We are please to provide more current and relevant information for the greater education community. You may also want to view our current newsletter known as the Bi-County Brief. |
News & Information
High School CPR Toolkits Available
Lauren's Law, enacted in July 2014,
requires that all secondary schools provide training in Bystander CPR and
Automated External Defibrillators (AED) education as part of the health
education curriculum. The Illinois State Board of Education provides a guidance
document on this law, available at www.isbe.net/pdf/
school_health/guidance-15-06-CPR-AED-secondary-schools150801.pdf .
To help schools with the cost and materials necessary to meet this
requirement, Illinois Heart Rescue has created High School CPR
Toolkits for schools' use. Each toolkit will include 16 stackable and durable
mannequins, two AED trainers, educational support materials including key
messaging highlights, and reference materials. Each kit also contains a CPR
training DVD that is available in five languages. |
Subscribe to our Workshop Email List
We already have several workshops planned for our area this summer and are in the process of developing others to offer. Many of these workshops are free under Foundational Services and offer PD credit hours. Check our Workshops and Events calendar to see our most current offerings. You can also sign up for our email list to have the flyers sent directly to you. Sign up at: http://goo.gl/forms/ue37QRfvMX |
ReadWorks.org
If you are looking for reading passages to use in your K-8 classrooms and have not done so yet, visit the free resource website ReadWorks.org If you are already a member or familiar with the website, they recently announced new reading passages and question sets for grades K-8 [Click here to try them out]: 70% non-fiction, 30% fiction – based on STEM and social studies topics Common Core-aligned question sets consisting of 10 evidence-based questions Lexile leveled to support differentiated instruction As always, ReadWorks’ resources are research-based, free and meant to be shared with your fellow educators. |
ROE 45 Projects to be Featured at National Math Science Partnership Conference
Assistant Regional Superintendent Mary Ann Quivey and project evaluator Dr. Matt Feldman will be traveling to Washington D.C. in September to present information about our successful Math Connections IMSP grant. Math Connections was selected from grant projects across the nation be featured in a breakout session featuring systems of high-quality professional development at the National Math Science Partnership Conference. Numerous teachers from our bi-county region participated in the program over the five summers it was funded. Every public school district and most private schools in our area were represented. The project focused on intense instruction designed to increase participant’s understanding of mathematics.
In addition another ROE 45 IMSP Partnership program, TalentSparks3, will be featured as a poster presentation. This unique partnership with the iBioInstitute emphasizes teaching scientific concepts through problem-based learning and industry connections.
This is the fourth year that our projects have been selected to be featured at the national conference. We are excited and proud of the hard work of all of the participants and staff who helped to make these projects outstanding. |
PARCC Releases Final Grade- and Subject-Specific PLDs
July 17, 2013 - The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) today released the final grade- and subject-specific performance level descriptors (PLDs) in English language arts/literacy (ELA) and mathematics. Performance levels, sometimes referred to as "achievement levels," are the broad categories used to report student performance on an assessment, and the PLDs further describe what that performance means. PARCC's Educator Leader Cadre (ELC) members, spanning K-12 through higher education, will engage in virtual professional development throughout the summer around how to use the PLDs to prepare for the assessments in 2014-15 and ongoing Common Core State Standards (CCSS) implementation. All materials used in these educator-created professional development videos and resources will be released to the field via the PARCC ELC Portal at the end of September. For more information, FAQs or to view the PLDs, visit http://www.parcconline.org/plds. |
Fight summer brain drain with We Give Books.
If you haven't yet joined We Give Books (www.wegivebooks.org) I highly
recommend that you check out their site. Not only do they have over 150
books to read online for free, each online book read helps donate books
to children in need! We Give Books Read for My Summer is your chance to share books and celebrate literacy with young readers in your life all summer long. Designed for children age 1 or younger all the way up through age 10, Read for My Summer highlights special books for you and your child to read online from the We Give Books library every week, along with fun interactive tools and activities to make each book come to life. This free program helps libraries, schools, and parents offer children an exciting online reading experience, filled with classic children’s favorites. |
Common Core Parent Guides
Many of you are familiar with the National PTA's Parent's Guides for the Common Core Standard's found at http://pta.org/parents/content.cfm?ItemNumber=2583 The Council for Great City Schools also has developed Parent Roadmaps for the Common Core Standards. http://cgcs.org/Page/328 |
PARCC Blueprints and Test Specifications
The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) today released assessment blueprints and test specifications for both the English language arts/literacy and mathematics assessments set to debut in 2014-15. These blueprints and test specifications will help educators better prepare students for the new online assessments that are aligned to the more rigorous Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and designed to measure college and career readiness. For more information on the assessment blueprints and test specifications, including narrated overview PowerPoints and an FAQ document, visit http://www.parcconline.org/assessment-blueprints-test-specs. Follow the consortium on Twitter at http://twitter.com/PARCCPlace. |
Guidance on Documenting Common Core State Standards
The posting of IEP Guidance was recently posted by ISBE. It is located under the A-Z index in the Special Education section. They will work on cross-referencing the link in various sections, but it is posted under Special Education in the A-Z index called Guidance on Documenting Common Core State Standards on the Individualized Education Program. http://www.isbe.state.il.us/spec-ed/pdfs/guidance-ccss.pdf |
High School Math Curriculum Pathways
Please note that the state has released a statement regarding the pathways for high schools. It has been decided that Illinois will continue to have districts determine which high school mathematics pathway to implement. The PARCC assessments for both traditional and integrated curricula will be available for districts beginning in the 2014-2015 school year. The traditional (Algebra I, Geometry and Algebra II) and integrated (Math I, Math II and Math III) pathways are outlined in the PARCC Model Content Frameworks available athttp://www.parcconline.org/parcc-model-content-frameworks Although the Illinois Model Curriculum was designed using the integrated pathway, districts may choose which pathway they would prefer. A PARCC assessment is being created for both pathways and the state will provide districts with the appropriate assessment. |