ACSA’s popular Standard Finder has been upgraded and is now known as The Standard Finder PLUS.
The Standard Finder PLUS provides easy access to all of California’s content standards through a simple word search, but that’s not where the information stops. Additional features – the “plus” – include information from California’s testing blueprint, indicating how often and at what grades a standard is tested; a progression of concepts through the grades for math and English language arts standards; a link from ELA to English language development standards; the recently approved Health and World Language standards, and a cognitive ranking of all K-12 standards using the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy.
“I first created the Standard Finder so that I could more easily find a standard that was connected to a classroom activity and/or project; flipping through the pages of a standards’ manual to do this was a time consuming task,” said George Manthey, ACSA’s assistant executive director for Educational Services.
Manthey said he included more features at the suggestion of users who have wished it could do even more.
“Standard Finder users are the ones who have made this a better tool,” he said.
Jeanie Cash, assistant superintendent for educational services in Placentia Yorba Linda USD, has provided the Standard Finder to all of the district’s principals and assistant principals.
“We have outstanding principals; however, when we began the (professional learning community) process, we realized they needed an even deeper understanding of what good, research-based instruction looks like,” Cash said. “When we began our journey to develop our principals as instructional leaders, the Standard Finder became an invaluable tool in this process.”
As it was used in the district it became particularly beneficial for schools in Program Improvement. “Teachers have had many ‘Aha!’ moments during their collaboration time as a result of using this valuable tool,” Cash said.
The greatest strength of the Standard Finder may be in having so much information about California’s Content Standards accessible through one portal. For example, with the Standard Finder it is possible to find all the standards in each content area that address a similar topic.
For a school whose data analysis shows its students are having difficulty interpreting charts and tables, the Standard Finder can display the standards in science, history and social science, fine arts and math, as well as those in English language arts, that address this skill.
“This way teachers from every discipline can be involved in addressing the issue of interpreting charts and remain standards-based,” Manthey said.
The Standard Finder comes in versions for both PCs and Macs and requires no other software for use. It can be run directly from the CD or copied to any computer.
Although it has been expanded and improved, the price has been reduced to $35 with a site license available for only an additional $2 per user. Visit ShopACSA to see a demonstration of the Standard Finder or to download an order form.
For more information, call or write Marianne Domingo at (800) 608-ACSA or mdomingo@acsa.org.