RESEARCH & PEDAGOGY
More than just convenient, Pepper courses are built on extensive research into effective professional development.
Pepper draws on an extensive online library of educational resources from Doing What Works, a collection of open education resources supported by Practice Guides from the U.S. Department of Education's Institute for Education Sciences.
WestEd developed Doing What Works for the U.S. Department of Education in partnership with American Institutes for Research and RMC Research Corporation.
Pepper augments Doing What Works resources with other instructional items such as surveys, checklists, and assessment tools.
All of these elements come together through WestEd's research-based knowledge of professional development and 45 years of experience in developing educators across the nation.
In addition, PCG Education continues to help states and districts overcome the challenges of Common Core adoption and has published many resources to help our nation's educators.
White Paper • November 2011
Authors: Cheryl Leibling, Ph.D., and Julie Meltzer, Ph.D.
Forty-five states, several US territories, and the District of Columbia have adopted the new Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects (CCSS-ELA). The standards are widely touted as providing a clear, rigorous pathway that will prepare students to be college and career ready. States, districts and schools are poised to align curriculum, instruction, and assessment. CCSS-ELA are complex, with implications for instruction and assessment in not only English Language Arts, but also History/Social Studies, science and technical subjects.
Article • 2012
Common Core State Standards (CCSS), adopted by 45 states so far, provide an opportunity to change education practices so as to turn around the performance of student groups most in need of improvement.
And such turnaround is more important today than it's ever been. Throughout the nation, almost every subgroup of students performs poorly on measures such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and students with disabilities are typically the lowest-scoring subgroup.
English learners don't fare much better. The gaps between these groups and higher-performing peers are huge.
This article describes:
- Integrating and aligning standards
- Combining flexibility with high expectations for all
- Embedding literacy learning in all subjects
- Putting the ideas into practice
White Paper • August 2013
Authors: Barbara Flanagan, Cheryl Liebling, and Julie Meltzer
The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for ELA & Literacy make explicit the knowledge and skills that students need to be college and career ready as readers, writers, researchers, presenters and thinkers. The challenge for teachers and administrators is how to support all students to work toward and meet more demanding academic expectations. The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Framework conceptualizes a means of meeting this challenge. If UDL "habits of design" are incorporated into CCSS English Language Arts (ELA) & Literacy curriculum and instructional practices, we can collectively prepare students to be ready for the rigor of college and careers.