Kentucky Valley Education Cooperative to Provide WIN Math to Member School Districts to Boost STEM Learning, College Prep and Career-Readiness
Hazard, KY (PRWEB) March 06, 2015 -- The Kentucky Valley Education Cooperative (KVEC) is partnering with WIN Learning to bring WIN Math, a digital career-based, math and workplace skills solution, to schools within the 15 Appalachian counties it serves. WIN Learning is a recognized leader in web-based career and college readiness programs used by states, colleges, and school districts nationwide.
Funded by a federal Race to the Top (RTTT) grant to help address career and college readiness in rural areas of eastern Kentucky, KVEC selected WIN Math because of its ability to engage students by presenting lessons in the context of aspirational as well as practical career paths. It is the first math instructional program to offer capstone projects linked to 16 career clusters, and its lessons are aligned to Common Core State Standards and local state objectives.
“WIN Math is an innovative, personalized learning approach to math education that aligns with the requirements outlined in the RTT-D grant,” said Dessie Bowling, Ed.D., associate director of KVEC. “The true strength of the program is that it brings the real world into the classroom and gives context to what students are learning. Even if you’re not going to be an accountant or engineer or a math teacher, the analytical thinking, the critical thinking it teaches – you need that for life. And that will help every one of our students succeed regardless of what career path they choose.”
Designed for students in grades 5-8 who are on grade-level or high school students who are below grade level, the WIN Math curriculum is organized into 36 units addressing 16 career clusters with emphasis on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects. Teachers facilitate instruction through a blended learning model, first introducing the objective, then career context, a warm-up and engagement activities. Working individually or collaboratively, students work on projects such as marketing plans or performance charts similar to what might be required in a workplace setting. Students then transfer their understanding through embedded formative and summative assessments, giving teachers real time student progress monitoring support.
The WIN Math implementation is a perfect complement to another large-scale initiative to address career and college readiness challenges faced by rural Kentucky schools. In 2012, KVEC began implementing WIN Learning’s Career Readiness System as part of a five-year Investing in Innovation (i3) grant it received. The Career Readiness System is based on the WIN Educonomy Model, where employability, foundational and social skills are learned within the context of future careers based on job market data specific to their local and regional economies.
“We need to consider that today’s students need different paths than we needed,” added Bowling. “Students aren’t interested in worksheets filled with math problems. They’re asking ‘what can we do with this information?’ We are committed to helping students understand what career opportunities are available to them, where their interests lie, and then making the connection between those aspirations and the educational paths necessary to achieve them. By adding WIN Math to the mix, we are creating a ‘ready for anything’ student population.”
To learn more about WIN Math go to http://www.winlearning.com/courseware or visit http://rtl14.techlearning.com/contests/0007/january-2015-table-of-contents/http://www.techlearning.com/contests/0007/win-math/68910 to read the latest
product review published in the January 2015 issue of Tech & Learning magazine.
About WIN Learning
Since 1996, WIN has been the leading provider of career readiness solutions to help school districts prepare students for the future, whether they are college, trade school, military or workplace bound. To date, more than 10 million students worldwide have participated in the specialized career–driven courseware and education intervention initiatives as well as career-readiness certification programs. For more information, go to http://www.winlearning.com or call 888-717-9461.
Leslie Eicher, APR, WIN Learning, http://www.winlearning.com/, +1 (314) 965-1776, [email protected]
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