Educators

Deborah GrayMay 23, 2013 0

Welcome to Pathfinders!

"I rather pride myself in finding my way, where there is no path, than in finding it where there is." —Natty Bumppo, The Pathfinder (James Fenimore Cooper) We're glad you decided to take part in this journey. We'll be exploring instructional technologies, best practices for technology integration, and how teaching

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English

Students & Educators

Nadja YoungMay 17, 2013 0

Value-added myth busting, Part 4: Value-added models cannot measure growth of students who have missing data or are highly mobile

Students with missing test scores are often highly mobile students and are more likely to be low-achieving students. It is important to include these students in any growth/value-added model to avoid selection bias, which could provide misleading growth estimates to districts, schools and teachers that serve higher populations of these

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English

Education | Government

Students & Educators

Nadja YoungApril 15, 2013 0

Busting myths of education value-added analysis, Part 3: Simple growth measures provide better information to educators.

Welcome to Part 3 of the value-added Myth Busters blog series. I have heard a variation of this many times. “Why shouldn’t educators just use a simple gains approach or a pre- and post-test? They can trust simpler methodologies because they can replicate and understand them more easily.” Simple growth measures

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English

Education | Government

Students & Educators | Work & Life at SAS

Willie the Seeing Eye DogApril 1, 2013 0

Teaching the teachers

I love to travel, especially by air. As is my due, I get plenty of attention. Airlines assign the blind guy to a row with extra leg room, so that I can stretch my big self out and enjoy the ride. While in route, airports give me a special place

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Students & Educators

Nadja YoungMarch 27, 2013 0

Busting myths of education value-added analysis, Part 2: It is harder to show growth with high-achieving students

Welcome to Part 2 of the value-added Myth Busters blog series…have you heard this one before? Educators serving high-achieving students are often concerned that their students’ entering achievement level makes it more difficult for them to show growth. “How can my students show growth if they are already earning high

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English

Education | Government

Students & Educators

Nadja YoungMarch 13, 2013 0

Busting myths of education value-added analysis, Part 1: You must control for demographics

In the past five years, value-added models have been increasingly adopted by states to support various teaching effectiveness policies. As educators make the paradigm shift from looking at only achievement data to incorporating growth data, many misconceptions have developed. Compounding this issue is the fact that not all value-added and

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English

Education | Government

Students & Educators

Nadja YoungNovember 16, 2012 0

Data-driven education books make great holiday gifts for educators. Yes, really.

As the holidays approach, we’ll all have some down-time to catch up on personal and professional reading, hopefully cozied up by a fire with a cup of hot chocolate in hand. While most books regarding data-driven decision making and value-added analyses can be pretty heavy, I’d like to suggest two

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English

Education | Government