Professional Development | News

Teachers Get Free Online Common Core PD To Reach Struggling and Special Ed Students

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 01/21/14

A new free service has launched to boost the efforts of teachers, professional development coordinators and administrators in helping struggling students, especially those with disabilities, meet the Common Core State standards in reading, writing and math. The Web site, PowerUp What Works, has a number of resources:

• Instructional strategy guides for each subject with videos, lessons in action and other material, organized by learning area;
• Coverage of formative assessments, with ideas for tracking progress of student learning in several ways;
• "Grab and go" ideas, offered in a PowerUp blog, such as using virtual manipulatives in class, teaching students about online safety and more;
• Tech research briefs and articles about integrating technology into instruction;
• A technology implementation practice guide for learning how to expand the use of technology tools in school to support classroom instruction; and
• Professional development materials that can be customized for teacher training to show educators how to use the PowerUp content.

PowerUp was developed by a team of experts in education, technology, differentiated instruction, University Design for Learning and special education at the Center for Implementing Technology, a non-profit that works with state and local education agencies in integrating instructional technology for all students to achieve high educational standards. The center is operated by American Institutes for Research (AIR) in collaboration with the Education Development Center and the Center for Applied Special Technology. The work was funded by the United States Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs.