CaseNEX Press

Creating a classroom environment where all learners achieve at their highest level can be a challenging experience for any teacher. Cisco Learning Institute-in collaboration with CaseNEX- recognizes this challenge and intends to help teachers meet it.

CaseNEX is supporting CLI's engagement in a long-term international research initiative directed at documenting instructional strategies used to deliver the Cisco Networking Academy curricula in classrooms around the world. Using CaseNEX's Teaching Performance Record (TPR), CLI will collect instructional data via video from 15 participating Academy sites in four continents. This data will be used to create case-based curricula to capture and scale the next generation of PD modules for Academy instructors.

CaseNEX is also collaborating with CLI on a case-based mathematics initiative driven by a set of "Big Ideas" for improving K-5 mathematics education around the world. In consultation with leading scholars and thinkers in the field, and drawing from key studies worldwide, CaseNEX and CLI will document problems and opportunities related to the teaching of K-5 mathematics. This work will undergird the design of case-based modules for use with a variety of audiences focused on improving teaching and student learning.

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Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell's initiative to put a laptop in the hands of every student in the Commonwealth was just the beginning. During the next three years, CaseNEX, computer giant Microsoft, Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE), will work together to develop a series of "slice of life" case studies based on Classrooms for the Future (CFF) and Project 720. These case studies—in the areas of technology integration in math and English language arts, project-based learning, differentiation, and coaching—are aimed at capturing school reform and technology integration programs in Pennsylvania

high schools. The studies will become part of a "High School Reform" professional development program for school leaders and teachers across the state. As part of the project, teachers and administrators at all participating schools will receive free access to professional development, including:

1. an online archive of case studies;
2. CaseNEX Resource Centers;
3. online professional development courses, and
4. case method consultation from CaseNEX.

The schools to be featured in the Year One case studies have been selected. They include:

Freedom High School 1190 Bulldog Drive, Freedom Rusty Staub, Principal General McLane High School 11761 Edinboro Rd., Edinboro Richard Scarletta, Principal Hatsboro-Horsham High School 899 Horsham Rd., Horsham Dennis M. Williams Jr., Principal Manheim Central HS 400 Adele Ave., Manheim Arlen Mumma, Principal

Sto-Rox HS 1105 Valley St., McKees Rocks Dr. Melanie Kerber, Principal School of the Future 4021 Parkside Ave., Philadelphia Dr. Shirley Grover South Fayette HS 3640 Old Oakdale Rd., McDonald Ann Bisignani, Principal

The partnership to evaluate the CFF initiative includes the Pennsylvania Department of Education, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Educational Lab (REL Mid-Atlantic), and CaseNEX. PDE and CaseNEX will work with the Pennsylvania State University Survey Research Center to gather the data, and the data will be analyzed and described by the Regional Educational Lab. The Teaching Performance Record (TPR), developed by Professor Robert McNergney and CaseNEX, will be used to gather baseline and yearly data on the teaching practices within each of the participating districts. This project is being funded by the Microsoft Partners in Learning Program.

Press and School District Inquiries should be directed to:

Diane Reed, Ph.D. Vice President, Mid-Atlantic Region Project Manager, Partners in Learning CaseNEX, LLC. 571-214-1275

Mercedes P. Cordero Vice President, Southern Region Sales Director, Partners in Learning CaseNEX, LLC. 305-822-3502

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The New York City Department of Education, with funding from the Wallace and Gates foundations and technical assistance from CaseNEX, a pioneer in multimedia case-based professional development, has created the Collaborative Communities of Practice initiative. This effort is identifying schools that are "beating the odds" in terms of their success with New York's "over/under" population--the "over-age" and "undercredited" students, around 140,000 in number annually, who are at highest risk for dropping out. CCP is "getting inside the black box," in the words of Deputy Chancellor Andrés Alonso, of school success. That is to say, using an evidence-driven and case-based process to study school leadership and determine the resources allocated to achieve success, CCP is sharing the stories of the "Beat the Odds" schools across the NYCDOE regions.

The primary tools in this effort are the "Beat the Odds" case studies—a rich mix of video, audio, text, teacher and student work samples, interviews, and more—which convey the experiences, successes, and frustrations of these schools in the most direct and immediate way. The case studies will be used within small learning communities—which the NYCDOE is calling "collaborative communities of practice"—composed of schools similar in profile to their Beat the Odds partners. Within the CCPs, school teachers and leaders will learn a common language, establish a supportive network, and share the techniques and strategies that will allow them to beat the odds, too!

"We don't know yet what makes these schools successful," says CaseNEX co-founder and CEO Marsha Gartland. "Is it a leadership style, an instructional program, a spirit? These are the things CaseNEX is here to find out."

Click on the videos below for a sneak peak at a few of the minds behind the project:

	Andres Alonso, Deputy Chancellor of Teaching and Learning, New York City Department of Education
	Jean-Claude Brizard, Regional Superintendent, Region 6, New York City Department of Education
	Marsha Gartland, Co-founder and CEO, CaseNEX, LLC

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CaseNEX and The Peters Group work in partnership to promote the work of Stephen Peters, a state and national Blue Ribbon principal, founder of the Gentlemen's Club, and author of Do You Know Enough About Me to Teach Me? A Student's Perspective and other works aimed at challenging the culture of low expectations for diverse, urban learners. In an effort to provide long-term support and follow-up for educators who have benefited from the "Do You Know Enough About Me To Teach Me?" workshops, CaseNEX has designed a three graduate credit courses based on Peters' work. Course participants use CaseNEX case studies and online collaboration to help them strengthen relationships with students, increase cultural competence, address emerging challenges, and implement and sustain classroom practices advocated during the workshops. In addition to supporting one another through this process, course participants engage in reflective practice aimed at reaching, guiding and motivating all learners. Stephen Peters is a charismatic and inspiring trainer and speaker whose work has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey show. He is president and CEO of The Peters Group, a consultant with the Visionary Leaders Institute, and a keynote speaker for the HOPE Foundation.

Stephen Peters Registration

Stephen Peters Video

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By Aparna Balakrishnan
Baltimore Sun Staff
Originally published August 16, 2004

Jackie Lunz was looking for a way to take courses to help hone her teaching skills while continuing to teach third-grade at Baltimore County's Carroll Manor Elementary School. But making it to evening classes presented a challenge when she had to grade papers and prepare lesson plans for the next day.

So she turned to the county school system's growing online course program.

More and more, Baltimore County public school teachers are taking advantage of a program designed to provide a convenient way for them to take professional development courses.

The program, which began in 2001 with 100 students, now has more than 700, said Barbara Dezmon, assistant to the superintendent for equity and assurance. The school system has also tripled the number of classes. It offers up to 30 free, year-round online courses that can help teachers get graduate school credits and gain and maintain their certification, she said.

"When you have 8,000 teachers and 1,000 staff, there has to be a way to take courses to the people," she said. "We're thinking about service and convenience when we offer these courses."

Dezmon said that without the online program - which offers courses, with instructors, five times a year - teachers might be limited to courses offered two or three times a year at universities or at county schools.

CaseNEX, a Charlottesville, Va., education company, has joined with the Baltimore and Howard County school systems to offer courses to teachers.

…Dezmon said she knows of no other county in the state that offers as many free courses to its teachers.

Upon completion of the online courses, teachers can obtain graduate-level credits from Hampton University in Virginia, she said.

The eight-week courses cover topics such as special education, reading and literacy, gifted and talented teaching, school administration and classroom and behavior management. Several are targeted to new teacher training.

CaseNEX Chief Executive Officer Marsha Gartland said the courses are designed to give teachers practical knowledge to help deal with issues that might come up in their classes.

"Teachers need a framework to work within. That's what we're giving them," she said.

Brendan Gieron, a Baltimore County teacher who has been a course instructor for the past two years, said the courses ask teachers how they would react to situations in the classroom.

Most of the 25 instructors who have taught the online courses are employed by the county school system and receive additional training from the county schools and CaseNEX.

Lunz, the Carroll Manor Elementary teacher, has taken four courses.

"You can really have a good, ongoing connection with instructors and other teachers," she said. "I've learned a lot just through dialogue with them."

Copyright © 2004, The Baltimore Sun

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District Administration

September, 2002

by Terian Tyre

It's effective, efficient, and there's new money to fund it.
Adopting these tips for online staff development can ensure success for your district

Matching an urgency many have felt for some time, professional development for K-12 staff is now an articulated

Twenty-odd years of putting computers into schools certainly fueled this need for nationwide training. Inservice has rarely been able to keep pace. However, technology will just as certainly provide a sizable part of the solution as well

Moreover, not all training needs in K-12 schools center on technology. A shortage of teachers with credentials in their subject at poor, urban schools has been widely reported, for example. Plus, high turnover and retirement rates mean many novice teachers are in the classroom. Yet the same solution applies equally well. Indeed, online professional development can benefit just about every faculty or staff member on a K-12 campus.

Are We There Yet?

A majority of districts have already begun to explore the possibilities. Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) provide some type of Internet-based staff development, notes Are We There Yet?, the National School Boards Foundation's June 2002 report on technology. "Even so, this may not be enough," worries its authors, "given the way technology is underused for teaching and learning."

The concern is that K-12 academic achievement continues to lag. And the urgency is real. National Assessment of Educational Progress scores for 2000, in fact, show gains in math skills, but not in science or reading. Also called "the nation's report card," NAEP tests academic mastery at grades four, eight and 12. These latest results are among the data detailed in The Condition of Education, from the National Center for Education Statistics (www.nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/).

And while NCES researchers could not definitively account for the achievement differences between subjects, their data does provide a clue. Teachers with more than eight hours of activity per year in a single area of professional development are three times more likely than their peers to say it improved their teaching "a lot." However, most teachers engage in such an activity for less than eight hours, finds the NCES 2002 report.

When the bottom line is mere hours, the motive to try online professional development becomes even more compelling. Inherent "chunkability" and an anytime, anywhere-you-can-fit-it-in nature uniquely allows online training to propel teachers past that eight-hour milestone.

The Effective Approach

The good news is that well-designed online training can be highly effective. Educators generally report their skills with software and integration techniques improve after participation, for example. Administrators say online professional development suits their needs as well. And though it takes center stage, the Internet doesn't carry the show alone. A blended approach

"Our preferred model is now a hybrid, especially at the district level," confirms Rem Jackson, vice president of professional development for Classroom Connect (www.classroom.com), an Internet provider of curriculum, resources and community for K-12 educators. He explains that when a district subscribes to Connected University for online professional development, a regional learning specialist may come to work on-site with small groups of people. "It's almost a train-the-trainer approach," he says.

SRI International puts this need for human interaction in online training in context. The research firm evaluated the JASON Academy for Science Teaching and Learning (www.jason.org/academy), an Internet-based professional development program for middle-grade science teachers. "The single most significant factor contributing to online course dropout is the sense of isolation students feel," says Marily DeWall, director of the academy.

SRI's analysis concurs: "Communication is the most important feature of an online course. Discussion boards, chat features and personal e-mail help create a learning community [that is] essential to online learning."

The SRI evaluation also found:

• The two most important incentives for teachers to take online training courses are to improve their content knowledge and to learn new methods for teaching in the classroom.
• Online training's convenience outweighs the time and frustrations for educators.
• The time needed to teach or learn online is greater than anyone anticipates, and it takes more time and money to develop online courses in-house than anyone expects.
• Navigation must be clear, simple and intuitive if an online course is to retain students.

The JASON Academy incorporated personal home pages and instructor "office hours" for time zones around the world, as well as a Teachers' Lounge for social postings. As a result, "first-time Internet students thought they would be isolated but discovered that, on the contrary, they actually knew their instructors much better," DeWall explains.

Buy or Build?

Serious providers of online training for K-12 schools have learned these lessons and more. Feedback from, and sharing with, colleagues and the instructor must be effortless. Chat or instant messaging, e-mail and discussion areas are standard now, even interactive whiteboards can be found. Finally, management features are becoming increasingly sophisticated, to ease the administrative burdens of delivering online training to K-12 staff.

And if a district decides to build and host its own online professional development system, plenty of suitable tools exist. Platforms such as Blackboard (www.blackboard.com), IBM's Lotus LearningSpace (www.lotus.com/products/) and WebCT (www.webct.com), for example, provide robust, interactive frameworks expressly tailored for online learning. Or use Centrinity's (www.centrinity.com) FirstClass, featuring collaborative groupware and unified messaging, to serve as the communications core for online staff development.

First, however, districts need to clearly articulate their overall training goals as well as honestly assess their technical infrastructure and staff capabilities. This largely determines how much online staff development can be home-grown.

Make it an opportunity to revisit the entire vision, in fact. Online training "is best employed as one part of a multi-faceted, well-designed professional development program," concludes the Technology Briefs for No Child Left Behind Planners (www.neirtec.org/products/technology_briefs.pdf) from Northeast and Islands Regional Technology Consortium.

To fill the immediate gaps, expect a bit of a backstage rush toward pre-packaged online training for K-12 teachers.

Diversify Your Sources

Fortunately, a diverse array of sources offer quality professional development over the Internet. Instructors from preK to college levels can take online courses for every academic subject they teach and every software application they might use. Online workshops in leadership, classroom management and technology integration are both numerous and well attended. Administrators, IT staff, library specialists, coaches and others serving K-12 campuses will find online seminars and courses tailored for their needs as well.

Many offerings come from grassroots groups, now grown up. Web-based K-12 communities, like TAPPED IN (www.tappedin.org) for teachers or Portical (www.portical.org) for administrators, would be good places to ask about such online training. Others come from national education labs or universities or museums.

Professional organizations also serve as conduits to, and sometimes providers of, targeted online training. A state's Department of Education Web site is another great place to look for current opportunities

PBS, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, CNN and most major television networks, newspapers and magazines offer free online materials and correlated training for K-12 teachers. Nearly every department of the federal government

Of course, vendors

Trends Exploit Video and Real-world Connections

It should go without saying that online courses for teachers have all been correlated to national and state standards. It's slowly migrating down to district standards, too. As databases are built and shared by districts and vendors, expect this trend to grow exponentially.

Other trends inspire innovation. For example, videos of master teachers demonstrating techniques in the classroom have proven both popular and effective, especially with the addition of e-mail and chat. Now consider how $50 Web cams enable face-to-face chats. Think about how a digital video camera could create in-house training materials, for access online. Once the notion of capturing real people in real settings takes hold, ideas tend to multiply.

Real settings are a powerful trend in online training, and manifest in various ways. CaseNEX (www.casenex.com), a spin-off from the University of Virginia, uses situation-based narratives and case methods, for instance. Educators go through a five-step framework to analyze cases that "portray events, situations and people as they are

LessonLab (www.lessonlab.com) goes even further. They film teachers in classrooms and digitize all of the supplementary aids, such as overhead projections or Web links. This is then delivered online, accompanied by transcripts of student-teacher dialogues.

TeachFirst (www.teachfirst.com) also uses videos to model best practice, and then actively fosters mentors and coaching relationships via online forums. And the trend is to provide more. Scholastic Red (www.scholasticred.com), a new program targeting reading skills for example, teams interactive videos, simulations and online tools with online mentors and in-person workshops. With funds and interest peaking in the next few years, expect a wave of on-site support options for online staff development at both campus and district levels.

The Biggest Blocks

Obstacles remain to using the Internet for professional development, of course. But many are shrinking quickly. The first

Bandwidth is a more difficult issue. Districts need a "big pipe" to deliver training with embedded videos, for example. Yet the cost is usually prohibitive. So investigate banding together with other districts, or partnering with cities, community colleges or local business, to acquire the desired network bandwidth. States, too, recognize their vested interest. The Digital California Project (www.cenic.org) will soon connect all K-12 schools to the same high-speed network used by the state's universities and research institutions. One of its three goals: to deliver training directly to educators in local settings.

The largest hurdle to widespread online staff development in schools is adequate technical support. "What we've found," relates Classroom Connect's Jackson about online training, "is that teachers will dip their toes in. But if they have a negative experience, usually due to a glitchy network or choked server, they won't try it again for a while." Thus it is imperative for districts to invest in full-time IT staff. Moreover, technical support must be a line item in yearly budgets. "Business learned this in the '80's," Jackson remarks, "and saw great gains in the '90's."

Do the Math

Undoubtedly, online professional development will play a profound role in improving our nation's schools. Just do the math.

"We don't have enough money, enough time or enough people," notes Jackson about the timetable and mandates of No Child Left Behind. "If we don't use online training, how will we ever get this accomplished?"

Terian Tyre, terian@cox.net, is special projects editor and a freelance education and technology writer based in Oceanside, Calif.

Article source: http://www.districtadministration.com/page.cfm?p=159

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)—July 24, 2002—The Association for the Advancement of International Education, AAIE, has selected CaseNEX, a worldwide professional development company, as the exclusive provider of their leadership development training for headmasters, teachers, and administrators at over 300 American/International Schools around the world.

In the agreement, CaseNEX will offer customized online courses to AAIE members in topic areas such as Gifted Education, Multicultural Studies, and Educational Leadership. These courses, entirely case-based, help teachers understand and address the complexity of today's classrooms through a five-step method that emphasizes instructional leadership.

"CaseNEX was the perfect service provider for our needs. They have an international perspective that is complemented by their real-life case studies.'' said Dr. Herbert Berg, Executive Director of AAIE. ``Part of our mission is to be proactive in providing services that meet the needs of American/International Schools worldwide. CaseNEX, by offering a unique combination of research-based methodology and rich multimedia content, is a great example of how we can serve our members."

Michael Pace, chief executive officer of CaseNEX comments, "We are very excited about partnering with AAEI. Meeting the needs of the international school population really validates the comprehensiveness and quality of our program. By allowing teachers to communicate and problem-solve about real-life issues, we also help them overcome the professional isolation that they face and, in the end, enrich their experience and that of their students."

About CaseNEX

CaseNEX offers professional development courses for educators using the case method. These courses, taken either face-to-face or online, help teachers understand and address the complexity of today's classrooms. Analyses of real-life scenarios focus on issues such as the demands of multicultural learning environments, standards of learning and assessment, and using technology to improve instruction. In an interactive online environment, participants develop problem-solving skills and practice a five-step method that emphasizes instructional leadership. Courses utilize discussion groups, a virtual library, Web broadcasts, and the perspectives of master teachers and educational experts. Current end-users include teachers, principals, superintendents, university professors, and teachers-in-training.

Since its initial course offering, the CaseNEX team has taught teachers and administrators at more than 50 institutions of higher education and public schools in the United States, Canada, England, France, and Norway.

For additional information on CaseNEX, visit www.casenex.com.

About AAIE

AAIE is recognized as the preeminent organization in the area of American/international education and the organization in the United States that speaks for American/international schools. AAIE serves a network of over 300 schools, performing the function of the communications link and facilitator for relationships among institutions and individuals involved or interested in American/international education. Numbered among the members of AAIE are heads of American/international schools and schools in the United States, college professors and administrators, United States Department of State officials, and an array of persons involved in providing services to overseas schools.

For additional information on AAIE, visit www.aaie.org.

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