Westerman to speak at NPC WAGE meeting
National Park College's Adult Education Workforce Alliance for Growth in the Economy program has invited U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-District 4, to be a special guest speaker at the advisory committee meeting Thursday.
The event is open to the public. The meeting will be held at 12:15 p.m. in the Martin Eisele Auditorium in the Fredrick M. Dierks Center for Nursing and Health Sciences.
Westerman plans to discuss policy issues related to poverty, economic growth and opportunity, and health care.
State Board approves new standards
The State Board of Education recently approved the Arkansas English Language Arts and Arkansas Disciplinary Literacy Standards for grades K-12.
Schools may begin implementing the new standards during the 2016-17 school year. Full implementation will occur in the 2017-18 school year. The Arkansas Department of Education will begin developing high school courses and will seek State Board approval in the fall of 2016.
The Arkansas Department of Education began an extensive standards review process last October. The review process involved more than 100 teachers, administrators and higher education professors who spent seven days reviewing the standards, which describe what students are expected to know and do by the end of each grade.
As a result, 62 percent of the English language arts and literacy standards were revised or clarified, which resulted in the final version that was presented to the State Board.
The standards are available online at http://www.arkansased.gov/divisions/learning-services/curriculum-and-instruction/curriculum-framework-documents/english-language-arts.
ADE announces new data privacy section on website
The Arkansas Department of Education has added a data privacy section on the department's website.
Access to data allows teachers to tailor their instruction to meet individual student's needs. Principals and superintendents use data to determine how to best allocate educational resources, and with data, parents can better understand their child's academic progress.
"ADE is committed to ensuring the privacy of all data entrusted to us," said Holly Glover, the ADE director of data use and privacy. "The new website and training modules are designed to increase transparency, provide resources for parents, districts, and other stakeholders, and promote effective data use at all levels."
An overview video about how student data is used can be found on the data privacy webpage. The short video highlights the difference between personally identifiable information, de-identified data and aggregate data that is used when making school and district decisions.
To access the new data privacy section, go to http://www.arkansased.gov/divisions/research-and-technology/data-privacy.
School on 07/24/2016