In the last year the K12 OER Collaborative has spun out from incubation by The Learning Accelerator, to be a stand alone 501(c)(3) OER publisher. We have done extensive work on our brand and have established a style guide for the OER we are publishing. We have contracted with our partner Illustrative Mathematics to build a new middle school math curriculum to be licensed as CC BY OER. We have partnered with EL Education to deliver the next generation of their leading Engage New York Elementary ELA to market as part of our offerings. We have contracted with classroom teachers who have conducted thorough quality assurance with help from Student Achievement Partners (SAP), ACHIEVE and UnboundED. We have been working with University researchers led by Kenji Hakuta of Stanford University to imbed precise supports for English Language Learners (ELLs) and with national experts to assure accessibility for students with special needs. We are partnering with some of the most innovative purveyors of adult learning to assist school districts in their adoption of our OER. We are ready to go to market....except for one thing:
Full scale pilots in school districts whose student bodies disproportionately impacted by poverty, who have higher than the national average rate of students for whom English is a second language and whose district leadership is fully committed to giving those "disadvantaged" kids all of the advantages of a first class education to prepare them for college and careers that they can be proud of. Those pilots began as far back as July and are in full action mode today.
This presentation is an update on our progress as we prove out our theories regarding promotion of widespread adoption of the highest quality instructional materials in the marketplace to promote equity of access to the best opportunities a k-12 education can deliver.
