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Curriculum Standards

Janet’s work with our district was very well received. Both veteran and new teachers greatly appreciated the opportunity to dive into our state’s mathematics standards and learn how to prioritize them for consistency across our schools. In an engaging and supportive manner, she provided worthwhile professional learning to all our teachers PK to High School.

—Sean Feeny, Port Washington Union Free District, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment

Curriculum Mapping & Curriculum Design

Janet Hale's curriculum design work for The Dewey Schools has been transformative. Her expertise in creating engaging and effective educational frameworks has significantly enhanced our students' learning experiences. Her contributions have been invaluable in shaping a dynamic and robust curriculum that meets our diverse needs as an international school community.

—Laurie Whiston, The Dewey Schools, English Program Director

Curriculum Mapping & Curriculum Design

Janet led a multi-year curriculum mapping project designed specifically for our student population. As a low-performing school with high teacher turnover, curriculum unit guides for Mathematics and ELA became essential for ensuring learning and teaching cohesiveness. Janet was instrumental in listening to our concerns and interweaving our school’s founding principles surrounding culturally responsive teaching into each unit. She guided our administrative and teacher teams through the process of developing unit guides that identify key content, skills, and anchor texts aligned to our state standards and social justice outcomes.

—Stacey Howard, Z.E.C.A. School of the Arts and Technology, Founder and CEO

Curriculum EDiting

Many thanks go to Janet Hale, a bestselling author, educational consultant, curriculum expert, colleague, and friend. Her careful evaluation, honest critique, and helpful advice have made my book, TrustED: The Bridge to School Improvement, a more thoughtful and engaging read.

—Toby Travis, Author

Curriculum EDiting

I have hired Janet multiple times as an educational consultant for our best-selling line of workbooks. Janet ensured that the content in these workbooks aligned perfectly with curriculum standards. She meticulously revised and edited lessons and activities, significantly enhancing the quality of the workbooks. Her expertise and attention to detail gave me complete confidence in the content and its impact on children's education. Janet is great to work with and I highly recommend her for your educational publication needs!

—Courtney Acampora, Senior Editor, Silver Dolphin and Studio Fun

Curriculum EDiting

When I embarked on a bold plan of writing a series of children's books for our organization, I truly didn't know what I didn't know! Janet has been consistently beyond patient in ensuring I understand the do’s and don'ts involved in good storytelling, formatting, and editing, which has enabled us to produce age-appropriate and fun books that convey our purpose and intended message.

—Kevin Schwieger, Luke5Adventures, Founder and President

    Making curriculum decisions related to students' learning needs is on every administrator's and teacher's mind—both addressing prioritizing standards-based learning and the need for innovation. To discuss your needs and concerns, contact Janet to schedule a free virtual meeting.

    Standards Consulting, Training, and Appraising

    Janet has been involved in working alongside educators in developing or improving standards-based learning and teaching for 25+ years. Her experience and expertise in all aspects of standards-based decison-making prove beneficial to those she assists.

     

    When Janet works with a school, district, or higher-ed program, she believes it is essential for her to: 

    • Ask questions to learn more about your past and current standards-based curriculum, assessment, and instructional practices
    • Understand your current culture and climate from both administrative and teacherperspectives
    • Take into account how your vision, mission, and strategic plans play a role in your standards-based initiative
    • Personalize your standards-based processes to aid in meeting your short- and long-range goals

     

    If you are starting a standards journey, or wanting to refine or advance your standards-based curriculum or instruction, Janet offers a variety of customizable services that involve both in-person sessions and virtual-meeting support.

    Consulting

    Janet offers short- and long-range consulting services designed to aid you in your standards-based curriculum, assessment, and instructional practices. Here are a few popular focuses she often provides:

    • Analysis of current standard literacy and impact on curriculum and instruction
    • Strategic planning for the implementation of, or revision work in, standards alignment
    • Creation of, and training for, targeted leadership teams based on “let’s do this now” versus“let’s do that later” goals 
    • Recommendations for processes related to designing or enhancing standards-based units of study, as well as instructional gap-resource analysis

    Janet is like a compass. You tell her what you need, and she will point you in the right direction. Then she helps you make it happen!
    —Director of Curriculum, Western Regional Professional Development Center

    Training

    Janet offers a wide variety of standards-related trainings. Here are several popular training focuses:

    • Gaining Standards Literacy — series of trainings include how to read standards with a deeper-understanding lens, and how thinking deeper about the standards affect curriculum map and instruction design or revision both horizontally and vertically
    • Bullseye Prioritizing Standards — training to determine Critical, Need to Know, and Still Need to Know Standards that, once prioritized systemically, affects designing curriculum maps’ units of study  and instruction (similar to Power Standards)
    • Standards-Resources Gap Analysis — training to aid in examining accuracy of current resources’ standards aligment, as well as critical considerations for selecting new resources
    • Quality Unit of Study Writing with Standards Alignment in Mind — series of trainings including multiple meetings, coaching, and feedback opportunities based on the learning organization’s standards-alignment goals and desires

     

    First off … Wow! This has been a fantasic experience. I thought I knew my standards well, but discovered I was clueless on what is involved in really understanding what they are saying (and not saying). Second, I never realized how important it is to work with teachers across multiple grade levels (not just one above and below) to decide what’s most important for our students to know and be able to do. Thank you for helping me have a renewed passion for standards!
    —Molly H., Educator

    Appraising

    Janet’s expertise in aligning standards’ expectations to writing quality map units of study, both from a vertical and horizontal lens, enables her to provide educators with a variety of in-person and virtual standards-alignment appraisal services to ensure your curriculum and instruction map units truly accurately conveys their intended messages. Here are a few popular appraisal focuses:

    • Calibrate both internal and external standards alignment for map elements included in units of study or instructional plans elements based on relationship among the elements, including standards expectations
    • Facilitate review-and-feedback sessions to revise map units of study to better align to included standards using the C.L.E.A.R. appraisal questions customized for your curriculum framework or model (e.g., traditional curriculum, Understanding by Design, Problem-Based Learning)
    • Conduct master classes wherein volunteer participant is willing to be appraised and advised “live” concerning the quality of one or more map elements standards alignment to elements included in a selected unit, while remainder of participants work to appraise and improve the quality of their map units’ same element(s) based on questions, coaching, and feedback exchanges with volunteer participant


    Janet is so enthusiastic and motiviating. She provided us with useful tools, tips, and tricks that we can use to help our teachers better align our units and lesson plans to our standards. 
    —Train-the-Trainer Leadership Team

    Appraising Standards Alignment for

    Open Educational Resources (OER) and For-Profit Organizations

    Janet offers appraisal and calibration services to ensure OER and for-profit materials (e.g., curriculum, assessments, tasks, activities, videos, lessons) are accurately aligned to one or more set of standards.

    Contact her to discuss your specific standards needs. Call 529.241.8797 or use this contact form.

    Janet is known for her caring nature and ability to support and motivate teachers, leadership teams, and administrators who are facing the challenges of new learning or concepts. She is also recognized for explaining complex information in an easy and accessible manner that aids educators in establishing, refining, or upgrading their standards-based curriculum, assessments, and instruction.

    To discuss your learning organization’s specific needs, please complete a Standards Survey.
    Janet will respond within 24 hours.

    To contact Janet directly, please call her at 520.241.8797, or email her using this contact form.

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