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Spring Update from AB
We hope you enjoy the Spring edition of the Academic Benchmarks newsletter. Much of the news you find in this email is a response to your feedback and suggestions. Lastly, April, May, and June are busy months for conferences. If you will be on the road with us, please be sure to reach out so we can schedule time to catch up. We'd love to hear about your 2012.
Sincerely,
Matt Doherty
President, Academic Benchmarks
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Common Core for States
States want control over Implementation, Deployment
To enable more effective implementation of the Common Core State Standards between our clients and states, Academic Benchmarks is releasing digital versions of the Common Core to states under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license. States can receive the verbatim or state-modified Common Core from Academic Benchmarks at no cost.
More than 90 percent of our clients have received the Academic Benchmarks digital conversion of the Common Core since its initial publication in June 2010. Some benefits to our clients and states include:
- Increased efficiency of sharing aligned content and standards metadata
- Extended standards metadata that is exchanged with states
- Reduced efforts in converting human-readable standards to machine-readable standards
- Interoperability across systems, products, and education resources
We are pleased to announce that two states, Indiana and Michigan, have already partnered with Academic Benchmarks to receive their state's version of the Common Core. When those states asked our clients why they use Academic Benchmarks, they received many responses, chiefly that "it just works." We are grateful to our clients for this vote of confidence. Thank you.
For more information, please see our press release, visit the Common Core page of our website.
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The AB KnowledgeBase
Your source for all AB Information, Training Guides, and Updates
In March we re-released the AB KnowledgeBase, our collection of information on AB Tools, Standards, and Services. The re-release was in response to our clients' requests for a more intuitive and user-friendly online resource. In this new design, all information is available to our users in an open, direct manner. The Search tool has been updated to search all facets of information, while Related Articles are linked together for simple navigation. It's easy to stay updated on the latest updates and trending questions with immediate updates on the main page of the KnowledgeBase.
This new design offers us the flexibility to expand and build out as needed to support our clients. With this release, we want to hear from you. Take our online poll. What would you like to see in the KnowledgeBase? What features would be helpful for you, or improve your daily work routine? Let us know by sending your thoughts, comments, suggestions to the AB Support Team.
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Upcoming Conferences
Mon 4/16 - Wed 4/18:
EdInnovation Summit 2012
Pheonix,AZ
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Upcoming Conferences
Sun 5/6 - Tues 5/8:
SIIA - Ed Tech Industry Summit
San Francisco, CA
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Standards Translation Service
Standards Translation is provided by Academic Benchmarks (AB) as a community service, freely to the Common Core community. In a recent letter from the NGA/CCSSO to the state chiefs, CCSSO Executive Director, Gene Wilhoit says:
"...we understand that there might be multiple versions of the standards as people tried to translate the standards from the available PDF files on www.corestandards.org into workable XML, Excel, and other database formats."
Since the release of the Common Core State Standards in June 2010, Academic Benchmarks has been supporting the industry with machine-readable (i.e. digital) conversions of the Common Core State Standards, exactly as Mr. Wilhoit alludes.
To continue our support and to insure the considerable investment our clients and state partners already have made in deploying the Common Core State Standards digitally, we offer a translation service on our website.
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The AB Support Line
AB Support helps our clients get the most out of their AB experience. You can reach AB Support via email or by submitting a Support Request Form in the AB KnowledgeBase. Below are a couple of Hot Topics from our clients:
Client Profile Updates
Times are changing, and with that, specific information regarding your Client Profile may need updated. Our Support Team will be alerted when a client updates their information via the Client Profile Update form. All changes are received instantaneously, and updates completed within 24 hours of receipt. A quick and easy way to update your profile in the AB Network!
How long do alignment extracts run?
We often get questions about how long alignment extract reports take to generate and become available for our clients. Alignment extract reports are typically very large files; much larger than typical alignment reports which limit results to specific sets of standards or asset types. Due to the size of these files (or the asset and standards set involved), extracts can be expected to take several days to generate, so it is normal if the report has not become available after a couple days. When requesting, please take these time considerations into account, and if you have any questions contact AB Support.
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Common Corner Updates
The following state specifc standards are now available for Math and/or English Language Arts. Links are provided below to view the standards through the AB Website:
GA Performance Standards
*Note: NM has removed the ELA state document from their site and are working on a revised version. Information on these updates can be found in the Common Corner.
AZ is also in the process of making revisions to their CCSS ELA standards. The last version was removed from the AZ website. We will continue to monitor this situation and provide an update once the latest version has been released, reviewed, and converted for our clients use.
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Standards News & Notes
Links are provided below to view the standards through the AB Website:
Releases:
AR Curriculum Frameworks - Physical Education & Health
CA Preschool Learning Foundations
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