by Kevin J. Gray, President and Chief Content Officer
Westchester Education Services is a market leader in creating engaging, inclusive content. Print and online curriculum providers rely on us for our subject matter expertise, for our understanding of pedagogical approaches, and for our years of experience developing highly effective educational materials.
Because we work with so many players in the space (nearly 50 annually), many of our clients also rely on Westchester for the services we don’t provide directly, but for the network of corollary services that we’ve cultivated within the space. In engagements such as those, Westchester delivers accurate and engaging content and draws upon our network of B2B partners to deliver a complete solution for our customers.
One such example is our ability to partner in order to provide a platform solution for curriculum providers who are looking to add or expand their digital presence. In such a case, we apply the following equation: Platform + Standards + Content = Effective Educational tool.
For the first part of the equation, Westchester partners with select platform providers. One partner, EvoText, offers a convenient, easy-to-implement platform called Content2Classroom (C2C) that combines robust curriculum mapping, engaging student user experiences, and vertically integrated reporting.
The backbone of the C2C system is their curriculum mapping feature. This taxonomy is flexible and user defined—it can be a set of standards, a set of learning objectives, a scope and sequence, or any other similar structure. Once the taxonomy is set, users can include additional tagging on the taxonomy. For instance, a set of Texas standards may be tagged with reporting categories or precursor skills. Curriculum providers develop content against this mapping, either by creating new content or adapting and ingesting existing content. Once the connection between the curriculum map and the content is set, the reporting system automatically offers vertically integrated reporting, which tracks student, classroom, school, and district progress against the curriculum map.
The standards used as the backbone for the C2C platform offer another intersection within the Westchester partner network: EdGate Correlation Services. EdGate has collected and organized millions of educational standards (state, national, and other) into their comprehensive database. Their catalog is kept current through regular interaction with the standards issuing bodies, and their team does the work of converting PDF, Word, and Excel files delivered by the states into a machine-readable and highly organized database. Online curriculum providers rely on EdGate’s standards database to be robust, accurate, up-to-date, and scalable. In addition to the standards themselves, EdGate has created a suite of tools called ExACT that lets content providers align content, see gaps, and create relationships between standards. Platforms like C2C frequently use the EdGate standards as a backbone, and the relationship between standards sets allows users to see how content aligns to additional states or standard sets.
In creating collective solutions for our customers, Westchester does more than just make referrals within our partner network. We go further by working closely with partners like EvoText and EdGate, combining forces to offer a complete solution. Westchester has extensive experience working within the C2C system to help define their curriculum maps and to create content to implement it or to fill gaps within it. And Westchester works regularly with EdGate’s standards collections, either within toolsets like C2C or by working with EdGate to create competitive analysis for clients looking to reorganize, adapt, and augment the existing content for the new entity.
This synthesis allows content providers convenience in choosing providers for complex solutions. Furthermore, it streamlines the process by connecting partners with a history of working together and shared understanding of our clients’ needs. We look forward to discussing how we can not only create award-winning content for you, but also how we can engage our partner network to create comprehensive solutions to your more difficult challenges.
Join Us!
Westchester and our partners will be attending the following conferences (in-person!):
EdWeek Market Brief Summit Dallas, Nov 3-4, 2022
Westchester Education Services is a sponsor for the EdWeek Market Brief Summit. By registering here: https://www.marketbriefsummit.org/#tickets and entering MB-WestchesterGuest at checkout, you can save $100 on your ticket
FETC New Orleans, January 23-26, 2023.
Schedule a meeting with Westchester Education Services
Westchester, EdGate, and EvoText will be hosting a webinar in January 2023. Complete the form below to be notified when registration for this free event opens.
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