Welcome to our Blog Page!
DataWORKS Educational Research has been working to improve education for more than 17 years. Along the way, we have observed more than 35,000 teachers, collected and calibrated more than 2 million student assignments to measure alignment to state standards, and surveyed more than 100,000 educational stakeholders to collect data and optimize educational reform. Company founders John Hollingsworth and Dr. Silvia Ybarra have published three bestselling educational books that have set a high standard for classroom instruction.
In 2010, DataWORKS was at the forefront of the Common Core State Standards initiative. When the standards were adopted in 2011, we immediately began looking for ways to help ease the transition for educators and students. While our staff and consultants have attended dozens of Common Core trainings, webinars, and meetings sponsored by groups including ASCD, WestEd, Engage NY, Smarter Balanced, PARCC, state departments of education, county offices of education, and many more in the past three years, we continue to maintain our overall goal of supporting excellent classroom instruction and reform at the lesson level.
Our team has spent, and continues to spend, countless hours analyzing and interpreting Common Core standards, the released assessment questions, practice tests, progressions, shifts, and appendices to insure that we are well-informed in every aspect of Common Core.
Recently, we began the same process with the Next Generation Science Standards, and we are looking forward to an adoption of the Core Art Standards and national history and social studies standards.
We are well-versed in educational technology and frequently field-test new hardware and software designed for classroom instruction. We partnered with Digital Edge Learning to release “the only Classroom Observation iPad app you’ll ever need.” The digiCOACH EDI-edition app allows administrators to conduct classroom observations from a tablet computer, immediately send supportive feedback via email through pre-populated EDI-specific suggestions, as well as examine aggregated data from a variety of angles to determine where a teacher might need more or less support.
Our extensive expertise and real-world classroom experience allows us to share unlimited insight with administrators, educators, parents, and students. Our goal is to provide meaningful content that is relevant to succeeding in the 21st century.
Our blog will cover a variety of topics organized into the following categories:
- Current research and groundbreaking new studies that support successful classroom instruction for all students;
- Instructional strategies that we have seen effectively used in the classroom and with Common Core;
- Important technological advances that are changing the way teachers deliver content and interact with students;
- Common Core standards, Smarter Balanced and PARCC assessment questions, and some of the myths and misconceptions circulating throughout the U.S.; and
- Issues and Answers. We will try to answer your questions, foster meaningful discussions about core educational issues, report on current events in education, and share positive stories of real victories in the classroom.
We welcome you to our blog and invite you to participate in our educational community as you are able. We want to hear your comments, concerns, and questions about our posts. Even if you don’t agree with our posts, we will respond to polite responses in kind.
If you have private questions that you’d rather not post, feel free to contact us at: info@dataworks-ed.com.
