School Transformation

Helping Improve Schools

Our educational system is the great equalizer of opportunity in American society. A 2009 McKinsey & Company study, Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America’s Schools, reported that achievement gaps have the same economic impact on the United States as a permanent national recession. Pearson believes that the future prosperity of our children and country depends on closing these gaps between races, socio-economic groups, and nations. Today, we are engaging in multi-year state and district partnerships focused on helping to turn around failing schools, to help struggling districts perform better, and develop innovative new school models. Drawing from the vast resources of our curriculum, assessment, technology, educator effectiveness and teacher professional development products and services, we are creating customized programs that sustain improvement through partnerships. We use the Global 21 school framework to help address the critical issues in each setting.

PEARSON SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENT SERVICES (SAS)

Pearson’s School Achievement Services’ provides professional assistance and support to teachers, principals, district leadership and communities, enabling all students to meet high standards for college and career readiness in schools where learning and student achievement are a shared responsibility. SAS consultants and teams partner with states, schools and districts by providing consulting on education issues such as transitioning to the Common Core State Standards, Race to the Top measures, and other policy-driven initiatives; delivering evidence-based schoolwide improvement and professional development services for districts wishing to transform; and, increasing educator effectiveness and career growth through technology-supported systems, tools and processes. Key Pearson SAS programs include math, literacy and STEM focused PD; Common Core Services; SIOP®; Pearson’s Schoolwide Improvement Model (SIM™); Assessment Training Institute (ATI); Words Their Way; Pearson Learning Teams; Teacher Compass / Principal Compass; and, many other job-embedded, face-to-face, and hybrid PD solutions for districts and educators.

Schoolwide Improvement – http://pearsonschoolimprovement.com
Professional Development – http://pearsonpd.com
Teacher Compass & Principal Compass for Educator Effectiveness – http://pearsonpd.com/teachercompass and http://principalcompass.com
Professional Development for ELLs – http://pearsonpd.com/index.cfm?locator=PS1451

INSTRUCTIONAL IMPROVEMENT SYSTEM
The comprehensive technology capability of a system like Pearson’s Schoolnet provides a unique digital spine that leads to systemic reform in K-12 education. By helping school districts improve efficiency and efficacy, and by helping to increase and sustain student achievement, Schoolnet taps the power of district software data to drive school performance. The award-winning Schoolnet Suite of data-driven education software is the only unified solution to align student assessment, curriculum and instruction; guide collaborative, data-informed discussion; and enable targeted instruction for every student.
www.schoolnet.com

NEXT GENERATION ASSESSMENTS
As part of its Race to The Top competition, the U.S. Department of Education awarded two state consortia grants to design comprehensive, new assessment systems to accelerate the transformation of public schools. In addition, many states are redesigning their own state assessment programs. Together, these transitions will require fundamental shifts in how we develop, deliver, and score assessments and how the data is used to improve teaching and personalize learning. To support states and help districts navigate such tremendous change, Pearson is at the forefront in developing innovative approaches to item development and scoring, such as the expanded use of performance tasks, computer adaptive testing, and automated scoring to more effectively measure what students know and can do. These next generation assessments will move beyond snapshots of student achievement by capturing complex performance and tracking student growth over time. The new assessments will leverage new digital technologies to provide richer, timelier feedback to teachers, students, parents, and policymakers to enable college success and improved workforce readiness.
www.pearsonassessments.com/pai/ai/products/nextgeneration/roadmap.htm