Professional Development | News

School Improvement Network Launches Common Core Tool

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 01/11/12

School Improvement Network (SINET), a provider of professional development for educators, has launched a new tool designed to help teachers navigate the new Common Core State Standards.

The new feature, called the Learning Progression Tool, places each standard on a digital card deck that is arranged by grade and subject and searchable by various criteria.

The Web-based tool is designed to allow teachers to:

• See what students have learned in previous years;
• Understand what knowledge will be necessary to perform well in the coming year;
• Plan lessons more efficiently; and
• See where each student falls within the Common Core rubric to differentiate lesson plans more easily.

"The Common Core Standards are well designed," Says Cory Linton, vice president of SINET, "but by their nature can be cumbersome and difficult to navigate. We've talked to many educators who feel like they could make better use of the standards if they were just more accessible. The Learning Progression Tool is a direct response to that need."

The tool is part of SINET's Common Core professional development suite, Common Core 360. Features of the suite include tools to align current practices to the new standards, grade-level progression training, PD 360 integration, and access to more than 1,800 professional development videos, 20 of which focus specifically on Common Core topics.

For more information, or to register for a free 30-day trial, visit schoolimprovementnetwork.com.