New Year Updates

I wanted to share some updates that came in at the end of 2013 so that they aren't forgotten as we start a new year.

The 12/20 Commissioner's Weekly Update included a variety of timely items, including an opportunity for non-RTTT districts to access Edwin Teaching and Learning at no cost during the 2014-2015 school year. Interested districts should contact EdwinT&L@doe.mass.edu prior to January 10, 2014.


The materials from the 2014 Curriculum Summit are now posted on the ESE Web site, including information about the Model Curriculum Units (MCUs) and how the Curriculum Embedded Performance Assessments (CEPAs) can be used in District-Determined Measures (DDMs), as part of the Educator Evaluation system.

Finally, ESE has posted a survey about the ESEA waiver, seeking feedback from stakeholders about what changes might be made to further improve the state's accountability system. Parents, teachers, district and school administrators, school committee members, students, and other community members are encouraged to respond.

Happy New Year to all!

Edwin Teaching and Learning Pilot Update

The Edwin Teaching and Learning Group at ESE have published an update on the ET&L pilot project, including information about current and future pilot opportunities (for RTTT districts), content updates, and online resources.

The update document can be found under "News and Updates" on the Edwin page on the ESE site.

http://www.doe.mass.edu/edwin/

More About Our New Friend Edwin

Edwin is certainly a popular guy these days -- he's everywhere!

As you know by now, "Edwin" (which is not an acronym, by the way) is the name of Massachusetts' comprehensive integrated suite of tools and resources to help educators at every level to improve teaching and learning. Edwin has two main parts:


Edwin Analytics will be a suite of analysis tools, including the Massachusetts Early Warning Indicator System (EWIS), college and career readiness reports, and the Education Data Warehouse, all available through the security portal. Today was the first of several Webinars which focused on this portion of Edwin - additional Webinars have been scheduled in order to accommodate all the folks interested in learning more! We will start seeing new reports and Edwin interface changes within the security portal toward the end of the month. All districts will have access to Edwin Analytics through the security portal.

Edwin Teaching and Learning will provide online curriculum and assessment tools for educators aligned to the 2011 MA Curriculum Frameworks in English Language Arts and Literacy and Mathematics, which incorporate the Common Core State Standards. Yesterday I had the opportunity to join the pilot districts to learn more about the Thinkgate system upon which Edwin Teaching and Learning will be built. I was very impressed by the curriculum and assessment tools it offers! You can see a quick demo of the system and learn more about upcoming Webinars related specifically to Edwin Teaching and Learning at http://thinkgate.net/ohma/. Edwin Teaching and Learning will first be implemented in districts that are part of RTTT (projects 5A-5E plus project 3A.)

For additional information on Edwin, please continue to visit http://www.doe.mass.edu/edwin/.