And unlike many other PD offerings, they are supported with coaching and mentoring in a way that builds capacity in every participating school. By integrating the PD within the Pinnacle platform, PD is no longer an optional event -- it becomes an everyday process. Teachers and administrators are not only learning using the same environment in which teaching and learning take place, they are receiving real-time, on-demand support for the immediate challenges they face in improving student learning... for all students. They themselves are learning the skills needed to transform their classrooms and districts into effective educational enterprises for the digital age.

Our first four initiatives have been designed in response to what our users report are the biggest challenges they face. Each of our PD programs incorporates what's been learned from 15 years of best practices, starting with online professional development funded by the National Science Foundation; integrating the research of Dr. Robert Marzano around standards-based learning and school reform; and extending to the National Education Technology Standards for Students, Teachers and Administrators from ISTE. Each initiative includes year-long support through coaching, mentorship, and collaboration within a Professional Learning Community. Using a shared vision, language and processes, designated school staff become coaches and mentors, so that the capacity of each school and district builds with each new teacher taking a course.

Guiding Assessments: Using Technology to Drive Formative Assessment and Standards-Based Learning

Join Bob Marzano for five video coaching sessions that explore classroom-centered assessment to help advance the learning growth of all students. Learn how to implement standards-based instruction and navigate the path to assessment literacy. It's the next best thing to having Dr. Marzano visit your school in person to coach your staff.

Featuring Dr. Robert Marzano

These sessions should provide you with enough information and examples that ... you can actually start on the road to transforming your grading, recordkeeping and reporting practices.

Robert J. Marzano From "Guiding Assessments: Using Technology to Drive Formative Assessments and Standards-Based Learning"

Imagine what's possible

We know from research that the most significant factor in student improvement is the effectiveness of the classroom teacher -- there is no set of tools that can replace the impact of a good teacher on a group of students. We also know that an effective standards-based, formative program can dramatically enhance student achievement. By putting the right information and a powerful set of technology tools into the hands of a good teacher, schools can create a formula for success.

In these master training sessions, Dr. Bob Marzano is your training partner and coach guiding you and your instructional team in using classroom-centered assessment and grading practices that provide accurate feedback and encourage student learning.

It's the next best thing to having Dr. Marzano visit your school in person to coach your staff.

Over two hours of training guides educators through every step of the implementation process -- from providing a framework for understanding, and choosing and using formative assessments; to integrating standards-based instructional practices, and applying those principles through the Pinnacle Suite. For school leaders, learn powerful strategies that not only help you successfully develop formative assessments and incorporate them into your current systems and culture, but support the professional growth goals of your instructional teams and individual teachers as well.

Five video sessions on two DVDs feature these chapters:

Improving Schools Using Effective Assessment for Digital-Age Learning

The wide recognition and respect for Dr. Marzano's research-based practices leads schools to seek practical strategies to implement his recommendations in their specific settings. However, few schools have resident expertise in gathering, analyzing and using data to guide school improvement, or the systems to effectively guide instruction to meet specific goals. 'School Improvement' happens when it occurs in every classroom, not in the central office.

Making sure instructional changes happen at the classroom level is the goal of this course. Schools learn to:

• "Reverse engineer" successes at other schools with ELA and Math (and other high priority achievement gaps) by using data to shape instruction, including actionable strategies to improve results for specific targeted groups of students.
• Build local capacity to use data effectively in implementing their school improvement plans.
• Use Pinnacle to inform and organize research-based improvements in classroom practice.

Federal Funding

Professional development targeted to needs identified in a school's improvement plan is a requirement to access Title I school improvement funds. School improvement strategies stress the importance of using data to guide improvement, and schools are expected to have systems in place for gathering and analyzing student performance data. $1.5B is allocated for School Improvement Funds.

RtI: Roadmap to Excellence

The over-identification of students for special education services is a critical need for many schools and districts. The Response to Intervention (RtI) Roadmap program is the first of its kind, to directly prepare general education teachers with the knowledge, skills and strategies they need to identify and address the specific needs of all learners, from a strong research-based foundation.

Response to Intervention (RtI) Roadmap helps teachers understand:

• How to design differentiated instruction according to specific student learning needs
• The neurological basis of student learning difficulties and specifically, how to use individual strengths to bypass weaknesses.
• How to closely monitor student progress and adjust instruction by looking at real-time data

Federal Funding

15% of special education funding can be allocated to RtI. If this holds true for new funds available from the federal stimulus package, RtI funds could reach $2B.

Visible Thinking, Teaching and Learning: A 21st Century Skills Course

Many schools have identified the need to provide 21st Century Skills that prepare their students for success in the digital age, but haven't been able to find ways to strengthen and assess these skills. The Visible Thinking, Teaching and Learning: A 21st Century Skills Course provides fully developed project-based units, aligned to both content area and NETS standards, with integrated assessments. This framework allows teachers of English, Math, Science and Geography to meet existing objectives, while simultaneously providing the experiences required for students to gain mastery of 21st century skills.

This online professional development course prepares teachers to teach students 21st century skills and to demonstrate their own mastery of the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS). Project-based learning units, aligned to both core content standards and the NETS are designed to develop and assess technology literacy.

Utilize 21st Century Assets with Confidence

Federal Funding

The teacher version of this course qualifies for funding under the Preparing Teachers of Digital-Age Learners (PTDAL) Act. As part of the recent reauthorization of spending for higher education, the PTDAL funding is projected to be $100M.

Information Technology for Learning (IT4L): A Team Strategy for School Improvement

Schools that are committed to transforming their processes to standards-based digital-age learning will find that the IT4L program prepares teams at the building level to implement practical and sustained instructional strategies that support the use of technology to enhance educator effectiveness.

Information Technology for Learning (IT4L): A Team Strategy for School Improvement

This online professional development course prepares schools to organize School Improvement Teams at the building level in order to leverage the power of technology to support and sustain improved student learning. This course incorporates the research-based methodologies of Dr. Robert Marzano as they are used and deployed through the Pinnacle Suite.

Sustainable Improvement

Course participants will receive clear, actionable guidance on using technology to align instruction and assessment with instructional strategies that are guided by research and real-time data. Each classroom teacher will be mentored in using the Pinnacle Suite to address specific academic and life skill challenges, as identified in the School Improvement Plan (SIP). Schools will be able to design and implement processes for sustained, continuous improvement of instructional and assessment strategies using technology to enhance educator effectiveness.

Educators learn to form effective Information & Technology teams at the building level to improve instruction through the effective use of technology. By aligning curriculum, instruction and assessment with strategies that are guided by research and real-time data, schools will:

• Meet and exceed accountability targets to support student mastery of academic and 21st Century skills.
• Design and implement processes for sustained improvement of instructional strategies using technology to enhance educator effectiveness.
• Align staff, funding and technical resources required to sustain growth over time.

Federal Funding

Designed specifically to meet the Enhancing Education through Technology (EETT) professional development criteria as specified in Title II-D, this course also meets School Improvement Grant/Title I requirements for schools that have identified data-driven decision-making for specific academic targets within their school improvement plans. EETT funding is estimated at $17.5M based on 10% of $175M that is targeted for professional development. In addition, there is $1.5B allocated for School Improvement Funds.