State of Learning Standards 2024

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Opening Remarks

Rich Portelance

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the State of Learning Standards with EdGate, Whiteboard Advisors, and Stride K12. We are going to start officially in about two and a half minutes. We’ll give people a few just to come in and get set up. We're super excited about our panelists today and looking forward to digging into this wonderful conversation, so just give us a couple of minutes and get yourself settled, get a cup of coffee, or a cup of eggnog as a seasonally appropriate drink, and we'll get going shortly.

As we get set up here, and we've let people come in before we kick off the webinar officially, we're excited about this panel and about the topic. There's a lot of changes happening with learning standards within the community of education, within the CTE (Career and Technical Education) standards, and internationally. Throughout the world, we're seeing tremendous change, not only in the standards themselves, but in the ways in which the legislation is being handled, and at the state level, so I think what we're going to have the opportunity to discuss today are a myriad of issues that people are facing, how they're being handled, and how others are having success. There are lots of great opportunities if you know how to manage through this changing world of learning standards, so it's going to be an exciting conversation. 

Okay, just a couple of house-cleaning things. Everybody who is in as a participant will be muted. We are asking people to submit questions in the Q&A down below in your Zoom panel. Please send in questions; our moderator will aggregate those, and we'll attack those towards the end of this session. We will also be sending out material afterwards to everybody that's appropriate from Whiteboard Advisors, Stride K12, and EdGate, so you have a little background information that's germane to the conversation today, and we will make sure if we don't get to a question that is asked, we will answer it within the follow-up material. We'll probably be sending that out over the holidays or right after the holidays. We want to make sure everybody has a chance to look at that material and respond to it. And, of course, all our panelists' contact information will be available through that material as well, so you're free to reach out to them, too.

So, without further delay, we're going to kick into the State of Learning Standards: Untangling State-to-State Adoptions Using Advanced Technologies. And as I said, my name is Rich Portelance with EdGate. I have a wonderful panel today. I'm going to let them introduce themselves, and then we're going to kick into some questions. So, without further ado, let me start first with Kristy. If you could give a little background, and then we'll go to the next person. 

Kristy Engel

Sure, thanks, Rich. 

Good morning and good afternoon, everybody. I'm Kristy Engel, and I'm the senior manager of curriculum compliance with Stride K12. I've been with the company for 12 years now, starting as a teacher in one of our online schools in Michigan, and then supporting teachers in the role of learning coach, or, excuse me, as an instructional coach, as well as in training and services, a professional development manager, and now in this particular role, I get to work with a fantastic team that's responsible for maintaining standards research, legislative research, our stride skills tree which unpacks all of the academic learning standards across the 50 states, as well as managing high stakes curriculum applications, and our online provider status application supports in a variety of states that we service. I’m so happy to be part of this conversation! 

Rich Portelance

Thank you, Kristy. We're really happy to have you here and joining us today. 

Next, we're going to jump over to Kathleen from the EdGate team. 

Kathleen Ideguchi

Hello, I'm Kathleen Ideguchi, and I'm the Director of Client Services here at EdGate. I work with our clients with regard to their standards and alignment needs, helping the team and supporting them to make sure that the clients have what they need. Whether it comes to international, national, and/or U.S. standards. 

Rich Portelance

Fantastic. Excited that you're here, Kathleen. Thank you for joining. I know you're going to bring a lot of intrigue and information to the panel. 

And finally, we have Hillary from Whiteboard Advisors. 

Hillary Rinaldi

Hi, Rich, thank you, I'm excited to be joining. I'm Hillary Rinaldi, vice president at Whiteboard Advisors, focused on K-12 research and strategy. Whiteboard Advisors is an education consulting firm based in Washington DC. I'm based on the West Coast in Oakland, California. I work with our clients, nonprofits, for-profits, edtechs, start-ups, and foundations in expanding their footprint and understanding what the needs of states and districts are within the U.S. My background is in federal and state law policy, so I worked as the deputy chief of staff at the Tennessee Department of Education. And then prior to that, I was on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) in the U.S. Senate, writing the Every Student

Succeeds Act (ESSA). So, I know a whole lot, and I'm excited to get in the weeds on things like learning standards. There aren't that many things I know a lot about, but I feel like this topic, this group right here, we can get in the weeds, and so I'm excited about it. 

Rich Portelance

That's fantastic, thank you so much, Hillary. We're excited to hear from you. 

And just another note here, we're going to kick in with a few questions. If you could go back one slide, please, as well as these webinars, we do podcasts too. So I want everybody to, you know, if you have a chance, please go to our YouTube channel. Hillary and I had a great conversation a couple of weeks ago, it's posted to the YouTube Channel, and then Kristy, one of her teammates, and I are going to have a conversation after the holidays, we'll post that probably by January 15th or so. So, please come check those out, they're really good conversations, we get super deep so, you know, within a format like this, we're able to touch on things, get somewhat deep, but then we can really dig down with each of the panelists on their particular expertise, so please check that out on the YouTube channel. 

Discussion

Rich Portelance

All right, so let's get into it, Hillary. My first question is for you. You've had experience at both the federal and state levels, as you were saying. Considering we have a federated system within education, as the new administration comes together, do you anticipate any major changes to educational policy and learning standards? 

Hillary Rinaldi

It's a big question, right? Anytime we have a presidential election and we hear about what will happen in the new administration, we always want to have the crystal ball of what will happen next. I think I said this on our podcast too, Rich, that the best predictor of future performance is past performance. We actually, you know, we know what the first Trump presidency looked like, and I think we'll get more of the same. And much of that is about ensuring that states can do what they want to do and be able to do, right? 

We're on the 9th anniversary of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), that's the law that re-authorized the ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act), replacing the No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Under that law, you saw the greatest effort to give more autonomy back to states. I think it's important that we remember that as one nation, we have 50 state systems, and they're in 15,000 district systems, so I think even as we think about how, you know, at the core we have learning standards that are set by the state and adopted by the state, what that looks like in the classroom varies exponentially. So, I think we have to hold the bar on rigor there, and I expect more of that. 

Rich Portelance

That, you know, I think rigor is a great word. We're probably going to circle back on that throughout this conversation. We all know that the states are running quickly towards autonomy more and more. Let's discuss state-to-state differences in the state standards and adoptions, and how companies like Stride K12 are managing that. 

Kristy, what do you think? You know, can you give us a little bit of description on how you're handling those state-to-state differences? 

Kristy Engel

Sure, Rich. So, as I mentioned, we do have a portion of our team that diligently takes a look at academic standards and learning standards, and provides a quarterly update across our network, and that team really digs in. They are the experts of the learning standards across the 50 states, and that really helps to guide our curriculum development across the company so that we are able to provide the most up-to-date and aligned curriculum to all of our stakeholders: students, teachers, and school leaders. And so, you know, really managing that, being familiar with it, and maintaining it in a location of high visibility is something that we take great pride in. We unpack all 50 state standard sets across the core four content areas, and we do have some exceptions with elective courses, additional courses, and CTE courses in certain states where we have those requirements with our partnerships. And then really, you know, we love the breaking down of those standards into learning objectives that we connect to all of our content, so that our consumers are able to see how tightly aligned our curricula is across all 50 state learning standards. 

Rich Portelance

And you know, it's interesting, a phrase that we will not hear much today is “Common Core”, because everything's becoming so decentralized. However, Common Core is still an indicator and still a guidepost, and so, I want to ask Kathleen about the new maps that EdGate has published on the website and what you hope to achieve with those maps. 

Kathleen Ideguchi

Yes, so that is true, EdGate has firsthand knowledge of how states approach standards differently, and the EdGate repository includes the K-12 educational standards for the United States for all of the subjects, as well as national and international standards for 30-plus states. From the EdGate website, you can view some of the semantic standards comparison maps we have developed. These standards comparisons show how semantically similar or different each state's learning standards are compared to national sets like Common Core, Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), and the College, Career, and Civic (C3) Life Frameworks. And then, on these maps, you can see the graphical analysis of the semantic matches for language arts, math, science, and social studies. But this analysis is also applicable to other subjects like arts education, health and PE, and so on. So, the analysis is mathematically derived, and shows the semantic similarities between states and national standards, and reveals which states did incorporate those national standards, to what extent, and what the outliers are, which provides valuable information for educators, decision-makers, researchers, and publishers.  

Rich Portelance

Hillary?

Hillary Rinaldi

Yeah, Kathleen, I was just going to jump in because I think it's a really good point that, like, we talk about course subjects of ELA (English Language Arts) and reading, math, science, and social studies. At the same time, right, with Rich's first question around federal, right, there's no assessment required in social studies, so that's something that's wholly driven by states, and some of the more contentious conversations around state standards have been in social studies. I think also in the last few years we've seen more shifts around graduation requirements related to other topic areas, right, so, like, financial literacy being one, and the standards that come with that. 

There are states that are taking on changes to their accountability system, like Virginia, that puts an emphasis around work-based learning and CTE (Career and Technical Education), and so I know we're going to talk more about CTE later on in the conversation, but I just think again that pendulum swing for states taking on not just more autonomy, but there's more action happening too there. There are more sets of whether it's, you know, African-American history, or financial literacy or LGBTQ+ history that's being embedded. Those are all new efforts that are happening at the state level, too, and I anticipate they will continue to grow in that way. 

Rich Portelance

Thank you for adding that in. I appreciate it. 

As we talk about standards, you know, we also have to talk about things that go beyond standards when you're actually trying to align and gain contracts. So, there's a growing list of legislative differences from state to state that need to be contended with, and so I want to ask Kristy about how those are being addressed at a company level. You know, it's one thing to say at a state level, but when you're a company, and you're trying to get in, how are you dealing with those legislative differences? 

Kristy Engel

Yeah, Hillary set that up fantastically with some of those high-visibility topics that we definitely are seeing in our line of work. About a year ago, our team expanded beyond standards research because as we were looking at newsletters and listservs that we were a part of, and listening to the news, we were seeing lots of conversations about things that were happening that were being initiated at the legislative level that didn't have anything to do with academic standards or learning standards changes, and we were finding a lot of our stakeholders reaching out, asking, you know, “What's happening with these things?” And one driver was really trying to remove that need for our stakeholders to reach out, and us to shift and be able to share out. We have noticed this happening at your state level, here are adjustments to curriculum that you can take advantage of, here are some resources that we've developed for schools to use, etc., and so, you know, I think that expansion of standards research to additional legislative research, we do that on a monthly basis in order not to miss anything, so to speak, because it is fast changing, and it is a little unpredictable, which we know in education, the only thing that is certain is change. 

And so, that's an exciting new adventure for us that we've done, as I said over the past year. And so, where we have opportunities for curriculum that is more specific to a state, based on partnerships that we have, we also are able to add specific topics or areas of focus, like financial literacy, into those pieces of curriculum. Or, we're able to devise courses and offer those up for schools to use in order to meet those legislative initiatives. Where we don't necessarily have partnerships that mandate an exceptionally specific curriculum, we have a phenomenal team of experts that create collections of learning material that then teachers and school leaders can access from our internal learning management system. 

And so, we do have fantastic collections of curricula that deal with financial literacy, that deal with diversity, equity, and inclusion, that deal with ethnic study topics. And so, those are available where legislative initiatives are impacting our schools, if schools want to pull those in. And then we also support schools with embedding that into their curricula when needed, or when driven by certain partnerships that we have, so it's ever evolving, and a really exciting opportunity for a lot of our curriculum developers to really stay abreast of topics when we share out what we're finding, and really bring their expertise to the table to support all of our stakeholders with curriculum products that meet the needs of all the states. 

Rich Portelance

Thank you for that. You know, it reminded me, and I want to make a note about those maps that Kathleen was talking about because the intent for EdGate is, you know, this is when legislative initiatives become more and more important. We're hoping to add more content to those maps. Now, you know, I don't know exactly what's going to be added, but I would say that's something you should keep checking back on, because Kathleen and her team are working on challenges or requirements, so, you know, we want that to be an important resource for people that they can look at and really gain a lot of information because, you know, trying to understand on 50 different state bases is what's going on, how to attack it, and then actually be able to get in compliance, right? 

Kristy Engel

Yeah, absolutely, and working with students and not spending an exorbitant amount of time feeling that they have to create content based on different types of legislative initiatives. Not that that's something really providing them with the material based on the research that is able to be used by them, so that they can shift their time and energy into other tasks. 

Hillary Rinaldi

You know, talking to some of the leadership in Chicago Public Schools in Illinois, they have a requirement around civics education for middle school for one semester, right? So I think understanding how it can be layered in, and not to mention that we also know it's more interesting and engaging for students if we are cross-curricular, right, if we're embedding things, knowing how those things connect lets us both support teachers and then helps to allow them to support students.

Kristy Engel

Yes. 

Rich Portelance

So, Hillary, you and I both spoke about math proficiency specifically, and I know it's a topic that's close to your heart. Can you tell us a little bit about that work and how you're addressing standard differences? 

Hillary Rinaldi

We know that they review their standards between every, you know, five to eight years, probably on average. Then you have the subset of 18 states or so that have their textbook adoption process or instructional materials process in which the districts have to choose from the selected text that the state approves, and then there are, you know, other states that offer that but don't require it, and then the rest is up to the districts. So I think there can be an information vacuum of understanding, you know, what is the alignment to the given standards in the state, how do the instructional materials meet that alignment, and then also the quality, right? We could do a whole separate conversation just on high-quality instructional materials, how do we define that, and what does that mean? 

But in terms of standards alignment, we know that the intricacies of both math standards and also the graduation requirements are fascinating to me. So you have most states that require three years of math, not four years of math, to graduate high school. But most postsecondary institutions require four years of math to enter into postsecondary. So, part of my work with some of the largest school districts in the country has been thinking about how do we ensure that there are enough pathways for students in middle school through high school, and enough on-ramps and off-ramps, especially for advanced coursework, that they both can and want to take four years of math and be prepared for more opportunities? Some of that is thinking about the question of, like, how much Algebra 2 does a student need? Can you bake in some of geometry into what we're doing within algebra? How does competency-based education play a role in this, right? 

And so as more states, I think, grapple with the idea of more personalized learning opportunities and more competency-based learning opportunities, that requires further interrogation of how are we meeting all of these standards for all of these students so that they do graduate ready for whatever their next step is. 

I think similarly, I had the opportunity to visit a classroom in Miami last week that was a CTE classroom in aeronautics and aviation. And so they have flight simulators in their high school classroom, and the amount of math that goes into preparing to take off or land is incredible, right? And that's actually a difference that could be its own math course, and many times it is. So how are we thinking about, again, being student-centered, meeting the standards, holding that bar of rigor, but all in the name of what that student wants to do in the future 

Rich Portelance

So, clearly, there are a lot of challenges facing publishers and edtech providers, as well as the educators within these disciplines and these places, so thank you for that, Hillary. We really appreciate your level of knowledge. 

I'm curious about some of the solutions that are available. We do want to talk a little bit about, you know, the title of this webinar has “Advanced Technologies” in it, and AI is out there, so I'm curious, Kathleen, can you discuss the advanced technologies that are being deployed to aid alignment of standards to content, along with EdGate’s patented alignment methodology and and subject matter experts, has EdGate made other advances in evaluating standards?

Kathleen Ideguchi 

Yes, yes, we have. So, we have taken our expertise with standards to the next level with advanced technologies, including AI, advanced technical analysis, natural language processing, and machine learning. When it comes to standards, no two entities go about it the same way, and you can see this on the EdGate website, where we've trained the models to compare the standards on a semantic level. And this can be done not only to national standards, which is what you see on the website, it can also be used for comparing standards state-to-state, and newer versions of standards to the previous version of standards, provide endless possibilities for understanding how similar standards are semantically. 

This provides valuable information for clients to make decisions with regard to content development.

Rich Portelance

So, Hillary, we keep hearing about AI. How do we leverage this one technology and other technologies to help keep pace with the rapid changes that are occurring at the state level? This can include teaching the topic of AI, as well as its implementation.

Hillary Rinaldi

Yes, AI is not going away, and you and I talked a little bit about this, both teaching about AI and teaching with AI, right? And so I think what Kathleen is speaking to is the power of using AI to do things that human experts can train AI to do well. Similarly, I think the power of AI in education is also in supporting teachers to be able to to lift some of the burden of tasks, where they can then spend their time doing the things that really require a teacher's knowledge and expertise, and supporting students. 

So we have both the teaching with AI and teaching about AI conversation unfolding. What this means and in terms of, you know, legislative tracking, we have a whole bunch of states that are passing guidance or passing some type of legislation. I know Kristy's tracking this as well, but almost half of the states at this point have released some kind of guidance related to AI, and I think that looks like having it incorporate a task force, developing school guidance, or requiring professional development of teachers. 

I think this all also closely ties to efforts around cell phone bans and social media as well. So, I think we have… Our students are currently digital natives, right? Any student who's in K12 right now is the touchscreen generation, but that doesn't mean that they necessarily know how to use technology well, or necessarily use it safely, and that seems to be what's coming to a head with a lot of these cell phone ban conversations, and I think we'll see more of that, right? We have 18 states that have passed policies related to cell phone or device bans, and three states that have signed statewide efforts. But this question from Angela May about media literacy standards I think is an important one, because there are many states, certainly the states that have worked with ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) in signing on to their digital literacy standards or digital citizenship, but those also… The opportunity to update those as well. That is something that I would anticipate we'll see more of, this idea of just because, you know, even if the U.S. goes the way of Australia and says, “No social media before you're 16”, that doesn't mean that students are magically going to know how to engage safely and constructively at that age. I really appreciate there there was a great oped earlier this week for U.S. News & World Report about, you know, the analogy of, “You don't just toss kids the keys to the car as they turn 16, right? You have to take an assessment, you have to practice and be able to do that”, and I think there's a similar opportunity for digital citizenship, digital safety, and media literacy in the same way, and I think more states will be turning to that as well. 

So, I got a little bit on my soapbox about cell phone bans, but it's definitely a hot topic. 

Rich Portelance

It is. 

You know, you got me thinking about technology in general. I've been in the technology space since… I date myself here, around 1993. You know, technologies continue to evolve and come along, right? None of this is brand new, I think there's fear when something that is introduced to the public becomes big, like AI, and people get concerned about its effect, and as they should be wary as it becomes deployed, and there's a lot of, you know… We had ASU+GSV (Arizona State University + Global Silicon Valley) last year and this year again, they're going to have the AI conference where there's going to be over 250 vendors. I mean it's certainly taking hold, but, you know, a thoughtful application of any technology can produce exceptional results, and I know just from watching the way EdGate has done their work, they've been doing this with standards since 1996. It's been a very thoughtful progression. I haven't seen any technology added that's been superfluous or just done because it's trending. Everything has a purpose to serve to help to evolve the application of what they're trying to do of getting standards out there, to align them, and to, you know, help people understand better. 

And so, I think that that's important to look at as you look at players in the market, as you try to apply these things to what you're doing as a company, to look at the companies that are thoughtful or the groups that are thoughtful about how they apply technology. Don't be afraid of the technology itself because it's often, you know, not aligned; the fear is not always justified. 

So, while technology plays an important part in the change we're seeing, there are other, not-so-obvious changes that some companies are making to adjust to the requirements being enacted at the state level. So, Kristy, can you tell us a bit about how Stride, Inc. has adjusted and perhaps how the company looks differently today than it did a few years ago as a result of those adjustments? 

Kristy Engel

Yeah, so it's super exciting. This is our 25th year, we're celebrating that with Stride K12, and being part of the company for about half of that, there's been a lot of change in that amount of time. And just thinking back to when the company started, and how it has evolved over time is pretty exceptional. And I think what's even more exciting about that is seeing all that change and being a part of that, and to Hillary's point, especially with technology, with AI, and, you know, making learning accessible, we can't run away from it or hide, we have to meet our learners where they are at, and provide them with the absolute best education in order to prepare them, so that they're not hopping into a car for the first time at 16 with a pair of keys. 

And so, I think, you know, as as I look to Stride, Inc. and the things that we've done, you know, really being intentional with our focus areas and the teams that are created that weren't in existence years ago, based on the needs that have bubbled up and have developed over time, and, you know, really being intentional, listening to our stakeholders and what their needs are, and making sure that we have the right people in the right positions, and really carrying that passion of offering that personalized learning experience so that all learners are able to achieve and succeed. And I think that's also one of the pieces with online learning that's really exciting, is we're able to adapt to a lot of these things in relatively quick time, so as these things are rolling out at the state level, we're able to create and deliver that in a really seamless manner. And really thinking about how that can change the landscape of education and the students that are accessing or are looking to access education in a different way, and meeting all of those learners where they're at. 

And I think really the last thing, you know, to Hillary's point, you know, we have the high-quality instructional materials, we have the textbook approval process, and that's really been something over the past year year and a half that we've really taken a look at in order to be able to support all of our partnerships and the stakeholders that we have relationships with, and making sure that we remain competitive in all facets of the educational industry as an edtech leader over 25 years. 

Rich Portelance

Okay, thank you. Yeah, and it's a long time, and I would imagine within that space of time, have you seen the number of people within your curriculum department grow? I mean, you add these new positions, so you're finding that it has doubled in size or has it tripled in size? How has the footprint changed? 

Kristy Engel

So, I think… You know, that's a little bit of a challenging question, because we have folks that have gone on, you know to different opportunities. But then also, taking the personnel that we have, and moving folks around in areas where they're exceptionally passionate about, or maybe where they have grown and built their skill set up since when they first started. And so, you know, there's definitely been expansion, but also, you know, making sure that we are maximizing our efficiencies with the teams that we have in place, because one of the things too that's really, I think critical in education, is when you've got those subject matter experts, those individuals that know your systems, know the processes and the platforms, really leveraging them to the utmost degree and allowing them opportunities to grow. And so, I don't have the employment statistics for you, unfortunately, but I know that by looking at efficiencies and making sure that we've moved everybody around, it's definitely been a really amazing thing to watch happen over my time at Stride, Inc. 

Rich Portelance

I can imagine. You know, all these changes and there are different things that need to be addressed, whether it's from the legislative end or the compliance end. 

So, Hillary, I want to talk a little bit about HQIM (High-Quality Instructional Materials) and coherence. Could you give us some background? 

Hillary Rinaldi

Yeah, well, I think even just what Kristy was just saying of, like, even how district central offices, especially in the bigger systems, have certainly expanded, right, that we actually have more educators… Like, the educator-to-student ratio has continued to increase in the last few years, even though the teacher-to-student ratio hasn't increased, and part of that is because of what they're trying to tackle, right, at the district central office level. And I would argue that part of that is because of the implementation of new instructional materials and high-quality instructional materials. 

I think that although we can of debate the formal definition of HQIM, I like to think that we're far enough in the industry to have concretized the definition somewhat of what “high-quality” means in high-quality instructional materials, and the research that shows that teachers who use HQIM with fidelity are going to see those positive outcomes for students. Certainly, the work out of Johns Hopkins University and much of the work that the CCSSO (Council of Chief State School Officers) IMPD (Instructional Materials and Professional Development) network has put out at the state level. I think there's just this idea and this goes back to the the TNTP report of the opportunity myth that came out almost decade ago of, you know, students that are less likely to have access to those high-quality instruction materials are more likely to be students of color, are more likely to be students in high poverty areas, and that our expectations for those students are lesser, right? Regardless of whether we want that to be true or not, the research shows. So if we can level the playing field and ensure that every student has access to the same high-quality instructional materials within a district, we're doing a greater service to all of our students. But that is incredibly difficult to just say, “We're implementing a wholesale new curriculum”, whether you're a brand new teacher to a district, or a teacher that's been a veteran for 20 years, and been teaching the same subject, that change management is very difficult. 

And so, I think in talking to some of the chief academic officers and in some of the largest districts, and hearing how they approach this, it's almost similar to how we, like, work with students in our own classroom in that, like, gradual release model, right, of, like, teachers need to internalize these instructional materials, and be able to to teach them with fidelity. Not that they're, you know, reading from a script or everybody's on the same page in every classroom, but that you have to know what the expectations are in that book so that the students have the opportunity to meet it. And that's a tough change to make happen, especially at scale, but it's exciting to see happening, and I've had teachers who are, like, “I never thought my third graders would be able to do something like this, right, and then you give them that opportunity and they keep rising to the occasion”. It's exciting to see, but it takes a lot of effort, and I think it also takes that investment from the state and local to be able to make that happen, so, for our states that have formal textbook adoption processes, there are dollars connected to that. 

But I think we'll continue to see the challenges in a post-ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) world of tightening district budgets, and how do we ensure that districts have the funds that they need to be able to do this work well? 

Rich Portelance

You know, that's a thread we could pull for a long time. 

Hillary Rinaldi

It's true!

Rich Portelance

So, one of the additional challenges companies are facing is the third-party review process, which is becoming more and more familiar and prevalent. Kathleen, can you outline the EdGate process, and then, I know you work with Kristy on this, she can expound on the experience of working with EdGate and how that's being handled? 

Kathleen Ideguchi

Yeah, that sounds good. 

The third-party review process is one of the many standards-related services that EdGate provides to clients. When clients submit alignments to states for an adoption of their content, a third-party verification of those alignments is generally needed. And then EdGate’s subject matter experts review and evaluate client-supplied alignments on a standard-by-standard basis, reviewing the content material to determine if the alignments are a good fit, and provide feedback. Results are then summarized and shared with the client, along with a letter stating that EdGate performed the third-party service. 

Rich Portelance

Kristy, any thoughts or additions to how that process is going for you guys? 

Kristy Engel

We absolutely adore our partnership with EdGate, and are able to lean on that partnership in order to, again, meet the requirements of several states where we have particular requirements to be an approved online provider. We've also really expanded beyond that, which was really where a large portion of our partnership with EdGate resided over the past several years, to now really going into the arena of states that are approving curricula in order to be on approved lists. Whether it's, you know, mandated for use or recommended for use, and that's where we have now expanded our partnership with EdGate, and are taking those one-by-one, and are really eager to see the outcomes of that expanded partnership in those states that we're working with. But it's an invaluable resource with Kathleen and her team. I really need to give a shout out to Larry Johnson, who's the main point of contact that we do a lot of work with, because I think too what is valuable about that partnership is the dialogue. 

It sharpens both organizations, in my opinion, because it's subject matter experts passionate about what they know and are doing, and it allows us to reflect on where we feel alignment is, and really take that feedback as to how it can be better, or sometimes, you know, engaging in conversation where there might be a disagreement. But ultimately coming to that agreed-upon decision, that is then able to be given to the state or the school districts in order for it to have that third-party mark, which I think is… It’s really important to remove the bias from the process, with that, you know, piece of determining what curriculum you want to implement at your schools. So, having EdGate’s partnership is phenomenal for us. 

Rich Portelance

Thank you, that's awesome. 

And you know, that rolls very nicely into the discussion we had when you and I were talking about skills for measurable objectives. I know this is something that you're intimately involved with at Stride, Inc., and would you be able to shed a little light on why that's an important initiative? 

Kristy Engel

It really drives a lot of our different products, and it drives, predominantly, the curriculum that is developed. You know, we kicked off this session with that amazing educational word, rigor, and we know that academic or learning standards have varying degrees of rigor, and we can't just say that just because a student touches an experience one time that they master that. And that's the value of taking those standards, unpacking them, so that we can, again, ensure in our work with EdGate, in our work in other areas with states, that our curriculums are tightly aligned because we take all of those master measurable objectives, and connect them with all of the pieces of content, so that, again, students can see it in their courses, teachers can see it in their courses, and it helps with those alignment resources that we provide to our teachers and school leaders, so that helps them with their, you know, their instruction and instructional mapping, so it's a labor of love, I will tell you that. And that the team that is responsible for that work day in and day out. They are phenomenal to work with and talk to because it's sometimes just amazing to think how one standard can be looked at in so many different ways, but ultimately, they have the students’ best interests in mind in order for them to be successful. Like Hillary mentioned, when it comes time to graduate and go on. 

Rich Portelance

It's such an important topic, and I will throw a shameless plug in there that EdGate and the ExACT system has now added standards authoring within the platform, so if you don't know about that, you should contact Gina Faulk or Kathleen, and they'll give you a demo of that system, what's happening, and how that's bringing alignments and reporting all together with the with the construction of those standards. 

Hillary, I know you have some thoughts on CTE standards as well. Many may not be aware that CTE standards outnumber education standards by nearly seven to one, making it virtually impossible to hand correlate them at a pace that can be sustainable. Can you share some thoughts on that? 

Hillary Rinaldi

Yes. I think we will continue to hear CTE be a callout and a priority across states. We just had Gavin Newsom, the governor of my home state, announce today efforts related to career connection, K-12, higher ed, and workforce, and thinking about bringing down some of those barriers. CTE will certainly be a part of that. I anticipate as, you know, State of the State addresses start for all governors in Q1 and Q2 of next year, we'll hear almost all of them say something about career and technical education, and that means, you know, that that makes work for the Departments of Education within those states in meeting the needs of are there new CTE Pathways that are being formed, when was the last time those standards were updated, are there other courses that need to be included, I mentioned the aeronautics and mathematics, that crossover class that needs to happen for those students, so I do think that there's so much that can and should change within CTE. 

And depending on where you are in the country and what district you are in, your student experience can be profoundly different. I think that it's a big shift in how we think about what the potential for CTE is for students, and I think we'll just see more students entering CTE Pathways. All of that just means that there's, like, a bright light being shone on CTE, and that does mean that states will be… Whether they're putting more funds towards it, but certainly more attention means that those standards are changing, right, because we can't put it in the same bucket as just science. It's not one set of standards for each grade level; it's every CTE program of study, which in some states are, you know, you could have 20 some programs of study that then each have their own standards. 

Rich Portelance

Kathleen, I know I'm going to throw something at you here. I know that you've done significant work and EdGate has done significant work with CTE standards, primarily for Journeys Map, but also it's touching on the ExACT product. Can you give us a little bit of description of what's happening and why that's significant? 

Kathleen Ideguchi

[Audio Difficulties] …the analysis that we talked about for the K-12 standards we have done for CTE standards, also, so yes, we can make those same comparisons across the different states to see and look at the national set of CTE. [Audio Difficulties]…So yes, to see where there are similarities based on the semantics of the standards for CTE across the different states and within the different pathways. 

Rich Portelance

So, I want to encourage everybody that [Audio Difficulties] …for Kristy, or for Kathleen, or for myself, if you really want to hear me talk anymore, please put them into the Q&A, we’re going to [Audio Difficulties]. 

I'm gonna throw this next question at you, Kathleen. Anna Appel said, “I have found that AI struggles to find the nuances in language to complete alignment tasks across multiple states, especially in subjects such as [Audio Difficulties] to complete more nuanced alignments. 

Kathleen Ideguchi

So, in EdGate's case, we have the patented correlation methodology where we use the concepts to crosswalk the standards. So we're using the tools [Audio Difficulties].

Rich Portelance

So, when, you know, kind of looking back at the concept of using concepts as the basis for the alignment, when did that evolve? When did that [Audio Difficulties]?

Kathleen Ideguchi

[Audio Difficulties]…Starting with actually going out to get open educational resources and aligning those to standards, and then publishers caught wind of that, and they were interested in having their content aligned to standards. And so we expanded our service to that to publishers as well, and [Audio Difficulties]... content, or even standards to standards. 

Rich Portelance

And another question came in, so I'll just keep you going on that thread, what is EdGate using as a national standard [Audio Difficulties].

Kathleen Ideguchi

[Audio Difficulties]… I'm sorry, I don't know the exact reference to that, but there is that national set that's advanced career technology standards. 

Rich Portelance

Okay. And I know that within the database, [Audio Difficulties] -million or so are CTE standards because they proliferated so much, right? And so, you know we built those specific alignment tools to address that. 

Hillary, you know, when looking at AI, and you and I had kind of a deep discussion on that topic, there are some other challenges there that we were talking about, can you give me a little bit more of a description? And I think the audience would appreciate your perspective on this.

Hillary Rinaldi

Yeah, I think the challenges are profound in that you have teachers who are concerned, right? More out of fear, like, this is outside of their wheelhouse, this is not something that they anticipated they would be using in their classroom, right? You have, you know, at both ends of the bell curve, you have those that are all in and already using it, and those that are like, “Kids are only using this to cheat”, right? And I think we really need to figure out the middle and the majority of that normal distribution of supporting educators and understanding how they can use it both to support teaching, but also to support students in understanding how to use AI, and the challenges, right? It's certainly not perfect, and we talk about this in like, math and AI. ChatGPT cannot solve in-depth math equations right now. There are certain things that'll come up that you'll struggle with, and you've seen the memes online and all of that. 

So, I do think the states that are moving forward in in developing those of AI, like Georgia has an AI study committee, Oklahoma has a task force, there's a lot of effort in thinking about what is this, what is our state's plan to determine how we'll allow AI and integrate AI, and I think there are really good partners out there that are doing this work too. I think TeachAI, which launched formally last year, has been helping states in figuring out what that is, what that guidance can look like, and what professional development needs to look like. Because I don't think it should be as known or shouldn't be so concerning or scary, and it just means that we have to get a little bit more creative with what we do in the classroom, right, which maybe is something we could have already been pushing for. I think the fact that we have a profound and all-time high number of students who are chronically absent and disengaged in school, maybe this is another way that we can engage students so that they want to show up, and are thinking beyond “Why do I have to do this if AI can do it for me?” Well, it's much more interesting to think about what the limitations of AI are that then requires your human brain to be able to do this, and I think just to, you know, answer Anna's question in the chat of like, “There are limitations and nuance, and so how do we work with our students to know that?” I have a dear friend who's a high school history teacher, and one of his assignments says, “Have AI write your essay, and now critique it, and tell me what they missed”, right? And so there are a lot more… Like, that's a small example, but I do think we have to get further outside the box of how do we create the infrastructure to support teachers, but then allow students to have that soft place to land when we don't know what this technology will be? Talk about building the plane while we're flying it. This is very real, and I first and foremost want all of our students to be safe. 

Rich Portelance

Thank you for that. 

Closing Thoughts

Rich Portelance

You know, we're getting close to the top of the hour, so we're going to be wrapping up here in a few minutes. 

So what I would like to do is do a little “round the board” and make sure everybody has a chance to give a final thought. I want to thank everybody who's been here and who joined us. We had lots of great participants, and I did get a note in the chat about the national standards for CTE. I'll put that link within the deck that we send out, but it's the career tech career clusters framework, so we'll add that in there. 

So, I'm going to start with Kathleen, and then go to Kristy, and then go to Hillary, and if you could each give a synopsis, I think it would help the audience, and again, we really appreciate everybody joining us today for this exhilarating conversation. 

Kathleen? 

Kathleen Ideguchi

Yeah. So much is changing so fast, and the technology to support and being able to make comparisons across standards should be very helpful in benefiting students not only in the United States, but across the globe, so I’m looking forward to seeing what educators and decision-makers can do in that regard. 

Rich Portelance

Thank you so much.

Kristy? 

Kristy Engel

Yeah, I think, you know, don't shy away, don't hide, make sure you get involved, make sure you're doing all of the research and the reading, look to experts in the field, and you're not alone. I think that, you know, everything that changes and changes so fast what we have shown, especially in the world of education, is that we are exceptionally versatile, and the one thing that we all have in common is wanting to see students succeed. And so, be that example, you know, don't be afraid with all the changes, because what's ultimately going to be the guide is keeping your students on the right path towards success, and so, you know, look outside, look for the help, look for those that, you know, also have a passion for it. But whatever you do, don't hide, don't hide, stay informed and stay involved. 

Rich Portelance

Excellent. 

Hillary Rinaldi

I love that, Kristy. I don't think I have a better tagline than “stay informed, stay involved”, I think it's just… I'm anxiously awaiting the start of the legislative session, and knowing that states have a lot of ideas going into the next year, and I think that we don't necessarily have to think too much about what's happening federally until the new administration gets its feet under them and makes some decisions. And at the end of the day, it's going to be up to the states, and we've already seen a lot of efforts in movement in the states. We have, you know, probably 40% of states in the last few years that have changed their diploma requirements. Some of those things are related to standards in financial literacy or civics, and I think we'll continue to see those changes, and so it's also about being nimble and in service to students. It's not just tick boxes; this is about empowering students to be engaged and be prepared for what comes next, so that they can also stay involved and engaged. 

Rich Portelance

You know I'm a big proponent of CTE and finding your own passion for whatever it is, so I appreciate what you just said, and I appreciate the panelists today. 

On behalf of EdGate and myself, Richard Portelance, thank you for joining us today. It's been a wonderful conversation, and we'll be following up with material. I know there are a couple of other questions that didn't get answered. We will answer your questions going out with our material soon, but everybody has a very happy holiday, and thank you again for attending.

Hillary Rinaldi

Thank you so much. 

Kristy Engel

Thank you. 

Kathleen Ideguchi

Thanks.