Achieve OER State Policy Recommendations
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Achieve OER State Policy Recommendations November 20, 2015 CC BY Achieve 2015
Transcript of Achieve OER State Policy Recommendations
Achieve OER State Policy Recommendations
November 20, 2015
CC BY Achieve 2015
Welcome and Introduction
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Today’s Agenda:
Provide a brief overview of Achieve’s work with Open Educational Resources (OER)
Share and discuss Achieve’s recently released set of OER state policy recommendations
Highlight takeaways from the development of these recommendations
Focus on state and district actions that exemplify these recommendations in action
Showcase additional OER resources developed by Achieve
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Achieve is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit education organization dedicated to raising academic standards and graduation requirements, improve assessments, and strengthen accountability and public reporting systems in grades K–12 in the U.S.
We are committed to ensuring all students graduate from high school “college and career ready” so students are academically prepared for next steps after high school.
Achieve partners with state governments, reform agencies, policy organizations, and other stakeholders to conduct research, provide technical assistance on policy execution, develop advocacy resources, and communicate results.
About Achieve
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Achieve and OER
Achieve OER RubricsBeginning in 2009, and in collaboration with leaders in the OER Community, Achieve developed a set of eight rubrics to evaluate the quality and standards alignment of OER.
Achieve OER InstituteBetween 2012 and 2014, seven states – California, Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, North Carolina, Washington and Wisconsin – worked together with Achieve to discuss issues and policy challenges in using OER as part of the college- and career-ready standards implementation plans.
Recommendations
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State policy recommendations available at www.achieve.org/oer-rubrics
Achieve’s OER policy recommendations are centered on two main tenets, which provide a basis and framework for additional recommendations:
States and districts should use OER as part of their strategies to support the implementation of college- and career-ready standards. Furthermore, when public funds are used, the instructional materials created should be openly licensed.
States and districts should ensure that all instructional materials being used, including OER, are high quality and aligned to college- and career-ready standards.
Recommendations
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State policy recommendations available at www.achieve.org/oer-rubrics
States should develop strategies for using OER to support college- and career-ready standards implementation.
States and districts should use specific criteria and review processes to measure alignment to the college- and career-ready standards to ensure that OER being used meet the level of quality needed to support teaching to those standards.
States and districts should use OER to leverage common standards as an opportunity for collaboration in the development, refinement and continuous improvement of OER instructional materials.
States and districts should include OER in professional learning activities to increase knowledge and awareness of OER and their benefits, and as part of a commitment to ensure that materials are high quality and aligned.
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The following key takeaways emerged from the development of these recommendations:
Recommendations like these have a broad base of support between states, funders and partner organizations that advocate for the use of OER.
Each of these recommendations is actionable in some form across states; however local context can and should inform how these recommendations are enacted locally.
Future efforts and recommendations to support the use of OER at scale should address strategies for states to appropriately promote and advocate for the use of OER in districts, where most adoption decisions occur.
Key Takeaways from Developing OER Recommendations
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State and District Examples
For the past three years, the Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction have reviewed full-course OER in math and OER units in ELA. Additionally, the state is conducting a grant program for districts to adapt and/or implement OER in classrooms.
The K–12 OER Collaborative is a group of 10 states committed to providing comprehensive, high-quality OER for K–12 math and ELA aligned to state standards.
Duval County, Florida – the 22nd largest district in the U.S. – recently chose to adopt EngageNY OER materials in elementary math and ELA, thereby saving the district $10 million it can use for other materials and programs.
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Achieve has recently released other resources to help states and districts support the use of OER
Policy recommendations include casemaking materials
for policymakers
Communications materials•Key messages about OER•Presentation slides •Survey to gauge knowledge and awareness about
OER
Guidance for using the EQuIP and OER Rubrics in a quality review process
An update to the OER Institute state profiles
All resources are available at www.achieve.org/oer-rubrics
Additional OER Resources
Benefits of OER
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Some advantages of using OER Include:
Increasing local control and allowing teachers to adapt instructional materials to best meet their needs.
Reducing costs of instructional materials.
Ensuring that high-quality resources are shared broadly and easily.
Key Messages About OER
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Sample key three messages about OER highlighting OER benefits:Message 1: Define the Issue — As states and districts transition to new college- and career-ready standards, teachers need access to instructional materials that are high quality, aligned to standards and adaptable to support use in a variety of classrooms
Message 2: Outline the Problem — States and districts need ways to ensure that instructional materials, in whatever format they are available, are quality and aligned to standards. Copyright restrictions on traditional instructional materials can keep teachers from adapting and sharing quality resources that best suit their instructional needs
Message 3: Explain the Solution — Open educational resources offer teachers the opportunity to use and freely share quality, standards-aligned resources that increase local control by allowing teachers to adapt materials, reduce costs of instructional materials, and ensure that high quality resources are shared broadly and easily.
Guidance on developing key messages about OER is available at www.achieve.org/oer-rubrics.
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The EQuIP rubrics are a set of open tools to support educators in developing and evaluating lessons and units for quality and alignment to the Common Core State Standards.
States, districts, and partner organizations are welcome and encouraged to share and adapt the rubrics to help meet their specific needs.
One collaboration between educators in Kentucky and Colorado produced an adapted rubric that paid specific attention to assessment criteria and additional criteria to foster more collaboration.
The EQuIP Call to Action to fill identified areas of need for grades K–12 requires that materials submitted are licensed CC BY. More information at www.achieve.org/equip.
EQuIP Rubrics
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Letter of Support
Achieve is circulating a letter that outlines the need for high-quality OER in college- and career-ready standards implementation. The letter also highlights many of the benefits of using openly licensed materials in classrooms.
We are seeking signatures from states and partner organizations or foundations.
www.achieve.org/oerletter
Let me know if you would like to sign the letter!
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Letter of Support
Current Signees:• Achieve• Core Knowledge Foundation• The Council of Chief State School Officers• Creative Commons• The Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME)• The Learning Accelerator• Louisiana Department of Education• The Military Child Education Coalition• Minnesota Department of Education• North Carolina Department of Public Instruction• Open Education Consortium• Oregon Department of Education• The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence• The Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation • Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction• The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
www.achieve.org/oerletter
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What are some ways in which states, institutions of higher education, experts and thought leaders, and other organizations can effectively work with districts to support the adoption of OER?
How can the same groups listed above help encourage innovation using OER, while still ensuring that materials being created and used are high-quality and aligned to college- and career-ready standards?
What are some of the challenges (e.g., political concerns, knowledge and awareness of OER, others) for state, district, and third-party partner organization collaboration in supporting these efforts?
Questions for Discussion and Looking Toward the Future
