Pennsylvania unveils new web-based educational resources

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett recently launched a new web-based resource for Pennsylvania students, educators and parents that aims to improve student achievement levels.

The program, Pennsylvania Learns, was launched through iTunes U to enable educators to access standards-aligned materials that will help them create courses, lectures, assignments, quizzes and syllabi that can be shared among millions of online users.

“This initiative, which is the culmination of nearly a year of work among various education partners, is designed to provide middle and high school students, parents and teachers with access to no-cost, high-quality, state standards-aligned resources to increase student achievement,” Corbett said. “I want to thank all of the educators as well as the Pennsylvania Association of Intermediate Units, the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators, the Pennsylvania Association of Elementary and Secondary School Principals and the Pennsylvania Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development for their contributions to this project, and their continued commitment to students.”

Pennsylvania Learns’ first phase, which was launched on Tuesday, features resources for sixth grade through eighth grade in math, algebra and biology, in addition to language arts resources for grades nine through 12.

“As schools continue to shift to more digital-based classroom instruction and course materials, Pennsylvania Learns provides teachers with additional resources to help students achieve,” Pennsylvania Acting Secretary of Education Carolyn Dumaresq said. “As we raise the academic bar, we must ensure that high-quality, aligned materials are available to students and teachers. Pennsylvania Learns is not just a repository, but rather (an) online, on-demand network that allows students, teachers and parents to access the tools they need, whenever they need them.”

More than 60 educators have worked with the department to develop the program, which will assist teachers in finding high-quality digital content from the App Store, iTunes Store and iBooks, as well as videos and other web-based sources that are aligned with state standards.

“Along with the collaboration and creativity between the educators working on this project, the best part about this work was our constant and consistent focus on Pennsylvania’s students,” Anthony Gabriele, the curriculum supervisor at Garnet Valley School District, said. “While collecting the resources and building the courses, we constantly asked: ‘What resources and tools would engage our students? What skills and takeaways would empower our students? How will this tool best help our teachers reach each and every student in his or her classroom?'”